Carlow Garden Festival: What’s On & Win Tickets, Trees & Tools

16 trails, talks and walks will be taking place at the 2014 Carlow Garden Festival

Carlow Garden Festival ~ Friday, 25^th July – Monday, 4^th August 2014

Very soon Carlow will be awash with colour, scent and perfume as gardens all around the County open their gates to the 13th year of the Carlow Garden Festival.

During the 11 day festival that will be celebrating all things green and growing, I’ll be joining forces with Susan FitzGerald of the Vibrant Ireland blog in our new collaboration GREEN and VIBRANT as we share photos, tips and tales from some of the various walks and talks included this year.

If you’d like to keep up to date with what’s happening throughout the festival, just enter the #CarlowGardenFest  into any of your social media channels and all of our (or anyone else’s if they’ve tagged them) posts and images about the festival will come up for you. If you’re attending any of the events at the festival and would like to share them with us all, use that hashtag with your posts and we’ll be able to find and share your updates too. We may even find you there 🙂

Have a Go at Winning Three Prizes to Celebrate Carlow Garden Festival 2014

To celebrate this wonderful event in Ireland’s gardening calendar and in my home town, we have three prizes to offer you. Prize #1 First of all and with thanks to Carlow Tourism,  if you’d like to win two tickets to the opening night of the Garden Festival on Friday, 25th July where Carol Klein of Gardeners World will be sharing her secrets on creating a cottage garden, just leave a comment in the comment box at the end of the post that include the words Carlow Garden Festival. The winner’s name will be randomly drawn on the evening of Saturday, 19th July. These tickets are worth €24.50 each and if you’re not a gardener yourself, perhaps you have a friend or family member who’d love to win them. 

Prize #2 Secondly, if you’d like to win a gardening tool set carefully chosen by Eamon Wall, Garden Centre Manager of the Arboretum Lifestyle and Garden Centre who kindly donated the hand fork, trowel and secateurs, take a look at the Vibrant Ireland blog for more details. This is a lovely tool set that would suit someone starting out or a gardener who’s looking to replace or add to their gardening kit. All you have to do is leave a comment on Susan’s blog before 6pm on Friday, 1st August.

Prize #3 Lastly, you could win a miniature family Coronet apple tree, ideal for small or patio gardens, also donated by the Arboretum Lifestyle & Garden Centre. To be in with a chance to win this prize, share a photo of your own from your garden or any of the Carlow garden trail gardens or Carlow Garden Festival events you attend and include the hashtag #CarlowGardenFest.

You can share your photo(s) before 9pm Saturday, 2nd August via your Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram accounts. Just remember to include #CarlowGardenFest so that we can find them and to ensure you will be entered into the draw. You can also post your photos to either the Vibrant Ireland Facebook page, or to the Greensideup Facebook page. You may enter on all three social media platforms: Twitter, Facebook and Instagram as many times as you like and each platform’s post will be counted as a separate entry. The winner can collect their tree at Duckett’s Grove at the Teddy’s Picnic  (a great opportunity to try out some of Madeleine’s wonderful cake while you’re there) or at the Arboretum.

See below for terms and conditions.

Carlow Garden Festival

June Blake

Carlow Garden Festival is a wonderful opportunity for budding and experienced gardeners or nature lovers to get practical advice from a range of informative workshops while visiting the many beautiful gardens in the county.

Gardens will be in full bloom and with the majority of gardening work completed, it’s the ideal time to relax, admire the work of others and make gardening plans for the coming months and year ahead. I won’t say too much more about it as both the Vibrant Ireland blog and The Sodshow have full details, but here’s a programme of events for you to have a peek at and see what takes your fancy…

Over 16 tours, talks and walks catering for all ages and budgets

Carlow Garden Trail

If you’re in or close by to Carlow, we have a fabulous Garden Trail that’s worth a look at with 18 different gardening attractions as well as two feature gardens in the surrounding counties of Kildare and Wexford. The trail includes old gardens that have been lovingly restored and maintained throughout the years, and smaller gardens which are maturing beautifully with time, where visitors can enjoy guided tours, usually with the owner or head gardener. Award winning garden centres and forest parks complement a visit here. Accommodation

A cottage garden at Kilgraney House

Looking to stay? From the award-winning Step House hotel and Kilgraney Country House Herb Gardens to local B&Bs and town centre hotels, there are lots to offer in Carlow catering for all budgets. There are also some great value accommodation breaks along with details of the festival programme which can be found at www.carlowtourism.com or alternatively ring Carlow Tourism on 059-9130411 for further details.

Public Transport Carlow is on the direct train line from Heusten Station in Dublin and is on a national coach stop off point too. If a group of you are tempted to travel this way to save on your carbon  footprint and are wondering how you’ll get from garden to garden, Bianka MacDonald runs Carlow Tours, a personalised day trip service and is well worth a call.

Terms & Conditions for the competitions: 

Anyone is eligible to enter all three of giveaways. All three winners will be chosen at random and you could potentially win one or three prizes! These prizes are not exchangeable for any monetary value.The Carol Klein tickets may be be collected at the door on the night of the event. The tools can be posted anywhere in ROI, but not further, sorry.  The Coronet Patio Apple Tree winner will have to collect their tree at The Teddy Bear Picnic at Duckett’s Grove on the 2nd August, or at the Arboretum Garden Centre, Leighlinbridge, County Carlow by 31st August 2014. You retain all rights to your photographs, knowing that we may also share them, fully credited to you, on social media and perhaps on a blog post on vibrantireland.com, greensideup.ie or greenandvibrant.com.

Best of luck and if you’re visiting any of the gardens during the festival and you spot Susan or me there, please come and say hello, we’d love to see you 🙂

Competition Winner

The winner of the Carol Klein tickets has now been drawn and was randomly chosen by using the random.org number generator. On this occasion, No 13 was the lucky number. Congratulations Denise Delaney, I’ve emailed details to you and thanks to everyone for taking the time to comment. Hopefully we’ll see you at #CarlowGardenFest