Watch: Gardens showcase agri food sector at Bloom festival

Agriland

28-05-2025

Featured gardens from across the agri food sector are being showcased at the Bloom festival in the Phoenix Park, Dublin, this week (May 2025).
The festival, which is sponsored by Bord Bia, is running from Thursday, (May 29) until Monday, (June 2). It is being held on an 70ac site surrounding the visitor centre in the park.
Speaking at the launch of the festival today (Wednesday, May 28), Bord Bia's meat, food and beverages, John Murray told Agriland about the importance of the horticulture sector to the Irish market.
He said: 'Bord Bia have been involved with bloom since the very beginning. Way back at the start, it was all about trying to promote the horticulture industry, and create an opportunity for consumers to engage with horticulture.
'Our remit takes horticulture into play. The industry is orientated towards the domestic market. It's one of those unsung heroes in terms of what it delivers for the Irish market,' Murray explained.
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) sponsored a garden at the festival called 'Nature's Symphony: Celebrating Organic Growth'.
The garden seeks to highlight the commitment that Ireland has made to advancing the country's agriculture sector.
One of the designers of the garden, Oliver Schurmann said: 'We should be growing more things organically and embracing nature more than just trying to work against nature.
'We've chosen to only use plants like potatoes, broad beans, barley and oats. Other parts of the garden, it's like an amphitheatre. We have a stage to celebrate nature, to embrace nature, and as a link to the Arás. '
'Growing organically is all about improving the soil. If we have healthy good soil we're holding back nutrition and water, the perfect conditions to grow healthy, tasty produce,' Schurmann explained.
Another garden that showcased Ireland's biodiversity, is the 'Into the Forest' garden, designed by Sarah Cotterill.
The garden, which is sponsored by Westland, is inspired by the wet woodlands in the west of Ireland.
Cotterill explained that the garden is filled with a combination of native and non-native woodland.
'We have a lush tree canopy with lots of birches, some oak samplings popping up, and some twisted hazels that give it a weathered wild feel,' Cotterill explained.
'During the build we've had birds, butterflies, bees, ladybirds, a squirrel, lots going on in the garden,' she added.
Bloom festival
Other gardens at the festival highlighted the importance of Ireland's dairy sector.
For the first time, the Kerry Group has a garden in the festival. The 'Nature Wrapped in Gold' garden aims to celebrate Kerry Group's routes, and its connection to the farming community.
Ornua's Lynn Andrews explained that the group has admired the Bloom festival for a number of years.
She told Agriland: 'All of our dairy is grass-fed. That gives it that unique taste and extra creamy texture. It celebrates biodiversity.
'Our garden has the habitat tower, that is designed to let birds nest at different heights. So it can become a welcome home for every little creature, from small robins, to sparrows, to moths and bats as well.'
The National Dairy Council also sponsored a garden, called 'The Grass Advantage', which was designed by Robert Moore.
At the centre of the garden is a large milk churn sculpture, which symbolises the cultural importance of Irish dairy production.
Moore said: 'It's about dairy farming and the sustainable practices within dairy farming, and also shows the beauty of the product.
'The milk is born of the land, and we have such an advantage in terms of the land quality for dairy farming,' he added.