With so much in blossom this month I thought it would be lovely to have a look at some flowers from an edible point of view. You’d be amazed at how many of the flowers in the garden we see every day are actually edible. As a garden designer I am always learning more about edible plants and am always fascinated by new discoveries. Growing edible plants with children is
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I love the current trends for geometric forms and the seem to crop up in many designs, from fashion to interiors, strong bold V shapes and Triangles are an edgy and modern way to create contemporary interest in your own home or garden. This month I wanted to use this striking trend to create something really modern and yet elegant and decided to use some lovely, simple Terracotta pots and
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Recently I had a great conversation about collaboration with some lovely colleagues of mine. While filming the RTE Super Garden TV Show, Raisin Lafferty and Gary Graham and I spoke about the importance of sharing ideas and how we have come creatively to this point when we finally recognise this: Sharing is good. In a time where some people are still holding on to their creative ideas like private gems,
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It’s that time of the year again and I am delighted to be back filming the wonderful show that is RTE Super Garden. The popular show which sees five designers creating gardens for real homeowners with the hope of getting their winning garden a place at the Bloom in the Park festival on the June bank holiday weekend. This is no easy task, I know this because in 2012 I
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There is no plant that blooms more prolifically in early Summer than the Aquilegia or Columbine flower. The pretty and delicate plant is a firm favourite of cottage gardens and self-seeds freely through borders making it a very rewarding plant. It also happens to be easy as pie to grow, making it a great plant for the garden owner who doesn’t have a whole lot of time to dig up
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The journey to reach the small village of Chaumont sur Loire in itself is quite magical. Taking the slow road along the Loire valley, where houses are built into caves and ‘degustation’ of wine and cognac tempt you to stop every few hundred metres one feels a little bit like time has stopped. To say the area is steeped in history is a bit of an understatement. The Loire valley
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From as far back as I can remember have been designing. At the age of eight, my friend and I would glue together lots of A4 pages to make one large A1 sheet and promptly cover it in dreams. Dream houses, dream gardens, dream worlds. Design was absolutely limitless and no-one told us we couldn’t create our perfect worlds. That we didn’t have the tools, the knowledge, the talent. We
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At this time of the year many gardens are looking really great. Colour is finally spreading through the borders and gardens seem to be exploding with vibrancy. Interestingly many of the flowers in the border are actually edible. Flowers can be used to make all sorts of delicious treats from lollipos to lemonades and even for savoury cooking. This month I decided to use some edible flowers to decorate
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A few years ago the talented poet and playwright John Kavanagh approached me to collaborate on some singing for an album called ‘Words for Music’. John had taken some works of WB Yeats and set them to beautiful melodies on guitar. Coming together to record the album, the songs morphed into stunning pieces of music, some slow, some fast and together with the producer James Blennerhasset and the incredible studio
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As a little girl I dreamed about dressing up in fairytale dresses and being surrounded by the most beautiful flowers. Don’t we all? I recently got the amazing chance to play the ultimate dress up! Dressing in incredible clothing and surrounded by huge Wisteria trees, box balls with roses …. masses of every type of flower available, I closed my eyes and had to giggle. The cover style shoot was
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