Super Garden returns to our TV screens... meet this year's contestants

FIVE garden designers get the chance to demonstrate their skills and showcase their efforts at one of Ireland’s biggest flower shows as a new series of Super Garden starts next week.

The winner of Super Garden gets to recreate their garden at Bord Bia Bloom.

The series is back for its 14th run on RTÉ1 on Thursday at 7pm.

For the winning designer, the programme a launch pad to the premier league of garden design and a chance to show what they can do while showcasing to 100,000 visitors at Bord Bia Bloom.

Each designer is given three weeks and a budget of €15,000 to design and create their gardens. That includes €5,000 from Board Bia for Irish grown plants. They are each given similar sized blank canvas to create their designs.

The location for this year’s Super Garden is Untangling, Co Meath, a brand-new development called Lagore Lawn built by Meath County Council for social housing. Here, five lucky households will have their gardens transformed by the competing designers.

The three judges will have their work cut out for them to pick a winner. The judges are:

Gary Graham for Bord Bia Bloom, who said: “The 2023 crop of Super Garden competitors delivered five uniquely stunning gardens, showcasing design solutions and planting combinations not yet seen on Irish TV.”

Brian Burke for Woodies, who said: “As always, the personalities are diverse, the influences and styles are wildly different and the gardens, from the traditional to the downright bonkers, are jaw dropping.”

Monica Alvarez for Dulux Exteriors, who said: “It is a real pleasure to be part of the Super Garden judging panel once again and to find new, emerging, and interesting talents along the way.

Taking part this year are:

• Beth Newman Maguire, a sculptor from Co Meath
• Trevor Kinsella, a landscaper from Dublin
• Carmel Ann Daly a Consultant Radiologist (on a career break) from Co Waterford
• Colm Carty, a Quantity Surveyor from Co Down
• Cian Mc Avinney, a civil engineer from Co Meath

Beth, a 70-year-old from Kells, sets a record in episode one for the oldest person to ever take on the challenge of creating a Super Garden.

An artist and professional sculptor, Beth’s work is already well known having created public works of art in Northern Ireland, Meath, Cavan and the iconic ‘Baithe Viking Ship’ evoking a beached vessel on the Dublin Quays.