One of Ireland’s most accomplished garden designers, Martin specialises in a contemporary “outdoor living” look. In 2003 he also won the BBC’s People’s Choice award for best chic garden. Since then he’s had two successive golds at the Garden Heaven show in Dublin and last year took best in show. In addition to designing private gardens, Martin has also been redesigning the gardens at Cavan’s Slieve Russell hotel and the Belfry in Warwickshire.
One of the secrets of Martin’s success is that he combines the clean lines and surfaces of the best hard landscaping with subtle planting. Stone and wood create the frame, then focus moves to the planting and palette. You have to decide how to position the key plants and then select others to complement them. Where in the garden will each be best used? What flow of colour and movement best suits a particular space? A key factor in Martin’s appreciation of a plant is its capacity to stir the senses. Here are his favourites:
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Grasses: Martin’s first love is “the sense of movement” in a plant. For this, grasses cannot be beaten. I expect him to name some obscure, exotic grasses, but he doesn’t. His two favourites are easily obtained — Stipa arundinacea ‘Pheasant’s Tail’ , and Stipa tenuissima ‘Pony Tail’ or ‘Mexican feather grass’. Arundinacea has a full texture, green, red and russet tones and, for such a sturdy plant, an almost impossibly pretty flower head. Tenuissima is more delicate. Both will pick up the tiniest hint of wind and dance.
Martin also likes to plant Stipa gigantea, but prefers to place it on its own. One of the most immediately recognisable and impressive grasses, its tall, towering seedheads seem to float 5ft or 6ft above the ground.
Bamboo: Martin loves using Phyllostachys vivax ‘Aureocaulis’, with its sunny yellow gold stems (and unlikely vertical green stripes). This classy albeit pricier plant has a nice spilling form. “It is fabulous when uplit from the base,” he says. The stem is really where the beauty is, so prune back lower branches. And bamboo makes a wonderful rustling sound.
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Trees: Martin’s core selection is dictated by the need for shade, privacy or a focal feature. A pleached (trained low to a flat screen shape) hornbeam, beech or lime serves as a sun barrier. For distinction Martin chooses mature olives. They are evergreen and structurally striking, “with a two-tone leaf of silver and olive green that creates a shimmer in the wind”.
Olives will die if planted in ill-prepared ground, so Martin likes to position them near a south-facing wall with plenty of gritty sand.
He also recommends Japanese maples, or Acer palmatum. They need shelter but if positioned correctly give us a sequence of colours that change as we move through the seasons.
The leaves of palmatum ‘Osakazuki’ change from green and gold through to a rich, saturated red in autumn.
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Box: The name of the plant reflects its traditional use in shaped hedging, usually (but not always) box-shaped. Martin has found interesting ways to combine box with lighter, more fluid planting. He’s created a series of differently sized box spheres, interplanted with grasses. “Used creatively, box is a really useful element of year-round form,” he says.
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Seasonal interest: Having created the form of the garden, the next step is to cater for the user’s needs. The current trend is for creating gardens so low-maintenance they look almost constant. “This deadens your appreciation,” says Martin. “It’s crucial to include plants that mark the seasons.” He advocates working with a subtle colour range. This is partly to create a calming space and partly function: “Paler flowers always make a small space seem larger and less dense,” he says.
He selects those that will complement the grasses, such as Dierama ‘Angel’s fishing rod’, and the hardy white-stemmed Russian sage ‘Blue spire’ (Perovskia atriplicifolia). When he plants lavender it’s generally ‘Sawyers’, the variety least likely to rot in Irish conditions. Verbena bonariensis ‘Purple top’ is another staple; he values it for its tall, poised, “see-through” quality and the rich purple of its flower, which is great at attracting wildlife. Martin’s bulb choice reflects his affinity with subtle shapes and shades. Snowdrops figure highly, as do Allium giganteum — and he raves about fritillaria, “not the big ones — the small ‘Snake’s head’ variety”.
Edible plants, perennials such as sea kale and scented herbs such as lemon balm and creeping mint appeal to the senses of smell and taste, and are good for children.
When it comes to hardy perennials, he favours the hostas to create a “full stop” at the end of the flowerbed.