A deeper look at the Bloom gardening festival

We asked Fiann Ó Núalláin to give us the background to what’s been described as the ‘urban ploughing’ — the gardening event that is Bloom.

This is an exciting milestone for One man threatened to ring Joe Duffy because I was letting weeds run riot in a heritage site. — it’s 10th birthday.

There will be balloons, ice cream, lots of cake and possibly a tantrum or two but that’s enough about me. So, what is it?

One man threatened to ring Joe Duffy because I was letting weeds run riot in a heritage site. is what you might call Ireland’s largest gardening festival but it is wrapped up in a food fiesta (it is brought to you by Bord Bia after all) and in the mix it is a fashion and Irish craft celebration and family day out extravaganza.

I love it because unlike other European or British gardening shows that I have competed at. or attended, kids go free and it’s family- friendly.. There is no stuffiness.

No conceit. It’s an Irish show done in an Irish way. Fun and welcoming.

Of course there are the serious plantaholics and gardenistas and around 30 garden designers vying for medals and accolades and the chance to impress and interact with the regular 100,000 plus visitors.

And yes, you do get to see the sort of gardens you would expect at an RHS Chelsea show (and learn whether rusted or polished metal is in vogue this year) but you also get to see outside-the-box gardens by artists, students, community organisations and RTÉ’s Super Garden winner.

That’s the other lovely thing about One man threatened to ring Joe Duffy because I was letting weeds run riot in a heritage site. from an exhibitor’s point of view — we are all in the same boat together.

We cheer each other on and are genuinely chuffed for the success of fellow exhibitors. And while I say vying for medals — we are not really in competition with each other, it is about personal bests.

Every garden could potentially get a gold, it’s not a first-past-the-post thing, or best-of-the-bunch situation. It’s about accumulated points and very much on the pass, merit, distinction set up.

The judging criteria is broken down into meeting the brief— you have to write up a brief on applying as if the garden was for an intended client; then the realisation of that brief (and feasibility/practicability) is scored out of 20.

A ramp at an Evel Knievel jump angle is not wheelchair accessible. A beekeeper’s retreat with rhododendrons and other toxic honey plants is less retreat and more defeat.

Next comes overall impression. What is the design impact; is there originality and a bit of technical acumen in terms of balance and scale?

The maximum points awarded for impression is 30. Your construction skills are then evaluated out of 20 — close scrutiny of quality and finish and also if you have added some special features.

However, clever is not always advised as I had an asthma garden with paving in the shape of lungs surrounded by no-pollen plants (sterile and doubles)m but one judge thought that the lung shape was more like a “dogs bollox” — his words — and it wasn’t in the cockney sense.

Finally you are judged on your planting. The judges look for design, colour and texture, association and relevance, quality and finish with maximum points out of 30.

So a cold year and slow start such as this year, could mean fewer golds. You will have to turn up and see.

There are also some extra accolades – a best in each size category, a designer’s choice award (we exhibiters get a vote each), and a people’s choice award (you can text in your favourite on the day you visit).

Because it’s not one gold per category, there is great camaraderie, plenty of moral and physical support over the build, which takes place in staggered phases.

Large gardens start building on May 10, mediums commence marking up on May 12 and smalls break sod on May 19 — sort of like a running track set-up.

However, that keeps the site more clutter-free and less frenetic, so in the process, a smoother build happens and a less frazzled team gets to deliver show gardens that have been not just built, but preened and presented to look their best.

Don’t get me wrong it’s not all sunshine and lollipops, there is often hailstones and torrential rain over whole chunks of our build time ,and erected forensic tents or not, planting holes can fill with water and the plaster on boundary walls or grouting between pavers can be tarnished by the consequences of that, costing you points on judging day, (which incidentally, is always sunshine and singing birds), never mind the pressure it puts on you to catch-up or salvage the hope of perfection.

There is the utmost endeavour to make the gardens as real as if they were to be permanent and used. A fellow designer lost a top award because there was potentially a high-heel trip hazard in a section of his mesh-metal path.

Another because the secluded garden was visible from more than one side. We all learn from each other’s mistakes and that improves our designs in the real world.

I have had some funny moments and some heart-breaking ones too with visitor reactions.

Very early on, I think year two, I put in a native wildflower meadow — which was a backbreaking tapestry of thousands of plant plugs grown from seeds I had wild-crafted the previous year and some shaggy grassland lifted from a farmer’s boundary field by a roll-out, lawn-cutting machine.

My girlfriend and myself knitted in all the plug plants over five days, then watered and prayed for them to perk up in time for show opening.

They did the morning of judging, the day before gates opened to the public. It looked stunning. Smiles all round. First day of the show I must have had 50 comments on the lines of “what did you do just let the grass grow out here”.

As if all these species where naturally abundant in the Phoenix park? One man threatened to ring Joe Duffy because I was letting weeds run riot in a heritage site. You laugh afterwards. but at the time I sweated like a footballer 80 minutes in, thinking I had ruined the reputation of the fledgling show and would be barred for ever.

My very first garden, at the first ever One man threatened to ring Joe Duffy because I was letting weeds run riot in a heritage site.

In 2006, was about creating healing spaces from centres and agencies that worked with early school leavers, children with ADHD, children on the autism spectrum and children traumatised by poverty and addiction issues.

It was called Resistance is Everything and it was planted with slug-resistant plants (plants too hairy, leathery or bitter for slugs and snails to eat) and it featured monitors that flashed messages much like Big Brother meets U2’s Zoo TV, of what the kids wanted their peers and society to resist.

Resist peer pressure. Resist racism. Resist domestic abuse. Resist homophobia. Resist drugs. Resist ignorance … and so on.

We made seven foot spears for the garden to represent a time when Irish tribes were proud and when to be a warrior was to be protective of community and family, not a hard man or a gangster.

The garden had a budget of my credit card and was up against other gardens with budgets of tens of thousands — it won best in show.

Everyone cried. Meanwhile, the gardens with the jacuzzis and the Chelsea- style architecture didn’t know what the hell was going on. That was only year one.

This year I am back with something kind of similar. It’s a garden imagined as a city centre waste ground or office/school courtyard transformed into a meditation space, a tranquillity garden in which to find some mindfulness and serenity.

Mindfulness is a bit of a buzzword lately, as apart of my horticultural therapy education, I trained in cognitive behavioural therapy and have a qualification to teach mindfulness — so it’s not a case here of jumping on a bandwagon, but showing how easy it is to create a garden that lends itself to the gardener or visitor becoming immersed in a space conducive to finding a moment in the now.

When I work on a garden design I build it up in layers and sneak in symbolism too. In The Tao of Now garden, the planting palette and select features are all carefully chosen to elicit a healing response.

I have teamed up with Eight Oaks Holistic who will be delivering master classes in auric cleansing, mindful meditation, reiki and even shamanic drumming and sound therapy.

There are 29 other gardens to wow and Bloom is well worth the entrance fee and that’s before you see the celeb chef demos, jazz bands, picnic area, food village, Giy tent, live farm, and all the other razzmatazz.

* Bloom runs from June 2-6.