Bloom in the Park

Inspiration

The Inspiration for our Garden came from the 'Floresta Amazonica' (Amazon Rainforest) in the River Basin of the largest Jungle of South America. The Garden was influenced by the structure of the basin itself, including the natural sights, sounds and colour of the tropical plants. We combined these elements with modern materials and equipment, sharp structures and contemporary design to create a garden to escape from the hassles of daily life, to relax and enjoy the beauty of nature. Most gardens try to replicate this tranquility, but often cannot duplicate the perfection of nature itself. .......this concept had a dual purpose, both to bring awareness to the deforestation of the Amazon, Earth's most magnificent garden, and also as a reminder that the more you diversify from natures laws the more complicated things become......

Construction:

The large site was 12 meters by ten we marked boundary walls and then we plotted the digging of our conceptual Amazon 'river basin'. we were given guidelines before the show started and we had to be careful as if we excavated over 2 m an archeological team had to be summoned to oversee that we didn't unearth any viking settlements.!!!!!

Waterfeature ala Amazon:

The Water feature was supplied by both Nj Power and Rock World and consisted of four 900mm stainless steel blades with four differing colours on each (red, blue, Green and white). They were juxtaposed on the west facing wall installed in contrasting fashion- two up, two down.  The sound of the water really transferred the concept of a living jungle garden across to the public as it gave Life to the Garden.

The patio was laid with natural limestone and covered 30 per cent of the total area. The flags were chocolate coloured limestone and were generously provided by Manor Stone in Ballacolla Co. laois. 

The stone was so distinctive it became the base colour scheme for our garden at design stage, and all planting, tone of walls etc was chosen to compliment the limestone. 

Bridge over troubled water:

There were two bridges in the original design submitted to the Judges at Bloom and during the build it was proving difficult to execute as the three curves in the river/water feature meant that two bridges would be running to one area of the garden that we were not sure would withstand the force applied. Or at least we didn't want to risk it for a show garden. 

We ended up rearranging the pathway of the bridge to complete a leisurely meander around the tropics of south America