I have been involved in gardening since a very early age. I used to assist my Mother in tending to our very large garden as a child in Ireland. In my teenage years, during school holidays, I restored these gardens back to their former glory. When I left school I attended Kildalton Agricultural College to study commercial horticulture, but after successfully completing the course I realised that my passion was for private gardens.
As I couldn’t find employment I started my own business in 1983. I started doing garden maintenance both for private and commercial clients and commercial fruit pruning.
In 1989 I was offered a position of running the garden maintenance section in a London based landscape company called Aspen Landscape Designers and Gardeners. While working for them I gained some landscaping skills. Aspen had some prestigious and varied contracts such as the French Ambassadors residence where I tended to the gardens for 8 years and some roof gardens, some of which were 37 floors up.
In 1998 I left Aspen to set up my own company, Calary Gardens, based in London. I took on both private and commercial work, winning two awards for one of the blocks of flats. No job was too small to take on and in London some of the gardens are very small but could still be beautiful.
In 2007 I sold the business to move to Mount Gambier, South Australia. I took a year off to try other pursuits but have returned to my passion and brought Calary Gardens to Mount Gambier. At present I’m involved with maintenance and renovation projects.
