Garden Design Dublin

Contemporary Courtyard Garden

Decking & Artificial Grass

This garden design is located in a mature residential area of Dublin and is is the rear garden of a traditional terraced victorian house.    It meaures only 10m long by 5.5m wide and was transformed from a simple rectangle of poorly maintained bark and grass to a lovely compliment to this beautiful period home which provides an attractive vista to admire from within the house.   To maximise the usable space in the garden, the garden design uses straight lines and rectangular patterns.    The large deck occupies nearly half the garden and is finished in a rich mahogany colour and surrounded on three sides with built in seating which is also finished in mahogany.     Opposite the built in seating two planting holes provided in opposite corners of the deck adjacent to the wall flank a position for a free standing BBQ for summer dining.    All planting holes were finished in Scottish cobbles which compliment beautifully the mahogany deck.

This garden has been designed for low maintenance as steps lead down from the deck to an artificial grass lawn.  A set of stepping stones, made from cream coloured travertine lead through the lawn to the end of the garden where a small patio designed for a garden bench, positioned to avail of the morning south easterly sun, is located.   The travertine is also be used as a lawn edging and wraps around the lawn

Pieris in Scottish Cobble

to lead from the small patio to a path across the rear of the garden linking a new smaller garden shed to the rear gate.

The  walls are all plastered and painted in a soft cream shade which creates a lovely warm atmosphere, particularly at night when lit up and will complement the rich mahogany of the deck.   Complimentary microshades have been used to raise the height of the boundary adjacent to the deck and  have also been used to create a fence to the fore of the new garden shed which provides a lovely backdrop to the garden bench located in this corner.

Outdoor lighting has also been provided to ensure that this garden will be enjoyed both during the day and warm summer evenings.   This garden was designed and planted by Garden Design Dublin and expertly constructed by DJ Landscaping.

Art Deco Garden Design

When completing a garden design for any client one always has to take into account, the individual clients specific requirements including likes, dislikes, needs and wants.   However, sometimes one comes across  clients with very specific needs.    In this case the clients had an extensive collection of outside sculptures, including both modern pieces and art deco.   They loved visiting salvage yards and had also acquired a large collection of salvaged landscaping materials, including old Dublin reclaimed bricks,

Brick Wall with Blue Tile Detail

terracotta tiles of many sizes and shades, old chimney pots and many other interesting items.    They wanted to use as much of their collection in the new garden design.

The garden itself was not large and was quite narrow relative to its width, it was located in a mature old area of south Dublin with a terraced brick frontage.    The garden design transformed the garden into an attractive and usable outdoor space to compliment the house and provide a wonderful backdrop for the client’s art deco collection.    The design incorporates free-flowing curving lines and soft planting schemes to produce a garden which entices you out into it to

Shady Corner

explore and enjoy. Reclaimed bricks, terracotta tiles and the client’s collection of salvaged building materials were used throughout the design to create a truly original garden which is a haven to escape into and relax. The design was developed to allow the placement of the Art Deco collection around the garden so that it was set off to its best advantage to be admired and enjoyed.

Contemporary Courtyard Garden Design

Sometimes a small space can seem the most challenging to design.   However, this is the size you really can treat like an outdoor room and if you apply the same principles the results can be wonderful.   This small garden measures only 3.4m wide by 6.5m long and is surrounded on three sides by large windows which open into the rooms of the house.   It was therefore very important that the garden was good to look at all year around from the windows of the house

Contemporary Courtyard

and that it really does function like an outdoor room.

The courtyard was divided into two areas, a small deck and an adjacent lawn which were pulled together by surrounding them in sandstone cobbles in a lovely warm colour called camel dust.   As the couple have a small child they still wanted to have a lawn but they did not want the work associated with grass so we opted for artificial grass.   We paired this with a composite deck in a lovely soft grey tone.

Some planting is always needed in even the smallest garden to soften the surrounding hard

Courtyard Garden Design

landscaping, so we positioned two raised beds against the boundary fence flanking an area where a special piece of sculpture or small water feature could be positioned at a later date.   To add height and a feeling of enclosure to this space we built a single flying pergola adjacent to the fence and planted climbers which will eventually climb up the pergola and drape down creating a green canopy along this boundary.

The fence and raised borders was painted off white to match the walls of the house and the pergola was painted a lovely soft blue shade to match the doors.    This combination of colours

Courtyard Before Garden Design

which compliments the house beautifully pulls the whole design together creating a wonderful outdoor space which will truly become an outdoor room for this family.