This project involved rolling back decades of neglect from the original garden, including clearing over 100 large Leyland Cypress trees to uncover the beauty of this rural landscape. The magnificent mature Beech, Oak and Chestnuts needed to be sensitively pruned to reveal their character and majesty, and apart from being overgrown, the entrance-way was not scaled for convenient modern vehicle access
The entrance walls were pushed back and rebuilt by Plan Eden, creating wider access to the gates and selected pre-existing planting was retained to frame the entrance and maintain its mature appearance. Remote control gates and a new cattle grid were also installed.
Similarly, the stone-walled driveway was restored by clearing years of built up organic debris and rebuilding sections of the walls. Again, large amounts of conifers were removed from the gloomy driveway to allow additional light in and expose the native trees. In the rural landscape away from the residence, a previous planting of native species were lifted and repositioned. This was done to create coppices of woodland with open grass avenues, providing scale and views within the garden and to the wider landscape
As an element of the landscape restoration, Plan Eden also re-designed the garden to the front of the residence. Here a combination of clipped box planting, trees (for height and as a visual link) and drifts of ornamental grasses were used to merge with the wider landscape.
Herbaceous plants and grasses also furnish the generous entertainment spaces arround the house, re-enforcing the link between house, garden and the surrounding landscape. Mature trees were also retained and refurbished to enhance that link.
Another major element of the restoration of this country garden was the restoration of the Ha-Ha, which had become completely over-grown.
The restoration works to the Ha-Ha involved clearing some fifty large Leyland Cypress trees and stumps which had been undermining the Ha-Ha. Large portions of the stonework was dismantled and rebuilt, and the massive clearance of conifers also restored this magnificent Beech as a focal point of the landscape.
PLAN EDEN, UNIT 44 NEWTOWN BUSINESS & ENTERPRISE CENTRE, NEWTOWNMOUNTKENNEDY, CO WICKLOW/
43 ARDAGH PARK, BLACKROCK, CO. DUBLIN
TEL: 01 201 5464 / 086 221 5468, INFO@PLANEDEN.IE © PETER O’BRIEN / PLAN EDEN