Bloom In The Park 2013

If you’re into gardening and the UK is just a little bit too far for you to travel to see the big flower shows then Bloom In The Park is for you. While it might be the Irish version of the more popular events like Chelsea Flower Show, it is in fact far more as Bloom also hosts a vibrant food festival.

So how did we get on this year?

We’ve been to Bloom In The Park every year since it opened. Most seasons we go at least twice, for example in 2012 I visited three times; once as a guest of Bord Bia and the other 2 times with the family.  This year however time was against us and we elected to travel to the Phoenix Park the once, on Sunday 2nd June last.

The hipster and superman had a great time at the Cupcake Camp taught by Sharon Hearne Smith and sponsored by Avoca in aid of the Children’s Medical Research Foundation in Crumlin. I finally got a chance to meet David Corscadden of Beyond The Wild Garden. I should have known we’d meet over cakes!

Because of the crowds there wasn’t a hope of us getting near the Show Gardens when the workshop was finished at 11.15am. So we headed instead to the craft area where we found my friend Adam from Cook It Yourself food blog who incidentally is also the GIYer of the Year 2012. Himself finally got the oscillating hoe that he had been eyeing up for the past year. Great value too. I got a pic of a butterfly (below).

And I quote: “Anything Donal Skehan can do, I can do better.”

The kids had a ball on the space hoppers that Innocent had at their stand.

We loved the idea of the seed bombs that the Dublin Community Growers had. Now under serious consideration for a day on the Summer Project this year. Watch out for the next generation of guerilla gardeners!

Then onwards to the food village. I managed to catch up with Clarke’s of Stamullen and Donnelly’s Fresh Foods, both companies are very local to me so I was delighted to say hello to familiar faces and watch them at work. They were in the “Best In Season” tented area.  Indeed the “featured picture” on this blogpost is of the stand that Donnelly’s had in the tent.

At this point the crowds in the food village were beginning to increase and I was eager to see what the rest of the producers were up to.  Unfortunately though the crowds were so bad I couldn’t get the (very compact) buggy around the food areas. The hipster insisted on sneaking into the Broderick’s Brothers stand to tell them that they were her heroes.  She came over all starstruck so I nabbed a picture with a very willing Broderick. Fair play to him, he made her day!

I tried, and failed, to get close to many of the other producers. The Keogh’s stand was very popular, not a chance I’d get close with my camera, let alone a buggy.  Himself held on tight to the boys so I could nip down and say hello to Nicola from The Big Red Kitchen, also a local and I was delighted to finally meet her & her one woman pep rally to the side (not pictured)!

We made for the main stage for a bit of a picnic and so that we could let the small man out to wander around. Superman!!!!

You can see from the middle picture above it was getting more crowded so we headed up towards the Budding Bloomers area (designed just for kids) but couldn’t find space to sit down.

So at 1.30pm we headed for the car a bit disappointed.

Bloom In The Park is usually a great opportunity to meet with garden designers and food producers so here’s hoping that Bord Bia have more space to dedicate to it next year so that it’s easier to move around!