Tipp flag flying at Bloom!

Festival of gardening, food and sustainable living

By Thomas Conway

Nothing says summer like Bord Bia Bloom. The annual June Bank Holiday weekend showcase event in the Phoenix Park bills itself as “Ireland’s largest festival of gardening, food and sustainable living”. Over the course of the past twenty years it has evolved into a world-renowned gathering of horticulturalists, designers, food aficionados and more. But the beauty of the festival lies in the fact that it has something for everyone - from the time-constrained everyday gardener to the hungry young child who just wants to sample some of the free-food offerings. This year, however, there will be plenty of local involvement.

Killaloe Tidy Towns

Anyone who has wandered through Killaloe in recent times will have been struck by the town’s pristine clean streets and general floral elegance. Much of that is down to the work-ethic and enthusiasm of Killaloe Tidy Towns, a group which - like their equivalents across the river in Ballina - are simply mad to keep the place beautiful.

This year Killaloe Tidy Towns will have a presence at Bloom. The group have teamed up with emerging landscape designer Niamh O’Connor to replicate the beautiful 'Bee Community' pollinator garden developed at the bottom of Convent Hill. Flanked by a large and striking blue and white mural of a crow, the garden itself is both eclectic and stunning in terms of its plant life, but it is not there for purely aesthetic purposes. Equipped with its own bug hotel, it plays an important role in promoting biodiversity and encouraging wildlife, particularly bees.

Niamh, who previously worked in finance but embarked on a complete career change some years ago after she suffered an unexpected health scare, says she has “a real passion for bee life and wildlife in gardens”. Despite always having had a general interest in gardening, she never really had a garden until she moved to her current house in Ballina. It was only when she was confined to her home while recovering from a heart operation that she discovered her flair.

“I just got more and more into gardening because I couldn’t leave my house, but I still wanted to be outside,” she says. “I always had an interest in gardening but it was only then that I really got into growing my own plants. It’s the perfect way to clear your head and do something for yourself.”

The central theme of the garden at the foot of Convent Hill, which Niamh is recreating at Bloom, is of course, bees. There are a multitude of different types of species of bees out there, many of which are known as 'solitary bees'. In contrast to bumblebees and honeybees, solitary bees do not form colonies or beehives, and instead construct their own nests. Our gardens are full of them, Niamh says, emphasising that “this project is all about encouraging people to be aware of these amazing species of bees that exist in their gardens, which aren’t necessarily bees in a hive”.

As a resident of Ballina/Killaloe, she was struck by the Bee Community garden and approached Bobby Reynolds and Deirdre Tierney, the driving forces behind Killaloe Tidy Towns. Together, they launched a successful application to participate in Bloom’s Postcard Garden initiative - an exhibition of community garden spaces at the festival which has proven wildly popular.

Working in conjunction with local artist Eilish Tuite, Niamh is intent on bringing the garden to life at Bloom and showcasing it to the masses of people who attend. She speaks effusively of Killaloe Tidy Towns and its impact on the locality.

“It’s one of those things that if people stopped doing it, everyone would notice, whereas now that they do it, people just take it for granted,” she notes. “Tidy Towns is a really important fabric of community life that’s kind of unique to Ireland I think as well.”

Jack Donovan

Designer and Nenagh-native Jack Donovan has the honour of representing Tipperary at this year’s festival.

As the winner of Bloom’s 2026 Cultivating Talent programme, Jack was awarded the opportunity to design one of the variety of show gardens on exhibit at the festival. An architectural, landscape and spatial designer, Jack is currently on-site in the Phoenix Park, creating his own garden, named “Alltar”. Inspired by the French designer and botanist Gilles Clément, Alltar explores the idea of “landscape colonisation”. It demonstrates how “landscape can emerge through minimal intervention and thoughtful use of natural materials”. Images of Alltar on the Bloom website show a garden that is both visually striking and strangely tranquil.

There is plenty more Tipperary involvement at the festival as well. Leading plant experts from Dundrum Nurseries will be contributing to the Nursery Village, while Blanco Nino, a tortilleria based in Clonmel, will be exhibiting a brand-new flavour of its popular tortilla chip range.

The county will also be represented by Fethard’s Cashel Farmhouse Cheesemakers, Cooleeney’s Cooleeney Cheese, Cahir’s Oakpark, O’Donnell’s Crisps and Rívesci, both from Clonmel.