Hi, my name is Conor McGrath and I’m 32 years old, I think.  I’ve been married to my wife Tara for 8 years and we have 2 amazing boys, Hugo aged 4 and Harry 18 months.  We currently live in Donabate in North County Dublin, but we are in the process of moving back to Malahide, where Tara and I both grew up.  Aswell as garden design I love to play and watch sports, reading and socialising with friends and family.

Prior to signing up for the course with Limperts Academy of Design my occupation was Project Management in the construction industry.  I have a degree in Civil Engineering, which I received from UCD back in 1997 and have worked since then in Project Management.  I had set up my own company back in 2002 and had worked for a number of different developers on both commercial and residential projects.

Whilst I had always had a keen interest in design generally, it wasn’t until I moved out of home into our first house, that I really developed an interest in garden design.  Back then we watched every garden design show on TV and from the likes of those shows I started to do some basic garden designs firstly for my own gardens and then a few for friends and family.  For the last number of years I had thought about the idea of doing an evening course in garden design, but it was driven by a love of garden design more than any specific intention of moving into the industry.  Eventually, my wife said that I should do a course and to treat it as a hobby more than anything else, so I eventually attended a few open days and following a little research that decided Limperts was the right course for me.

As I previously said, before I started, I was looking at doing the course purely to indulge my love of garden design more than for any other reasons.   Being honest, as I was going in to this more as a hobby I hadn’t really thought about what my expectations were.  I suppose I was really hoping to learn a bit more about planting and softscaping as this had always been my weak point when it came to garden design and to get some hints and tips about the whole design process in general.

After finishing the course with Limperts, I would say that it has far exceeded any expectations I may have had beforehand.  I was not expecting it to cover so much ground and to give us such a basis with which to actually become a professional “garden designer”.  Furthermore, whilst there was a lot more work to be carried out for our assignments than I had thought there would be, the amount I learned from completing each of them was unbelievable.  Coming towards the end of the course I had changed from somebody who had started it out as a hobby, to somebody who was seriously contemplating giving the professional garden design game a go!

Above Left: Conor McGarth Left, Dermot O’Neill Right. Above Right: View of the garden before works commenced

Around this time at college, we were discussing a new TV programme being planned for RTE in the summer.  The production company were looking for amateur garden designers to enter with the 5 winning designers going into the show to design and build a garden and competing against the other 4 designers.  The show would be judged with the final winner being put forward to create a garden at Bloom 2009.
Based on the feedback I was getting through the course and everything I had learned, I decided to apply to enter the competition, so I sent off an e-mail to the advertised address.  It was a couple of weeks later when I realised I had heard nothing further back, so I contacted the production company and it turned out they had never received my e-mail.  I was very lucky in that entries for the competition were closing the following day. 

The following Tuesday I received a design pack in the post with a survey of an existing garden, a short client brief and general instructions for the entry into the competition.  We had to submit a full design for the garden including a line-by-line budget by Friday that week.  It was a tight deadline, but it was an exciting challenge.  I was very happy with the design I came up with and I returned it to the production company on time.

The following Monday, I received a call from them advising me that my design had been chosen and that I was through to the next round of the competition which would be an interview with Dermot O’Neill to further discuss the design and budget.  At this stage I was starting to get really excited as I had been told that I was down to the last 10-15 people and a decision would be made following this interview.  As it turned out the level of competition was so high that there were over 30 people out of the hundreds of entries that were brought in for the interview.  I had to attend the interview the following day and it went really well.  I was told that they would now probably need to hold a last round of interviews in order to pick the final 5 designers who would go through to the TV show.  The following evening after all the interviews had been completed, I was told the news that I was through to the final interview.  There were only 8 people left of which 5 would go through to appear on the show. 
It was only at this stage that I started to get nervous as the opportunity to design and build a garden on national TV was coming so close.  At that stage I was so thrilled to have come that far but I really wanted the opportunity to be able to not only design but also build a garden for a real client in the real world. 

Above: Progress pictures from commencement to completion 

The final interview was being conducted by Dermot O’Neill and two of the judges lined up to judge the gardens in the actual TV show.  These were Mary Reynolds, Ireland’s only Gold Medal winner at Chelsea and Tycho Mays an experienced professional garden designer.  Not only this, but the whole interview process was being recorded to be used on the show.  As if this wasn’t enough to get the nerves going I was made walk up the stairs to the interview room about 10 times so the cameras could take numerous angle shots of our entry to the final interview.  The only positive I could think of at this time was that the other 7 had to do the exact same thing.  Well, to cut a rather long story a little shorter the interview again went great and I just had to wait to find out if I would be chosen as one of the lucky 5.  We had been told that we might find out that evening, but it would probably be the following day.  I got home that evening and couldn’t sit still at all.  It was about 10 o’clock and I was resigned to the fact that we wouldn’t find out until the following day when I got the call telling me I had been chosen to appear on the TV show “Super Garden”.  I’m not normally the type who jumps around with excitement (except for maybe the occasional football match), but that night I couldn’t restrain the excitement.  Whatever lay ahead over the coming weeks of designing and building a “Super Garden” with all the fun and excitement of having cameras trained on your every move, I was so proud of what I had achieved through the Limperts course to have enabled me to have come that far.

 
Above: Close-up of top of curved bench

Above: View of water feature (empty) and garden pavilion

During the interview process we had been told that the whole show was on a very tight schedule and that the designs would have to be approved within a week of us being given our clients and the whole garden to be completed within 4 weeks of commencing.  I was introduced to my clients who were a lovely young couple from Huntstown in Clonsilla.  They had recently bought the house and were doing up the inside of it so didn’t have a penny to spend on the garden.  They were so grateful to have been chosen to have their garden done.  From the outset I was a little taken aback with how trusting they were letting me loose in their back garden.  The garden I was given was basically a blank canvas to work on.  I carried out my survey and sat with the clients and went through my checklist we had developed over the course of the year in Limperts.  From the information I got it was clear that the clients were looking for a very contemporary space, something with a real “wow” factor.  They were also looking to be able to use the garden as an extension of the house – somewhere to dine, to relax and to entertain.  I got to work on the design and had soon come up with the basic gist of it.  As the clients were a young couple with no kids they were happy with the notion of using water in the garden.  This formed a large part of the design.  My desire was to have a large water feature sweeping down the middle of the garden bounded on one side by hardwood decking and a lawn and planting on the other.  I also incorporated a pavilion to the rear of the garden and a hidden area for a shed and bin storage.  Once I had the plans prepared and moodboards complete I unveiled the design to the clients.  They were absolutely thrilled with the layout and excited about the new garden they would soon have. 

Above - View down right-hand planter and curved screen wall to hide shed and bin storage area



Above - View up right-hand planter towards house

That’s when the real hard work started.  We had only 4 weeks to complete the garden and we had foundations to dig, walls to build, concrete slabs to cast, a huge amount of decking to construct, to name a few of the multitude of tasks.  As the budget was limited to €10,000 we were allowed engage as much help as we wanted from friends and family.  I think I called in every favour I was ever owed and a whole lot more to get done what we did in those 4 weeks.  Thankfully we only had one day’s rain in the whole 4 weeks and still we had to work through the night on the final day in order to finish the garden in time for the judges arriving.  The process was a huge learning curve but was so much fun.  I enjoyed every minute of the process, including to my surprise the constant camera presence.  After a short time it becomes second nature that they are there and you just get on with the job at hand.  I had so many people that I couldn’t thank enough on completion of the garden, but between us I believe we really created something really different and like it or loathe it, it definitely had the “wow” factor.  Having Dermot O’Neill as a mentor on the show was an amazing experience.  I learned hugely from him, especially on the planting side of things.  He is as he seems on TV - a true gentleman who couldn’t do enough to help.  All in all, tiredness aside, the entire process was one of the best things I’ve ever had the opportunity to do.

Above - View from under pavilion of rear planter with bamboos, hostas and ferns



Above - View of left-hand planter with curved bench

By the time I applied to the competition to take part in the Super Garden programme I had already been half thinking of looking into the possibility of moving into the professional garden design business, but was still a little unsure if I would be able to make the step to becoming a full time designer.  I was still a little surprised with how much I had learned so quickly.  Having had my time on the TV show and whilst being slightly disappointed at not winning, I had been given the final shove I needed to decide that I was going to at least give it my best shot.  I decided that if there was even a chance that I could be earning a living from doing something that I absolutely loved doing, I would be crazy not to at least try.

Following Super Garden my brother-in-law (who was my right-hand-man throughout the entire show) and I set up our Garden Design and Landscape Company, iCon Garden Design.  Since July this year we have designed and constructed four gardens and have been commissioned to do nearly 20 designs for clients.  Included in these is the design of a memorial garden for my old school, Pobal Scoil Íosa, in Malahide, which was a huge honour for me.  We are also currently working with one of the sponsors of the Bloom 2009 show where we have been asked to design and construct their main stand for the flower tent in next years event.  Obviously setting up any company takes a huge amount of time and effort, but not even one of the wettest summers on record has been able to dampen our enthusiasm.  We have had a hugely positive start to life in the Garden Design industry and all the signals are pointing to a bright future.  Let’s hope that goes for the weather too!  It’s been a hell of a year since I decided to take up an evening course in Garden Design & Landscaping, with a huge amount of hard work along the way, but looking back now it has proved to have been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

Above - View up garden towards house

Above - View across garden through one of the wall mirrors



Above - View of curved raised bed and lawn

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