Growing for Gold wins gardeners awards

Green-fingered adults and youngsters have grown in stature after winning borough-wide awards for gardening and designing posters.

The talented winners of the “Let’s grow for wildlife” and the “Grow for gold” or “Wild about wildflowers” competitions were presented with their prizes at a ceremony attended by the Mayor of Bury, Councillor Joan Grimshaw.  

Supported by local businesses, the gardening competition was re-introduced this year to encourage residents, communities and schools to make use of their garden skills and to help celebrate the home Olympics. 

Judging was carried out during August by officers from the parks and countryside service along with Mr and Mrs Reid, 2010 winners of best private front garden in the regionalNorth Westin Bloom contest. 

Garden competition categories included:

*        Best household front garden;

*        Best street or community garden;

*        Best school environmental education garden. 

Entries were judged on:

*        Overall design (colour, suitability and quality of plants, upkeep and ‘wow’ factor);

*        Wildlife (wildlife-friendly plants and features);

*        Recycling (compost bins, imaginative/practical use and re-use of materials);

*        Sustainability (water conservation/retention, use of permanent planting).

For a discretionary award, all entries were also judged on whether an Olympic theme had been incorporated. 

Councillor Jane Lewis, cabinet member for leisure, tourism and culture, said: “Congratulations to everyone who entered this year’s garden and ‘design a poster’ competitions. The standard of the entries was really high - so high in fact that our overall garden competition winners, Mr and Mrs Eastham, went on to win ‘best private front garden’ inNorth Westin Bloom as well.

“Many thanks to all the local businesses that supported these competitions by providing the prizes – this support allowed us to re-introduce the garden competition following an absence of five years.”

Best private front garden, sponsored by The Rock, was won by Mr and Mrs Eastham ofStainton Road, Radcliffe; runner-up was Mrs Platt of Winchester Close, Bury; and joint third were Mr and Mrs Wilson ofPilkington Road, Radcliffe and Katie Barrow ofGloucester Avenue, Whitefield.

Best school environmental garden, sponsored by Summerseat Garden Centre, was won by Bury Grammar School Girls and the runner-up wasSt Paul’s Primary School, Ramsbottom. 

Best street or community garden, sponsored by Mill Gate, was won by Abbeyfield Residential Care Home, Radcliffe and the runner-up was Mr Bennett from Moorfield Retirement Living, Radcliffe. 

The overall competition winner was Mr and Mrs Eastham who won prizes donated by Premier Inn and Wickes. Overall runner-up was Abbeyfield who received a fresh fruit hamper donated by Bury Markets. 

The discretionary award for best Olympic theme was sponsored by Wickes and won by Bury Grammar School Girls. 

In the ‘design a poster’ competition, children aged 4 to 16 were invited to explore their creative side and design a poster which had a ‘grow for gold’ or ‘wild about wild flowers’ theme. 

Designs created by five children were selected to be put on display in town centre shops and local parks to help promote this year’s entries in RHS North West in Bloom. Each of the young artists won prizes donated by Tesco and Mill Gate: winners were Joseph Turrell (aged 9), Megan Stebbings (12), Katie Brown (8), Luisa Shield (10) and Shauna Howarth (11). 

Information about Bury in Bloom is available at www.bury.gov.uk/buryinbloom or phone 0161 253 5266.

ENDS

Press release issued: 5 December 2012.

Picture attached: The Mayor and the Mayor’s consort, Cllr Joan Grimshaw and Mr Paul Grimshaw, with competition sponsors and winners