Sudbury in Bloom is encouraging everyone to get out in the garden with the launch of the Sudbury in Bloom 2021 resident and business floral competition 'Pride of Sudbury' on June 11th. The Pride of Sudbury competition is operated and run by Sudbury in Bloom for the residents of Sudbury and local districts. It offers a unique opportunity for residents and local organisations to work together with the Town Council to improve our town and local environment. Each category will be judged in terms of design, floral content, imagination and the inclusion of wildlife and conservation. You can enter online by clicking here or pick up an entry form from Sudbury Town Hall in Gaol Lane. The closing date for the competition is Friday July 16th. There is a later closing date for the Childrens’ Sunflower Competition which is Friday September 3rd Prizes are being sponsored by local businesses and there are still opportunities for sponsorship through Sudbury in Bloom - click here to contact us
The presentation will be at the Town Hall subject to any ongoing restrictions applying at the time. This year we are hoping to be able to Judge on site but we will ask entrants to keep their distance!
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For our May working party we headed to Market Hill to clear the worst of the weeds around the paving slabs by Gainsborough's statue and St Peter's.
With restrictions easing we are looking for more volunteers to join us at our summer working parties. Find out more and register your interest on the Get Involved page - click here.
During April we worked on McDonalds Roundabout and Siam Gardens. It can take two or three years to refurbish a garden or planter before the desired effect is evident. We are currently planting up the Courtyard Garden at the Resource Centre after its arduous makeover during the winter months. It's time to start planning and organising our residents competition `Pride of Sudbury`. Last year we ran a lockdown event and asked people to upload photos of their gardens. This year we hope it will be back to normal with judging and a presentation evening.
We have been working with sponsors Bridge Farm Plants of Monks Eleigh to revive one of the beds on the McDonalds roundabout on Northern Road/Waldingfield Road.
Babergh District Council contractors cut back the ivy which had spread across most of the space, with Flowers Groundcare kindly rotavating the roots free of charge. Sudbury in Bloom volunteers and Bridge Farm Plants staff carried out more clearing. The bed was then manured with alpaca manure (a first for us, so we will be interested to see how much difference it makes!) and finally we got to the planting. We supplied lots of Salvias grown by us, along with own-grown ornamental grasses and Agapanthus. The rest of the plants were donated free of charge by Bridge Farm Plants to provide low-maintenance year-round colour and interest. Plants include Cornus dogwood, Euphorbias, Erysimum shrubby wallflowers, Pittosporums and Phormiums, alongside spring bulbs which should pop up year after year. We expect it will be a year or two for the planting to really fill out but we think it is looking much better than before! We have had a number of socially distanced work sessions at Sudbury Resource Centre over winter and spring.
The courtyard area has had quite an overhaul. The sloped bank has been cleared and new planting added, including a couple of small trees. The back fence has had a lick of paint, and edging added and painted to help define the area. Our volunteers have also repaired some of the garden furniture, and given existing planting a tidy-up. Previous planting at the front of the building has been providing splashes of colour throughout the spring, and we hope it has lifted the spirits of all using the hub! It wasn’t the year any of us was expecting, but a small team of Sudbury in Bloom volunteers, alongside our partners, were able to keep Sudbury blooming throughout the year, as the photos below show.
Sudbury in Bloom members have been determined to brighten up Sudbury town centre this year, despite Covid-19 restrictions. Volunteers lone-worked throughout lockdown maintaining and planting up gardens all over town. After the lockdown plantsman Mark Mason organised and led small teams of volunteers to tackle the larger projects that needed extra hands, as featured on our Facebook page. The Pride of Sudbury competition also went ahead in a reduced form, to celebrate the floral skills of our residents. Residents were asked to upload photographs of their floral displays and containers onto our website over a period of four months, closing at the end of August. This year judging was completed internally with winners being notified by phone and receiving their certificate and prizes by post unlike previous years when judges visited gardens and a presentation evening was held at the Town Hall. Please provide your own drumroll for this year’s winners: Best Front Garden – Fred Godding (pictured) Best Back Garden – Rebecca Preswick Best Container, Basket or Pot – Lyn Richer Best Eco Garden – Jill Fisher Best Home Veggie Plot – Colin Ridley Congratulations to all our winners, and well done to everyone who took part. Next year we will be expanding our Pride of Sudbury Residents’ Competition to include all districts of Sudbury. We also hope 2021 will see the return of the Anglia in Bloom competition, and that restrictions will lift enough to allow us to organise fundraising plant sales.
Other plans on the horizon for Sudbury in Bloom are to replace a number of tower planters around the Belle Vue roundabout. If you would like to get involved with Sudbury in Bloom either through volunteering or sponsorship please get in touch on 07957 817165 or fill in a form. Just a tad wet for the planting up of the new social distancing planters on Market Hill! Despite getting absolutely sodden in the lengthy thunderstorm our band of volunteers – which included Sudbury Town Council’s community wardens, staff from sponsors Bridge Farm Plants in Monks Eleigh, and our partners Greener Sudbury – kept their spirits high and did a great job. We have had lots of positive comments already – we hope the sun comes back for everyone to enjoy some al fresco dining amongst the new flowers! Big thanks go to sponsors Sudbury Perrywood who very generously donated many of the plants (the rest were grown by Sudbury in Bloom’s resident horticulturalist Mark Mason and his helpers) and all the compost; to Sudbury Town Council and the community wardens for everything they did to make the new look happen; to Babergh District Council for securing funds from the Reopening High Streets Safely Fund, which is part of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). Among the plants are Sedums, Salvias, Pelargoniums, Heucheras, Fuchsias, Crocosmia, Coprosmas and ornamental grasses including Miscanthus. From left: Catherine McMillan and Mark Mason of Sudbury in Bloom, community warden Bradley Smith, Sudbury mayor Jack Owen, Jade Goodwin of sponsors Perrywood.
Sudbury in Bloom is teaming up with Sudbury Town Council to give Market Hill a makeover!
The social-distancing barriers that have been in place this summer are to be replaced with 30 large planters – and we are calling for volunteers to help us plant them up. Perrywood Garden Centre in Newton Road is donating pallets of compost along with a number of plants, and the rest of the plants will be supplied by us. We will be looking to carry out the planting next Tuesday – check back here for more details or visit our Facebook page. Don’t worry if you don’t have lots of gardening knowledge as we will be able to give you guidance! *UPDATE: We are now hoping to carry out planting on Friday 14th* |
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March 2024
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