Rivar Sand and Gravel has been involved in Newbury In Bloom since it was re-introduced to Newbury in 2016, over the last 9 years we have supported NIB in many ways I joined the committee as a general member for a few years and Jon our director has sat as chair, it has been lovely to have been asked back as a guest judge again this year.
At Rivar we are passionate about supporting our local schools and helping them to encourage children into the outdoors, learning about everything the outside has to offer.
The importance of this is shown in the emergence of forest schools and outdoor learning that so many schools are adopting.
There is nothing that compares to getting your hands dirty and nurturing an outside space.
This year we had 6 schools enter NIB which is the highest ever and we were very excited to go round them all on judging day.
Welford and Wickham, is a small but perfectly formed school, we were really interested in the science experiments the classes had carried out on the sweet peas to see how watering patterns effected the plants, the results of which I’m sure some gardeners here would like to know!
Fir Tree School, It was lovely to see the start of this schools NIB journey, every year group had a garden in a container that they were responsible for. Along with all the plants some of these also contained painted pebbles and bug houses. We loved the inter generational gardening club here.
John Rankin, started their NIB journey last year and what a difference a year makes! As well as improvements to the reading garden and class gardens there are now chickens an allotment and an orchard! The extra curricular activities now include mud club (which sounds amazing!!), and make it bake it. The school have really utilized the space they have and we could have easily spent another hour there exploring the grounds.
Falkland Allotment which is run by Falkland School, the allotment club has been running for many years and takes year 6 children come rain or shine every week to tend to it. This space is just bursting with life and is a great example of an eco-garden with water collection, composting and comfrey manure all helping to make this a perfect eco system, with excess food being donated to the soup kitchen. Even the resident frog came out to say hello.
Falkland School is just around the corner, the Eco Warrior and gardening club keep the garden here is tip top condition, it had the busiest pond we have ever seen in a school! With teacher and parental help this is what school gardens are all about. The school have also embraced the RHS schools scheme are now on level 3.
Newbury College After winning the category last year Newbury College have not sat back at all, with improvements to all the areas that we saw last year they have gone from strength to strength. We especially liked the way the garden is so strongly embedded in the curriculum, business students held a sale and made £300 from the sale of plants, and staff held a sunflower growing competition with some more successful than others!
The best in category prize went to Newbury College as they had really built on their projects from last year and introduced compost bins and water collection butts. With this and the extensive ongoing work within the curriculum and community they pipped the other entrants to the post.
All of these schools show us the best of what the gardening community is all about, growing from seeds collected the year before, donating plants from home, volunteering time to help weed and enjoying the fruits if all the hard labour by either eating the produce or simply enjoying some quiet time in a peaceful space.
Long may the Newbury In Bloom effect continue and we look forward to seeing you all again next year!
