So we were commissioned to do a full garden design for a client in Kilkenny. The garden itself is on an elevated site and surrounds a new build house with over 4 acres of land around it and with extensive views over valleys to the south.

Our brief was to design a garden that would complement the architecture of the house, frame the views over the surrounding valleys and have an English garden or farmhouse style garden feel to it. The garden area to be designed was over 1 acre with the remaining land to be left for keeping horses.

Due to the scale of the house and site it would be very easy to loose any patio areas and planting areas into the surrounding lands and it was important to create smaller spaces which have a sense of enclosure. The layout of the house allowed for numerous access points to the garden with double doors on the south and south- west facing elevations. Creating individual spaces which could be enjoyed at various times of the day was a key element to the design and the connection of these spaces to each other took alot of careful consideration.

All too often the hard landscaping surrounding a house extends up to and surrounds the entire building, in my opinion this is not good garden design practice especially in a rural location such as this. In this design I have included generous planting areas close to the house while still providing good circulation around the building and between spaces. This feature helps to connect the house to the landscape. Due to the sloping nature of the site, natural stone walls, steps and terraces extend from the house and allow for gently contoured lawns extending down to the driveway. The natural stone walls and planters  surrounding the patios also give a sense of enclosure and define the patio areas. Gravel paths and stepping stones along with timber pergolas all add interesting connecting features to the patio areas.