meeting

In our meeting today we decided what to do with our barrier troughs for the summer, which desperately need replanting. 14 will have bedding plants and 7 will be planted with drought-tolerant permanent plants. We will buy the plants next week.

We did have 22 barrier troughs, however, one has gone missing; we assume it has been stolen.

We have had to change our plans to run a competition for children because the miniature garden competition would not be practical. Instead we will run an art competition; we will decide a theme and other details at the next meeting and then publicise it in the local paper and with posters up in the library, etc.

flowers!

Had a walk round Pudsey today and a good look at all the perennials we planted earlier in the year and they are doing marvellously! They have all grown a lot and some have started to flower already. The geums in front of the leisure centre have bright orange flowers and look absolutely gorgeous with the purple heucheras.

The beds on Lowtown are doing the best, even though they are the last ones we planted. Everything is looking healthy and the knautia 'Melton Pastels' are flowering already; some are burgundy and some are pink. The flowers are popular with butterflies so hopefully lots of wildlife will be attracted to the area.

All the bedding planted by the council is totally past it and looks terrible now so planting perennials instead was definitely a good decision and something we should do more of in the future.

The spring bedding will be removed in the next few days. The barrier troughs will have some summer bedding planted in them; we will decide what we are planting at our meeting on Thursday.

A few perennials have been stolen so these will need to be replaced too. There are 2 libertias are missing; they are slightly unusual and quite expensive plants so I suspect they were stolen by someone who fancied them for their own garden rather than just vandalised. But we have only had these 2 plants stolen out of all the beds we planted so it isn't too bad really.

We'll also weed the beds to keep them looking their best. I'll add some more photos soon now the plants are flowering.

There's an article on the Pudsey Times website today about the judges' spring visit:

http://www.pudseytoday.co.uk/news/Pudsey-praised-by-Yorkshire-in.4089160.jp

Pudsey Carnival

It was Pudsey Carnival today and we had a plant sale and put up a display of photographs and press clippings. Despite the usual terrible carnival weather, members of the group manned the stall all day and we raised over £30.

Meeting

We have received the notes from the Spring judging (see post below) so we have been thinking of ways to improve for Summer.

We also discussed ideas for our stall at Pudsey Carnival on the 17th May, organising a miniature garden competition for children and paying £1,000 for some extra hanging baskets on the Town Hall this year.

The group are split on how to best spend our money. Some want to do as much as possible with the money to improve the town for the whole community and also get as many marks as we can when the judges next visit. Ideas suggested include more permanent planting, wildlife areas, projects with children and tackling the negative points the judges mentioned in their feedback.

The other part of the group want to spend the money the easiest way possible by paying the council to put up temporary hanging baskets and water them for us until they are taken down in autumn.

We are also trying to decide how to plant up our barrier troughs for summer still.

Option one is to plant them with annuals and pay £40 per container to have them watered for the year.

Option 2 is to plant them with various drought tolerant plants that will require no watering. The money saved (£880) could be spent on permanent planting such as more colourful perennials and wildlife areas and projects in schools.

Option 3 is a bit of both!

We have also received a grant of £3,000 from West Leeds Area management so hopefully we will be able to do some exciting projects in the future.

Judges comments

PUDSEY

The entry is managed by a relatively new group of people who are picking up from work carried out by previous groups. With time and co-operation/liaison with the business sector and local authority, the project will develop to further enhance Pudsey.

SECTION A – FLORAL DISPLAYS

Judges were particularly impressed by:
1. Pudsey Park with its Tropical House and Showhouse.
2. The spring barrier baskets supplied by the Local Authority.
3. The gardens at Robin Chase.

Areas suggested for future development:
1. Development of small pocket parks, shrub planting etc. by the group.
4. Further involvement from youth organisations
4. Organisation of competitions, etc.

SECTION B – PERMANENT LANDSCAPING, INCLUDING SHRUBS

Judges were particularly impressed by:
1. School gardening club with the quad area and reception garden.
3. The planting and maintenance of the gardens on Robin Chase.
4. The excellent allotment site at Crimbles Place.

Areas suggested for future development:
1. Quite a number of old ‘tired’ shrub beds could possibly be replanted.
3. Ensure general grass cutting is carried out prior to judging.
4. Possible development of future wild flower area.

SECTION C – LOCAL AGENDA 21 AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Judges were particularly impressed by:
1. The recycling of old greenhouses on the allotment site.

Areas suggested for future development:
1. Possible development of pond area at Spinners Chase.
2. Mulching of shrub bed.

SECTION D – LOCAL ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY

Judges were particularly impressed by:
1. The cleanliness and lack of litter in and around Pudsey Park.

Areas suggested for future development:
1. Possible development of community litter picks etc.

SECTION E – PUBLIC AWARENESS

1. The posters displayed by houses on Robin/Spinners Chase

Areas suggested for future development:
1. Further Press releases regarding the groups work.
2. Future commercial sponsorship of areas etc.

Judging

Today the Yorkshire In Bloom judges came to see Pudsey. We think it went okay; all the areas we showed them were looking good, there were Pudsey In Bloom posters up everywhere and it was even a nice sunny day.

Weeding

Today and over the weekend we did some weeding and litter picking. We hadn't finished weeding the beds on Lowtown when we planted them so we did that today; there were only a few bits of grass so it did not take long.

Posters

Members of the group delivered the posters made by the Lowtown Primary School pupils to shops and houses around Pudsey today. They are now up absolutely everywhere: Pudsey centre, all down Lowtown, Robin Chase, Spinners Chase and all the sites we will be showing the judges.

Lowtown

We finished planting the seating area on Lowtown today; it is now full of perennials in shades or pink, purple, orange and yellow.

We planted rudbeckia 'Goldsturm', geum 'Lady Stratheden', penstemon 'Rondo', penstemon 'Husker Red', achillea 'Cerise Queen', knautia 'Melton Pastels', potentilla 'Miss Willmott' and kniphofia hybrids. These, along with the grasses and heucheras we planted earlier, should be colourful, low maintainance and attractive to both people and wildlife. We just have to wait for them to flower now.

There are already some daffodils, which are in full bloom at the moment. The bed on the left (below) has them all in a big clump so when they have finished flowering we will lift and separate these. We are also planning to add more bulbs in autumn.

Again lots of people stopped to talk to us. We gave all our plant pots and trays away to a local gardener too.

Plants!

Today we bought the rest of the plants for the seating area on Lowtown so we should be able to plant them tomorrow. We bought 101 perennials to add to the grassses and heucheras.