'We no longer see a garden as a patch of green space outside the window'

Fresh from Mallow Home & Garden Festival, Peter Dowdall is at Bord Bia Bloom this weekend and looks forward to an inaugural celebration of the room outside in Killarney event in June

Jack Hedigan, horticulturalist in an outdoor bathtub at The Pavilion show gardens at the Mallow Home & Garden Festival. Picture: Larry Cummins

Fri, 29 May, 2026 - 18:15

Peter Dowdall

There was a time when gardening festivals were very much for gardeners only — anoraks like myself who went along looking for plants, perhaps a new tool, maybe a bit of advice from a specialist grower and if you were lucky, a cup of tea and a scone before heading home with the boot of the car full of shrubs and perennials wrapped in newspaper.

But something has changed over the last number of years, and I think the launch of the inaugural Killarney Home and Garden Festival this June says quite a lot about how our relationship with gardens in Ireland is evolving.