This past weekend has been all about Bloom 2013. Bloom is Ireland’s biggest gardening and food festival.
We’ve gone to Bloom every year since it started, 7 years ago. This year we were extremely grateful to recieve a gift of tickets to go on Friday. We’ve found in past years Thursday or Friday were the best days to go…. as the further it goes into the weekend the bigger the crowds.
So early start and off we headed to Dublin.
Thursday had been a scorcher of a day, so we armed ourselves with sunscreen…. needn’t have bothered the sun never shone on Friday but it didn’t deter us. In fact it probably made it more pleasant to wander about.
This was as close as we got to sun 🙂
I love the Victorian Walled Garden. It is such a lovely area. The affect the weather has had on the growing season was really evident in the Walled Garden – so little flowers compared to last year. I always use the vegetables in the walled garden as a barometer for how my plants should be! This year we are all at about the same stage….. the courgettes up there are probably just a little ahead of mine.
Next up it was a visit to the show gardens. I have to say we were both rather disappointed with the show gardens this year. Maybe it is a sign of the times? There seemed to be less gardens. Woodies had a good display of 3 or 4 suburban gardens. And, yes, of course there were some lovely elements too.
Loved the use of old pallets…. and the perfume from all those herbs was amazing.
We loved the colour of this garden wall. Should we paint our yard wall? Or should we go with the lichen look?
Maybe I am becoming a more ‘experienced’ gardener, but one thing that struck me was that a lot of the gardens had plantings that were either out of season or would most definitely not grow outdoors in Ireland. I know, I know it is all about concept…. but come on we need inspiration to be a little real and achievable.
Kumquats and chillies growing outdoors in Ireland?????
I loved this water fountain…. but his nibs says you’d need some water pump to run it…. but I can dream can’t I? I think it would be a lovely feature in the back yard 🙂
For us the postcard gardens were so much more interesting. There were some lovely achievable ideas there.
A lovely photo of Dee and Sandra from the Community Garden Network.
The highlights of the day for us….. catching up with friends, lounging on the Elephant seats and chatting with Dee from Greensideup (who was there with the Community Garden Network… look at their yarn wrap garden), and John and Colette from As Seen by C. Meeting the ‘real’ people behind some twitter names – Peter from Donegan Landscaping and David from Beyond the Wild Garden.
The lowlights…. everything seemed to be crammed in this year. I don’t know was there more exhibitors or less space. It was so difficult to find things.
And the PARKING! We wanted to park in the ‘red’ carpark as research beforehand had indicated it was closest to Entrance 1. So silly us followed the ‘red’ carparking signs, to only discover that all the carparking signs were red and we had parked in the ‘yellow’ carpark!!! (By the way, there was nothing to indicate that we parked in the ‘yellow’ carpark – it was just a sensible car attendant informed us as such). We weren’t the only people to be fooled by this… we met others who couldn’t find their car after the event as they too thought they had parked in the ‘red’ carpark! Dear organisers – it would be simple to use the colour coding on the signage too!
Thank you for the mention, Margaret. We parked in the yellow car park too, and it was the lovely security guy who told us it was “yellow”. I didn’t like the stalls selling clothing and jewellery and non-gardening-related nick-nacks, otherwise, we loved it. Great to catch up with you both too 🙂
Colette, must have been the same sensible attendant that we met! Good to see you both.
M
I’m still banging on about the quality of food on offer should you have neglected to bring a picnic. We stopped for coffee when we arrived. It was watery and instant and outrageously priced. The offerings from the usual burger vans looked awful. In complete contrast to all the fabulous food in the Artisan Village. Is there no way festivals such as this can’t manage to organise decent food? The fish platter we got in the Prosecco was ok but at €22 it would have wanted to be…..
I hear you with regard to the food! €17 for 2 burgers and 2 teas!!!
In previous years (as we were with family including kids) we’ve brought a picnic. You couldn’t afford to feed children there.
An off-the-wall suggestion, but wouldn’t it be a great platform to allow out of work chefs, or those seeking jobs, to run a kitchen using all the products of the various producers – charge a price and make a bit of money too!
oh wow Margaret that is a GREAT idea but rest assured will be laughed at I fear 😦
when we arrived first thing we got our coffees from Coffeeangel not bad but at 3 euro it wouldn’t want to be. With our coffees we then headed to the artisan tent and devoured on all samples that were offered. By the time lunch came about we got a burger which smelt divine but at €6.50 was dry dry dry We wondered if they had a special bbq spray which enticed (or fooled) us all into thinking it would be the best burger at bloom! Glad I skipped the fish platter and Prosecco Way too steep for what you got I bet 😦
Do you think they would laugh at the idea? Am half tempted to email the suggestion to them……
Just back from Bloom ourselves and missed Dee Sewell (which was disappointing) But got to catch up with others which was nice 🙂
Gladly we were there when it opened 1st thing as by 3pm (the time we left) the crowds and heat were unbearable.
Lovely post and have to agree with your points about the signage as rather confusing to say the least. Also it isn’t a particularly big venue yet it appeared very haphazard and although I love to see clothing jewellery and the like I did feel there was way too many and in the ‘Floral’ marquee??
Ena, I’m with you on the mix of retail…. some of which has nothing to do with food or gardens. We found it difficult then to find some stands this year – they were listed, but took us an age to find them.
Loved all the postcard gardens I have to say!
Postcard gardens were so cute and quite a few people I guess could have missed them given their location. I felt the landscaper / designer of the larger gardens hadn’t time to spend with people which was a pity.
Margaret it was lovely to see you and boy was I ready for a rest by then! Ena I arrived at 4 today and can’t believe I missed meeting you again!! The postcard gardens really seemed to capture people’s imagination. It was the first year for them and next year they’ll be encouraging more and giving medals (no prizes this year which was a shame). It was quite an experience being involved with a garden there, already my mind’s ticking away getting ideas for next year!
One of these days Dee we’ll have that ‘one to one’ but for now we’ll just have to keep chatting about our world of veg, horticulture and family life online. What did people do before the internet? Oh that’s right they visited each other (hehe). A novel idea don’t you think and one which I might just try over the Summer (cheeky steady on!!)
Thoroughly enjoyed the postcard gardens and disappointed for you all that awards weren’t allocated (shame indeed!!) I would say you and a lot more besides are mentally and physically exhausted tonight but equally high on adrenaline and awash with ideas. Here’s to Bloom 2014!!
Dee I was so glad I was able to text you for your location…. yes, I know we had the map but of course we’d forgotten that you were in a different section to the show gardens (we toured them 3 times looking for you!).
But still loved the postcards… and a great idea to have prizes for them next year.
Lovely photos and a great write up on the show! Thank’s very much for the mention in it too! Was lovely to meet you at it! Always brilliant to put a face to the twitter account or blog 🙂
Hi David, it is always lovely to meet the ‘real’ people! I took way less photos this year than in previous years, but I seem to have just managed to do that lovely one of Dee & Sandra to make it worthwhile!
M
Horticulture Ireland Group Page on Linkedin may be an interesting read for some of you. Barry poses the question Bloom 2013 what did you think? http://lnkd.in/sQja5K
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