EAST MIDLANDS IN BLOOM JUDGES VISIT DARLEY DALE

Darley Dale on 2nd July was buzzing with interest and enthusiasm when Jeff and Irene Bates visited the town to judge its entry in the East Midlands in Bloom competition. Greeted by Town Mayor, Cllr Jason Farmer, Chairman of Darley Dale in Bloom, Christine Goldsack, and local dignitaries, the judges were then invited to view colourful displays of the group’s work before an interesting slide show on the tour they would be making. The accompanying presentation described the group’s work of planting over the past two years, including renewing flower beds with perennial planting to attract pollinating insects, and provide year round interest. The recent severe and unusual drought has meant that committee members have had to water beds and planters from containers carried around in the backs of their cars, and with their own water bowser!

The judging tour took in the Whitworth Park, planters in the town, Valley Lodge Care Home, with whom the committee has worked in a very successful partnership, and the rewilded Swale area at St Elphin’s Park Retirement Village - with both of which the judges were very impressed. The tour then moved on to the revamped beds at Greenaway Lane and to one of the Town Council’s allotment sites in Oddford Lane, where they were greeted by Dan Owczarenkr and other allotment holders. Continuing past planters at the Chesterfield Road crossroads and the Broadwalk shops, the tour ended with a buffet lunch at St Helen’s church hall.

The results will be given at a regional ceremony in Grimsby Town Hall on 24 September and announced locally at the DDiB Celebration Evening at the Methodist Church Hall on Friday 10 October, along with the presentation of prizes to winners of the recent DDiB Hanging Basket and Planter competition.

The community of the town are very supportive of DDiB’s work, but this year there has been a spate of thefts of plants from planters, particularly from those by the Broadwalk shops. The group has therefore recently had to add signs to those planters pointing out that the planting there is for the benefit of the town as a whole!