astro garden - part 5: the finished garden

Once the plants were in and settled, the syntethic lawn was laid by a professional company.  And then the  garden was finally complete.






And what a difference!  Where there was once a cramped patio and shed shaded by overgrown trees and shrubs, there is now clean open space.  The lollipop photinia red robins are doing their job of blocking out views of the neigbouring houses without over crowding the space.  With some careful pruning, they will spread out to give complete cover across the back wall above trellis level.





The shed will become obscured by the planting in the deep bed in front of it and will eventually dissappear - exactly where garden sheds should be - out of view!





While the clients were a little dubious about the idea of a 'syntethic lawn', they were really pleased with the  lawn when it was in place as  is so life like.  There is a good mix of colour in the turf which means it doesn't look fake.


Syntethic lawns are not for everyone, but work really well where there is heavy traffic from childrens' play or football etc or anywhere where a lawn is not going to get a chance to grow and be maintained.





The garden is now filled with a mix of smaller, low mainteance planting.  Ferns, phormiums, vebernum are among the plants that provide structre, colour and interest to even the shadier side of the garden.





The two additional lollipop photina red robins in front of the shded provide additional screening from adjoining properties.  Bark muclhing gives the planting bed a finished feel.





The buff granite patio is smart and provides the right amount of space for relaxing, dining or entertaining while still leaving plenty of space for planting and lawn.  The planting bed behind the patio gives it an enclosed private feel.





The bespoke narrow horizontal trellis affords great privacy while those lollipop photinia red robins break the trellis at just the right height to give even greater privacy from first floor windows of neighbouring houses.

All in all, both we and the clients were very pleased with the final result in this garden.  The parents get a gorgeous, modern garden in which to relax that's maintenance-free for three years, while the boys get an indestructable surface onwhich to play which looks like the perfect lawn all year round and without the grass cutting.

astro garden - part 4: the planting

The planting stage of the garden begins.  In this case it was delayed a little because of torrential rain.  As you can see from the photogrpahs not all planting takes place in dry weather!





When plants arrive on site they are placed into the appropriate areas around the garden.  Already the weeping contoneaster grouped in five start to bring height and interest to the garden and put the new trellis in perspective.




The heads of the 3m tall standard photinia trees are just out of shot but are finally in situ but only after a lot of heavy lifting. Tall slender Italian cypresses punctuate the border to the rear of the patio. These needle like conifers hold a steady shape and do not get bushy.





Apart from the very big specimen trees, nothing is planted into the ground at this stage. This allows us to move plants within their beds to they have their optimum position within the overall planting scheme.





Finally, with all plants placed in  their final position and despite the downpours, we are ready to get planting.  The space in front of the granite patio is left ready for the synthetic turf.  We waited until all the planting and mulching had been done before we laid it as it would have got a bit muddy (to say the least)





Plants ready for planting in front of relocated shed.  The upright bay will eventually form an evergreen screen with the weeping contoneaster and block the shed completely. Bags of bark await spreading (and a dry day).





All the plants are planted in this area apart from two additional specimen photinia trees.  The clients like the other three so much they decided to add another two!





Finally, all the planting is done and the beds have been mulched.  Bark mulch makes beds look a lot cleaner and sharper while there is space between new plants.  It also helps keep weeds down thereby reducing maintenance. It protects roots in winter and retains water in summer.

astro garden - part 3: construction

Let the great work begin!  Construction began in earnest on our astro turf garden.





In some gardens, there is very little we can salvage, so it has to be a scorched earth policy.  A certain portion of budget must be allocated to simply clearing the site before we can start building it up again.





The shed (on the left) was being retained and moved, so it had to sit in the middle of the site while we worked around it.  Where possible, we use a mini digger to clear the site.  It can do the work of three men in one day so keeps the clearance costs down.





Work proceeds apace on bespoke horizontal  trellis and the buff granite patio.





With the shed relocated to its new home, the granite patio is then completed. Work  now starts on preparing the soil for planting. All roots and stumps need to be removed and with a garden like this one - that's a lot of roots.





The bespoke narrow horitzonal trellis is finished and already affords privacy from neighbouring gardens.  The planting bed behind the patio is prepared and made ready to receive its bounty of plants.





This marks an end to the construction phase. The garden is finally ready for the last stage - planting. I will blog about that in the next post.

astro garden - part 1: the challenge

Late last summer we were asked for ideas to transform this back garden.





The clients had added a large kitchen/dining/living room extension across the back of their house and had lost a good deal of garden.





The existing trees and shrubs afforded some privacy from neighbouring gardens but threw most of the garden into shade - even in the middle of the day. While they were once lovely, small and managable, the shrubs quickly grew out of shape and proportion.





The clients brief stated that the garden needed to provide:

• a lawn area for teenage boys to play football and table tennis (the table is under that cover above!)
• privacy from neighbouring gardens,
• a nice seating area for evening times
• a low mainteance solution

Straightaway we could demonstrate that garden space was not being exploited fully.  For instance the shed was in the sunniest corner, cramping the already small patio area.

After further discussions including what budget they had in mind, they said that they liked our approach and agreed to go to design stage.

A week or so later we carried out a full site survey and a comprehensive digital photo survey and got to work back in the studio.

The next post will outline the design process for this garden.

Pocket-sized Front Garden in Dublin

I love redesigning front gardens.  They really do mean a lot and say so much about your house. Every time the people who lived here left their house, they were met with this vista, (below). Grey gravel, an imposing compost bin and an unsuitable tree all aligned with a breeze block wall, thus making a dreary start to any journey.





Where pirvacy is needed there is none and where the source of light is strongest stands a solid green lump of a tree. It is a wonder a yellow rose grew and flowered in this urban outdoor space.





There really was only one thing for it..... a total overhaul. As city garden space is at a premium we had to accommodate a compost bin somewhere .





I designed a smart city garden with a central gravel area surrounded by lovely evergreen plants including: bay laurel hedging, dwarf hebe, winter hardy ferns,escalonia red dream and clipped bay trees. Mixed through, as a striking splash of deepest red, is heuchera palace purple. This will provide frothy white flowers in early summer. Hellebores in damson and white add long lasting spring colour.





Replacing walls with true to vintage iron railings and introducing a beautiful standard photinia "red robin" focal point, the garden instantly felt more open and enlivened while still being very low maintenance.
We moved the compost bin to an accessible corner, making it more useable from the path. Surrounding it with scented laurel should keep summer odours at bay.
Using buff gravel as a central area and deep bark mulched planting to the sides, we have mazimised the space, made it feel more alive while remaining quite structured.





Now complete with open rainlings, clipped bay trees and small evergreen shrubs, this pocket sized garden is a joy to walk through and a delight from both house and street view.