This piece was written in the summer of 2018, when Diarmuid returned from the UK to base himself in Ireland. Confined like the rest of us, as summer 2020 begins, the copy is relevant again, but I’ve updated it with an online chat with Diarmuid. You can watch Diarmuid on Instagram Live on weekdays and weekends …

Diarmuid Gavin has the air of a boy released from school for the long summer holidays. He’s home with his wife Justine, his teenage daughter Eppie, and dogs Roxy and Coco Chanel. He doesn’t seem to mind that four women have trouped into his house to variously interview, photograph and videotape him. He’s making coffee and whipping out pastries and giving out about the strong winds of a few nights before which have had a dishevelling effect on his garden. He’s really doesn’t seem that bothered. He’s just very glad to be home.

Home is in Co Wicklow, but for many years, dividing his time between London where he has an office and a full client list, and his projects all over the world (lately in the South of France and China) he didn’t get to spend much time with his feet under his own kitchen table (rough railway sleepers on a metal frame). Now he’s undertaking interesting commissions in the domestic and corporate sphere in Ireland: “The work going on in the design space in Ireland is ambitious and exciting”, he says. And if people are bold when it comes to the design of their homes, the next natural step is for the focus to shift to the garden? “Yes, and to have spaces that flow from indoors to out, so there is a relationship between house and garden. This is how we live now. This is where my design focus is now.”

His own house and garden is a perfect example, where there are plans afoot to further enhance the indoor/outdoor link by re orienting the kitchen. Family life centres around a two-storey plantation-style verandah with elegant iron pilasters salvaged from the former Jervis Street Hospital supporting the wraparound terrace, which leads off from the kitchen downstairs and from Diarmuid’s glass-walled studio upstairs. “I liked this house and wanted to live here, because of the space, the views, the community, but the house itself confused me. Adding the verandah made sense of it.” The verandah, which catches the sun at different points throughout the day, is swathed in wisteria and climbing roses, and overlooks a lush, densely planted space, not vast, but divided into areas, with two slate-lined ponds, a lawn, a corrugated iron shed and a gazebo with an Eastern air. A trio of tree ferns provide exotic height, there are box balls, the huge bay trees (which once twirled at Chelsea), and every inch is planted with perfectly judged foliage and plenty of ornery plants, which in his – and Justine’s – hands, have transformative properties.

Justine he describes as “the Overall Boss of the garden.” “This garden is for Justine and Eppie, with some of my principles integrated. So we have architectural plants but we also have roses and colour and scent and things you can pick and put in a vase.” “The perfect weekend is spent gardening during the day – Justine and I will work in different areas of the garden – then dinner on the verandah in the evening. Our plan is to fit out the shed in the garden with a kitchen so we can use that as well, even have our breakfast there. Everything we do is to enhance how we live …”

His own parameters for a good garden have changed too. “Now I can see the argument for more traditional gardens, for colour, for having a place to grow fruit and veg – you can see gardeners like Jimi Blake and June Blake doing wonderful things in this area. The traditional craft of gardening is back.” But that’s not where he began? “I was young, I was getting to do everything all of a sudden and I was getting confused, I was the angry young man of gardening.” The playful quality hasn’t gone from his designing, he says but he does admit his style has evolved. “Now I realise every style of gardening existed for a reason, there’s merit in every single one of them, and reasons to respect all of them.”

Diarmuid’s Outer Spaces at Dunnes Stores first popped up at Dunnes HQ on South Great George’s Street and has since proliferated: exotic houseplants, cacti, terrariums, garden plants for the young urbanite. Given the scale of the projects he is used to, I can’t imagine him enjoying planting a garden in a bottle. But he’s long been fascinated by stores like Wildernis in Amsterdam, Prick in East London, and Conran, which offer a gateway to indoor-outdoor living with good indoor and balcony-friendly plants. “My work with Dunnes Stores has been one of the most exciting and creative projects I’ve ever engaged in. We’ve spent the past year planning some extraordinary stuff, both in terms of gardening and general retail. It’s an amazing family to be part of, led by some extraordinary people. I love it.”

So has your routine changed since lockdown? I get up later that I used to. I’d often creep out of the house at 4:30am and motor to the airport for a Ryanair to wherever. Now, the dogs drag me out of bed at 8am for their breakfast. And I either get lost in the studio or lost in the garden. I broadcast a programme with young gardener Paul Smyth called Garden Conversations on Instagram Live for two hours each day (weekdays at 7pm, weekends 11am) where I play music on vinyl, present a design masterclass, meet gardeners from all around the world, show how to prune, sow, dig and plant, and we answer hundreds of questions. There are two sections – the first hour is serious gardening and the second is called ‘After Dark’ – chat about gardening with a beer in hand. Informative, chatty and irreverent. It’s a lot of airtime to fill and it can take quite a bit of research, booking interviews, arranging props etc. We’re learning on the trot and it’s great fun.

Tell me what you did in the garden this week? This week I’m shifting a huge pile of manure from the driveway to the beds, I’m weeding, I’m planting and dreaming up ideas for cramming pots with summer stuff. I’m juicing (giving everything that’s about to flower a liquid feed boost) and sowing wildflower seeds. My garden was used to me being a part-time attendant and it liked it that way. Now when I appear, leaves shudder and blooms droop! I’m like an Olympic coach – very demanding! I want maximum performance! 

Have you roped in Justine and Eppie? Justine yes – she does the front garden and hears all the social isolation gossip from the neighbours. Eppie regards anything to do with gardens with disdain and a teenager’s disdain is something to behold. I’m in charge out back. Justine never agrees with my proposals and always loves the results. Just saying! 

Are you taking commissions? Yes, I’m still working on designing and would love to tackle Gloss readers’ gardens! We have exciting projects on the go at the moment. And this downtime allows lots of time for thinking, dreaming and research. Gardening, gardeners and designers will change as a result of a new thought process which has evolved through having time to think, slow down and watch nature happen. 

Watch Diarmuid on Instagram Live at 7pm on weekdays and 11am on weekends @diarmuidgavin.

For commissions, contact him on diarmuidgavin@gmail.com.

Photographs by Veronika Faustmann

Watch 10 Questions with Diarmuid Gavin below: