With building works starting in the Phoenix Park next week, the countdown to Bord Bia Bloom 2023 is now firmly underway. This year, Bord Bia is excited to welcome five talented new show garden designers to the festival. They include:
Landscape designer Eugene Higgins, who has designed a medium show garden with the young people at Oberstown Children Detention Campus in Lusk, Co. Dublin. Rise garden will be a powerful symbol of the young people’s journey towards growth and change and their ability to make positive choices that transform their lives. A native of Dublin, Eugene will be familiar to many garden enthusiasts from his appearances on RTE’s Afternoon Show, where he was the resident garden expert.
Dungarvan pharmacist and passionate gardener, Joe Kelly, has designed a small show garden that is Out of this World. A self-proclaimed dreamer, Joe’s traditional cottage-style summer garden will receive a surprise visit from a UFO… yes, you read that right… an Unidentified Flying Object. Keep an eye out for any aliens at Bloom this year!
Meanwhile, Bord Bia Bloom’s inaugural Cultivating Talent winner, Joe Eustace from Kildare, is also planning the unexpected with his small garden, The Next Step, which is designed to be “as unpredictable as life itself”. If you missed our recent interview with Joe, you can catch up on his plans for the garden here.
Darragh Collopy from Wexford will marry technology and nature in his Virtual Haven small show garden. Showcasing the potential of virtual reality (VR) technology in garden design, it offers visitors an opportunity to step into the virtual world where you can use a headset to explore the initial design concept before viewing the completed garden in real life. With a background in product design, Darragh is currently retraining in garden design with the Garden Design Academy of Ireland.
And our final newcomer will, of course, be the winner of Super Garden 2023. This year’s series started on Thursday, April 27th (RTE One, 7pm) and the winner will be announced in the grand finale on June 1st, the opening day of Bloom.
New Garden Sponsors
This year Bord Bia is thrilled to welcome a host of new garden sponsors to Bloom, including Avoca; Currys; the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth; the National Poisons Information Centre; Oberstown Children Detention Campus; Tusla; and Citroen.
The show gardens would not be possible without their help and the continued support of our many loyal sponsors and partners who return to Bloom year after year. These include Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Fingal County Council, GOAL Global, The Kildare Gallery, the Marie Keating Foundation, the National Dairy Council, Savills, and Woodie’s.
