We mentioned Diarmuid Gavin the other day when we posted about Gardening Resources.
Diarmuid Gavin is an Irish garden designer who studied at the College of Amenity Horticulture in Glasnevin, and then established his own school of garden design, the Dublin School of Garden Design. He's won numerous awards, including a Bronze Medal at the famous Chelsea Flower Show in 1995. He has been described as "the maverick of the gardening world" for his innovative, functional, and often startling designs.
Gavin's gardens are influenced by everything from the work of other designers (including the Brazilian landscape designer Roberto Burle Marx) to everyday objects. 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."
He's obsessed with round things. His Chelsea flower show exhibit (2nd picture) was interesting as it was supposed to be a community garden. Everyone got one of those round things of their very own.
BUT I did see one of his shows on BBC (where he makes over a garden each week) where this lady wanted to build an office in her garden. So he went and got this big metal sphere custom built. But then in the end, when you saw them sit in that thing, you could see that there was NO WAY that it would have been big enough to work in. It was ridiculous. I don't even think it had any windows.
If anyone volunteered me for one of those makeover programs I would probably club myself to death.