For another year in a row, an Isle of Wight town has come out smelling of roses in the South East In Bloom awards.
This Summer, Sandown was awarded Gold in the South and South East in Bloom’s Small Coastal Town category.
Sandown’s entry was spearheaded by Sandown Green Town Volunteers, who the judges commended, ‘for the immense amount of time, hard work and dedication they put in to brighten up their coastal town’.
They were praised for their upkeep of existing garden areas and their continued search for future projects to enhance the town, both horticulturally and environmentally.
They said:
'SGTVs understood that in a changing world new avenues need to be explored and have taken on board modern gardening trends and have moved planting away from the large formal gardens of old and incorporated herbaceous perennials, and ornamental grasses shrubs in their schemes to give year round structure and interest’.
The work being undertaken by the Friends of Battery Gardens, in a bid to breathe new life into the gardens and encourage wildlife was applauded as was the improvements being made to areas along the Cliff Path, already attracting pollinators.
It was noted that throughout lockdown SGTVs continued to beach and litter-pick whilst taking their daily walks.
The South East in Bloom judges recognised that like many seaside areas some hotels have fallen into disrepair, blighting towns. They praised the artwork decorating these ugly sites: knitted artwork covering the barriers with woollen flowers, insects and abstract patterns, colourful ‘wheels’ created from abandoned hubcaps and flowers modelled from plastic bottles turning them into art galleries to distract from the urban blight.
The highest marks in the entry came from the Environmental section where volunteers, guided and aided by ecological engineering specialists, Artecology, have created habitats for coastal loving plants and wildlife to flourish, with native plants allowed to self-seed.
Particular mention was made of Sandown Seedbank where planting has encouraged a build-up of sand akin to the former dunes that were once
there creating a habitat for native flora and fauna.
Artecology have also introduced ‘vertipools’, artificial rock pools on groynes opposite Dinosaur Isle, with an area of the beach reserved for the use of school children as a science beach.
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