There I was the other day wondering why I don’t spend more time agonising over plant choices for the interior of my house. It’s a well-recognised phenomenon, particularly in Ireland, that our gardens are as much for gazing upon and admiring from the inside as they are for immersing oneself in on the outside. So,… Read more »
Month: November 2017
De Burgh Land, Naas
So, there was my wife a couple of weeks ago over in New York improving her personal best for the marathon while I single handedly kept the show on the road back home. And in order to assuage her overwhelming guilt at abandoning us for a week she did manage to bring me home a… Read more »
Flux Capacity
Whatever happened to topiary? Topiary, just in case you don’t know, is defined as the art or practice of clipping shrubs or trees into ornamental shapes. The shrub most commonly used by the topiary practitioner is undoubtedly Buxus sempervirens, or to give it its common name, box. I could count on the fingers of one… Read more »
The Fear
I lived and worked in New England for nine years, from 1997 to 2006. In the gardening and landscaping business in the U.S.A one thing that always struck, and surprised, me was how conservative they are regarding what they are prepared to do, or even try, in the garden. My default preconception heading to America… Read more »
Townhouse Garden
Here is a nice townhouse garden project we have just started. We will be screening the unsightly block walls and metal shed, installing a water feature, lighting, perimeter climbers, dense grasses and herbaceous planting, a new paved area and painting. That’s if for now, we’ll be back in the Spring to do the planting.… Read more »
Water Feature
Here is a nice water feature we recently completed. The backdrop is tongue and groove larch. The purpose of the wings on the mini pergola is to protect the sluicing water from buffeting by the cross wind. The legs of the pergola are mounted on steel shoes which are in turn encased in water proof… Read more »
Rain
We are afraid of the weather. Sometimes, as was the case last Monday fortnight, this is quite justified. Occasionally our weather can throw a Shakespearean dose of lethal malevolence at us and we rightly hunker down and cower in fear. Our weather is for the most part benign, we are not exempt from the odd… Read more »