Mary designs Arks.
Acts of restorative kindness to the earth.
I have come full circle with garden and landscape design. Now I want you to give any land under your care back to nature, to re-wild, to be Arked.
I can help you design a space that allows for the maximum amount of edges and ecotones, the most diverse range of habitats you can fit into your land. A magical place for your family to enjoy and protect, which will be hopping with life and beauty. A sanctuary for all of the native creatures that need it, places to rest and recover and finally thrive.
I will guide you to understand how to step in and provide the ecosystem services required to maintain that diversity going forward, to replace the missing parts of the web of life that we have broken. To become the wolf, the deer, the beaver.
To be a Guardian, not a gardener.
To be an Arkevist.
This will enrich your life in ways you cannot imagine, give it meaning and beauty.
Build an Ark and become part of the global movement to restore the earth back to health.
This service is available for private and public places. Every small patch of the planet that is restored to health, matters.
There are a number of options available (updated February 2022). Please choose 1 from the drop down menu in the form below & leave a message with a brief explanation. I will get back to you with more details.
1. An online advice hour over Skype or Zoom: Send on a bunch of comprehensive photos of your land, a google maps pin so we can look at it from above and even some very short videos (less than 1 minute if possible). Once I have all the information, I can talk through ideas with you over zoom. Please note that this is not a gardening advice service. It is for Ark development and design. €184.50 (€150 plus VAT @ 23%) to be paid before the appointment.
2. An on-site consultancy including a design: This involves me coming to visit you, at your home, where we sit down and I sketch a design out over a pre- prepared landscape survey of the site (which you will have provided from a surveyor), creating spaces within the land for spending time, growing food, building a magical connection between your land and yourself and supporting wildlife to share the land with you. I draw up a scaled master plan before I leave. However, there will be no detailed construction details or detailed drawings, but you will be able to work with a contractor using the master plan or use it yourself to develop your Ark.
If I am working out of the country, I would be asking you to consider an online design consultation as I do not want to travel unless absolutely necessary.
The process usually takes 3 – 4 hours on site (I will need a dry warm space with a large table to work on). In order to give you a definite price I need you to email me some photographs of the land so I can see how big it is, as size is everything in terms of the amount of design involved. But I usually manage most gardens in the one day, if the areas I am designing are not too complicated and under an acre in size.
Places within Ireland that require more than four hours travel from my home find themselves having to pay for local accommodation as well as I will end up staying somewhere overnight usually. I will agree a reasonable place to stay with you before we go ahead.
A survey is required for the day and is described later in the document. The survey is a separate contract which doesn’t involve my input and best organized locally to your site. The Survey requirements are described below – See ‘Survey’ at the bottom of page.
Please email me with the land’s location, size and some photos in order to receive a quote. Note – Travel expenses are also charged. 50 cent per mile travelled in total, to and from the site (I am based in Wexford).
3. Online Design Consultation: This is a good way to get the Mary design experience if you are a distance away. I will work on a survey pre-prepared and sent to me before the appointment date. I can get to talk to you by zoom in the morning to hear the design brief and feel into the situation. Then I will work on the design to get a good solution for both the client and the Arks requirements and call you back as required during the day, finally presenting it by zoom and scanning the drawings and emailing them to you day following completion You will end up with a good overall master plan to work towards yourself, or to use in conjunction with a contractor to manifest the design on the ground, or develop the Ark yourself. However, there will be no detailed construction details or planting details. As I am not spending time travelling to the site, I get to spend more time at the design during the day and it is a good solution for people a distance away.
In order to give you a definite price I need you to send me some photographs of the land so I can see how big it is, as size is everything in terms of the amount of design involved! But I usually manage most gardens in the one day, if the areas I am designing are not too complicated and under an acre in size.
However, there is also the cost of the survey, which needs to be emailed to me before I begin so that I can do some preparation drawings. The survey is a separate contract which doesn’t involve my input and best organized locally to your site. See ‘Survey’ at the bottom of page.
Please email me with the land’s location, size and some photos in order to receive a quote.
Thank you Gitte for this endorsement of our Skype consult!
Thanks for Skype, thanks to Mary and thanks to the universe. I just have my garden design by Mary Reynolds via Skype!! Great experience – it is a dream that has come true. Thank you very much, Mary, you are the greatest, and I am sure you are in direct contact with the gods. You have drawn the most amazing garden to me that meets all my needs and wishes (and more). I have long dreamed of getting Mary to design a garden for me, but thought that it would never be possible because I live in Denmark (and Mary is a super famous designer J). When I found out that it was possible to do it via Skype, I had do it right away. It has been a fantastic experience.
The Survey
Options 2 & 3 involve getting a landscaping survey done. It must be prepared and sent to me by post at a scale of 1:100 or 1:200 in advance. The price of the survey is separate and is to be paid directly to the person appointed to carry this out. The survey needs to include the boundary of the land, the position of the house and all existing features such as driveways, paths, outbuildings, percolation units, garden features. Also, all areas of planting must be indicated, including the position and spreads of all existing trees. Also, importantly, the contour lines of the land showing the level changes. Any local architect or engineer might know who would prepare this for you.
I would need a hard copy posted to me at a scale of 1:100 or 1:200 for large sites. If it’s a very large site, then 1:500. I work at A1 and A0 size depending on the project and time I have.
The survey usually costs € 300 – €3,500 depending on the size of the site and the individual surveyor. You can prepare your own survey but it must include all the elements listed below and a badly prepared survey will mean you won’t get anything out of the time spent with me. I won’t be able to do this work without a good, accurate survey in place. I will have to check the survey beforehand before I agree to work on it.
I hope this is comprehensive and I look forward to hearing from you.
Please note that this document is only valid for three months from Feb 2022. I may decide to give up after that, spend all my time growing food, writing and raising two and four legged creatures….. who knows what the world will bring!
Thank you for the endorsement Rikke!
It was a great pleasure to work from distance with Mary Reynolds. The virtuel meetings worked perfect. The result was stunning. The dialog was positive and Mary implemented all of my fluffy thoughts very well. I can highly recommend the remote design process.
– Rikke Lock Harvig, Civil Engineer, Project Manager in a public Food Forest Garden and member of the City Council, Sonderborg, Denmark