Growing Wild: with Dr Catherine Keena, Teagasc Countryside Management Specialist

Look out for whitethorn flowers. This year’s display has not been as magnificent with heavy rain hurrying the demise of flowers caught in downpours.

Timing of flowering varies within a hedge, which is very useful for associated invertebrates such as hoverflies, bees and moths.

Whitethorn supports 62 species of Irish moths. Note where flowering whitethorn is present – none on the body of topped hedges.

Please remember when hedge cutting to leave a thorn sapling to grow up in every topped hedge, providing flowers, fruit and perching posts – vital for our native Irish biodiversity.

In this week’s Meet the Maker,Grace Hanna spoke to designer Mairidh Mc Cormaic from Galway, founder of Sew it Seams, about her handmade fleeces and accesories. Check out sewitseamsclothing.bigcartel.com

A new permanent exhibition has launched at Strokestown Park House, Roscommon to showcase Ireland’s last preserved 18th-century gallery kitchen. The gallery kitchen was concealed behind partition walls until its rediscovery in the early 1980s.

The exhibition titled ‘Food, Feasts and Footmen’ sheds light on 18th-century life through informative narratives which highlight kitchen workspaces, food preparation and serving. The whole experience is curated by the Irish Heritage Trust, which manages the property. Regina Sexton, food and culinary historian at University College Cork says: “The house’s kitchen complex is a historical gem for Ireland.”

•The exhibition is open seven days, visit strokestownpark.

There’s nothing wrong with my eyes or my brain – it’s that my arteries collapsed [at the back of the eyes]. If they are able to transplant an eye for that man in America, maybe in a very short time they’ll be able to do something for people like me. Farmer, Paddy Gallagher.

Organisers of Bord Bia Bloom estimate 100,000 visitors will visit the Phoenix Park over the June bank holiday weekend.