28-05-2025
Bloom festival: Putting the finishing touches on show gardens with a message
'At one point, I was 60 stone and I was a lock-in. I was at the worst point in my life,' says Gary Kirwan.
The 44-year-old, who is on the autism spectrum, 'didn't go anywhere at the time' but found a 'safe place' in Lego while his mental health was suffering.
It was not until his wife, Michelle, convinced him to showcase his Lego work at an exhibition in his native Co Limerick that he got 'back out into the world', he says.
'You couldn't see light at the end of the tunnel at that stage, and it has just turned his life around,' Michelle says.
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Now, seven years later, Mr Kirwan has lost 27 stone and is one of 21 designers who will showcase a garden at
Bloom
.
He has been working 'morning, noon and night' on the project for eight weeks. It features plants, flowers and compost entirely made from Lego.
'I want everyone to look it and be like 'wow' but I really want kids to look at it and think, 'I can make that.''
The gardens on display vary in size and complexity, with some seeking to show apartment inhabitants or downsizers it is possible to create an outdoor haven from a small space.
'You can garden in the tiniest of spaces,' says Cornelia Raftery, who designed The Pink Lady Balcony, a sustainable, bee-friendly balcony garden. 'I've lived in London for most of my life and I was lucky to have a patch out back but I've always gardened.'
Garden designer Pip Probert and Tusla foster carer Sandra Wogan in Tusla's Fostering Is For You garden at Bloom. Photograph: Alan Betson/The Irish Times
Other gardens seek to raise awareness or act as tributes, including Tusla's Fostering Is For You garden, designed by
Pip Probert
.
Children and teenagers in foster care, as well as foster carers, have contributed to the design which features a graffiti wall littered with hand prints, surrounded by unmanicured planting of various colours and sizes.
The garden pays tribute to the fostering community and aims to entice others to consider joining, with Jacqui Smyth, Tusla's national foster care lead, saying passersby at Bloom in past years have gone on to do so.
Joe Eustace, a 23-year-old from Co Kildare who is showcasing at his third Bloom festival, designed The Support Garden on behalf of the
Decision Support Service
.
Mr Eustace sought to create a contemporary, safe and calming environment to encourage conversations surrounding advance planning, which can be an 'intimidating' subject to approach, he says. Advance planning encompasses areas including enduring powers of attorney and healthcare directives.
'Advance planning is an elephant in the room for a lot of people. I built the garden with my dad – he's the main contractor – and it would be a hard conversation to have with him, and a lot of people would be in the same boat,' he says.
Martha (5) and Robyn (9) Lyons in the Kerrygold Nature Wrapped in Gold garden designed by Ailish Drake and Conor Hourigan. Photograph: Alan Betson/The Irish Times
Mr Eustace used planting to create a 'cocoon' to create an intimate one-on-one space, while a metaphor of support is woven throughout via a steel network which overlooks the garden. The steel frames support a floating central fireplace which represents the person at the centre of the conversation, he says.
'They're supported even if they can't support themselves,' he says.
Corrugated steel, which represents age, acts as a backdrop, he says.
'It's purposefully at the backdrop because people think advance planning is something that's far away but age is something we need to think about.
'We're all only going in one direction and everyone's going to have to confront it eventually,' he says.
Organisers expect more than 100,000 people to attend this year's festival, which runs until Monday.
President Michael D Higgins is set to officially open the event on Thursday, making what will be his last speech as the festival's patron, with Bloom insiders expecting him to 'go out with a bang'.
