A summary of Improvements and Preparation for 2017 Ulster in Bloom
You can read the paper here.
Winter Improvements in the village
On Tuesday 6th December 2016, a group from GVA, Tim Stapleton of Hedged About and Housing Executive representatives gathered at a plot of grass on The Hill, to begin planting a small orchard. You can access the photographs below and get more details about the varieties of apples planted in this paper, written by Peter Gibson.
Photographs of the Orchard being planted
Spring and Summer Preparations
The GVA committee started serious work on the Ulster in Bloom project in 2015. We had discussed the project from about 2013 and by early 2015 we had formulated ideas and were able to nominate Roy McWhinney as chair of a (very active) sub-committee, with responsibility for taking this project forward. He recruited Peter Gibson, Robert Cunningham and Merab onto the committee and they have worked tirelessly all summer, producing and executing some very innovative ideas - both floral and faunal!
Over the summer period the GVA committee members and other volunteers have been out on Saturdays. weeding the public areas around the village centre. This has had a very significant effect on the hard landescape areas. Everyone will notice the tidy pavements and pathways. The flower displays planted by AND Council and others were very effective
In addition, we have planted out a rockery behind the Cockle Row cottage. It was quite a difficult task to select appropriate plants for this challenging situation. Nevertheless, we now have a thriving suite of rockery blossoms for everyone to enjoy.
July 2016 saw the "Herb Tub" planted out and positioned in the Main Street. The idea is to provide people with the opportunity to select a herb, trim off a few sprigs, take them home and use them in cooking. It is thereby hoped that we will all become better educated in the use of these and other herbs to add flavour and medicinal benefit to our food. Peter Gibson has kindly produced a leaflet about the herbs and how they can be used. We have seen members of the local community taking responsibility for watering the herb-tub during dry spells; so we feel that, at least some people, appreciate our efforts.
You can access a map of the improvements made over the 2016 season.