Garden Digest: Events to help you to enjoy your green spaces

Here are some ideas on what to do in the room outside right now

Stephen Butler worked as a horticulturalist at Dublin Zoo for 37 years.

• Cork Flower Club will meet on Tuesday, September 20, in Garryduff Sports Centre, Rochestown. Bernadette Scanlon, AOIFA, will give a demonstration entitled ‘The colours of autumn’ from 7.30pm. All welcome, visitors €5.
• Ladysbridge & District Flower and Garden Club will meet on Monday, September 19, at 8pm in the Garryvoe Hotel. Demonstrator on the night is Margaret Ahern, AOIFA. Theme of the night is ‘Autumn, a second spring’. Competition: An eco-friendly arrangement ‘wild and wonderful’ 76cm.
• The Irish Garden Plant Society hosts its first ‘in-person’ talk in two years, at the National Botanic Gardens Glasnevin on Saturday, September 17, from 2-3 pm. IGPS Leinster hosts Stephen Butler, who will discuss the trials, tricks and triumphs as a former zoo horticulturalist at Dublin Zoo as well as his new book, Gardening for Gorillas. Stephen worked in Dublin Zoo for 37 years transforming concrete areas and expansive lawns for habitats that worked for both animals and visitors. Signed copies of his book (€35) available on the day. See irishgaredenplantsociety.com.
• Trinity College Botanic Garden Culture Night tour by Trinity College Department of Botany takes place on Friday, September 23, from 4-8pm. Explore Trinity College Botany’s private teaching and research garden, extensive glasshouse collections and arboretum. This is a rare opportunity for the public to view this unique conservation and research facility with its large collection of plants from all over the world. Trinity botanists will explain the importance of the collections and present some fascinating stories of plant adaptation and evolution. The garden will be open from 4pm with two guided tours, at 4.30pm and 6pm. The garden will close to visitors at 8pm. Booking required. Go to eventbrite.ie to register.