the amazing skerries mills

I thought this would be a boring day out. The ones you got ‘dragged’ out on when you were a nipper. I also thought, at first, the €6.50 tour charge was a bit steep, I was [very] pleasantly surprised. This, had to be, one of the best ‘tours’ I’ve ever been on. Skerries Mills is [...]

{  all posts, parks & places  } { One comment }

savour the culture

I’m looking forward to this. I like Farmleigh House and if you do nothing else on this day the tour of the house is so worth while. Straight from the promo page [pretty much] here’s what one can expect at this free for all – unless you decide to buy something – event. On Saturday [...]

{  all posts, courses/ gigs/ events  } { 0 comments }

budget car hire….. ?

Full Size 4 Door e.g. Toyota Avensis or similar Euro €34.00 Price includes all compulsory Insurances, Government Tax, Unlimited Mileage and 24hr Breakdown cover. Please take a moment to read the Terms & Conditions of rental before making your booking. I arrived at Cork Airport. 4th June. Collected at 9.30am. Returned the car that evening. [...]

{  all posts, office  } { 40 comments }

lets grow – a really good childrens book

I was in Douglas visiting my niece & [2 new] nephew[s] recently. I decided the best thing Uncle could do was find a good book store, some coffee and a Sunday Business Post. [here's the plug..] Douglas Book Store is an absolute gem. I love it dearly and now travel there just to get really [...]

{  all posts, recommended reading  } { 0 comments }

giving berth to pour l’amour de jeux – bloom 2008 [8]

This morning at 5.45 am after 11 long hours labour, Pour L’amour de Jeux finally gave berth to a 7 tonne, 11 metre long Pink Boat in the Phoenix Park Dublin. With amazing help from John Farrell, John Friel, Whittens Road Haulage, The Garda Suíochana, Maura Hickey, Colin Browne and Gráinne Walker; this journey was [...]

{  all posts, my show garden[s]  } { 3 comments }

lifting trees at sunset…

just a beautiful image -  It was also for an amazing project for an amazing gentleman who wanted to introduce more mature trees into an already native irish landscape. How considerate is that…. Makes me smile everytime! Brilliant.

{  all posts, horticulture in ireland  } { 0 comments }

consultations are over[heads]?!

Some time ago i wrote about call out & consultation charges. [There is a difference.] A consultation is by definition ’2 a meeting or discussion for seeking advice’. It requires professional advice based on education and experience. A call out, to differ, generally requires pricing for specific tasks as decided already by the client. [In this day [...]

{  all posts, office  } { 2 comments }

proud of ‘your’ garden?

garden show preparation are in full swing; The trees are in bud, almost trying into leaf; the daffs have sprouted and almost all in flower. The season is literally almost urging itself to burst into full bloom. Such varied enquiries come into my office. But, even with our website [thanks Patrick] usually it’s what type of [...]

{  all posts, design  } { 2 comments }

a full ban on plastic?

I know I’ve touched on this before with regard to water and plastic bottles but maybe it needs to be more direct? Reading a book from my library, ‘Go make a difference – over 500 daily ways to save the planet’ [by think books], tells it is proven that bottled is no better than tap water but, bottled water uses 1.5 [...]

{  all posts, ireland  } { 14 comments }

quality award for donegan landscaping

Friday 8th February saw The Donegan Lanscaping team be awarded The Quality Award. Last year we achieved the award of merit, but, thanks to the hard work of the entire team, we have been certified a Quality Approved System. Put simply, it certifies just how good we operate and are managed behind the scenes and [...]

{  all posts, office  } { 10 comments }

corylus avellana ‘contorta’

I bought this plant around five years ago. But only recently has it started to show its true beauty. An aged, almost antique piece for the garden The ‘corkscrew hazel’ as it is commonly known produces tiny catkins which develop around the winter period. I found it very difficult to get a really good photograph – [...]

{  all posts, plants  } { 3 comments }

gentlemen? time to stand up & be counted

I took the DART into Dublin City recently. Been a while since I have. On the BUS home I took this picture and thought it would be a great poster to be put on all DART trains. Reared with 4 sisters [& 3 brothers] I don’t wish to suggest a ‘National Peter Day’ of celebration [...]

{  all posts, ireland  } { 5 comments }

genetic landscape – [int garden fest. '07]

I was asked some time ago to put my pictures of this garden on the web. Designed by Goncalo Castro Henriques and his team using digital technology the ‘garden was generated in a virtual environment’ and ‘the data transmitted to a machine that produced a hybrid form.’ One should appreciate that the garden was to [...]

{  all posts, courses/ gigs/ events  } { 6 comments }

inspired by street planting?!!

If nothing else apart from making you smile on a Monday morning… wouldn’t it be simply breathtaking if every piece of public area space had as much thought put into it! We may not be able to freely or as easily grow the same varieties of plants in Ireland but horticulture does allow us to [...]

{  all posts, horticulture in ireland  } { 2 comments }

epiphytic? platycerium?!

this is the platycerium bifurcatum, more commonly know as staghorn fern. I thought it worth a mention being that it is so unusual and not exactly what one might see on O’Connell Street! For those of you who dont know… epiphytic plants, in this case of fern, are plants that grow above the ground level [...]

{  all posts, plants  } { 0 comments }