An Udder Day, An Udder Award

Emma Jane and friends…

ell, have we got moos for you…

Acclaimed Greystones artist Emma Jane Rushworth’s life-size cow sculpture is currently sitting pretty in the award-winning the Bord Bia Bloom gold-winning garden.

Designed by Youghal’s Sean Russell, the Sustainable Dairy Farm Garden took the gold on Friday in Phoenix Park.

And naturally, the Greystones wire sculpture artist is, eh, over the mooon.

“It’s not my first piece at this scale,” says Emma, “but Daisy was a pleasure to work on for Sean Russell. I loved his garden for the National Dairy Council – the concept is great!”

That concept being a traditional Irish country farm, complete with mature, grass-clover pasture, old-style milk churns, dry-stone walls, an outhouse and one specially-commissioned bronze wire-mesh bovine sculpture.

“Love the fact that the garden points the way to the future by looking at the past,” says Emma. “For generations, farmers knew how to keep the land healthy and alive, by each part of the chain feeding another. And Sean’s garden is a celebration, and a reminder, of that important eco chain.”

The judging panels for Bord Bia Bloom 2022 included 15 Irish and international horticultural experts, who announced 78 awards for show garden designers, nurseries, floral artists, botanical art and amateur garden designers including 22 gold, 17 silver gilt, 17 silver, 13 bronze and 9 certificates of commendation.

Ireland’s largest garden festival, the Phoenix Park Bloom exhibition of 19 show gardens, 9 postcard gardens, over 80 Irish food and drink stalls, 18 plant nurseries, 25 live cookery demonstrations and 130 retailers is running until Bank Holiday Monday.

You can find out more about Bord Bia Bloom here, and about Emma Jane Rushworth’s work here.