Peter Dowdall: All roads lead to Mallow Home & Garden Festival

'The event, at Cork Racecourse, is not so much aspirational but about actual gardens you can visualise in your own space'

Sun, 21 May, 2023 - 06:00

Peter Dowdall

One of the highlights of the summer gardening calendar in this part of the world is the Mallow Home & Garden Festival.

The event, at Cork Racecourse, is a “real” show — not so much about aspirational design and more about actual gardens that you can visualise in your own space.

This is the only show in the country which can boast a mixture of 25 landscaped gardens which are permanent fixtures at the racecourse.

Each year they are lovingly maintained and added to.

The huge benefit of this to the visitor is that they get to see what a garden will look like in time. It’s all well and good to look at the glitzy show garden glamour, for in truth, nearly anything can be made to look fabulous for a few days but the real test is in how it will age.

At this show, you can see just that, how particular plants have matured and how walls and other landscaping features have stood the test of time.

That’s not to say that you see the same gardens each year for you don’t, because there is always something new. This year, the gardens are once more being tended to by the expert hands of landscape gardener Vinny Abraham who has transformed several of the areas in line with current trends.

Expect to see porcelain tiles being used in outdoor areas in several of the show gardens at Mallow. Outdoor dining and living is the central focus of several of the show gardens this year.

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The festival gardens have also been completely transformed by Dulux whose colour consultant Cora Collins will be a guest speaker on Saturday offering great advice and tips on how you too can add some colour to your outdoor space. Continuity is one of the main precepts in garden design and this is true in the hard landscaping elements just as much as it is with the planting schemes.

Using local materials is not just an important environmental consideration though it is that, it also helps the garden fit in more appropriately with the landscape.

Several of the gardens at Mallow this year are using magnificent feature stones. Expect to see fabulous granite rocks from the east coast and perhaps my favourite of all is the Cork red limestone from O’Neills Quarry near Ballincollig. You will see the red limestone in several of the gardens as feature stones but also crushed down into the very attractive plum-coloured slate mulch.

Another local business, Cork Builders Supplies, is supporting the show once more, sponsoring several of the show gardens. It will be showcasing its range of porcelain tiles, composite decking, Kilsaran walling and its new range of white river wall cladding which is proving extremelypopular.

Elizabeth Fearns at Mallow Home & Garden Festival last year at Cork Racecourse. Picture: Dan Linehan

The first element of any new garden to be installed is the hard landscaping and these show gardens offer a great opportunity to see so many different materials and ideas in one area. Not only will designers and landscapers be on hand to help you with your own garden needs but so too will teams from the show sponsors, O’Neill’s Stone and Cork Builders will all be there. Cork Builders Providers will have separate stands, one showcasing its de Walt range of gardening tools and another with PV Solar.

In 2020, during the pandemic, Galway native Mike Devaney designed and manufactured a greenhouse and chicken run for his family. On becoming more sustainably aware in this current climate, Mike saw an opening in the market for his products.

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From this lockdown project has sprung, Heptagon Houses and it is now the sole manufacturer and installer of timber framed greenhouses. Keep an eye out for these at the show.

Well-known gardening expert Paraic Horkan will be showing us how to add a splash of colour to your garden, featuring some of the best plants to plant now for summer colour.

Yours truly will be speaking each day of the show on the subject of “green” or sustainable gardens.

Irish Examiner gardening columnist Peter Dowdall. Picture: John Allen

I will be sharing advice on how to make sure your garden sparkles but at the same time is environmentally sound.

Call into any of the talks during the show and myself or Paraic will be delighted to help with any gardening queries you may have.

If I’m not demonstrating or admiring the show gardens, then you’ll find me lost in my own little world in the specialist nursery area.

This is where I yearn to be each year as this is where you will find the horticultural treasure you have been searching for, even though you didn’t know it. A vast range of specialist growers will be on hand offering help, advice and of course, plants, plants and more plants.