Life

Casual Gardener: Festival time in Co Carlow

Pictured left to right, Rachel Doyle, Barry Gardner and Marion Nolan of the Arboretum Home and Garden Heaven launching one of the events for this year's Carlow Garden Festival
Pictured left to right, Rachel Doyle, Barry Gardner and Marion Nolan of the Arboretum Home and Garden Heaven launching one of the events for this year's Carlow Garden Festival Pictured left to right, Rachel Doyle, Barry Gardner and Marion Nolan of the Arboretum Home and Garden Heaven launching one of the events for this year's Carlow Garden Festival

Co Carlow is gearing up for this month's annual gardening festival...

CARLOW may be one of the country's smaller counties but it punches well above its weight when it comes to gardens and gardening.

Less ostentatious than neighbouring Co Wicklow and lacking the near-tropical prevailing winds that waft across Ireland's south western counties, it is nonetheless nestled in quintessentially Irish landscape, which centuries before it developed an affinity with horticulture was a centre of ecclesiastical activity.

Gardening is not quite the new religion but its popularity in Ireland has taken off over recent decades and Carlow has been to the fore in celebrating this trend through the acclaimed Carlow Garden Festival, which this year marks its 20th anniversary.

This year's programme, which runs from Friday July 22 to Monday August 1, brings together some of the biggest names in Irish and British gardening and takes us on a journey from the high peaks of the Himalayas to the deep valleys of Yukon, and everywhere in between. Over 11 days, festival goers can enjoy a range of workshops, garden tours, specialist talks and Q&A sessions, combined with a range of appetising culinary options that include long table suppers, afternoon tea and evening meals in gardens and garden centres along the Carlow Garden Trail.

Proceedings kick-off with an afternoon drawing walk with illustrator Melissa Culhane along the enchanted banks of the River Barrow in the garden village of Leighlinbridge before Gardener's World presenter Adam Frost teams up with multi-award-winning designer James Alexander-Sinclair on the festival's first evening for a much-anticipated talk at Arboretum Home and Garden Heaven.

The opening weekend also features another of the festival’s highlights, with a talk in Duckett’s Grove Historic House and Walled Gardens by the inimitable and engaging Joe Swift, who as well as imparting his extensive horticultural knowledge, will regale the audience with anecdotes of working alongside Alan Titchmarsh, Monty Don and Carol Klein.

Other speakers over the opening weekend include Leonie Cornelius at Delta Sensory Gardens, Fionnuala Fallon in Huntington Castle and a new venue on the festival programme, the Barrow Experience Gardens in Bagenalstown with Shirley Lanigan. Arthur Shackleton promises insightful garden tours of Delta Sensory Gardens and the Meadows on Monday July 25, while heritage and design combine on Tuesday July 26 as renowned historian Turtle Bunbury traces the history of Altamont Gardens. On the same day, at nearby Hardymount Gardens, Arthur Cole from the Newt in Somerset traces the development of this amazing west country garden from 1690 to the present day.

Orlaith Murphy’s 'Petal to Plate' talk in Burtown House will provide helpful advice on picking plants that make maximum use of plots in environmentally sustainable ways and continuing the theme in Shankill Castle, Stephanie Hafferty provides workshops based on the principles of no dig gardening and seasonal plant-based recipes.

Garden historian Belinda Jupp makes her first visit to the Carlow Garden Festival to speak at Borris House on Thursday, July 28, while the multi-talented James Wong makes a welcome return with two talks – Horticultural Happy Pill and the Great Indoors. Meanwhile, Altamont Plant Sales offers visitors the chance to hear from both Tom Coward, head gardener at Gravetye Manor, and Jim Gardiner, curator of RHS Gardens Wisley for more than 25 years.

Another festival first is the appearance of Ken Cox of the famed Glendoick Gardens in Scotland, who presents his talk at Huntington Castle on Saturday, July 30, covering the history and evolution of the woodland gardening style from China and Japan to Europe.

:: For more information visit www.carlowgardentrail.com