EP338- Carlow Garden Festival Preview With Eileen O Rourke CEO Carlow Tourism: Nine Days Of Garden Talks Across Carlow

Carlow Garden Festival is back better than ever in 2026 with an amazing line up of speakers: a pick-and-mix week where you can build your own perfect gardening break. We’re joined by Eileen O’Rourke, CEO of Carlow Tourism, to walk through the programme day by day so you know exactly what’s on, where it’s happening, and how to choose the events that match your garden and your curiosity. 

We talk biodiversity and working with nature, from lessons that come straight from the seasons to practical ways of supporting beneficial insects and healthier soil. We also dig into the design side: how to “paint with plants”, how to combine colour and texture for long-lasting borders, and why plants should stay the star of the show even when modern garden features try to steal the spotlight. If you’ve been searching for real-world planting design advice, sustainable gardening ideas, or a gardening event in Ireland that’s genuinely useful, this lineup is built to send you home with plans. 

We also get into the fun bits that make the festival feel like a holiday: evening talks in garden settings, guided tours, great cafés, and a garden-party atmosphere at Altamont. There’s space for specialist interests too, including herbal medicine talks on Irish medicinal plants and hands-on botanical print workshops, plus an honest nod to the “plantaholic” urge we all understand. 

Have a listen, pick your must-see talk, and then subscribe, share the episode with a gardening friend, and leave us a review so more people can find the podcast.

You can get your tickets here: 

https://carlowgardentrail.digitickets.co.uk/tickets

Or phone: 

Phone: 059-9130411

Transcript

Why The Festival Matters

SPEAKER_00 0:12

How's it going everybody? And welcome to episode 338 of Master My Garden Podcast. Now, this week's episode is covering a topic that I've covered in the past. And every year in late July and early August, Carlo Garden Festival takes place. And as you've heard me mention on the podcast before, Carlo Garden Festival brings together some of the I would say the best speakers within gardening across Ireland and the UK, and this year is no different. And we're going to have a look at the festival, we're going to go through it day by day and you know look at what the different speakers, the subjects that they're talking on. So I'm delighted to be joined by Eileen O'Rourke, CEO of Carlo Tourism, who look after the Carlo Garden Festival. And the festival runs from the 25th of July until the 2nd of August. So nice nine long days of great gardening content. So, Eileen, you're very, very welcome back to Master My Garden.

SPEAKER_03 1:04

John, thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_00 1:06

Yeah, so yeah, I I mentioned it. You know, over the years the speakers have been fantastic, and this year is definitely no different. Looking through the list there, there's some of the best speakers within gardening again at the festival. So yeah, you you you really are able to pull in the the you know the the top talent, I suppose.

SPEAKER_03 1:26

Yes, well, we we worked very hard on it in association with the Carlo Garden Trail Committee, and the members on the trail, obviously, from their own knowledge of gardening and within their own premises, they have great ideas. So, really, for us, it's uh here in the office, it's to try and make contact and um ensure that they they want to come along. So we're very pleased um with this year's programme again, and we've added some new elements this year, uh, which we hope will be well received also.

SPEAKER_00 2:02

Yeah, brilliant. And it's a nice, you know, for for people coming to it, it's you know, it's something that you can tie in your kind of holiday around. It's it's nine days you can come up and and dip in and out of the festival over the over the nine days for whatever speakers catch your eye. And yeah, as I say, you can you can make a kind of a few days out of it or a week out of it, whatever the case may be.

SPEAKER_03 2:23

Yeah, that's interesting that you say that because we actually see that quite a lot.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:28

The people actually, it is it's their domestic holiday or it's their you know, domestic break for a few days. We see people coming the first weekend, then they're obviously going back to work. Uh, they might get back then the following weekend on the Friday, and they're there for the last weekend as well. And actually, this year, that's one of the things we've done. Um, is we've introduced passes. If people want that, that we have a first weekend pass based exactly on what you're saying, and we have a second weekend pass. And um, that's designed for those, you know, who might be in work during the week, can't make the talks, but love coming down at the weekends.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we'll do we'll do the same as what we did last year, where we, you know, we we start on day one, we go through the speakers, um, sort of talk about what people might, you know expect coming to any of these talks. We won't go into we won't give them any of the, I suppose, the secrets that are going to be given out or talked about, but it'll give them a flavor for what's coming up. And so, yeah, we'll we we'll start on 25th

Day One River Walk And Opening Night

SPEAKER_00 3:39

of July. So that's a Saturday, 25th of July, I think, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03 3:43

Saturday is the 25th of July, and we'll start with uh Fien on New Lawn. And Fiend will be meeting um everybody at the Garden of Remembrance in Lochnon Bridge and going on a lovely walk along uh the River Barrow for about an hour and a half, answering both introducing everybody to the plant life and the bird life of the River Barrow, but also asking any queries that people have because obviously Fiend is hugely knowledgeable on uh herbs and you know the natural world and how important it is for us. Um, to me, Fien epitomizes um the garden festival as well. And I'm always keen to say that you know it's for people who who are very knowledgeable about gardening, but it's also for those who are just beginning uh to dip their toe in. And uh Fien is a wonderful speaker, I really enjoy listening to him. And if anybody um I probably said this to you before, uh John, but I barely I do have a lawn and I do have some pots, and the flowers are actually growing in them at the moment, and they're looking very well, but that's the extent of my gardening prowess. Um, but I love the fact that, you know, for many of the talks that I'm at, I find them really, really interesting, and I'm not a king gardener. I'm I'm very much uh a beginner or just somebody that has um, you know, that loves being in gardens or being out in nature.

SPEAKER_02 5:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:21

So that's the first one. And then um later that evening we head off to Arboretum Home and Garden Heaven, and there we have the opening event of the Garden Festival this year. And again, um this to me is a talk that will appeal to everybody. It's um um James Alexander Sinclair, he's a very well-known uh gardener designer in the UK, he's also an RHS judge, um, and Joe Swift, who has actually created a new garden himself, about two and a half acres, and uh he's a former participant in BBC Gardener's World. He was regularly on the show, but he's going to do an overview of his garden as he has created it, and then uh we'll have a short break, and James will come on and present his garden, and I suppose they'll both critique their own gardening styles. Um, they're both very, very funny individuals. Um, so it's just uh it's setting up to be a good evening of gardening information, but also just a fun evening as well. That's happening at half seven in the arboretum. And uh, if people want to make an evening of it, a complete evening of it, there's a lovely uh evening meal in Arboretum from five until seven, and then you head into the actual garden talk um at half past seven that evening, and the arboretum opens until a quarter to ten that night.

SPEAKER_00 6:55

Okay, brilliant. Uh that's that's a nice lineup to kick off. Finoulon was on the podcast, it's a number of years ago, probably in the earlier days of it, and it's it was one of the longest episodes that we've done, but it's also one of the most popular, and it's one that you would even even myself who was involved in the recording of it, it's one that you would often listen back to because it's just there's loads of stuff in it, none of it is out of reach for people. Uh it's both interesting, uh knowledgeable, it's you know, it's a brilliant, it as you said, he's a brilliant speaker, and and that was and and is a brilliant episode. So he will be, you know, for anyone that's going on that walk initially, that's that's a a really nice morning.

SPEAKER_03 7:41

Yeah, yeah. That's interesting to hear. I must check that, I must check out that podcast myself because I I could really listen to him for a very long time. Yeah, exactly. As you say, he's just so interesting. Everything is that you know, you can really identify with everything he's saying. There's nothing too highbrowed all in it, but it's it's just really it seems strange to say everything is a nugget, but there's so many nuggets of information in what he presents.

SPEAKER_00 8:10

Yeah, exactly. You know, he is very he's very, very good. And then obviously that evening is is always a great evening in our breethem. And and again, this is a nice uh setup, you know, where the two very, very good gardeners, two very good garden speakers, and they are going to critique each other's gardens. So that'll be a bit of it'll be a bit of fun, but it'll also be interesting to see you know the both gardens and and uh listen to the over and back, and as you say, the conversation and the banter between the two of them sound sounds like brilliant, and then of course you have a great evening in the Arboretum tool course.

SPEAKER_03 8:46

And I suppose Joel's garden is at a very different stage to James's, in that Joe has just started creating, you know, in the last couple of years his um his new garden. Um so it will be very interesting from that point. It's also um, you know, as we we know both of them from coming to the festival, I'd say neither of them will hold back on the other, if you know what I mean. So it should be it should be good fun as well as informative. And Joe hasn't been at the festival since 2018. So I think people will really appreciate um the opportunity to see him again and to learn what he's been up to in the meantime.

SPEAKER_00 9:30

Yeah, no, that that that's that's a brilliant day to kick it off. So that's Saturday the 25th, and yeah, tickets, tickets for both of those, 10 euro for the Fino New Law on talk, I think, and is it 24.95?

SPEAKER_03 9:46

Um it's uh 30 for the evening in the Arboretum, and then the evening meal, which is um main course, uh choice of two main courses, and then uh choice from the dessert counter, which if anybody has been in Arboretum, they'll know that's extensive, and tea and coffee, and that's $24.95.

SPEAKER_00 10:10

Very good.

SPEAKER_03 10:11

There's been no change in the evening meal, um, you know, which is difficult enough in today's environment because you know, hospitality providers, they're just there's one price increase after the other. So it's great that we've been able to keep it at last year's level.

SPEAKER_00 10:26

Very good. And that's that's a great, that's a great evening now when you when you pair pair the two together, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_03 10:31

Yes, yes. I think it's uh yeah, I think it's going to be, it's definitely one of the highlights of the programme.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Day Two Nature Lessons And Bold Colour

SPEAKER_00 10:38

So that takes us then to Sunday the 26th, the second day of the festival, and again, a brilliant speaker to kick off Sunday morning.

SPEAKER_03 10:44

Yes, so um Colin Modriscell, uh one of our Irish speakers, again, as you say, a brilliant speaker, head gardener down at Lismore, um, former gardener um in um in Airfield in Dublin. Um and uh Colum is going to be talking about lessons from nature. So it's it's a brilliant location for what he's going to be talking about. It's um a Garden Bio, it's a community garden in the centre of Carlottown. If any of your listeners haven't been there, this is a great opportunity to get there. And really what Colum is doing in this talk is he's inviting everybody to rethink how we're all working with nature. Um so he's going to share his own practical approaches to gardening that he has taken when he gardens himself, you know, encouraging uh beneficial insects into the soil, uh, reducing, you know, general intervention with the soil and working with seasonal times. Um so he's going to uh focus on how small changes can really have a big impact in how we garden. So, you know, focusing on biodiversity, trying to improve soil health, um, and creating more self-sustaining garden spaces, I suppose, is is Column's ethos. And it's going to be again a really lovely morning. It starts at 11 o'clock. Uh, people are welcome to come early. Um, and Guardian Bureau is a volunteer-run um space, John. So uh some of the volunteers will be there to guide people around both before and after, and it's just a lovely space and a very welcoming space. Um so it starts at 11 o'clock and probably you know be over by about one. Uh Colum will speak for about an hour. There will be questions and answers afterwards, and then obviously people um can take a walk around the gardens uh with the volunteers. And what I love as well that morning is they always have uh veg for sale. Um so if anybody wants to to buy some real homegrown uh produce, it's there for sale on the morning. And it's just I suppose I can't really get across on the podcast what a welcoming space it is, and how enthused everybody is on the committee to actually be a part of the garden festival and how delighted they are when they see people coming from all over the country to their space because it is very much to me, it's a very special space in the centre of the town, and they're very much uh committed to sustainable principles, uh, you know, gardening as a community, and it's just um I think Column, you know, it Colum is the perfect uh speaker for the location, so I'm really looking forward to that one as well.

SPEAKER_00 14:00

Yeah, and that is a brilliant little garden, so I know it very well actually. I've I've done some work helping them with their composting setup in there. Um, I also do some talks in there uh helping out a very good herbalist from Carol Laura Darcy. So she looks after, she has a beginner's herbalism course basically, and she brings me in to do uh a small piece for to teach them how to grow the herbs as opposed to she looks after how to use them. And I go in there so so I know the gardens very well, have walked around it several times, uh worked on the composting space for them and various things. So I know it very, very well. And you're right, it there is a lovely feel in there. Uh, there's actually a brilliant, you know, there's a the brilliant room for the talks as well, a nice open, uh bright room for the talks, comfortable room for the talks, and then you have the the lovely setup of the vegetable beds, the raised beds across the and a poly tunnel, and they're all ran by different groups, schools, uh community groups, um the active retired retirement. I was trying to think of that word, active retired. Um, and there's loads of different groups have their various beds in there, and yeah, it's it's it's a lovely setup, and then of course the gardens themselves where you can walk around. Um, yeah, it really is a nice place and a great spot for a gardening talk for sure.

SPEAKER_03 15:23

Yeah, yeah. So very good. And then that afternoon, we're heading out to Ducats Grove, and at three o'clock, we will have the UK gardener there, um Chris Beer Shaw, and probably Chris will be quite well known uh to your listeners, both from his work in uh Gardener's World and then his presenting work also in terms of the Flying Gardener. And he's doing a talk called Painting with Plants. Um, he's looking at the origins of the English garden style and you know how to create beautiful and um lasting planting schemes. And we again, like Joe Swift, Chris hasn't been with us since 2018. So it's a great opportunity for people who haven't seen him in a long number of years uh to actually come along to Ducats Grove. And again, you know, Eamon Mall and the team out in Ducats Grove have been doing tremendous work in terms of um, you know, cultivating and bringing on the gardens out there. Um that afternoon, we will also have uh free guided tours of Ducats Grove. There's a fabulous um tour guide there called Danny McDade, who really, you know, he really breeds history and life into every stone in that place. So if people are coming to the talk, they're very welcome to come in advance. Uh the guided tours are at half twelve that day, two o'clock, and then uh half past four, uh to coincide with the talk itself as such. Um, so people are very welcome to book into those. And we also have some nice craft units um in Ducats Grove. We have uh Nick Angel's Candles, and then we also have the Red Admiral, um, which is Tanya Dean, who does beautiful um tweed um um clothing, and they'll be available on the day also uh to showcase all the lovely styles that they have. But I suppose the star of the show is Chris Birichaw, and we're delighted to have him back this year. And, you know, I suppose the English garden style is one of you know the enduring and lasting contributions to gardening worldwide. So it would be great to get his perspectives on it, and how we can all have these beautiful, luxury, you know, luscious borders that it's well known for.

SPEAKER_00 18:02

Yeah, and it's it's it's obviously the colour combinations. That's what he seems to be talking about, painting with plants. So it's colour combinations, and that's something that people do struggle with, and we've talked about it on the podcast before. So to be able to see Chris's um guidance or to get Chris's guidance on what works well together and so on, uh, that'll be really interesting, and it'll help people when they go back to their own gardens to put plants together that will work together. So, yeah, that's that's a really nice talk. Yeah, yeah. And that's another power pack day, the 26th. Uh, Chris, Chris and Colin O'Driscoll. Uh then on to the 27th, and yeah, first week.

Day Three Gravetye And Hunting Brook

SPEAKER_03 18:43

We're going to be joining the Head Gardener in Grave Time Manor. Um, and he's going to give us his insight. It's Tom Coward. So it's his insight into the running of Grave Time Manor. Uh, it's one of the UK's most celebrated gardens. Um, it's a place that has, you know, continued to influence gardening around the world. Um, probably so well known because of William Robinson, and uh it's the birthplace of what we know is the natural style of gardening. And obviously, in Altamont, uh in Karnell, we have a special interest in that because Altamont um is designed on that basis. So it'll be um a great insight into how you know that relationship between plants and nature uh come into come into being. And Tom is also going to focus on kind of the principles of gentle gardening as well. So gardening, but how you do it in such a way that you know it's healthy soil, it's encouraging biodiversity, um, and creating resilient landscapes that really help uh gardens to thrive. So that's on at 11 o'clock on Monday morning. And that afternoon, then we head to the Delta Sensory Gardens, uh, where we're going to meet Jimmy Blake, the next of our Irish speakers. And Jimmy has um chosen a topic which is creative plant combinations through the seasons in Huntingbrook Gardens. So obviously, Huntingbrook Gardens is so well known, um, and it's a great opportunity uh for people to find out how Jimmy adopts that approach in Huntingbrook, um, you know, selecting plants that work well together, how do you create seasonal impact that you know everybody wants? How do you in bringing in all the colour and bringing all the structure, how do you maintain that sense of balance uh within a border? So he's a lovely, relaxed and engaging style. Again, we haven't had Jimmy um for a few years, so I think he'll be very popular here in Delta Sensory Gardens. And again, like all of our uh talks, once the talk is over, your admission ticket also allows you to actually go into the gardens um so people will be able to take um a look around the beautiful gardens um of Delta.

SPEAKER_00 21:14

Yeah, and they are nice. And again, two brilliant speakers. I've had Tom and Jimmy on the podcast before, and I've heard Tom speaking in person as well. And uh yeah, it's a really interesting. I spent a little bit of time with him last year, he was speaking at Buds and Blossoms, and uh on the week prior or the couple of days prior to it, there he was trying to ch uh trace William Robinson's you know early days here in Ireland, and we we traced them back to having at some point lived not very far within within a mile of my house here. Uh so he spent a day tracking around uh Oh wow Yeah, old churches and uh libraries and various places. So I'm not sure how far he got with it afterwards, but that's uh yeah, that's That was and he's a brilliant speaker. Yeah, for sure. And Jimmy obviously super garden does amazing things there. Beautiful gardens, but loads of different types of spaces within the gardens as well. So he'll be able to talk about, you know, shades, full colour borders, um meadows, everything. So he he has a sand garden. So you know, you'll you'll get various points of interest um from a gardening perspective from Jimmy as well. So yeah, that's another another great day.

Day Four Windsor Stories And Starting Again

SPEAKER_00 22:35

And then on to the 28th.

SPEAKER_03 22:37

So yes, so um again, uh the 28th is is kind of another highlight, if you want. Uh we have two tops that day. Um we have John Anderson in Altimate Gardens, and I I often wonder do I refer to John as English or Irish? Because of course he trained in Ireland, he's worked extensively in Ireland himself. Um and of course now he he's he is in England, but he's coming to Altimate Gardens at 11 o'clock. His uh top title is Um Gardens Along the Gulf Stream. So it's really focusing on the gardens that he has managed. So we start with um, you know, the beautiful gardens that are Mount Usher. Then um he went in his career to, I probably pronounced this wrong, John, you'll be better to tell me, but in Verary in Scotland. Then he went down to Exbury to the Rothschilds, and then of course in 2016, um, there was that huge move for him when he became gardener at that time to the Queen of England, um, and then more recently to King Charles III. So he has a fascinating insight. He's only the fourth keeper of the gardens at Windsor Grey Park. So he again, he's an absolutely fabulous speaker. So I'm really looking forward to hearing him. We haven't had him for a good number of years. Um, so he'll have a real I I often find, you know, again, this is where you don't have to be a keen gardener to really enjoy many of the talks we have. So, you know, John will take us on a trip from Ireland to the UK, and it's really an opportunity to travel to spaces that you you you never thought you'd be able to look and find out about. And, you know, there will be lots of gardening information in there as well. But as you know, John himself has also travelled um extensively, you know, across Australia, South Africa. So that'll come into his talk as well. So it's it's kind of sitting in your chair in a lovely marquee in Altamont Plants, but being transported kind of halfway around the world. And I love that aspect of some of our talks as well.

SPEAKER_00 25:01

Yeah, yeah. And and again, wouldn't wouldn't overly matter if you're a very, very keen gardener or if you're you know if you're a beginner, because the they're gonna talk in a way, number one, that's accessible to everybody, um, but also the stories themselves are going to be interesting regardless of your of your ability, you know, uh gardening ability. So yeah, that's gonna be another brilliant talk.

SPEAKER_03 25:25

Yeah. And then that afternoon, um, we're going to be heading at three o'clock over to Hardy Mount Gardens. And um Oliver Shoreman, he's going to be talking. Uh he gave us the title himself, and I loved the title. It's called It's Never Too Late. So it gives us all great hope that even if we haven't um you know got everything um in place, um, he has really moved his whole nursery a little bit about 400 metres from the old Mount Venus nursery, and he's going to talk about that whole process. Um it happened in 2025, so he was 25 years in Mount Venus nursery at that time, and then um he basically started again moving his whole nursery a little bit further up the road, and all the lessons that he learned um in that process. And it concludes that talk with a beautiful afternoon tea, and we've been incredibly lucky um with the weather over the years, and it's just again such a wonderful atmosphere, uh, the talk itself, and then just you know, people um floating out to Hardymount Gardens to have a look at the gardens themselves, uh, or just enjoying their afternoon tea on the lawn. So that's um that's a lovely afternoon, and as I keep on saying, it's just no ordinary afternoon tea. The McKeevers don't do things by half. It's a gorgeous event um on the lawns in Hardy Mount, and there just seems to be no end to the beautiful treats and sandwiches and sweet treats that come out of the kitchens in Hardy Mount.

SPEAKER_00 27:14

Brilliant, yeah. It sounds like a lovely afternoon. And uh Oliver is a is another brilliant speaker as well. So yes, yeah, really knowledgeable and a fantastic nursery. To hear that story is going to be good, but he knows he knows an unbelievable multiple plants and how to grow plants, how to situate plants, what works well. Uh, yeah, another brilliant, brilliant speaker.

SPEAKER_03 27:38

Um can I just say as well, um, John, uh, on the day Oliver has produced a beautiful, it's kind of a hardback coffee style book. It's called Slow Creation, Quiet Roots and Listening. And it's basically an overview of his whole journey to Mount Venus Nursery, to Bratton House, where it was located, and that's available on the day if anybody would like to purchase it. And obviously, Oliver will be there uh to sign it as well.

SPEAKER_00 28:11

Brilliant.

Day Five Plants As The Main Act

SPEAKER_03 28:12

Yeah, Wednesday, then we take off Wednesday morning, we take off to Burroughs House, um, another beautiful location um on the Garden Trail. And this time we have Arit Anderson, and Arid will probably be very familiar to your listeners because obviously uh she's the regular presenter of BBC Gardener's World. Um, we would have seen her a lot uh over Chelsea. She won a silver guild at Chelsea this year, and she's presenting a talk called Designing with Plants, Why They Should Always Be the Star of the Show. And um that that's great. You know, it'll be a great talk uh for people who really want to get to grips with their planting and their planting styles. Um and Arid will present a number of kind of best examples of how plants can transform the way we design and how we experience our own gardens. Um and how plants can really, you know, they're they provide the structure, they provide the colour, the texture, the seasonal interest, and she herself is very, very interested in natural gardening, responding to, you know, the whole issue of biodiversity and climate change. So I think that's going to be a lovely talk. And again, if anybody hasn't been there, it's just a beautiful location, as you were saying, with the space in Angargian Blue. It's in a wing of Burr's House, lovely doors out to the side of the house with these fabulous views of Mount Leinster and the Blackstar's Mountains, lots of garden, you know, seats outside for people to relax both before and after the talk. So I'm really looking forward to that. She's a really enthusiastic speaker as well. Um, so it should be another of our highlights this year.

SPEAKER_00 30:09

Yeah, brilliant. And yeah, I think designing with plants, why they should always be the star of the show. That's that's a great title, and it probably is something that gets plants not saying they get a little bit lost, but there's there's a new a new wave of garden design where it's all about the fire pit and the outdoor kitchen, and you know, it's all about the the structural part of it. So that's a nice topic, I suppose, to to yeah, to highlight that they should always be the star of the show as opposed to you know the some of the other features. Yeah, brilliant topic.

SPEAKER_03 30:48

Um on Wednesday afternoon, then uh we move on to Kilgramy House and her gardens. And again, I I love this venue because it's a beautiful venue to begin with, um, but it shows the variety in the garden trail. So, you know, you have your private gardens, you have your public gardens, your beautiful nurseries and award-winning garden centres, and then you also have the herbal gardens in Lil Grainy, which is a very different aspect of gardening, but as you know yourself, uh one that has become hugely important. And we're delighted to welcome this year Helen Begadan. Um she's one of the most respected herbal medicine practitioners in the country. She's director of Core College in Castlecomer, um, you know, where she's trained hundreds of uh herbal practitioners over the years, and she's going to be talking about nature's pharmacy healing herbs. So there's this talk has always proved very popular. So there's one talk at three o'clock, and then we repeat that talk, um, the exact same talk at half past five. It takes place in the lovely gallery space um in Kilgrainy House. So we have about capacity for 50 people in that space each time. And um Helen is going to focus on the top 10 most popular Irish medicinal plants, you know, the conditions they like in which they need to grow and thrive, and then the practical thing is what they can be used for. Um so it'll be a very interesting talk, I think. Um it'll focus on everything from you know teas to calming remedies, um, you know, how they can improve our digestion, um, you know, our immune system and boost it. So I'm looking forward to that talk as well.

SPEAKER_00 32:46

Yeah, brilliant, brilliant talk.

SPEAKER_03 32:48

And I suppose that the brilliant thing is you literally step out through those lovely doors of the gallery space, and the herb gardens is in front of you. Um, and Helen will be available to people obviously after each talk to guide them through the the plants, as will uh Martin and Brian from Kilbraini House. So you learn, and then there's the practical application once you actually see the beds straight outside uh the doors of the gallery space.

unknown 33:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:19

Brilliant. And another super day.

SPEAKER_03 33:22

Yeah, uh super

Day Six Shrubberies And Wild Planting

SPEAKER_03 33:23

day. Then on Thursday, we're heading off to um Burton House in the morning at 11 o'clock, and then later that afternoon, uh we'll uh head to Shankill Castle. So Burton House features uh Daphne Shackleton, and um she's talking about reinventing the shrubbery. Um, so you know it was always a very traditional feature of almost every Irish garden. Um, and over time I remember my granny uh having a lovely feature within our garden, but they've become, I suppose, the forgotten corners now. So Daphne is uh is advocating for them, and her talk will uh explain how they can be really reimagined and become very vibrant corners of the garden. And in the afternoon, then uh we take off to Shankill Castle and we have Noel Kingsbury, and again, um Noel is one of our UK gardeners, and he has contributed, um, he's hugely knowledgeable, he's done a lot of work with um Pete Uldoff, so it's great uh to have him. He's focusing on wild by design, and it's all about planting inspired by nature. Um, so you know, design plantings that are both, you know, biodiversity rich, uh beautiful throughout the seasons, but they also uh look very well and very appealing. Um, so that's uh Noel Kingsbury, and he's there at three o'clock on um on the Thursday afternoon.

SPEAKER_00 35:02

Well, that's that's a brilliant start of the day. Like Daphne's talk, uh re-rejuvenating the shrubbery. It's actually something we've talked about, a little bit like um what I was saying about the fire pit. So shrubs shrubs are now seen as a little bit from the 1980s. But and interesting enough, Tom Coward, in his in the time I saw him speaking, he was really advocating for the inclusion of shrubs within borders. And yeah, that's because there's so much. I actually covered a podcast on it back in the spring. There's so many really good shrubs, but they all got lumped into the I suppose into the bracket of old fashioned. Um, but there's so many brilliant flowering shrubs, particularly, and they add structure and uh structure, colour, interest, you know, across the border. So it's brilliant to see that that talk now. That's a really interesting one, yeah. And Noel, obviously Noel Kingsley, obviously, that's a super speaker as well. Um wealth of knowledge, you know, one of huge wealth of knowledge, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:05

And at the moment, actually, he's designed. I'm I'm looking forward to hearing about this. He's designing a new garden in Regents Park in London, and it's in memory of obviously Queen Elizabeth. So he'll share his insights on that as well, I'm sure. And that evening, so so far within our programme, um, we've always had just the opening evening, um, which is in the Arboretum, and it's on the Saturday evening. But we've been encouraged to look at expanding the program. So this year, John, the next two evenings are part of uh that, I suppose, process and effort, in that we the first of two evening talks that take place outside the traditional opening evening. And it's Sandbrook House, um, just outside Ballon, and it's Arthur Shackleton will be talking at six o'clock that evening. Um, and he's going to really be talking about a tale of a country garden reimagined. So over the last 10 years, um, Christopher and Bella Bielenberg have really focused on the garden that was um, I suppose, a very small element of uh the garden at Sandbrook House. And it is an absolutely beautiful garden now, and um Arthur Shackleton has been very involved in that, as has Robert Miller in Ultimate Plants, and he's going to give a talk um uh uh on that process uh with contributions from Bella Bielenberg, um, who obviously has been instrumental as well as owner of the gardens. And it'll be a lovely evening. It's our first time in Sandbrook House, so it's a great opportunity for people uh to see that garden. And um it will start with a nice glass of wine, um, some lovely Carlo farmhouse cheese on water lilies sourdough bread. If anybody um isn't familiar with water lilies, it's a beautiful cafe here on Tulla Street in Carlotown, and they produce their own sourdough bread.

SPEAKER_00 38:20

Um it's amazing. Oh, it's gorgeous.

SPEAKER_03 38:23

It's very hard to stop. The only problem is it's very hard to stop eating the sourdough bread since we start it all. Yeah, uh, it is so tasty, but uh that will be the Thursday evening, and uh, we're looking forward um to having our our first outing in Sandbrook House, and it really is a garden that has matured and developed over the past number of years, and it will be a great opportunity for people to see a new garden in Carlo.

SPEAKER_00 38:51

Yeah, it's a nice it's a nice addition, actually, those two evening talks because as I was saying at the start, if somebody is making this their kind of weekend away or this uh, you know, their domestic holiday, then to to have something in the evening times is a nice addition. Yes, and I I I'd imagine that'll prove popular because yeah, it'll it'll fill that spot.

SPEAKER_03 39:12

You know, people are away for for a week and they'll yeah, and we'd really like, I suppose, in the coming years to work more on that. And what we've learned, I suppose, is it's very nice, no more than the talks during the day. Obviously, they're they're in the various garden venues and the nurseries and the garden centres, but also to have the evening talks uh within the venues themselves because people love that. And we have had talks in the past, um, maybe in indoor properties and um, you know, traditional, I suppose, tourism establishments, and they haven't been as well received as literally physically being in a garden where they can go and look at the borders and the gardens before the talk starts or after. So uh we're looking forward to seeing how these two evenings go.

SPEAKER_00 40:01

Brilliant, yeah.

Day Seven Garden Party At Altamont

SPEAKER_03 40:02

And the following morning, again, um, you know, for people who might be coming down, maybe taking Friday off work, they get to um they get to uh the talk in Sandbrook House on the Thursday, and then they get to another of the highlights of the festival programme, which is the full day of activity out in Altamont Plants on the grounds of Altamont Gardens, and it's two UK speakers, um, Tom Brown and Jack Aldridge. And um, Tom Brown is obviously very well known from his work in West Dean Gardens. Um, he's the head gardener there, and then uh Jack Aldridge, I suppose he's one of the real up-and-coming names in UK gardening. He was in Wesley, he's just recently moved to uh English Heritage, and he's focusing on the vanishing garden, so a plants man pick of good garden plants, and he's advocating no more than Daphne for the shrubs, he's advocating for, you know, the real hard-working plants, the reliable ones, the ones that maybe perhaps we have forgotten but are equally beautiful, they stand the test of time, and um, that is his focus of his talk. And that day is a really beautiful day because in between the two talks, there's um a trio of jazz musicians uh in the plant sales area. It's just a real kind of garden party atmosphere. People flow out into the main gardens to have a wander around the main gardens. Um, they head up to the forge at the crossroads for their lunch, or they stay on site. You know, they um the sugar and spice cafe have lovely sandwiches and and salad bowls and kind of sweet treats. Um, if somebody wants something more substantial, the forge is only it's less than a mile away. But it's um a very much a garden party um atmosphere.

SPEAKER_00 42:06

Yeah. Altmount Altmout looks brilliant at the minute, but Altemount plants sales, which obviously Robert runs, is you're fantastic. You you have you have all the usual suspects, but a lot of unusual plants, really high quality, large snowdrop collection, large rose collection. So yeah, you get you get a lot of interest there, and obviously the gardens themselves when you're out and about in them are fantastic, and they're looking unbelievable at the moment.

SPEAKER_03 42:33

Yes, I was out there only. Oh god, I think the week before last.

SPEAKER_00 42:36

And they're just yeah, amazing at the minute, yeah. Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_03 42:40

And the thing to remember about um when you're at the day for Altaman Plants, or indeed at the day in Altamont Gardens, um, there are three tour guides there, three brilliant tour guides, and they also offer guided tours of of the actual gardens themselves. So, you know, if you want to just go to the reception point, they're very flexible about the times. Um, so if you have time between your lunch break, um there'll be a free guided tour for you there as well.

SPEAKER_00 43:09

Brilliant.

SPEAKER_03 43:10

Okay, so once we're finished um in Altamont Plants, literally two miles over the road that evening um is the village of Ballin, and we've in Nilauna doing a biodiversity walk and talk uh through the village of Ballin. And Ballin is really uh one of um the forefronts in terms of sustainable and biodiversity gardening. They've done a huge amount of work in this area. So we're starting at the new car park, which is opposite the community centre in Ballin, and we're going through lots of different areas, be it uh the St. Peter and Paul's walkway, um, the actual graveyard attached to the church. Um, they also have 12 um Trees, examples of native Irish species. So that's going to be an interesting evening as well, in terms of you know, just explaining how biodiversity can be brought into gardening spaces uh very easily. And Amy Launa is a really uh nice speaker. Uh, she's I find her very entertaining. Yeah, but it will be both practical uh but also enjoyable as well.

SPEAKER_00 44:28

Yeah, yeah, that's a that's a brilliant day, full a full day, very c all very close together, so you've no real driving in between, and it's yeah, it's uh and Balin is a brilliant village. There's all along the front of the school, they did a lot of work over the last few years, a lot of um planting done for for pollinators, bug hotels, functional ones, not just decorative ones. So it's yeah, that's it's a really yeah, as you said, a brilliant, a brilliant little village from that from that perspective.

SPEAKER_03 44:56

Yeah.

Day Eight Plantaholics And Huntington Design

SPEAKER_03 44:57

And then on the Saturday morning, um we head back again to Delta for the final of our two talks, and probably um a lot of your listeners will identify with this talk as in you know, you've promised yourself that you're buying no more plants, and that is it. And um, you know, what do you do when um you head out again? And basically, one plant is never enough. Every new discovery, you know, you create the space somewhere within your border, within your garden for the next plant. So she's focusing on a plantaholic paradise. And it's Helen's view, she's from the Picton Garden and Old Court Nursery in the UK. I think it's third generation. Um, it's a third generation business. And um, Helen herself, she would confess to being a plantaholic. So it's her personal journey uh collecting, growing, celebrating plants, what she really loves, what she can't be without. Um, the plants that have captured her imagination over the years, um, from the ones that maybe again we we tend to forget about with a really reliable performers, to just these rare treasures, these rare finds that you cannot deny yourself, even though you've promised to deny yourself. So I think that will be a great talk. And that afternoon, again, it's the last of our uh visits to uh Huntington, and it's Bunny Guinness. And Bunny is we had Bunny uh two years ago or three years ago in Boris House, and she gave an absolutely fabulous talk. Um, obviously, she's well known for her work with King Charles, but this time she's focusing on designing with plants. Um you know, she's a very imaginative planting style. She's hugely, hugely knowledgeable. Um, so she's really drawing on all of her experience throughout the work she's done in Britain and in Ireland, and she's going to be um sharing her insights into how combine how to combine plants uh for colour, for texture, for seasonal interest, um, to create gardens that look natural, um, they're full of character, they look balanced. So I think that'll be another very popular talk um within the program this year.

SPEAKER_00 47:32

Yeah, brilliant. That's another brilliant day.

SPEAKER_03 47:34

Um, and one thing I forgot to mention, just with Huntington and again with Delta, obviously both of them have um both of them have lovely uh cafes. So, you know, it's just a lovely place to head before or after. Um Huntington has the added advantage that you can avail of a guided tour of the house. So on the website you can actually book in your guided tour again before or after your talk. So it you kind of make a whole day or afternoon of it.

SPEAKER_00 48:06

Yeah. Yeah. Some some brilliant walks and that down around Huntington as well. I I worked in Huntington a long, long time ago, and there's a fantastic U-walk, which has I think the oldest U-walk in the country, and that is that is beautiful, absolutely gorgeous. Then you have uh walks down to the river there. So yeah, it's a it's an amazing place, you know, just to Yes.

SPEAKER_03 48:28

And and they call it the wilderness. You know, you you head in, I suppose at the start of it is the U-walk, but then you go further and further down, and you come to the old house that generated uh ESB for the estate. I think I call it ESB, but obviously um electrics uh as far as far back as I think it was 1891, but it's just a place that every corner you go around, there's something new, there's something different to experience. And um Alex and the family have done just amazing work there um over a relatively short period of time. So it's a lovely place to head. Yeah, for

Final Day Gardens For All Plus Family Fun

SPEAKER_03 49:10

sure. Um then the last day, um, and it's amazing when when we talk about it now, John, and it seems so long, but it's amazing how quickly the festival goes. And then on the last day, you're kind of very sad that it's all over again for another year. Um, you think you know, you think it's um a program that that will go on forever, but it actually goes by very, very quickly. So the last day um we have uh Mary Keenan, another wonderful gardener, and she's in uh the Barrow Experience Gardens um out in Bagnallstown. And I don't know if you've been there, but they are just beautiful gardens, and again, you know, I know all of our gardens have have very special atmospheres, but here again, there's just a wonderful, warm and welcoming atmosphere. And um it's a to me, it's a very special place. It operates on the same principles as the Delta Sensory Gardens, so the the gardens themselves are a space for those uh with um the centre is a space for those with um disabilities, and then they've developed their gardens both for their own participants but also for the general public. And Mary Keenan is doing a walk and talk around those gardens, and I've heard Mary Keenan on many occasions, and she's a wonderful gardener. So there've been lots of helpful tips and nuggets of information that morning, but it's just a lovely opportunity to get to see those gardens because they're not, you know, they're not open all the time. Um so it's it's a good opportunity for people to to get in and see around them.

SPEAKER_00 50:59

No, it's a garden I I I haven't been in before, but uh Mary is a fantastic speaker, um, brilliant, brilliant gardener, has a great garden herself. So yeah, that that'll be definitely great. And no, but I haven't I've heard about those gardens. Um you've you've taught me about them before, but others as well.

SPEAKER_03 51:16

And uh yeah, they're supposed to be very they're they're called the Barrow Experience Gardens, they have ten different gardens within it. Um, you know, a monastic garden, a herb garden, but they're on the banks of the river Barrow. Um so in Bagnallstown. So you can park at the gardens themselves or outside on the street, and when it's all over, there's lovely little coffee shops in Bagnallstown, and you can take a wander down along the river. Whether you take a formal walk up as far as Lochland Bridge or go southwards in the direction of Goresbridge, but it's just a very special space as well.

SPEAKER_02 51:55

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 51:56

And uh that afternoon, then we finish off the garden festival um where we head to Rathwood, and that's um a family day um of entertainment. It will be suitable for both adults and for kids. Uh so we're looking forward to that

Workshops Tickets And How To Book

SPEAKER_03 52:14

also. And one thing I forgot to mention as well, John, if you don't mind me mentioning, no problem, is we're trying to expand the program um this year, and we have two uh workshops. Again, it's a different aspect to um to the garden festival. So on the Thursday and on the Saturday, we have a botanical impression creative workshop. It's in Kilgrane House in Herb Gardens.

SPEAKER_02 52:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 52:41

Um, and they're starting at 10 o'clock in the morning, they finish at one. They have a very limited um attendance because obviously it's very hands-ons-on, yeah. So it's limited to 10 people each. So basically, what you'll be doing is you'll gather all the botanical materials out in the Herb Gardens in Ukraini, and then you work with Martin, who's one of the owners, and he's a brilliant uh artist and designer himself. So you work on how plants, you know, become sources of colour and pattern and image. Um, and you you experiment really with uh inks, uh, creating plant prints, you know, making lovely images with leaves and flowers and sunlight, and you walk away um from the workshop itself with an actual botanical print of your own. So that's another different but complementary event that's happening this year as part of the garden festival. And it's on third it's on on the 30th of July, which is the Thursday morning between 10 and 1, and it's back on on Saturday, the 1st of August, again from 10 until 1.

SPEAKER_00 53:56

Brilliant. And tickets for those two workshops are on the are on the same website.

SPEAKER_03 54:02

Uh it's on the same website, so everything is on the Carla Garden, well, not the Carla Garden Trail, but it's www.carlogardentrail.com.

SPEAKER_00 54:12

Yeah, brilliant. And that's where you get all your tickets.

SPEAKER_03 54:24

So we do say that if anybody is having difficulties, they just ring the tourist office in Carlo. It's uh 9059-9130411. And Mary on the phone there is very helpful and willing to guide people, you know, she'll book the tickets uh for um attendees, so it becomes, let's say, a less painful process. You know, the website is very easy to follow, but yeah, we're very aware that not everybody um is the Zofe with IT as you know as others, so it just makes it that little bit less stressful.

SPEAKER_00 55:04

Yeah, I think that's good as well because you're you're right, because I see that myself. There is people that just they either don't like or they they're not familiar with navigating the website and to be able to phone someone and say, listen, I want to go to this talk. Uh yeah, I think that's I think that's that's very good. And it you know, in a w in a world where we are moving more and more towards digital transactions, it's it's a it's you know, it it's a lovely, a lovely touch to add that and to give that availability to people in that way.

SPEAKER_03 55:33

So uh and the good thing is the tourist office is open um Monday to Saturday, and then um it's open again on Sunday between two and four. So I'm you know, I'm I suppose I understand that people don't always get if they're minding grandkids or whatever, they're working, they don't always get to do these things uh during the week. So if people, you know, only get to reach on it on a Saturday morning, you know, the the office is open as well.

SPEAKER_00 56:04

Yeah, that's brilliant. So I will put I'll put the the phone number and I'll put the the link to the website in the show notes anyway, so anyone can click through that. Um again, it's amazing, an amazing lineup of speakers again this year. So Saturday the 25th of July to Sunday the 2nd of August, action-packed, various types of speakers, so many different topics, so many. Yeah, there's not many there that you wouldn't want to go to, I'll put it to you that way. So, yeah, well done again, Eileen, on putting the whole lot together, and thank you very, very much for coming on Master My Garden Podcast.

SPEAKER_03 56:36

Thank you, John.

SPEAKER_00 56:37

So that's been this week's episode. A huge thanks to Eileen for coming on. Uh, again, amazing speakers. You'll file the you'll find the full lineup, the full programme. You know, obviously we've ran through it there, but you'll find the whole lot on Carlogarden Trail.com. And yeah, you'll be able to see day by day who's speaking, what times they're speaking at, and you can purchase tickets there, or if you don't want to work through a website, you can you can phone that number again. Both of those are in the show notes. So that's been this week's episode. Thanks for listening, and until the next time, happy gardening.