What happens to the Show Gardens after Bord Bia Bloom?

This is a question that we hear many times, and one that we pose to our sponsors and designers at the planning stage of the design process each year.  

In line with Bloom’s commitment to safeguard the environment we ensure that all gardens are designed sustainably from the outset. Designers are encouraged to incorporate measures that promote environmentally friendly gardening, foster biodiversity, and support wildlife. Sponsors and designers are also urged to rehome gardens following the festival or, where a full relocation is not possible, reuse or repurpose elements of the garden, including planting and structures, in future projects.  

We are proud that many of gardens from Blooms gone by continue to thrive and benefit communities across Ireland, many of which have been relocated by sponsors to various charities, educational institutions, or healthcare sites. 

What will become of this year’s gardens?  

All creators are committed to reusing viable planting after the festival. Trees and shrubs that have been rented will return to their nurseries and plants that have been purchased will be used in future projects wherever possible. Several sponsors are planning to donate planting to local charities and designers and contractors will reuse structural elements in other gardens. 

For instance, the plants in Joshua Fenton’s ‘Citroën Flexible Family Garden’ will be donated to Barretstown and plants from Debbie Brophy’s ‘The Master Gardener’s Balcony’ will move to a school in Kildare. 

The meadow sward in ‘Nature in Balance’, which is designed by Linda McKeown and sponsored by Bord Bia and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, will be returned and reinstated to the farm from which it came. The remaining elements of this garden, including the structures, trees and plants, will all be reused in various charity, school and other garden projects. Many items from Met Éireann’s ‘90th Anniversary: Past, Present and Future’ garden, designed by Paul Dunne and Padraic Woods, will be rehomed at various Met Éireann sites. 

Some of this year’s gardens move to new locations following the festival. Fingal County Council’s ‘Fingal Nurturing Communities Through Nature’ large Show Garden, which is designed by the team at Áit Urbanism + Landscape, will be relocated to Brackenstown Walled Garden, near Swords, where a community gardening group will be established. Fingal County Council is currently restoring the walled garden and various elements of the garden will be re-homed in this new space. 

The European Commission plans to relocate its large forest garden, ‘Shared Roots, Common Shade’ which is designed by Oliver and Liat Schurmann. It will move to a space where it will be publicly accessible for citizens to enjoy. Stay tuned for more details. 

‘Empowering at Every Step’, which is designed by Robert Moore and sponsored by the Marie Keating Foundation in association with AstraZeneca and Gilead, will be rehomed in a cancer support centre where it will provide respite for people undergoing treatment for, or living with, cancer. 

You can read more about the plans for this year’s gardens on the Show Gardens pages and, with some arrangements still in the works, further details will be revealed soon. 

See the 2026 collection of Show Gardens here.