Poltimore In Bloom

Inspired by the previous year’s Jubilee village celebrations, on Saturday 4 February 2023 Poltimore in Bloom was officially launched.

Unbeknownst to us at the time, there were only 164 days until our community efforts would be judged which, as it turned out, would be with remarkable success!

This is our story so far:

Poltimore is a small, beautiful, and peaceful village just north of Exeter with some 120 households and a historic church, but there is a lack of public space and what there is had been unloved in recent times.
There are no schools, pubs, or parks, just a small village farm-shop, our village hall and a bus to Exeter once a week.

A team was formed from our eager volunteers and ten areas requiring some Bloom attention were identified.

February saw planting design undertaken to ensure all year-round interest, schemes contained a good mix of plants to attract pollinators and others to reduce the need for annual bedding.

During the weekend of 1st April, the bulk of our shrub and perennial planting was completed, just in time for the end of the planting season!

Away from site works, other important activities included the creation of our website and social media plus plenty of fundraising.

Together with generous donations from local organizations and businesses, villagers supported fund raising initiatives including craft making sessions, bingo at the village hall and selling loads of logs from a donated ancient fallen Oak tree.

£3,800 was raised in those few short weeks, £2,500 was spent, leaving us on a firm footing to launch Bloom into 2024.

The biggest donation of all came from villagers’ time – well over 600 hours of litter picking, digging, building, painting, planting, watering… the list goes on but most importantly being able to come together for a common cause.

As the spring turned to summer our works continued to enhance the chosen areas.
The addition of an art mural to our bus stop transformed a dreary spot, rainwater catchment tanks, planters, steppingstones and benches made from the Oak tree created visual improvements and much needed seating.

During June, slugs caused significant damage to our wildflower areas, so we decided to create ‘replacement flowers’ and following a community request villagers of all ages created an amazing array of recycled bottle flowers.
These made a wonderful impact and added a fabulous finishing touch to our Church garden.

Our wild areas were enhanced with bug hotels, Bird boxes and wildlife ponds. Grass areas were left to grow. A survey in July noted a significant increase in insect life to that noted previously in the barren mown areas.

So came the culmination of our efforts!

In mid-July we welcomed Leslie and John to Poltimore for our judging visit, thankfully the weather was on our side, and it really did feel like a very special day to show off our first attempt at Bloom. So many supporters turned up to enjoy the occasion and the fruits of our efforts.

Without doubt the biggest benefit of the competition has been to the residents that live in the village, not only the physical improvement to our outside shared spaces but the sense of bonding and pride in the bloom adventure that has united so many of us.
The only downside is that it now takes three times as long to do the ‘local lanes walk’ as invariably you will meet someone….!

So how did we do? It was a long wait until October to find out!

Ten villagers attended the presentation event in Truro and we were stunned to be awarded:

• Gold entry
• Best Devon Village
• Best Newcomer
• Best Website
• Outstanding 5, Community Garden.

We’re now well underway with this year’s activities to improve the current planting and give some new areas the Poltimore in Bloom treatment.

We hope you enjoyed the insight into our adventure to date and we’d like to share this note that was sent by one of our residents that we think sums up why we all continue to be inspired to do what we do.

“The village looks beautiful and my walks to the postbox have been exceptionally slow and meandering as I enjoy the improvements you’ve all made. What a lovely gift to the villagers and our visitors. Thank you to you all “

Poltimore Village

Poltimore In Bloom | Our story