One of Ireland's finest garden festivals is under way as the 10-day Co. Carlow Garden Festival, and it's epic in scale with 14 garden experts speaking at 15 different venues.
TV gardener Monty Don heads the line-up, and some of the country's leading gardeners are leading garden tours: they include the Director of the National Botanic Gardens at Kilmacurragh, Seamus O'Brien, and Mount Stewart's head gardener Neil Porteous, and writers and broadcasters Dermot O'Neill, Anna Pavord and Helen Dillon. It's a great chance to tap into years of expertise and experience, whether you want to improve your gardening skills or are about to launch into a big outdoor project at home.
All 14 gardens are along Carlow's famous Garden Trail, boasting award-winning garden centres, peaceful woodlands, great old gardens and tiny pocket paradises packed with good ideas for making the most of a limited space – so why not make a weekend of it? You'll come home fired up with new ideas, so leave time to pop down to our garden centre here in Athlone and we'll be happy to help you recreate them for your own back yard.
The Carlow Garden Festival runs until 3rd August. For more details visit www.carlowgardentrail.com.
