electric pink [boat] tweet up

tweet up at the pink boat?

tweet up at the pink boat?

[yeah - i moved it...] Electric Picnic is nearing – click here

Adrian proposed it.Maryrose is bringing two. Marie Boran thought it would be great. David said he’d join in. Frankiep & Ciara are aboard now. I know Rick [on hols at the mo'] will be there. And of course i’ll be there…

You don’t ‘have to’ wear pink, you don’t have to be able to swim – you don’t even have to have been dragged seen the abba movie. What you do have to do is be slightly humorous, mldly inspired, not be a fan of the cheeky girls and be up for a bit of a laugh.

It’s in the art trail at no 11. Casino Royal Boat – that’s another story but – one I didn’t want to use for Bloom 2008. [I'll explain later...]

11). ‘Casino Royal’ Boat – donated by Peter Donegan
The 1957 Royal Cruiser Mark II is reported to have been originally christened Casino Royale and allegedly featured in the James Bond movie of the same name in 1967.

Fast forward to 2008 Peter Donegan gives it it’s inaugural land trip to the Bloom Festival where it featured, freshly painted pink (“to make people smile”) in his fully recyclable garden that he designed & landscaped for the festival. Wanting to find a good home for it after the festival he launched a national campaign on 2FM which is when we heard of it and were happy to adopt it in exchange for some festival tickets which were auctioned for the Niall Mellon Township Trust www.irishtownship.com where they hope to build a Garden of Hope community garden.

Back to the festival…. It could be a load of headless chickens in pink headbands – it could be just a bunch of hippies at a music festival. But how many times have you ever seen a pink boat… Join the Electric tweet-up and sign up for the revolution…. be sure to wear some [sun] flowers in your hair.

What’s a tweet-up. Well it’s a meet up for twitter-ers, I suppose.

By |August 26th, 2008|All Posts, Donegan Gardens and Services|22 Comments
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casino royal, the pink boat & electric picnic

The casino royal boat has an amazing story. Why didn’t I use it, to my [possible] advantage? The boat was a ruin. Inside-less, sideless & due to be dumped. Could I/it ever have been fully restored – no.

It was next to consider could I give it *any* use other than a skip? yes.

The question now was how does one restore the boat – to a use. The timber replacing the gaping holes would never look right. Pink was the obvious choice. It was perfect. I wanted recycling to come out of the doldrums and to be seen by young an old as something not of a rhetoric ‘wellies and cabbage patches’ of The Good Life style tv days of old. We did that. Not accepted by the Judges of Bloom or the horticultural critics… but that wasn’t the intention [ie. medals].

The pink boat became a part of my garden design for Bloom 2008 ‘pour l’amour de jeux’. A fully recycled recylable garden. Something not for the cricket judges, but for the people – a ‘show’ garden.

The problem was we had no home for the boat after. We had no sponsor [this also upset the Judges, i'm sure]. We couldn’t afford to move it again and it would have been ‘immoral’ to smash it up and put it to landfill.

The pleas went out on 2fm courtesy of Rick O shea. It was never for the money as I think you can gather by now. Hence the name – translated as ‘for a love of the game’, the reason why I put an entire company almost to financial ruin. Some critics say attention seeking – I say it would have been cheaper to put my face on billboards all over Dublin City for a year… it would. Electric Picnic were all of the right answers. It was a boat I’d got free. They took it free. They gave 2 tickets to me and 2 to auction. I outbid the highest bidder.

The casino royal bit – I knew. All involved did. At Bloom, I met a lovely guy Bill and his wife Ann at the show. Bill was a boat builder by profession. He was contracted to rebuild ‘casino royal’ all those years ago. The name had to be erased. The guy who contracted Bill went broke and the boat stayed in storage already stripped, empty and getting worse. In the meantime the name had to be removed [legally] from the boat… and it was.

A letter from Ann after the show explained:

Of course the name has been erased from the boat because of copyright. Once the film was made, it was then only permitted the use of “Casino Royale”

This is what electric Picnic says on their website:

11). ‘Casino Royal’ Boat – donated by Peter Donegan
The 1957 Royal Cruiser Mark II is reported to have been originally christened Casino Royale and allegedly featured in the James Bond movie of the same name in 1967.

Fast forward to 2008 Peter Donegan gives it it’s inaugural land trip to the Bloom Festival where it featured, freshly painted pink (“to make people smile”) in his fully recyclable garden that he designed & landscaped for the festival. Wanting to find a good home for it after the festival he launched a national campaign on 2FM which is when we heard of it and were happy to adopt it in exchange for some festival tickets which were auctioned for the Niall Mellon Township Trust www.irishtownship.com where they hope to build a Garden of Hope community garden.

That said it all still comes down to a very large list to whom I still say thank you.

All Posts related post and the Pink Boat Story can be found here.

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By |August 25th, 2008|All Posts, Media|4 Comments
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I want to thank you…

'your money' does so much...

'your money' does so much...

I want to thank all of you who raised, donated [no matter how much] or simply gave me your couple of spare shillings, for my second journey with The Niall Melon Towship Trust. This will be my second year travelling to Cape Town. Thank you all. If not to me for the charity. Bulaidh bós – you deserve applause!

To this I must and should thank those who helped me. I had to raise €5,000. This is how it was done, with *your* help.

There was of course Sara and Nicola who did the mini marathon for me and raised over €710. Ladies, from my heart, I thank you.

niall mellon township capetown

niall mellon township

There was also a client who, on her behalf, Peter Donegan Landscaping Ltd donated the entire paid invoice. This raised €2750.

There were those who purchased tickets for the Gardeners Ball, an amazing night, made more special by those who I spent it with. We really had ‘a ball’ at that one! Half the money from the ticket price of €250 went towards my journey. This raised €750.

There were those who gave me VIP tickets in exchange for a very large pink boat. I bought these myself for recently married friends [i couldn't get a higher bidder]. This raised €790, the balance of the account.

All that’s left to say really is… thank you [all] for being a friend

Individuals: Helen & Noel O’ Dwyer; Derek O’ Dwyer; Sean & Frances Gordon, Siobhan & John Farrell; Liz Matthews; Mary & Lilly Yu [my niece]; Jackie Donegan; Kathleen & John Friel; Noel & Stephanie; Michael & Nicola Nugent; Paul & Emer Kenny; [little] Sarah O’Dwyer [if there is anyone else please email me and i'll add you to the list]

Companies: Packing Machine Solutions; Niamh Butler Architects; Electric Picnic c/o Pod Concerts Ltd; the staff of Iarnród Eireann and the staff of Peter Donegan Landscaping Ltd.

By |August 25th, 2008|All Posts, Smile|3 Comments
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why pink?

what type of pink?

what type of pink?

I was down in Longford some time ago for a meeting. I’d been there before – It’s where I found the type of pink I wanted for the boat.

For ages everyone was saying ‘nobody uses that shocking pink!

…and there it was the whole time right beside the waterways filled with boats moored up beside it…. amazing where inspiration is found.

And of course Longford is so pretty…

By |August 25th, 2008|All Posts, People, Business|0 Comments
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I Never Knew You…

So many times I hear people say they never knew I did this or that with relevance to ‘gardening’ of some form. This may sound like a sort of pitch – it’s more clarification – on the record.

The company is called Peter Donegan Landscaping Ltd. But, maybe I should have called ‘the company’ Peter Donegan… anything horticulture or ‘gardening’ Ltd. Gardening consists of so many varying matters and subjects, which often firms chose to specialise in solely one aspect of. I choose to like *everything* done in-house and under the one roof. So what do I/ we do?

consultancy: advice from domestic to commercial, whether considering a budget, design advice or simply the most general of matters. I know we know what we’re talking about.

design: with numerous awards under our belts for garden design from domestic to commercial from large to small and historic to modern; it’s your space outside and our role is to get the best results from that budget and your space.

maintenance: employing only the finest horticulturists, it is gardening, it matters and we do it. In fact unknowns to some we hold an award for this too!

sales: from product sourcing to product sales. If it’s related to the garden we sell it. from plants to mulch, from soil to seating it’s all there and the list goes on… and on…

landscaping: the name says it all! garden building, garden making, overhauls, revamps and re-creations… from the oldest to the boldest….

That’s the basics. But this can be broken down once again into project management, tree surgery, lawns, planning… but the reason why i only work with the finest horticulturists is so that the customer gets what exactly the customer wants. The way it should be. From Donegal to Galway, from Wexford to Dublin, even overseas… you are the customer – you can have whatever you want.

If its not on the list, you like it, love it or want it,  let me know. It may be in the weblog [search for it]. If I can help you – I will. In the meantime…. Thank you.

By |August 23rd, 2008|All Posts, Donegan Gardens and Services|0 Comments
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