Diarmuid Gavin, the celebrity gardener, returned to his roots in south Kerry this weekend to raise money for the Cill Rialaig artists' retreat project in Ballinskelligs.
Gavin, who presents a number of gardening programmes for BBC 2, said his early days as a successful gardener sprang from a stay in the Ballinskelligs area in the early 1990s.
His Homefront programme is one of television's most watched gardening shows. In the autumn, he is to present a new series, Gardens Through Time, looking back at the history of gardens over 200 years.
In 1993, the hedgerow plants he and a team of two others gathered on the roads of south Kerry helped win him a bronze medal at the Chelsea Flower Show.
Much of the focus of his weekend course in south Kerry over the past number of days was the dramatic 200-year-old gardens of Glanleam on Valentia Island.
The gardens were once owned by the Knight of Kerry and are operated as a private concern.