An update from Sara Messenger of the Bradley Stoke in Bloom group.
We were comforted to know that it wasn’t just us who surrendered to the heatwave; several of our competition ‘regulars’ told us they wouldn’t enter this year, as they just couldn’t keep up with the watering. But the nine gardens that did enter certainly put on a show! We split the competition into two categories this year, ‘large’ and ‘small’ garden, which were all judged on the same criteria: well-kept frontage, quantity/quality of plants, outstanding character and well-kept lawns/paths.
The gardens were incredibly diverse in look, from David & Jenny’s subtle strawberry & black grass spiral and Richard & Alisa’s hanging baskets to Maureen’s colourful butterflies and Terry & Mike’s towering containers.
As the standard of gardens increases each year, so does the difficulty of choosing a winner, and this time around we weren’t able to agree on a single winner! But it gives us very great pleasure to finally be able to announce our 2018 results!
The prizes were awarded on 23rd August by Mayor Ben Randles at Almondsbury Garden Centre.
Large Garden first prizes are the Best Front Garden shield for a year (shared between the two winners), an engraved glass trophy to keep, a framed certificate, a gold medal engraved with the winner’s name, a bottle of bubbly and a £20 garden voucher donated by Almondsbury Garden Centre.
Large Garden third prize is an engraved glass trophy to keep, a framed certificate, a gold medal engraved with the winner’s name, a bottle of bubbly and a £10 garden voucher donated by Almondsbury Garden Centre.
Small Garden first prize is an engraved glass trophy to keep, a framed certificate, a gold medal engraved with the winner’s name, a bottle of bubbly and a £20 garden voucher donated by Almondsbury Garden Centre.
Small Garden 2nd prize is an engraved glass trophy to keep, a framed certificate, a gold medal engraved with the winner’s name, a bottle of bubbly and a £10 garden voucher donated by Almondsbury Garden Centre.
All the runners-up also received a framed certificate and an engraved medal.
Mike Checkley’s sister Lynda also received a small ‘best sister’ certificate as the boys were away, so she was “volunteered” for extensive watering duties in the run up to the judging!
Thank you to Timpson’s for the discount given on the trophy engraving, to our mayor, Ben Randles, for handing out the prizes, and to Almondsbury Garden Centre, not only for all the vouchers but for the venue too. We owe a particularly huge thank you to Andy Hart, Almondsbury’s general manager, who stepped in at the last minute to ensure the event could go ahead as planned.
If you would like to see the gardens for yourself, most of the full addresses are available on request. Click on letter code below (A, B, C etc) to view photos of each garden on the BSiB Facebook page.
Prize winners: Large Garden
=1st: Terry James & Mike Checkley (F: Watch Elm Close)
=1st: Richard & Gill Love (E: Brackendene)
3rd: Kevin & Gillian Griffiths (C: Stean Bridge Road)
4th: Alisa & Richard Aquilina (A: Juniper Way)
Runners-up: Large Garden (in alphabetical order)
Prize winners: Small Garden
Photo (l-r): Cllr Ben Randles, Sara Messenger, Fred J Hillberg, Maureen Hopkins, Gill Love, Richard Love and Alex Lester (representing Terry James & Mike Checkley).
More photos and images (missing links coming soon):
- Hi-res photos of the winners and runners-up:
- Facebook | Flickr | Google
- BSJ magazine centre spread:
This article originally appeared in the September 2018 issue of the Bradley Stoke Journal news magazine (on pages 28 & 29). The magazine is delivered FREE, EVERY MONTH, to ALL 8,700 homes in Bradley Stoke. Phone 01454 300 400 to enquire about advertising or leaflet insertion.