Taking Inspiration from an Irish Garden

Gardening and landscaping are approached differently everywhere you go.  I like to seek out new methods of creating a garden, to find inspiration.  This week, I am looking to Ireland, the land of Saints and Scholars (and Guinness).

90% of Canadians live within 160km of the US border

It took me a few visits to Ireland to figure out what was different about the typical gardens there.  Compared to the North American landscapes I am familiar with, which tend to contain a good mix of deciduous, coniferous and herbaceous material (in relatively equal quantities), or even the ubquitous standard of the English perennial border, there was something distinctive. 



Edmonton is roughly the same latitude as Dublin

 For a climate that can sustain a wide variety of shrubs, roses and even palm trees (for all that it is further to the north than most of the population of Canada), Ireland is a country that tends to use mainly evergreens in the landscape. 

Now, according to Residential Landscape Architecture, too many conifers 'create a dark, sombre mood' (p 361).  Irish gardens, however, use different colours and textures to great effect, and there is no darkness in the result.

Here is a particularly well done example.

Different tones of green - from yellow to blue can brighten the evergreens and create interest

Add a few deciduous specimens for colour

Also add in a few herbaceous varieties

As you can see, an evergreen garden can be brght, and even colourful. 

Benefits in Canada

Because many of us experience at least four to five months of winter (aside from British Columbia), installing an evergreen garden is a way to have a bit of colour in an otherwise bleak, white, landscape.  When deciduous trees lose their leaves in September, an evergreen garden will keep their foliage year-round. 

Of course, many of us will not be using our gardens in the winter! A landscape can still offer a pleasing vista from our warm windows, however. 

Evergreen gardens offer an interesting alternative from the standard Canadian landscape, and when done right, won't be any more sombre.  It is worth consideration when deciding how your garden will grow.