A Blooming marvellous festival!

A LOCAL gardener and landscape designer stole the show at this year’s Bord Bia Bloom Festival over the June Bank Holiday weekend.

Alan Rudden from Castleknock won the overall show garden award for his Argentinian themed garden, Vina Doña Paula – A Matter of Altitude.

Alan is already a multiple Bloom gold medal winner and just last year also received a gold medal at the RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Show, London along with awards for Best in Show, Best Show Planting and Best World Garden.

Alan’s garden for Doña Paula (Santa Rita Estates) was inspired by a visit to Mendoza, Argentina, which is reflected in the sprawling landscape and the contrast between the lower altitude, urban social life of the city and the higher altitude, more rural, open landscape where Doña Paula’s vines are grown.

The garden boasts a semi-covered entertaining and cooking area where an Argentinian ‘asado’ (outdoor gathering of friends) can be enjoyed and a pathway that represents the higher altitude vineyards of Mendoza.

Gary Graham, Bloom Manager, Bord Bia, said the food organisation was thrilled to announce a record 11 gold medals for this year’s show gardens.

“Bloom is a showcase for the best of what the Irish horticultural industry has to offer and this result proves that our show garden designers are on par with some of the best in the world when it comes to their skill, attention to detail and creative flair,” he added.

“The delivery of these spectacular spaces takes an immense amount of hard work and dedication over months, if not years, and we are incredibly proud of what our garden designers have achieved here.”

The overall small sized garden medal was awarded to VTOS Horticulture Cabra Community College for its Tóg go Bog é (Take it Easy) creation that celebrates nature and highlights the many benefits of gardening.

And PACE, Blanchardstown, was commended at Bloom 2019 for their postcard garden ‘The Destination Garden’. The organisation provides long-term accommodation units for ex-prisoners in need of permanent accommodation with access to on-going support.