Judging day

As always time sped up and everything was fraught right up to the last minute - not helped by the hot weather that frazzled tempers.

We had done as much as was humanly possible and had to hope it was enough. The judges were very friendly and we had lunch at the Watsonian before they set off round our route [they had judged Holbeck in the morning].

It was so hot in the afternoon the judges seemed to be speed judging. Susan and I had gone out to try and do last minute litter picking ahead of the judges mini-bus and it kept overtaking us. The first time we managed to hide in a hedge but the second time we have nowhere to go and they spotted us - oops.

We won't know for a while what the results are but as we were the last group to be judged hopefully it won't be too long.

And Vivienne found a way to keep a little cooler while we were waiting to serve afternoon tea.

Sara

What a Week

In the run up to judging we have faced and mostly overcome many challenges.

The Cardinal Triangle Bed nearly vanished under the long grass and then, when it was finally cut we had to rake all the cuttings up so they didn't kill what little was left. I think the grass cutting machines were set at grade 1.

Frederick made a sizeable haystack with the first clippings.

And this is the state of the uncovered grass - not pretty.

Because of the hot dry weather we struggled to keep plants healthy [although it didn't seem to affect the weeds anywhere near as much] and we have ferried gallons of water to those project that had no ready water supply [most of them as it turned out]. We pay the council to water the hanging baskets and barrier troughs at Tommy Wass, but when we were dead heading them we discovered they were dry as a bone so ended up having to water them too, and the Millenium Garden is close enough to the yard that we can use a hose pipe.

It was too hot to water straight after work so we were out every night at 7pm filling and transporting 2 cars worth of containers, sometimes re-filling and returning, and doing some weeding and litter picking as we went. I'm not sure what Vivienne's car looks like inside but mine looks like it's been parked in a hayfield with the windows down.

Because it was so warm and we were so busy I don't seem to have taken many pictures - this is Judith trying to keep cool under a big hat and looking like she escaped from the pages of an Edwardian Lady.

And this is a garden we discovered on one of our re-filling trips which brightened our day.

Sara