A busy start to the year...

Some people who visit our shop don't know that we also design, plant and project-manage gardens. This has been a busy year so far, and below are photos of one of the projects that we started this year and this is currently underway. This large garden in Monkstown is being brought back to life after the house was being renovated for the last couple of years. The front garden had been used as a car park for builders and the back garden had been somewhat neglected while a new extension was built. Our brief was three-fold: to restore the front garden and improve the layoutplanting and parking; to soften and incorporate the new extension; and to restore, rejuvenate and replant the back garden. Right on the sea, this garden has great potential and an amazing view over Dublin Bay

First visit: Muddy, compacted..... nothing there really in terms of 'garden' though there are lovely old walls, a great aspect and a really nice house.

A new raised area off the extension is to become the main outdoor patio, leading directly off the kitchen.

The beds are half empty and the soil is exposed. Planting is in randow groups of shrubs - hardly a perennial in sight.

What a view! The main lawn has a great view but is framed by partially planted beds in need of much TLC. The laurel hedge at the end will have to go.

Around the back we start to mark out the layout by marking lines in the gravel - we're looking for a way to incorporate the new modern extension into the garden and to create a transition from the formal elements of the existing layout to the more modern surroundings of the extension. We've planned a series of terraced walls and beds which will lead up from the basement level into the garden. A very natural, curved set of granite steps will lead up from below onto the gravel area above.

More markings on the ground - there needs to be more room for plants!

The dirty digging work begins - you can't make an omelette without breaking a few eggs!

Starting to look like a garden again; one or two days after planting and a new roll-out lawn..... more pictures to follow.