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Landscaping Ireland and The Home Renovation Incentive Scheme (HRI)

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Update March 7th 2013:

I interviewed Pat Moland of The Irish Tax and Customs Revenue – or The Revenue Commissioners [on The garden radio show] as they are better known, to discuss the Home Revenue Incentive Scheme [HRI] from both the client and contractors perspective.


The Home Renovation Incentive Scheme (HRI), according to CitizensInformation.ie is:

A new Revenue scheme enables homeowners to claim tax relief on repairs, renovations or improvement work that is carried out on their homes by tax-compliant contractors and is subject to 13.5% VAT.

The Home Renovation Incentive (HRI) will be paid in the form of a tax credit at 13.5% of qualifying expenditure, which can be set against your income tax over 2 years. In general, qualifying work must be done between 25 October 2013 and 31 December 2015.

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Landscaping Dublin: Front and Side Garden Beds

landscaping dublin

The following are a series of front and side garden beds that were created around the one house to better enhance its feel, look and appearance…. that sounds like something I just copy and pasted out of some legal firms website I’m sure, but for now I can’t  think of any other way to write that intro line.

Back to landscaping …And though the front driveway has also to serve a very functional role, [without cars in the images below some may look quite spacious], it is a fine example of what one can do to make your home front so much more inviting and welcoming.

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Reeling In The Years – Howth Golf Club

howth landscaping

I was having a rummage through some old images of plants for a little garden research last week when I stumbled across these pictures taken during my time landscaping at Howth Golf Club.

Their date stamp tells me they were taken January 22nd, 2004. Timeline-wise, I would have just completed my 2nd year in business as Donegan Landscaping and was still but 27 years of age.

If memory serves me right, I believe my time spent working on the grounds there would have been done over a two/ three-year period. And for a wee young cherub of the Irish landscaping scene at that time, to have an established and very respected name employ me to work on their front of house, was only ever a good thing to happen to me.

howth landscaping howth landscaping

As I remember it, I needed some images for an article in The Irish Entrepreneur Magazine [March 2004] and a lot of calling around eventually found me one person I knew who knew owned a digital camera.

Almost ten years on, it makes me smile every time I drive past the what was very new at the time planting to see how it and the now established avenue of Tilia cordata Greenspire trees that I planted have evolved.

Regarding the article in The Irish Entrepreneur magazine article, the first ever piece written about me, I found this scanned in section of it; the print version of which hangs framed in my bathroom to this day.

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5 Books For A Little January Garden Inspiration

garden inspiration books

I don’t really do or buy the off the shelf garden design type books. I find many of them bore me very quickly. It’s not their fault. Or mine. I’m aware I maybe think a little outside of the box. An odd fish in that department maybe, but I’ve seen and done most or all of that contained within before.

In my own library I love the old books that I own. The very old, that I bought second hand for £3 when I first finished my horticultural studies. I find them a little like reading turn of the previous century romantic Irish poetry, translated photosynthetically. Or at least that’s how I see it. Maybe it’s because one couldn’t go to college, in them days, come straight out the far side and say, for I am a garden designer. Instead, one had to earn their stripes.

To the point, this is not a review of any of these 5 books. They are but 5 that I browsed through and chose, from of a possible 80 or so. To clarify, one won’t find a full free garden design and planting plan from any of these. If on the other hand your brain can actually picture a cow jumping over the moon, then they are right up your and my alley and you will take something from them.

And how that, whatever it maybe, is made or created is always part 2 of the equation. You get where I’m coming from… A little like the bird feeder, made from an exhaust pipe. See image below.

All of the books a by the way are available from my local Fingal library in Swords.

  • Outdoor Design Paving – Clarc Matthews
  • Bunny Guinness – Garden workshop
  • Making Garden Furniture From Wood – Anthony Honitor
  • Junk Genius – Juliette Goggin and Stacy Kirk
  • Recycled Home – Mark and Sally Bailey

Further reading:

red bird feeder

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Donegan Landscaping, 2013 Garden Services Resume

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Thursday January 3rd 2013 sees the start of a very happy new year and a return to gardening and landscaping services for the current year. It is also the start of year 13 in business for Donegan Landscaping.

If you would like to get in touch or simply find out more about Peter or Donegan Landscaping, you can do so in the following ways:

also:

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donegan gardens dublin donegan gardens dublin

Peter Donegan’s qualifications:

  • Certificate in Commercial Horticulture (1996)
  • General Examination in Horticulture – Royal Horticultural Society (1997)
  • Advanced Diploma in Commercial Horticulture (1998)

What Can I Do For You ?

also:

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