Neighbourhood Environment ServicesBath & North East Somerset CouncilLewis House, Manvers Street, Bath BA1 1JG

Tel: 01225 396628 Fax: 01225 477559

Newsletter 2013

Making Bath & North East Somerset an even better place to live, work and visit

A Message from Barry Cruse, Chairman of the Bath in Bloom CommitteeWhat a difference a year makes. Early spring 2012 was warm and sunny allowing gardeners to do most of their outdoor jobs in relative comfort. This year it’s been absolutely freezing and I must admit that I have hardly set foot outside of the back door! Let’s hope that this summer will be warm and sunny, surely we deserve it!

This year we will be going for our fourth consecutive Gold in the South West in Bloom competition. Not easy with ever increasing competition particularly from Taunton and Weston Super Mare. We have also been chosen to represent the South West in the RHS Britain in Bloom National finals. An honour of course, but it does mean we will be judged twice within the space of a couple of

weeks. It’s going to be a hectic summer!

Our competitors in the South West competition are likely to be Torquay, Paignton, Weston Super Mare and Taunton, and in the National finals Colchester, Grimsby, Shrewsbury, Bury, Bracknell and Derry City. Quite a line up, but we have a well supported Bath in Bloom competition as well as many brilliant “It’s Your Neighbourhood” entries to back us up. This makes our job so much easier.

Some new entrants in the Bath in Bloom competition have asked me to explain the marking system we use. Well basically, it’s the same system as the RHS use for Britain in Bloom whereby we award Bronze, Silver, Silver Gilt and Gold. If you achieve between 60—69 marks you will be awarded Bronze, 70—79 marks Silver--- 80—89 marks Silver Gilt and 90—100 marks Gold.

This means it’s very likely that there will be a number of entrants in the same category who will receive the same award. Sometimes no entrant in a category will achieve the Gold standard; this means the overall winner will be the entrant with the highest number of marks regardless of the standard they have achieved.

Every category winner will be given gift vouchers to the value of £25 but the Schools winner will receive a cheque for a huge £200, kindly donated by the University of Bath Gardening Club. So come on Schools you have nothing to lose and a lot to gain if you win.

Could I remind you that if you know of anyone that deserves recognition for sustained and special effort in the Bath in Bloom competition, please contact me and they will be considered for my special achievement award. This will be presented at the Bath in Bloom awards ceremony on September 16th at the Guildhall.

I should be grateful if you would return your trophies to The Council’s One Stop Shop, Lewis House, Manvers Street, Bath by the end of July please.

Thank you all for helping to make Bath and North East Somerset a nicer and “greener” place to live and work. Have a good summer and good luck in the competition.

Barry

I began last year’s article by saying 2012 would be an important year, and it was, aside from the bad weather which seriously hampered all aspects of the growing season. The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics were all a great success with team GB winning numerous Golds across the board. Talking of ‘Golds’, didn’t we do well!!! With Bath achieving ‘Gold’ (Tesco cup) and overall winner in its category, Radstock ‘Gold’, (Ayre cup), and Timsbury ‘Gold’, (Cox cup) in addition to this there were numerous ‘It’s Your Neighbourhood’ awards winners across the area. Thanks should go to all individuals and

the day causing little disturbance to others whilst also reducing the cost of operatives overtime hours.

Once again our main seed & plant supplier, Ball Colegrave, have kindly offered to sponsor the flower bed adjacent to the Interpretation Centre, Botanical Gardens, in the form of donating 1,000 New Guinea Impatiens, (height of 25 -30cm), which bloom all season long and are tolerant to cold/wet weather, which, given the summer of 2012 would prove to be a very good crop to have, not that we necessarily want another wet summer!!

Let’s hope that together we can continue our run of good luck through to this year’s South West in Bloom and Nationals!!

Richard CollettBath Parks & Grounds Manager

News from the Nurserycommunities across the areas who have worked hard over the year to make these results achievable.

The challenge now is to build on this and continue with our recent successes. With this in mind the Parks and Grounds staffs are well underway preparing for the season ahead, with the nursery staff busy growing crops that will adorn Bath and outer areas over the summer season. The primary colour schemes for the year are purples, pinks, whites, silvers, with complimentary colours to support.

‘Edible Britain’ is the RHS theme for 2013, our main interpretation of this will be with our 3D floral tableau

where we are recreating Dill the Dog, Parsley the Lion and Bayleaf the Gardener from the children’s TV show called ‘The Herbs’, which, for those of us old enough to remember; was first transmitted in February 1968 with a spin off series called The Adventures of Parsley. The characters will form the main structure of the tableau entitled ‘The Bath Herb Garden’ which will be on display from late June until October in Parade Gardens. Along with this, we are also planting commemorative displays for Townswomen’s Guild who are celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Bath Federation, (flag bed – Parade Gardens), and Bath Lions

who are celebrating their centenary, (circular bed – bottom of Wells Road).

We are introducing more ‘carousel’ street displays in key areas in the main arteries of the city, (like the two in Union Street.) This will create better visual impact, enabling us to become much more efficient with our installation and maintenance of these displays; whilst helping to reduce the clutter of street furniture.

Key bed planting will include, a mixture of permanent planting to the rear of the long border, (Parade Gardens) and structured annual planting as an infill using plants such as ‘Ricinus- Sanguineus’, ‘Amaranthus caudatus’, ‘Nicotiana Sylvestris’, Millet- purple majesty’. We will be planting ‘Cleome – F1 Odyssee’, mixture of white, purple and rose colours edged with ‘cineraria silver dust’ in Orange

Grove. This planting should be very effective as it’s an exotic flower, well suited to heat and sun, growing to a height of 100cm. In beds such as Brock Street flower beds – RVP and Sydney gardens, we will be sticking with our tried and tested value for money non-stop begonias, reintroducing old favourites ‘Apple Blossom’ and ‘Rose Petticoat.’ The general colour scheme theme and style will be rolled out across the district.

Last summer we purchased a Goupil electric truck, which, apart from its obvious environmental benefits, is useful to us because it can be converted to water floral displays within the city centre areas. We can now get to those areas only previously reached via long lengths of hose pipe or at times when there were less public about. Now, we are able to continue watering during

There is often, understandably, a bit of confusion between the various ‘Bloom’ competitions and organisations, so here’s a quick explanation!

Bath in Bloom is the name of a local competition, with a variety of categories, open to all those living, working or studying in Bath and North East Somerset. It is organised by the voluntary Bath in Bloom Committee, working in partnership with Bath & North East Somerset Council and local sponsors.

The Bath in Bloom Committee also co-ordinates Bath’s entries to the Britain in Bloom campaign, which is organised by the Royal Horticultural Society. This competition is divided into 18 regional heats which cover the whole of the UK and the Channel Islands.

South West in Bloom is the name of the regional heat for our area. Bath enters this annually, along with other communities from across Bristol, Cornwall, Devon, West Dorset, Somerset, South Gloucestershire and parts of Wiltshire.

Communities compete against each other based on population size and selected winners of each regional heat are put through to the Britain in Bloom finals.

Another misconception about the RHS In Bloom competitions is that they are all about flowers. In fact, marks are given based on ‘3 Core Pillars’:-

• Horticultural Achievement (including sustainable planting, veg growing etc.)

• Environmental Responsibility (including cleansing, recycling, pride of place, sustainable initiatives, wildlife areas, woodlands etc)

• Community Participation

The RHS also runs a non-competitive scheme for community groups called ‘It’s Your Neighbourhood’ and there is more information about this below.

RHS ‘It’s Your Neighbourhood’ AwardsImagine a world with no volunteers!

We are all indebted to the many people that give their time freely to raise funds for charities, organise hobby and interest groups for us to enjoy and who enhance the services provided by other organisations. By doing so, they all help to make our communities better places live, work and visit.

The Royal Horticultural Society, which organises the Britain in Bloom campaign, believes In Bloom is one of the largest volunteering movements in the UK, with at least 2,100 communities involved and over 4.4 million volunteer hours given to support it annually.

In order to encourage and reward voluntary groups involved with projects to ‘clean up and green’ up their communities, the RHS has created the ‘It’s Your Neighbourhood’ scheme.

The scheme is free to enter, non-competitive (ie entries are not compared with others) and open to groups already undertaking projects as well as those with ideas for new ones.

Projects are assessed rather than judged, following the same ‘Core Pillars’ of In Bloom: Community Participation, Environmental Responsibility and Horticultural Achievement.

In 2012, thirty-eight community groups from across Bath and North East Somerset took part in the RHS ‘It’s Your Neighbourhood’ campaign and we would love them to be joined by more!

The community in which you live does not need to take part in the wider ‘Britain in Bloom’ campaign in order to get involved and the range of eligible projects is very wide, as the RHS simply asks that entrants are:-

• A group

• Hands on

• Involved in Community Gardening (and this can include growing edibles, maintaining woodlands, managing open space etc as well as growing flowers!)

• Representative of the Community and/or getting input from the Community

• Benefitting the Community

• Volunteer led

• Sustainable over time

• Owned by the community and the community takes responsibility for the work

The assessors also give advice and information to support the group’s efforts and award a certificate reflecting achievement. The award levels are as follows:-

Level 1 EstablishingLevel 2 ImprovingLevel 3 DevelopingLevel 4 ThrivingLevel 5 Outstanding

Entrants do not have to work their way through the levels and some first time entrants have received the highest award of ‘Outstanding’. Entries are assessed in the summer and every project receives a framed, RHS certificate. For projects from our area, these are presented at the South West in Bloom Awards Ceremony each Autumn.

So, if you, your friends, neighbours or colleagues are working to improve your local area by making it cleaner, greener, safer and creating a sense of pride, or, if you have an idea for a project like this, please do not hesitate to get in touch. I would be delighted to hear from you and give you more information, advice and support.

Alison WellsCommunity Projects Officer – B&NESTel: (01225) 396539E-mail: alison_wells@bathnes.gov.uk

In Bloom Explained

Registered office:WessexWater, Claverton Down, Bath BA2 7WWTelephone: 01225 526 000 Fax: 01225 528 000

Registered in England No 2366648

www.wessexwater.co.uk

Bath in Bloom is sponsored by

Engineering sealsfor reliability in the extreme

The Charter Trustees of Bath

Bath in Bloom CompetitionYour Bath in Bloom Committee looked closely at all the categories earlier this year and decided on a couple of small changes for 2013. We added Places of Worship to the Community Category and increased the age of the Young Gardener category. We continue to try and make things simple and encourage entries, so, do please, encourage your friends and rivals to have a go.

All the Judges really enjoy your gardens, big or small; full of annuals or planted for year

round pleasure. I try to give all the judges a new category each year – thereby, increasing their experience and making sure that your expertise is recognised by different people. The judges too have varied areas of knowledge and do have their preferences, but all are united in the pleasure of seeing round your gardens and recognising your talents.

The choice of plants is always of interest to the judges, especially, the brave use of new varieties. There are, of course, always improvements in well-known

species – mildew free Impatiens, for example. But every year the Seeds merchants come up with something new. So, if you are growing Angelonias, or Delosperma{Jewel of the Desert} or even, heart-shaped tomatoes, make sure that your judge sees them.

The Bath in Bloom Committee wishes you a happy growing season – and the weather to match.

Leila Wishart. Deputy-Chairman, Bath in Bloom