Civic Trust Garden Awards 2003

Rolleston Civic Trust and their judges have again been hard put to make their appraisals of front and back gardens in the village. For the Back Garden Competition:

•  The judges were unable to distinguish between the merits of the gardens of Mr & Mrs Malcolm Heywood of 62 Station Road, and Mr C Babb of Needwood Barn, Home Farm – and so we have joint winners of the Forest Shield. They will have to decide whether to share on a 6-month or a more regular basis.

•  Joan Moore of Grace Cottage, Anslow Lane gained the Runner-Up placing with her lovely restful cottage garden. 

The judges volunteered helpful comments on each of the entrants’ gardens. In addition, they said that “overall, the standard of gardening was high. It was lovely to encounter such enthusiasm and interest amongst the entrants. However, this may sometimes have led the entrants to plant a little too densely and not take into consideration the ultimate height and spread of each plant. We felt that winter was very much a neglected season in many of the gardens. Good winter planting, where it can be seen from the house, can give a lot of pleasure when the weather is too bad for us to be outside. We were also pleased to find evidence of interest in gardening by children and grandchildren. The diversity of styles made the task of deciding on a winner very difficult.”

For the Front Garden Award, the judges considered all Rolleston gardens with the result that:

• Winner of the Forest Shield is Angie Gillespie of 3 Church Road: “True cottage Garden effect, good range of colour and variety of plants. Well balanced and looks wildlife friendly. Very pretty.”

• Runner-Up is Jim Causer of 11 Beacon Drive – no stranger to these events: “A small garden filled with colourful bedding, standard fuchsias, baskets, bird baths, neat lawn and bird boxes. A delight for the eyes”.

In the short list for ‘highly commended’ – no particular order – were: 

4 Church Road - “Compact. All year interest.”
20 The Lawns - “Immaculate. Very colourful bedding scheme.”
Spread Eagle - “Patriotic colours in containers and baskets.”
18 The Lawns - “All year round colour. Good variety of shrubs and trees.”
Ivy Cottage, Chapel Lane - “Cottage garden plants with good use of space.”
32 Beacon Road - “Parr’s Patch. Plenty of colour.”
75 Station Road - “Colourful shrubs”
42 The Lawns - “Interesting use of baskets on posts edging the garden.”
112 Church Road - “Lovely roses, beautiful containers. We liked the planting of the roadside verge under the hedge.”
95 Hall Road - “Plenty of year round colour in a small area.”
37 Hall Road - “Lots of everything and delightful miniature buildings.”

It’s hoped to make the presentations at the 17 Sept meeting of RCT.

We are again very grateful to our two sets of judges for their careful deliberations – (Karin Kay & Bill Carnell – Back Gardens and Susan Davies & Judy Clarke – Front Gardens). It’s nice that they stressed how much they had enjoyed their task.

NB. It has been put to us that there are some people with rather private front gardens who may wish to be discounted from the Award process. We invite anyone with this preference to let us know for future occasions (Tel. Roger Gawthorpe 812621 or Heather Taylor 812118).

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