Leeds gardens competition

Today the members of the group who judged the Pudsey entries in the Leeds In Bloom gardens competition attended the awards ceremony to see the winners receive their prizes.

Judges' comments

From the Yorkshire in Bloom website - http://www.yorkshireinbloom.co.uk/default.aspx

PUDSEY

Pudsey are certainly progressing and things have moved on since the Spring Judging with the adoption and replanting of old rose beds and the trial of drought tolerant barrier baskets. If the business sector can be engaged, Pudsey will 'bloom' even more.


SECTION A – FLORAL DISPLAYS

The judges were particularly impressed by:
1. The hanging baskets and beds in front of the Leisure Centre.
3. The summer displays by residents on The Chase.
4. Creation of the 'sea monster' and other plants by the children of the local school.

Areas suggested for future development:
1. Involvement of business sector to provide floral displays.
1. Improved maintenance to bedding areas in Pudsey Park.
4. More involvement from youth organizations.

SECTION B – PERMANENT LANDSCAPING, INCLUDING SHRUBS

The judges were particularly impressed by:
1. The trial of perennial plants (drought resistant) in barrier baskets.
1. The upkeep of Crimbles Allotment site.
2. The adoption of two old rose beds and their subsequent planting by the group with perennials.

Areas suggested for future development:
1. Coordinated mowing of Pudsey Park to ensure follow up work is in keeping with general grass areas.
2. Speak with 'Total Garage' to see if anything can be done with shrub bed.
4. Continued adoption by group of older shrub/rose beds etc.

SECTION C – LOCAL AGENDA 21 AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

The judges were particularly impressed by:
1. Work within the school by children/volunteers on the wild area and involvement with recycling and composting.

Areas suggested for future development:
1. Future planting/management of the pond area at Spinner Chase.
2. Possible extension of mulching to more beds.

SECTION D – LOCAL ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY

The judges were particularly impressed by:
1. The general cleanliness of the streets.

Areas suggested for future development:
1. Renovate the two benches at 'Low Town' recently newly adopted area.
2. A few sites noted which required graffiti removal.

SECTION E – PUBLIC AWARENESS/PUBLICITY

The judges were particularly impressed by:
1. The involvement of the judges to award prizes to the winners of various children's competitions.
2. The posters displayed by houses on Robin and Spinners Chase.

Areas suggested for future development:
1. Further publicity/press releases regarding the 'in bloom' group's work.
2. Future commercial sponsorship of areas etc.

Silver!

Pudsey has been awarded a Silver in Yorkshire In Bloom. Our chairman, Robert, attended the award ceremony in Barnsley this evening.

Barrier troughs and Lowtown beds

This is one of our barrier troughs containing drought-tolerant alpines and succulents. Obviously the rainy summer hasn't been ideal for them, but they have survived! The calandrinia in the one above is absolutely covered in bright pink flowers.

These are the beds in the seating area on Lowtown. This shows the bed on the right. As you can see in the picture below, there are a few gaps at the front, however, we are growing some agastache from cuttings and will plant these out soon. The agastache will add some scent to the beds too; their foliage smells of aniseed.

Below is the bed on the left. The stipa giganteas are starting to flower on this side. In future years they will be even more impressive; their flower spikes can be over 6 foot tall.

The plants are all doing really well. When we planted them most were very young plants in 9cm pots so they have grown a lot since spring.

We chose rich warm colours in shades of pink, orange, yellow and purple. The picture below shows rudbeckias, potentillas, knautias and achilleas.

The grasses are doing well too. We chose evergreen species that will look good all year round. The one in the picture below in stipa arundinacea which has green and orange foliage.

The bright pink achilleas and bright yellow rudbeckias look really striking together. The rudbeckias were the smallest plants when we planted them, about 5cm high, but now they are the most visible.

Another evergreen foliage plant we used were heucheras. This purple-leaved variety looks great with the rudbeckias too.

The heucheras also get tall flower spikes of tiny blooms which contrast with the big bold flowers of the other perennials.

Article about judging

There is an article on the Pudsey Times website about the summer judging and a slideshow of photographs.

http://www.pudseytoday.co.uk/news/Pudsey-in-Bloom-Judges-visit.4333969.jp

Judging

Our summer judging was today and we think it went well! They seemed impressed by Lowtown Primary School and the Crimbles allotments again, and the seating area we planted on Lowtown. They liked our alpines in the barrier troughs too and said we should suggest the idea to the council to save them money.

We will find out how we've done and if we've got a medal in late summer.

After our tour of Pudsey we went back to the library to present the competition winners with their prizes. They loved the cactus gardens.

Ready for judging

The town is looking good and we have planted up the cactus gardens ready to present to the competition winners.

Posters

Today members of the group delivered posters to houses and shops all around Pudsey ready for the judges' visit. The posters were designed by Lowtown Primary School pupils.

The art competition was also judged today. 3 winners have been chosen and they will be presented with their prizes on tuesday.

Seating area on Lowtown

This area is looking really good now; nearly everything is in flower. There were lots of bees buzzing around too.

geum 'Lady Stratheden' and potentilla 'Miss Wilmott'

penstemon 'Rondo' and knautia 'Melton pastels'

penstemon 'Husker red' and mixed plants, including knautia and heuchera flowers.

Barrels

We have placed some barrels by the car park next to St Lawrence's Church.

The area, and several other parts of Pudsey, have also been weeded.