And we can see the daffodills leaves starting to appear too, so hopefully they will not be long behind.  All we want now is for the temperature to rise and Sherborne will bloom again!

The guest speaker was Mark Lane, Gardens Manager of the Queen’s royal gardens.  A packed hall listened to his fascinating presentation of the gardens of Buckingham Palace, past and present. Afterwards he conducted a question and answer session about the garden and its plants.

This was followed by a Gardeners’ Question Time with a panel consisting of Charlotte Allen (Gardens & Parks Manager, Montacute House & Tintinhull Gardens), Mike Burks (Managing Director, The Gardens Group), Professor Geoffrey Dixon (Horticulturalist & Biologist) and Nick Williams-Ellis (Garden & Landscape Designer).

Sherborne In Bloom had a stall where Caz Rowland exhibited the Preece Cup which we won in 2009 and all our other awards,  and we also distributed literature about SIB 2010 and offered our jute shopping bags for sale.

As a token of our appreciation for his talk we presented Mark Lane with a Sherborne in Bloom shopping bag to give to HM The Queen. He said he would be delighted to pass it on to her!

The event was held in aid of Rotary’s fund to eradicate polio throughout the world. This was an excellent, well-attended event and we thank the Rotary Club for inviting us to take part.

These pictures were taken this week at the Quarr Local Nature Reserve:

February is a month when delightful, unexpected plants can appear and they hold out the promise that spring cannot be far off. As we look forward to Sherborne In Bloom 2010 we’ll be keeping an eye open for everything that happens as the seasons progress.

Watch this space!

Snow changes the landscape and we even see everyday landmarks like trees in a different light.

But it’s the children who make the most of it:

With the snow has come freezing temperatures, chill winds and ice. Let’s look forward to the snowdrops – they can’t be far behind!

Our Festive Shopping Event was held today to support the charity Clic Sargent which cares for children and young people with cancer.

Cheap Street was closed for traffic and we enjoyed steam engines offering rides, an old steam organ, the Two Castles Youth Band and a number of circus acts!

There was an official lighting-up event at 4.15pm on The Conduit with Olympic Gold Medallist Andrew Simpson MBE switching on the lights on the Christmas tree.  Sherborne Chamber Choir entertained us with carols and mince pies.

The Crystal Man presided over the festivities.  And a lot of shoppers of all ages went home tired, but happy.

Thanks, Crystal Man – come back next year!

Around the war memorial there were all ages, stopping for a moment to view the poppies and remember what this day means for us all.

Poppies are November’s blooms, a symbol of sacrifice and remembrance.

This year we have enhanced the war memorial with some permanent planters which we hope will renew the town’s tribute to those who have died, not just on Remembrance Day, but all the year round.

We will remember them.

In the South West In Bloom Presentation Event at the Westland Leisure Complex in Yeovil, Sherborne was awarded the highest prize in its class: a Gold award and the Preece Cup.

In what was termed the largest ‘In Bloom’ event ever to be held in the country, 450 delegates from around the South West region gathered together to see who had been awarded what in the 2009 regional contest.

Pictured here are the Sherborne contingent who attended the awards ceremony, holding the certificates and cup that we took away. On the right is Barry Cruse, one of the two judges who marked us in the competition.

The Preece Cup is a major award for the town in a very competitive category.

Caz Rowland

Caz Rowland, the lead co-ordinator for Sherborne In Bloom, was delighted with the town’s achievement:  ‘So many people have worked so hard for our entry this year and I am delighted that their efforts have been so richly rewarded.

A big ‘thank you’ to everyone who took part – we can be rightly proud of our town and its hard-working and gifted gardeners! Now that we know that Sherborne is up there with the winners in the region, our task for 2010 is to stay there…’

Preece Cup

Sherborne’s success came in the year that the judging criteria were changed to include more emphasis on environmental responsibility.

In their appraisal of the town’s entry, the judges mentioned our impressive heritage, our recycling and environmental credentials, the excellent wildlife areas and the contribution made by so many individuals and groups within the community.

In these difficult times it is great to have some good news to share.

Well done, Sherborne!

Mandy James, the Desk Sergeant, tells us that the Police Station has now become a tourist attraction with coaches slowing down to see it as they drive down Digby Road. And last week a coach stopped and disgorged 24 old ladies who all got out and took photographs.

Who would have thought that Sherborne nick could get famous for all the right reasons?

But consider the consequences if that plot of land was manicured into a neat, municipal little border of bedding plants. Yes, it would look colourful and tidy. But a whole army of bees, butterflies and other wildlife would have lost their natural habitat.  Fussy, finicky gardeners can often be the worst enemies of the very creatures they should be encouraging to share their environment.

This was the philosophy of a couple of beekeepers who decided to ‘adopt-a-plot’ of ground at the far end of Sherborne Station car park and turn it into a bee garden.

Mike Pearce and Gillian Gunner galvanised a group of beekeepers and friends to clear the plot, sow it with wild white clover (which bees love and which enriches the soil) and then to plant it through the season with a range of bee-friendly plants.

Bee-friendly weeds like dandelion, bindweed, buttercups, borage, purple toadflax, rosebay willowherb, meadowsweet and more were welcome.

The garden isn’t meant to look tidy or trim or formal: it’s not designed for humans, it’s designed for bees. It breaks many of the rules of conventional gardening, but the bees and butterflies don’t care – they love it!

Sadly, Mike Pearce didn’t live long enough to see his creation in full bloom and the beekeepers decided to name the garden in his memory.

So, when you see a piece of overgrown ground don’t whinge about the weeds – why not make it into a bee garden? You’d be doing the planet a favour!

There are over 250 superb photographs by some very talented photographers on display. Everyone is welcome to attend this exhibition and admission is free.

If your garden was photographed and you’d like a copy of the picture please come to the exhibition on Saturday 25 July and you can take the photograph away.

Thanks to all the members of Sherborne Bradford Abbas Camera Club who worked so hard to make this exhibtion such a success!

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