Latest news with #LakeIsleofInnisfree
The Irish Sun
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
‘This is astonishing', says RTE Super Garden judge as contestant creates ‘never done before' feature in ‘daring move'
RTE Super Garden judges have been left blown away by a contestant's 'bold statement' design. The brand-new series of Super Garden continued tonight with five new budding designers battling it out for a coveted spot at Bord Bia's Bloom in 2025. Advertisement 3 Gardener Rosie Alabaster transformed Adrian and Gabriella's home 3 The couple live in Baker Hall, Navan 3 Rosie's garden was inspired by a poem The contestants hoping to have their designs shown off at And overseeing the competition are three judges; Brian Burke, former Super Garden winner Monica Alvarez, and Carol Marks. In tonight's show, viewers met 47-year-old Rosie Alabaster from Rosie wanted to design a beautiful garden for young couple Adrian and Gabriella, and their dog Leo . Advertisement READ MORE IN SUPER GARDEN The talented designer came up with a strong concept of a garden that was inspired by WB Yeats' famous poem, Lake Isle of Innisfree. Rosie created the lake from the poem by using a large wildlife pond. The spectacular pond was the first to feature on Super Garden. Kicking off her build, Rosie was immediately left distressed when she contracted Covid, leaving her behind schedule for five days. Advertisement MOST READ IN THE IRISH SUN Thankfully Rosie's pal, Ronan kindly stepped in and began to dig out the pond area. Once she arrived to the site, Rosie got to work adding a layer of sand over the pond, to smooth it out before putting the 'fleece' on top. Joe Duffy fights back tears on air Rosie then hired a plumbing team to dig out pipes that would drain the pond around the garden. She then put down a beautiful paving which created the small, but precise, patio area. Advertisement But disaster struck when an entire bucket of paint flipped off a table and spilled all over the new patio bricks. 'DARING MOVE' Rosie's team were then forced to completely re-do the patio with new bricks, making for another lengthy set-back to the process Over the next few days, Rosie went about planting a jaw-dropping sea of trees and flowers around the pond. In the end the garden resembled a jungle area, full of greenery and colour. Advertisement Once it was finished the judges surveyed the garden, with Carol noting: 'This is astonishing, its so serene.' Monica added: 'The fact she has created a pond in an estate house is so impressive, this has never been done before. 'You are a very brave woman.' While Brian said: 'It's so new, it's a bold statement and it's a daring move.' Advertisement
Irish Daily Mirror
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Daily Mirror
RTE Super Garden contestant had nightmare start to show after catching Covid
The latest episode of hit RTE show Super Garden got off to a nightmare start when the final contestant missed the first day of work after catching Covid-19. Amateur gardener Rosie Alabaster was the last designer on the telly competition and surprised judges with her WB Yeats-inspired garden theme. Rosie (47), who is from England but based in Kildare, was the final of five garden designers to feature in the show. She came up with a feature so novel in episode five of the latest season of the long-running TV hit that it had never been seen on the show, that is now in series 16. Rosie's garden concept was inspired by Yeats' poem Lake Isle of Innisfree – and she hopes it will take her to Bord Bia Bloom. Her idea was to take the lake from the poem and add it to the garden as the dominant feature. Rosie said: "The poem talks about getting back into nature and that's what I want to see in the garden." But her Covid infection meant that family friend Ronan had to step in to start the garden pond dig as Rosie missed the first five days of work. She said: "I'm very lucky to have had Ronan do all the work while I've not been well enough. "The garden will feel bigger [to accommodate the pond] when it has got lots of things in it." More drama unfolded after she got to the garden on day six of the shoot when a tin of paint was spilled over the freshly-laid garden patio. TV judge Monica Alvarez said: "The fact that you have created a lake in a garden this size is very impressive. This has never been done in Super Garden before." Rosie promoted her design and said: "Just because you live in a new housing estate, doesn't mean that you can't bring back the nature that has been pushed out." Fellow judge Brian Burke, who is a former Super Garden winner, said: "It's new and it's a bold statement and it's a daring move." Rosie was designing a garden for young couple Adrian and Gabriella, and their dog Leo. Adrian said: "We are very happy with the garden. Rosie did a great job. It was worrying at the start, seeing a big hole in the garden, but it all came together in the end." Rosie has a background in drama and worked as a theatre designer for 20 years. She has also written children's books, as well as illustration and animation, and is currently pursuing a Master's degree in landscape architecture. Rosie revealed that the course combines her two loves - plants and outdoor spaces – and is using her knowledge to design a small garden for a charity in Dublin. She moved to Kildare three years ago when her Leitrim husband Pascal's job relocated them and their children Jack (13) and Meabh (11) to Ireland. The telly competition matches people with green fingers and big ambitions to families who want their outdoor spaces transformed for their individual needs. Each episode features one gardener contestant transforming a garden. The winning garden will be chosen on next week's show and the winner will get the prestige of showcasing their garden at the Bloom festival. Over 100,000 visitors will have the chance to see the winning design brought to life. A show spokesperson for RTE said: "Each designer has been given three weeks and a budget of €15,000 to create their gardens. "They are each given a similar sized garden to create their designs, working alongside each other in the new housing development. "Baker Hall in Navan, County Meath, built by Glenveagh Homes, is the location for this year's Super Garden. "The designers created gardens for homeowners, who have recently purchased these new homes with the support of Meath County Council and the Land Development Agency, through the affordable housing scheme." Watch next week's episode on RTE One for the Super Garden live final
RTÉ News
22-04-2025
- Entertainment
- RTÉ News
Judge Brian Burke on what he wants from a Super Garden winner
Beloved garden design challenge, Super Garden, is back for a brand new series on RTÉ One - the 16th series, if you can believe it. "It's a real testament to its popularity," says Brian Burke, a former Super Garden winner and long-time judge on the show. "It's all about the aspects of the show that appeal to people; it's so relatable, the size of the gardens, everyone can look and take some ideas from it." "People are pent up after the winter, they're mad to get back out," he adds. " Super Garden lands at the opportune moment." Each year, the series challenges a bunch of budding designers to sprout and bloom - no matter the conditions. Each is given three weeks and a budget of €15,000 to create a slice of heaven to address their client's individual needs. Working alongside each other in a new housing development, the designers are battling it out for the coveted title of 'Super Garden winner' as well as the chance to showcase their design at Bord Bia Bloom - Ireland's premier garden festival. Based in Baker Hall in Navan, County Meath, this year's gardens will need to address a variety of priorities, ranging from child-friendly play areas to a culinary canopies perfect for entertaining. The diverse range of designers and homeowners is a credit to the show and, according to Brian, has become a key factor in its long-running success. "You get people of all ages, you get people of different nationalities, people from all backgrounds," says the Woodies representative. "They bring a whole different range of skillsets, experience, tastes and preferences to the table. If you don't like what's showcased in one episode, chances are you'll like one of the others." Burke, a former Super Garden winner himself, has been a long-standing judge of the show and says that every season brings fresh ideas and perspectives. "People really use it as a source of inspiration," he muses, noting that one of this year's gardens will be designed around the concept of the WB Yeats poem, Lake Isle of Innisfree. "To be inspired by our literary heritage, it wasn't one that we were expecting," he admits, "but, again, that's testament to the extent to which people are thinking about design now." "To look at a rectangular space and to go beyond the obvious, and to go beyond the physical, and to elevate it to the realm of the metaphysical or the literary is testament to where garden design is going." Super Garden is back 🙌🌱 Each designer is given three weeks and a budget of €15,000 to create their gardens, and the winner will showcase their garden at Bord Bia Bloom 🌷 #SuperGarden | New season starts Tuesday at 7pm — RTÉ One (@RTEOne) April 20, 2025 Working alongside judges Monica Alvarez and Carol Marks, Burke says that the panel are always looking for people to go "beyond the expected" when it comes to their work. "Give us something that maybe we haven't seen before. Now, it's hard to be original on a planet of eight billion people," he admits. "It's hard to be original. There are aspects of pretty much everything that we've seen before, but there's still scope to be innovative, there's still scope to be different." Planting styles, configuration of space, use of water, and a sense of flow are all taken into account when it comes to competing designs. "Fundamentally, and probably most importantly in the whole process, is how you respond to the needs of the homeowners," says Burke. "Everyone has a different set of requirements, and this is one of the things that designers are being tasked with. "It's about being original, being interesting, going beyond the expected, while also responding directly to the needs that the household requires. There are a lot of boxes to tick there, a lot of balls to juggle. The one who manages it most successfully is usually the one who wins."
