Landscaping Garden Design Services, Landscaper Dublin, Wicklow Landscaping Garden Design Services
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I won this contract through a previous job we completed in Mount Merrion. The site survey was completed on a winter evening coming up to Christmas 2022.
The garden was north-facing. There was a large 4x3M rectangular berg trampoline and a 2.4×1.8M garden shed on the East side with a low wall and plenty of plants creating privacy from both neighbour’s and clients’ properties. The West side had a low wall with a haphazard Grisellinia hedge of varying heights. The back boundary had a big 1.2M high tree stump and prunus ‘Pissardi’ trees in various states of health. The wall at the back was 2M high and sloping Easterly in direction. The central lawn was also sloping steeply to the east side. The slope of the lawn combined with the sloping wall affected the garden, giving an unbalanced feeling. Bordering the house was a cobble patio extending out 3M with a raised bed on the East side. All in all the garden needed a lot of work.
After surveying the space I sat down with the clients to get a better understanding of what they wanted and how much they had to invest. The budget I find is always a sensitive issue with clients. The client is never willing to divulge what money they have, feeling they will be giving too much information. It’s almost like a game of poker the client is not willing to give a tell with me trying to guess what they have in their hand. The wish list however is never a problem with clients offering plenty of ideas, for the lowest price. It’s a game I enjoy playing, and just one of many skills needed to run a successful Landscaping Business.
The wish-list consisted of the following ideas:
- Removal of unwanted plants, including Grisellinia hedge to East side
- Removal of existing raised bed along East side
- Removal of large tree stump at back wallk
- Installation of pressure treated fence along East side and cladding of back wall, removing unbalanced feeling within the space
- Painting of fencing/cladding with stain to enhance the grain
- Remove existing lawn & levelling of garden
- Installation of instant roll out lawn
- Installation of raised beds to add height and interest within space
- Path around garden to shed
- Removal of existing patio bordering house
- Removal of concrete path bordering house
- Installation of patio outside house
- Installation of South facing patio at back of garden
- Low voltage lighting system throughout the garden
- Installation of weed free solution below trampoline
- Stepping stones to trampoline (Re-use existing)
- All year-round interest
- Low maintenance
- WoW factor
- Replacement of rotten side gate
- Installation of cladding to Westside wall at front of house
- Clean and power-spray cobble-lock driveway
- Installation of deck lights along base of raised beds to glaze at night
Armed with the above I created a simple design which was based on rectangles.
We started with a mixed-sized yellow limestone patio outside the house. A raised bed along East side with Limestone path bordering. The path leads straight to a raised Limestone south-facing seating area with a right angle leading to the shed. The raised patio was also bordered by a raised bed to double up as seating. Behind the raised beds we installed a new fence created using planned pressure-treated Scandinavian Spruce. 10 tonnes of soil was then imported to level the sloping gradient. The Westside had a raised cobble edge with a silver tumbled cobble mowing edge. This mowing edge ran around the whole lawn area creating definition. An instant rollout lawn was installed. 100mm soil was removed from below the trampoline, matting was laid and covered with bark mulch creating a weed-proof barrier. All excavations were put into the raised beds. The raised beds were created using 1000x200x100mm silver granite kerbs. 7.5 tonne of soil was imported to fill the same. Plants were selected with the client at Garden World Trade Nurseries, Kilcoole, Co Wicklow.
The planting scheme was for low maintenance and included mostly low-growing evergreen shrubs, including: Olea europaes standards, Acer ‘Sango Kaku’ specimens, Pittosporum ‘Irene Patterson’, Pittosporum ‘Silver Sheen’, Pittosporum ‘Tom Thumb, Pittosporum tobira, Rosmatinus prostrates, Euonymua alatus, Skimmia japonica ‘Rubella’, Hydrangea spp., Laurel spp, Erica carnea. The fencing was then painted in a ‘Teak’ Bondex stain. The stain is great for picking up on the filigree of grain within the planned pressure-treated timber. This small detail looked fantastic. The low Voltage garden lighting was then installed and situated at key points within the garden. The lighting effects aimed for would be the glazing of raised beds with blue lights set within the cobbles. Within the beds we used spike lights to pick up the plants creating shadowing and silhouetting. 2 tonne of screened topsoil was then imported to finish the last 25mm and cover any exposed wires from the lighting system.
On completion, the garden looked fantastic. The removal of the gradient made a difference with the fencing creating a room effect and privacy.
The work to complete the project is listed below.
- Remove trees/hedging, cart to dump
- Remove existing raised bed, cart to dump
- Spray lawn with a translocated herbicide
- Supply and spread 10 Tonnes screened topsoil to remove heavy fall
- Supply and install instant roll-out lawn
- Supply and install fencing using 150x25mm planed Scandinavian Spruce boards, 100x75mm posts, 50x50mm joists and cap with 50x25mm lengths, paint in 2 coats of Ronseal garden paint (Colour to be decided, height 2M, 26Lm)
- Supply and install raised bed along the right side using 1000x200x100mm silver granite kerbs, extend across the garden, creating a step for patio area (400mm high, 100mm step up to the patio, 1m deep)
- Fill area behind kerbing with quarry screenings creating sub-base for patio (9.5 Tonne)
- Supply and install cabling for garden lighting around the circumference of the garden
- Supply and install yellow Limestone patio, mixed sizes (24Msq)
- Create a raised bed around the patio using granite kerbs, cap with 600×150 granite slabs (Height 450mm, 1m deep, 20 Kerbs)
- Remove soil under the trampoline to the raised bed, lay geotextile, disguise with bark mulch
- Supply and install Limestone path along right side and in front of the patio/shed using mixed sized Limestone paving, excavations to raised bed (15Msq)
- Supply and install mowing edge using tumbled silver granite cobbles, excavations to raised bed (9Lm)
- Fill the raised bed with topsoil (6 Tonne)
- Meet clients at Gardenworld nurseries, advise & choose plants
- Deliver and plant plants (Labour only)
- Supply and install low voltage garden lighting system, including 60 Watt transformer, Dusk till Dawn sensor and 8 spike lights within beds
- Fencing for front including bull wire trellis (13Lm, Colour to be decided)
- Remove all rubbish and cart to dump
The clients were very happy with the final result and kindly posted the following Review on Google:
Kevin and team helped to transform our back garden over the space of 3 weeks with many, many tons of soil and paving. The job entailed levelling the site, building up a raised bed with granite blocks, creating a new patio area and installing fencing all around the perimeter of the garden. Throughout the job Kevin was totally professional and open to all suggestions and feedback, although we mostly relied on his expertise in everything from paving stone selection, to planting and through to the amazing lighting scheme. Each evening everything was cleaned away and brushed down and the plans for the following few days outlined. He was an absolute pleasure to work with and I would highly recommend him for any landscaping jobs, be they big or small.
A year and a half later I got a call from the client informing me that there had been subsidence, and the wall had cracked. We returned and repaired. The garden looked impressive with all the plants filling in nicely. A landscaper should be judged on his planting. Planting is one of the most important parts of the process, with plants selected to fill in/contrast etc. correctly. The 3 years in the Botanic Gardens doing the Diploma course stands to me in this area. Anyway, the following pictures show the planting a year and a half after installation.
