Today's bulb planting

This morning we met to plant our bulbs around Pudsey. We planted mixed narcissus in Pudsey Park and on Longfield Road; these will flower every Spring for many years to come. It was very cold and very wet but we still managed to get loads into the ground, several large bags full in fact! We had a cart full of bulbs and bedding to do but we were feeling positive! It was slightly difficult to dig in the park because the soil was full of roots from the trees, as well as a few large stones and bricks, but at least all the rain had softened the ground.

Not an invasion of moles; these are all the holes ready to be filled with daffodils. We put 4 or 5 bulbs in each and replaced the grass; it was all nice and green again by the time we'd finished. Early next year there will be a natural-looking drift of flowers here.

We filled some of the containers around Pudsey centre with bulbs and bedding plants, all in shades of blue, yellow and white. These should look good all winter and be at their peak in Spring when the Yorkshire in Bloom judges first visit the town.

We also planted up the old tripe baths outside the leisure centre. They are an unusual feature in Pudsey, and hopefully a very colourful one now they are full of polyanthus, pansies and bellis.

After 2 hours we'd got lots done and hardly moaned about the cold at all. Now we just have to wait for our bulbs to come up and plan all our projects for Spring.

Bulb planting planned

While planning our route we also got ideas for places to plant bulbs around the town. We have several big bags of mixed narcissus and crocus bulbs and we are going out to plant them this Sunday at 10am. Some of the places we are thinking of planting them so far are Pudsey Park, the Clairmonts, Longfield Road and under the trees next to the library.

Pudsey in Bloom route

On Saturday 27th October the Pudsey in Bloom group met to walk around the town to decide the judging route for when we enter Yorkshire In Bloom. Our aim was to find areas that look good already or can be improved throughout this year. We have to show that Pudsey has a wide variety of attractive, well maintained floral displays and permanent planting, show that the town is clean, tidy and environmentally friendly and that a broad cross-section of the community are involved. More information on the judging criteria can be found here- http://www.rhs.org.uk/britaininbloom/winningentry.asp

We will start in the centre of Pudsey, first looking at the gardens around St Andrew's Church and then the planters around the centre, including the barrier troughs and the hanging baskets put up by various businesses and on the Town Hall.

Next we will go to the Crimbles community garden, a well-maintained area with a variety of annuals, perennials and shrubs that will look very colourful in summer.

The Crimbles allotments won an award this year for being the second best allotment site in Leeds; this is the first year they have entered. There are lots of expert gardeners on the site and all the plots are very well tended. The site even has an environmentally friendly toilet.

To show a variety of attractive front gardens in Pudsey, we will first go down Robin Chase, also looking at the green area at the bottom of Sycamore Chase, and then Spinners Chase, which also has a pond surrounded by shrubs.

Pudsey Park will be an important part of our route. It already has lots of trees, floral displays and the greenhouse full of tropical plants, but it is being further improved this year.

In one corner of the park is the wildlife area, which is being improved and expanded. Currently there is a wildflower area and nest boxes but there are plans for lots more, including bird feeding stations and cameras in the nest boxes.

Sparrow Park is another park that is being revamped, with some more flowers planted it should look really good by summer. We will also show some of the schools in Pudsey that have gardens or are doing environmental projects.

So we have decided on our route and now we have to do lots of hard work to get it looking its best. By summer Pudsey should look bright and colourful and full of plants. However we would like the town to be attractive all year round, so we have to think about adding plants and features that will look good in every month of the year.