2022 Autumn Garden, Craft and Food Fair
Claregalway Castle, Sunday September 4th, 11-6pm
On Sunday, September 8th (11-6pm), the annual Autumn Garden, Craft and Food Fair takes place again at Claregalway Castle, where some of Ireland’s best nurseries and rare plant specialists will display a great selection of shrubs, trees and much more. Many of the best craft and food producers in the West of Ireland will also be present and this year will also feature an ICA arts and crafts exhibition.
Meet the experts and discuss what to do for Autumn in your garden.
Autumn is the best time to plan, plant and redesign a garden. The ground is still warm and plants and trees can settle in to guarantee good growth. You still see the gaps that need filling, the plants you want to remove and replace. Wish you had pears, plums, apple and peach trees? Now is an ideal time to plant some potted trees and you can look forward to a beautiful Spring blossom display before the fruit begins to develop.
Not an experienced gardener? This then is a great opportunity to meet gardeners with years of experience who can guide and advise the best route to planning your own paradise garden. Not an owner of a garden but owner of a balcony and window space? Meet the suppliers who can transform a dull space into something really beautiful. Not even a garden enthusiast? Come out and join the green fingered for coffee and light refreshments and hear why a garden matters so much to so many.
Why Autumn?
Autumn is an ideal time to visit a plant fair. The range of plants you will find looking at their peak in September is totally different to April and/or July. By late August and September the planting can start to look sad as the summer bedding starts to fade. By choosing and planting some more plants for your garden at this time you can extend the period of interest up to the first frosts, and beyond.
Autumn is also an ideal time to plant herbaceous perennials, trees and shrubs. The soil is still warm from summer, there is usually reasonable rainfall, but air temperatures are starting to fall. This means that plants planted now have a chance to develop a really good root system in the still warm soil but without the ‘stress’ of producing lots of new top growth that warmer air temperatures promote.
There are many late flowering perennials that can help bring colour into the garden at this time of year. Many of the daisy family, Asteraceae, peak now, including Aster themselves, such as Michaelmas Daisies, Coneflowers (Rudbeckia), Perennial Sunflowers (Helianthus) & Helen’s Flower (Helenium). Other outstanding perennials for autumn include Kaffir lily (Schizostylis), Toad lily (Tricyrtis), Turtlehead (Chelone), Bugbane (Cimicifuga now Acteae), Japanese Anemones (Anemone x hybrida & hupehensis) and Chrysanthemum.
On the woody plant side there are many trees that have either good autumn leaf colour and/or bear coloured fruits. Similarly, shrubs with interest in autumn include Acer, Euonymus & Viburnum with autumn leaf colour, Pyracantha, Cotoneaster, Berberis, Euonymus & Viburnum with coloured fruits and Ceratostigma & Mahonia x media that even flower in autumn.
Autumn is also a time to look forward to Spring as it is the time to plant spring bulbs. A range of spring bulbs including Narcissus, Tulipa, Crocus as well as some more unusual choices will be available on the day as well!