Winners of Kenilworth in Bloom’s annual garden competition have been announced – with schoolchildren excelling

The winners of Kenilworth in Bloom’s annual garden competition have been announced.

All awards were presented to the winners at the presentation evening held at Kenilworth Sports and Social Club on October 28.

A feature of this year’s competition was the number of schools that took part. Seven primary schools in the Kenilworth area entered, the largest number for many years.

Judges were very impressed by pupils’ knowledge and enthusiasm and the care that they showed for environment. The gardens of all the schools made provision for wildlife and made inventive use of recycled materials.

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, Councillor 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. Cllr Austin said that Kenilworth was one of the few places in Britain to be given this title officially by the Bee Friendly Trust.

Although there were fewer entries this year in the categories for private gardens and community gardens, the judges said that 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.

Kenilworth in Bloom welcomes different styles of garden, and this was reflected in this year’s competition. Entries included cottage gardens, patio gardens, and a garden planted with traditional bedding plants. The judges also saw excellent use of water features, fruit trees, vegetables and wild flowers.

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. The judges were impressed by the excellent combination of plants that benefit wild life with plants that provide visual interest.

The judges said: "This garden matches perfectly with Kenilworth in Bloom’s aim of making the town a more attractive place for residents and tourists. It has made a major improvement to the appearance of Talisman Square and has become a valued community asset."

In recognition of the help which Kenilworth Lions had given to Kenilworth in Bloom this year, its president David Maxted was an honoured guest at the presentation evening and drew the winning tickets in the raffle.