Search Results for 'Anne Byrne'

In Tralee last week for the Rose Festival I noticed a great many beds of roses in full bloom throughout the town, well looked after and flowering freely. Many Irish gardens feature rose bushes in one form or another, and the brightly coloured shrub roses, floribundas and hybrid teas brighten the front gardens of our towns and villages throughout the summer. But it’s the climbing and rambling roses that really seem to appeal to the romantics. Many of the clients who call me in to produce garden plans have visions of softly coloured roses tumbling over an archway leading into an idyllic cottage style garden, or gracefully clothing an old stone wall – pretty and nostalgic, it’s an image that’s hard to resist and it’s a great pleasure to help them achieve this.

We like our hedges in these parts. Maybe it’s because a healthy green hedge is such an attractive backdrop for more colourful garden inhabitants – or maybe it’s the sense of enclosure it gives, the sense that our home is our castle and by enclosing it with a wall of green, it marks out the boundaries of our territory and somehow makes the space more our own. A well chosen and well maintained hedge can certainly do these things, as well as giving us shelter from prying eyes and chilly winds, so it’s no wonder they are a fixed feature in many of our gardens.

Lawn mowing can seem a never-ending task at this time of year. I suppose the rain responsible for our lush forty shades of green is what encourages the grass to grow like Usain Bolt sprinting towards an Olympic record. Imagine if you could just press a button and close the roof like they do on Wimbledon’s Centre Court....

Let’s take a minute to think about what you actually do in your garden. Mowing the lawn? Check. Hanging out laundry? Check. Trimming the hedges, battling weeds, watering, feeding, pruning shrubs.....tired yet? I’m tired just thinking about it. Which brings me nicely to what I’d like to talk to you about this week, which is sitting in your garden and doing – well, nothing very much.

Did you visit Bloom in the Phoenix Park this year? Did you come away inspired and ready to get cracking, or a little daunted and thinking “I could never get my garden to look that good?”