Garden Digest: What to do now to boost your room outside

We check out the garden visits, tours, fairs and online resources available now and in coming weeks

• Cork Flower & Garden Club meets on Tuesday, April 12, at 7.30pm In Garryduff Sports Centre, Rochestown, Cork T12 ER22. Christine Foley, AOIFA demonstrator from Co Meath, will be giving a demonstration entitled ‘Spring is in the air’. Members and visitors are welcome(visitors €5).
  
  
• East Cork Flower Club is holding its monthly meeting next Monday, April 4, at St John The Baptist NS, Midleton, at 8pm. It will include a mini spring show with 12 classes, and a chance to show your home grown spring blooms. All welcome.
  
  
• Cork Nature Network is taking part in the Lifelong Learning Festival with two events. The first is an online talk about garden butterflies in Ireland on Monday, April 4, at 7pm. Guest speaker is Jesmond Harding, a well-known author and founding member of Butterfly Conservation Ireland as well as a conservation officer for the organisation at its butterfly reserve at Lullybeg, Co Kildare. Jesmond will give an overview on all the butterflies that you can attract to your garden, the plants you need to grow and the other steps needed to help our butterflies. On April 10, the Cork Nature Network Cork Entomology Group will host a field visit to a farm in Liscarroll at 11am. Participants will be shown a wide range of insects that are hiding in plain sight. This is a perfect opportunity for budding environmentalists to get a taste of field visits. The two events aim to raise awareness about the various insects around us and how they impact our environment. Insects make our world a better place as they provide an essential service as pollinators, and are an important part of food chains, and assist in pest control. See eventbrite.ie/x/butterflies-in-your-garden-tickets-274099217137 and eventbrite.ie/e/entomology-group-field-visit-tickets-274123269077.

• A free Gardening for Wellbeing Group starts on Thursday, April 7, from 10-11am, for six weeks at Blanchardstown Library, Dublin 15, facilitated by gardener and environmentalist Aoife Munn. This new course sponsored by Fingal Libraries aims to form a new gardening group in the Blanchardstown area. The course will concentrate on gardening for wellbeing topics such as sensory gardens, mindfulness in the garden, gardening and physical health and visiting nice gardens. At the end of the six weeks the group will be invited to meet up weekly/monthly depending on the group requirements for plant swaps, talks in the library, garden visits etc. Meetings will be held on Thursday April 7, 14, 21 and 28 and May 5 and 12. Go to eventbrite.ie/e/gardening-for-wellbeing-group-registration for more information.
  
  
• Irish Garden Plant Society hosts a talk with Logan Botanic Garden, Scotland with Richard Baines will be held via Zoom on Tuesday, April 5, at 8- 9:15pm. Logan Botanic Garden, situated on the Mull of Galloway just 20 miles across the Irish Sea from Co Down, is one of four gardens comprising the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. It was voted ‘Best Garden in the UK’ by Which? in 2021. Richard’s presentation will focus on the southern hemisphere plant collection, the garden landscape, plant acquisitions and plans to maximise any potential from climate change. A link will be sent to members.
  
  
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