NEWS STORY: NOVEMBER 2009

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Gardening Greats!

Gardening greats

Loads of our green fingered residents have been recognised as tree-mendous gardening greats in not one but two prestigious competitions!

At October’s ‘North West In Bloom’ contest, Assheton Road and Culcheth Lane Residents Association (ACTARA) not only received an ‘Outstanding’ award for their work on the Stansfield Street communal garden in Newton Heath, but were also named ‘Best Neighbourhood’ and ‘Best Overall Neighbourhood’ at the ceremony in Southport.

Bill Garnett, secretary for ACTARA, said: “We were really pleased to be nominated, we didn’t expect to win anything. It’s all about the community.”

Meanwhile, many of our residents did bloomin’ fantastic in Manchester City Council’s ‘Great, Green Neighbourhoods Competition’.

The judges had a difficult time deciding who would come up trumps in the Northwards area, but our top six contestants were:

Riverways

1st Place - Elaine Quinn, Oban Avenue
2nd Place - Albert Heaviside, Verona Drive

Fourways

1st Place - Brenda Lee, Tomlinson Street
2nd Place - Gordon Thornhill, Pinfold Avenue

Wilton

1st Place - Allen Pemberton, Aldermaston Grove
2nd Place - Joyce Simms, Heaton Park Road

All six were invited to the town hall for the finals this month, where our three first place winners competed to be crowned gardening champions of the city!

Brenda Lee did particularly well, coming second in the ‘Best Overall Garden’ category. She was only just pipped to the post of winning the top prize!

However, it was one of our residents groups – Hillside Tenants & Residents Association – that had the most success. They won the 'Best Community Garden' award for their excellent efforts on Ruthin Avenue in Higher Blackley.

The group formed a gardening club to create the beauty spot, filling it with gorgeous plants, a barbeque area, a bird table, a mini pond and even a hedgehog house!

All our contestants thoroughly enjoyed themselves at the ceremony. 91-year-old Albert Heaviside had such a fun time he even whisked the hostess, BBC Radio Manchester presenter Jane Hodson, off her feet for a dance!

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