Garden Designers Roundtable: Stone

I have kindly been invited to participate as a guest writer at the Garden Designers Roundtable to discuss the topic of stone. Being both a landscaper and a stonemason I think it is a fair assessment to say I have a passion for this subject.
So here is my contribution to the decision.

STONE

Neolithic stone circle close to my family home in West Cork

 Throughout the ages stone has been utilised by man for a variety of uses, ranging from the spiritual to the practical. It is one of mans oldest building materials, and yet its methods of construction have changed very little over time.
Here in Ireland, as in many countries, we have a rich history with stone. Even as far back as Neolithic times (4,000-2,300 BC) there is evidence that man was creating amazing stone structures that were not only built for practicality and strength, but also to be something of beauty. Newgrange (just a mere 45min drive from where I am living) is a fantastic example of this.

The entrance to Newgrange.

Newgrange was constructed over 5,000 years ago, around 3,200 B.C. (That’s over 500 years older than the Great Pyramids of Egypt.)

This is one of the things I love about stone, it is permanent. A stone structure, whether it is an ancient building or your little garden wall, has the potential to be there to be admired for generations to come.
For archaeologists the great stone structures have been a great aid in mapping out our history, and although more modern stonework is of less importance (historically speaking) it still has a certain ancient presence to it, and defiantly sparks the imagination when encountered along a garden path.

One of the many old stone features I came across in St Ann’s Park in Dublin

Stone plays a role in most gardens in some form, whether it is a winding stepping stone path, inviting you to a tucked away part of the garden, a paved patio, or a simple rock lovingly dragged from your morning walk and placed in your garden bed (I’m sure most people who have a garden know what I am talking about).

Garden bed feature stone surrounded by Geranium lucidum (Shining Crane's-bill)

Here are a few of my favourite stone features to include in garden designs.

Stone paths


Stepping stones in a lawn

Curving cobblestone path in a driveway

Stone paths are a great way to lead the eye through the garden, and invite you to explore hidden or tucked away parts of the garden.

Stone seats and benches.

Limestone seat

I love including stone seats in gardens for a number of reasons. Firstly I think it is very important to have a spot in your garden where you can sit and take in all your gardening achievements, a place to just get lost in thought. Stone seats are great for this as besides looking like they have been there forever, they are also an inviting place to rest. I also love the folklore associated with stone seats here in Ireland (I have written about this in the past here)

A sneak peek at a stone seating area I am working on at the moment

Stone Archways

Stone Arch

Stone archways make a great focal point in a garden. They can create a sense of mystery, inviting you to explore what is beyond. They are also an exciting structure to build. One of the most fascinating things about stone arches is the physics behind them, and the fact that the procedure to build them has hardly changed since Roman times back in the 10th century, a procedure so primitive and simple in fact, that you sometimes feel you could be back in Roman times while you are building them.

The exciting part, of course, is when it comes time to remove the arch support.

The first large arch I built. It was an exciting moment when this arch was finished, as it came to pulling out the support. In your mind you know it is not going anywhere, but it doesn't seem to make you any more relaxed when it comes to taking it out!

Another thing you may not have considered about introducing stone into your garden is that you are also providing an additional habitat for rock lovers like moss and lichens.

Crustose lichens on limestone

I find lichens to be fascinating, they are in fact dual organisms, a fungus and one or more algae in a stable, mutually beneficial (symbiotic) partnership. The fungus provides structural form and protects the algae from extremes of light and temperature. Algae are capable of photosynthesis and some of the sugars produced provide the fungus with energy for growth and reproduction. Some lichens can live for many hundreds of years, and being sensitive to pollution levels they are important environmental indicators.

So that’s my lot, To see what see what fellow guest blogger Deborah Silver and esteemed members of the Garden Designers Roundtable have to say on this topic, please follow the links to their posts below.
(Please note this discussion begins on Tuesday 24th of May. I have posted a little early due to time restrictions so other links may not yet be updated if you are reading this before that time)

Deborah Silver of Deborah Silver and Co.

Debbie Roberts : A Garden of Possibilities : Stamford, CT

Douglas Owens-Pike : Energyscapes : Minneapolis, MN

Ivette Soler, Los Angeles, CA 

Jenny Petersen : J Petersen Garden Design : Austin TX

Rochelle Greayer : Studio “G” : Boston, MA

Scott Hokunson : Blue Heron Landscapes : Granby, CT

Susan Cohan : Miss Rumphius’ Rules : Chatham, NJ

Tara Dillard : Vanishing Threshold : Atlanta, GA

Irish hills on fire with Molinia caerulea 'Purple Moor-grass'

Driving down to the home place in West Cork is always a treat, especially if I haven’t been home in a while. Living in the city of Dublin now when I drive out the country roads I appreciate all the scenery more.

On my last trip down the back roads to Hagal Farm the hills looked on fire with the amazing golden glow of the Molinia caerulea commonly known as Purple Moor-grass (or uncommonly known by its Irish name ‘Fionnán’)

It’s spent seed heads and browned off blades gleaming gold in the spring sunlight look like flames.

This Irish native is quite widespread and locally abundant on permanently or seasonally wet ground as well as marshes and wet heaths and moors.

It was nice to stop and take it in as probably by the time I drive down to West Cork again it will all have transformed in to the lush green rolling hills that Ireland is so well known for.

On a more mundane note, this grass is also partially responsible for the rapped spread of hill fires that plague the country around this time of year. (In this case, the hills quite aptly ‘on fire with Molinia caerulea 'Purple Moor-grass')

Ulex-europaeus 'Gorse'

Many of these fires are started by farmers burning off Ulex europaeus ‘Gorse’ or by it Irish name Aiteann gallda. Unfortunately too often these fires spared out of control, overwhelming entire mountains and destroying wildlife and property in its wake. Worryingly, fire officers believe up to a quarter of these fires are set by arsonists.
According to a recent post in the Irish Examiner, last year, was one of the worst on record for such fires in Ireland, with Irish forestry’s ‘Coillte’ reporting damage to thousands of acres of forestry last year, three times in excess of the annual average.

Gorse fire near Baltimore
 [picture from The Southren Star]

 The annual burning season runs from February to May, even though it is against the law to start these fires between March 1 and August 31, may fires continue to be lit. In the wake of last years record high fires, new measures have been put in place. Issued jointly by the Department of Agriculture, An Garda Síochána, Teagasc, the Forest Service and the Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association, a notice says severe penalties may be imposed on farmers who break the law, including loss of their Single Farm Payment. They can also be liable to fines of €1,900, or imprisonment, and county councils can charge property owners for fire brigade call-outs.

Oh look how nicely my post started out, hope I didn’t end up bumming you out. On the plus side, hopefully these new measures will see increased beauty and wildlife throughout these parts at this stunning time of the year.

scorce http://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/donal-hickey/illegal-gorse-fires-still-burning-issue-151009.html

All Ireland Scarecrow Championship, Durrow, Co. Laois.

Back during the August bank holiday weekend, we arranged to visit some old friends near in County Waterford. Heading down the motorway, our GPS tells us to turn off the motorway prematurely, but as I was unfamiliar with the area we were going to I did what I was told and left the motorway. By doing this, we were taken through the recently bypassed town of Durrow. But this was not the same Durrow I remembered form the times before the bypass where it was constantly chocked up with traffic, this time it was teeming with festive fun.

Unaware what was going on when entering the town, we spotted a funny looking fellow propped up by the road, who turned out to be a scarecrow, this seemed to be a little odd place for a scarecrow, but ‘hay’ whatever! Then there was another one! Now it was getting a little weird. It was only as we passed a picnic table of scarecrows dining and drinking pints so stout, that we knew something was going on.

'Walking the Owner is a Woof Job' by Adrian Sheppard Winner of Best Overall Scarecrow and Best Street Residence Scarecrow.



This was, as we later discovered the All Ireland Scarecrow Championship, part of Durrow’s annual ‘Howya’ Festival.

With over one hundred and fifty entries there was a lot to see. For those who wish to see the scarecrows in style, there was a Jarvey tour of the scarecrows where adults and children were taken on a tour of the highways and byways of the village on one of the beautifully presented horse and carriage rigs.

Unfortunately for us we did not have time to stop and have a good look around, as we were already running late, so all we could manage is a slow drive through the village, but thanks to Andy Walsh for letting me use some of his photos for this post to give you a taste of what it was like. Here are a few of my favourite entries.

White Lady Rescue' by The Durrow Fire & Rescue Service. Winner of Best Business/Club/ Organisation.

'Status Crow' by Michael Smith, Winner of Best Visiting Scarecrow.

'Lord & Lady Ashbrook' by Kay Downey



'CSI Crow Scene Investigation' by Joe Murphy, John Lappin, Robert Freeman & Thomas McCann, some of the winners of Best Youth/Student Scarecrow (under 16)







So be sure to add this to your list of events for next year, it runs every August bank holiday weekend. If you wish to enter next years competition, you can download a entry form from Durrow’s website http://www.durrowvillage.com/.

There are also lots more photos by Andy Walsh of the festival to see on his photo album http://s801.photobucket.com/albums/yy291/JonathanWalsh/Scarecrows/

Interestingly as we left Durrow our GPS sent us back onto the motorway to continue our trip to County Waterford, this is the first time ever I wasn’t giving out to the GPS for taking us on one of its bizarre detours.

Fuchsia magellanica, West Cork's adopted alien.

During the summertime it is particularly a pleasure to drive down to the homestead down in West Cork. After spending many hours in the car, travelling on the wide motorways from Dublin, the narrow winding, pothole infested roads of the countryside are a welcome sight. The roads are about half the width they normally are in the winter as all the plant life competes for space. Although the roads are narrower, they do look fantastic as the glow with colour. And none glows with as much dominance as the fantastic Fuchsia.

We have a lot of aliens down in West Cork, they all seem to love the mild moist climate that we have thanks to the North Atlantic drift. Now before you send Mulder and Scully down here, let me clarify, I am of course not talking about the bright green kind that fly around in space craft, I am talking about plants that are not native to this country.

Red Fuchsia hedges with the orange glow another much loved and plentefull alien to Ireland Montbretia 'Crocosmia x crocosmiiflora'

Fuchsia magellanica 'Riccartonii', or more commonly known as the Humming bird fuchsia or lady’s eardrops is an icon of West Cork. Anyone who has visited West Cork in the summer time will have seen this amazing deciduous shrub illuminate the hedge groves all over the countryside. It is so iconic of west cork it image is used by many local companies and organizations.

A native of Chilli, it was identified by Charles Plumier in the seventeenth century. Plumier named it after the German botanist, Leonhart Fuchs (1501-1566)

Fuchsia bark

This deciduous shrub will reach from about 1.5m to 2.5m high, and will favour coastal locations and rocky ground. Its flowers colour the hedgerows from July to October with their rich hues. The flowers (2cm long) are bell-shaped and have four violet petals which are surrounded by four large, pointed red sepals, rather like a ballerina with a crimson skirt, purple petticoat and long, slightly uneven, legs. The grey/green leaves are ovate and toothed and the fruits are black, fleshy berries in autumn. It should be noted that the black, fleshy berries of the Fuchsia are NOT edible. The branches of the fuchsia turn a pale, golden brown with age and its bark gets a lovely papery quality to it.

Fuchs ia magellanica 'Riccartonii'on frouunt of the White variaty, Fuchsia magellanica var. molinae (F. magellanica 'Alba')

If you would like to plant Fuchsia as an informal hedge, plant them 45cm (1.5 ft) apart in the spring. I mild areas like here in West Cork, Fuchsia magellanica can be grown quite easily through propagation, simply by taking cuttings from a mature plant in late autumn when the stalks are bare, and sticking them about 15cm into the ground.

Fuchsia flowers best on new wood so prune hard in spring, leaving just 15cm to 30cm (6in to 12in) of stem, from which new growth will shoot. Plants grown as hedges should be less severely pruned, although a portion of any old that may have been killed by frosted should always be removed.

The Drive up to Hagal Farm

Here in Ireland we all are accustomed to a few dreary summer days, and even though it was one of these kinds of days when I was out taking these photos, the vibrant colours of the Fuchsia still keep the place looking hot and summery.

Throughout the summer, the Fuchsia continues to make new flowers, while the older flowers fall to the ground leavening just the small berry behind. As a result of this, by this time of the year you begin to see these lovely red carpets at the base of the plants.

This Fuchsia is also popular with kids, as the flowers contain a pouch of sweet nectar. As kids we would often have purple and red lips as a result of drinking the nectar. The process you use to do this is, when you pick the flower, pull off the purple petals and stalks, hold the part where the petals were, up to your lips and squeeze the back of the flower to release the nectar.

Fuchsia high up in the hills, with the faint silhouette of O'Donovan castle in the distance.