Mallow Homes and Garden Festival 2011


We have been very busy for the last few days putting the final touches to the Hydro Farm Project for the Mallow Homes & garden festival which opened to the public on Friday for the most successful festival yet.
The unusual feature of this festival is,there are 25 permanent gardens and each year different people are invited to take over a garden and using the mature trees,shrubs, water features ,ponds etc already in place to completely invent a new garden around them.
We had 5 raised stone beds this year plus the raised deck area.
The great news is, we were completely bowled over to win a Silver Medal for our efforts!
Our cottage garden bed, planted with flowers & veg

The Feather garden with ducks,geese and a Cock & hen.The cock was very vociferous throughout the show and could be heard all over the showgrounds.
A Blueberry tree which has reached the grand old age of 45!It was imported from Italy by Peter Dowdall of the Dunsland garden centre.
It is hard to see the berries on it but it is covered in them!

Our International garden, it was to show people that over the last few years that not only can we now buy lots of exotic fruit & veg we can now buy the plants and grow them ourselves, obviously most of these would need a poly tunnel or greenhouse to grow on.

Wooden spoons for plant markers, these are often given away free with products or can be bought cheaply in discount stores.

Our strawberry bin and recycled umbrella frame to support the netting got lots of interested spectators.There is a length of 4 inch piping with holes bored through it sunk into the bin, this is for ease of watering.Pour the water into the pipe and it seeps out into the surrounding soil.

Our recycle garden, it was to show what can be recycled or repurposed in the garden.Our scarecrow Jedwina & planted toilet bowl.Vintage seed sower and the basket of veg is from one of our plotters, Charlie.

The raised deck which we made scarecrows for, it also had to be painted in nice bright colours.

The Medicinal herb garden with a short explanation of their uses on labels.


Spot the scarecrow! Grand daughter Gemma who came out for a day with Charlie, one of our plotters.

Elephant garlic in the cottage garden

The working windmill was made by a gentleman and it was placed in our section but fitted in quite well with our recycle theme.
Herbs are planted in this multicoloured bin

I took so many photos I will have to do a second post about the gardens & show but you could buy these 3 lovely lassies for your garden.


Up for the Match!
Committed County fans could have one of these in their garden!

Comments

Ann said…
I wish I could have been there in person, Peggy, but next best was seeing the pictures on your blog, it all looks so interesting. Liked the idea of the umbrella fruit cage.
July 3, 2011 at 4:54 PM
Kathleen said…
Congratulations on the silver medal!Must have felt like Chelsea!All the hard work paid off,didnt get to it for various reasons,pity its not on Mon. too? Great photos.
July 3, 2011 at 7:17 PM
PeggyR said…
WOW congratulations! You certainly deserved it, it is gorgeous!
July 3, 2011 at 10:04 PM
Kelli said…
Some really great ideas. I love the strawberry bin with recycled umbrella frame - I would have never have imagined that idea and what a success! Also the wooden spoons as plant tags is a great idea. Congrats on the silver medal, sure well deserved. Kelli
July 5, 2011 at 9:54 AM
leanow said…
Wow there are some great ideas there, I love the wooden spoons and might have to see if I can find some myself. I especially like the idea of the umbrella, I have so many that aren't of any use anymore. Brilliant. The gardens look fabulous, I would come and have a look, but a little to far away.
July 5, 2011 at 9:33 PM
Matron said…
I just love visiting garden shows and festivals in the Summer! Your allotments get my gold medal any day of the week! cheers!
July 5, 2011 at 11:05 PM
Barbarapc said…
That's fantastic. Congratulations. So many great ideas and so much to see. I never would have thought about using old spoons that way. You did a marvelous job.
July 6, 2011 at 8:18 PM
littlekarstar said…
CONGRATS! Woo hoo! And how gorgeous are all the photos...sigh...
July 8, 2011 at 6:05 PM
viagra online said…
this was a amazing event, by the way, taking this chance I want to thank you for making this post, is good to see that people still caring about the nature.
December 6, 2011 at 1:10 PM
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