Popular garden party supports CARMHA
LULU and Pearse Bergin's annual opening to the public of their garden at Curraquill, Ballycommon, is coming up soon and this time it's in aid of CARMHA.
Gardening experts Mary Reynolds and Carl Wright will attend as a guest speakers on the day, when visitors will also be able enjoy flora & fauna pictures taken by local photographer Simon Carter. Further plans include a talk on bees by Tom Starr, while visitors will be served tea, coffee and cake while enjoying the sights and scents of this marvellous garden.
For 10 years, the Bergins held a garden party to raise funds for North Tipperary Hospice and in memory of their great friend Patsy Barrett, who always wanted to invite people in the community to enjoy the garden's wonders. Last year's event was in aid of the Alzheimer Society, as Lulu has a sister with Alzheimer's.
This year's garden party will serve as a fundraiser for the recently-established Connection And Recovery in Mental Health & Addiction (CARMHA) support services in Nenagh. Lulu said she wanted to support CARMHA because just about everyone knows someone struggling with addiction and/or mental health problems. She believes that CARMHA has great potential and she wants to spread awareness about its services, which are available to everyone in the community.
Held in association with Nenagh Flower & Garden Club, this year's event will also have an emphasis on climate change and protecting the environment from overuse of harmful chemicals in gardening. The Bergins have allowed parts of their garden to go wild by not cutting the lawn in places and not weeding all the flower beds. They have seen more birds, bees and butterflies as a result.
They have endeavoured to be as organic as possible over the years and do not use any chemical sprays at all. They hope that people will see that we do not need “neat and tidy gardens; it's better to be messy in the garden than constantly using weed killers!” Lulu said. This theme will also be reflected in the talks by the two key speakers.
The event will take place on Saturday, September 28th, from 1.30 to 5pm at Curraquill Garden, which will be signposted. Tickets cost €30 and, due to limited space, booking is essential. Donations to CARMHA can be made on the day. Lulu is appealing to people to book as early as possible as the attendance may necessitate the provision of a marquee. She can be contacted at 087 7696527.
Speaker profile - Carl Wright
CARL'S obsession with nature and plants goes back to early childhood but it was only in 1999 when he bought a derelict cottage in the Burren in Co Clare that he became a “gardener”! With a few acres of woodland, scrub, a river, a lot of rock and no soil, he created a little garden that developed into a major project.
Eventually opening it for visitors, Carl's garden has featured in numerous magazines and books worldwide. In 2018 a German magazine ranked it as one of the seven most creative gardens in Europe.
Carl now gives talks on various subjects all over Ireland and the UK, and he has a regular column in 'The Irish Garden Magazine'.
Mary Reynolds
MARY will be known to many as niece of the late Esther O'Shea of Gortlandroe, Nenagh. Growing up in Wexford, she achieved a Gold Medal at the Chelsea Flower Show, unusual at the time for a first-time effort, and a feat that became subject of a movie made in 2016 by Irish writer and director Vivienne De Courcy, 'Dare to be Wild'.
Since then, Mary has built up quite a cult following in the world of landscape design. She is considered unique in her field and has been consistently named in the top 10 of landscape designers historically.
Also in 2016, Mary published her bestselling book, ‘The Garden Awakening – Designs to Nurture Our Land and Ourselves’. This year saw the publication of 'We Are The Ark', a follow-up book that is fast growing into a global environmental movement.
Mary is a proud patron of Wildlife Rehabilitation Ireland and strives to do as much as she can to re-educate people how to live in harmony with nature in their own patch of land; o become Guardians rather than Gardeners.