Landscape designer's secrets to creating your dream garden 

Your garden is the visual framing of your house, extension or renovation, says Cork landscape architect Domnick Cullinane

The garden of Montenotte Hotel, Cork, designed and built by Dominick Cullinane and his team. It features a rediscovered Victorian sunken garden.

Building or extending demands dynamic, heavy groundwork. This is a combination of earth moving, access and sub-structure installations — levelling, footings, fencing, paving, joining up to utilities, and in some cases setting up an Earth-friendly waste-water treatment plant. 

The end game for the exhausted homeowner is a well-considered, functional, beautiful and highly personal outdoor room to be enjoyed throughout the seasons for years on end.