The heat was on for more than 12,000 visitors at the garden, food and family festival
THERE WAS only one major problem at the second day of the Bloom gardening, food and family festival in the Phoenix Park yesterday: sunshine. Virtually all the patients treated at the medical centre were suffering from heat-related ailments.
The staff there spent the day smearing sunblock on large numbers of the 12,000-plus visitors who arrived at the site to the view the gardens, the food village, craft exhibitions and the nursery stands. Even the piglets at the food village had to have extra sunblock applied to prevent them becoming roast pork.
An Bord Bia, the organiser, has set up a “plant creche” at one of the exits on the site where people who purchase plants and want to leave them until they depart, can lodge them, which is a very clever idea.
It also prevents patrons getting stabbed in the eyes or stung or covered in pollen by those who do not know the creche is there as they weave through the crowds carrying their beloved plants.
There was indeed a healthy element to yesterday’s event, with the arrival in the late afternoon of Minister for Health James Reilly, who toured the site and visited the prize-winning gardens.
He paid special attention to one of them, the Asthma Society of Ireland garden Treat not Trigger, designed by horticulturist Fiann Ó Nualláin, to highlight how better air quality and managing environment can help sufferers.
Dr Reilly said he had a special interest in the garden because a member of his immediate family suffered from asthma and he was very interested to see what plants and flowers were being used there.
The Asthma Society issued a series of helpful hints to sufferers to make their lives more bearable, like choosing plants pollinated by bees who carry off the pollen rather than having it floating around the garden.
They also advised people to avoid plants that are intensely fragrant, to choose female plants, which produce no pollen and to mow grass regularly before it flowers and throws off pollen.
Dr Reilly also received a warm welcome in the food village, as many of the exhibitors there are constituents of his from north Co Dublin. He spoke of the importance of agriculture and the very positive role it could play in the recovery of the economy.
As promised, Michael D Higgins, president of the Labour Party and presidential hopeful for a turn in the park, visited the site and was given a great reception by the people he met.
“I am delighted because it was not just Labour people but across the board,” he said, settling himself comfortably on a bench within shouting distance of his ultimate political goal.
He was not making any predictions about the future but said he was looking forward to having a chance to become the president of what he called “this great country of ours”.
He was not the only celebrity there yesterday: snooker player Ken Doherty and musician Gemma Hayes also braved the elements to attend the event, which ends on Monday evening.
The eyes of the world were on the site, according to An Bord Bia, as Bloom 2011 has attracted more than 50 journalists from overseas, including television crews from Dubai, two from China and one from the Netherlands; and print journalists and photographers who travelled from Denmark, France, Britain, Hungary and Germany.
WINNERS: SILVER GILT MEDAL
LARGE GARDEN
The Kells Bay Garden designed by Frazer McDonogh, Wicklow, and Billy Alexander, Kells Bay Gardens, Kerry.
The Growise Garden, in association with Kildare Growers, designed by Tim Austen, Austen Associates, Wicklow .
ENGAGING SPACE
Columbarium, designed by Brian Cleary, College of Education, Dundrum, Dublin.
The Steam Museum Garden, designed by Sophie Graefin Von Maltzan, and Lodge Park Steam Museum Garden, Kildare .
The Lyric FM Garden, Where Life Sounds Better, designed by Sheena Vernon with Michael Corr, Garden Force.
An Outdoor Gallery, designed by Sophie Graefin Von Maltzan, Dublin.
A Place of Belonging designed by Damien Costello and the customers of Focus Ireland.