I’ve been creating gardens under the Donegan Landscaping name since 2001 and though this garden was made a little ago now, my reason for stalling off posting a full note on it here is that I just couldn’t find any of the before I got there images. Worth the wait, the best of the worst is pictured below.
Simple as it may sound, the key to any great space is the creation of a feeling. One that suits, fits and just sits rightly with you, within your outdoor space called home. Maybe that’s the hard bit ?
To explain; Some gardens, I find, can be a little like listening to Daniel O’Donnell, with your Father in Law, complete with that cup of lovely Darjeeling tea. And that’s grand. But sometimes you maybe are more yourself, relaxed and mind-less of the toils of everyday life that one should escape, when you are seated in some old Sheebeen with your best mate and a pint of plain; or in this case your garden, if you get me. That in mind this space, exuded everything that is the ultimate in absolute and pure escapism.
Soft in pallette, the more wonderul bits were left to the flowering elements, bark colours, herbaceous planting and subtle as changes in season. More, in its favour was that I introduced planting that was slower growing yet of instant mature and also some fine feature plants ~ Them that very simply stood that little bit taller in more ways than one above the rest.
The emphasis in this space is very much on the soft plant landscaping and maybe that is what makes it slightly unusual [?].
Here choice tall specimens screen the view from within the kitchen of the necessary shed and also in screening the view of the door back from the far end of the garden. Further, the medium height planting dapples the symmetry of the machine cut granite path from the back door to the main tabled seating area; and any which way you look at it, there is now a journey to get to where life is just that little bit slower. Far more important, the journey back is one that now feels like it would very simply take far too long to even to even contemplate standing up.
Botany aside, I find gardens, the really good ones, are about what you feel when you sit or stay in that space and allow time pass you by. And like that girl you loved when you were but 17, sometimes it more exciting when you wonder if she equally wondered what you were thinking when you wrote her that poem that was almost a sonnet, but for it had 15 lines in it.
Daydreaming firmly to one side, what you don’t see here at the back of this garden is a wee little getaway for at a squeeze just 2 about people; an open air seated wee spot of hidden contentment if you will, with a view of only the garden and an 8 metre journey back, that you are quite simply just too darned relaxed to even consider dreaming of making.
Q’s or thoughts [?] leave a comment below or drop me a line.
Contact Peter Donegan:
As fencing goes, there are many styles and types that I have been party to. But, in the front of house home extremely eloquent department, there are few if any that come close to how beautiful a finish this wood is. In short, if barrel board were a lady, I would happy recite it the most lovely paragraphs of Shakespeare’s finest.
Of note, if you are looking for the cheapest quote or in short a screen made of wood; then it’s probably best you head on over to one of the many DIY Super Store emporiums. No offence…. see what I did there ? Fence. No. No ? To explain, sometimes a Ferrari is the right call and sometimes the Transit van will do just dandy. Here, we chose the MG BGT. 1977 version. With the chrome bumpers and 4 speed overdrive. ie. the very smart and damn tasty option.
I’ve already noted the fruit bush hedge, which may be worth a read before you read this; in fact, recommended you go read that and then come back here and read this, in order for this to make sense… if that makes sense 
Back over here… Organised but disorganised within, this was prior to an odd little bit of a garden space. Geographically, it lies to the side of the home, as versus the back or front and really, it had become a little of a no mans land that just didn’t sit right in any ones mind. There was a sort of unknown unease being there; a little like Del Boy and Rodney and the time they turned up to that funeral in the Batman and Robin costumes…. God that was funny ! Point taken.
There’s a point in good, tasty well thought out gardens where not everything can be shiny. It can, of course. But it shouldn’t be, really. In context, imagine if you will an entire garden space coloured in yellow, or gold; I mean the entire garden, wall to wall. And what you should picture is a pretty pointless area when you close your eyes and really think about it. Not pointless. More monotonous; or mono-tone, if you will.
In this case or in that contrasting department, the natural grey limestone paving is an absolute cracker. Because a little like the use of red in garden design in order to highlight something [ref here: alongside green in Japanese styled gardens], one needs a contrast in colour; An extreme case of which may include the use of yellow on black.
I love the fact that just like it’s sister, the black limestone, the grey has that naturally furled ruffle to its surface and that there is a touch of esque like the stone masons of old where I’m almost choice lifting one piece out and replacing it with another, solely because the finish of one is kind of similar to a neighbouring slab.
Peter On: