“The Interconnection of All Things”
We gathered as we do every year at the GLDA Seminar in February to listen to world experts discussing how we are all interconnected to our natural world.
Lulu Urquhart and Adam Hunt were first up and talked about recreating a riparian landscape and beaver dam in their “A Rewilding Britain Landscape” garden for the 2022 RHS Chelsea Flower Show. These principles are embedded and continue to influence their garden designs for private clients.
Next a fascinating talk by Galen Fulford on his Biomatrix Water company building nature systems for waterways and rivers. He showed us examples of potential floating beds incorporated into rivers in Dublin and in Cork cities. Galen explained the engineering behind building and installing these modular scalable systems, alluding to projects being likely realised throughout Ireland, which drew excited attention from the audience.
After lunch, Canadian born Margie Ruddick spoke about her client’s gardens throughout the US and abroad and how climate change has impacted her work. Margie is a long-standing designer whose professional career is both inspiring and has always been deeply rooted in working with nature and the environment.
Our final speaker of the day Neil Porteous told of his time working in various grand castle gardens all over Ireland, particularly Mount Stewart. He shared fantastic images of the grounds, mature trees and of his travels abroad on plant hunting expeditions. This he did with the late Séamus O’Brien of Kilmacurragh Gardens in Co Wicklow, and Neil paid great tribute to his friend on the day. Séamus was to be one of our speakers at the seminar but sadly passed away last December 2025.
Our sponsors held the stage too – Bord Bia highlighted Bloom’s forthcoming 20-year celebrations this summer, and Teagasc shared information on their horticulture courses at the National Botanic Gardens and around the country.
The breakout spaces were as always populated by our Product Sponsors showcasing paving materials, plants, lighting solutions, soil improvement products and of course gardening books.
The feedback afterwards has been encouraging with 52% of attendees saying they’d be interested in coming to next year’s seminar on a Friday. Watch this space!
Keep an eye out for John Smyth’s in-depth review of this year’s GLDA Seminar in our upcoming Compass issue.
