Horticulture Connected Summer Volume 4 Issue 2 by Horticulture Connected

HORTICULTURE CONNECTED

Summer 2017

News, analysis and trends in landscape, garden retail & edible horticulture

BLOOM 2017

ANGELA BINCHY REVIEWS

HIDDEN COSTS LOST PROFITS COLM KENNY EXAMINES THE HIDDEN COSTS OF LANDSCAPE CONTRACTING

CORE BUSINESS

FRUIT GROWER CON TRAAS TALKS WITH BARRY LUPTON

Volume 4 Issue 2

Price: €12 ROI, £10 GBP

w ho s r u o y, y r t 17 us 20 d r in be m r m e ov ingha you N 2 m nd C Bir NE

Europe’s largest annual event Discover the latest product innovations Connect with industry suppliers and partners Network with national and international peers Get expert advice on your specific turf challenges Stay up to date with the latest groundscare trends Listen and learn from industry thought leaders Further your career with free advice and guidance Celebrate achievements at the IOG Industry Awards FREE admission. To register visit www.iogsaltex.com

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EDITOR BARRY LUPTON

FEAR AND LITIGATION

IN THE LANDSCAPE

am always fascinated by the factors which influence how and why we use plants in the landscape. From microtrends to geopolitics, from cultural associations to climate change, it really is captivating. Recent events, both local and international, have made me wonder about how fear motivates plant choice. In one housing estate, close to where I live, large areas of mature shrubs have been removed because residents fear they are places for dangerous people to hide. A kilometre up the road and planting is being added to another estate following recommendations from Gardai in relation to how planting can dissuade burglers. Attempts to reduce mowing regimes in some public spaces, also close to where I live, were initially met with fright. No word of a lie, signs were erected, exclaiming parental fears of children encountering insects. As someone who tries hard to introduce biodiversity and naturalism wherever I can, it is incredibly challenging to overcome clients’ fears, be they prickly plants that might impale the kids, ones which carry toxins which little Jimmy is sure to consume and immediately succumb to, or simply naturalistic planting. Nature’s free flowing seasonal variation is the stuff of the devil himself. It is a challenge all designers face. Fear, of course, comes in many forms. I have read numerous stories in the last few years which raise my own sense of fear of being sued. We are becoming an increasingly litigious society, apparently incapable of taking responsibility for our actions and perhaps seduced by the potential of a quick pay out. Whatever the driver, it seems to be where we’re moving to. And it’s not good. A rise in regulations (a welcome move for our unregulated sector) will no doubt play into this too. Fear of litigation or being outside the regulations will increasingly shape plant choice. I recently heard of a court case over a person who was injured after falling into a Berberis; the finger

PHOTO: PÃ©TER GUDELLA

EDITOR'S LETTER

of blame was pointed at the specifier. Another well publicised case from the UK saw a designer sued for a quarter of million after helping a friend out with some advice. The thing I fear most is our current trajectory. What will become of our landscapes if they are shaped by fear? Are we destined for sterile green spaces created by risk averse designers for a paranoid public? I truly hope not. If you have a view on this I’d love to hear it. Drop me a line at editor@horticulture.ie In this summer issue of HC we cover a lot of ground. Renowned landscape and garden designer, Angela Binchy presents a comprehensive review of this year’s show gardens at Bloom, GLDA president, Patricia Tyrrell examines some of the finer points of project management, and Dr Michael Gaffney explores how technology is shaping the future of protected crop production in Ireland. In our retail section regular contributor and independent retail consultant, Liam Kelly explains why retailers need to be a little more honest if they want to build a sustainable plant sales business, and Carol Marks disseminates recent research on the behaviour and attitudes to gardening in Ireland. Sharing her perspective on the impact of the European Landscape Convention on the landscape sector is Landscape Architect, Colette LemaireBrady, while landscape pricing specialist, Colm Kenny gets behind the shrubbery of hidden cost of landscape contracting. In floristry, Ruth Monahan explains her frustrations and joy with Irish cut flower production, while turf grass specialist, Pat Suttle shares some insight on contemporary grass maintenance methods. Also in this issue, I was lucky enough to get a chance to interview Con Traas, entrepreneur, lecturer, innovator and owner of The Apple Farm. If you have any questions or comments about any feature in this issues, please contact me or any of our contributors directly. ✽

HORTICULTURE CONNECTED

News, Analysis and Trends In Landscape, Garden Retail & Edible Horticulture

HorticultureConnected.ie

for daily news updates

HORTICULTURE CONNECTED

Summer 2017

News, analysis and trends in landscape, garden retail & edible horticulture

BLOOM 2017

ANGELA BINCHY REVIEWS

HIDDEN COSTS LOST PROFITS COLM KENNY EXAMINES THE HIDDEN COSTS OF LANDSCAPE CONTRACTING

CORE BUSINESS

FRUIT GROWER CON TRAAS TALKS WITH BARRY LUPTON

Volume 4 Issue 2

Price: €12 ROI, £10 GBP

Unit 3, CTEK Building Riverside Rd, Carrickmacross, Monaghan, Ireland +353 (0)42 966 3532

Editor: Barry Lupton editor@horticulture.ie News Editor & Advertising: Joseph Blair joseph@horticulture.ie - 087 921 2044 Creative Director: Tanya Gilsenan tanya@horticulture.ie Editorial Assistant: Koraley Northen Sales & Subscriptions: Anne Marie Browne annemarie@horticulture.ie Cover: ‘Living Oasis’ show garden by Kevin Dennis at Bloom Cover image: Koraley Northen

Photos: Koraley Northen & Joseph Blair Printers: Turners Printing Print Run: 3,500 copies Distribution: Readership of 10,000 across Ireland to businesses and professionals in the following sectors: Landscape Architects / Garden Retail / Florists / Nurseries / Greenkeepers / Sports Surfaces / Local Authorities & Parks Departments / Machinery / Education / Edible Horticulture Publishers: Horticulture Connected Ltd HorticultureConnected.ie

Summer 2017 / www.horticulture.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

CONTENTS

CONTENTS NEWS

28 B LOOM 2017

03 HORTICULTURE NEWS

Renowned landscape and garden designer, Angela Binchy shares her thoughts and insights on this year’s crop of Bloom show gardens

BORD BIA

08 All the latest news from Bord Bia

TEAGASC 10

All the latest news from Teagasc

RETAIL

12 H ONESTY LESSONS Liam Kelly explains why retailers need to be a little more honest if they want to build a sustainable plant sales business

14 B EHAVIOUR AND ATTITUDES TO GARDENING IN IRELAND Carol Marks summarises results from a recent survey designed to pin down consumer behaviour, attitudes and influences to gardening in Ireland

FLORISTRY

17 A BLOOMING SECTOR: CAN IRISH GROWERS MAKE THE CUT?

IN PICTURES 32

BLOOM, Teagasc Horticultural Technologies

Conference & Allianz Garden Show Ireland

INTERVIEW

36 C ORE BUSINESS Barry Lupton talks with Con Traas

FRESH PRODUCE

39 C ONSOLIDATED PRODUCTION Lorcan Bourke, business analyst with Bord Bia disseminates the recent census on field vegetable production in Ireland

INSIGHT

40 T HE EUROPEAN LANDSCAPE CONVENTION (ELC) AND OUR ROLE AS LANDSCAPE PROFESSIONALS Colette Lemaire-Brady frames the European Landscape Convention in context with the wider landscape sector

Ruth Monahan shares her joy and frustration about the Irish cut flower sector and sets out a simple strategy for the creation of a more sustainable and vibrant future

ORNAMENTALS

19 A SHARED VISION FOR HORTICULTURE Stiofán Nutty introduces plans by the Horticulture Industry Forum to create a new vision for the sector

RESEARCH 43

CONSTRUCTION

21 H IDDEN COSTS, LOST PROFITS Landscape estimating specialist, Colm Kenny provides a simple methods for integrating hidden costs in landscape pricing

DESIGN

24 P ROJECT MANAGEMENT – THE BEGINNING AND THE END! GLDA president, Patricia Tyrrell examines some of the practical aspects of successful garden project management

FUTURE ADVANCES FOR PROTECTED HORTICULTURE Dr Michael Gaffney disseminates key findings from the recent technology in horticulture conference

TURFGRASS

45 G RASSLAND AND WILDFLOWER MEADOWS Pat Suttle of KS Agronomy and Capital Sports discusses some of the values and challenges of alternative grassland maintenance regimes

EVENTS 47 H orticulture trade events JOBS 48 H orticulture jobs from JobsinHorticulture.ie

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticulture.ie / Summer 2017

01 / NEWS LANDSCAPE PROVIDERS INVESTS IN NEW GRAB TRUCK Set up in 2009, Landscape Providers has built a loyal customer base and have expanded into the sale of all landscaping and gardening materials. Their product range includes screened topsoil, compost, decorative pebble and stone, fencing, bark, roll-out lawn turf and a wide variety of gardening tools. They now deliver products to small and large commercial landscaping projects across Ireland. With the purchase of a new grab truck they can now offer delivery of 20 tonne loads of screened soil to landscapers and local authorities. More at landscapeproviders.ie ✽

GLAS CROPCARE TO STAND LAUNCH ‘NEW WAY’ WEEDSPRAY AT GLAS #L6

‘New Way’ Weedspray is a non-selective herbicide for both amenity industrial weed and moss control. Based on naturally occurring ingredients it controls grasses, broadleaf weeds and mosses. John Killoran of distributors Cropcare tells HC “It is very fast acting producing discolouration and browning of the foliage within a few hours of treatment. It is recommended to control weed growth in amenity situations such as footpaths and pavements, parks, around trees, shrubs etc. We also recommend it for industrial areas such as railways, industrial sites and fence lines.” It is also approved for moss control on hard surfaces and is available in five litre containers. More at cropcare.ie ✽

HORTICULTURE CONNECTED GLAS REPORTING LIVE AND STAND LAUNCHING NEW #G18 WEBSITE AT GLAS 2017 Meet the team, drop off a news piece and collect a free copy of the latest edition of Ireland’s leading trade news magazine for you or a professional colleague. You can find out more about jobs in horticulture and our recruitment services for edible and amenity horticulture businesses on our brand new responsive and mobile friendly website horticultureconnected.ie. ✽

HORTICULTURE NEWS OVER 130 EXHIBITORS CONFIRMED FOR 2017 GLAS TRADE EVENT

GLAS, the annual one-day event on July 20th, is Ireland’s main event in the trade calendar. Featuring over 130 exhibits from some of the most important suppliers in the sector showcasing the latest products and services on the market right now. This year’s event includes a newlydesigned New Product New Plant Awards Showcase. The Learning Theatre will provide informative talks including seven ways to get more customers from the internet and 21st century non-intrusive drainage solutions, as well as the results of Bord Bia’s very latest behaviour and attitudes research. The retail merchandising showcase will promote displays and promotional materials. The Irish Institute of Sports Surfaces, Sportsturf Village and Machinery Park will feature over 30 exhibitors specialising in this sector. Attendance is free to trade visitors. More at glasireland.ie

LOTS OF REASONS WHY IRISH GARDEN RETAILERS SHOULD VISIT GLEE 2017 This years' show includes over 600 major brands and niche suppliers from across the garden, outdoor living, landscaping, home, pet and leisure sectors, 80% of whom are UK-based. Glee event director, Matthew Mein tells HC that “Glee’s location in central England is within easy reach of many garden retailers, including some of the UK’s best destination garden centres” and advises Irish businesses to “also take the opportunity to organise a field research trip to some of the UK’s leading businesses”. He goes on to say that “Irish garden retailers who spend time visiting Glee will achieve far more than they could from weeks on the phone, out on the road, or staying on the shop floor. Going to Glee really is time well spent.” Buyers visiting Glee will find the full spectrum of garden retail categories under one roof, including garden care, landscaping and garden decoration, outdoor entertaining, plants and nursery, home, gift and clothing, retail experiences, and pet. Irish buyers visiting Glee 2017 can also access a range of exclusive resources to make their visit even more effective. Every overseas buyer qualifies as a ‘VIP visitor’, and can access Glee’s hugely popular International Buyers Centre, hosted by Gardenex (The Federation of Garden and Leisure Manufacturers Ltd), which exists to facilitate business between UK exporters and international buyers. Offering internet access, free refreshments, and information on both Glee and the UK gardening and leisure market, the International Buyers Centre is a friendly and efficient business environment. Also on offer is a two hour session of International Buyer Connect meetings, held on the first day of Glee at the International Buyers Centre. Organised by Gardenex, the session enables international buyers to have short introductory meetings with a range of UK suppliers. HC has attended Glee for the last 12 years and has always availed of the learning opportunities provided in the seminar programme, organised this year in conjunction with the HTA which will share expert business and garden retail advice with attendees. Glee takes place from the 11–13 September at the NEC, adjacent to Birmingham airport which is within easy reach for Irish visitors. Preregister at gleebirmingham.com ✽

Summer 2017 / www.horticulture.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

NEWS / 01 INSPIRATION AND STORYTELLING COME TOGETHER AT PLANTARIUM 2017 With eight inspirational gardens and five houses of inspiration, the 35th edition of Plantarium will be a source of inspiration for visitors and exhibitors. Four garden designers from the Design Institute will use the gardens to illustrate that plants can tell a story. Each garden is connected to or designed for a famous and inspiring person and tells that person's story. The people who have been linked to the gardens are: Walt Disney (Fantasy); Mozart (Genius); Joop Zoetemelk (Simplicity); Salvador Dali (Unusual); Don Quixote (Struggle); Nelson Mandela (Unify); Anne Frank (Desire); and Annie M G Schmidt (Whimsical). Plantarium runs from 23 to 26 August in Boskoop. More at plantarium.nl ✽

It’s been a busy few months for the ALCI. Three new members have recently been accepted for full membership: Paddy Dowling, KHS Landscaping, Dunsany, Co Meath; Richard Shortall, The Landscape Co, Kilmacanogue, Co Wicklow and Barry Moore, Rye River Landscapes, Leixlip, Co Kildare. This brings the number of members in the ALCI Southern Region to 93. Donnybrook Landscape Company, who is celebrating 10 years in business, has recreated Diarmuid Gavin’s 2016 Chelsea Flower Show entry, ‘Garden of Pure Imagination’ in the Pembroke District at Dundrum Town Centre, where it will be on display until September. Entries are now open for the 2017 ALCI Landscape Awards. There are 10 categories covering private gardens, landscape maintenance, residential and commercial developments and sportsgrounds. Judging will take place in August and the judges this year are Gary Graham (Bloom show manager) and Kerrie Gardiner (Landscape Architect and Bloom show garden manager). The 2017 awards are sponsored by Bord Bia, Annaveigh Plants, Sanctuary Synthetics, Kilsaran, Mulch, N & C Enterprises and NAD. The ALCI celebrated another great year at Bloom in the Park with members Alan Rudden, John Durston and Kevin Dennis winning gold medals for their show garden designs and Paul Dunne winning a silver medal. Alan Rudden also won the best planting award. In all, ALCI members designed and/or built nine of the 22 show gardens. For more information on the association please visit www.alci.ie ✽

Following another inspirational speaker's seminar in February, the Garden & Landscape Designers Association (GLDA) has continued to evolve and expand its regular list hosted activities. Most recently, these have included a visit to Burtown House and Gardens in May, and its ongoing series of design portfolio workshops, which have attracted a new group of garden design talent interested in applying for Full Membership. Separately, a new programme of GLDA organised drawing classes for new pre-registered members is providing them with an opportunity to fine tune their skills, with Full DAVID SHORTALL MGLDA WITH Members on hand to offer FAIRY IN THE MAKE-A-WISH IRELAND GARDEN HE DESIGNED advice and support. In March, chairperson Patricia Tyrrell spoke to an audience of students at Waterford IT's Land Science Careers Day, whom the GLDA was delighted to engage with and support. In April, Full Member David Shortall and volunteer GLDA members created and built, over a number of weeks, a magical fairy themed garden for a little girl called Brooke, working with the wonderful charity Make-aWish Ireland. David and his design won the hearts of all those involved, especially Brooke's. A word of thanks again to all who supported this special project, including GLDA corporate members Sanctuary Synthetics and the Landscape Depot. On the international scene, Full Members Ingrid Swan and Michael O'Reilly were separately invited to speak at garden and landscape related conferences - Ingrid at Malmo, Sweden in March to an audience of international garden and planting designers and enthusiasts, and Michael in Kiev, Ukraine in May, where he was technical judge of the various show gardens at their International Flower Show. Bloom 2017 certainly didn't disappoint, with a number of GLDA members receiving awards. They were Full Member Kevin Dennis who won a gold medal, and three pre-reg members; Tünde Szentesi who won a silver gilt medal, Brian Burke who won a silver medal. Lastly, the husband and wife team Oliver & Liat Schurmann jointly won a gold medal, and were also overall winners in the large garden category. For more information on the association please visit www.glda.ie ✽

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticulture.ie / Summer 2017

PHOTO: VINCENT McMONAGLE

BARRY MOORE BEING PRESENTED WITH HIS MEMBERSHIP CERTIFICATE BY ROSS CAREW, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY ALCI

GLDA UPDATE

TRADE ASSOCIATION NEWS

ALCI NEWS

01 / NEWS CHARTERED INSTITUTE OF HORTICULTURE TO HOLD ANNUAL CONFERENCE IN DUBLIN The CIOH is the professional voice for horticulture in Ireland and the UK. The current president is Dr Owen Doyle, head of horticulture, landscape and sportsturf management at UCD School of Agriculture and Food Science. With an Irish president this year they recently announced that the conference will be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Northwood, Dublin 9. The theme is ‘Healthy Horticulture’ and the importance of horticulture in everyday life. The conference will take place during the day on Friday 13 October, followed by a gala dinner in the evening. They have also arranged industry visits for Saturday 14 October to give delegates time for sightseeing and networking with other professional horticulturists. Over 150 delegates are expected at the event and speakers include: Helen King, Director of Insight and Innovation, Bord Bia; Dr Caroline Elliott-Kingston, Lecturer in Horticulture and Crop Physiology, University College Dublin; Dr Fiona Crispie, APC Microbiome Institute; Steven Thompson, Managing Director, Out There Services; James Simpson, Managing Director, Adrian Scripps; Tom Keogh, Managing Director, Keogh’s Farm; Caroline Keeling, Director, Keelings. More at horticulture.org.uk ✽

FANA NURSERIES EXPANDING RANGE AND INCREASING GIRTH GLAS STAND #J10

Once again Fana Nurseries will be bringing a selection of the wide range of trees grown at the county Cork tree nursery to Glas. Joe Ahern tells HC, “I want to get the word out to trade professionals that we are delivering our product nationwide, and that with 35,000 trees in production we are one of the bigger tree nurseries in Ireland. We have been able to grow to this size due to the quality and price of the product we grow and word of mouth recommendations from our existing customers.” The company now offers sizes up to 30-35cm girth. More at fananurseries.com ✽

DORAN NURSERIES TO SHOWCASE THE VERSATILE RANGE OF GARDENGIRLS® AT GLAS

NEW PRODUCTS LAUNCHING AS NAD SUPPORTS GROWER HORTICULTURAL EDUCATION AT GLAS 2017

These heathers, also called Bud Bloomers, bud up but GLAS flowers do not open, resulting STAND in a long colour display from #H3 late summer to winter. With their wide colour range, Gardengirls® are ideal for providing autumnal decoration, particularly in tubs, bowls, window boxes etc. together with other suitable plants. They can, of course, also be planted directly into the ground to bring instant fantastic colour to gardens. Mary Doran tells HC “They are easy to care for, requiring no feeding, just watering to keep them moist, which will appeal to a large segment of garden retailers customers”. More at irishplants.ie ✽

Apart from a number of new products such as GLAS BIO-Press, T34 Biocontrol, STAND Nova PeKacid and Ecoplug #H5 Max stump killer, NAD will again be supporting grower horticultural education and has NAD SPEAKERS CLARE SAMPSON & NEIL HELYER arranged two linked IPM education talks in the learning theatre at Glas. The speakers are Neil Helyer, IPM specialist at Fargro/NAD and Dr Clare Sampson of Russell IPM. Both have vast experience of the horticultural industry and of IMP in particular and will be sure to provide plenty of relevant up to date information on a range of topics. Talks begin at 11am. Pre-register at glasireland.ie/ theatre. More at nad.ie ✽

SALTEX 2017 IS YOUR INDUSTRY - YOUR SHOW Irish visitors to the show are on the up since the move to its new and more accessible venue at the NEC Birmingham, with returns flights from Dublin currently as low as €35. The 2017 promotion campaign boasts the fact that the exhibition is indeed “your show.” This year, the show floor will be bursting with everything a visitor needs to increase their efficiency and improve operations. More than 220 leading manufacturers and suppliers have already confirmed their attendance to showcase an extensive range of products and resources, and visitors can expect to see the industry’s newest advances and compare the full array of equipment, products and services. Learning Live, SALTEX’s world-class educational programme, guarantees to offer a wealth of new knowledge to delegates as well as boosting their CPD points. Throughout the programme over 100 industry experts and leaders will share important information that can ultimately help a visitor to further their career. SALTEX also offers visitors free advice and guidance on specific turf challenges through the IOG regional pitch advisors on hand. The event takes place on 1 and 2 November. More at iogsaltex.com ✽

Summer 2017 / www.horticulture.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

NEWS / 01 ‘HYDRANGEA HERITAGE’ LAUNCHES LIMITED RANGE OF RARE ORIGINALS New to Ireland is a specialist grower of ‘old’ hydrangea varieties that have stood the test of time, some of which have survived for over a century on the west and south coast of Ireland. Promoters Geraldine and Thomas Martin tell HC that “Heritage is worth cherishing and merits a place of honour in our gardens”. Aptly named ‘Hydrangea Heritage’, the small scale family nursery is growing plants with a good root system that will settle quickly when planted on. Their collection of rare originals counts 150 Hydrangea macrophylla varieties which have been found or created between the years of 1789 and 1940. Belgian collectors Luc Balemans and Georges Piens, who started the collection some 20 years ago, are also providing support for introducing panicle hydrangeas (Hydrangea paniculata). From the 50-odd varieties at their disposal, ‘Hydrangea Heritage’ is selecting a range of early flowering varieties which they anticipate will perform well under Irish conditions. The nursery aims to produce large specimens both for the garden and for tubs and pots, and also offers to propagate extra volume of any particular variety from the collection for specific projects on demand. ‘Hydrangea Heritage’ is based in south Monaghan and welcomes pre-arranged visits to view its outstanding collection. More at facebook.com/hydrangea.ie ✽

INTERNATIONAL EXPO FOR PUBLIC SPACE PROFESSIONALS The Expo for Public Space is the largest exhibition in Europe which focuses exclusively on all the aspects of public space. The exhibition offers an extensive insight into the latest products and services including playground and park recreation equipment, lighting, trees, plants, street furniture etc. Apart from the many experts and speakers offering advice there will be also be over 600 exhibitors showcasing their newest products and services. This unique exhibition offers literally everything for public spaces. The Expo for Public Space offers the platform to meet with your peers, to gain and share knowledge and to experience the latest developments in public space. The event takes place from 27 28 September in Utrecht, The Netherlands. More at openbareruimte.nl ✽

SANCTUARY SYNTHETICS INVITES TRADE TO VISIT THEIR NEW HOME AT ‘GRASSLAND’ Sanctuary Synthetics, one of the leading experts in artificial grass, has been in business for over 15 GLAS STAND years. To celebrate this #A1 achievement they have recently opened a new state of the art display centre, making it Ireland's largest artificial grass warehouse. Mark O’Loughlin of Sanctuary tells HC that “We wanted to create a central one stop shop for artificial grass requirements for the landscape and design sectors. We also wanted to make it easier for our trade customers to get free samples sent directly to their clients. Not only are we offering generous trade discounts but more importantly we also offer installation training and follow-on support. The new showroom, display gardens, office and warehouse are open six days a week and are conveniently located just two minutes off the M7 motorway in Naas, Co Kildare. More at sanctuarysynthetics.ie ✽

YOUNG NURSERIES TO HIGHLIGHT ENVIRONMENTAL CREDENTIALS AT GLAS Apart from an expanded range GLAS and new plant STAND lines coming on #E15 stream for next season, visitors to the Young family’s stand at Glas this year will also have a chance to ask them about their strong environmental beliefs and practices they adhere to at their county Limerick base. They took the decision to switch to environmentally friendly practices a few years ago and have put integrated pest management (IPM) system at the heart of the business, resulting in significantly reducing chemical use by 90%. Biological controls are introduced at scheduled times during the season, using different organisms that target specific pests. Joe Young tells HC, “We do not use any chemicals which contain neonicotinoids. Also in our range we grow pollinator friendly plants so we are very aware of the concerns surrounding neonicotinoids.” The nursery is wildlife friendly with bird boxes and has created specific habitats for beneficial insects and beehives. The Youngs have set themselves a tough future target and aim to be chemical free within a few years. More at youngnurseries.com ✽

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticulture.ie / Summer 2017

01 / NEWS CAMBRIDGEHOK CONTINUE TO GROW IRISH BASE OF CUSTOMERS The UK business has a large Irish client base and can trace its GLAS beginnings back to 1955. STAND Noel O'Leary tells HC that they #J8 have a simple philosophy. “We work closely with our clients to achieve their end goals, exploring all possible options, whilst keeping their budget constraints in focus at all times.” This approach has stood them in good stead over the last 70 years. They have built a loyal business following among both private businesses and public institutions and have a number of major projects underway. Noel goes on to say, “We provide a complete turnkey solution for our clients, always working to bring innovation and advancements in both design and technology to all of their projects, regardless of size.” Talk to Noel and the team at stand J8. More at cambridgehok.co.uk ✽

GROWTH IN AMENITY AND EDIBLE HORTICULTURE IRRIGATION PROJECTS FOR IRRITEC

GLAS STAND #D6

The Dublin based business has been busy of late with amenity projects, with installations in football, rugby and hockey pitches. Established in 1966 the family run business operate from their its own modern two storey HQ in Donabate, Co Dublin, which stocks a huge range of irrigation materials.Technology is becoming a bigger part of the business and the company now sells wifi and app based irrigation controllers plus horticultural LED lighting. Irritec prides itself on its customer service. Paul Kunkels tells HC, “The vast majority of new clients arrive via referrals, which I feel is the best way to connect with new clients and it’s something we are very proud of.” Apart from on-site visits, Irritec also runs a busy trade counter for parts and advice. You can talk to the team at stand D6 at this years Glas. More at irritec.ie. ✽

RENTES TO INTRODUCE NEW PLANTS TO RANGE AT GLAS Fresh from the success of their recent Spring Fair, the Rentes family will present three new GLAS additions to the expansive range currently on offer. Roy Rentes told HC, “We’re delighted STAND to bring new plant inspirations to Glas each year. We constantly gather feedback from #F3 our customers before we take on any new additions as we want to know exactly what the customers are looking for.” Based on that information, Rentes will be introducing Rosa persica ‘Persian Sun’ and R. ‘Eye to Eye’, both sister varieties to the very successful R. ‘Eye of the Tiger’ introduced in 2016. The two roses have completely opposite growth habits but share the persica breeding in their distinctive flowers. R. ‘Eye to Eye’ is a shrub-like, spreading variety with healthy foliage and bright pink flowers with a dark centre, while R. ‘Persian Sun’ is an upright growing variety with apricot/orange flowers with a dark centre. Other new introductions at Glas will be Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Tiffany’, a new lacecap form with pink or blue/purple (in acid soils) flowers and sturdy reddish foliage, and cultivars ‘Curly Sparkle Red’ and ‘Curly Sparkle Purple’, both with distinctly wavy foliage and frilly flowers. A compact growing variety, the flowers will colour red in alkaline and purple in acid soils. More at rentes.ie ✽

DUBLIN GRASS MACHINERY OFFERING MINI DEMONSTRATIONS DAYS FOR YOUR BUSINESS

GLAS

They will have an expansive range of John Deere commercial groundcare machinery alongside Grillo agriSTAND garden equipment on display at this years Glas show. Included in the display will be the new John Deere #ST24 3000 Series compact tractor and X950R rear collect diesel ride-on mower. From the Grillo range will be the 13.09 front mower alongside many other models. Robert Mitchell tells HC, “There has been a great uplift in business for us since our recent open day. Apart from events like this we really believe in arranging mini demo events for existing and potential new customers on their own job sites as seeing and testing our range is believing.” Talk to Robert and the rest of the team on stand ST24. More at dublingrass.ie ✽

CANALWAY EDUCATE TOGETHER GREEN SCHOOLS COMMITTEE ADVENTURES AT BLOOM A small group of children visited this year’s Bloom and enjoyed the postcard gardens so much that they now have big ambitions to have their own postcard garden at Bloom 2018. But for these children, the highlight of Bloom 2017 was a very special invitation from gold medal winners Oliver and Liat Schurmann to visit their ‘Transition’ garden. From the garden’s inner sanctum, Oliver explained the the ideas behind the design. HC noted the appeal of the whole show to all school kids, especially the SEED garden area. ✽

O'DOWD NURSERIES NOW OFFERING GARDEN RETAILERS 480 VARIETIES OF ROSES O’ Dowd Nurseries is a family run business, established in the central location of Moate since 1994. It is well known for its wide selection of roses, currently standing at 480 varieties of hybrid tea, floribunda and climbers. Caroline O’Dowd tells HC, “We also supply an extensive range of vegetable plants in nine packs and 10.5cm pots, as well as herbs, tomatoes, strawberries. An important seasonal part of our business is handmade holly wreaths, roses, and swags for the Christmas market.” ✽

Summer 2017 / www.horticulture.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

BORD BIA / 02

SEVEN A DAY FRESH PRODUCE PROMOTION Earlier this year the Department of Health launched a revised version of the food pyramid which indicated that everyone should be consuming up to seven portions of fruit and vegetables daily, not five portions as previously recommended. This development is not only very positive from the perspective of the health of the nation, but also presents a great opportunity for the horticulture industry to promote fruit and vegetables as an essential part of a healthy balanced diet at every meal. At Bloom 2017 Bord Bia undertook a major promotion of the new seven a day message through fresh produce crop displays linked to messaging around the nutritional value of various crops. In addition, a daily programme of talks and demonstrations provided hints and tips on how healthy fresh produce can be grown, prepared and cooked in simple and convenient ways. Well know TV dietician Aoife Hearne spoke about the nutritional content of fruit and vegetables and said that tasty and exciting meals do not need to be sacrificed to achieve a healthy and balanced diet. ✽

FRESH PRODUCE RETAIL MARKET The grocery market in Ireland put in a strong performance for the year ending period March 2017 when it reached a value of €10.26bn, representing a growth of 2.6% on the previous year. Volume purchased was also up 1.9%. The key contributing factor to this growth was an increase in the purchasing frequency to 270 store visits per annum. Similarly the fresh produce category performed well with its value increasing from €1.44bn to €1.5bn, an increase of 4% on the previous year though volume overall was back slightly. Fruit is the largest segment of this category making up 49% of the value, vegetables 38% and potatoes 13% of the value. The purchase frequency of fresh produce is 176 times per annum and fresh produce purchases now make up 15.7% of the value of all grocery purchases in store. For further information on the retail fresh produce market contact lorcan.bourke@bordbia.ie ✽

BLOOM 2017 Bloom took place over five days from 1 to 5 June in the Phoenix Park, Dublin. A record 120,000 visitors attended, an increase of 5,000 over 2016 which was the highest attendance until this year. Bloom provides a high profile promotional showcase for the horticulture industry. It encourages spending on local produce carrying the Bord Bia Quality Mark as well as promoting increased spending on gardening and professional gardening services. Visitor satisfaction measured at the show was 97%. It was estimated that over €8m was spent by visitors at the show. The floral and plant pavilion, show gardens and food village continued to be key attractions for visitors, many of whom had attended in previous years. You can read more about Bloom 2017 in this issue of Horticulture Connected. ✽

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticulture.ie / Summer 2017

02 / BORD BIA MUSHROOM PROMOTION A mushroom promotion campaign for 2017 co-funded by Bord Bia and the Irish mushroom industry is underway in the UK and Ireland markets. The campaign focuses primarily on social media, PR and Google search word advertising. A new social media account has been opened (Instagram), and potentially Snapchat will also be added. An application to secure further potential EU funding for mushroom promotional activity was submitted in April and if successful, promotions would start in December on a three year programme. ✽

POTATO PROMOTION Bord Bia’s joint industry and EU funded potato promotional campaign Potatoes: More Than a Bit on the Side, continues in 2017. Following the production of a 12 page recipe supplement with the Irish Independent to celebrate St Patrick's Day, the next major burst of promotional activity will commence in late June. This started with promotional activity at Bloom featured growing potato exhibits with messaging around the campaign and the contribution that potatoes make to a healthy balanced diet. The campaign potato character ‘Bud’ had a highly visible presence in and around the Bord Bia Food Village at Bloom, becoming a ‘selfie magnet’ for Bloom visitors, young and old. A new potato rainbow salad recipe optimising the nutritional intake of potatoes and vegetables was featured as the key take-home Bloom recipe. The promotional activity in June and July will feature print, out of home and digital advertising focused on driving consumers back to the campaign website www.potato. ie The out of home posters will include coverage on bus shelters, as well as DART and Luas lines in the Dublin area. The core messaging reassures consumers that potatoes are fat free, gluten free and a good source of dietary fibre, while always being delicious and easy to prepare. The campaign website now carries over 100 delicious potato recipes that are 300-500 calories per portion and take 25 minutes or less to prepare/cook. ✽

“Looking for ? sy fat-free & ea lucky.” You just got

For lots of healthy meal ideas:

potato.ie

POTATOES MORE THAN A BIT ON THE SIDE

STRAWBERRY PROMOTION 2017 was the 10th year of National Strawberry Week, rebranded to ‘Celebrate Strawberry Week’ to be less formal and more engaging to consumers. A new logo was designed, as well as a version for Celebrate Strawberry Season, so that content generated can be used for the rest of the growing season. The focus this year was on social media, and content for this included recipes, recipe videos, infographics, and a grower video. Other activities included a schools competition and radio show sponsorship. Throughout the campaign, the high vitamin C content of strawberries was highlighted. The highlight of the campaign this year was a show garden at Bloom titled the ‘Strawberry Beds Garden’ designed by Maeve O’Neill which was used to launch the week, and which was a focus for PR activity at the show. The garden was featured on the front page of the Irish Independent on the opening day of Bloom, and was used throughout the show for the sampling of strawberries. It gave the public an opportunity to meet growers, and find out more about the health benefits of strawberries. ✽

FIELD VEGETABLE CENSUS The Department of Agriculture, Food & Marine supported by Bord Bia has recently completed a census of the field vegetable sector. It shows that the area of field vegetable production is 4,267ha compared with the last census completed in 2008 when the area was 4,590ha. Grower numbers are now estimated at 166 compared with 212 growers in 2008. Further details on the census are carried in a separate article on the census in the edibles section. ✽

GARDENING IN IRELAND MARKET RESEARCH Bord Bia has just completed a comprehensive research project on gardening in Ireland. The research included a national survey, an online survey of gardeners, on site visit to gardeners, visit to garden centres with gardeners and conversations with garden centre managers. An overview of the outcomes of this research is detailed in a separate article in this publication. ✽

Summer 2017 / www.horticulture.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

TEAGASC ezine / 03

L-R Dermot Callaghan, Head of Horticulture Development Department, Dr Tom Kelly, Director of Knowledge Transfer, Teagasc, Andrew Doyle, Minister of State for Food, Forestry and Horticulture, Grainne McMahon, Assistant Principal Horticulture, Kildalton College.

KILDALTON COLLEGE HORTICULTURE OPEN DAY Andrew Doyle, TD, Minister of State for Food, Forestry and Horticulture officially opened the annual Kildalton College Horticulture Open Day on 18 May. The event was held to showcase the vast range of facilities and learning available at the college. It was attended by over 80 potential students, industry stakeholders and the general public. Minister Doyle used this opportunity to stress the importance of practical training for graduates entering the horticultural industry. He also highlighted the value of educational institutions such as Kildalton with such a vast range of facilities including the sports turf training facility, protected crop production unit, nursery, fruit and vegetable production unit, orchards and the amenity

areas including the vast grounds and landscape construction unit. He indicated that there are many opportunities for horticulture graduates in various areas of the industry, with many sectors undergoing recovery and growth. In welcoming attendees, Paul Hennessy, Kildalton College principal emphasised the important connection between Waterford Institute of Technology and Kildalton which facilitates students who have completed their Level 6 Advanced Certificate in Horticulture at Kildalton to progress to the Bachelor of Science in Horticulture in WIT. Grainne McMahon, assistant principal in horticulture spoke about the various horticultural courses available at the college and detailed these progression routes. Many colleagues from the horticulture development department were also present to speak about the ongoing collaborative projects with Kildalton College staff. Kildalton hosts several projects in collaboration with the horticulture development department. This represents a win-win for research and education. This collaboration is helping to provide valuable information for the horticultural industry, and through working in the college horticultural unit students are exposed to areas of development within the horticultural industry. More information on College courses available at https://www.teagasc.ie/education/courses/horticulture ✽

2017 DAFM HORTICULTURE GRANT SCHEME UPDATE The 2017 round of the Scheme of Investment Aid has approved 156 applicants for the development of the commercial horticulture sector, with a total of €6.4m in aid approved. Within this, €1.1m has been allocated to 29 applicants from the nursery stock and related amenity plant sectors. ✽

EVENTS

2017

TEAGASC EVENTS CALENDAR 2017 The dates and locations of the following 2017 events may be subject to change. The latest updates will be available on www.teagasc.ie/horticulture ✽

JULY ●T hursday 20 July Teagasc at Glas Venue: Citywest Hotel, Saggart, Dublin 15

●T hursday 31 August

●W ednesday 25 October, 2pm

OCTOBER

●F riday 6 October

●W ednesday 25 October, 9.30am

AUGUST ●S aturday 12 August

Teagasc College of Amenity Horticulture Open/Careers day Venue: Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, D9

Tree grafting and budding event Venue: Ravensberg Nursery, Clara, Offaly

Kildalton College Open Day Venue: Kildalton College, Piltown, Kilkenny

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticulture.ie / Summer 2017

Mushroom Industry Seminar Venue: Nuremore Hotel Carrickmacross, Monaghan

Nursery Stock Seminar Venue: Teagasc Ashtown, Dublin 15

03 / TEAGASC ezine

Teagasc award winning Garden of Hope in association with Pieta House exhibit - Gold Medal Winner & Best in Category Award for a Medium Garden

TEAGASC AT BLOOM 2017 Teagasc in association with Pieta House won a gold medal for best medium show garden at Bloom in the Phoenix Park for our garden entitled ‘Garden of Hope’. This was followed by winning the best in category award, and to top it all off, it also won the people’s choice award (voted for by the public as the best of the 22 show gardens at Bloom this year). Congratulations to the award winning designers and developers Louise Jones, Laura Cassin, Linda Murphy and Paddy Smith and all the horticulture team involved. A detailed brochure describing the garden and our collaboration with Pieta house is available for download at https://www.teagasc.ie/crops/ horticulture/bloom-in-the-park It includes a list of the plants used in the garden. The sculpture featured in the centre of the garden was titled ‘Light of Hope’ and symbolises the journey from darkness and despair to the light of hope and healing. It was created by artist Michele Hannan. Following Bloom, a modified design of the garden will move to a permanent home at a Pieta House centre. Pieta House offers free counselling to anyone in suicidal crisis, those who are engaging in self-harm Professor Gerry Boyle, Paddy Smith, David Rimaud, Louise Jones, or people who have been bereaved by suicide. More Laura Cassin, Linda Murphy (Teagasc), Gary Graham (Bord Bia), than 30,000 people have been through the doors of Karen O’Shea, (Pieta House) Pieta House centres across Ireland since 2006. ✽

HERBICIDE UPDATE With key herbicides lost from the market place in the last few years, growers will be relieved to know that Flexidor is back on the market. It is the go-to product for weed control in containers for summer potting and has been unavailable since the end of 2016. Flexidor 500 (PCS registration number 04963) with the active ingredient Isoxaben, is four times stronger than the previous version so be sure to update your spray programme. As always, care should be taken regarding phytotoxicity.

Further pesticide details can be found on the Department of Agriculture, Pesticides Registration & Control Division’s web site (www.pcs.agriculture.gov. ie). The Teagasc horticulture website (www.teagasc.ie) also has some useful features, including tutorials and a pesticide blog with updates on new products, and the Teagasc nursery stock monthly bulletin The bulletin includes up to date recommendations and new releases for the tree, shrub and ornamental sectors as well as updates on events. ✽

Summer 2017 / www.horticulture.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

RETAIL / 04

Honesty

LESSONS

PHOTO: LASSE KRISTENSEN FROM LEESER

Independent retail consultant, Liam Kelly explains why retailers need to be a little more honest if they want to build a sustainable plant sales business

here are those who say that honesty has no place in a successful business, especially one that deals with the public either in the act of selling or in the supply of information - the famous ‘white lie’ blurs the line between what’s really right and wrong. Increased competition and the need to get more revenue into the business seem to have made that buffer between stretching the truth and blatant falsehood practically invisible at times, especially in recent years. This has often been the case with retail gardening too, where the hardiness of plants, the effectiveness of chemicals and fertilisers or the fragrance of a certain rose might have been guesstimated or chanced. But a few occurrences this year have made me question whether retailers really care about the plants they sell, or keeping their customers gardening and buying for that matter, and whether we should be educating customers more instead of fooling them. Full of flower miniature roses used in planted containers in February? Hydrangeas in full bloom in March being sold on covered plant areas as hardy plants? Bone dry, recently lifted Buxus pyramids still sitting on a CC trolley and being purchased by customers who thought they were a bargain? These were all issues that I came across this year in various plant retailers, but not with my own clients where at least I could have voiced disapproval. The question is, are these acceptable practices for those

involved in the selling of plants? Or should we even care? Is it not just money into the till - supply and demand and all that - and let’s not worry about the rose that drops its leaves and buds, the blackened hydrangea that sits on a deck after one night of frost or the desiccated box plants that sit forlornly in pots at someone’s front door. ‘Buyer beware.' Right? I can appreciate that we now live in a throwaway society where it’s easier to replace than repair and there are plenty of retail chains willing to feed this false economy of disposable consumerism. So perhaps it’s OK that these plants die quickly and can be replaced easily? Surely that’s great for business, as the customer will have to return to buy more? People don’t really care about that these days, do they? Perhaps there was a time when these practices would have bothered me less but now I feel that selling a 'hardy' plant that's forced into flower three months ahead of its

“Having staff with just plant knowledge is not enough anymore. We need a more holistic way of teaching them so they can sell product from the business as a whole”

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticulture.ie / Summer 2017

04 / RETAIL normal season and will be cut back by frost, or even wind and rain, within days of planting can’t be anything other than wrong. There are plenty of other colourful plants that can be sold in spring that the retailer can stand over and sell as hardy and long lasting. This is exactly why people think that gardening is hard and that they don't have 'green fingers', and so the only lesson that will be learned by a customer with a dead hydrangea is not to buy them anymore - not even in the summer when they are an ideal choice for colour - as the customer will think, “Ah sure that'll only die again”. Even the most plant disinterested customer expects the plants to live longer than a few days. Surely the fact that practically no one is educating the customer is why we are in this predicament of no knowledge gardeners in the first place? If the sector is complicit in deceiving the customer, it is complicit in undermining its own success in the future. Maybe it’s time that garden retailers stood up and stood out for our honesty, educated our customers, and in doing so still increased sales and secured the future of the plant side of their businesses? It might be refreshing in a time that many other retailers are deceiving their customers with false branding and the dubious origins of what they sell. Enthusiastic and engaging customer focused education is relatively scarce in retail horticulture, as many in our sector show little interest in anything that doesn't boost their egos, images or bottom line. The Bloom gardening festival and other events have succeeded in stimulating an albeit fleeting interest in gardening with a new generation and although there is more information than ever at the customer's fingertips they seem not to engage in the knowledge side of social media and the internet, focussing instead on images and the emotive side of plants and gardening. Anyone who has manned a stand at a garden event will quickly tell you how poorly informed the public are on gardening in general, and how much they desire it imparted from a knowledgeable, interactive, living, breathing and passionate source. It’s easy for a business to say that it’s not their job to teach their customers, but if the garden centres don't do the actual schooling - even if it's just in the interest of selfpreservation - then who will? The more you educate the customer the more they'll buy, as they will know what's needed to keep their purchases alive and well. I appreciate that's a simplistic way of looking at it but it makes sense on every level, and this starts with stocking the right plants those you can sell, confident in the knowledge that they will thrive for the customer. I would still argue that even in this throwaway society customers want to keep their purchases alive, and retailers are missing a trick by not selling pots, compost, feed, etc. to help keep those plants healthy by informing them of the plants' requirements. These link sales are another major failing of retailers in our sector, and a crucial and easy way to engage with and educate the customer, either by point of sale information that quickly and effectively communicates the needs and benefits of the plant or by staff interaction. Having staff with just plant knowledge is not enough anymore. We need a more holistic way of teaching them

so they can sell product from the business as a whole. Awareness of composts, fertilisers and chemicals or alternatives is a given, but what about knowledge of basic colour combinations, the growing trend of decorating the garden and how to impart the unbridled enthusiasm that so many plantspeople possess? There needs to be more focus on this way of thinking – less stretching the truth and more broadening of the plant salesperson’s remit. Of course the GroMór initiative should be commended for attempting to teach those who want to learn with in-store marketing material and their ambassador programme but perhaps it’s missing that connection with those who only have a fleeting once a year - or none at all - contact with plants and gardening, as those are the people we need to encourage and attract, in tandem with informing those who already regularly frequent garden retailers. This is where a bigger and perhaps more diverse media campaign is needed to seduce, encourage and direct the general public into garden centres, where they need to be met by passionate plant lovers who are skilled in communication and the above mentioned honesty led, selling know-how – and perhaps that is where there needs to be a more concerted focus. These green fingered geniuses should be the focal point of any gardening campaign and are in the best position to sell it to the masses. That’s people power at its best. Honesty should pay off, in the form of happy customers, healthy plants, better stock turnover, and increased revenue. Garden centres can create gardeners out of plain old customers, as simplistic and naive as that may sound. We need to stop fooling customers and be more truthful with them, guiding and teaching them in a way that benefits everyone. It’s either that or just give them what they think they want, and let honesty be damned. ✽

LIAM KELLY - Since establishing Retail Services & Solutions in 2007, Liam has become one of the most influential people within the retail side of Irish horticulture. His knowledge of the mindset and ethos of those in this sector, combined with his problem solving ability, experience and hands-on work ethic make him uniquely placed to offer advice and help to those who need it most. Key to his success is his knowledge of purchasing, pricing and sales combined with his understanding of layout, signage and merchandising, and how the interaction of these can lead to increased sales and profits. His focus is on garden centres, nurseries, hardware and DIY stores, where discretion, honesty and unbiased opinion are crucial and appreciated by those who secure his services. Liam Kelly, Retail Services & Solutions, Garden Centre Design & Consultancy, 086 822 1494, 059 913 0176, lksolutions@eircom.net

Summer 2017 / www.horticulture.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

RETAIL / 05

BEHAVIOUR AND ATTITUDES TO GARDENING IN IRELAND

Bord Bia marketing and development specialist, Carol Marks summarises results from a recent survey designed to pin down consumer behaviour, attitudes and influences to gardening in Ireland

his national and extensive gardening study, conducted in conjunction with Red C, set out to explore consumer behaviour, attitudes and influences, which are driving decision making around the purchase of plants and garden products in Ireland today. The study explored in detail typical gardening habits and spending patterns. It also set out to evaluate who the gardeners of the future are and looked at key trends and market forces that are likely to influence gardeners, potential gardeners and the garden of the future. The study unearthed some interesting findings, including the fact that there are about 1.3m regular gardeners in Ireland, that’s around 980,000 households. In line with previous studies, it highlights that relative to the total population 63% of gardeners are female, and account for 60% of the total spend on gardening. The study revealed a number of different segments of gardeners, each offering different opportunities to the garden industry:

ENTHUSIASTS Regularly engage in some type of gardening and love it

ACTIVES Do gardening regularly and quite like it

DEVELOPERS Do some gardening now, and would like to do more in future

FLEDGLINGS Don’t garden much but have a desire to do so in the near future These final two segments are vitally important to the gardening industry in terms of future business.

Gardeners

Main Shoppers who are Regular Gardeners

50%

% of Gardeners

# in Population

Enthusiasts

29%

13%

464,277

Actives

52%

24%

857,127

Developers

10%

178,568

Fledglings

14%

249,995

n/a

55%

1,785,682

Reluctants/ Avoiders (NOT GARDENERS)

% of Total

six months or more often; that’s 2,088,000 people. ●O ne in five Dublin homes have no space to garden, which

also means that four in five do. ●A quarter of a million of us grow vegetables. ●O ver half of gardeners have a patio or decking area, one in

three have a BBQ. ●F our in 10 gardeners say it is an important space

for entertaining. ● Almost all gardeners believe it is good for your mental health.

And nine in 10 believe it’s good for physical health too. ●A lmost three in four gardeners like to show off their gardens. ●U nsurprisingly, the weather limits activity for seven out of

10 gardening. ●C ost holds 58% of them back too as does lack of time for 44%. ●N early nine in 10 gardeners find shopping for the garden

a pleasure, they also love cutting flowers, planting out and harvesting. ● Gardeners expect to spend more next year on bedding plants and flowers, but less on landscaping, sheds, buildings, and outdoor leisure and furniture. ● Six in 10 have seen the Bord Bia Quality Mark on plants and flowers. Four in 10 believe these plants are worth paying more for due to quality, environmental considerations and confidence that they will grow here. ● Our garden centers are the top source of inspiration for gardeners. They are seen as the best option for quality and range. Grace Binchy, Insight and Innovation specialist with Bord Bia, will give a detailed presentation at The Learning Theatre at the GLAS show in the City West Hotel on 20 July, There will be two opportunities to attend the session, one at 12 noon and a second one at 2.15pm. For further information contact carol.marks@bordbia.ie ✽

CAROL MARKS is a

428,563

Marketing and Business development specialist with Bord Bia. If you have any questions or comments about the content of this feature you can contact her via Carol.Marks@bordbia.ie

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticulture.ie / Summer 2017

PHOTO: KORALEY NORTHEN

Exploring Typologies GARDENERS ONLY

Here are some interesting teasers arising from the study; ●5 8% of adults buy plants and flowers for their garden every

GLAS STAND #E15

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l Planters Available All Year Round

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NURSERIES

l New Winter Flowering Varieties in Stock

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l Excellent Quality & Extensive Range

VEGETABLE PLANTS SPRING, SUMMER, AUTUMN BEDDING PLANTS

Contact Caroline Phone: (090) 6481455 Fax: (090) 6482731 Mobile: (086) 8197138 Email: odowdroses@gmail.com

Doran Nurseries Ltd - Leading Plant Producers Timahoe, Donadea, Naas, Co Kildare Tel: 045 863644 Fax: 045 863681 Email us today for our current looking good list info@irishplants.ie - dorannurseries@eircom.net

Summer 2017 / www.horticulture.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

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HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticulture.ie / Summer 2017

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06 / FLORISTRY

A BLOOMING SECTOR: CAN IRISH GROWERS MAKE THE CUT?

Renowned independent florist, Ruth Monahan shares her joy and frustration about the Irish cut flower sector and sets out a simple strategy for the creation of a more sustainable and vibrant future

very morning I have the privileged joy as a florist to walk into our studio to see wonderful flowers ready and waiting for their journey into a bouquet, a vase, or a display. The majority of our blooms have arrived on a night ferry and are delivered into our studio before we open our shutters at dawn. This is a magical picture for floral romantics and we are lucky to be able to experience cut flowers moving through the seasons, constantly bringing us surprises at their bounty and beauty. However, the main problem with this picture is the lack of Irish grown sustainable flowers that are commercially available to use. At Appassionata, we strive to use as much Irish grown produce as possible and we love to have all things botanical that are of the season they are meant for. During autumn and winter, we are blessed with twigs, berries, lichen, moss and pine from Clare and the wonderfully fragrant Eucalyptus from Waterford. Then we’re into the daffodil season where hundreds of yellows and whites arrive every few days from Killowen, to be bought with glee by our Drury Street shop regulars. Then comes summer, and we have nearly no option but to buy through Holland. Even the foliage we buy is exported to Holland, and bounces back into Ireland a few days later at a higher price. It is then that we welcome our Kilkenny grown sunflowers that arrive by the boxload in August. Our Dublin city centre location is just perfect for the urban flower deliveries we do, but it doesn’t lend itself to our being able to access wonderfully foraged elements from the nearby countryside without getting arrested. We depend on suppliers to bring us the best of what they can find or grow. We use homegrown hornbeam, viburnums, bilberry, whitebeam, willows and more to create drama, elegance, and statements in vases all over the city and are proud of making sure that their provenance is known. What is wonderful to see is that there is a new crop of Irish flower growers who, through studious minding of their wares, have created beautiful flower gardens with cut flowers to be used for weddings and bouquets for homes. Having been a super fan of Erin Benzakein from Floret Flower Farm and Sarah Ryhanen of Saipua, I admire and relish every image

they post of the seasonal seedling to blooming of flowers both on their farms and in their work. Flowers are intoxicating things and ignite such passion of discussion about their forms, colours, fragrances and movement. How positive it is to see people like Hanako, The Green Cailin, The Irish Flower Farmer, Ruth Fortune and Jonathan Daunt show and tell about their beautiful produce that can now be found and used to create displays for celebration days. However, the problem for florists like ourselves is that not only do we work lots of weddings and dress venues and homes for events and weekly work, but we also create many bouquets to celebrate all parts of the circles of life. Our hand tied bunches are tailor made to suit the emotion or message they are intended for. The Irish consumer expects that these bunches last a week or more and has been educated in this presumption by the more traditional flower industry or relay companies. As a design-led flower business employing over 20 talented people, we have been criticised for not buying more home grown blooms. But those who criticise should hear some of our customers’ complaints when flowers don’t last as long as expected. We would love to include more Irish grown flowers but there are realistic frustrations with the commercial growing industry here. Firstly, there is very little communication from the more traditional growers with florists who really want to use their flowers. As a result, the more established growers only grow the exact same selection year in year out without looking at flower seasons, trends, or bouquet styles, or without actually talking to the end consumer who is the florist. Currently we can buy lillies or Alstroemeria, but flowers have moved on and there is now very little choice on our island. Our other problem is consistency of quality but mostly the problem lies in delivery where supplies of

“There is very little communication from the more traditional growers with florists who really want to use their flower”

Summer 2017 / www.horticulture.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

FLORISTRY / 06 flowers might turn up or they mightn’t depending on the supplier’s day. Our Appassionata flower world cannot work like this; we need to know the flowers we will have on every working day. When you look over the Irish Sea and see the movement behind and in front of British Flower Week (19 to 27 June this year), it really creates a feeling that we need impetus to improve the commercial cut flower growing world here at home. The movement behind #britishflowers should be proud of themselves. They have created enthusiasm in the Covent Garden flower and foliage suppliers, they have created access to their seasonal and sustainably home grown flowers for florists, and they have really pushed consumer awareness in their campaigns by providing great promotional material for florists to use in their shops and packaging. We have the climate, we have the knowledge but after 12 years working in the flower world here, I can see that there are several issues which inhibit the growth of an indigenous flower growing industry. What is unfortunate is that the consumer and the florist both want Irish grown blooms, they want the story behind the blooms, and they like knowing that through their small spends they are also supporting an Irish business. The large growers here only supply supermarkets, and currently the cut flower garden growers can only supply a certain amount of beauty because it is such hard work to harvest a bounty for a florist who might need hundreds of stems at a time.

FROM AN OUTLIER’S EYE

1. I believe that if we could resolve the following issues, we could come together to create a pride filled flower growing industry with as much of a sustainable approach as possible, with the wonderful result of fragrant Irish blooms being bought around the country by so many people.

“I think it would be positive to create a forum for the cut flower growing industry to meet the florists who really would like to use their produce” better standard for Irish floristry, for pushing design on, for inclusion of proper floristry practice and promotion of cut flower gardens around the island.

3. The lack of a flower umbrella group means that the flower growing industry is categorised as a crop. The problem in Ireland is that so much focus has gone into the food or crop growing industry, the flowers have been forgotten. Another issue is that consumers have been so spurred on to grow their own food and more that they have forgotten how necessary it is to have flowers in their gardens to keep the bees and butterflies alive. Perhaps, a programme with someone as visionary as Grow It Yourself could help educate consumers about these benefits. 4. The horticultural education schools are currently suffering from lack of attendance. Again, there is very little communication with anyone who works in the professional flower industry. I think that it would be interesting for the students to have their worlds broadened so that whether its seeds, pollination, breeding, growing, marketing, that they know about design and aesthetic, that they are educated and inspired to create living gardens filled with sustainability and imagination, or that they could themselves grow flowers as they know how they could be used to create cheer and joy for a consumer. 5. I think it would be positive to create a forum for the cut flower growing industry to meet the florists who really would like to use their produce. As a florist, I know that we have to turn away so many types of foliage or flowers as the wastage would be too high. This margin tight beautiful world could help guide growers in the kind of leaves and flowers that work well together, to make floral displays consumers will remember, love and return to buy again. 6. Sustainability is not just a buzzword. When you import flowers from abroad you cannot be sure what chemical treatments they may have undergone. It would be nice to think no chemicals are used, but ask any florist and their hands will probably tell another story. As a business, we try to counteract this by recycling and waste management, and by making sure that our practice here is as environmentally friendly as possible. We try to have plants for sale for people to bring more bees and butterflies to their patches, and we always try to spread a smile with the work we do. We were always a member of the Fair Flowers Fair Trade movement, but sadly they have now closed down because it was too difficult to monitor the growing industries. This is a world problem that I don’t feel we can solve here. Finally, how wonderful would it be to have a sustainable and environmentally mindful fair trade cut flower growing industry here. The holistic world view of what could be achieved is mind-blowing. If we could get this party started this summer, next July we could be celebrating our success in a field nearby. ✽

2. There is no umbrella organisation for the flower industry. Bord Bia and Teagasc look after elements of flowers but it falls between them both. An example of this is the Bloom festival which, could be amazing as a springboard for flower education which in turn would create a

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticulture.ie / Summer 2017

RUTH MONAHAN is one of Ireland’s most successful independent florists. She is managing director of Appassionata Flowers, a thriving Dublin-based florist with a retail shop on Drury Street and a floral studio on South Cumberland Street. She can be contacted via email at ruth@appassionata.ie and via her website at www.appassionata.ie

07 / ORNAMENTAL

A SHARED VISION FOR

HORTICULTURE

Independent consultant and Horticulture Industry Forum (HIF) Coordinator, Stiofán Nutty, introduces plans by the HIF to create a new vision for the sector

ajor progress in the development of the Horticulture Industry Forum (HIF) has been achieved in recent months. One of HIF’s main objectives has been to make the Forum as representative of the entire horticulture industry as possible and to facilitate maximum engagement of the key industry stakeholders. Chairman Brian O’Reilly initiated dialogue with the Minister for Horticulture to seek formal engagement by the Minister and the Department of Agriculture, Food & the Marine Department of Agriculture, Food & the Marine with the Forum. These talks proved successful and at the 22 March meeting of the full Forum of HIF, co-chaired by Minister Andrew Doyle TD and Brian O’Reilly, DAFM became an associate member joining Bord Bia, Teagasc and the IFA who are also associate members of HIF. The Minister of Horticulture and his officials will continue to attend the meetings of the full Forum, which take place two to three times per year. In addition to the field, vegetable, mushroom, soft fruit, top fruit and protected crop sectors that had originally formed the HIF, the potato and amenity sectors also joined the HIF at the 22 March meeting. The potato sector will be represented by Eddie Doyle and the amenity sector by Val Farrell. These very positive developments will enable the industry to work even closer together to progress commercial horticulture in Ireland. To build on this progress, the HIF is now compiling a document which will set out a vision for the industry. This document will come before the next full Forum meeting for approval in the

PICTURED AT THE RECENT HIF MEETING WERE DERMOT CALLAGHAN, TEAGASC, BRIAN O'REILLY HIF CHAIR, MINISTER DOYLE, MIKE NEARY, BORD BIA AND PAT FARRELL IFA

autumn. Once approved the vision will determine the work agenda of HIF and set targets with timelines for the industry, and HIF will oversee the implementation of this work programme. In addition to the on-going problem of below cost selling, all operators across the industry are experiencing increasing difficulties in recruiting staff. HIF made a submission in April to the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs setting out the case for making horticulture an eligible category for a work permit programme. Others including the IFA also made submissions supporting such a change. Currently, horticulture is not an eligible category for a work permit programme but it is hoped that this situation will be changed. Below cost selling, Brexit and labour shortages are among the major challenges currently facing the industry. HIF is now in a stronger position to facilitate the industry to work together to meet these challenges, set a development agenda for horticulture and unlock the potential of our industry. ✽

STIOFÁN NUTTY has been involved in commercial horticulture for nearly 30 years. In that time he has built an expansive experience and knowledge base across the horticultural spectrum. He has owned and operated a nursery business, an award winning garden centre, worked extensively in education and TV and was appointed as special advisor to the Minister for Food and Horticulture, Trevor Sargent. In 2010 he was appointed as special advisor to the Minister for Sustainable Transport, Horticulture, Planning and Heritage Ciaran Cuffe. In the past three years Stiofán has facilitated and moderated eight European conferences in Brussels. In 2015, he was appointed as coordinator of the Horticulture Industry Forum.

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HIDDEN COSTS, LOST PROFITS

PHOTO: SURAPONG THAMMABUHT

08 / CONSTRUCT

Landscape estimating specialist, Colm Kenny MSCSI MRICS MILI provides a simple method for integrating hidden costs in landscape pricing

o succeed as a contractor, you must price projects so they cover your labour costs, material and operating costs, and still make a decent profit. Contractors are generally good at calculating their material costs, but not so good when calculating their true labour or overhead costs. When I ask contractors what their yearly operating costs areas are, they often answer in the range of 10-15%. However, operating costs are not a percentage of costs or sales, and they should not be viewed as such. You don’t pay your staff a percentage of the jobs you undertake, do you? Your operating costs are fixed, covering every expense for your company to stay open and do business during the year regardless of how much work you take on. Many contractors don’t know their exact job costs, equipment costs and overhead budget, and consequently don’t know how much profit they are making or should be making on any given job. Without an understanding of your numbers, you will end up busy and in debt instead of productive and profitable. It’s easy to see why most landscape contractors are never able to answer me when I ask them what their overhead costs are. On most construction projects, main building contractors are given a fully itemised bill of quantities where they fill in their rates and a preliminaries section, which outlines the project particulars including requirements of both the client and design team. This element gives the main contractor the opportunity to price the overhead costs (also known as indirect costs), as well as the direct expenses of the project. In my experience, main contractors have a far better handle on their costs because they are given a formal opportunity to price them on a regular basis. Indirect costs include general offices expenses, phones, broadband, accountancy fees, travel expenses, marketing, membership subscriptions, software subscriptions, finance charges… the list is endless. Direct expenses include site management, temporary accommodation, site storage, coordination of subcontractors,

attendance at site meetings, project insurances, and any working restrictions such as having to work at night time. When a main contractor is seeking a quote for the landscape elements of a project they generally send you the two relevant elements from the pricing document. These are usually element (40), which quantifies the hard landscaping and element (80), which quantifies the soft landscaping. In most cases, the main contractor will not issue the preliminaries section of the pricing document. The landscape contractor must account for these regardless as the job still has to be coordinated, meetings attended, materials ordered, documents managed, health and safety training provided and so on. The practice of not issuing the preliminaries section is not just confined to the landscape subcontractors. The majority of subcontractors, with the exception of mechanical and electrical contractors, usually don’t receive a formal preliminaries section. While you may not be given a formal invitation or opportunity to price all these hidden costs, they need to be added to your overall tender sum. This can be done in two ways. The first is simply to add a line to your quotation, call it preliminaries, and put the figure beside it. While it might be a quick and convenient way to go about covering your indirect costs, the method I prefer is to calculate and account for these costs by recovering them in your labour rates. It is more accurate, and sometime less controversial. A main contractor’s quantity surveyor might get offended If he sees a one liner inserted into a pricing document with your preliminaries cost beside it, but if it is factored into the rates for each item they are none the wiser. The first step in implementing this method is to calculate your indirect overhead costs. It might be best to look at costs from last year and adjust for projected increases in items such as insurance and wage inflation, and then divide them by the total number of direct labour hours you’re forecasting for the upcoming year. The result is an estimated amount for overheads you need to add to every projected labour hour.

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HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticulture.ie / Summer 2017

08 / CONSTRUCT Calculating costs

Here’s a simple example of how the labour cost overhead recovery works. Let’s assume you are a paving contractor, who supplies labour only to main contractors and you have three men paving at a wage cost to you of €20 an hour. You can bill the three men out at 40 hours per week, 50 weeks per year, for a total of 2,000 working annual hours per employee per year. Let’s assume your annual overhead expenses are €60,000. If you divide €60,000 by 6,000 (2,000 man hours x 3 = 6,000), you will see that the overhead recovery rate would be €10 per man hour. If you add the €20 each man is being paid to your overheads, you would have a rate of €30. This €30 is just the cost to you before profit which you still have to factor in. It would also be prudent to add a factor for working days lost, and I don’t need to list out all the reasons why you might lose days. 64, m: 23, y: 90, k: 41 Of course, this is the most basic example, but if you expand on this you can calculate the exact cost you need to plant each tree or shrub or any other scope of works. For instance, 44, m: 16, y:think 90, k:of0a soft landscaping project where you have 100 specimen shrubs to plant, which you are buying at €3.50 each. Your labour rate is €30 and it’s a Tuesday after a long a-Light weekend. It will take five hours to set out the plants and plant them. That gives you a cost of €1.50 to plant each one; the arithmetic is €3.50 + €1.50 = €5.00 before profit. And you

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need to factor in other costs such as travel time, fuel and any other direct expenses you may incur. My principal advice is to know your costs and manage your business by the numbers. Numbers don’t lie, and while gut instincts are a good measure, I prefer to use an accurate calculations coupled with good intuition. Gaining a more accurate understanding of the true costs to run your business will help you get better control of your bottom line and increase your profitability. ✽

COLM KENNY, MSCSI MRICS MILI is unique in Ireland in that he is both a chartered quantity surveyor and a Landscape Architect. He provides cost consultancy services to landscape industry professionals, technical advisors, contractors and facility management companies. He can be contacted on 086 874 4300 or by email info@landscapeqs.ie

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DESIGN / 09

PROJECT

PHOTO: EVGENIIA KUZMICH

– the beginning and the end! GLDA president, Patricia Tyrrell examines some of the practical aspects of successful garden project management

W “I think most experienced designers will tell you that garden design is as much about managing client expectation as it is managing projects”

here does design end and project management begin? As in many aspects of design there are several overlaps, and for me project management begins as soon as pen is put to paper to design a new project. One could argue that it begins before that. Lots of the decisions that are made on site before the garden designer is brought on board - for example access, poor site management leading to compaction issues, unnecessary tree removal etc. have long reaching consequences for subsequent parts of the project. Broadly speaking, project management for garden creation can be split into two categories: action and documentation. The former captures all that you do and the latter how you record and file it.

GET YOUR FILES IN ORDER Before you agree to do anything for a client, ensure you have a well considered structure for filing and storing documents. It has taken me a long time to realise it, but there's a lot to be said for being well organised. For each job I undertake I begin with the same filing structure, which is essentially folders on my PC. These includes correspondence, contracts, works records, images, drawings, invoices and so on. As soon as anything is produced, it's filed. While this might seem like overkill to some, anyone who has managed a reasonably sized garden build will tell you it's not. For example, one recent large garden project has 60 plus various

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticulture.ie / Summer 2017

files ranging from pricing, imagery, revisions, contracts, irrigation and everything in between.

FORMAL AGREEMENT Contracts for domestic gardens will be the subject of a follow up article, but it is impossible not to mention it in connection with project management. While you may not feel it necessary to have a legal form of contract, it is vital that you have a written record of what is agreed between you and your client. Your agreement should include scope, expectations, costs, payments, timing and potential additional costs. Don't be shy about this. I save myself time and money by being upfront on these matters.

KNOW WHO YOU'RE DEALING WITH For small projects this can be very straightforward. You might have a single client and contractor. For larger projects you might find yourself dealing with architects, engineers, planners, electricians, plumbers, pavers and countless others. Get everyone's name and details, introduce yourself and make sure you know who is responsible for what.

GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT I recall my early days of design,

09/ DESIGN wasting loads of time and money going back and forth with clients and visiting sites. Now I understand the value of solid information, and that information starts with your client. I think most experienced designers will tell you that garden design is as much about managing client expectation as it is about managing projects. To prevent issues arising, before I even visit a site I pin my clients down on their needs and desires. The process for achieving this is probably worthy of a separate article, but the outcome is a written and agreed brief, filed in an appropriate folder. When you and you client are literally on the same page you can then focus on gathering site information. Remember, it is your client brief which frames how you survey a site. Like my filing, I have a set structure for site assessment to avoid problems and second visits. You really can't have enough site information. In addition to standard information such as dimensions, levels, falls, vegetation, hard landscape, aspect, exposure and so on, you need to record services such as manholes, gas, electricity supplies. Make sure you check under vegetation and debris; all sorts of things can be disguised and the forgotten manhole is sure to rear its ugly head just where you least need it to be. Digging up services at a later stage can cost time and money at best or cause a blackout for the neighbourhood at worst. I doubt there is a designer in the country who hasn't been caught out by services at some point. Make sure to take lots of photos, notes and drawings. I've gotten into the habit of taking narrated videos in recent years. When I return to the office I disseminate all my data in written and plan form. If the brief is impacted I let the client know and record the change.

SEEK PROTECTION Good gardens and landscapes are built on good soil and oftentimes when I visit sites, particularly where building is underway, one of the first things I do is seek protection for the existing landscape. By and large, Irish builders are atrocious at looking after soil. It is simply a medium to build on, or worse, it’s just dirt. Do whatever is required to protect the existing landscape, no matter whose nose you put out of joint. And undertake proper soil analysis. It is so important to understand what kind of soil you have and conditions be they wet or dry that will impact on planting later. If the site has been top soiled, do some digging. You might find a cosmetic layer of screened soil covering a multitude of sins. Again, record your findings and communicate. Other elements that might need protection include trees and mature plants. Builders love driving all over the garden and storing equipment and supplies under trees. It’s important to spoil their fun by restricting where they can go. Trees need to be fenced off in advance of works on site, and as much of the garden as you can reasonably negotiate with them should also be fenced off. This will reduce costs later as less damage will be done.

KEEPING IT REAL Designers are a creative lot and can get lost in their own ideas, only to find later on that those ideas won't translate.

As you design it’s important to keep any restrictions in the back of your mind, and that’s apart from the budget. For instance, if there is no access to the back garden, then unless you have a massive budget there is little point in designing something which involves moving large quantities of materials in or out. Better to work with what you have if possible. Constraints on a design can actually make it better. The last thing you want is to be trying to manage an unbuildable scheme.

GOING SOFT Planting is one of the most challenging aspects of project management. Trying to manage your clients’ wish for an instant garden in the face of plant sizes, availability, budgets and planting timing causes more than a headache or two, particularly on extended or delayed works. It is vital to communicate with clients and stakeholders on planting to ensure they all understand the implications of any changes to original plans. While I personally prefer to do layouts in situ this is not always possible, and I find it increasingly important to have trustworthy and knowledgeable contractors who can be relied on to carry out works as instructed. Remember, it all comes back to you in the end. Another issue with planting is substitutions. Some cheeky nurseries will make cultivar substitutions without communication. Thankfully they are in the minority and most will make suggestions first. Be sure you retain delivery dockets for your records and preferably buy on site so that when plants are delivered you can inspect and record them as delivered. You have little come back when they're in the ground.

BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE When detailing hard landscaping such as paving, make sure you know the dimensions and depths. Combining paving with different depths will not make you popular with your landscape construction team. Make sure too that your design is a multiple of the paving dimensions to avoid endless cutting. And unless you can really, really justify it as something vital in your design, don’t go for fancy angles in your paving that will involve each one being painstakingly cut. Look at local regulations to ensure your design is compliant. Finally when your design has been approved by the client, build it in your head. Go through each stage and think of the possible opportunities or pitfalls. There will always be something you have missed. During the construction phase, make sure you visit at key stages such as setting out, foundations and finishing. Record everything and demand changes to deviations from plans. Don't be bullied by contractors.

THE RIGHT BUILDER To avoid major headaches, find some good landscape contractors and build relationships with them. There are other options. It may be that the builder has a price in for site works and landscaping, and for simplicity the client may want to use them. This can work, though there are not many horticulturists in the building profession so it can have drawbacks. Direct labour is another option, where specialists

Summer 2017 / www.horticulture.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

DESIGN / 09 are brought in for each part of the job. This was easier to do in the past, but now contractors are so in demand that it can be difficult to make it work. Whoever you are working with, communication is key. The best form of communication is your detailed drawings and specifications. Everything needs to be carefully detailed. It’s so easy to think that what is in your head has been successfully transferred to your contractor by the power of the spoken word, but that’s often not the case.

TIMING IS EVERYTHING A brilliantly designed garden can fall very flat if the build is not managed correctly. This is relatively straightforward for small jobs but can quickly spiral out of control for large projects. Over the years I have learned that successful builds are based on the skills of a realistic designer, an experienced contractor and a reasonable client. If you are new to the game then I suggest you always use of a programme of works. Even if it is not stuck to rigidly, it will help provide a general structure to work to. If there was an ideal schedule for building a garden it would be doing all the hard landscaping in the drier months and the planting in the autumn. This is optimum, ensuring less soil damage and also that the plants go in when the soil is still warm, thus establishing quicker and needing less maintenance. It’s what one might consider a sustainable approach. Spring or summer plantings will need high maintenance and as part of the project management this needs to be provided for by specifying irrigation in some form. On a minor scale this could

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be as simple as making sure there is an outside tap, all the way up to installing an irrigation system. Regardless, sowing, turfing and planting are always the last jobs to be done.

AFTERCARE Aftercare is often overlooked in project management, but is critical to the creation of a great garden. I like to use a maintenance schedule where possible. Having said that, I will forgo this when I’m working with a contractor or gardener who knows what they're doing.

DUCKS IN A ROW Project management is not rocket science but failure to attend to it will negatively impact the quality of your product, your bottom line and your stress levels. Do yourself a huge favor and get yourself organised. Find a system that works and stick to it. ✽

PATRICIA TYRRELL is a landscape architect, garden designer, horticulturist and gold medal winner. She can be contacted via her website at living-landscapes.com

09 / DESIGN

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DESIGN / 10

BLOOM Renowned landscape and garden designer, Angela Binchy shares her thoughts and insights on this year’s crop of Bloom show gardens

n a world growing in fear and distrust and selfishness it was heartening to find Bloom 2017 celebrating diversity, inclusivity, and cooperation with the unifying factor being our dependence on nature. The show gardens were an eclectic mix of designer and artisan talent showing a diversity of functionality and style. There was contemporary luxury and elegance in the form of 'Living Oasis' by Kevin Dennis, conceptual ideas were explored in Hugh Ryan’s 'Stem Cell' and Niall Maxwell’s 'World Without Walls' and Tünde Szentesi used an agricultural theme to underpin her 'My land Your Land' garden for Agri Aware. Nothing was too small nor too extraordinary, even little dogs had a boutique garden. Further afield, country garden clubs and school children were featuring their locality in miniature postcard gardens and loving the buzz of the show. There was disappointment too. A good idea calling for plant decoration on the doorsteps of different style houses somehow didn’t really take off. Let's hope for better next year. A big disappointment was the sculpture garden, which was always enjoyable in previous years. An 'in your face ' black shiny plastic matting on the walkway was off putting and the small sculptures, some very nice, were lost in an over decorated space. Again, let's hope for better next year and a return to sculpture in a suitable garden setting. Now to get to the nitty gritty of the show gardens. The general standard was pretty high and the planting had definitely improved. There were exceptions but planting is still 'show-gardenesque' with very close plant spacing, which is admittedly better than showing areas of blank soil. A flowering meadow style appeared to be popular. It looked pretty but in one garden I counted up to 13 different species or varieties in one square meter. Not all the plants used would survive in this style. Judging, always a contentious issue, was less so this year I thought, and I heard fewer grumbles. There was some head scratching about the best planted garden. The show catalogue partially explains the judging system, such as a garden is judged under headings: ● meeting the design brief ● overall impression/design ● construction ● planting For a gold medal, 75+ judge's marks are required, down

to 45-54 marks for bronze. Below that there is no award. Incidentally the word 'like' is banned from use by the Chelsea judging panel. It would be helpful if we knew how many marks were available for reward under each heading, and also the actual marks finally awarded. It is surely helpful to everyone to know what experts find unsatisfactory as well as excellent. From a wider perspective, transparency and articulation of marks can serve as a tool for educating the public, helping to build a better understanding of what constitutes quality. Bloom's lead judge, Andrew Wilson, among others, had the marks for his recent Chelsea gold medal garden read out by Monty Don on TV. The Super Garden competitors do not mind being criticised in front of the nation on TV so Bloom designers should not mind their faults being publicised. The judges hide in a large group and they should not mind. So who is being pandered to? It is also surely rest time for some of Bloom's judges. Andrew Wilson has been lead judge since the show's inception 11 years ago. I can say this because I was a member of the Bord Bia Horticulture Board during the inception and birth of Bloom, and knowing Andrew who was both a participant and a judge at Chelsea Flower Show I introduced him to Gary Graham as an excellent advisor in the establishment of Bloom. That he has been, he is very knowledgeable in the running of a world class garden show and an excellent garden designer. He is one of the few speakers who was asked to speak twice at the GLDA’s international garden design seminars. Some of the other judges have also given long service. In any of the disciplines I can think of where judging is subjective (think Crufts Dog Show or the Dublin Horse Show), judges change annually or at least after a certain period. It’s not a reflection on their judging; it’s done to keep judging broad and fresh. They can always be asked back and it would be great to give the likes of Dan Pearson, Cleve West or Sarah Eberle a turn as an overseas judge. The show gardens offered some interesting concepts and ideas, which were well designed and executed. Niall Maxwell's concept for Oxfam Ireland and GOAL was original, topical and thought provoking in its simple yet subtle presentation. Titled 'A Garden Beyond Walls', a number of huge blocks of the ugly, eight foot high dividing wall were removed and reassembled as colourfully painted seats in communal gathering spots in an open space. Delicate plants took root and flowered around the now inviting seats. Mirrors were placed in the gaps of the ugly wall, reflecting the garden

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticulture.ie / Summer 2017

10 / DESIGN

1 Oliver and Liat Schurmann’s 'Transition' garden for FBD Insurance 2D ara O’Daly’s garden for Dublin City Council (DCC) Parks & Landscape Services captured plans to green the capital 3A lan Rudden’s garden for Savills won both gold and best planting 4 The Teagasc 'Garden of Hope' for Pieta House by Teagasc staff members Laura Cassin, Louise Jones and Linda Murphy

HORTICULTURECONNECTED

PHOTOS: KORALEY NORTHEN

to symbolise the similarity of life both sides of the wall. It was a big message, simply executed, and perfect for reproduction in a public park. A well deserved gold medal and award for the best concept garden. For me gardens must stimulate some mental or sensuous reaction, and Oliver and Liat Shurmann's 'Transition' garden for FBD Insurance did it in spades. I was immediately transported to a friend's magical hideaway beside a sheltered Atlantic sea inlet near Moyard in north Connemara, by the sculptural delicacy of the trees and glass shelter, the cool palette of green, white and black, the hypnotic effect of the very slowly receding and returning water from the jagged black schist rocks, the reflected passing clouds on the water - and that is the garden! It was truly a space to induce mental and physical healing, and what a feat of hidden mechanical engineering and laying of geologically correct rock formations. All plants were supplied by the Schurmann’s own Mount Venus Nursery. The gold medal and best large garden award were truly merited. In contrast Alan Rudden's garden 'Urban Retreat' for Savills left one emotionally blank. The garden looked as if it belonged to a wealthy banker who spent most of his free time in the Caribbean. Well done to Alan if this was his client! The garden was well designed and skilfully executed by his company Outside Options, with cuboid architectural forms enhanced by good colour tone combinations of brown and grey hard materials with green and white planting. The latter was a mixture of formal green blocks, mostly of an interesting dwarf pine Pinus ‘Pierrick Bregeon’ with puffs of Allium ‘Mount Everest’ through it and informal shaded beds with 13 very tightly packed species and varieties of green and white flowered perennials such as Hosta seiboldiana ‘Elegans’, Geranium phaeum ‘Album’, and Polypodium vulgare 'Bifidomultifidum'. All plants were good quality, and supplied by Tully Nurseries, Campbell Plants, Yellow Furze Nurseries and Rentes. A deserved gold medal but it did not appear to have been a popular choice for best planting. On the other hand, everyone seemed delighted with this year's Super Garden 'Rustica Hibernia', a surprising but well presented hillbilly arts and crafts garden. Both the garden and the designer/builder, Des Kingston were bursting with personality, interest and fun. I found myself joining a large happy group of people gathered around the garden singing the Garden Song - “Inch by inch, row by row ….” along with Des and a group of minstrel singers! "Man is made of dreams and bones, feel the need to grow my own... Tune my body and my brain to the music of the land...". RTÉ and Bloom, keep Des within your sights. Hallelujah! At last Dublin City Parks have great plans to tree fill and green our capital city with interesting and bee

DESIGN / 10 CATEGORY SUGGESTIONS: ●P leasure gardens based on

ANGELA BINCHY is a renowned landscape and garden designer, a founding member of the GLDA, and an active industry commentator.

the traditional perceptions of what a pleasure garden should be, such as John Durston's calm and beautifully planted 'Nature's Resurgence' for Ria Organics. ● Reproductions - installations of miniature natural or manmade landscapes or historic gardens that are of public interest or are under threat of damage or extinction, such as the popular miniature farm exhibit 'My Land, Your Land - Ireland' designed by Tünde Szentesi for Agri Aware. ● Novelty gardens which try to convey a cause or message, or tell a story where plants and materials might be used to represent other elements such as 'The Strawberry Bed Garden' by Maeve O’Neill with its bedstead seats over a miniature 'river' water feature. Another garden that would qualify as "novelty" would be 'On Cloud Canine' designed by Brian Burke for Dogs Trust. It was a good idea to have a dog friendly garden but unfortunately this one, while pretty, left scale and practically off the wall. ● M erchandise gardens which blatantly advertise products or services such as the 'Despicable Me 3' garden which was well designed and executed by Bríd Conroy for Universal Studios. It was a quirky, colourful, fun garden popular with youngsters following in the footsteps of the Tayto Park garden in 2014, but hardly fair to judge it in the same class as the 'Garden of Hope'. In fact surely such commercialised gardens if there at all should be in a separate section similar to the postcard and doorstep gardens.

PHOTO: KORALEY NORTHEN

All gardens should be judged to the same high standard of accepted garden design and horticultural best practice and there should always be an award for the best concept. What I would worry about is a slip towards powerful commercial interests getting a hold and commercialised honky-tonk elements creeping in. Instead, we could get builders and developers some way involved with gardens that have an emphasis on good soil preservation and maintenance. ✽

PHOTOS: KORALEY NORTHEN

friendly natural and sustainable planting and well placed seating. So we were told by their landscape designer Dara O'Daly in their attractive, educational and well planted walk through garden dominated by a mighty fine oak tree with a 6ft rootball (Quercus palustris supplied by Annaveigh Nurseries) and featuring an inviting very long sculpted oak log seat. If the garden is anything to go by, happy days ahead. The garden was built by MCD Landscapes. It was awarded silver gilt, I thought it deserved a gold. Finally and tellingly, the people's choice garden was an attractive, simple, stress relieving, circular flower garden of shrubs and herbaceous perennials graduating from dark colours to bright white, centred on a beautiful, uplifting sculpture by Michele Hannan. True to its title it was a 'Garden of Hope'. Admirably designed and assembled by Louise Jones, Laura Cassin, Linda Murphy, and a team of Teagasc horticulturists led by Paddy Smith for the suicide prevention charity Pieta House. It was judged also a worthy gold and best medium size garden. Perhaps it is time to update the categories for show gardens and the information signage with them. Signs for the postcard gardens were more informative and easier to read than those with the show gardens.

5. 'A World Beyond Walls' by Niall Maxwell for Oxfam Ireland and GOAL - 6. Des Kingston’s Super Garden winning arts and crafts garden 7. 'Living Oasis' for Santa Rita by Kevin Dennis - 8. 'My Land, Your Land - Ireland' by Tünde Szentesi

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Summer 2017 / www.horticulture.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

IN PICTURES / 11

PHOTOS BY: KORALEY NORTHEN

2017

BLOOM

LEFT: OLIVER SCHURMANN (MOUNT VENUS NURSERY) ABOVE: LINDA MCKEOWN

ABOVE: TÜNDE SZENTESI, MIDDLE: KIERAN DUNNE & CIARAN O'BRIEN, RIGHT: JOHN DURSTON

ABOVE: MARINA ANDREEVA & NIALL MAXWELL LEFT: DARA O'DALY

ABOVE: FEARGUS MCGARVEY RIGHT: SEAMUS FURLONG (ON RIGHT) WITH TRICIA HARRIS & CLIVE JONES

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticulture.ie / Summer 2017

PHOTOS BY: KORALEY NORTHEN

11 / IN PICTURES

PHOTOS: JOSEPH BLAIR

ABOVE: TEAGASC PIETA HOUSE GARDEN DESIGNERS LAURA CASSON, LINDA MURPHY, LOUISE JONES; TOP RIGHT: FINGAL CO CO PEOPLE - SID KEVITT, DERMOTT MCLAUGHLIN, MARC COYLE; FAR RIGHT: ANTHONY RYAN & PADDY GLEESON

ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE! TEAGASC STUDENT DAVID REMAUD MEMBER OF THE STUDENT BUILD TEAM

LOUISE JONES (TEAGASC) PAT KENNY & PADDY SMITH (TEAGASC)

KIERAN DUNNE (L & K DUNNE NURSERY) WITH MARTY MORRISSEY (RTE)

DARA O’DALY (DUBLIN CITY COUNCIL PARKS & LANDSCAPE SERVICES) & MARTIN DESMOND (MCD LANDSCAPES)

DUNCAN MCINNES (GARDEN4ME) & MAURICE MADDEN (SEED)

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Summer 2017 / www.horticulture.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

PHOTOS: JOSEPH BLAIR

IN PICTURES / 11

OLIVER SCHURMANN (MOUNT VENUS NURSERY)

RUAIRÍ Ó DÚLAING PROMOTING THE PARKS OF DÚN LAOGHAIRE RATHDOWN

ROSE FLANNERY (FLANNERY'S NURSERIES)

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INTERVIEW / 12

he Traas family have been growing fruit for over 200 years. When Willem and Ali Traas found themselves running out of space in their native Netherlands, they upped sticks and moved to Ireland. After much searching, they finally settled in Tipperary in the late 60s, buying a farm with an established apple orchard. Since then, the family have expanded their business, opening a farm shop in the 1970s to provide a route to market for their increasing range, and a farm campsite in the 1980s. They now produce over 60 apples varieties, four strawberries, three raspberries, three plums, two pears and four cherries, all of which are sold through their farm shop or used in the production of their own brand cider, vinegar, jams and jellies. The business is now run by Willem and Ali’s son, Con. “When my parents were out harvesting they used to carry me in a bucket with apples,” explained Con. “I guess you could say I was involved with fruit production before I could even walk.” Willem and Ali made a point of instilling their passion and knowledge for fruit production in Con and he went on to cultivate it through his involvement in the business and by completing a degree and masters focused on pomology and apple pathology. The Traas family business, The Apple Farm, represents an excellent example of how knowledge, experience, innovation and diversification can be put into action to create a sustainable fruit production business. I was delighted to get the opportunity to talk with Con about the business, the challenges he faces and his plans for future.

PHOTO: UTIMA

CORE BUSINESS BARRY LUPTON INTERVIEWS CON TRAAS

Can you outline your typical work day? The only typical thing about a working day on the farm is that it lasts about 12 hours, and is often seven days a week. The most normal days are those I spend lecturing at the University of Limerick, where I have a good idea of what is ahead of me from day to day and week to week. On the farm I could be harvesting fruit, or in oily overalls fixing a machine, or dressed in a suit to meet a client, sometimes within a scarily short time frame. As the business has expanded, how has your focus changed? We added parts to the business (or farm as I prefer to call it - I regard myself as a farmer rather than a businessman) as we got comfortable with what we were already doing. It is one of the afflictions of a wandering mind, and can cause headaches trying to manage lots of small units. We added juice production in 1995, and use about a third of our production to make juice, cider or cider vinegar. The lecturing side of my life is on average two and a half days per week for about 10 months of the year. Your business model would appear to fly in the face of contemporary intensive approaches to production. Rather than specialise, rationalise and consolidate, you have diversified all aspects of your business. Can you provide some insight into why this approach was taken and why it’s worked for you? I am conscious of that every day. We are not the most efficient at any of our products, with the possible exception of apples. It is all facilitated by the fact that we sell most of our products

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticulture.ie / Summer 2017

12 / INTERVIEW direct to consumers in our farm shop at prices exceeding those that most other growers would receive. We strive to sell better tasting fruit (and juices too) so that we get rapid repeat business at prices which are reasonable to consumers, yet better than would be received from most retailers or wholesale markets. Part of the way that works is by not having too much of anything, competing with myself if you like. The excitement for consumers of getting really good cherries for just a few weeks of the year, or Opal plums in a similar short window, works for us. With apples, though the season is longer, we also offer some less usual varieties. What are the most significant day to day challenges your business model presents? Not making a mess of what I am doing by being overstretched in managing so many crops in relatively small scale, especially since the scale is not large enough to have individual managers in charge. Following from the last question, what are the primary threats to your business? One is the cost of housing in Ireland. Unfortunately, due to political weakness in Ireland, the price of houses (especially to buy) is again being allowed to escalate beyond the reach of people earning normal wages. This results in wage pressure (public and private sectors) which ultimately ends in higher taxes on smaller businesses (because due to another political failure large businesses don’t pay much tax), making the products we sell more and more expensive until eventually we (as in anyone producing goods of relatively low value such as fruit and veg) will no longer be able to compete against imports. Unless Ireland decides to approach improving the economy by reducing house prices so that people don’t need ever increasing wages, the future for our type of horticulture is under severe threat. Another point, and no less important than the first, is again a political failure: this time the failure to seriously tackle climate change. While this should have happened 30 years ago, when the “national ship” could have been turned slightly to be heading in the right direction, it was waffled about and debated long after the facts were settled, so much so that we are now going to have to make drastic changes. Unfortunately, we as growers see and bear the brunt of climate change, and extremes of any sort, whether rain, heat, cold or drought, are painful to contend with. Have you been able to avail of government support to develop your business, and if so, what form did it take? Yes. Leader grants to get into juice making, and also Bord Bia grants for marketing, and Department of Agriculture grants for investment in equipment, cold storage etc. While the process of writing plans, completing applications and so on can be a bit daunting, the rewards make it well worthwhile. The average horticulturalist would run screaming at the thoughts of dealing with the bureaucracy surrounding food production and accommodation. What has your experience been? That would not be my experience. For instance, when we

supplied Marks & Spencer with apples quite a few years ago, the Global gap and Field to Fork (the latter of which Keelings steered us through) were more demanding than what I do in juice production, though bear in mind that juice is considered low risk compared with some other forms of food production, so has less stringent regulations. The juice production is the same each day, and a system to ensure and record safety is actually easier in such an environment than in an open field growing apples. If you could wave a wand and change any aspect of your business, what would it be? I would eliminate apple canker and drive spotted wing drosophila from Ireland. Most horticulturalists do what they do for the love of growing. Between lecturing, running the campsite, farm shop and food production facility do you still find time to do what you enjoy most? Yes. And if I don’t I only have myself to blame for not organising somebody else to look after the elements that keep me from what I enjoy most, which is participating in the harvest of a really perfect crop of apples. You have a great interest in research. How does your interest translate into the business? Research in horticultural topics is very relevant to what I do on the farm. I spent many years in the lab assessing the susceptibility of apple scab to various chemicals. It gave me a great understanding of the organism and how to control it. Similarly, in terms of managing the orchard as an ecosystem rather than as a crop, both research and access to the research of others is very beneficial. Following from the last questions can you describe your ecosystem approach to managing the orchard? The idea is that you treat the orchard and the area around the orchard as a complex of organisms, rather than just the trees themselves. And you try to manage that to give the outcome you desire. So, for example, if the decision support system indicates that you need to spray a fungicide, you need to weigh up the options not just in terms of control of the disease and resistance management, but also its potential effect on beneficial organisms in the orchard (earwigs, typhlodromus, pollinating insects etc. above ground, earthworms and a host of other organisms underground). Which, depending on when during the season the application is made may result in a different choice. And the same applies to every decision you make – to mow or not to mow in a particular week, to place commercial bumblebee hives or not, and so on. And to bear in mind the impact of your choices during subsequent years. It means that you try to manage things in the orchard to minimise the harmful choices you have to make, because nature can do a lot of the work for you as long as you don’t make an intervention which results in the requirement to make further interventions. Are you currently undertaking on site research or planning for the future?

Summer 2017 / www.horticulture.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

INTERVIEW / 12 The more recent projects I have been involved with relate to the use of metamitron as a chemical thinner of apples, and the accumulation (or not) of carbon in orchard soils. This is particularly relevant to the apple sector as with the exception of forestry, it may be one of the few agricultural land uses in Ireland that results in carbon sequestration. The positive implications for the environment if people drank cider and calvados instead of beer and whiskey would be interesting to calculate. What are your views on the use of chemicals in fruit production and how do your views translate into business practices? This is so hard to articulate. I believe that in the past 10 years quite a few chemicals have been removed from the EU market that should not have happened. These were lost, not because they were more environmentally damaging than newer alternatives, but because they were not defended by chemicals manufacturers as they had gone off-patent, and the interests of the manufacturers are actually to see these removed from the market so that they can sell patented products at much better profits instead. So the system favours new products over old, regardless of safety. While undoubtedly some of the old products have poor safety profiles, I hate to see anything taken out of the toolkit. I would have preferred a system where they were left there, and in a situation where there is no alternative, or where a newer alternative might have a greater adverse effect on a beneficial organism, despite a greater danger to, for instance, the person doing the application, that permission could be sought to use them. This would have empowered growers to make good decisions rather than taking away options. None of this complexity is covered by the regulations unfortunately. Having said that, I also believe that we as growers tend to overly rely on chemicals, due to, for example lack of knowledge combined with poor management, panic, cost of non-chemical alternatives and so on. How this translates into practice on my farm is very specific to each crop and each situation. Some crops are never sprayed, with total reliance on the introduction of predators and hand removal of fruits beginning to decay (cherries and plums fit the bill here), to use of significant quantities of fungicide on apples. It’s been said that the lack of serious fruit production research in Ireland has put us 30 years behind our competitors. What is your opinion on the state of research in your area, and what do you think we should be doing? With the exception of generic research that can be applied across more than one crop, unfortunately the cost of research is too high to be economically justified for small scale crops based on their current value. Either we have a plan to increase their value, and use that to justify extra research, or we contribute to and learn from research coming from other countries. Otherwise we continue to be behind our competitors. The horticulture sector has always been undermined by its fragmentation and under-representation at a government level. How is the fruit production sector represented and how would you like to see this develop? As chairman of the Irish Apple Growers Association, I am very

much to blame for that under-representation. The apple sector is lucky in three ways. One is that the larger fruit sector is doing well in Ireland, and we can benefit under the umbrella of fruit. The second is that over €100 million worth of non-Irish apples are sold in Ireland each year, and the third, that Irish consumers are actually aware of the lack of Irish apples in the shops and are asking for them, creates a pressure for retailers to stock more Irish. I do believe that if we work together, as has been happening with the horticultural forum with the work of the committee and Stiofán Nutty, that progress can be made. How has technology impacted your business and how do you see it shaping your business in the future? In production, technology provides us with access to good scientific information and decision support systems. On the marketing side we find Facebook to be very effective. In terms of the future, my feelings are mixed on this. The positives are obvious. On the other hand, quite a few people can now choose to live a lot of their time in a virtual world, with minimal interaction in the real one. Horticulture happens mostly in the real world, and I would be fearful of the implications of people becoming separated from the real world. It separates people from each other and from true interaction, not just with other people, but also with nature. What are your plans for the business over the next decade? Try not to get distracted into too many other avenues. Improve sustainability. And not become a businessman. It’s been said that Irish horticultural sector is limited because horticulturalists are just that, horticulturalists. And if we all took a more businesslike approach we’d have a stronger sector. Following from the last question, what are your thoughts on this? Despite what I said about not wishing to become a businessman, I can see the logic of that point. There are some people in horticulture who don’t think of anything beyond the field gate. I know one or two of them, and they are great producers, but they still don’t even have an email address. Despite being great growers, I would worry for them. On the other side, I have seen quite a few businessmen (and good ones at that) come into apple growing in Ireland and fail over the past three decades. And that was down to lack of horticultural skills, and too much haste in making long-term decisions, because a 20 year timeline, which is what it will take to go through a business cycle from planting trees to removing them, is much longer than most business people are comfortable with. What advice would you give to young horticulturalists considering a career in fruit production? If you have done a general horticultural training, you will probably need more education in fruit production. While you can do this formally, you will also need practical training. Go abroad to one of the world’s best fruit producing regions and work in the industry for a few seasons, and try to learn from the good and bad practice you see there. The contacts you make will also be invaluable. Know who will consume your product – if you can’t sell directly to them, try to find a way you can. Finally, don’t do it for the money. ✽

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticulture.ie / Summer 2017

13 / FRESH PRODUCE

CONSOLIDATED

PRODUCTION

Lorcan Bourke, business analyst with Bord Bia disseminates the recent census on field vegetable production in Ireland

FIELD VEGETABLE PRODUCTION BY 100%

84% 70%

75%

74%

54%

46%

50%

30%

he Department of Agriculture, Food & the Marine supported by Bord Bia has recently completed a census of the field vegetable sector. The census uses 2014 as the benchmark reporting year. The field vegetable census highlights ongoing consolidation in terms of grower numbers and increasing concentration of production in Leinster. The total area of crops grown across the periods of previous censuses has not changed significantly. However, the total production area in 2014 has reduced slightly to 4,267 hectares. This is slightly down on the 2008 figure but unchanged from the 2005 figure. There are 165 field vegetable growers which is a 22% decline since the 2008 census and continues the trend of declining grower numbers seen in previous censuses with a corresponding growth in the scale and output from existing growing units. The field vegetable sector provides 1,106 full time equivalent jobs. This is a 21% increase since the last census. Field vegetable production is concentrated in Leinster. County Dublin has by far the highest production area with 1,847 hectares, followed by Meath (579 hectares) and Wexford (347 hectares). Counties in Leinster account for 87% of overall national production area (up from 83% in 2008).

FIELD VEGETABLE FARMGATE VALUE 1999-2014 (MILLION)

25%

26% 16%

0% Largest 50 Growers (by area) 2002

Remaining Growers

2005

2008

2014

Total production area: 2005 - 4,267 ha, 2008 - 4,590 ha,: 2014 0 4,267 ha. Data for 1999 not available

HOLDING SIZE 2002-2014 Large scale producers represent a significant, and growing, proportion of the total production area. The largest 50 growers (in terms of area) accounted for 84% of the total field vegetable production area in 2014, up from 74% in 2008.

FIELD VEGETABLE CROP PRODUCTION Carrots are the most important field vegetable in terms of production area and farmgate value. There are 716 hectares of carrots grown (a 5% increase since 2008) with a farmgate value of €15.4 million. Cabbage is the second most important crop but its production has fallen. There are 681 hectares of cabbage grown with a farmgate value of €11.3 million. Among the other main crops, broccoli, swedes and parsnips all show increases in farmgate value. The production area of these crops was 558, 480 and 377 hectares respectively.

MARKET OUTLETS

The farmgate value of field vegetable production in 2014 was €80m. This is a 15% increase since 2008.

Across the top eight crops by farmgate value, 60% of output is sold directly to the main retail multiples and 21% is sold to wholesalers. Sales at farm shops and farmers’ markets account for 7%, with a further 7% going to the prepared vegetable sector. ✽

LORCAN BOURKE is business analyst with Bord Bia. If you have any questions or comments on the content of this feature you can contact him at lorcan.bourke@bordbia.ie

Summer 2017 / www.horticulture.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

INSIGHT / 14

THE EUROPEAN LANDSCAPE CONVENTION (ELC) and Our Role as Landscape Professionals

Recent Landscape Architectural Masters graduate, Colette LemaireBrady frames the European Landscape Convention in context with the wider landscape sector

THE ELC DEFINITION OF LANDSCAPE The ELC landscape definition and its legal recognition is done by its inclusion in the Planning and Development Act 2010 (amended). Since the ratification of the ELC, the definition of Irish landscape has departed from the restrictive notion of “outstanding landscape” (An Foras Forbartha, 1976). The ELC now defines landscape as “an area, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of action and interaction of natural and/or human factors” (Europe, 2000). The wording “natural and/or human factors” is calling for biology, humanities and social sciences. The wording “action and interaction” is calling for extra knowledge in geography and history. The main challenge of this new landscape definition is perception. The objective study of the people’s perception is difficult as the perception is a subjective appraisal of the landscape. This personal assessment of the landscape could be influenced by the personal or professional use of the place, the liking or disliking of colours, noises, primal instincts, local legends associated with the place, or other societal beliefs. This list of influences is not exhaustive. The perception could

be an individual perception, or a group perception. Landscape perception can be influenced by our professional bias or knowledge, so we now have the responsibility of not manipulating the public when we are involved in collecting the public perception through landscape assessment activities. Nevertheless, I believe that as professionals, we will have our own valued subjective perception to add to the mix. Perception could be dangerously false and should be kept in check by scientific knowledge if we want a sustainable landscape. Another challenge of the ELC relates to pinning down the definitions of those involved in the shaping of our landscapes.

WHO ARE THE LANDSCAPE PROFESSIONALS? Can you define your role in the landscape? Most people in the field struggle with this due to the range of their activities and interests. I like the term “landscape practitioner” because it helps to portray a multidisciplinary education and approach to the landscape. It can include natural science experts, human science and applied science experts, and also horticulture experts, Landscape Architects, foresters, farmers, contractors without trying to fit them into one category or another. Pinning down roles is most certainly a challenge but getting the various sectors to agree and work together is a whole other ball game.

LANDSCAPE ASSESSMENTS PRESENT AN OPPORTUNITY TO SHARE KNOWLEDGE Achieving agreement and collaboration begins with shared understanding of what we are talking about and the route to this is defining our understanding of Irish landscape. The process used for this is a ELC landscape assessment. Most of us would have heard or stumbled upon the necessity to have Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEA), Environment Impact Assessments (EIA) or Appropriate Assessments (AA) for various human interventions. I do not especially assimilate these assessments with an opportunity to share knowledge. The EIA or SEA are usually engaging head on with a conflict of interests, and are not always conducive to peaceful discussions. The objects of these assessments are a development project, a spatial plan or a specified policy. The object of the ELC

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticulture.ie / Summer 2017

PHOTO: BINKSKI

he aftermath of World War World War II gave birth to inspirational ideas to improve our societies. The European Landscape Convention (ELC) is one of these inspirational ideas, and was a response to ecological threats and vanishing farming and rural traditions. The ELC’s main objectives are not there to freeze the landscape, but to manage it in a sustainable and democratic way. As such, it will have a significant impact on the wider landscape sector. The ELC was issued by the Council of Europe and signed on 20 October 2000 in Florence by member states. The Convention was ratified by Ireland in 2002 and came into force in 2004. In 2016, the National Landscape Strategy (NLS) was published in the Republic of Ireland. It is a policy framework to organise supporting actions for the objectives of the ELC, which are: the landscape must be protected, managed and planned; it must be recognised in law; a national landscape character assessment must take place; landscape policies must be developed; landscape awareness needs to be increased and public participation needs to be improved.

14 / INSIGHT assessments is different, in that they are not giving a value or deciding the fate of a landscape, but are allowing a thorough knowledge of the landscape. EIA and SEA are made to assess the adequacy of the implantation and the scale of a new development in a predetermined site. The quality of the site must stay environmentally stable. The ELC landscape assessments required from the member states are made to help in formulating policies and to understand not an environmental site background but an area in all its complexity with cultural, tangible, and intangible elements. The AA are protecting the conservation object of a nature 2000 site but the ELC protects all landscapes including degraded areas. The ELC is interested by the variations between the different European landscapes and by the observation of the forces and pressures at work. The Heritage Council guidelines call ELC assessments “landscape character assessments”. They are a thorough study of the landscape and what it means for all the stakeholders. “Landscape character assessment – This is the process of identifying and describing variation in the character of the landscape. It seeks to identify and explain the unique combination of elements and features (characteristics) that make landscapes distinctive. This process results in the production of a landscape character assessment.” (Christine Tudor, Natural England, 2014) The ELC convention is a legal tool, which leaves the signatories to work out the practical aspects of their engagement. It means, for example, that each government can experiment and choose the techniques used for landscape assessments, and can also be inspired by the techniques used by our European counterparts. New Irish statutory guidelines are expected to be issued in 2017. As a landscape practitioner, I believe it is our duty to make sure that the administrative process does not become void of practical meaning. Landscape consultants will need to have a wide knowledge of the different elements of all landscapes, not only rural (i.e. ancient walls, stiles, hunting copses, Victorian letter boxes etc.) but also a knowledge of their functions. Professional bodies like the Irish Landscape Institute have been advising and discussing these matters with their members. One would hope that farming and other sectorial organisations will engage. But assessment will not simply be the product of expert insight. Public participation will be needed too. ELC associations such as Civil Scape or Irish associations such as Landscape Alliance Ireland encourage their citizens to participate in the study of their everyday landscape. Landscape assessments and the study of landscape trends both present opportunities to improve multidisciplinary cooperation and education. These studies should contain photos, drawings, historical facts, statistics, and even cultural information such as poems. These studies will be made easily accessible and will contribute to inspire the designers and inform our work. Proper assessment and definition of the trends will depend on multilayers of expertise such as archeology, geology, geography, forestry, plant and farming experts to name a few. As landscape practitioners, we must make sure that all

the interesting elements and functions are listed because the landscape assessments will influence the landscape policies.

LANDSCAPE PROFESSIONALS AND LANDSCAPE POLICIES The convention asks the governments to relay the public aspirations through the competent authorities and define some landscape policies. This implies that the professionals will study the public aspirations issued from the public perceptions. This will be the task of landscape consultants, but they will need to be helped by sociologists, historians and other experts able to understand the population psyche. Nowadays, the participation of Irish citizens in landscape character assessments is restricted to the public consultation of a draft as a supplementary planning guidance to the County Council’s Development plan. After my studies on the interpretation of the ELC by academics and its practice by other member states, I can conclude that the public participation envisaged by the ELC means interactive processes and partnership. Consequently in a reformed system, the advice of our landscape practitioners will be sought as a balance to public opinion. Public aspirations will need to be realistic and sustainable, otherwise they will or should be discarded by the government. Professional views will be necessary to ascertain the viability of public aspirations. As an example, we could take the population’s wishes to have policies preventing flooding by building walls and piping rivers. The industry will be consulted on the feasibility of such projects. The practitioners should follow public debates and suggest best practice solutions. Should the industry actively promote water retention gardens and parks, which could provide jobs for our horticulture specialists, nurseries and contractors? I think so but the landscape practitioners are already walking a fine line between being a custodian of the landscape and trying to make a living.

LANDSCAPE PROFESSIONALS AND THE EVOLUTION OF AN EVERYDAY LANDSCAPE Everyday landscape is an area visited every day and susceptible to a daily attachment. Outside or during our professional schedule, we all try to appreciate our everyday landscape and we all appreciate some of its elements better than others. As professionals involved in all aspects of landscape, we probably have an important role or duty to participate in assessment consultation processes even as simple citizens. Without the energy of local experts, many battles would have been lost. An everyday landscape is not always ordinary, and you may find an interesting local monument to fight for. Ordinary landscape is a term which is not found in the ELC, yet it exists de facto. In Ireland, most of our landscape is a rural landscape. Ordinary rural landscape, or what I call badly defined landscape, is usually chosen for the site of new infrastructure. This convention emphasises the importance of the citizen’s everyday surroundings and public education. It will create awareness at local level and it will put pressure

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for the creation of local schemes for tidying up places, planting, rebuilding walls or local features, managing local ruins or rivers, enhancing hamlets, local monuments or items perceived as such. This should be creating opportunities for Irish horticulture and Irish landscape contractors. Once the ELC has been acted upon, not many places or local landscapes will be ordinary anymore. The everyday landscape being a limited resource with multi-functions, it is becoming necessary to have landscape practitioners with good negotiation skills when confronted with sustainable policies not suitable to the short term interests or wishes of their clients. The retailers must inform their clients of the ethic planting and maintenance choices they should make in their garden or in their commercial plantations. The retailers should advise on genus and origin of trees and plants to avoid spreading disease. The growers could favour and offer a wide choice of plants providing food for the bees and other pollinators. The NLS does not make new landscape policies concerning sectorial activities a requirement. Professional bodies such as the GLDA or the IHNSA could try to have their own landscape policy or guidelines. The garden creations or ‘landscaping endeavours’ of the GLDA members will have also to be judged beyond the garden gate. In some places, the choice of the hedging plant genus could be restrained by the rural context. Horticultural trends bring variety, but should not destroy the character of a traditional landscape such as Tara or the Burren. The activities

PHOTO: KORALEY NORTHEN

INSIGHT / 14 COLETTE LEMAIREBRADY is a landscape consultant and a medal winner at Bloom. Her focus is on rural, fringe rural/ urban landscapes and garden designs. Colette has a wide range of qualifications including French rural planning (1984, IHEDREA, Paris) and European laws (1987, Diploma in European Laws, UCD) to garden and landscape design (2013, BTEC, SCD) and landscape studies (2017, MArch. Sc, UCD). She can be contacted through her email: colettelemairebrady@gmail.com

of our bulldozers should take account of the landscape forms and their functions and also of the natural habitats and the new symbiosis between the flora, fauna and town dwellers In conclusion, managing the landscape by planning its development and protecting its identity is a collective responsibility but I believe that the implementation of the European Landscape Convention and the awareness of its existence should overall create a positive climate for our professions. ✽

Kildalton College

Piltown, Co. Kilkenny

Helping people establish careers in horticulture for 45 years

• • •

QQI Level 5 Certificate in Horticulture QQI Level 6 Advanced Certificate in Horticulture QQI Level 7 Bachelor of Science in Horticulture (in conjunction with Waterford Institute of Technology)

•

Part-time Component Awards at Levels 5 & 6

Kildalton College has an extensive horticultural unit for student training, including a commercial nursery, fruit and vegetable

Saturday 12th August @10.00 - 2.00pm

production unit, protected crops and sportsturf units, as well as 16 hectares of established gardens and woodlands.

For further information: Email: Kildalton.college@teagasc.ie Website: www.teagasc.ie/training/colleges/kildalton/ Facebook: Teagasc-Kildalton-College Telephone: 051 644400 or 051 644407

GLAS STAND #L1

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticulture.ie / Summer 2017

15 / RESEARCH

FUTURE ADVANCES FOR

PROTECTED HORTICULTURE Dr Michael Gaffney, from Teagasc outlines the key findings from the recent technology in horticulture conference

required, and the correct units of measurement. A constant theme of the presentation was a reminder that more light does result in more growth but also in more cost, and these factors need to be assessed before investment. Another factor to consider is the ratio of red light to blue light. In general the greater the proportion of blue light in a system, the greater the cost, as blue LEDs are more expensive to produce. The greater the proportion of blue light in a system will compact plant growth, with the opposite occurring with greater far-red light intensity leading to taller plants with longer internodes. Identifying the correct ratio of light for each individual crop and requirement will be a focus of much research in the coming years.

HORTICULTURAL LIGHTING

ON FARM ENERGY CREATION

Light emitting diodes (LEDs) have been identified as the next technological advance in protected growing for many years. The recent proliferation of companies utilising this technology for growing medical marijuana in the United States coupled with an increase in LED production in lower cost economies is reducing the cost of these systems. Also the availability of independent research tracking energy usage by these systems, compared to alternative systems such as high pressure sodium (HPS), is giving growers a factual basis to make financial and agronomic comparisons between lighting systems. At the seminar, Dr Phillip Davis of Stockbridge Technology Centre in the UK highlighted an example which focused on delivering the required light levels to the crop (in this instance, 200 µmol m-2 s-1 per 10 m2 area) using HPS or a Philips LED top light. While the LED system required twice as many lamps per 10 m2 (1.73 v 3.86), the total power required to deliver the target light levels was 30% lower in the LED system (1041 W v 733 W). It was also highlighted that not all LEDs are equal. Under the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board project CP139 they compared the efficacy of five different LED lamps and performance ranged from 1.27 – 2.71 µmol m-2 s-1 which shows the importance of sourcing systems from reputable suppliers, and for growers themselves to understand what light levels are

If lighting, LED or otherwise, is to become more commonplace on Irish nurseries, it is possible that the most cost effective approach will be to produce the electricity to run those lights 'on farm'. But many systems which can produce both heat and electricity tend to require a large financial commitment which may be beyond most small to medium growers. One novel solution was highlighted by Francesco Panzeri of Demetra Limited, an Irish based company specialising in small scale anaerobic digestion. He highlighted an example of an Italian salad packer who produces 10,200 tonnes per year of waste, which they combine with 2,200 tonnes of a bioenergy crop and animal slurry in their anaerobic digestion unit to produce sufficient gas to provide 300kWh to heat their glasshouses and 250 kWe which is sold to the national grid. The resultant digestate is used as an organic fertiliser in the glasshouses. This was a good example of a ‘circular system’, but again the volume and scale demonstrated would only apply to relatively few Irish nurseries. However their concept, ADbag, utilises an earth bank system to create the reaction chamber where the gas is produced and is approximately 30% cheaper than concrete constructions. This form of construction allows them to build smaller AD systems, either singularly or in pods. The gas is then used to power a combined heat and power plant (CHP)

PHOTO: EKKASIT KEATSIRIKUL

he recent horticultural technologies seminar hosted by Teagasc on 4 May focused on new and developing technologies for the protected horticulture sector. Protected horticulture, including mushrooms, now accounts for approximately 70% of the farm gate value of horticulture in Ireland. However, Ireland continues to import extremely significant volumes of produce which could be grown locally. Given the shifting trends in fruit and vegetable consumption towards crops which are grown under protection, it is critical that this sector embraces and is supported in adopting new technologies to increase yield and develop alternative and complementary sources of revenue to reduce the cost of production.

Summer 2017 / www.horticulture.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

RESEARCH / 15 which produces heat, electricity and CO2. Given a recent Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland report highlighting that Ireland produces enough animal slurries and food wastes to potentially sustain 900 AD plants of varying size and scale and given the unique ability of horticulture to utilise all three products from the carbon dioxide, heat and power(CHP), creating and supporting scenarios where AD and horticulture are linked makes both environmental and financial sense.

GOVERNMENT INCENTIVE A new energy project is a significant investment for any nursery, with the future projections of fossil fuel versus biomass an active consideration when deciding on heating systems, as well as the financial realities of the capital cost on any investment. Barry Caslin of Teagasc updated the conference on the recent consultation process around the proposal for a renewable heat incentive. While the final details of how the scheme will operate and what the rate of support will be have yet to be finalised, it is likely that it will support technologies such as anaerobic digestion CHP and boiler, biomass CHP and boiler and other technologies applicable to the horticultural sector. While the capital costs of systems such as these will be higher than those utilising gas and oil, the rate of support may make investment in these renewable technologies more attractive to growers.

GLASSHOUSE STRUCTURES Since the 1970s, glasshouse heights have increased at a rate of about 1m per decade. Currently new houses in Ireland are being built to a gutter height of 5.5m, with houses over 6m high becoming common in Europe. This increase in height increases the volume of air within the house, giving more control over the environment. The increase in height has also been to accommodate changes to growing practice such as screens, lights and increased mechanisation and robotics. It is questionable how much higher glasshouses need to be, although houses as high as 8m are currently under construction in Europe. With glasshouse construction quotations regularly exceeding €55 per m2 for a 5.5m high glasshouse in Ireland, economic realities rather than technology may limit any further height increases. Recent developments in glass also have the potential to increase yield, with the use of diffuse glass which scatters light when it passes through the pane. This scattering of light increases the haze and can increase yield, but it does lower light transmission. Experiments in Holland indicated an 8-10% increase in yield in tomatoes, 4-10% increase in yield in cucumbers and 25% bigger potted plants while simultaneously reducing production time from 22 to 16 weeks. While this sounds extremely promising the cost of retrofitting an existing structure to diffuse glass is very significant and given the fact that light levels in Ireland can be low, even in the summer months, the reduction in light transmission caused by the diffuse glass may ultimately negate any benefits.

PLANT BREEDING The future direction of food production is towards a more sustainable model, utilising new technologies to increase yields and quality. Dr Ewen Mullins of the crop science department in Teagasc gave an update on the recent

advancements in genome editing which allow plant breeders to upgrade already well adapted varieties by utilising proteins to edit a plant’s genome. This new technique has the potential to significantly decrease the time to produce new varieties and can allow breeders to select for specific traits to enable plants to become more resistant to diseases, physiological stress and also to potentially enhance the nutritional quality of the produce. These techniques, the best known of which is referred to as CRISPR-CAS, have already been used extensively across a range of horticultural crops to select for desirable traits in a research setting, but a recent decision by the US government that an edited mushroom can be cultivated and sold without passing through the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) regulatory process makes it the first CRISPR-edited organism to receive approval. It is likely that other edited varieties will soon become available in the US. The EU is yet to make a decision as to whether they fall outside of EU legislation, even though the regulatory agencies of Ireland, England, Germany, Holland and Sweden have stated that they do, which would allow them to be sold within the EU. Given the technological advances in protected growing it is possible for Ireland to produce much of its salad and soft fruit requirements, a large proportion of which are currently imported. These crops require large amounts of CO2 and can be combined with renewable technologies, such as anaerobic digestion to create extremely sustainable crop production systems. Intensive horticulture such as this creates employment with most modern glasshouses creating five to 15 direct jobs per hectare depending on the crop. The protected crops sector has traditionally been extremely quick to adopt new technologies and practices. But the cost of new technologies is extremely high and increasing, for example a modern tomato growing house will cost approximately 0.5m per Ha for the structure alone. All indications are that the importance of this sector will increase as consumers continue to favour salad and fruit crops. Having said that, with strong completion from low cost imported produce it is critical that the sector continues to adopt new technologies and is supported to do so. It could be that linking horticultural production with sustainable energy creation may be the key to unlocking the significant potential in this sector. All presentations from the Teagasc Horticultural Technologies seminar are available to download at https:// www.teagasc.ie/publications/2017/teagasc-horticulturaltechnologies-seminar.php ✽

DR MICHAEL GAFFNEY is a senior research officer, specialising in entomology and horticulture in the Horticulture Development Department at Teagasc and is also an adjunct lecturer in crop protection at the School of Agriculture and Food Science at University College Dublin. He leads a diverse research group focusing on IPM, crop protection and crop quality. He can be contacted at Michael.Gaffney@Teagasc.ie

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticulture.ie / Summer 2017

16 / TURFGRASS

GRASSLAND WILDFLOWER

Pat Suttle of KS Agronomy and Capital Sports discusses some of the values and challenges of alternative grassland maintenance regimes

hen installing an area of grass it is important to think carefully about what you are trying to achieve and how the area will be maintained in the long term. Grasslands will often be well designed, specified and constructed, and then fall apart after installation. They are an integral part of the fabric of our cities, towns, villages and the wider landscape and provide functions as diverse as leisure, biodiversity, farming, recreation, sports, greenbelts, buffers, accents and verges. Costs associated with their maintenance can be significant for local councils and landowners, and much research and experimentation has taken place over the last 10 years to see how these costs can be reduced. While the vast majority of new build developments are transferred over to management companies there are still swathes of grass under the control of local councils, who are under intense pressure to reduce costs. Some of the approaches being taken include reduced mowing regimes, the use of grazers or suitable ground covers and where achievable, native and pictorial flower meadows.

GRASSLAND FOR OLD HARDY CATTLE BREEDS AND GEESE Living in Portmarnock, Co Dublin, which is within Fingal County Council catchment area, I have witnessed first-hand and supported a variety of mowing initiatives. We have two publicly owned areas nearby which are grazed by Highland cattle and they are a great attraction for people driving by or out for a walk. Adjacent to the grazing area is a large greenbelt which is partially mown once a year and the mowings are baled for use as cattle feed. Portmarnock is also home to both a Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) and a Special Protection

Areas (SPA), which are home to many winter visiting birds including huge numbers of Brent geese. They occupy a large green space and graze the grassland from October/November through to March/April each year. In recent years I have noticed that the deteriorated grass cover in the geese grazed area has been replaced by broadleaved plants - all the wildflowers you would expect to find in low nutrient grassland. The areas are very attractive with plants in flower throughout the spring and summer, but they may not be achieving their aim of providing space and food for the grazing animals. This presents a challenge and applications of low amounts of nutrients may be required to maintain sufficient grass cover to feed the geese, while still allowing the nutrient status to remain low enough to accommodate the wildflowers.

CATERING FOR PUBLIC AND GRAZING NEEDS To maintain good grass cover for grazing, levels of phosphorus should be maintained at about 3mgs per litre and the potassium levels at or above 100mg per litre. At these levels it would be likely that nitrogen applications of about 30kg per hectare would produce sufficient forage for the cattle and the geese. However, it would result in a species poor area. To bring plant diversity into the sward, it would be necessary to allow the phosphorus level to drop down towards 2mgs per litre and the potassium levels down towards 40mg per litre. To achieve this reduction in nutrient levels relatively quickly it would be necessary to harvest grass off the area in the form of hay or silage for two to three years. Once a species rich grassland has been achieved it is likely that approximately 10kg nitrogen, 2kg phosphorus, and 6kg potassium per hectare might be sufficient to maintain

Summer 2017 / www.horticulture.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

TURFGRASS / 16

THE CHANGING DIVERSITY OF SPECIES IS PROVIDES VISUAL AMENITY BUT IS NOT IDEAL FOR FEEDING.

THE ARGUMENT FOR NUTRIENT APPLICATION

In urban or near urban areas, another good reason to apply nutrients to grazing areas is that it will attract the geese and keep them away from football pitches (where nutrients are applied in autumn to encourage recovery of the grass after wear). The aforementioned grazed area in Portmarnock sits right beside two football clubs. Remember, geese are not stupid. They fly over the area and land to feed on the greenest and sweetest grass. In recent times visiting football teams in North Dublin have refused to play on pitches covered in goose droppings. Adding nutrients in some areas can also contribute to biodiversity creation. In my own area I have seen huge increases in cowslips and orchids.

BALANCING PUBLIC OPINION It has been interesting to see public reaction to changing mowing practices over the last decade. As with most things, it’s mixed. For the most part people have welcomed changes and the subtle use of mown edges around longer grass plays a significant role in mediating negative opinion. The legacy of the mown expanse of the English parks movement is slowly dissipating. But it’s still there and manifests itself in complaints about untidiness. There are also those who object on the basis of pollen increase. I’ve even heard complaints about children coming into contact with insects! But then Rome wasn't mown in a day. We are heading in the right direction and if the long term benefits are communicated, people will eventually get on board.

PAT SUTTLE has a PHOTO: KORALEY NORTHEN

a reasonable amount of grass cover for small cattle at low stocking rates and flocks of geese without reducing the number of wildflower species. Timing the nutrient applications would be important. Cattle are present all year round so the nutrients can be applied in March whereas the geese who are winter visitors would benefit from nutrient applications in August/September.

horticultural degree from UCD. He is also an agronomist working with KS Agronomy, which provides consultancy services for all types of sportsturf facilities. Pat spent much of his career lecturing in turfgrass and soil science at Teagasc Botanic Gardens, and at Kinsealy Research Centre. He also managed the greenkeeper training programme and a sportsturf consultancy service in Teagasc, and has recently joined the multidisciplinary team at Capital Sports.

www.dublingrass.ie

GLAS STAND #ST24

The Groundcare Machinery Specialists

SUMMARY To achieve biodiversity soil nutrient levels need to be low. Take a soil test for phosphorus, potassium and pH and send it to a soil testing laboratory. If the nutrient levels are high, cut and harvest the grass. Retest the soil the following year. Once the levels are low enough diversity in the plant cover will occur naturally. This can be accelerated by drilling wildflower seed into the soil. To maintain for low level grazing small amounts of nutrients are required every one to two years to replace those taken away by the grazers. ✽

01-8386867

HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticulture.ie / Summer 2017

17 / EVENTS

EVENTSDIARY DON’T MISS!

20 JULY GLAS

27 - 28 SEPTEMBER EXPO FOR PUBLIC SPACE

Whether you are touching base with your current suppliers, or evaluating new ones, there is no better place to compare ranges, prices and business terms. Venue: Citywest Hotel, Saggart, Co. Dublin glasireland.ie ✽

29 JULY RHSI RUSSBOROUGH GARDEN SHOW The Royal Horticultural Society of Ireland (RHSI), The Alfred Beit Foundation and Quinns of Baltinglass have teamed up to host a Garden Show in the historic parkland estate. Venue: Russborough House & Gardens Blessington, Wicklow. rhsi.ie ✽

12 AUGUST TEAGASC COLLEGE OF AMENITY HORTICULTURE OPEN DAY

DON’T MISS!

04 OCTOBER HTA GARDEN FUTURES HTA Garden Futures conference and gala dinner bring together the key players in the garden industry to consider cutting-edge practice and ideas from business leaders and experts. Venue: Heythrop Park, Enstone, Oxfordshire, OX7 5UE, UK gardenfutures.org.uk ✽

04-06 OCTOBER GROOT GROEN PLUS

Graduates of the courses contribute in many sectors of the horticulture industry, such as, landscape design and construction, garden centres, parks, estate gardens, grounds maintenance and greenkeeping. Venue: National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin Dublin teagasc.ie ✽

DON’T MISS!

The Expo for Public Space is the largest exhibition in Europe which focuses exclusively on all the aspects of public space. Venue: Jaar Beurs, Utrect, The Netherlands. openbareruimte.nl ✽

International nursery stock trade fair. Nurseries, dealers, manufacturers and subcontractors from machinery and working equipment. Venue: AJ Zundert, The Netherlands. grootgroenplus.nl ✽

23 - 26 AUGUST PLANTARIUM

Around 300 exhibitors from various countries will be showcasing a huge range of tree nursery products for the consumer market in pots and containers and as bare-rooted products. Venue: Plantarium Building, International Trade Centre, Boskoop, The Netherlands. plantarium.nl ✽

23 - 26 August 2017 Boskoop/Holland Register your visit via the Internet and save yourself time at the entrance.

5 SEPTEMBER ITB HORTICULTURE OPEN EVENING Fancy a blossoming career in horticulture? Are you interested in the environment and the outdoors? If so, our horticulture courses may be of interest to you. From 5-7pm Venue: ITB Blanchardstown, D15 itb.ie/studyatitb/horticulture ✽

DON’T MISS!

11 - 13 SEPT GLEE BIRMINGHAM

Glee is the UK’s biggest and most valuable garden and outdoor living trade show. Discover the newest products on the market, source unique products for every category and set your ranges apart from your competitors. Venue: NEC Birmingham, UK gleebirmingham.com ✽

WWW.PLANTARIUM.NL

Summer 2017 / www.horticulture.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

EVENTS / JOBS

EVENTSDIARY

JOBS

06 OCTOBER TEAGASC KILDALTON COLLEGE OPEN DAY

CHARLEVILLE ESTATE ✽

Kildalton is the largest agricultural college in the country. It is a leading provider of training in Machinery, Agriculture and Horticulture. Time: from 10am - 1pm.Tours start at 10am & 11am Venue: Kildalton Agricultural College, Pilltown, Co Kilkenny teagasc.ie ✽

Assistant Head Gardener WATERFORD AREA PARTNERSHIP ✽

Assistant Co-Ordinator in Horticulture

13 - 14 OCTOBER CHARTERED INSTITUTE OF HORTICULTURE CONFERENCE The theme is Healthy Horticulture and the importance of horticulture in everyday life. The conference will take place during the day on Friday, followed by a Gala Dinner in the evening. Venue: Crowne Plaza Hotel, Northwood, Dublin. horticulture.org.uk ✽

25 OCTOBER NURSERY STOCK SEMINAR

AIRFIELD ESTATE ✽

Horticulturist

MULRINES IRISH ORCHARDS ✽

Orchard Supervisor

DUBLIN LANDSCAPING ✽

Landscape Gardener

D MCCARTHY LANDSCAPES ✽

Landscape Operative

Venue: 9.30am at Teagasc Ashtown Research Centre, Dublin

MUSHROOM INDUSTRY SEMINAR Venue: 2pm at Nuremore Hotel, Carrickmacross, Co. Monaghan teagasc.ie ✽

01 - 02 NOVEMBER DON’T SALTEX Your Industry - Your Show. The UK’s National event MISS!

HR Services Include: Client Consultation l Job Role & Descriptions l Job Advertising & Promotion l Screening of CV's l Interview co-ordination of candidates l Interview Panels l Reference checking

for grounds care, sports, amenities, estates and green space management with over 260 exhibitors bringing you the latest products, equipment and expertise. Venue: NEC Birmingham iogsaltex.com ✽

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Facing charges

Patricia tyrell tackles a very difficult subject

MIKE NEARY

THE GARDENING MARKET IN GROWTH

What You see

ronan nangle on the benefits of hand Picking trees

Horticultural Wages

WE SHARE RESULTS FROM OUR RECENT NATIONAL SURVEY

BREXIT AND IRISH HORTICULTURE

CONTROL ISSUES GroMór Hit the Ground Running in 2015

IRISH HORTICULTURE UNITES TO ENTHUSE A NEW GENERATION OF PLANT BUYERS

MARKETING YOUR BUSINESS, NEVILLE STEIN

Retail Adaptation: Changing to Meet Evolving Consumers

EAMONN WALL, EXPLORING THE EVOLUTION OF PLANT BUYER BEHAVIOUR

Two point perspective. JOHN JOE COSTIN AND JIMI BLAKE ON BLOOM 2016 Maximising your surface

Growing Confidence

MIKE NEARY SHARES POSITIVE DATA ON THE IRISH GARDENING MARKET

Right Tree, Right Place

IRELAND’S EXPERTS ON WHAT TO PLANT

EAMON KEALY ON ARTIFICAL PLAYING SURFACES

National landscape and garden design survey BARRY LUPTON REPORTS

CONTROL ISSUES

EXPERT PERSPECTIVES ON WEED MANAGEMENT IN THE IRISH LANDSCAPE

PREFERRED PERENNIALS

IRELAND’S FIRST SURVEY OF PREFERRED LANDSCAPE PERENNIALS

ARE THINGS REALLY PICKING UP?

WATER FEATURE

MARYANN HARRIS EXPLORES HOW DESIGN AND HORTICULTURE CAN MEDIATE FLOODING ISSUES

APPRENTICESHIP 2.0

WHY THE FUTURE OF HORTICULTURE LIES IN THE PAST

MIKE NEARY, DERMOT CALLAGHAN AND NEVILLE STEIN SHARE THEIR INSIGHTS

DESIGNER INSIGHT

PATRICIA TYRELL CASTS AN EXPERT VIEW OVER BLOOM 2016

FRAZER McDONOGH

THE GREATEST LEVELLER

BLOOM 2017

Perennial Passion

ANGELA BINCHY REVIEWS

tim schram talks to barry luPton

MARIA ACHTIDA assuring sustainable Practice

andrew mahon frames the sustainable horticulture assurance scheme (shas)

CULTIVATING CUTTINGS

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE: HOW YOU CAN CREATE A SUSTAINABLE CAREER PATH

DECLAN BLACKMORE

PERSISTENCE PAYS: REALISING THE AMERICAN DREAM

ANDY WHELTON ON IRELAND’S FOLIAGE SECTOR

HIDDEN COSTS LOST PROFITS COLM KENNY EXAMINES THE HIDDEN COSTS OF LANDSCAPE CONTRACTING

CORE BUSINESS

SUD AND YOUR GROWING BUSINESS

FRUIT GROWER CON TRAAS TALKS WITH BARRY LUPTON

REGULATIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Volume 4 Issue 1

Volume Price: €12 ROI, £10 GBP

4 Issue 2

Price: €12 ROI, £10 GBP

The subscription price in 2017 for editions in Spring, Summer, Autumn/Winter is €30. BECOME AN OUTLET FOR HC MAGAZINE

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News, Analysis and Trends in Landscape, Garden Retail & Edible Horticulture

HORTICULTURE CONNECTED

Autumn/Winter 2016

News, Analysis and Trends in Landscape, Garden Retail & Edible Horticulture

Facing charges

Patricia tyrell tackles a very difficult subject

What You see

BREXIT AND IRISH HORTICULTURE

CONTROL ISSUES

ARE THINGS REALLY PICKING UP?

WATER FEATURE

MARYANN HARRIS EXPLORES HOW DESIGN AND HORTICULTURE CAN MEDIATE FLOODING ISSUES

APPRENTICESHIP 2.0

WHY THE FUTURE OF HORTICULTURE LIES IN THE PAST

ronan nangle on the benefits of hand Picking trees

MIKE NEARY, DERMOT CALLAGHAN AND NEVILLE STEIN SHARE THEIR INSIGHTS

DESIGNER INSIGHT

PATRICIA TYRELL CASTS AN EXPERT VIEW OVER BLOOM 2016

Perennial Passion

tim schram talks to barry luPton

CULTIVATING CUTTINGS

ANDY WHELTON ON IRELAND’S FOLIAGE SECTOR

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Horticulture Connected Summer Volume 4 Issue 2

Articles inside

PROJECT MANAGEMENT – THE BEGINNING AND THE END

BLOOM, Teagasc Horticultural Technologies Conference & Allianz Garden Show Ireland

CORE BUSINESS

HIDDEN COSTS, LOST PROFITS

A BLOOMING SECTOR: CAN IRISH GROWERS MAKE THE CUT?

All the latest news from Bord Bia

HONESTY LESSONS

A SHARED VISION FOR HORTICULTURE