Mary Reynolds (landscape designer)

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Mary Reynolds
Bornca. 1974
NationalityIrish
Alma mater University College Dublin
OccupationLandscape designer
Known forGarden designs and environmental activism
AwardsGold - 2002 Chelsea Flower Show

Mary Reynolds is an Irish gardener, landscape designer, author and public activist, known for being the youngest contestant to win a gold medal at the Chelsea Flower Show. She currently works as an author, designer and environmentalist, and published her first book The Garden Awakening in 2016. Her career as a landscape designer and latter accomplishments inspired the biographical drama Dare to Be Wild (2016).

Contents

Early life

Reynolds was raised on a farm in Wexford, Ireland with her parents and five siblings, of which she is the youngest. [1] Her father, Séan Reynolds, worked as a soil scientist and farmer, while her mother, Teresa, worked as a full-time teacher.[ citation needed ] In her personal anecdotes, Reynolds claims to have developed her fascination with nature at a young age, often referencing a childhood memory in which she became lost on the family farm and felt the plants around her "leaning towards me […] fighting for my attention. They wanted me to know that they were part of my family." [2] Reynolds studied landscape design at University College Dublin, graduating with a degree in Landscape Horticulture to pursue a career in landscape design. [3]

Career and achievements

2002 Chelsea Flower Show

Reynolds' design entry for the 2002 Chelsea Flower Show was delivered to RHS officials wrapped in mint leaves. An excerpt from the text reads; "People travel the world over to visit untouched places of natural beauty, yet modern gardens pay little heed to the simplicity and beauty of these environments." [4] All contestants were required to provide evidence of a £150,000 sponsorship to fund their garden. While Reynolds provided the paperwork and proof of sponsorship, she later confessed; "It was very carefully worded so no actual amount was mentioned; [my sponsors] gave me a pound, so it wasn’t a complete fib." [1] She later secured sufficient sponsorship to construct her garden. [5]

To complete the construction of her garden, Reynolds enlisted the help of Christy Collard and others from Irish gardening business Future Forests. [6] Her design, titled ‘Tearmann sí – A Celtic Sanctuary’, was awarded a gold medal and gained public acclaim nationwide. The installation featured a moon-gate archway, leading down a path to four stone Druid thrones surrounding a fire-bowl placed over a pond. The garden was engulfed by traditional stone dry-walls and supported over 500 native Irish plants, such as hawthorns. [1]

Reynolds' installation was famously visited by Prince Charles, a regular visitor to the Chelsea Flower Show, who talked with Reynolds as they toured her garden. [7]

Landscape design

Reynolds' designs often feature:

Kew Gardens

The Palm House in Kew Gardens. Kew Gardens Palm House, London - July 2009.jpg
The Palm House in Kew Gardens.

Following her success at the 2002 Chelsea Flower Show, Reynolds was approached by the British government to design a garden for the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew. Reynolds stated the design was inspired by W. B. Yeats' poem The Stolen Child. It featured a large stone sculpture of a sleeping faerie. [8]

Delta Sensory Gardens: Stolen Child Garden

The Lughnasa Autumn Garden in Brigit's Garden. Brigit's Garden - geograph.org.uk - 140802.jpg
The Lughnasa Autumn Garden in Brigit's Garden.

Reynolds was commissioned to design a garden at the Delta Sensory Gardens, within the Delta Centre in Carlow, Ireland. The garden mimics that at the Royal Kew, as it also features a stone faerie covered in moss, surrounded by a variety of native Irish fauna. The garden also features some topiary sculpture by Irish gardener Martin Monks. [9]

Brigit's Garden: Gairdin Bhride

Brigit's Garden is located in County Galway, Ireland. The garden was designed by Mary Reynolds under the commission of its founder Jenny Beale. Beale requested the design feature four central gardens, each inspired by the seasonal Celtic festivals of Samhain, Imbolc, Bealtaine, and Lughnasa. [10] Each garden features a sculpture created by local artists, as commissioned by Beale. A limestone wall winds through the whole garden, with the Lughnasa garden featuring circles of limestone obelisks. [8] [10]

New Ross Library Park

A transcription of an Irish Ogham inscription. Tullycommon Bone, Ogham inscription - Tullycommon-Knochen, Ogham-Inschrift.jpg
A transcription of an Irish Ogham inscription.

The New Ross Library Park is located in County Wexford, Ireland. The park is inspired by Irish mythology and historical writings. It features a Clog Mór Amphitheatre and a sundial [11] designed by Eamonn Hore and Liam O’Neill the sculptor. The trees planted at the park correlate with the Ogham alphabet that is displayed on a stone walkway.

Other projects and commissions

  • Cornwall Seaside Garden at the Camel Quarry House in Cornwall, England: designed a terraced spiralled stone-wall. [8] [12]
  • Celtic Gardens at the Monart Destination Spa in County Wexford, Ireland: features stone bridges and a terraced waterfall. [13]
  • The Convent Gardens and The Tree Of Life Garden at the Díseart Visitor Centre in County Kerry, Ireland. [14]
  • The 'Buncloch' or Foundation Stone garden at Farmleigh House, in Castleknock, Dublin, Ireland: features a small garden commemorating the Proclamation of the Irish Republic of 1916. [15]
  • Rooftop penthouse gardens in Dublin, Ireland: features fully irrigated garden terraces filled with assorted plants and trees. [16]

Publications

The Garden Awakening: Designs to Nurture the Land and Ourselves (2016)

Reynolds' first publication is an instructional memoir in which she promotes sustainable horticultural practice through "forest gardening", while also detailing her spiritual connection to the Irish landscape through the terms and symbols of Celtic paganism. [17] [18] In her text Reynolds covers the practice of permaculture and natural farming, foraging, keeping poultry, composting, and beekeeping. [19] The book features illustrations by artist Ruth Evans, alongside drawings and architectural sketches by Reynolds, and a foreword by US author Larry Korn.

The publication was publicly endorsed by fellow activist and anthropologist Jane Goodall, who stated the book helped guide readers to be "in tune with nature" and give their gardens a "sense of home". [20] Other notable figures who shared their support of Reynold's writing include Sir Tim Smit, Co-Founder of the Eden Project; and James Alexander-Sinclair, judge and council member of the Royal Horticultural Society.

Views and activism

Celtic paganism

In both her writings and interviews, Reynolds often refers to her Celtic heritage in regards to the magic and energies found in nature. In an interview with the Irish Examiner, Reynolds stated she is not religious, but found her faith in nature. She also makes use of traditional Celtic symbols and folklore in her landscape designs; such as Druid thrones, obelisks and her sleeping faerie sculpture at the Delta Sensory Garden. [4] In April 2019 on the Cultivating Place podcast Reynolds made many statements in regards to her experiences in nature, calling her garden "a universal post box that you can send your wishes and intentions out from", and comparing the process of gardening to "knitting or weaving a magic spell" which can allow "the land to become healed". [21]

Reynolds also makes use of traditional Celtic terminology in her writings and designs, such as those featured at Brigit's Garden.

Environmentalism

Reynolds is an active figure in the Irish Environmentalism community, acknowledged for her efforts in promoting sustainable living through publicly available interviews and workshops. In 2017 she worked as a course instructor at the Irish National Heritage Park in Wexford, her efforts focussing on restoring or "healing" the land to its natural, wild state. [22]

Rewilding

We Are The Ark was founded by Reynolds in 2018 with the aim of creating international environmental activism in regards to rewilding land by returning gardens to nature in order to increase biodiversity. Reynolds felt spurred to start the trend when observing local fauna leaving a site being used for development. [23] Her website directs participants to build a natural haven in which native plants and fauna is allowed to flourish in a self-sustaining environment. [24]

In media

Reynolds has appeared in the following online podcasts and tele-seminar;

In November 2016 Reynolds held a seminar at the TEDxWexford conference. Her presentation was titled "The Garden Awakening" a featured processes of garden design and planning as further detailed in her publication, released earlier that same year. [38]

Reynolds landscape design at Brigit's Garden was featured in the MoMoWo Exhibit, a programme co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union which highlights the achievements of 'European women in architecture and design'. [39]

Dare to be Wild

The feature-length film premiered in March 2015 at the Jameson International Film Festival in Dublin. It features actors Emma Greenwell and Tom Hughes. The film is a biographical drama of Reynolds’ life leading up to and through the 2002 Chelsea Flower Show, and features scenes and sets that were recreated from photos, including a full physical re-installation of Reynolds’ award-winning Celtic Sanctuary. [1] [40] It is directed by environmentalist Vivienne De Courcy, who was inspired to create the film after she and Reynolds became friends following a garden design commission. [3]

′′Dare to Be Wild′′ was shown in ninety UK cinemas, with screenings in fifteen South Korean theatres and 638 internationally. [41] It has since been made available on Netflix in North America. [42]

Personal life

Reynolds lives as a single parent on a 5-acre property in her hometown Wexford, with her two children.

She publicly acknowledges a former relationship with Christy Collard, a green build architect who assisted Reynolds in creating her award-winning Celtic Sanctuary. [1] Reynolds was eager for his assistance in her design, and so followed Collard to his reforestation project in Ethiopia, resulting in a brief romance that was depicted in the biopic Dare to be Wild . [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Garden</span> Planned space for displaying plants and other forms of nature

A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is control. The garden can incorporate both natural and artificial materials.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chelsea Flower Show</span> UKs leading annual garden show (Royal Horticultural Society)

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show, formally known as the Great Spring Show, is a garden show held for five days in May by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea in Chelsea, London. Held at Chelsea since 1912, the show is attended by members of the British royal family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of gardening</span>

The early history of gardening is largely entangled with the history of agriculture, with gardens that were mainly ornamental generally the preserve of the elite until quite recent times. Smaller gardens generally had being a kitchen garden as their first priority, as is still often the case.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rock garden</span> Garden landscaped with rock features

A rock garden, also known as a rockery and formerly as a rockwork, is a garden, or more often a part of a garden, with a landscaping framework of rocks, stones, and gravel, with planting appropriate to this setting. Usually these are small Alpine plants that need relatively little soil or water. Western rock gardens are often divided into alpine gardens, scree gardens on looser, smaller stones, and other rock gardens.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Japanese garden</span> Type of traditional garden

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diarmuid Gavin</span> Irish garden designer and television personality

Diarmuid Gavin is an Irish garden designer and television personality. He has presented gardens at the Chelsea Flower Show on nine occasions from 1995 to 2016, winning a number of medals, including gold in 2011. He has also authored or co-authored at least ten gardening-related books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Guerrilla gardening</span> Planting on land where not legally allowed

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Paul Hervey-Brookes is an multi-award-winning garden designer broadcaster, lecturer and plantsman who lives in England near Stroud, Gloucestershire and in the Loire Valley in France where his garden is occasionally open to the public. Hervey-Brookes is known for a "plants first" approach to garden design and creates highly evocative landscapes. Hervey-Brookes is a well known Royal Horticultural Society Gardens Judge and speaker having lectured in the United Kingdom, Canada and Russia alongside working with a host of companies who share his values and passion for exchanging knowledge.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edwina von Gal</span> American landscape designer

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Gerald "Gerry" Daly is an Irish Horticulturist, garden designer and media personality and editor of The Irish Garden magazine. He has featured, over a period of nearly 40 years, on multiple radio and television programmes on RTÉ and BBC Northern Ireland channels, and has contributed, as he still does, regular columns for Irish newspapers and magazines, over more than 30 years, including the Irish Independent, the Sunday Independent and the Farmers Journal.

Cleve West is a multi award-winning garden designer who is based in Hampton Wick, Richmond upon Thames. He began designing in 1990 and has won six RHS gold medals at the Chelsea Flower Show. He won "Best in Show" and gold medal at both the 2011 and the 2012 Chelsea Flower Shows. He is one part of Three Men Went to Mow who have made thirty YouTube films on gardening subjects.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Woods, Judith (4 September 2016). "Meet Mary Reynolds, the plant whisperer who dared to be wild". The Telegraph. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 3 May 2019.
  2. 1 2 "Remembering Our Roles as Guardians of Our Land with Mary Reynolds". naturerevolutionaries.com. 20 January 2019. Retrieved 12 February 2020.
  3. 1 2 3 Barry, Aoife (25 September 2016). ""It never occurred to me to fail": Irish Chelsea Flower Show winner has her inspiring tale turned into a movie". TheJournal.ie. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
  4. 1 2 Gritz, Jennie Rothenberg. "Take a Closer Look at Mary Reynolds's Innovative Celtic Gardens". Smithsonian. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
  5. ↑ "Celtic garden wins Chelsea award for Irishwoman". The Irish Times. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
  6. ↑ "Mary is quite contrary". www.irishexaminer.com. 24 August 2014. Retrieved 6 June 2019.
  7. ↑ Conlon, Declan. "The radical gardener: 'Everything you're doing is wrong'". The Irish Times. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  8. 1 2 3 Gritz, Jennie Rothenberg. "The Unlikely, Charming Designer Who Is Changing the Face of Gardening". Smithsonian. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
  9. ↑ "The Gardens | delta sensory gardens" . Retrieved 29 March 2019.
  10. 1 2 "The Story of Brigit's Garden". www.brigitsgarden.ie. Retrieved 5 April 2019.
  11. ↑ "Library Park, New Ross | Wexford County Council". www.wexfordcoco.ie. Retrieved 5 April 2019.
  12. ↑ "Camel Quarry House". Camel Quarry. Retrieved 5 April 2019.
  13. ↑ Gray, Mary (1 October 2018). "Welcome to Monart Destination Spa". Monart. Retrieved 5 April 2019.
  14. ↑ "Díseart Centre of Irish Spirituality and Culture, Dingle, Co. Kerry, Ireland". www.diseart.ie. Retrieved 5 April 2019.
  15. ↑ O'Halloran, Marie. "Garden commemorating 1916 left abandoned and overgrown". The Irish Times. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  16. ↑ Birdthistle, Elizabeth. "Docklands penthouse with designer sky gardens for €1.4m". The Irish Times. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
  17. ↑ Kellylanguage=en, Carolyn J. "'Awakening' promotes spiritual connection to one's garden". The Mercury. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
  18. ↑ "Nonfiction Book Review: The Garden Awakening: Designs to Nurture Our Land and Ourselves by Mary Reynolds. Green Books (IPG, dist.), $39.99 (208p) ISBN 978-0-85784-313-5". PublishersWeekly.com. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
  19. ↑ Reynolds, Mary (2016). The Garden Awakening. Cambridge, England: Green Books. ISBN   978-0-85784-313-5.
  20. ↑ Reynolds, Mary (31 March 2016), The wonderful Jane Goodall endorses 'The Garden Awakening"! , retrieved 3 May 2019
  21. 1 2 "Daring to be Wild – Mary Reynolds Aims to Build an A-R-K". Cultivating Place. Retrieved 10 May 2019.
  22. ↑ Heritage Park (27 March 2017), Meet the Makers Episode 1 - Mary Reynolds , retrieved 11 May 2019
  23. ↑ "About Mary". We Are The Ark. 23 January 2019. Retrieved 10 May 2019.
  24. ↑ "Build an Ark". We Are The Ark. 19 February 2019. Retrieved 10 May 2019.
  25. ↑ Mary Reynolds, award-winning gardener , retrieved 11 May 2019
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  28. ↑ FARM ON #20 - Rebuilding shattered hearts with MARY REYNOLDS , retrieved 11 May 2019
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  30. ↑ "Nurture Your Land + Yourself with Mary Reynolds | Being Boss Podcast". Being Boss. 18 April 2017. Retrieved 11 May 2019.
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  32. ↑ "Smithsonian Magazine: The Unlikely, Charming Designer Who is Changing the Face of Gardening | Smithsonian Magazine". Smithsonian Magazine. 25 June 2016. Retrieved 18 October 2019.
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  38. ↑ The Garden Awakening | Mary Reynolds | TEDxWexford, 21 November 2016, retrieved 11 May 2019
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  40. ↑ Dare to Be Wild , retrieved 4 May 2019
  41. ↑ "Dare to be Wild - Financial Information United Kingdom". The Numbers. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
  42. ↑ "Dare To Be Wild on Amazon, and Netflix in North America – Mary Reynolds – Reformed Landscape Designer". marymary.ie. Retrieved 30 May 2019.
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