Garden will be heart of Ludlow's In Bloom bid

The finishing touches have now been put to this garden in Corve Street, Ludlow, thanks to money, time and work from various members of the community.

The transformation has taken three years and each summer Heart Of England In Bloom judges have visited Ludlow and noted the progress on project.

Now it is complete, the judge's visit will conclude with a look at what has been done, Vivienne Parry of the Ludlow In Bloom committee said.

Vivienne, who is also Shropshire Councillor for Ludlow South, said: "It is a town council garden but nothing much had been done with it for years.

"We went and looked at it and in the first year we put some new boxes in there.

"There's a great big horse trough in there that is a beauty, but it didn't have very good plants in there and was full of ivy so we put some better plants in."

She said tree roots had been interfering with paving slabs in the garden so Ludlow Methodist Church had contributed money to have them sorted out.

She said: "Last year we took up all the paving slabs and cleaned it all up and we ended up with a much bigger area under the tree that we put gravel around.

"But we couldn't finish it off because we needed a seat for around the tree.

"We got £300 from Ludlow Civic Society for that and (landscape contractor) Stephen Bownes has come to put it in," she said.

The garden also contains planters with edible plants to tie in with Ludlow In Bloom's 'incredible edible' theme this year, which sees forage-able trees, bushes and other plants highlighted around the town.

Ludlow has bagged a long line of gold awards year after year in the In Bloom competition, and judges will be in town once more on July 19.

Councillor Parry said: "They will be coming first thing in the morning and we will take them off on a tour of the town.

"We've taken the judges to the Corve Street garden every year and that's where we will be finishing on the 19th.

"They've seen it alter from something that wasn't very good to something that's really fine."

She said the garden was so pleasant that patrons at the Unicorn pub across the road had asked if they might use it to put out tables and chairs for their customers in the future.