Market Harborough gardening volunteers aim to strike gold again in Bloom competition

Their fantastic work was judged last week
Photo by Andrew Carpenter.Photo by Andrew Carpenter.
Photo by Andrew Carpenter.

Brilliant gardening volunteers in Market Harborough are aiming to strike gold again in the East Midlands in Bloom competition.

The dedicated Market Harborough in Bloom team are hoping that they will come up smelling of roses after their fantastic work across the town was judged on Monday (July 12).

Barbara Tallis, the chair of the town’s campaign, told the Harborough Mail: “We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves but I am confident that we will do well.

Photo by Andrew Carpenter.Photo by Andrew Carpenter.
Photo by Andrew Carpenter.

“It’s been an exhausting day – but it went fine.

“I’m sure we have put our best foot forward in showing off the best that we have to offer in our beautiful market town.”

She said they had just three hours to showcase their floral artistry across Market Harborough.

“We were visited by one judge rather than two because of the pandemic.

Photo by Andrew Carpenter.Photo by Andrew Carpenter.
Photo by Andrew Carpenter.

“We laid out the best route starting out at the canal basin,” said Barbara.

“We’ve got planters up there and it’s just a stunning, picturesque location that very few other towns can match.

“We then went through the town’s cricket club to the allotments on Stevens Street.

“There were a lot of very keen gardeners working away there and it was a lovely scene, very peaceful.

Photo by Andrew Carpenter.Photo by Andrew Carpenter.
Photo by Andrew Carpenter.

“Next up was St Luke’s Hospital on Leicester Road.

“Some of the nurses up there have done an incredible job making it very attractive for patients.

“We then walked down the High Street to St Dionysius Church and on to The Square and the Memorial Gardens,” added Barbara.

“Luckily the rain stayed way and it was warm and dry.

“The district council has planted at the Memorial Gardens as well and it looks very smart.

“We’ve set up fabulous blue planters and a big circular planter on The Square as well as beds at the church.

“We then ended our tour in Welland Park.

“We showed the judge our base in the park, our mini-arboretum and our beloved rose garden – which is the jewel in our crown,” said Barbara.

“We had 16 of our first-class volunteers in the rose garden.

“The judge seemed to be very impressed – and said she had been looking forward to seeing it.

“We are in the large town category – and there are only about six entrants this year.

“We’ll find out in September just how we’ve done.

“We won a gold medal and finished second the last time we were judged in 2019.

“So we are obviously hoping that this will be another truly golden year for us.

“Our volunteers only came back at the end of March.

“So we’ve battled to make Market Harborough as attractive as possible in just three months and worked very hard,” said Barbara.

“I’d like to thank all of our phenomenal volunteers as well as the council’s excellent contractors FCC Environment Services.

“We have done especially well to bounce back after vandals attacked our floral displays in the town centre just three weeks ago.

“And we had 30 or so bedding plants stolen from our displays on The Square just before that.

“So our team have done incredibly well to make Market Harborough a town that we can all be genuinely proud of.”