DIARMUID GAVIN

Diarmuid Gavin is a popular gardener in UK. Diarmuid Gavin is one of the best-loved personalities from the world of landscape and garden design. Diarmuid Gavin Gavin designed about 300 gardens since 1988. The maverick of the gardening world, Diarmuid Gavin's innovative work has helped to make people think differently about their backyards.

Diarmuid studied at the College of Amenity Horticulture in Glasnevin, Dublin. Following this, he established his own school of garden design, culminating in the Dublin School of Garden Design.

Gavin created his own Gardens School which has gardening courses. The course covers all the basics of garden design, as well as useful information for anyone considering a career in garden design.The new Diarmuid Gavin series takes eight passionate amateur gardeners and aims to turn them into popular garden designers in just five months.

Gavin wants people to realise how a gardener designs his customers gardens and and the owner's commitment towards his gardens.

Gavin's style of functioning

Diarmuid's distinctive gardening style has brought him much acclaim. His designs are uncompromising, functional, but startling. He even changes the total outlook of a small garden places.

Gavin designs about 20 gardens in a year. One of his favourites is the dramatic shark's fin design.

Gavins Awards

• His work has earned him several awards, including the RDS Gold Award in 1991 and 1993, and a Bronze Medal at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show in 1995.
• Gavin received an honorary degree from Nottingham Trent University. The award, the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Art, recognises his international reputation for contemporary garden designs which are distinctive, leading edge and often display a real sense of fun.

Gavin's Achievements

• Diarmuid established his own garden design business in the 1990s.
• Produced for the second series of Home Front. (Homefront is an interior design “makeover” TV show airing on the BBC, on par with American television's This Old House and Martha Stewart). It broke new ground for the programme and Diarmuid. It really caught the public's attention.
• He pioneered eccentric garden design in Home Front and has also presented the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, Art of The Garden and Garden School. Despite Diarmuid's flamboyant designs, his own garden is fairly subdued, with an elegant rectangular lawn.
• His gardens draw on a wide range of influences, from the work of other designers, such as Roberto Burle Marx, to functional objects, like sardine cans and oil rigs.

Gavin's Published Books

• Gardens Through Time: 200 Years of the English Garden - Diarmuid Gavin and Jane Owen
• Design Your Garden - Diarmuid Gavin
• Outdoors - Diarmuid Gavin and Terence Conran
• Outer Spaces - Diarmuid Gavin
• “Home Front” in the Garden - Diarmuid Gavin
• Planet Patio - Diarmuid Gavin
• “Home Front” Inside Out - Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen and Diarmuid Gavin
• “Home Front” in the Garden - Diarmuid Gavin
• Designideen für den Garten - Diarmuid Gavin
• Off to Chelsea with Diarmuid - Diarmuid Gavin, Valerie Duffy, Jackie Ball, and Nicki Mathews
• Diarmuid Gavin's Big Ideas: From “Homefront In The Garden” -Diarmuid Gavin
• “Home Front” Inside Out (Home Front) - Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen and Diarmuid

Gavin's views on Gardening

The most important thing to Diarmuid in his garden makeovers is the owner's commitment to the plants. He says: “I want people to understand what we do and how we do it. We want the gardens to go on after we've left.”

He says: “The gardens we make are akin to some of the more outrageous outfits worn by models on catwalks. Some are there to provoke ideas, thoughts and reactions, but not necessarily to copy.”