Bloom Judging 26 July

 Our RHS South West in Bloom judging for South Swindon Parish took place this year on 26 July when we welcomed judges Sean Fletcher and Nick Jones to South South Swindon. We took the judges on a tour around various projects, starting at the Richard Jefferies Museum with a look round their community vegetable gardens. This was judged as one of our 17 IYNs. More on IYNs in the next post.

Mike Pringle  Director of the museum taking the judges around the grounds where there are many features for children to enjoy the outside space, like a willow arch. From there we went in to watch a video prepared by the parish and the visit culminated with cups of tea and cake under the mulberry tree, accompanied by a pair of friendly hens.

From there we stopped to look at the Marriott bed and met Jane Milner- Barry, one of our OTRA Gardeners. Unfortunately the photo from that stop isn't available. I'll take a photo of the bed tomorrow and insert that into this post. That bed was judged as a community garden or IYN.

From the Marriott beds, we went on to Station Approach, one of the first beds to be taken on by the OTRA Gardeners

Above some of our OTRA gardeners with the judges at the Mr Cod bed on Victoria Hill, opposite Long's bar.

And here we are again at Cambria Bridge community garden managed by Growing South Swindon community gardeners. We were met by Rose Leather at the garden.

From there we went down to Central Community Centre where we met Dan Fishlock and Jacob Green who work with volunteers on a variety of projects around the centre and at the nearby allotment. Dan is the Mechanics Institution Trust's Community engagement officer, There's a great post about Dan and his work written on Angela Atkinson's blog. Both Dan and Jacob work with refugees and asylum seekers and are doing a great job, there's a lovely recent post about them here.

Above at the new Blossom Circle at GWR Park completed this spring and looking better with each successive spring.

From there we walked round Queen's Park, ending up at the Drove Road entrance where there is always a beautifully floriferous bed. The judge's tour ended at South Swindon Parish's third park, Town Gardens where we were shown round by the Head Gardener, Aaron Hedges ending up at the bandstand for a photo and ending the tour with sandwiches and cake provided by the Town Gardens cafe.

This was South Swindon Parish Council's fourth RHS Bloom entry, the first entering the main competition, having entered the Pennant Class before and achieving a Silver Gilt Medal in 2022. We will learn how our entry was judged on 3 October this year and will let you know how we fared!