In celebration of the start of National Gardening Week, Allianz Garden Show Ireland is delighted to confirm a stellar line up of gardening experts and truly interesting garden spaces that will entice and inspire visitors to Antrim Castle Gardens 5th to 7th May.

The Show begins with a series of talks from garden designer, writer and TV presenter, Joe Swift. Joe will be sharing his ideas for creating your dream garden on a budget as well as revealing some of his fondest memories from nearly 20 years of coverage of BBC’s Gardeners World.

The expert line up also includes founder of Grow It Yourself Ireland, Michael Kelly who will be talking about the top vegetables to grow yourself, other notable speakers include the much respected and loyal Show regulars Reg Maxwell and Geoff Stebbings. The centrepiece feature garden will be the “Heritage of Place” garden created by young Belfast based architect and garden designer James Purdy who collected three gold medals at Bloom in 2016.

James tells us more about his garden,

“The garden pays homage to the great literal genius born in Belfast C S Lewis who took inspiration from our natural landscape when writing The Chronicles of Narnia and will have an eye catching central grass mound reminiscent of our mountainous landscape which will spiral up to a standing stone, reflective of our ancient heritage and where CS Lewis found inspiration.  Around the mound will be a mixed arrangement of native and naturalistic style planting with hard landscaping of granite and cedar wood sourced and fabricated from local suppliers with local skilled craftsmen appointed to build the garden.”

Also providing inspiration to visitors will be a series of Show Gardens designed under the heritage theme. Northern Ireland’s councils have been invited to create a garden or interactive display so that each region will have an opportunity to showcase their own take on local heritage.  Other highlights include the Antrim Garden Trail gardens which is made up of a series of gardens including the beautiful Antrim Castle Gardens, Ballyrobert Cottage Garden and the magical Walled Gardens at Greenmount.

Damien O’Neil, Head of Marketing & Communications for Allianz Ireland remarked,

“We can’t wait until May 5 to see the innovative gardening elements at this year’s Allianz Garden Show. Blending and reflecting local heritage through planting and garden display is a fantastic idea and will add further to the many delights on display at this year’s show”.

The Growers Pavilion will house specialist nurseries with hundreds of plants on display and available to purchase from the expert growers who will be on hand to guide visitors through planting decisions. Sitting alongside all of the plants in the Growers Pavilion will be a special Feature Patio Garden created by Acheson Glover and new to the Show this year will be the People’s Choice Prize where visitors will vote for their favourite display and be entered into a draw to win a 3D landscape design from Acheson Glover whilst the winning nursery will win tickets to the RHS Chatsworth Show.

Set in the beautiful Antrim Castle Gardens the Allianz Garden Show Ireland continues to draw record crowds each year and with extensive local parking and a short travel time from Belfast it really is an accessible day out for all.

For tickets and more information on the Show which runs from 5-7 May please visit www.gardenshowireland.com