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Then: When Irish Country Living met Leonie Cornelius in May 2017, the designer was preparing for Bloom, where her garden, “Everyone Has A Dream”, went on to win “Best Small Garden” at the festival. She had also just published her first book, Dream Gardens, and explained how she had turned her passion into her profession, mid-recession, in rural Leitrim.
Now: For Leonie, lockdown meant that she finally had time to herself to stop… and smell the roses. In every sense.
“It’s kind of given me a chance to think about how I want to live my life and what I want to build into it on an everyday basis, like more calm, more mindfulness, not rushing out the door, appreciating our gardens, appreciating our neighbours,” she says.
Summer schedule
Until March, her summer schedule looked like it was going to be packed with big, on-site projects, and a lot of time spent on the road. However, she has adapted by offering two online “Garden Essence” packages, which are more suited to home-owners who want to bring their own small-to-medium space to the next level; with a little expert guidance.
“I think over the past while our gardens have kind of become everything; our sports ground, entertainment space for our families, our mindful space,” lists Leonie, who says that rather than asking for advice on specific plants, people are looking for more information on design so that the garden almost becomes an “outdoor room”.
“Some people are very social; they want a big entertainment area and are planning for when we can re-open and we can come over again. Other people want spaces where they can just go and be calm and have a corner with a gazebo or a hammock.”
The lockdown has also seen Leonie collaborate with skincare brand, L’Occitane, to share design advice inspired by their products; for example, how to create a garden around a cherry blossom tree, with the correct companion plants to bloom year round.
Surround that little space where you want to go with scented plants
Asked to share three tips with Irish Country Living readers, Leonie says that the first thing she always advises is that people create a specific place in the garden that they want to go and spend time.
“So something that draws you out from the home and I think that’s one of the biggest things that people forget about,” she says. “Whether it’s a hammock or a bench or some seating, surround that little space where you want to go with scented plants, have a little trickle of water, whatever you really like.”
Mindful
Mindful that Irish people also spend a lot of time indoors, however, Leonie advises that people also consider how they can enjoy their gardens even if that are stuck inside due to bad weather.
“Have large flowers like dahlias, peonies, roses; something you can see from inside, so that will draw your eye out,” she says.
Finally, her third tip is to consider planting “for the table”; for example, edible flowers like nasturtiums, or kitchen herbs.
“I love planting for food,” she says. “That adds another dimension as well because you are bringing it inside as well.”
Post COVID, Leonie hopes to keep developing the way she works; for instance, she would love to do more workshops and courses with people. She also sees remote-work as more sustainable in the long term.
“It’s a great thing to take on big projects and be working on them and be travelling up and down to Dublin; but having said that, it’s exhausting too,” she reflects. “So just looking at how I work and what am I able for as a sole trader, as a person, and is it long-term sustainable to be doing it all the time?”
In the meantime, though, she’s hoping to keep inspiring people to create their own dream gardens.
“There’s only a little bit of guidance sometimes and knowledge that needs to be passed on to make a garden really beautiful,” she concludes.
For further information, visit www.leoniecornelius.ie
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