The People's Gardener

I appeared on The Alan Titchmarsh Show in the heats of The People's Gardener, it is available on ITV Player for the next month: http://www.itv.com/ITVPlayer/Video/default.html?ViewType=5&Filter=36850 It was about 17 minutes in to the programme.

Photos

We have received the official photos from the Community And City Pride Awards.

article

An article about the Community And City Pride award is on the Pudsey Today site.

http://www.pudseytoday.co.uk/news/Pudsey-community-groups-enjoy-City.4936467.jp

Community and City Pride Awards

We received the runner up prize in the Community And City Pride Awards for the seating area on Lowtown. The awards are run by Leeds City Council to recognise projects that make the city cleaner and greener. The ceremony was at Leeds Civic Hall and prizes were handed out by Look North weatherman Paul Hudson.

We were in the Green Space Creation category; first prize went to Bruntcliffe school.

Planting the library beds

The beds by the library were finally filled with soil last week so today we were able to plant them up. We used columnar yew, 2 types of winter-flowering shrub, ferns, grasses, other perennials and daffodils.

It was difficult area to plant because the beds have not much soil, lots of rubble, poor drainage and it is also in shade. But we managed to choose some tough, evergreen plants with foliage in different colours and shapes and flowers at various times of the year. There are some scented plants too. There is a vibrant purple, bronze, orange, yellow and white colour scheme.

Plants used:

trees:
taxus baccata fastigiata (columnar yew)

shrubs:
viburnum tinus
sarcococca confusa

grasses:
carex 'Coppertop'
carex 'Evergold'
luzula nivea

ferns:
polystichum polyblepharum 'Jade'
polystichum munitum
polypodium vulgare

perennials:
dianella 'Tas Red'
geum 'Cooky'
heuchera 'Crimson Curls'
heuchera 'Melting Fire'
heuchera 'Frosted Violet'
digitalis parviflora 'Milk Chocolate'

Lowtown Beds

We have made the shortlist in the Community And City Pride Awards for the seating area we planted up on Lowtown.

We have also been invited to the presentation for the Community Cash Giveaway.

Plants for the beds by the library

We have all the plants now. We've gone for a variety of plants, all of them evergreen, so the area will look interesting all year round. We even got some of the grasses free from Hampson's garden centre, the luzula nivea. We'll also be using the plants from in front of the leisure centre in this area because the beds they are currently in will be removed in winter or spring.

We still need to find a new spot for the sun-loving plants that are currently in the beds around the car park.

grant

Today we received £300 from the Pudsey Borough Charity.

Bulb planting

Today the group planted bulbs all around Pudsey. Lots of new volunteers turned up to help. Daffodils were planted in the grass by Church Lane and near the petrol station on Lowtown, as well as in containers.

The 12 barrier troughs at the traffic lights, having been emptied of summer bedding a few weeks ago, were planted with pansies and primulas for winter and spring, as well as some more bulbs such as miniature tulips, narcissus 'Tete a Tete' and crocus.

planting bulbs in the containers near the market

pruning shrubs in the container by the library

planting daffodils in the grass by Church Lane.

Pudsey In Bloom added to Pudsey Today community directory

The group and a link to this blog has been added to the Pudsey Today community directory in the environment and wildlife category - http://www.pudseytoday.co.uk/communitydirectory/Environmment-amp-Wildlife.3997726.jp

This should be a great way to let more people know about us and hopefully find new volunteers.