Kieran Dunne, Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital Crumlin Garden
Episode: 1 Bloom Garden show special, Ireland
Title: Kieran Dunne, Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital Crumlin Garden
Broadcast: Aug 18th
Presenter: Trevor Cochrane
We really shouldn’t say, but this was one of Trevor’s favourites. Created by a growers association in Ireland, this garden provides the opportunity to escape hectic life, to have a read, a chat, and to enjoy the peace and silence that gardens can offer.
- The Children’s Hospital garden was created by a charity co-operative, on behalf of Dublin’s children hospital garden, to represent and serve as a place of solitude and relaxation.
- The space was designed by Anthony Ryan, a landscape architect, and Kieran Dunne, a nursery owner. Anthony is renowned for creating beautiful spaces, and has designed gardens right across Ireland. This is his 24th individual garden design at Bloom. Kieran has a thriving family-owned specialist propagation nursery, and is part of a growers group that supplies plants right across Ireland, the UK and beyond
- Anthony and Kieran’s space is a sunken garden, surrounded by beautiful trees and native grasses, all sewn together by cottage garden booms. The undulating slopes plays with lots of different levels, drawing the viewer in.
- 15 tonne of stone is added to the exhibit, providing a structure of peace and tranquility for whoever visits. The structure is built as a dry stone wall, meaning the stone is stacked without a mortar to hold them together. The Bellis Daisy (‘Bellis perennis’ a common European species of daisy), finishes the round rooftop of the dry wall perfectly.
- This is the type of garden that demonstrates what can be achieved in such a small space, and some good planning and creativity.