Spring Bedding Looks Fab, Summer Plantings Coming On Nicely: All Part Of Parks And Green Spaces Team’s Work

Published on: 11 May, 2016
Updated on: 11 May, 2016

The spring bedding in the Castle Grounds is looking particularly spectacular this year and the plants for the summer beddings, troughs and hanging baskets seen around the borough are coming on well.

The spring bedding is at its best right now in the Castle Grounds. These pictures of the Castle Grounds are courtesy of Sally Astles, Guildford Borough Council’s parks projects officer. Click to enlarge all pictures in a new window.

The Guildford Dragon NEWS congratulates Guildford Borough Council’s parks and leisure services department for the colourful displays we have come to admire each season.

A riot of colour in the Castle Grounds. Tulips have been underplanted with varieties of forgetmenots and primulas.

Parks and landscape manager Paul Stacey said that the mild spring along with temperatures having risen at a steady pace is why the plants are blooming so well.

For lovers of statistics: 20,000 bulbs have been planted in the Castle Grounds for this year’s spring spectacular.

A garden of earthy delights!

For this summer’s displays: 40,000 plants in 580 hanging baskets (240 for Ash Parish Council) and 100 barrier troughs have been planted up and are now being brought on in the council’s greenhouses in Stoke Park.

The council’s parks and landscape manager, Paul Stacey, inside one of the greenhouses at Stoke Park with hanging baskets planted up and growing nicely. With pelargoniums to the fore, colours are pinks and reds. Paul said these colours work best; plants of a blue hue have been tried but it is a colour that does not seem to work so well in the places where the hanging baskets and troughts are placed.

Two thirds of the council’s estates are desginated as countryside – that is parks and green spaces, and they cover an area of some 2,600 acres.

There are 52 countryside sites and 65 parks and garden sites.

Some of the 100 barrier troughs. The plant plugs are bought from a horticultural nursey in West Sussex and grown on. They will be put into place across the borough in a few week’s time.

The council administers about 130 event applications and events on its parks each year.

Sports bookings for pitches and so on in the parks total 3,300 a year.

It owns and manages 61 free play facilities of which 33 are children’s play areas, 13 multi-use games areas, one BMX track, nine fitness trails / outdoor gyms, two skate parks and one paddling pool.

Plants that will form carpet bedding in the Castle Grounds will soon be ready for planting out.

Among the responsibilities of an in-house staff of 79 is the management of two million trees, 50 operational properties or assets (such as Burchatts Farm Barn), four charitable trusts (including the sports ground in Woodbridge Road) and the campsite at Chantry Wood.

It is not surprising to learn the council has received seven Green Flag awards – making its achievements among the best in the South East.

The leader of the council, Cllr Paul Spooner, said the work that goes on is tremendous and he wonders whether the community knows the full extent of that work.

He added that people appreciate beauty and that the council is committed to maintaining the current level of staff and delivering the finance needed. He said he is particularly proud of the Castle Grounds.

And people flock and make good use of all of these. It is estimated that each year there are 750,000 visitors to Stoke Park, 550,000 to the Castle Gardens and 140,000 to the Riverside Nature Reserve and Chantry Wood.

Volunteers play their part too, giving around 8,000 hours of their free time each year to help with the on-going mainteance and care. These include the Pewley Down conservation group and the Chilworth Together group.

The council has many partners too. Some of these include: Blackwater Valley Countryside Partnership, National Trust, Thames Basin Heath Project, Surrey County Council (Guildford council mows their grass verges), Natural England, Surrey County Agricultural Society, Guildford Lions (fireworks fiesta), with agreements or grants made to groups such as Guildford Allotment Society, Basingstoke Canal, Wey & Arun Canal Trust and the Guildford Cricket Festival.

The parks and countryside team also work to deliver and maintain sites of suitable alternative natural green space (SANGs). They provide people with an alternative open space reducing pressure on special protection areas.

Work that those in the countryside team will soon be undertaking is at Parsonage Watermeadows – the area of land bordering the River Wey and behind the Ladymead Retail Park (Homebase and B&Q, etc) in Guildford. The work will involve enhancing access from the river towpath and what Paul Stacey says is all part of balancing access for people with nature.

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