the video…
Tag: dublin
This morning at 5.45 am after 11 long hours labour, Pour L’amour de Jeux finally gave berth to a 7 tonne, 11 metre long Pink Boat in the Phoenix Park Dublin.
With amazing help from John Farrell, John Friel, Whittens Road Haulage, The Garda Suíochana, Maura Hickey, Colin Browne and Gráinne Walker; this journey was finally made possible. If I have left anybody out it is because none of us have slept since finishing loading at 12.30am and arriving back to depart at 3.30am!! But it must be known the real journey started a long time ago.
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…and so what started as a child like dream has been given berth and here another story begins. Today, some laughed, some smiled and some pondered; But whatever this story [ultimately the garden], brings to you, it was built only pour l’amour de jeux [for a love of the game] and no matter the size of your smile when you see it complete – this amazing journey if nothing else, has left me in no doubt regarding the amazing people and the genius minds I work and spend so much time with. Thank you all [it’s not over just yet], but it’s certainly a little easier….
Award winning landscape architect, Peter Donegan, is at it again. This year his show garden ‘Pour L‘amour de Jeux’ (For a love of the game) in Bloom 2008 will feature a 1957, 11 metre, pink, three storey pleasure cruise boat!
Building on the success of ‘No Rubber Soul’ his award winning large show garden in Bloom 2007 where he featured a 1965 Morris Minor, split in two, no less, Peter decided to go bigger and brighter for Bloom 2008 and prove that dreams do really come true and if you put your mind to it you can do anything.
Peter’s mind will certainly need to be focused on the morning of May 8th as the pink, 3 storey, 11 metre long, 3.5 metre high pleasure cruise boat sets sail from Ballyboughal onto the M1, M50 and into the Phoenix Park where it will be berthed for the duration of Bloom 2008.
Peter Donegan Landscaping Ltd was set up just eight years ago and in October 2007 Peter was presented with two national awards by the ALCI (Association of Landscape Contractors of Ireland) and most recently received the National Amenity Quality Award in recognition of standards achieved under the Bord Bia Landscape Quality Programme.
Photo Opportunity
Event: Bright Pink, 11 metre pleasure cruise ship prepares to berth in bloom 2008
Route: Ballyboughal, M1, M50, Castleknock Gate, Phoenix Park
Date: 8th May 2008
UPDATE: TIME: 4am – 6pm [no later due to traffic/ OPW] departure and arrival
Photo Opportunity
A 1957, 11 metre long, bright pink, pleasure cruiser shall sail down the M1 and M50 on May 8th heading for its berth place at Bloom 2008 in the Phoenix Park. The imaginative, award winning, landscape architect, Peter Donegan has designed a large show garden including the boat for this year’s event entitled ‘Pour L’amour de Jeux’ (For the Love of the Game).
The three storey, pink, 11 metre long, 6 metre high pleasure boat will cruise from Ballyboughal, onto the M1, M50, Castleknock entrance into the Phoenix Park where it shall take up residence until the end of Bloom 2008.
Peter’s large show garden in Bloom 2007, ‘No Rubber Soul’ received a Silver Medal and featured a 1965 Morris Minor.
Contact Peter on 01 8078712 www.doneganlandscaping.com
Route: Ballyboughal, M1, M50, Castleknock Gate, Phoenix Park
Date: 8th May 2008
UPDATE: TIME: 4am – 6pm [no later due to traffic/ OPW] departure and arrival
since my last posts things have heated up, slightly! But a decision has been made by the Donegan Landscaping team not to release any [semi complete] photographs of the boat until in its fullest glory – and I can assure you D. B. Painters, Noel & the B.D.F. Commercials team are 99% complete on what can only be considered absolute genius!
Today, Gormleys fine art have kindly taken our hand on this amazing journey as our main partner. It is the greatest thing in the world to make people smile by building gardens and I love with passion so dearly my work. To know that a company such as Gormleys, an ideal partner all things considered, will stand tall by my side leaves me brimming with confidence today and above all a radiant smile! Via email Gormleys Fine Art today stated that ‘Gormleys Fine Art is delighted to be involved with Peter Donegan at Bloom 2008. Peter’s gardens are truly inspirational and we take great pleasure in supplying a sculpture by one of our artists Paddy Campbell for his creative design’.
Also on board is another genuis and genuine nice guy Karl Ellis of Rockworld, supplier of my first ever water feature and good friend to this day. Understanding, that Karl got this pic sometime last year with a sketch looking nothing like the one above… His forsight to know me so well is a true sign of an amazing brain. So the water is beind dyed black and the master craftsman of all things Hydrogen Dioxide has worked, as always so hard to yet again, make another of my gardens complete! According to Karl ‘Bloom 2008 is gonna get a little Rock and Roll’ ?!!
And so the adventure continues…. everyone is literally on board! All thats left is for the fine gentlemen of Whittens Road Haulage [click to see how good these guys are!] to lift the boat on May 7th and place it in a garden on May 8th…. and a couple of other things ….?!! I’ll keep you posted!
Friday 4th April saw a host of garden designers meet at the site where the bloom show gardens will be built. If you are near the visitor centre in the peoples park, the garden will be sited just in front of the playground and next to the walled garden of last years Bloom.
So how is it going since I last posted? Well, mixed feelings on my part to be truly honest. Akin to an emotional rollercoaster….! In saying that, the people working with me are truly the finest in this small island I am blessed to live on. Gormleys with Paddy Campbell [and thank you V.!] have hand crafted a sculpt especially for the show which came in from Florence last week. Paddy named it La principessa e la Rana. She is truly magnificient and glorius!
The Gentlemen of Whitten’s Road Haulage in Offaly are booked to deliver on May 8th 2008, the day we start to build our garden, Pour L’amour de Jeux. John tells me we may need a Police escort to the park […now that made me smile!] and although he will have to come down the night before to load the boat [it takes about 4 hours to load it depending and it may take about six hours to unload] – once again it is the people by my side who are really building this garden. As a by the way, we are still without a sponsor!
And with that in mind the Atfar Constuction civil engineering team are booked to manage the sinking placing of the boat before Whittens arive!! With the help of some of the greatest minds of this country, a garden that started as a sort of a “imagine if we did ….” which turned into a sort of “I dare ya…” is almost there. I’m getting used to it now after Bloom 2007 and the No Rubber Soul Car-Den [car garden]
Some say it career threatening? Some have said it’s completely moronish? Some say it is inspirational? The truth is it is simply a garden for whch the equation should at all times result in a persons smile. Criticism accepted, opinions all appreciated – the question still remains for you to answer – is gardening & garden design fun? You better believe it!
