Helen Turkington’s garden at her home in Kilternan, County Dublin feels like a little piece of Provence. We got a look around
viewed the gorgeous Georgian house in Kilternan that she and her husband Garvan Walsh would eventually buy, the large garden completely surrounded by stone walls, with outbuildings oozing potential, outdoor pool and a paddock for ponies, was a big draw. But it needed some work and was put on the back burner for a few years as Helen got to grips with the five-bay, two-storey house, built in 1757, and worked her particular magic to make it the comfortable and glamorous house it is today.
There were practical considerations too: occasional local visitors were inclined to overstay their welcome – deer, that is. “We suggested that instead of adding fences, hedges or more walls,” Ian says, “that we used the more traditional method of a ha-ha, which creates a barrier while maintaining uninterrupted views over the paddock: this has worked really well and ensures that deer don’t feed on the new plants.
The pool area continues to be a huge draw, unsurprisingly. Helen describes how her three kids entertain their friends on sunny days – “It gets the sun all day; sometimes there are 20 of them at the pool!” – and how she is gradually working on the building beside the pool so that they can be fully independent from the main house. Given the level of use, the outdoor furniture needed to be practical too, and naturally, beautiful, to meet Helen’s high standards.
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