Garden in Malahide

Coastal chic

garden in Malahide, Co. Dublin

This garden was designed for a couple looking to set off their large, fashionable home, in which they have included all their dream elements, with a stylish garden that has plenty of space to both receive and entertain visitors.

The design brief

The garden design included a reposed, orderly looking front garden with lawns and classical, formalised planting in keeping with the stateliness of the house itself.  The garden design challenge was to set out the driveway and parking arrangements with pathway access provided to both the main front door and side “everyday” door as well as garage access without infringing on the look of the planting design.  In addition, to develop perimeter planting to provide some privacy whilst not excluding the light from the front garden.  The site is on the coast road in Malahide so is exposed to salty winds and the planting selection had to be cogniscant of these conditions whilst providing the desired look of lawns, low hedging and grand, formalised planting that is of a scale suited to the house.

The rear garden is designed as a family space with a generous patio to the rear of the house, lawns that stretch to the boundary and structured planting beds to soften the  overall shape of the space.  Along the boundary walls feature stone and wood cladding provides interest and breaks up the expanse of walling whilst soft lighting provides mood in the evenings subtly picking out certain features.  Along one side of the garden there was a need to design a raised planter that would provide space for planting screening trees in order to provide separation and privacy from two-storey windows that were overlooking the garden from next door.   The planting style in the rear was relaxed with a mix of low maintenance shrubs and perennials selected.

The garden received an Award of Merit for its design and construction (by SAP Landscapes) from the ALCI at their 2017 ceremony.

Testimonial:

“We initially engaged Tim to design our garden on the recommendation of our engineer.  After our first meeting with Tim, we immediately felt that we could entrust him with our garden project, as he takes a very personal approach and we felt that he understood our exact requirements.  This was very important to us as we were creating our dream home and garden.  Tim presented us with some design options, which was useful and having agreed our preferred option Tim set about adding all the details to the design.  One of the issues we had was to provide screening to the rear of the garden and this was achieved by the design and installation to great effect.  Tim also laid out the formal front garden including the set out and shape of the parking area, and this has worked out well and gives us a lovely welcome on arrival home.  Overall, we are very pleased with the level of design and commitment given to our garden project and would recommend Tim for similar, large-scale garden projects.”

Mary and Tom, Malahide  July, 2017

Tags:
architectural design, driveway and parking, exterior living, formal design, large garden, low maintenance planting