Garden revamp in base mix-up
Contractors working on the revamp of Cork’s Fitzgerald’s Park, where a scaled-back version of Diarmuid Gavin’s award-winning Chelsea Flower Show garden is being installed, have had to dig up a large concrete plinth after a problem was discovered with the mix.
However, a city council spokesman insisted that the problem will not add to the cost of the park’s €2.3m revamp, and will not delay the delivery date of the project.
The plinth, which will form the base of a roofed pavilion near the museum, has been dug up, and work was underway yesterday to repour a new plinth using the right mix.
It is still hoped to open the revamped park, complete with Gavin’s flying pod, by the end of March.
The flying pod, designed by the celebrity gardener to be suspended from a crane, will eventually be installed on stilts on the opposite side of the park to provide a spectacular viewing platform over the River Lee.
Plans for the €2.3m regeneration of the landmark park were unveiled in July.
The Mardyke Gardens scheme — the single largest investment in the park in over a century — will become part of a world-class horticultural tourist trail linking the Mardyke with gardens at UCC, Fota, Blarney Castle Gardens, and a number of private gardens.
It is hoped it will become one of the city’s must-see tourist destinations.
Gavin’s Avatar-inspired Sky Garden, which won a gold medal at the 2011 Chelsea Flower Show, will be incorporated into the park.
The pod will be the centrepiece of a gallery garden incorporating a cafe terrace, planting arrangements, and a glazed canopy for smaller scale performances and a temporary exhibition space.
A central feature of this garden space will be a series of stainless steel spheres and domes set among paths and planting arrangements from the original Chelsea garden.
Other features of the park revamp will include:
* The development of a Victorian walled garden;
* A performance pavilion with sunken lawn;
* An upgrade of the main entrance and a plaza space associated with an upgrade to the museum entrance.
The park’s ornamental pond and Fr Matthew Fountain, dating from the Cork Exhibition of 1902, have already been restored as part of the project.
City officials hope that the controversy associated with the Sky Garden project, and the storage costs for the plants, will not affect its ability to attract tourists.
The scheme is 80% funded by Fáilte Ireland under its Tourism Product Development Scheme.
