There are days when I can only but wish I had a doppelgänger. Just so he can pat me on the back for another fine job well done. Big headed much, you may say, maybe. But I really, really like this garden. I will admit I did make more changes in my mind on this one more than any other space I have created over the last 3 years. But creative and good-looking as the end result, the mild edits in my head were proven wise in the end. Far, far more important, the client [I hate that word…] was happy.
To the garden: In the off centre middle of all this outdoors lies a lovely natural matt black natural stone patio of 16 metres squared, wrapped around and entirely softened with of instant height plants. To the harder surface, I like the way this stone goes from matt to almost a gloss black as the rain droplets make it dapple in appearance; something that never ceases to make me smile.
Behind the scenes, the stone runs spirit-level level against the terrain of the garden, yet from the outer it appears level because of how the planting wraps around it. More than that, I like the subtle understatement the stone makes and put simply, it is pretty darned tasty.
If it be the simple things, I love that the bin screen was not shop bought. And silly as it sounds, if there were awards for hand made timber screens, yup you guessed it, I’d get my doppelgänger to present me with one of them too.
In case you might be wondering, the brief also included a note for not all in the main season flowering plants. You may think that not a good thing [?]. Au contraire and far from it says this plants person, in reality, it just makes it different and in a good way. For me, it quite simply makes the choosing of the plants for their new home that little extra interesting.
Below: The obligatory before Peter got his hands on it garden picture
At this point you’re maybe beginning to wonder if Donegan Pants-Gaping believes he has any flaws at all. And though my photography is sometimes rubbish, my including of the image below is more to give you an idea of the journey that one must take to actually get into the garden. Take a scroll back through the images…. because you’ll see that one has to go the full length of the new space outdoors to get into the new room outside, within a new room outside… if you get me. And in the not one acre sized gardens department, that, is one fine trait to behold.
It is only after completing a garden like this, that I wonder why I wondered why. And though the garden will need a little time to come into its own and the plants a little time to find their orientation; one should never forget that gardens without people in them are pretty darned meaningless spaces. That in mind, I’ve got a really nice feeling about one.
Q’s or thoughts [?] leave a comment below or drop me a line.
Peter Donegan:
email: info@doneganlandscaping.com
phone: +353(87)6594688
twitter: @DoneganGardens
facebook: DoneganLandscaping
Source: Peter Donegan Landscaping – Private Garden Landscaping
