Large garden in Ranelagh, Dublin 6

This garden is only a stone's throw from the hustle and bustle of Ranelagh's main drag, yet is spacious, open and airy. The house was being substantially restored and extended, and a small guest house and sheds were built in the garden. During the work the garden (which was just grass and weedy trees) was used as a building site, so we were starting from a very blank slate. There was no formal  'design'. Instead, the garden was a collaboration between the architect (Rachel Chidlow from Paul Keogh Architects), the client and us, and was marked out on the ground with bags of flour and spools of string: there were no drawings - just a few rough sketches. The client had worked with us on previous gardens and therfore knew our style. 

The garden is split into a few different areas: a wide sunny patio for table and chairs, right off the house, punctuated by olive trees and herbs; a large formal lawn, surrounded by shrubs, trees and perennials, and divided from the patio by a wide herbaceous bed; a smaller, more intimate garden around the guest house; and a meandering, Robinsonian wild garden at the rear, all paths and naturalistic planting. All the work was carried out by us, and most of the plants in this garden are available on the website.

View from the house to the guest house: new walls were built, as well as the guest house and sheds, so the soil is in a very bad way.

View towards the house from the guest house.

The ground has been decompacted by a digger and topsoil has been spread. The pile of stones, salvaged in the levelling process,is later used for edging the paths at the back of the garden.

The informal network of paths at the rear of the garden are constructed with a base of compacted hardcore.

Laying a layer of 'rootzone' over the area where the lawn is to be laid. 'Rootzone' is a sand and soil mix which aids drainage and makes it much easier to lay a level lawn over damp or heavy soil. The layer should be from 1-3 cms deep and will give the lawn a smoother finish. (Available from us in 1 ton bulk bags).

Laying the last piece of grass sod.

A view from an upstairs window. Multi-stem Amelanchiers are in the foreground.

Setting out plants in the 'wild garden' at the rear of the garden. Groundcover plants include Luzula sylvatica, Chionochloa rubra, Molinia, Digitalis, Primula; shrubs include Vaccinium, Hydrangea, Hoheria sexstylosa, Osmanthus spp, Myrtus ugni, Luma apiculata; bamboos include Phyllostachys bisettii, Semiarundinaria fastuosa.

A multi-stemmed Olive tree is underplanted with herbs such as Thyme, Oregano and Prostrate rosemary, and mulched with gravel.

Six or seven months later the garden already looks like it has been there a long time as plants start to fill in.

The back section is starting to fill in. It will take to or three years before the ground cover plants have knitted together, and careful weeding in the intervening time to make sure invasive weeds don't gain a foothold.

Bamboo dotted in the gravel with one of our favourite ground cover plants at their base: Gallium odoratum. Note how the lower branches and shoots of the bamboo have ben trimmed off.

In ealy summer of the second year, when plants are starting to fill in.

In its third year.