An update from Sara Messenger of the Bradley Stoke in Bloom group.
Our annual Best Front Garden competition was judged at the end of July and it gives us very great pleasure to announce the winners! First place has again been awarded to Maureen Hopkins, who impressed the judges with the quantity and quality of plants and the character of her front garden. We could see that gardening is a labour of love for Maureen and her personal warmth and charm is reflected in her garden. With 92½ points, second place went to Alisa & Richard Aquilina, the judges were impressed by their flourishing pots; and with 89 points third place was awarded to Margaret Howdle with her colourful hanging baskets.
We had only planned a 1st prize, but were so impressed by the gardens we saw that we decided to also award a 2nd and 3rd place this year. 1st prize is a trophy engraved with the winner’s name, a meal for two voucher donated by the Harvester Restaurant and a £25 garden voucher donated by Almondsbury Garden Centre. For both 2nd & 3rd, the prize is an engraved dibber; 2nd place will also receive a £10 garden voucher donated by Almondsbury Garden Centre.
Thank you to these companies, to Timpson’s for the large discount given on the trophy engraving and to Mayor John Ashe for handing out the prizes.
Our Best Planted Pot competition had an unforeseen hitch. We had asked everyone to bring their pots to the carnival for judging, but with no parking allowed on site it became impractical to carry them there. So that the engraved trophies don’t go to waste, it has been suggested that we re-run this as a Winter Planted Pot competition. Watch this space!
Thank you to everyone who helped us out on carnival day, either representing us in the parade or manning our stall on the field. The ‘things we saved from the fire’ display drew a lot of interest and the ‘plant a pansy for mum’ activity went down well with the children while the adults seemed more interested in the sweetie tin! Freya Smith received an engraved glass trophy from the Mayor as a token of our thanks for designing our logo.
As reported last month, the arson attack on the storage container used by BSiB has completely destroyed all of our tools and equipment. Although we were insured (a claim is being submitted), until we have somewhere safe to store them there seems little point in replacing our tools, which leaves us with a problem.
Our next workday, on Saturday 20th September, is part of the Discover Festival and is a restoration project on The Common East. Although we will have to scale down our plans, we are hoping that everyone (especially those living there) will bring along their own tools to help. Until we are sorted, The Three Brooks Nature Conservation Group has kindly offered us the use of some of their tools and more importantly their tea box!
Email: bsib@hotmail.co.uk; Tel: 07582 634107; Facebook: Bradley Stoke in Bloom; website: bradleystokeinbloom.com
Photo: Maureen Hopkins (left) receives the 2014 Bradley Stoke in Bloom ‘Best Front Garden’ award from Sara Messenger and Cllr John Ashe.
Photo: Richard Aquilina (right) receives the 2014 Bradley Stoke in Bloom ‘Best Front Garden’ 2nd place award from Cllr John Ashe.
Photo: Freya Smith receives an engraved glass trophy from Cllr John Ashe as a token of thanks for designing the Bradley Stoke in Bloom logo.
This article originally appeared in the September 2014 edition of the Bradley Stoke Journal news magazine, delivered FREE, EVERY MONTH, to 9,450 homes in Bradley Stoke, Little Stoke and Stoke Lodge. Phone 01454 300 400 to enquire about advertising or leaflet insertion.
