Westmeath landscape gardener among the winners at Bloom

A Westmeath landscape gardener is among the medal winners at this year's Bord Bia Bloom festival, which comes to an end on Monday.

Tom Leavy from Killucan won a silver medal at Ireland's largest garden festival for his entry, Beauty and the Beast – The Musical Garden, which he co-designed with Cornelia Raftery.

As the name suggests, the award winning garden was inspired by Disney's classic animation film of the same name.

According to the Bloom website, Tom and Cornelia's garden, which was sponsored by Bord Gáis Energy Theatre “plays on elements of the Disney stage musical, showcasing the bewitched castle’s grounds and highlighting the enchanted red rose at the heart of the story”.

“The rose can be viewed at the centre of the garden, safely guarded under a glass globe within a pavilion surrounded by red roses. These taper into petal-shaped beds to represent the falling rose petals in the fairy tale.

“The contrasting plants and colours throughout this garden reflect the colour scheme of the stage production. Mixed perennial beds of blues, purples, and greens illustrate the overgrown nature of the bewitched castle and allude to the enchanted prince. Roses in a variety of pink, peach, cream, and white symbolise Belle’s arrival at the castle.”

Tom has worked on a number of Bloom gardens in the past, but this year's entry was the first that he co-designed.

“You get a bit more glory when you are in the design end,” Tom told the Westmeath Examiner.

While it took Tom and his team two and half weeks to construct their entry on site at the Phoenix Park, it took them the best part of three months to design and prepare for it. All of their hard work has paid off, however.

Aside from winning a medal, Tom says one of the most enjoyable aspects of the festival has been chatting to some of the tens of thousands of people who attend. You have to be on your toes though, he says.

“It's great to get feedback, especially from the kids who loved the garden. Some of the older people loved the garden too. They would ask some very tough horticulture questions. You need to be ready as they would know as much as you would.”