European gardens, garden, tours, Italian, villas, houses

Taking your Garden to new heights!

Dealing with Levels in Garden Design In a board or card game, sometimes it can feel like you have been dealt the worst possible hand and yet sometimes starting from a seeming position of disadvantage can actually see the game play into your hands; as it unfolds new opportunities arise that you did not think were possible, you get creative, you exploit and then you come out on top.  In garden design, we are sometimes dealt these difficult hands, none perhaps more so than the steeply sloping site.  Yet, with a...

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concept garden design tim austen irish designer ireland

Plan your garden design

So, you’ve watched the garden makeover programmes on TV, read the garden magazines, you’ve Googled garden designers and famous gardens in Ireland and across the world, you’ve used Facebook and Instagram to find those wow garden images and you’ve put them all together on your Pinterest account.  You know what you want and you’re ready to get the garden designed.  You deserve congratulations at this stage, as you will have put concerted effort and significant time into getting to this point.  What’s next? The next big step will be for you...

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house extension, garden design, gardens, makeover, home improvements, gardening, home, extension

Garden extension

In the current Irish housing market, many people are adding extensions to their homes rather than moving to add value to their properties, add more space etc.  I'm in that bracket myself with my kids becoming teenagers, suddenly the house seems much smaller than it did a few years ago.  But retired couples may also want to make space for visitors and give themselves the nice large, sitting room that they have always dreamed about. The architects design concepts often involve nice views to the garden with floor to ceiling windows,...

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planting design, gardening, plants, design

Keep gardening, the more so in retirement!

A couple of things have made me think about how important gardens and gardening are to the retired. Firstly, looking at the way my parents have enjoyed developing a brand new garden in County Kerry (from scratch) and how this has in many ways defined many of their recreational habits and interests in their retirement, from attending the local garden group, to plant hunting their favourite plants from nurseries in Ireland and the UK to physically spending pleasurable hours in the garden undertaking all sorts of frenetic horticultural activity; it sometimes...

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Water with care!

My last "outpouring" :) about watering was in March 2012, and back then I was describing having to water my perennials due to the unseasonably hot weather we were experiencing.  This year too, we did have a dry, sunny spell in March; however, it did not last in the same way as 2012's. We experienced a long stretch of cold weather throughout April and May on the back of an extremely wet and windy winter (tough conditions for tender plants that were planted in the garden at the back end of...

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Fine-tuning your garden design plans

The early days of the New Year give us a chance to reflect on the past year's activity and to plan anew for the coming year.  We tend to be full of fresh ideas, we want to make a difference for the better in the coming months and, in a sort of mental-vacuum, are often devoid of self-doubt.  Anything and everything seems possible.   However, in my view, there is a certain need to put a frame, call it structure if you will, around this somewhat dreamy state, essentially to see if...

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Blarney in Bloom 2015

Tim is delighted to have been invited to talk at the Blarney in Bloom garden festival that takes place this coming Saturday the 11th July, in Blarney Castle Gardens. The festival includes a Garden Fair with specialist Plant Nurseries, Arts and Crafts, Farmers Market and Food Area, Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind Children’s entertainment.  There is a programme of talks: [caption id="attachment_4905" align="aligncenter" width="343"] Blarney in Bloom annual garden festival[/caption] 12:00pm Welcome and News at Blarney Castle Gardens by Adam Whitbourn & John Robertson 12:15pm Garden Design - making a great impact by Tim Austen 1:00pm Beginners Organic Gardening Jim Cronin 1:30pm Growing...

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Roots in to the garden!

I was lucky to have the opportunity to deliver a talk about the use of paths in creating interesting garden designs at Garden Show Ireland yesterday and I would like to thank the organisers for inviting me and other Garden and Landscape Design Association (GLDA) members to attend the show to both give talks and also run a popular garden design clinic where visitors could get free 15-minute design advice for their gardens. [caption id="attachment_3881" align="aligncenter" width="620"] The central gravel and Travertine path in my show garden at Bloom 2013[/caption] My talk...

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Garden boundaries and fences

In any garden design, close attention needs to be paid to the boundaries and how they are to be finished at an early stage in the project. [caption id="attachment_3437" align="aligncenter" width="614"] Traditional field stone boundary in the west of Ireland[/caption] The reasons for this are obvious but sometimes need to be restated: 1) They form the framework for the garden whether closely defined and solid or looser, more open boundaries that allow visibility to the surrounding landscape. 2) The boundary finishes (structure, form, texture, colour) can dictate the entire mood of the garden. [caption id="attachment_3439"...

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Construction story at Bloom in the park – Giardino della mostra

Ok, so things just got way too busy at Bloom to give you the rest of the updates on construction.  Apologies!  We obviously finished on time, thanks to huge efforts and ridiculously long hours over many days from all the team involved - I think we broke my previous record for length of time on site at Bloom on any one day with a cracking 17 hours of work put in by 12 people on the Thursday - but it was all worth it as we had a great show with...

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