Blooming brilliant: RTÉ's Super Garden is a family affair at this year's Bloom festival

Anna Laribal enjoying Bloom 2023 in a sun-drenched Phoenix Park. More than 100,000 people are expected to attend the festival which continues until Monday. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA

Super garden winner Colm Carty hopes to give up his job as a quantity surveyor to become a full-time designer after an “incredible” victory at the Bord Bia Bloom Festival.

Mr Carty 35, from Warrenpoint, Co Down, was crowned winner of RTÉ’s Super Garden and yesterday his design was one of the biggest attractions at the country’s largest garden festival at the Phoenix Park in Dublin.

More than 100,000 people are expected to attend this year’s event which runs until Monday.

Mr Carty’s creation, Dawn to Dusk, is intended to be used throughout the day, and includes a dining space and children’s play area — all surrounded by colourful plants.

RTÉ Super Garden winner Colm Carty in his Dawn to Dusk garden at Bloom 2023. Picture: RTÉ.ie

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Mr Carty praised his wife Sorcha who “inspired” him throughout the process and said the couple have gone on to set up their new business, Perennial Designs.

Mr Carty said: “Sorcha loves the staging aspect of it all and the decoration. She is a huge help and very inspiring, she is full of ideas.

“We have two children, Senan, 3, and Iarlaigh who is 18 months, and we wanted the design to be about family time. The display will take you through the day, from eating out in the morning, to the children’s play area and then the evening seating area.

“The exposure and response has been brilliant. We have started our new design company so hopefully it takes off.”

Ann Sheehan from Dripsey, Co Cork, examining the winning sculpture at the Currys stand at Bord Bia Bloom. Currys are also the sponsor of the Sculpture in the Park Garden. Picture: Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland

Yesterday, the majority of the Bloom festival car parks were almost full by 11am as thousands of people packed into the event.

The public is being encouraged to book their parking places online if public transport is not an option.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Tánaiste Michael Martin attended the event and met with members of the public.

RTÉ presenter Kathryn Thomas, at the National Dairy Council show garden at Bord Bia Bloom in the Phoenix Park. Picture. Robbie Reynolds

Festival-goers lapped up the hot weather and among the crowds were six nurses who took a well-earned break from their busy roles at Midland Regional Hospital, Tullamore. 

Edel Mooney, Ger Donnelly, Liz Hinch, Sharon Farrell, Aisling Horan, and Marie Reed had arrived at the festival by train.

Edel Mooney said they stopped to listen to the Taoiseach on the way in “because he is a GP himself”.

Ms Mooney said: “I’m sure we could tell him a thing or too. But while we are here we might as well come over and listen.

Tánaiste Micheál Martin   with landscape architect Dáibhí Mac Domhnaill in the Green Cities Europe Parklet at Bloom which continues until Monday. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA

“We are very busy in work. The place looks beautiful. We have a day off so we will laugh and look and have fun.”

This year saw 22 show and feature gardens on display as well as 760 exhibitors onsite.

A major emphasis of the event this year is on sustainability and climate action.

TV presenter Kathryn Thomas hosted a morning discussion on the role we can all play in helping the planet.

She told the crowd: “By 2050, global population is set to exceed 10bn people so we are not going to be able to eat like the way we are eating at the moment.

“The world will not be able to produce the food, so things have to change.”