Newtown Gardening Club to judge tenants’ garden competition

Green-fingered Barcud tenants are being invited to show off their gardening skills this summer, with members of Newtown Gardening Club once again chosen to judge the housing association’s annual garden competition.

The competition, which is open to tenants across Barcud’s 4,500 homes in mid and west Wales, aims to celebrate colourful gardens while encouraging people to spend more time outdoors and improve their local communities.

Entrants are invited to submit photographs in one of four categories: floral display in a private garden, hanging basket, container or window box, vegetable garden, and independent living scheme or communal garden.

Each category winner will receive a £50 garden centre voucher.

The judging will again be carried out by Newtown Gardening Club, with all photographs anonymised before being passed to club members to ensure a fair assessment.

Sara Woodall, Director of Communities at Barcud, said: “We all know that gardening is great for our health and well being so we want to encourage as many of our tenants as possible to get outdoors into their gardens.

“A colourful and interesting garden not only makes a difference to your property but can also benefit the community you live in and the environment. We want to reward our tenants for their gardening efforts.”

Reflecting on last year’s competition, Newtown Gardening Club said it was honoured to be asked to judge the entries once again.

Club members said it had been a pleasure to see the results of residents’ hard work, with colourful and imaginative displays submitted despite challenging weather conditions.

They added that last year’s heat had made gardening particularly difficult, but the standard of entries demonstrated what could still be achieved.

Photographs must not be digitally edited beyond basic cropping and adjustments to exposure, sharpness and minor colour correction.

The closing date for entries is Friday, 14 August, at midday. Tenants can submit up to three photographs with each entry, along with their name, address and chosen category.

Entries can be emailed to alisa.cakebread@barcud.cymru or posted to: Alisa Cakebread, Barcud, Ty Canol House, Ffordd Croesawdy, Newtown, Powys, SY16 1AL.