Judging of the Best Front Gardens, Community, Wildlife and Businesses 2025
Schools Challenge 2025
Broad Street Cygnets Nursery
Welcomed onto site by a ‘scarecrow’ with a pram, trousers in wellies. Drainpipe and bird feeder. Purples / bees /heather. Tyres as herb growers, fireman’s helmet as a hanging basket. Bee hotel. Sunflowers.
Stratford Primary School, Broad Street
Photo of collage of screen “riddles”, crafts – bee cans, enthusiastic. Insect hotels out of a range of containers. Herbs – sweet woodruff.
St Andrews School
Lots of ivy / pyracantha / calystegia / hawthorn / shrub and tree habitat. Mini beast houses. Potatoes/onions/strawberries. Herbs at entrance. Recycled wellies and plastic garden pots made into a man.
Alveston
Wild seed box and series of raised boxes with herbs, wildflowers, sunflowers and vegetables. Large homemade insect hotel.
Hampton Lucy
Chickens, large raised beds dedicated to different things. Veg squares with, corn, cabbage, courgettes, marrow and wild flowers Wonderful area of mature trees and bird hide and some local bats!
St Gregory’s
Forest school. Chickens. An old lamp / rubber glove, wheelbarrow man, cleverly made. Excellent range of log piles to provide habitat for a range of insects and coppiced Willow hedge used for a range of activities. Ilexcrenata, Lonicera nitida = shrubby honeysuckle. A range of scarecrows made by different age groups spread across the area.
Caring Kindergartens
Have the wildflower maze. A new area of cut branches form an animal habitat. Concentrated on herb and tomato plants.
Holy Trinity
A novel use of large empty food tins held onto the low fence with recycled belts and then planted up. Using a pipe to grow climbers up. In the separate “quiet space” a fish pond and a sand area as well as some large courgette plants.
Footsteps Nursery
In spite of building work impacting on the garden area there was a big emphasis on planting vegetables. Growing some courgettes from the seeds from last year’s crop. Lovely enamel kettle for planting up and inside an old-fashioned wooden wheelbarrow. Also included a small woodpile for insect habitat.
Stratford in Bloom Annual Competition Awards 2024
Stratford in Bloom Annual Competition Awards 2023
Stratford in Bloom’s Annual Competition Award giving evening was held at the Town Hall on Thursday 21 st September.
Chair of Stratford in Bloom, Cohl Warren-Howles hosted the event with the Mayor Cllr Kate Rolfe presenting the winning awards.
There was a warm welcome to all the winners of the best front gardens, school environmental projects, Business displays including best B&B/Guest Houses, Hospitality and Town Retail, Wildlife Friendly gardens and Community gardens.
Glasses clinked and the beautiful sound of piano music played by Peter Summers filled the Ballroom of the Town Hall.
A short environmental talk was given by Judith Conroy, a Stratford in Bloom Committee member and Researcher at Coventry University.