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Andrew Wilson

peter donegan, andrew wilson

I have very few if any heroes in horticulture. Maybe that there didn’t exist many when I first grew seeds way back in 1981. Maybe growing up we very simply weren’t a family that did a whole lot of sitting still, Mom 😉 And that act would by default have included being seated in front of the tele visual.

When I got to an age when I could afford to buy books, that were not second hand and pre 1960’s brimmed with illustrations, as versus images, one of the first that I treated myself to was a book by Andrew Wilson. I was not aware of Andrew at the time and though there is no specific reason why I purchased the book, I can tell you that in 2004, it cost me €36.75.

In 2007 Andrew judged my Silver medal garden and in Bloom 2008 he was there again. Some Peter growing up, baby changes and almost four years later, today, fresh from The Chelsea Flower show where he was a judge for The RHS in one catgeory and in another where his garden design won Silver-Gilt and now judging at Bloom 2013, we got to meet again.

Garden merits and acclaims aside Andrew is an absolute gentleman and this Friday on The Sodshow we sit down to talk in part 1 of a 2 part show.

And if you’re maybe wondering why my head hair is a bit Olly Murs overly quiffed messed up, I had literally just crawled out of a hedge 30 minutes previous 😉 Back to gardens; I’ll return to landscaping here on the blog tomorrow, or the next day. I’ll see how dirty or clean my hands are.

The next big Q is when or if I’ll make a return to show gardening and/ or Bloom 2014. We’ll see. In the meantime, I’m gonna go for a cuppa. I’ve got a garden to finish with a tomorrow deadline and a jeep to remove much foliage from.

medal winner bloom

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bloom 2008 [2] – the boat

pour l'amour de jeux - the boat garden
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yesterday was not the most usual of days in my horticultural career! This 1957, 33 foot, 7 tonne boat is the model Royal Cruiser IV that will be used in Bloom 2008, the garden show extravaganza in the Phoenix Park this June Bank Holiday weekend.

It took 7 men, a 30 tonne specialist marine transporter and 6 hours to lift and move it 6 km. Working with me on the boat will be John Friel and his team who also who rebuilt the morris minor for last years garden.

we got a lot of strange looks when word went out that this was the boat for our show garden but.. maybe ‘show’ gardens should be just that….

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Bloom 2008 – Pour L’amour de Jeux

This was the bio given to my show garden entry before it was built…

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Without a main sponsor….. Peter Donegan’s design, titled ‘Pour L’amour de Jeux’ is a garden whose title and theme was chosen on the basis of a Designers desire to build and design ‘dream’ gardens because of a love of the game.

With modern pressures and taken for granted hectic lifestyles this garden is a micro-haven paradise designed and built with pure passion to show that dreamers do exist and that those dreams however illogic can become reality. If life is what you enjoy, then this garden is what you will love, our entry for Bloom 2008

When asked so many times throughout Bloom 2007, why one would design a show garden as was ‘No Rubber – Soul’; it seemed incomprehensible to some, yet to others put simply it was for ‘a love of the game’ the only reason why Peter Donegan and his team built such a garden. It seemed therefore quite an appropriate name for this garden.

A garden that is fully recycled or recyclable the main feature… comprises a 33ft 1957, pink, three story pleasure cruise boat named ‘Mo Chailín Cáitlín’. The garden is surrounded by water, a slightly raised recycled timber and lawn combined marina, and natures finest planting. The finshing touch is a hand sculpted piece by Patrick Campbell.

And so the question still remains… would you sponsor a show garden?

With thanks to: