Walking the pavilions of Bloom, admiring the amazing garden creations do you wonder: how could I ever achieve something this impressive in my own home? Andrew Christopher Dunne from Andrew Christopher Garden Designs makes it all seem so achievable and has a wheelbarrow full of advice for Irish Country Living readers – especially in relation to larger country gardens.

1Get Planning

With any garden, large or small: fail to plan, plan to fail. This is especially relevant to a large garden. You wouldn’t start building a house without a plan, so why wouldn’t you do the same for your garden? Ideally this would be with a professional designer but if you are planning it on your own, remember that all good designs start with a good structure: the shape that outlines your garden.

The biggest mistake I see in large country gardens is what I call the “wobble”, these curvy wobbly lines. One of the golden rules of design is not to be afraid of straight lines or perfect circles. Create perfectly straight-lined lawns and then create softness by planting around it. If you were to look at the most beautiful floral gardens from above, they are a series of interlocking rectangles and circles.

2Create Scale

In your design, remember that gardens help to add scale to your house. For example, if your house is sitting on a big, open field, it can feel a bit lost. Planting and landscaping help the house to sit back into the landscape and give a more intimate feeling. Trees are very useful here, as they add height and scale. When considering scale, try to avoid a huge patio. When too big and open, they can become cold and windswept: not exactly the most enjoyable place to be.

3Tree-Friendly

Trees are your friend, and not just to help create scale. They are low-cost and low-maintenance but have high impact. They can form part of the structure or sit in an open space and shine on their own.

When purchasing trees, look to buy them in bare-root season, which is between November and March, as they will be half the price.

Try and buy trees with at least two seasons of interest. So, for example, cherry trees have flowers in the spring and a good autumn colour. Malus, such as apple trees, have lovely foliage in the summer and berries in the winter.

4Enjoy the View

Your garden isn’t something to just be enjoyed on warm summer days, but right throughout the year. So consider the views of your garden from inside the house. Look out from your dining room or the kitchen window and think about what you will see. This is the place to line up a beautiful tree or special feature, such as a sculpture. It doesn’t need to be right in front of the window, it can be well off in the distance, but make sure to look out at something that makes you smile 365 days a year.

5Budget your Garden

It’s not all about the driveway. What can often happen in a large country property is that people put a huge amount of their budget into an expensive cobble lock driveway or tarmac, leaving very little for planting. A driveway is a driveway, but plants can give you joy all year round.

6Create Intimacy

Have a think about what you want your garden to be. Often people will plan for large parties to entertain and put in large patios as a result. However, how many days of the year does this actually happen? What’s more likely is that on a Tuesday, when the sun is shining, you will pop out to your patio for a cup of coffee. If the space is too big, you will feel lost.

So instead of one large seated area, consider multiple areas. Not only does it mean you will have more intimate spaces, you are creating a journey around your garden, giving you a reason to go to the bottom of the garden and appreciate what is blooming there. It can be as simple as a bench under a tree that looks back towards the house.

7Plant Brave

When it comes to planting, be brave and be bold. Aim for impact. Instead of buying individual shrubs, start planting in larger numbers. Don’t be afraid of opting for perennials rather than shrubs. They may die in the winter but they will come back every year twice as big. They mark the seasons, as they start small and grow bigger and flower, and many will have autumn colours too.

Opt for bigger blocks of colour, which can be seen from further away, especially useful in a larger garden, and when planting don’t think of it in isolation. What other plants will sit beside it? You could use one bright yellow plant or 20 of them with a dark-red plant behind them. This will jump out much more and be far more effective.

8 Veggie Vista

Vegetable gardens have become so popular and are especially effective if you have children, as it gives them a really positive relationship with food. The most common way of constructing a vegetable garden is in raised beds, but they can be a bit of an eyesore. Put a bit of thought into the aesthetics of the vegetable garden as well as the practicalities. Would some box hedges work for your garden? Maybe some old reclaimed redbrick would work or, if you have a contemporary garden, experiment with some rusted steel to create a much more interesting and engaging space.

9Light it Up

A well-lit garden will ensure you get good use and value for money from your design on long winter nights, as well as sunny evenings. Instead of buying bollards that just guide you down a driveway, try using spotlights under trees or in the canopy. The aim of lighting is to create mood and atmosphere – not just to illuminate the place like a runaway.

10Future Maintenance

A good-quality garden designer will not only give you a plan for your garden but also a maintenance plan to look after it. By grouping plants of similar maintenance requirements together, you can reduce the technical know-how required to look after them.

Lawns are by far the highest maintenance item in the garden, so don’t be afraid to put plenty of plants into your garden, as they are much easier to look after. To make life easier when mowing, ensure all lawns are well edged and avoid putting too many obstacles in the way of a mower, such as furniture or play equipment.

For a large garden, consider the investment of a robotic lawn mower. They are the same price as – if not cheaper than – a ride-on lawn mower, will save you tens of hours annually and, because they mow constantly, you end up with a much higher-quality lawn. CL

Visit www.acdesigns.ie for more.

Andrew Christopher Dunne will display the Sustainable Seafood Garden at Bloom 2018. This will be Andrew’s third visit to Bloom, having won a Gold Medal, Best in Category in 2014 for the Samaritans and a Gold Medal for Savills in 2016. Bloom, which is run by Bord Bia takes place from 31 May to 4 June in the Phoenix Park.