Conservation a key theme of Bloom 2025 show gardens

This bank holiday weekend will see all things blooming at the Phoenix Park, Dublin, with Bord Bia Bloom 2025 - Ireland’s largest gardening festival - taking place.

It is home to 21 show gardens this year - six small ones, six medium, three large, four concept gardens, and two feature gardens, with designers show-casing their work and taking on different themes.

There is inspiration here for all, no matter what size or style of garden. I had a sneak preview, and the show gardens provide a great conversation piece and can help inform the design of our own patches.

This year, there was a noticeable emphasis on recycling, upcycling and repurposing materials in many of the show gardens, which is a great message, encouraging us to rethink the materials we use, consider thinking outside of the box, and getting creative when using different materials.

Rusty corrugated metal sheeting made an appearance in a few gardens and it was great to see this commonly used rural roofing material being reused to good effect.

Joe Eustace’s ‘The Support Garden’ incorporated upcycled corrugated metal sheeting to create a wall behind the central fireplace, evoking images of wisdom, time and strength, and reinforcing the value of making preparations for the future.

The garden reflects on the value of planning for support with decision-making and evokes a sense of clarity, calm and serenity, with its combination of grasses and perennials creating an oasis for contemplation.

James Purdy created the ‘Repak Most Sorted Garden’, which showcases a beautiful plant palate of grasses, trees, shrubs, and perennials with recycled elements, creating beautiful focal points.

Its purpose is to demonstrate that waste can be made attractive with some thoughtful interventions. All the materials used are repurposed with nothing going to waste.

From now on, we need to consider throwing as little as possible away, and instead focus on how it might be transformed into something useful and even beautiful.

Leonie Cornelius created the garden ‘Nourish’, which draws inspiration from Mediterranean and Moorish influences with its evocative architecture and naturalised planting for a dry gravel garden, including a lot of grey foliaged plants.

The garden features a sensory apothecary room surrounded by drought-tolerant, edible, and ornamental plants. It aims to encourage its user to slow down, restore, and take the time to appreciate the nature surrounding us. It certainly gives vibes of warmer climes.

Alan Rudden presents a small garden on display this year, ‘The Pot Gallery Garden’, with a collection of pots arranged beautifully in what could be a balcony space, small town garden or roof top.

Vertical planting softens walls surrounding the garden space and creates a cool, private green oasis. Great ideas demonstrating how pots and planters can be used to create an attractive and flexible garden area when planting directly into the soil is not a possibility,

Oliver and Liat Schurmann have a big presence at Bloom again this year with the feature garden ‘Natures symphony: Celebrating Organic Growth’.

It seeks to highlight Ireland’s commitment to advancing the organic agriculture sector, and the critical role that soil health plays within this cannot be underestimated.

Organic potatoes and fruit grown in traditional beds are displayed beneath the timber structure and there are wild zones within the garden which are left for pollinators and wildflowers. A performance space at the centre of the garden with amphitheatre seating will host pop-up organic performances throughout the weekend.

The garden pays homage to the Bloom patron, President Michael D Higgins, in his support of organic food production and dedication to sustainability, creativity, and the arts.

The garden is guarded by Macnas Con Mor, the ancient eco-conscious giant from the west of Ireland, famed for his love of birds and nature.

Bord Bia and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine have committed to supporting an organic show garden for the next three years at Bloom. More importantly, Ireland aims to achieve 10% organic farming of its agricultural land by 2030, a figure currently at 5.5%. There is some work to be done and we are going in the right direction.

The ‘Citroen Downsizers Garden’ by Louise Checa presents some interesting ideas for creating a smaller more manageable garden space. Accessible footpaths, smaller car parking spaces for smaller cars, multiple seating areas, dining area, outdoor kitchen, covered pergola, and green walls with raised planters all provide low maintenance, user- friendly inspiration for our own garden spaces.

Patricia Tyrrell’s feature, ‘The Plant Lover’s Garden’, is just that. With a covered area at the entrance, the garden opens out from a generous path to a dining area and cooking area surrounded by grass, and a large border planted with a mixture of herbaceous, roses, grasses and shrubs.

There are also 11 postcard gardens and the nursery village which is home to 17 nurseries and floral artists to be explored. Plants from the different nurseries will also be available to purchase over the weekend.

In addition to all this, there is the Conservation Area and the Sustainable Living stage where leading horticultural, environmental and ecological experts will be giving talks throughout the weekend.

The food village is home to more than 100 of Ireland’s leading food and drink producers and the Budding Bloomers Children’s Area will provide inspiration and plenty of activity and education for the younger enthusiasts.

For more information about the line-up of speakers for the weekend, check out www.bordbiabloom.com and enjoy the event if you are attending it.

Sue van Coppenhagen, from Ladysbridge, Cork, won gold and silver awards in the Botanical and Floral Art section of Bloom.