Carlow Garden Festival – Thursday 31st July 2025, 3 p.m. and 5.00 p.m. Join Michael Kelly, founder of GIY (Grow It Yourself)
For an inspiring workshop at the beautiful Kilgraney Herb Gardens. In this session, Michael explores the powerful concept of food empathy – the deep connection we form with our food when we grow it ourselves.
As global food systems become increasingly complex and our relationship with nature grows more distant, Michael makes the case for the simple yet transformative act of growing your own food. Michael explains that growing even a small amount of your own food can transform your understanding of health, sustainability and community. Drawing on his own journey and the success of GIY, he explains how growing your own food can lead to more mindful eating, reduced food waste and a greater appreciation for seasonal, local produce.
Set in the tranquil surroundings of Kilgraney Herb Gardens, which features a rich variety of culinary and medicinal plants, this talk offers practical advice and is ideal for gardeners, food lovers and anyone interested in living more sustainably.
Kilgraney Herb Gardens Open May to Oct.
The gardens at Kilgraney look down upon the very heart of the Barrow Valley. Here we planned and planted a series of gardens with our favourite herbs so that you can admire their foliage and colours and breathe their wonderful fragrant notes. Some are common and easily recognised, some are less familiar, while some are utilitarian and others are simply to be admired. All, however, demonstrate nature’s infinite creativity. Open Weekends – Friday to Sunday 2.00 – 6.00. Admission 5 euros. Groups by prior arrangement only. Unsuitable for children. Limited wheelchair access.
The Kitchen Garden
The enclosed kitchen garden supplies the guesthouse with fruit, vegetables, salads and herbs and has been run on organic lines for over tetwenty years. In this modern rectangular ‘potager’ you will find unusual leafy plants such as mibuna, mizuna and komatsuna amongst more traditional salad varieties.
Next to the kitchen garden is the tea walk, a short gravel path lined on one side with plants suitable for infusions and herbal teas
The Medicinal Courtyard.
The medicinal garden, set in a granite courtyard, consists of nine raised beds in Irish oak timber. Each bed is planted with herbs suitable for treating a particular part of the body.
In 2011 we extended this garden to include an oncology bed planted with herbs and shrubs such as Irish Yew, Madagascan Periwinkle and American Mandrake, all of which are used in plant-based anti-cancer drugs.
Lower Courtyards
In a lower courtyard you will find an aromatic garden planted with herbs and flowers for fragrance and for their usefulness in cosmetic preparations. In an adjoining courtyard there is a modern interpretation of a medieval monastic herb garden with four oak raised beds surrounded on two sides by an oak timber cloister.
Finally, there’s a cottage herb garden and a cosmic herb garden: a wheel shaped herb garden divided into twelve beds, each section containing the herbs associated with a different zodiac sign.
The main orchard at the end of the tennis court, through the Yew arch, was the original orchard and has been replanted with heritage apple varieties from around Ireland.
The ajoinging orchards are planted with quince, medelars, plums, greengages, pears and cherry trees..