GREEN-fingered Kenilworth residents of all ages have received gardening awards.
The winners of the town’s In Bloom annual garden competition were presented with their awards at Kenilworth Sports and Social Club.
And a feature of this year’s competition was the number of schools that took part.
Seven primary schools in the area entered – the largest number for many years.
Judges were very impressed by pupils’ knowledge and enthusiasm and the care that they showed for the environment. The gardens of all the schools made provision for wildlife and made inventive use of recycled materials.
And the school’s category was won by Priors Field Primary School, followed by St Nicholas C E Community Primary School and Thorns Community Infant School, who both won Gold Certificates.
Silver Gilt Certificates went to Clinton Primary School and St Augustine’s RC Primary School, and Silver Certificates to Park Hill Junior School and Burton Green Church of England Academy.
The awards were presented by the Deputy Major of Kenilworth, Coun Pippa Austin. She was delighted by the attention given to ecology and the environment in the competition which fitted very well with Kenilworth’s status as a “Bee Friendly Town” location.
While although there were fewer entries this year in the categories for private gardens and community gardens, the overall standard was high. The Chair of Kenilworth in Bloom, Joanna Illingworth congratulated all the entrants and said that they should be proud of what they had achieved in a hot dry summer that had made gardening very difficult.
The winners of the best large back garden and overall best garden were Liz and Bob Watson, of The Fieldgate, Fieldgate Lane. The John and Suzanne Mould Trophy for the best new entrant went to Celia and Simon Christie.
Eileen Parkes won the trophy for the best small front garden, and Jacqui Hancox’s garden was rated as the best small back garden.
John Bradley was awarded a Gold Certificate and cup for his highly original first floor courtyard garden at The Almanack, and Graham Ramswell was judged to be the best novice gardener.
The Friends of Talisman Square won a Gold Certificate and the trophy for the best community garden.
