Dublin's Phoenix Park burst into colour this week as Bord Bia's Bloom, Ireland's largest gardening festival, kicked off once again.
Taking place from 1-5 June, the festival showcases innovative and spectacular designs from gardens across the country, but one garden is always given particular pride of place: the winning design from RTÉ's Super Garden.
Colm Carty, a Quantity Surveyor from Warrenpoint, Co Down, was crowned this year's winner for his elegant and family-oriented design, called 'Dawn to Dusk'. The carefully considered garden is intended to be used right through the day, and seamlessly blended lounge areas, dining areas and play areas in a scene of bright flowers and plants.
We caught up with Colm at the festival to talk about how his own two children inspired the build, working to a design brief and how he's been inspired by the experience to launch his own garden design business. Watch the video above.
Despite having a love of gardening, this was Colm's first experience of designing a garden space for someone else aside from friends and family - a true baptism by fire, considering it was on television!
"The show was a great experience", he told RTÉ Lifestyle. "Getting asked to design a garden in a programme like Super Garden was a really good experience. It was actually an honour to be on it. You're always a bit apprehensive of how it's portrayed on the TV screen, I'm actually happy how it came across now!"
Colm was paired with Lee, Chelsea and their three children Freddy, Ralphy and Ivy, and tasked with creating a low-maintenance design for the family. His original design was inspired by "meeting the family's needs" but at Bloom he had the chance to expand elements such as the fire pit lounge area.
A pergola and three wooden arches added height to the design and kept it balanced on either side, while expressive additions like a Japanese maple tree, a water bowl and colourful lupins added dimension and texture.
Making the space accessible for children was especially important for Colm. "I have two young children myself so it is important to keep them occupied. They're still visible from where you can see, and that's the beauty of the back wall feature that I have the dining area, you can still see through it."
Details like a chalkboard and play set were added to keep small ones busy and active even if the adults are sitting down to a meal or a drink together.
He acknowledged that for visitors to Bloom, many of the designs will seem too ambitious for the space they have, as well as the cost factor being potentially unobtainable: "The planting ratio that you have at Bloom is always a whole lot higher than what you probably will have in your own garden."
However, Colm said he "wanted to show that you can make amendments and modifications can be made to suit each individual space".
He added: "I've never gone through the whole design it up and then getting your design looked at by judges and then going and implementing that design, and then again getting judged upon that as well.
"It's something I'm going to look forward to moving on in the future", he said, adding that he has recently launched his own garden design business, Perennial Designs. "Maybe a career change coming down the path!"
He added: "I've always had the will to do something like that but never actually thought about going and doing it and becoming a reality. I've always had a love of gardening, but this being my first garden and getting the feedback that I've got and the people that have got in touch since the show ... really has given me that bit of confidence to go ahead and do something like this and maybe move into that career change."
