Dublin based Doyle Scapes landscapers won gold for their show garden exhibit “Urban Native” at Bloom this June.
Situated in Cabinteely South Dublin, Doyle Scapes initially worked with customers in the Dublin area, now they service all of Ireland and abroad with projects in France, Poland and the Czech Republic.
Colm Doyle, a qualified Architect from Doyle Scapes spoke to The Epoch Times about the company and their journey to date.
Currently, Colm and the team are working on a châteaux in the Sancerre region of France. It is the restoration of a 400 year old garden. Colm and Sean Doyle have also set up a design office in Poland to cater for the eastern and central Europe market, particularly for developers. They provide landscaping services for large developments and planning application projects. In Ireland they do a lot of residential projects, both large scale and private bespoke pieces.
Last year Colm and Sean’s team received a silver medal and this year they went one better and got the gold.”We were gung ho this year” said Colm. They didn’t participate the first year because according to Colm they were supplying a lot of the competitors with plants at the inaugural Bloom show. “We didn’t want to step on the toes of our customers as such... last year we said we would have a go at it and won silver and this year we went one better and got the gold,” said Colm Doyle.
The garden
The concept behind the garden is “Urban Native”, Colm explained that if you take any reasonable sized back garden in Dublin, you might be in an area where there are 20 to 200 houses and have very few matured trees around. With this in mind they went for very native plants and trees. “When you step outside of your back door instead of having a conventional lawn or patio we have a woodland area to relax in, where you have to cross a small bridge to an island area that is secluded from the house.” Colm elaborated by saying that the garden should ideally be south facing so you have the sun in the evening time for barbecues.
“The planting that we have chosen is all woodland, shade tolerant planting, ‘Perrys blue’(iris), ‘Johnsons blue’(geranium), ‘Sagina’(Irish moss) and Digitalis – foxgloves to name but a few. The Irish moss and native Irish birch do not grow too big and can be managed with minimal effort, “About three quarters of an hour a week to keep it looking spick and span, it’s enjoyable too” said Colm.
What now for Doyle Scapes?
The crew have a lot of projects coming up in Dublin and some in France, “Maybe one of the UK shows next year” hinted Colm, “We have a few fingers in a few pies at the moment.”
Last year’s show was very successful because they made contact with James Doyle an American designer who does landscape architect projects in the US. Mr Doyle specialises in top end gardens, he is focused in the region of up-state New York. “We were asked to price a contract for him in Pembrook Lane in Dublin which he designed,” after that successful undertaking Colm’s team did another venture for Mr Doyle in France. That assignment has been running since March and is due to finish in July. The garden in question is an old style French château garden.
The team and the show
Colm Doyle studied architecture in Bolton street, and his brother-in-law Sean Doyle has been in the horticulture business for 10 years. The crew at Doyle Scapes has steadily grown to number fifteen.
Commenting on the Bloom show experience, Colm said “The team love this sort of work, they eat it up.
“We are at a slight advantage because we do this kind of work day in day out, It’s so important to be organised as logistics come into play, even more so in a garden competition scenario.”
Planning is especially important when it comes to competitions, as you need to co-ordinate the arrival of all the different types of flowers and when they get planted. “We start at the back of the garden and work forward so as to not damage the previous work. We also have to deal with the traffic created by the other competitors,” explained Colm.
“We always plan to have the garden finished at least two days before judging starts, that way you can deal with any unforeseen mishaps.” The guys had a problem with their pond two days before judging started, “We had loads of time to deal with that issue... the last couple of days are for cleaning leaves on plants and doing final touch ups, not creating plumes of dust from cutting stone.”
There are also all the other non garden related tasks such as, creating pamphlets, getting refreshments for staff and interviews with media. “It’s the whole package for the show, not just the garden ... That’s why we use Microsoft Project to keep track of all the tasks that need to be done,” admitted Colm.
When Colm does commercial projects for clients, he will present them with their plan so they know exactly what will happen and when it is supposed to happen.
Speaking about bloom
“The whole idea is to give everyone a good day out, we’re in bad times at the moment and you can see everyone has a smile on their faces to a positive result.”
Colm thought that the the country was full of doom and gloom at the moment, he has been working in the UK and France lately and he thinks there are no worries there, he agrees that they are in a recession but they are getting on with it, “we need to talk up the country a bit,” said Colm.
“I’ve already had some enquiries about this garden, people want it, so there’s still plenty of money out there, we all need just a bit more confidence.”
Friends Read Free