I had built a garden for Tigers Childcare, Swords in 2015 – a creche and montessori – more than worth a peer over at the very least for the very fact of what it was before and then became. This garden in Ashbourne, Co. Meath as a space was something completely different.
More than aware my qualifications are of horticulture and not childcare, personally (and as a kid who used to grow plants under his bed aged 5 and a half) I was delighted just to remove everything that of now once existed here. And being honest, I think even the finest adult mind could figure out on an etch-a-sketch that no child like imagination could ever have ran wild within such timbered confines.
Phase 2, (post removal) was creating a feel of a more free flowing layout to the gardens construction and a return to a much softer, flowering inclusive and attractive landscape. One that would take it’s end users (if you’ll allow me use that term) moreso into consideration.
Sandpits, balancing beams, mud kitchens, a tunnel mounded with real lawn rolled to name but a few all hand made and tailored to fit; planting hand selected and prior to that, beautiful new soil brought in to a now new garden – the correct infrastructure in place, things done rightly from all angles and horticulturally.
If I’m honest some may suggest that the space may need some additions and a little time to mature. That said, and though budgets were very much considered, the horticultural mind at times has also to appreciate that running between plants requires larger spaces and is very much allowed, in this case at the very least.
Either or, the garden as it should be is young. It also has new owners who care. And that makes me smile, more. In the better gardens department something that very much matters.
Further info:
Tigers Childcare, Ashbourne, Co. Dublin
Peter Donegan:
- email: info@doneganlandscaping.com
- phone: +353(87)6594688
- twitter: @DoneganGardens
- facebook: DoneganLandscaping