KIRMAN DESIGN
I have had a fascination with a everything growing from Specimen planting can be stunning. More and bigger
a very early age. Little did I know I was going to get into however does not mean better. Carefully selected and
this industry at that stage however. It’s sad that there minimal choice can show plants off to their best like this
are a small but nether-the-less substantial number in Olea europaea in a modern family Mediterranean garden
our industry who have grown up without the passion setting.
or enthusiasm for the plants that star in all our garden
creations. It’s far too easy to pick up a list ‘to get the
scheme through planning’ and we have all seen car parks
with ‘the usual suspects’ both species and maintenance
regimes! We can do so much better.
have all year-round interest, kerb appeal and minimal
maintenance. With just 6sqm of planting this was a
challenging brief. Using seasonal bulbs, spring and long
flowering summer colour e.g. Geum ‘Mrs J. Bradshaw’
Kuro is a garden of two halves. The black half of the Erysimum ‘Bowles’s Mauve’ and Cirsium rivulare
garden is monoculture planted with Equisetum hyemale. ‘Atropurpureum’ and a season finale of a red Acer
Inside the 4m square mirrored cube contains its palmatum ‘Bloodgood’ at the tail end of the summer, the
antithesis, a white ornamental forest spear headed by cobble shapes, grasses and Acer skeleton picked up the
Betula utilis var. ‘jacquemontii’. This is overused on many interest thread for the winter. Nothing unusual in here but
occasions but here, ‘it does what it says on the can’ as right plant, right garden, looks great and happy client!
the saying goes. The sheer mention of Equisetum, or x
Cuprocyparis leylandii can bring on a cold sweat in some
but there is nothing wrong with these plants if chosen
correctly and maintained properly. It’s not the plants fault
they do what they do and, in many occasions, so well.
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This front garden is just 27sqm in size. The brief was to
Landscape & Urban Design Issue 34 2018
These Stipa gigantea have been planted as a translucent
screen between two garden areas and provide both a
temporary translucent screen and a feature without the
need for any hard landscaping.