There were 13 new gardens in this year's Ramsey in Bloom competition, swelling the number of entries to 35 and providing a challenge to judges Mrs Pat Goodway and Ramsey Town Commissioners' head gardener Ken Barnes.
At the prize presentation held in Ramsey Town Hall on Tuesday August 17 Mrs Goodway said the small gardens and ‘little gems' categories had proved exceptionally popular and amounted to more than double the number of entries in all the other categories combined. She praised entrants for their civic pride and congratulated them on achieving high horticultural standards despite having to cope with ‘a considerable amount of damaging and confusing weather'.
This year's competition was the first time the Maureen Ball Wildlife Trophy was presented; a trophy donated by friends of the late Maureen Ball who died in November 2009 and used to spend many hours enjoying the wildlife in her garden in Riverbank Road. The award - a silver friendship cup or quaich – went to the Kerroo Glass sheltered housing complex and was presented to warden Mrs Gerry Wynne and her husband Norman in recognition of their hard work in successfully attracting wildlife to the residents' garden.
A full list of prizewinners can be downloaded here.