Preparing for Spring Displays 2009

Throughout October and November 2008, the group were busy planting bulbs and spring bedding to ensure that there will be a colourful display in 2009. We are trying different planting schemes with the 21 barrier troughs we have in Pudsey centre. 14 of these had traditional summer bedding in them in Summer 2008 and really looked splendid, we received lots of comments about how colourful they were, this year for the first time, we bought and planted up all the troughs ourselves, we chose a colourful array of petunias, geraniums,fuschias and gazanias. It wa hard work, especially as it wasn`t a very good day for planting! But those involved all agreed it was well worth it, and we plan to do the same again next year.

In November, we again turned out on another cold and wet day to empty the summer bedding that was now getting past its best and plant up the troughs with spring bedding, most of which we had been saving throughout the summer from last years displays, otherwise the plants would just have been discarded by the council! This again saved us lots of money. In addition to the spring bedding we also planted a mixture of bulbs including: tete a tete,red robin tulips, and crocus.

In the other 7 troughs which had been planted up with drought resistant plants throughout the summer, the job was a little easier as we did not have to remove and replant, we just added a good mixture of bulbs to each of the troughs, including: alliums, (allium azureum), crocus (Barr`s Purple and snowbunting) These troughs have given a very different look throughout the summer and provide a good contrast to the other troughs. We feel we are catering for everyones tastes and at the same time doing our bit to find a greener way of planting up the containers. It will be interesting to see how these troughs develop this year: