Peter Donegan, Landscaping Dublin – 2012

Phone: Peter Donegan, Landscaping

Official Statement :

Peter Donegan, Donegan Landscaping or and any variations of the name, has made a unanimous decision to dispense with the landline telephone. The jury voting went as follows: All in favour, one. Against, nil.

What’s the big idea :

When I set up Donegan Landscaping in 2001, I had two landlines. One for the facsimile and 1 for the telephone. Times changed as the fax went by the way side and modern technology allowed me to run them both on the one line. I know, it was called a machine. Anyone remember the telex ?

We’re into an era where things have changed to the point that it is nothing new for me to take a booking via facebook or twitter, never mind a text message. It would also seem that Google is maybe the new Golden Pages.

When I look back on it, when I first set up 14 years ago, I had a camera with a reel of film, partly the reason why so many of my early days gardens are not online. Now, I have very lovely clients that I have actually never met; The Sodshow, that airs on Dublin City Fm has listeners who listen live, online, from The United States of America; and this blog post – this was written whilst having a cup of coffee in the middle of my garden, on my mobile phone, whilst throwing a stick for the dog.

I’m very aware that in years past having a landline maybe gave that extra bit of a trusted feel to a company, but the reality is I am usually outside and not sitting at a desk. And the sole reason I was holding onto the landline, was to get the broadband – which I now get via a dongle.

On a slight side note, I think the biggest change with technology in mind, though I still get my news, is that I haven’t bought a newspaper in over 3 years and I don’t own a television set.

With 7 calls to the landline, 6 of them spam calls ~ In twelve months, it seems people prefer to call me directly and it is you as much as it is me who quite simply just aren’t using the landline any more; at least in terms of getting in touch with me. In context, if it were a piece of machinery I would have decomissioned it a long time ago. I guess it’s simply time to do the honourable and most logic thing.

Fancy a chat ?

Contact Peter directly:

♦ email: info@doneganlandscaping.com
♦ phone: +353(87)6594688

Other Places:

♦ twitter: @DoneganGardens
♦ facebook: DoneganLandscaping

Post some nice things to this address:

Peter Donegan
Bettyville
Ballyboughal
Co. Dublin

By Peter Donegan|October 30th, 2012|All Posts, People, Business|0 Comments

Welcome The New, Molly Bloom Tulip

When I go all the way back to my youth, way back, the first bulb I ever bought and planted was a hyacinth. In context, my pocket money was 10 pence, the bulb cost 17 pence and on that day I had already spent 3 pence on sweets. That’s just the way we rock and rolled it back in the eighties. The flower shop owner lady in question let me off the 10p shortfall.

I remember my Dad teaching me how to force the hyacinth and in a pot with the tip peeping just out of the soil. We wrapped it in a plastic bag, elastic band to hold it in place and put it in to the darkness and the heat under the stairs.

That bit, the waiting for its hardened green point to peep out was, for me, like waiting for Santa to arrive. Sometimes I checked it more than twice a day, just to see if it had grown even a little. The funny thing is that naive-esque anticipational [now] trait has never left me. It still makes me smile see the results. I’m simply a little older.

After it had flowered, I remember planting it outside in the front garden and my brother telling me that ‘manure’ was good for fertiliser. Being that we lived in cow-less suburbia, this at the time 6 year old went around collecting dog poo to place on top of it. Yup, I know…. now.

listen to ‘The SodShow: Joyce in Bloom at the Botanic Gardens’ on Audioboo

To more recent times, when the call came in to go to the Dublin’s Botanic Gardens to meet the ex Head Designer of The Keukenhof, The Ambassador to The Netherlands and Dr Matthew Jebb ~ pause ~ the who’s who of the horticultural world and the kind of folk you could only wish to have on your pub quiz team. Round 6. Category: Horticulture ~ I of course was there in a jiffy.

I have to admit, it excited me. New plants don’t happen every day. More than that, the last bulb to be named after someone Irish was former President of Ireland Mary McAleese. That’s the level we’re pitching at here. Also it’s not boil in the bag bing popcorn. If you get me, you can’t just make nature make another one. I of course accepted the invite.

The Sodshow, the garden radio show I do will explain the story in full with all of the gardeners Top of The Pops voices on record

My advice, go to The Botanic Gardens this month and see the blank soil bed Jan Guldenmond speaks of and photograph it. Then go see it the following month on the same date and so on until it comes into flower. I promise you, if you can picture my opening paragraphs, you will not be disappointed.

If you can’t make it don’t worry, I’ll be keeping a close eye on it for you.

More – Bulbs: Plant now for Spring colour

By Peter Donegan|October 26th, 2012|All Posts, Plants|0 Comments

Composters And The Like, In Garden Design

I’m sometimes hesitant to recommend composters in gardens. Partly when it comes to those spaces a little more dimensionally challenged, but more often it becomes a dilemma [or not] when it comes to gardens that are set to become a little more eloquent in their [after works are complete] appearance.

Where do you put that thing that should not be seen or just does not fit in ?

I get the point where biodiversity, wild flower meadows and potato peels not heading to landfill is the route we should all be travelling. But equally, there is a lot to be said for damn good-looking sexy gardens and I’m not too sure that hedgehogs and piles of leaves fit in with the latest Brown Thomas collection, if you get where I’m coming from.

When we think back on the eloquence of 17th and 18th Century garden design the thought process was quite different from todays. The messy fellows namely the herbaceous, the vegetables and fruit gardens, were to an extent hidden. It may have been within a walled garden, behind rows of Buxus semprevirens or quite simply to the far left of the sunken garden; And though the layout did vary hither dither, the immediate view from the home was one of grandiose stately and proportionate beauty with consideration for each season in it’s very evident pre-planning.

With that in mind why, would I wish to place a grey plastic cube or other so visible within my space outdoors ?

Sometimes, the space simply just does not exist for one to fit into the great wish list. Equally there is a case where practical straight lined paths to the shed, bypassing the washing line as you go is not in any way the greatest way to showcase the prettiest in the room.

My composting area is constructed a bit like above, from pallets bolted together. I have chosen to surround the outer with a wall of Bay Laurel [Laurus nobilis] hedging – it also means masses of the herb free gratis – the dark glossy green foliage now forming the back drop for what is a bright coloured red bench. Minimal it maybe, but my garden is set on about 1 acre, allowing me a little more freedom and space to play with.

And play with it I do. It is a constant tesing ground for designs and concepts that may pop into my head…. just, to be sure, to be sure

Irrespective of budget and garden size, I’ve always felt the better gardens completed are those where the client divulges the full want list. This may or may not include a composting bin or other. But the trouble aesthetically, is always when one tries to squeeze something into a space after the garden has already been designed to suit.

Food for thought ?