“Councillors and Staff enjoyed judging the beautiful and carefully cultivated Leisure Gardens across all three of the Haydon Wick Parish Leisure Garden sites”.
Each year, as part of the regular inspection process, all Leisure Garden plots are judged and entered into the Parish Council’s Annual Leisure Garden Competition.
The primary purpose of a leisure garden or allotment is to provide crops of vegetables, fruit, flowers, and culinary herbs for household use. Therefore, there is a wide range of criteria that is considered during the judging process, from environmental factors to aesthetics, quality of crops and sustainability.
Thursday 27th July 2023 saw the day of the competition judging. It was wonderful to be able to do this in the sunshine as unfortunately, it had already been delayed a few days due to inclement weather.
The judges visited a huge array of plots that had been well cared for, created lots of produce, beautiful blooming flowers with an abundance of bees and butterflies, and other wildlife that are so vital to our ecosystem.
Councillor R Hailstone, Chair of Parks & Open Spaces Committee had this to say:
“The judges found it difficult to choose between the top places due to the high standard of entries. This was particularly the case in, the ‘Best Beginner’ category where all the participants had achieved remarkable results in such a short time”.
The Council appreciate the hard work it takes to maintain a Leisure Garden and some of the plots obviously had lots of work and commitment into them – Council extends a huge well done to all of its plot holders.
After many discussions the First, Second and Third place prizes at each site (Rose Walk, Goodearl and Ventnor Close) were decided upon. This year also saw a new category of ‘Best Beginner’ which recognises the work that has been undertaken by a new plot holder since taking on their plot since October 2022.
The winners will be notified, and trophies and prizes will be awarded at the Annual Plot Holders Meeting, date to be confirmed.
