All smiles at the Garden Show Ireland on the Friday as winners were announced in all the show categories, and the show itself opened for the year, here’s some pictures from around the show on the first day.
Solus Gweedore students with Show Director Claire Faulkner accepting their Silver Award
Teachers from Scoil Phadraig and INP staff with Sarah Travers from UTV
With kids from Scoil Phadraig in the winning show garden
Selfie with one of the members of the winning Garden Design Shop team
This was the winning show garden in Garden Show Ireland, entered by the guys from the Garden Design Shop. A very cool classy garden with repetition of the blue wall in the planting schemes. Naturally enough the cloud tree had many an admirer but I love Camassia, so I enjoyed seeing them planted here with the festuca blue grass used an an edging.
This was the winner in the Team challenge category that the Solus Gweedore students were entered under, this is ‘Kitchen Garden’ from South Eastern Regional College….the folks were working alongside us on the Thursday building this, and although judging was at 5pm they didn’t finish until 4.59…a mammoth bit of work and a well deserved first.
a congratulatory selfie with the folks from the S.E.R.C
a less flattering selfie
The garden from Ryan McGee from Garden Design & Build was another cracker, a real family-focused and wildlife friendly garden. There was loads of bug spaces, a secret kids tunnel, a grass seat, an outdoor blackboard and more…I really liked this…
Ryans show garden
I loved this strawberry growing system in the other show garden by Ballyhoe Nursery Garden
another pretty show garden, you could see this being the ‘kids corner’ of a bigger garden
and of course there were plants….loads of plants…stalls everywhere, nurseries and growers from ROI, NI and Scotland were all at the show…and there were great displays in the growers pavilion.All in all a great show…lots more space than Hillsborough castle, and I hope you enjoyed the show as much as me…and let me know if you did what I did…and bought too many plants!!!
Gareth Austin is a Community focused Horticulturist based in Derry-Londonderry and voice of Gardening on the Mark Patterson Show on BBC Radio Foyle. Gareth specialises in Community horticulture, offering a wide range of events, programmes and acitivity on engaging people in the exciting world of Horticulture. Gareth lectures in Horticulture in the North West Regional College and offers school horticulture programs through the Western Education + Library Board. Gareth is passionate about changing land-use to a more positive use, urban food production and showcasing the flora of county Derry through the City of Horti-Culture programme of events.
