THOUSANDS ATTENDED the opening day of the gardening festival, Bloom 2009, which has been described as the “Celtic Chelsea” in the Phoenix Park yesterday
While many made the trip to view the 28 show gardens, there was intense interest in finding out how to grow vegetables and food.
In keeping with that trend, “Grow Your Own” has been chosen as the theme for the event, which will run through the weekend and close on Monday evening.
The entrance area is dominated with a replica of Michelle Obama’s White House vegetable garden which the First Lady ordered built at the White House to stress the importance of self- sufficiency.
Gardening expert Gerry Daly, who will be lecturing on the subject over the weekend, said garden centre owners had been telling him that their takings were up this year as they met demand from this sector.
Even in the show gardens there was plenty of evidence of this new trend even in the names like Honest 2 Goodness Vegetable Garden and the Recession-Prosperity Garden.
Sophie Von Maltzan’s Recession-Prosperity Garden is a classic display of how to turn a medium suburban garden into a vegetable larder for €4,000. The garden has its own drainage system and the flowers are interspersed with vegetables of all kinds and the company will provide specifications for the design.
The Honest 2 Goodness garden offers information on providing land, to cultivation advice, to taking surplus produce from the allotment to sell at a local farmers’ market in Finglas,
Minister for Agriculture and Food Brendan Smith, who opened the event, said it demonstrated how long-term sustainability could be developed.
Bord Bia chairman Dan Browne and chief executive Aiden Cotter said Bloom had continued to evolve since it began two years ago.
This year there is an extended floral marquee, large outdoor and indoor exhibition spaces, restaurants, live entertainment, lectures and playgrounds for the children who go free this year – three to every paying adult.
Tickets for the event cost €20 today and €25 for the rest of the weekend with reductions for old-age pensioners and students.
There is ample space to park a car around the site and for those who want to use public transport, a free shuttle bus runs from Heuston railway station.
Results
THE OVERALL prize winner at the Bloom 2009 Garden Festival was Co Wicklow-based Tim Austen whose entry, The Garden Lounge, took the Large Garden category.
Translucency by Liat and Oliver Schurmann was judged best medium garden and Niall Maxwell’s Weekend Review was the best small garden.
The award for the Engaging Spaces category, which includes interactive and educational gardens, went to the Kerry Earth Education Project and Gortbrack Organic Farm for The Edible Classroom (Recycled).
The Tralee-based project encourages schools to build and grow their own gardens.
Project director Ian McGrigor said the organisation has already worked with 1,100 school children across the country. Other winners in this category were the garden design students of the senior college in Dún Laoghaire.
Mad Flowers won the Best in Show Award within the stunning Floral Marquee for its vibrant, colourful and eye-catching display and Mount Venus Nurseries won Best in Show for Nurseries.
A gold medal went also to Mr Middleton Garden shop of Mary Street, Dublin. Kilmurry Nursery and the National Botanic Gardens also took medals.