Tree & Leaf garden
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This garden is characterised by an emphasis on form and texture of leaf, changing through the seasons, against the backdrop of trees, with their sense of permanency married to seasonal change. A succession of colour and fragrance is provided by other plantings, both shrubby and herbaceous.
The space is strongly defined by the surrounding rectangular hedges of beech and cypress, which, with their facing entrances, reflect the legacy of earlier, more formal, gardens. The trellis at the principal entrance thus serves both to direct attention away from the exit opposite and to guide the visitor towards the main viewing area.
Opportunity to rest and take in the surroundings is provided by the curved teak bench, set on a paved space of Tuscany limestone. This shaded spot allows the viewer to enjoy the garden out of the glare of direct sunlight. The foot of the beech hedge, culturally difficult, is home to a planting of the Chinese Pachysandra terminalis. Several planters adorn the patio, notable a pair of terracotta planters framing the entrance pathway and home to two small pines.
To the left lies the smaller planting space, with a carved marble fountain, under a single Young's weeping beech, and set amongst several species of fern. A Cunninghamia lanceolata, also Chinese, provides distinctive evergreen form.
In the larger planted area to the right of the viewer, the eye is drawn first to the Stone pine, Pinus pinea, a Mediterranean native, with a contemplative bronze sculpture resting beneath it. In the corner behind lies a group of Echium pininana, which soars by up to four meters in a single season before flowering and then dying. It is one of several species of this genus, from the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands, planted here. Half hidden behind the trellis screening is a group of the same Young's birch as that by the fountain, their domed weeping habit creating a small shaded area. Throughout this area different species of ornamental grasses are found, their lightness and movement contrasting with other stronger shapes nearby.
Throughout the garden the shifting spotlight of the passing seasons highlights the colour and fragrance of bulbs, herbaceous perennials and climbers, more showy perhaps than the quieter elements, yet a fitting counterpart, completing a dynamic but balanced whole.
Design and construction
Gardens by Danesfort and Ruaidhrí Bashford,
6,Briarwood,
Bray, Co. Wicklow.
Mobile: 087 621 8434
Phone: 01 274 5288
Sponsors
Millbrook Paving Centre (Paving materials)
Irish Timber Products (Fencing)
Clifford Sullivan & Co Law Firm (Bench)
