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Green-fingered Leesiders will be in their element next month when Ireland’s favourite flower and garden fest returns.

Gardening enthusiasts from Cork and around the country are expected in their thousands at this year’s Bord Bia Bloom, which returns to Dublin’s Phoenix Park from 1-5 June.

Themes like improving air quality, tackling food waste, and highlighting how children benefit from outdoor play are amongst the many themes to be explored at this year’s event.

The festival is expected to attract more than 100,000 visitors and promises another vibrant mix of thought-provoking show gardens, delicious local food, and interactive entertainment for visitors of all ages.

This year’s event will feature 22 small, medium, and large gardens, both show and feature, providing a colourful demonstration of the latest trends and innovations in garden design.

Speaking at the festival’s launch, Jim O’Toole, CEO of Bord Bia, said: “Bord Bia Bloom was created to offer a world-class, uplifting and engaging showcase for Irish horticulture, food and drink.

Now in its 17th year, the show provides an invaluable platform to highlight important societal issues such as climate change, sustainable production and health and wellbeing.”

In line with the theme of outdoor play, many of the gardens at this year’s festival focus on spaces for children and young people. The impact of climate change and making better use of the outdoors also feature as recurring themes this year.

As well as this year’s display of gardens, visitors will also find plenty of inspiration in the ever-popular Postcard Gardens portion of the festival, which includes 9 small but perfectly formed pop-up gardens designed and built by community groups, schools, and training groups from across Ireland.

Also set to feature are a series of live cookery demonstrations from some of Ireland’s leading chefs, including Neven Maguire, Catherine Fulvio and Rory O’Connell.

Head of Bord Bia Bloom 2023, Laura Douglas, said this year's festival is sure to be a truly immersive experience, designed to “inspire, educate and entertain visitors in equal measure”.

“We are delighted to introduce a number of new and exciting features for 2023 including a redesign of the popular Food Village, the introduction of the Funky Food Fleet which will bring a collection of Ireland’s tastiest food trucks to the festival for the first time, and Grafton Street’s best buskers will join us to entertain the crowds,” she said.