an Irish Garden of Gentle Circles

This  garden of seeming simplicity is not what it first appears.  It begins with a small circular patio leading out from the house to two gentle circular lawns through which a path weaves its gentle way toward a partially obscured larger circular patio.





However this was not always the case.  Believe or not this used to be a lovely garden then it grew and grew and grew until it became an untangle mess that blocked out the light.





The owner had tackled the garden manys and it was lovely in its day but then the shrubs just grew and grew.. and grew.  The huge hedge on the left served only to narrow the garden and took valuable light from the kitchen window.

We needed to start over and begin with a blank canvas.  The client wanted a soft romantic feel to the garden but at the same time it had to be low maintenance.





We designed the garden as a series of soft circles.  We created two patios; a smaller one off the house for the morning sun for that quick cup of coffee and a larger one for later in the day and for entertaining.  We also wanted to create a sense of movement and mystery, so we offset the larger patio so that it would become slightly obscured by the planting.
We then created two circular lawns between the two with a stepping stones running through the two  lawns to link the two patios.  In essense the garden became a series of interlocking gentle circles. Finally we made sure to incorporate the client's existing arbour seat as a feature in the corner of the garden.





The client loved the design!  To help the client see how the finished garden would look we created an artist's impression of the garden.  The visualisation really persuaded the client to proceed.
Then we got to work.  We got our team in to clear out the garden, lay the circular patios, the lawn and the stepping stones.  This was stage one of the construction.





We painted the walls a soft lilac shade.  We then got into planting!  We used a contemporary mix of plants throughout.  Olive trees and tall Italian Cypress trees punctuate the garden.





The garden frames the house beautifully with specimen mulit stem silver birch trees adding an immediate element of maturity.





The plants chosen for their foliage and flowers really stand out against the lilac painted boundary walls.





Stepping stones embedded in the lawn create a gentle journey through the garden to the larger circular patio.





The plants in the garden provide something to look at all year long.  The olive trees are ever green, hardy and low mainteance, needing a haircut once a year.  They look good even on a winter's day.





The final verdict on the end result is that of the owenr who in this case said
 “when merton design showed me the design I was delighted with prospect that my garden could look like that.  It was great to see two dimensional ideas transalted into the beautiful garden I now enjoy rather than endure!”