Flying the flag for Cork at Bloom 

THE June bank holiday weekend once again means it is Bord Bia’s Bloom in the Park time, and this year there is a very definite focus on repurposing, upcycling, recycling, reusing, encouraging biodiversity, planting for pollinators, and sustainability, while making the most of our outdoor spaces.

The festival takes place on a 70-acre site at the heart of the Phoenix Park in Dublin. Nowhere is the theme of the event more evident than in the 20-plus show gardens displaying Ireland’s most creative garden designs.

The show gardens are always a highlight of the five-day festival, running from June 1-5, celebrating horticulture and the food and drink industries.

There are some familiar faces back this year designing gardens, with Oliver and Liat Schurmann designing ‘The First Five Garden of Wonder and Discovery’ - a place that explores the benefits of outdoor play in the natural world for children. They created a magical garden incorporating woodland, winding paths and a bridge over a stream, with many options for play and discovery along the way.

The Schurmanns’ garden is created with the use of a wonderful plant palate. Liat and Oliver specialise in woodland plants at their Mount Venus Nursery and they certainly know how to combine plants well together.

Their garden is sponsored by the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth as part of a strategy to improve the lives of babies, young children and their families.

‘A Breathing Space for Fingal’ was designed by Jane McCorkell and will be relocated after the festival to a public space in the Dublin county, to commemorate all of those that suffered during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The garden has been created largely by upcycling materials located in Fingal County Council’s store yards. Cornus, birch, pine, beech and cherry are planted together to form a dense canopy that simulates a natural woodland setting.

This forest show garden illustrates how beneficial the outdoors is for our health and wellbeing, and highlights how well designed spaces can be used to improve our air quality and the overall quality of life in villages, towns and cities throughout the country.

Daibhi MacDomhnaill was also focusing on greening our cities and his ‘Green Cities Europe Parklet’ showcases how we can create, manage and grow green spaces in urban environments.

He highlighted the importance of greening cities to help cool city environments, filter the air and improve drainage and runoff.

The parklet features bicycle parking, seating, trees, hard and soft landscaping. Simple ways of improving our urban environments and making them better places to live in.

Alan Rudden is back again this year with a contemporary garden, ‘Savills Sanctuary’, which features a sunken covered seating area surrounded by sculptural walls, water, multi-stemmed trees, topiary and naturalized loose planting at ground level. The minimal use of materials makes this a relaxing, subtle and elegant space.

Balcony gardens feature again at this year’s Bloom, highlighting the need for green spaces and an area to grow plants in, even when space is limited.

When space is restricted, then the clever use of plants is even more important and ‘The Urban Roots Balcony’ by David Gallagher and ‘The Forest Balcony’ by Kathryn Feeley highlight this.

Balconies can be situated high up with different aspects and are not always ideal locations for plant cultivation, so the choice of plants grown here needs to be carefully considered to ensure success.

‘Sculpture in the Park’ is a popular feature at the main entrance to the festival, and this year it is celebrating beauty and nature, combining living features and static art with the rich hues of purple and white from the Hydrangea ‘Whitelight’ and ‘Deep Purple Dance’.

Ruth Liddle and Ken Folan from The Kildare Gallery have brought together art from many different artists this year to create a welcoming and contemporary landscape as you enter the festival.

Eileen Galvin, from Dripsey in Cork, was this year’s winner of the Curry’s Garden Sculpture Competition with her winning work ‘Confucius’, made entirely from recycled materials. It will be displayed in the sculpture garden for the duration of the festival this weekend.

In addition to the show gardens, there are nine postcard gardens which are a popular feature at the festival. Created by amateur gardeners, community groups and schools from across the country, they provide inspiration and ideas for our own gardens.

The outdoor garden stage, which is sponsored by Nature Safe by Hygeia, will have Fiann O Nuallain hosting garden experts, and talking on a range of topics over the weekend, which will include Mary Reynolds, Gerry Daly, Pat Keville, Niall McCauley, Mary Keenan and Jimi Blake, to name a few.

There will be plenty of workshops and activities for kids to get involved with throughout the festival with details on www.bordbiabloom.com.

The Nursery Village will give visitors an opportunity to peruse and purchase some great quality plants from some of the best producers in the country. In addition, there is the indoor shopping area for some retail therapy. The Association Of Irish Floral Artists (AOIFE) will also be displaying Floral Art Competitions

.In addition to checking out all that is great and good about gardening, there are lots of food and drink possibilities at the Bloom Festival, with innovation and new products being showcased each year. Cookery demonstrations and tastings will be happening at the food village throughout the weekend.

A great day out for the family at Bloom 2023 this weekend, and plenty of inspiration for the kitchen and garden along the way.

Have a great June bank holiday weekend!