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Posts Tagged ‘Bloom in the Park’

Friday photo

Posted in Friday Photo, tagged , , on June 3, 2016| Leave a Comment »

It’s not been a great week of press coverage for gorillas…but here us a happier bit of news. The tarzan garden won at Bloom in the Park

 

Tarzan garden at Bloom

Tarzan garden at Bloom

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Bloom 2012

Posted in Home, tagged , , , , , , on June 11, 2012| 2 Comments »

It is hard to believe that Bloom In the Park is 6 years old!  And that I’ve been to all 6!

In the good old days of working Monday to Friday, I used to take the Thursday or Friday off to go along… and was always blessed with good weather.  There was one year that I even managed to go twice in one weekend.

This year I was invited to attend on the Friday as part of the a Food Bloggers Picnic organised by Bord Bia and was terribly disappointed not to be able attend.  From all reports it was a fantastic event…. fingers crossed for next year.

Eventually, because of a clash of various events, we finally got to Bloom on the Bank Holiday Monday.  And thankfully, we were lucky again with the weather.

It has kind of become a tradition….. my brother’s family come too… his daughters (now aged 8 and 10), love to come along …. their favourite part of the day is the craft village and each year the wonder is what they will be able to get involved in.

hay rope making

This year they loved the hay rope making.

However, the highlight was the silk flower they got to make – which their very good Mum had to travel back to Bloom after 6 to collect!  (Well done, Mum!)

silk flower making

Another fun aspect on the day was taking part in the Guinness Record breaking attempt!  GIY Ireland were determined to break the record for ‘the most people planting seedlings in one place’.  The record, I believe stood at 995…. and I believe, we achieved over 1200 on the day! We were all given small lettuce plants to plant up….. one 8 year old with us had her plant almost totally eaten before it got to be planted up!!!!

Lettuce plantGIY Guinness Record breaking attempt

Good fun…. and all looking ridiculous in our ‘Woodies’ hats!

We did spend some time wandering around the Food Village – well you have to!  The highlight of that was the Irish Caviar…. trout caviar from Mags at Goatbridge – it is absolutely delicious!

And then there were the gardens…. here are some photos of the things I loved.

Umbrella water featureLots of purple

So now I gloat a bit….. there was a lot of purple and lilac going on in the gardens….. which, of course, means I am a trend setter 🙂  I painted our garden furniture lilac and purple last summer…… so now what colour shall I go for next??

Our visit to the Starberry Paradise, is where I learned the most!  I now have the trick to growing Blueberries successfully!  I’ve tried unsuccessfully before, but am now ready to go give it a try again.  These bushes were 50 years old… I love the structure of them.

Blue Berry tree

Did you get to Bloom?

What were your favourite bits?

Oh, and don’t forget, there’s still time to get your name into the hat for a copy of The Chef and I…. just leave a comment here.

 

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Bloom time!

Posted in All things food, Garden, Home, tagged , , , , , on June 6, 2010| Leave a Comment »

You’d probably have to be half dead not to know that Bloom was on in The Phoenix Park this weekend.  Farmer Alfie and I have spent a day at Bloom each year since it opened.  This is it’s 5th year, and it has just got better and better each year.

This year I was doubly lucky.  Farmer Alfie and I were scheduled to go yesterday (Saturday), but then Yvonne at Hey Pesto! won two tickets to attend on Thursday and invited me to join her.  How could I resist?  So while Farmer Alfie tiled Yvonne’s hallway for her, the girls headed off to Bloom for a very civilised day out!

Hey Pesto! reporting from Bloom

Yvonne has reported on the food people we met, but I was blown away by some of the gardens!  Oh, to have such green fingers!

Since we’ve been here in Redwood, I have concentrated on growing vegetables and it is only in the past week that I have started a ‘flower’ garden!  When I lived in Donabate it was the other way around, all flowers and a few vegetables.  It was interesting to note that so many of the Show Gardens this year had incorporated vegetables extremely cleverly in their spaces.  Here are some of my favourite gardens….

RTE Super Garden winner

This was an urban garden that included a substantial vegetable plot and even a duck pond and 4 ducks!

More like my space!

This, I think, was the garden sponsored by Bord na Mona.  It was completely populated with wild flowers – foxglove, aquilegia, cow parsley… it was delightful!

An aspiration!

Could we have a water feature like this!

An end of the day space?

Now wouldn’t it be nice to have a space like this to chill out in at the end of a day in the garden?

Farmer Alfie and I were scheduled to head off to Bloom again on Saturday, but he wasn’t feeling well enough to travel so I headed off on my own and joined my brother, Seamus and his family at the show for my second visit!

Definitely going on a weekday is better if you really want to see the gardens. Saturday was busy.

But then it was a different day out as my two nieces were along (aged 6 and 8). They wanted to do different things – Daisy had daisies (of course!) painted on her arm.  Juliet had remembered operating the pottery wheel last year, so had brought along her snowman made of playdoh to show the pottery lady!  The pottery lady was very impressed and showed both girls how to make turtles which they were able to bring home with them!

On both visits the sun blazed down and we were able to have picnics on the lawn.

I resisted the temptation to purchase any plants at all on both visits…. but I did buy these silly ‘flower’ things that you attach to a hose.  One for here to water my vegetables while I go feed hens, ducks, etc. (Although, Farmer Alfie is suggesting it would be great to keep pigs cool on a hot day!)  And one for the girls – which they thoroughly enjoyed and had hooked up to the hose within 5 minutes of getting home!

Definitely two days out to be recommended.

Thank you to Yvonne, Seamus, Patricia, Daisy and Juliet!

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