KILDARE GARDENING COLUMN: Tropical gardens with a twist

This week I wanted to do something a little different, so I interviewed our resident design lead about what they had seen in 2022, and what they were seeing down the line for 2023.

This information went into our Trends for 2023 in the Gardens, which is being launched for the end of this month.

I should have this in full for you next week, but this will give you a small insight.

For the full report I interviewed two of my favourite designers and talked to two of our architectural colleagues as well as looked at what is en-vogue in the UK, France and Holland — so look out for that.

Ian is our Design Lead on the nursery and works wonders in gardens, even if I say so myself, and as his wife and better half, it gives me full bragging rights.

He has a qualification in Horticulture and a Diploma in Landscape Design with loads of experience from some of the best in the business.

Best in the business

As a younger designer and landscape provider and installer he worked with some of the likes of Helen Dillon, Arthur Shackleton and Angela Binchy to name a few, and has been creating stunning gardens for lots of their and our clients over the last twenty years.

From award winning show gardens to world class spa gardens, but mostly residential gardens that bring out the best of the space and are as individual as the owners.

When asked about how he designs a garden he says; “Garden design for me is taking the ordinary and making it useable and practical firstly, and then adding a sparkle to make it extraordinary. It’s bringing the garden to the next level so the owners are not just delighted with their new garden, but find that the gardens makes a difference to their lives and how they interact with it.

“Achieving interest and balance visually is important, but it’s also about the experience of the space, how it makes you feel. A good garden should draw you in and have layers of interest in its planting style, but also in its choice of quality materials and functionality, there is no sense in having a garden that isn’t liveable.

“A garden should enhance the lifestyle of those that are fortunate enough to create and occupy it for a lifetime or just an afternoon.”

Trends for 2023

What trends do you see as being important for this year and what will continue into next year and is there anything new that you can see, without giving too much away for the full report that’s coming at the end of November?

“This year has seen a strong move to more natural planting, Mediterranean gardens are still featuring strong, but the woodland gardens and ferneries have been really important this year.

“Whether your garden is slightly or fully shaded or doesn’t see too much sun, you have to work with that, you can’t fight nature and these types of gardens do that and they do it well. The key is to still create areas of interest and keep some maturity. Use natural materials to make seating and be able to immerse yourself in the planting.

“Tropical gardens have been huge in 2022 and I think they will will be tweaked in 2023, creating more useable spaces within a strong foliage garden with a tropical twist. Kitchen gardens are still featuring really heavily, and I can’t see them going away, but making the best use of the space and not having such clean lines, blurring them slightly and softening the look is key to these being gardens of the future.

“Finding other uses for your garden, making them areas you play in as well is going to be important over the coming years. Not everyone has the room to put in a pétanque court, like the one we designed in our French Alps garden. However, making areas where you can enjoy games and also keeping a keen eye on wellness, gyms in the garden and health equipment is a trend that will be getting stronger. This equipment will become more readily available throughout the next couple of years and we are already adding these to some of our designs.

“Keeping an honesty to our materials is very important and we believe that good quality products are invaluable and don’t need to be the most expensive. Integrity in the materials we use is paramount, layering of textures and colour to achieve a rich tapestry across the whole of the garden space from planting beds to terraces and furniture details.

Jewel Tones still huge

“The luxury of deep tones isn’t limited to interior trends, richly coloured herbaceous borders add depth of interest and these marry well to modern but basic materials: think corten steel, charred wood and copper elements as well as using colour in tiles and wall colours too.

The adding of texture and tone into areas of the garden, whilst keeping a keen eye on how the garden works for the occupants, but also how the gardens works sustainably for now and the future.

Seating and dining furniture is as important as ever and with some changes to the colours, whites are still really big, but there are far less greys and much more of the jewel tones from burnt oranges to rich sparkly blues and bursts of raspberrys and lime.”

Our designers offer a number of services from consultation through to full design and build. Ian, along with Piotr, bring your garden to life and offer so much more than you could imagine. We always say “Think how an architect brings ideas and inspiration to your garden that you could never have imagined, think of us as Dermot Bannon or Hugh Wallace for your garden.

Jo