Garden Digest: Dates for your diary in August 

Check out all the garden visits, tours, talks, events, campaigns and online resources for the room outside

Some bedding plants and flowers are at their best at the end of August. File picture

• The Sustainable Flower Festival will unfold in Lismore, Co Waterford, on August 22-24, 10am-5pm. The festival, in aid of the restoration of St Carthage’s Cathedral, Lismore, takes place at the cathedral, North Mall, Lismore, P51 VX65. Admission, €10, children, free. 
• The Challenge of Change is the title of a gala floral demonstration by Alan Beatty and James Burnside, on Friday, August 22, at 7.30pm at Lismore Heritage Centre, admission €25. 
• A workshop on summer floral bouquets with Vivienne Brophy takes place on Saturday, August 23, 10am-12.30pm, at The Red Hall, East Main Street, Lismore, P51 T9K0, admission €65, refreshments served, booking essential; tickets at Eventbrite.ie. Instagram: @listmorecathedralflowerfestival email [e-mail].
• A €2.2m major programme of conservation and restoration has just been completed at Fota House & Gardens, including structural roof repairs, revitalisation of the house’s regency interiors, and the conservation of the McCarthy 19th-century landscape art collection. Victorian garden tours take place at 1.30pm on Wednesdays and Fridays — €10, adults; €8, seniors/students; €5, children.
• Stonewall Gardens in Carrigaline is running a fun-filled three-day camp of learning, planting, and growing. The camp is perfect for all ages to learn all about native Irish plants, the myths and stories going back centuries as to their uses, all while having fun. It includes making your own plant pots and growing your own vegetables and herbs. Example topics (adapted to each age group) include herbs and their uses, native Irish plants, drying and preserving herbs and the basics of garden design. The camp runs from Tuesday to Friday, August 19 22, and costs €80. For details, phone [phone] or email [e-mail].
• The RHSI holds its final garden tour on Saturday, August 30, at Tullynally Castle and Gardens in Castlepollard, Co Westmeath. Tree expert, bestselling author, and legendary chronicler of global plant hunters, Thomas Pakenham, is the guide through the estate’s renowned arboretum and historic landscape. This is a rare and intimate opportunity to walk the gardens with someone who has not only documented the stories of the world’s most remarkable trees, but grown many of them himself. His passion for trees is as captivating as it is contagious. See rhsi.ie for details.
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