Community Involvement

Over the past 12 months, the dedicated Bloom committee have been both engaging and encouraging the public to do their bit by liaising with local neighbourhood groups, volunteers, dedicated staff and city businesses to celebrate and improve areas of our city.

Run in partnership with the Coventry Telegraph, the ever popular ‘Best Garden Competition’ has once again proven extremely successful with hundreds of entries received from enthusiastic, green fingered residents. Entrants sent some wonderful images of their well maintained gardens which came in all different shapes and sizes, all hoping to be crowned the best garden in Coventry. The winner, thanks to partners ‘Ikea’ and ‘Russell’s Garden Centre’ will win garden furniture to the value of £400 plus a stunning Stone Market Feature Kit along with a selection of superb free flowering clematis plants worth a total of £350. Two runners up will each receive £150 of National Garden Vouchers, kindly donated by both CV One and The Landscape Group.

As the spring season drew to a close, thousands of plants were given away by both CV One and The Landscape Group as part of the annual ‘Plant Giveaway’. Perennial spring planting was removed from bedding displays, tubs and borders in preparation to be replaced by the summer bedding plants. Rather than simply discard the spring flowers, they were given away free of charge to local Coventry gardeners to place back into their own gardens ready to blossom again next year. Publicised by local press, the event was a huge success with enthusiastic local residents turning up in huge numbers to take advantage of the ever popular event.

Thumbnail : Studland Green : Click image to enlarge

The green-fingered volunteers of the Allesley Park Walled Garden Group staged the ‘Get Set - Grow’ event in March this year which saw local people pushing to encourage the people of Coventry to grow their own food. Held at Ryton Gardens, the event saw thousands of seeds and starter kits given away free of charge to local people. Peat free compost and organically grown plants were also given away with experts on hand to equip visitors with the knowledge to move forward and progress in growing their own locally sourced food. Held as part of the ‘Grow Your Own’ weekend held at the gardens, the event also saw children’s potting activities taking place along with vegetable growing demonstrations and garden tours on offer with free entry given to anyone wearing wellies!

Thumbnail : The Canley Brook project : Click image to enlarge

In the autumn of 2010, work began to create a new £90,000 space for young people in Coventry city centre. The derelict area of parkland in Cox Street has for a long time been blighted by problems with drug users and the homeless sleeping rough but supported by the police, Coventry University and Coventry City Council’s community safety team, the hope is that the run down space can be transformed into a ‘youth garden’ for teenagers to meet and socialise with their friends. Including benches, a performance space and green areas, the garden will be surrounded by a large fence and locked up at night providing a safe, green haven for local teens.

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