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SUPER GARDEN

Mark Hoey Homeowner Finished Garden Image Name: Mark Hoey Homeowner Finished Garden
Mark Hoey Press Photo Image Name: Mark Hoey Press Photo

Series 12, Episode 3

The brand new series of Super Garden continues with five new budding designers battling it out to secure a coveted show garden spot at Ireland’s premier garden festival, Bord Bia’s ‘Bloom’ in 2021.

This year a new social housing development in a small village called Rowlestown, North County Dublin is home to the Super Garden competition.

Our five designers will each be given an identical garden as their blank canvas to create their entry into Super Garden. Competing alongside each other for three weeks they will also help each other plant their garden designs.

Our third designer, Mark Hoey (32) is originally from Louth but lives in Cork with his wife Emma and baby daughter Bella working full time as a Landscape Gardener. Homeowner, Shelly (Michelle) Gaynor has Cerebral Palsy and is a Disability and Independent Living Campaigner. She wants a garden that’s both beautiful and universally accessible to enjoy with her family and friends.

Mark has designed a ‘Reflection’ garden for Shelly using black-water pools to bring in the sky and surrounding plants into the garden & help create a sanctuary for Shelly. Mark’s inspiration for the black-water pool design comes from a personal interest recognising the importance of mental health. Mark wants to build his garden on the diagonal using paving and straight lines softened by planting to create a contemporary suburban garden. Mark will have just 3 weeks to build his garden and prove to the Super Garden judges that he has what it takes to go to Bloom 2021.

Designer: Mark Hoey  (32), Co. Cork

Occupation Landscape Gardner

Mark (32) is originally from Louth but lives in Cork with his wife Emma and baby daughter Bella working full time in a Landscape Gardening company. Mark feels he’s quite easy going but wife Emma thinks there’s an extremely competitive man behind the quiet exterior. Mark, a long-distance runner represented Ireland at European Junior Cross Country Championships so he knows what it’s like to compete with the best. Determined to give everything to Super Garden Mark will be moving to Dublin full time for the 3-week build. This will be especially hard on the 1st time dad but Emma and Bella are behind him all the way.

For Mark, building his Super Garden will be a family affair – he’ll be helped by his own father Paddy, a sheep farmer who also works in garden centre. Father-in-law Chris has also been signed up to help, Mark describes Chris as a perfectionist so he’s happy to have him on the team.

Mark became interested in garden design when he took a summer job with a landscaper at 18 and he’s been working in the industry ever since. Building a garden is second nature, he’s less confident with planting and horticulture so this will be his biggest challenge. Mark wants to move away from the uninspiring standard back gardens, his style is contemporary with clean lines.

Mark’s dream would be to one day setup his own landscape design and construction business. Mark would love to win Super Garden, showcasing his garden in Bloom would be life changing.

Homeowner: Shelly (Michelle) Gaynor (40)

Occupation: Disability and Independent Living Campaigner

Shelly has Cerebral Palsy and is fully wheelchair dependent, she moved into her house in Rowlestown in December 2019 with her dog Charlie. Her home is fully wheelchair accessible, with automatic doors too. Shelly is extremely independent and loves having her own space, she works as a Disability and Independent Living Campaigner. She credits her parents, Trish and Joe for her positive attitude to life. They always encouraged her to get on with life and never let her disability to hold her back.

Moving to Rowlestown has been a dream come true for Shelly because it’s the first time she’s had a garden. At the moment she can’t get out into her garden so she hopes Mark can deliver a dream garden to go with her dream home. It has to be low maintenance with an area for Shelly to enjoy the sun, loads of colour and a bit of grass for Charlie. Shelly doesn’t want any area of the garden to be out of bounds for her so Mark will have to take all that into account when building her garden. While the garden needs to be universally accessible, she doesn’t want it to be obviously a wheelchair users garden. First and foremost it has to be a beautiful space to spend time in.

Shelly would love to see Mark win Super Garden with his ‘Reflection’ garden. She feels his design shows the possibilities of a universal garden that’s both accessible and beautiful.  

Design: Reflection

Mark called his design ‘Reflection’, he wants to create a sanctuary space with a focus on mental health. Mark has turned his design ‘on-the-diagonal’ to give the garden a sense of space and freedom. His key features are 4 black pools of water which will reflect the sky and plants around them. A garden room with copper fascia and a living roof to the rear will provide a shaded area for BBQ’s and summer get togethers. Floating flower beds provide colour and hedging separates the rear part of the garden.  

Mark is using granite and cobbled inish paving to give Shelly access to all parts of the garden. Artificial lawn connects the front and rear of the garden providing year-round access and low maintenance. The planting scheme of flowering shrubs, ferns and evergreen perennials softens the harder parts of the garden and bring vibrant year-round colour.