Hit the horticultural highway to Mallow

Excitement is growing ahead of the Home & Garden Festival, writes Peter Dowdall.

From May 24 to May 26, all roads will lead down the horticultural highway to County Cork, for that’s the weekend which sees Cork Racecourse Mallow, just outside the town, transformed into a pleasure dome for gardeners.

Central to this transformation are the 25 show gardens and what makes these gardens truly unique is that they are permanent fixtures. Normally, at shows such as this, outdoor plots are marked out into individual spaces and have vast budgets thrown at them by sponsors to create beautiful areas for the few days of the show.