Our beautiful Botanic Garden has once again achieved a Gold Award in the Northumbria in Bloom Competition 2024. This annual competition recognises, encourages and rewards community groups who work together to transform their village, town or city, through gardening, environmental awareness and community support.
Peter Thomson, Manager of the Botanic Garden and Dave Profit, Head of Maintenance Services, accepted the Gold award in the 'Tourist, Visitor Attraction or Country Estate' category. This is a hotly contested category with other Gold winners including Auckland Walled Garden and Washington Old Hall and the overall category winner being Alnwick Gardens.
Judging
Judging takes place twice during the year, in April and July, when judges take a guided visit to the Garden to view the fantastic Spring bulbs and Summer bedding displays on show. They also assess the rest of the 20 hectare site which includes native woodland, wildflower meadows and glasshouse for visitors to explore, as well as a collection of artwork to discover around the Garden.
The judges visit allows Peter and his team the chance to highlight everything the Garden has to offer and explain to the judges their involvement in community projects, including schools and community partnerships and introduce the dedicated volunteer group, the Friends of the Garden.
Biodiversity in action
It is also the ideal opportunity to showcase the great work the Botanic Garden is doing towards the University's Biodiversity Strategy and what makes us one of the top 20 Universities in the world for Sustainability in the QS Rankings.
The Botanic Garden achieved Gold standard in all three elements of the competition.
- Horticultural Achievement– assessing standards of gardening knowledge, skills and practice across the entire entry
- Environmental Responsibility– assessing standards of care, maintenance and improvement of the local environment across the entire entry
- Community Participation– assessing level of engagement of local people and ongoing sustainability of the local campaign across the entire entry
Northumbria in Bloom
Northumbria in Bloom was one of the seven founder regions of Britain in Bloom in 1964 and has been run by The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) since 2002. The Northumbria in Bloom region runs from Berwick in the north, south west to the border with Cumbria, then along the border with North Yorkshire to the sea south of the Tees at Staithes.
The campaign now supports 17 regions and nations covering all of the United Kingdom. The Northumbria region covers Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, County Durham, and the unitary Council areas of Hartlepool, Stockton, Middlesbrough, and Redcar & Cleveland.
