Garden Digest: Summer events for your diary

Exhibitions, shows and demonstrations

Fota House and Gardens has completed a €2.2m renovation.  Picture: Colin Shanahan

Following the recent completion of an extensive phase of conservation works, Fota House & Gardens now offers an even more memorable visitor experience for the summer and autumn seasons. A major programme of conservation and restoration has just been completed, to the value of €2.2m over four years, including structural roof repairs, revitalisation of the house’s Regency interiors, and the conservation of the McCarthy 19th-century landscape art collection. The property's extensive gardens are now also in bloom, and they have a newly enhanced historic house tour, so it’s the perfect time to rediscover this East Cork gem which offers a unique snapshot of Irish social history.  Fota House & Gardens also has a busy programme of events planned for the months ahead which include art exhibitions, courses, and outdoor movie screenings. Victorian Garden tours take place Wednesdays and Fridays at 1:30pm and are priced at €10 for Adults, €8 for Seniors and Students and €5 for children. 

The Cork Summer Show, organised by the Munster Agricultural Society, takes place this weekend at Curraheen Showgrounds. The show’s floral art, horticulture, and fruit and vegetable competitions are now open on Corksummershow.com.

Innishannon Gardens and Galleries will host its seventh Gardens and Galleries event on the weekend of July 5 and 6. It begins in the Parish Hall, where you can pick up a map and a ticket for €10 which gives entry to all gardens and galleries. In the parish hall and around the village, there will be a variety of art displays and gardens on view. From the parish hall, you can also board a free minibus which will take you around to the outlying gardens. This is a weekend to enjoy the giftedness of those who create with the spade, the palette knife, the loom, or the lathe — a chance for the soul to catch up.

One of the must-see events of the 2025 Carlow Garden Festival in July will be a lively conversation that brings together BBC Gardeners’ World favourite Adam Frost and Ireland rugby star Peter O’Mahony, revealing another passion of this great Munster and Ireland legend — gardening. It takes place at the Arboretum Home and Garden Heaven in Leighlinbridge
(Eircode: R93 P9F4), on Saturday, July 26, at 7.30pm; tickets, €25.

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