Audlem in Bloom

In 2022 we were awarded Gold again, which makes this four years in a row, excluding 2020 as Covid-19 prevented judging. 

Not only Gold though, we have been awarded for the second year running the Best Large Village award which considering this award covers Cheshire and Lancashire is a truly amazing achievement.

In early 2023 we were nominated by North West in Bloom to represent them in the finals. Britain in Bloom Judges will be with on the 1st August.

Many thanks must go to the ADAS committee, to all volunteers who helped make this possible and to the residents and businesses for their support.

Audlem in Bloom is a sub-committee of ADAS with responsibility for planting around the village. It was re-formed in 2014 to improve the focus on the planting for the benefit of the village.

Although the main AIB activities are planting in June and October, we also undertake other activities around the village including maintaining 16 permanent flower beds, tidying/cutting back grass verges, deep cleaning around the village centre and clearing leaves from the car park, pavements and roads. We also have projects where we can identify improvements such as installing water butts to ease watering duties during dry spells.

We enter the North West in Bloom (NWIB) competition each year and for 2015 through to 2017 have been awarded Silver Gilt. In 2018 and 2019 we won GOLD. Well done to all the volunteers around the village that made this possible and also to the school pupils, staff and parents for their work in the school garden. Sadly in 2020 due to Covid-19 lockdown the NWIB competition was cancelled. This was followed by Gold in 2021 and as stated above, again in 2022.

As an example of our work, in May 2019, one Saturday morning 20 volunteers were taking out winter/spring plants and then we had further two half days planting over 2000 summer plants as well as erecting the Union flags provide by the Parish Council. All the work was done by volunteers from within the Audlem district with 10 or 12 volunteers attending each planting session (not always the same people). The spring bulbs that were dug up were either planted around the village or given to residents for their own gardens.

We choose different colour/flower scheme each year but try to choose plants to give a rich and scented floral display, with the added requirements of drought resistance and being attractive to bees and other insects.

If you would like to volunteer to help with planting or would like more information on Audlem in Bloom, please contact ADAS on adascontact@gmail.com or speak to a committee member.