2002 CHELSEA GARDEN WILD THINGS PROFESSIONAL

The garden is based on the imagery and atmosphere of the poem 'The Stolen Child' by Irish poet W.B. Enclosing the garden was a traditional dry stone wall, planted with native Irish plants, such as yarrow, thrift, hart's tongue, maidenhair and spleenwort.Īs a result of her Chelsea victory in 2002, the British Government commissioned Mary to design a garden for the world-famous Botanical Gardens at Kew in London. Hawthorn and elder, two trees that feature in Celtic lore, formed a protective circle around the very edge of the garden.

Surrounding the central circle was a grass mound carpeted with bluebell, inspired by Tara Hill in County Meath. Inspired by the Wicklow countryside and her love for Irish mythology, Mary’s garden consisted of a circular stone moon gate lead over a stone path to the inner circle, where the elements of earth, air, fire and water combine. In 2002 at just 28 years of age, Mary entered the RHS Chelsea Flower Show with her garden ‘Tearmann sí – A Celtic Sanctuary’. Being once again surrounded by wilderness, Mary realized that this beautiful natural wilderness that is of such great inspiration to her as well as others was disappearing fast because people had become disconnected from it and had forgotten the importance of that connection, so she took it upon herself to create gardens that would bring this connection back into peoples lives. Mary felt the gardens she had been designing in the city were lacking, because they did not have that depth of soul that exists everywhere in wild places. As soon as she got back into the wilderness, not only did she feel inspired for the first time, but she aslo knew where it was that she wanted to bring her skills. However over time she began to feel that city life was suppressing her creativity so she moved out of the city to the “wild west “of the Wicklow Mountains.

2002 CHELSEA GARDEN WILD THINGS PROFESSIONAL

Mary Reynolds, the first Irish winner of a Chelsea Flower Show Gold Medal for garden design, started her landscape design company in 1997, where she began her professional career designing gardens in and around Dublin city. And who better to begin with than one of my favourite Irish designers, award winning landscape designer Mary Reynolds. So this post is a first for Stone Art's Blog: throughout the past two years or so that I have been writing this blog I have highlighted many artisans and stonemasons. However this post is the first time I have highlighted a landscape designer. Mary's Gold winning Garden at Chelsea 2002, Tearmann sí – A celtic sanctuary

2002 chelsea garden wild things