The Australian Institute of Horticulture (AIH) has immense pleasure in announcing that The Green Space International Award and, The International Award of Excellence have been awarded to Garden Designer Peter Donegan.
It is the first time The Institute has bestowed its most coveted award to a gardens in France and also for The Award of Excellence to be presented to a landscape designer from Ireland.
The AIH chose the stunning backdrop of Cairns North Queensland for its annual Conference and Awards presentation, 27th October 2023, where Donegan was keynote speaker and guest speaker respectively.
It was with great pleasure that the AIH chose to honour one of the world’s most outstanding reclamation projects with the International Green Space Award – The Gardens of The Historial de La Grande Guerre, Château de Péronne designed by Peter Donegan and better know as Europes largest war museum housed within the 13th Century Castle – and were acknowledgment of the gardens Donegan designed and realised within the dried up moat (2018) and the medieval castles internal courtyard (2022).
Michael Darragh CEO of The Link presented this award to Peter Donegan and The AIH will travel to the Somme region to officially present this award on May 28th, 2024, International Amnesty Day.
The AlH International Award of Excellence was also awarded to the Irish based International landscape architect for his designs for RTE Television’s DIY SOS The Big Build where he was series garden designer (2019 – 2022), at 13th Century Château de Péronne in Northern France (2018 and 2022) and at Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show (2023), where his 200 square metre show garden design won Gold medal.
Whilst in Melbourne Donegan also returned to speak at Melbourne University Burnley Campus with a series of talks hosted by The AIH and supported by Arborgreen.
In 2001, aged 24, horticulturist Donegan began designing under his own name and swiftly won a host of awards for 17th & 18th century gardens designed & show gardens at national competition.
From 2019 to 2022, The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) silver medallist assumed the role of series garden designer for Ireland’s most watched TV show, RTE’s DIY SOS The Big Build.
Selected to represent Ireland to design & realise the WW1 Centenary Peace Garden at Château de Péronne in 2018, he returned and designed a 2nd inaugurated garden at the 13th Century castle known also as the Historial de la Grande Guerre, home to Europe’s largest war museum.
2023 Donegan became the first Irish garden designer accepted to Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show, the Southern Hemisphere’s largest and most prestigious flower show. Donegan returns to MIFGS in 2024 where his design will be the shows featured garden.
