Aviva Awards 19/04/12

Last year a group of volunteers from Giles Insurance Company helped us plant up the Herbs and Dragonflies borders and this year they kindly nominated us for the Aviva Awards. The award ceremony was held yesterday at a very glitzy venue, Arise, in Leeds and was attended by voluntary groups from all over the UK. There were over 300 nominees in the 5 categories for prizes and we had been entered in the 'enhancing the local environment' category. A brochure and short video had been produced showing all nominees. Each category had 5 shortlisted finalists and ours included a group who attend medical emergencies in their area, and another who had taken over a community farm when council funding was withdrawn - a hard act to follow! Following a fabulous lunch and speeches from an Aviva director and Steve Backley (a retired Olympic javelin thrower) the presentations were made. We were one of the 3 runners up who was presented with a plaque and a cheque for a £1,000 - well done us!!

Angela couldn't resist getting her picture taken with the athlete and here she is flirting shamelessly with him!

Table Top Sale 14/04/12

Linda and Vivienne both had tables at the Beeston Village Community Centre Table Top Sale on Saturday [I was A.W.O.L.] to try and raise funds for Beeston in Bloom.

Vivienne was selling plants. We try to grow extra plants through the year for our plant sales and then we sell them at prices designed to encourage local residents to have a go at gardening. Well we are supposed to try and grow them but my seedlings usually give up and I resort to getting my Mum or brother to dig things up from their gardens for me or to buying trays of plants from B&Q or Morrisons and re-potting them.

She seems to have had quite a good selection for sale given how early in the year it is.

And Linda was selling cards, jewelery and scarves. After paying for the table and accounting for stolen stock [!!!] she still managed to make over £20 for our funds. I don't know how much Vivienne made but I'm sure she did well.

Angela and Christine also had tables raising funds for other groups they are involved with. Well done all of you.

Sara

Spring Judging 03/04/12

Well it was a miserable day, cold and wet, but it could have been worse, the snow held off until after the judges had left. We didn't seem to get much feedback from the judges, so we'll just have to wait and see what we get awarded. I can't help but think everything we showed them would have looked that much better if the sun had been shining.

We gave the judges lunch at the Ingram Gardens Community Room, which is a lovely space full of character, with the volunteers from Holbeck in Bloom who had their judging in the morning. Susan M. didn't manage to come to the lunch as she was litter picking along Beeston Road, which was in a terrible state. She lost count after collecting 20 bags of rubbish. Not sure what happened to the official litter patrol that were supposed to sort it out. Linda and Angela then gave the presentation to the judges in the Parks Dept meeting room at Cross Flatts Park [well done Linda] before taking the judges on a coach trip round our route. They visited the allotments, drove past our Planters on Dewsbury Road, the Barrier Troughs at the Tommy Wass junction, the Cardinal Triangle bed, through the White Rose Shopping Centre and Office Park, the gardens at Evans, past the Co-op Planter, Old Lane Planters, the Miners Memorial at Beeston Cemetary and our new Beeston Road Planters before visiting Holbeck Cemetary, Herbs and Dragon Flies and finally the Millenium Gardens [or some variation on that theme].

Several people from other organisations [Friends of Cross Flatts Park and Holbeck Cemetery] helped along the way and we ended back at the Parks Dept meeting room where we had a final cup of tea, scone and natter where I took a couple of photos.

And we have it all to do again for Summer Judging on 02/07/12. Lets hope the weather is better on the day - although we could do with some regular rain between now and then to get everything looking it's best, otherwise we are going to have to start planting more drought tolerant plants - which means more fund raising!

Sara

Working Party 02/04/12

Instead of our usual meeting we had yet another working party - because spring judging day is tomorrow!

We met at the Millenium Garden to do a final bit of weeding and tidying. A few bare patches got planted up. We had to leave it until the last minute as we sometimes have a problem with plants being removed or trampled by kids and dogs.





Somewhere in the shrubbery Vivienne is wielding her secateurs - be afraid, be very afraid. There are apparently lots of things that need cutting back but they are going to have to wait until after the judges have been or we won't have a lot to show them.

Angela and Christine having a tea break and discussing the plan for tomorrows judging. We [well mostly Linda] had a problem this year as the Watsonia was already booked for the judging date we were given. Instead of having lunch, the presentation and the round up in the same place, we are in three different locations, which means we have to be more co-ordinated. Synchronise watches everyone!

Then, as there was so much to do, we split up. Susan and Vivienne went litter picking, Angela and Christine finished off in the Millenium Garden and I went with Linda, Edna and David to the Cardinal Triangle - where we pulled up three black bags full of weeds [mostly dandelions and I can recognise those].



Hopefully the weather will be better than the forecast. It was supposed to rain all day today but we have only had a few spots so maybe tomorrows snow will not materialise either. Fingers crossed for both the weather and that the judges give us good marks.

Sara

Another Working Party 31/03/12

We went to do more weeding in the Millenium Garden, and they had kept some weeds for me - however as I'm not good at identifying seedlings I only took out dandelions and stickyweed [I know what they look like]. I got told off for leaving all the sycamore seedlings [they could have been something really interesting - couldn't they?] and was banished to do some watering where theoretically I couldn't get it wrong.

Edna and Linda [who had wandered off with a wheelbarrow full of weeds and trimmings when the photo was taken] were sorting out the Yew Border.

Vivienne and Susan were weeding the Raised Beds.

There are four beds and they are colour themed. At the moment the yellow beds has daffodils, the white bed has tulips, there are dogwoods and and a red robin in the red bed and some muscari flowering in the blue bed.

And Christine and David had gone to weed the Herbs and Dragonfly Beds at the top of the park. I didn't get a photo of them there but I did take a new group photo for the blog - however Edna had gone so I'm going to have to try again.

We have one more working party on Monday, which replaces our regulary meeting and then it's Judgement Day.