Award-winning garden designer Brian Burke won a Silver Gilt Medal
for his Woodie’s show garden entitled ‘Seomra Eile’ at Bord Bia Bloom in the Phoenix Park, Dublin, which ran from Thursday 2nd June – Monday 6th June.
Brian Burke is Woodie’s Gardening Expert and designs their show garden at Bord Bia Bloom each year. The Woodie’s show gardens always follow inspirational themes and current trends. This year’s show garden was called ‘Seomra Eile’ (Another Room) and it depicted the garden as an extension of a contemporary home, with a natural flow from the inside to outside.
Over the past two years, people have found a renewed appreciation for outdoor spaces and are interested in how to make the most of their gardens. Woodie’s want to help people love where they live and hope that Brian’s soothing Show Garden demonstrates how a garden can be an extension of and an integral part of the home, and how a garden can contribute to the creation of a sense of ‘home’.
To create a real sense that the visitor is inside a house looking out into the back garden, Brian created a wall in the Show Garden with a large window-like opening making the experience of looking from the home into the garden even more true-to-life! To continue the flow from the inside of the home into the garden and merge the two spaces, Brian used accessories like lighting, and suggests using outdoor furniture with similar colouring and character to the inside of a home.
The detailing of the garden is modern and sharp, achieved with the clever use of contemporary materials and planting, which can be found at Woodie’s 35 stores or online at www.woodies.ie. Additional planting info below*.
And finally, the team at Woodie’s are happy to announce that they are sponsoring the Plant Creche at Bloom this year. The volunteers at the plant creche will mind your newly purchased plants for you while you enjoy the event!
After Bloom, all plants and trees are re-potted and managed for future use. Appropriate plants and built elements will be donated to worthy and deserving causes in garden designer Brian Burke’s local area.
Woodie’s – We’re all Homemakers
*Show Garden Planting Scheme Info: The two large beds will be filled with a mixture of herbaceous flowering perennials and perennial grasses. The aim is to create softness that works alongside a modern, domestic dwelling.
The primary plants Brian will be using here are Lychnis, Salvia, Calamagrostis, Astrantia and Astilbe. Backdrop trees will be Multi stem Birch.
About Brian Burke:
Brian Burke is a landscape contractor and award-winning garden designer. He attained his B.Sc. Hons. (Surveying) from Trinity College Dublin in 1994 and has over 25 years’ experience in the construction, landscaping and gardening business in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and the States.
Brian Burke is Woodie’s Garden and DIY Expert. He is also working on various ongoing garden designs and overhaul projects in Co Kildare and Co Dublin.
Brian starred on RTÉ’s Super Garden as the Woodie’s judge. In the TV show five garden designers take on the challenge of transforming five ordinary gardens into show gardens. Brian and his fellow judges had the unenviable task of deciding which garden will make it through.