Over the weekend we spent a great family day out at the Nottingham in Bloom Nursery Open Day.
This free annual event has something for everyone: a chance to explore the council nursery, free workshops and planting advice from the RHS, plant stalls, beehive tours and loads of hand-on nature activities for the kids, to name but a few. We were in our element!
We started off with a trip around the council nursery. You never really think about just how many plants are needed to make a city bloom, do you? All those roundabouts, planters, hanging baskets and city centre displays take some filling!
These fabulous wicker sculptures form the Summer ‘floral trail’ around Nottingham city, with two new additions this year – theatre masks and a teddy bear – designed by local schoolchildren. Packed with blooms, they really stop you in your tracks.
We visited the beehives and learned all about beekeeping – we even got to taste some honey. Sam was completely transfixed by the bees, I think if the beekeepers had offered to put a suit on him he’d have been in there with them!
This year the Open Day theme was ‘Make a small change for nature’ and there were great ideas for doing just this everywhere you looked. The kids are in the process of creating a wildlife corner at our allotment so they picked up lots of really good ideas and inspiration.
This wildlife garden was a big hit with visitors; so many clever ideas for creating a wildlife haven in a small space, it would be really easy to replicate in your garden at home. It’s given me some ideas for a wildlife-friendly scarecrow too…
The Nottingham in Bloom Open Day was a brilliant family day out and it was really great to see the positive impact being made by this campaign. We learned lots, had fun and came away with ideas, inspiration – and a few new plants too!
For more information on the campaign and future events visit the Nottingham in Bloom website . And if you’re not local to Nottingham have a look at the Britain in Bloom website to see what’s going on near you.
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