KILDARE GARDENING COLUMN: Making the most of spectacular views

It was touch and go if I’d manage to get this week’s column in on time as I had the most incredible experience last weekend of looking at not one, but two new garden designs for us to work on.

With the back to school season fast approaching, we decided we needed to see both gardens in one trip meaning lots of traveling to squeeze both in, but all I can say is wow. Both gardens were in the most amazing spots with views to die for.

We have designed internationally only twice before so this was an honour and a pleasure to be asked to take charge of both gardens. The first one is close to Zurich in Switzerland, in a small to medium sized town in the German speaking part of Switzerland.

Our client was a Swiss lady who spoke exceptional English. The view from her newly acquired, and not yet moved into apartment, was beautiful. There was lots of glass in the house which was built slightly into the hillside, but the garden comes with its challenges. There is a steep bank that needs planting to soften all those views and then they want to make the most of the limited outdoor space.

The brief included lots of grasses and a water feature with preferably a good deal of copper features in the garden. Other than that, we have a free reign to design the garden and include features that we think will work. Myself and Ian were both very excited about this, so we started sketching on the long journey across Switzerland and into the Savoie region of France for the second garden.

This garden was about a mile or two out of the town up a steep hill, but this meant these views were even better than the garden before. With Mont Blanc in the distance, this one really was about framing views and making the most of the location, but with a keen eye on the fact that this garden would be under several feet of snow for four to five months of the year.

This garden was much larger and the brief was greater. The couple have children and wanted family space that would include dining, cooking, an outdoor heat source, an activity area for the children, probably pétanque (a type of lawn bowls) and also a hot tub and sauna area.

They wanted a new entrance and several new trees, but this family area was super important and we wanted to use the planting to soften the look.

With such super views all around them, it was about making this all fit into the surroundings whilst softening it and creating pockets of privacy for the family from the many hill walkers, and runners too. I’m astounded at the number of intrepid adventurers. I found the walk hard enough, never mind running up that mountain.

So, with both briefs in hand, we are now making our way back to Geneva for our flight home at the crack of dawn on Monday morning, just in time for a design visit that we had planned for a family in Bettystown, North County Dublin.

They are looking out onto the sand dunes and sea beyond. How lucky are we! This has been some experience and this is only the start, so with basic sketches in hand we are going to head back to the office and create mood boards and draw designs in our usual fashion.

With Ian putting together the practicalities of the design, all the hardscaping walls working out drainage and power supplies and all those things, I then cast an eye over the designs, to add ideas of planting or lighting, pots or furniture. Together we bring the gardens together. I like to think of it as a team effort, but in essence Ian would bring the designs together and I add my suggestions when the majority of the work has been done.

We have another two gardens in France to design in the coming weeks, but it will probably be late September to October before we start on these and make the first visits. However, in the meantime we have more than enough to keep us busy, and we can’t wait to get our teeth into these ones, but it will be three to four weeks before I will have designs to show the clients and (hopefully if they agree) you too.

Next week I am hoping to be able to show you some of the pot and furniture collections that I have been working on for 2023.

That’s really exciting and something I am just loving, but until then, happy gardening!

Make the most of the next few weeks as Autumn is only around the corner now and schools are heading back.