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29
Mar
The men behind the Harrogate district’s blooming floral landscape
We may be biased, but there are few places more beautiful than the Harrogate district.
Local residents take great pride in the area, but it’s easy to underestimate the level of effort that goes into maintaining it.
As we enter spring and the local areas come into bloom, the Stray Ferret wanted to find out what it takes to keep the county blossoming from the green-fingered council workers responsible.
Jonathon Clubb is North Yorkshire Council’s head of parks and grounds.
Equipped with an £8 million annual budget and a 200-person team, it’s Jonathon’s job to keep the county’s outdoor spaces looking their best.
“My area includes all ground maintenance on the council-owned parks and grounds”, he said.
We have a commercial team that runs our markets and looks after events on our land. We have a woodland team too. We’re fairly new because North Yorkshire Council is a new authority, but we have a single pass-around service across the county, which is fantastic.
Mike Middleton, who brought a hefty folder of garden designs when he met the Stray Ferret, is the parks and grounds nursery manager.
Mike looks after council’s horticultural nursery on Harrogate’s Harlow Hill – the authority’s only horticultural nursery in North Yorkshire – and oversees the growth and supply of all bedding plants for Harrogate, Knaresborough, Ripon, Pateley Bridge, Skipton, Richmond, Selby and Northallerton.
The Stray Ferret asked the men how they decide which flowers will be planted across the county.
Mike said the council has recently taken on a new garden designer based in Scarborough, but inspiration is taken from personal preference, picture beds and drawings supplied by schools or community groups.
He added:
We look at what we put in the previous year; we go out and see what has worked and what hasn’t worked. For example, we’ll start designing next year’s summer bedding at the end of this summer.
It does vary in different locations – like Harrogate and Scarborough – due to different weather conditions and coastal breezes. Geraniums usually grow through anything, so we use a lot of those, but we do try and plant something new each year.
The spring beds, which are now in bloom across Harrogate, were planted at the end of last year.
The current beds include pollyannas, ballistas, wallflowers, pansies and violas.
The district’s beds are often bursting with colour. The Stray Ferret asked Mike if the bright colours are a deliberate design choice, or just personal preference.
In Harrogate, you’ve got something bright – something that really stands out. It’s the tourists who often notice it. So, as soon as you come around the Prince of Wales roundabout and down West Park, the flower beds make such an impact.
We like to keep to stick to a theme – it would look odd if every bed was a different colour.
Flowers in Prince of Wales roundabout
Challenges
As beautiful as the area might be, North Yorkshire isn’t blessed when it comes to warm weather.
The Stray Ferret asked Mike and John what challenges the team face – particularly those that can destroy the plants.
Unsurprisingly, the weather was the frontrunner. Mike said:
We look to start bedding out for the summer in May. But the weather can be cold, wet and miserable or absolutely gorgeous in May. You can get out there and plant everything and the following day it could be freezing cold.
There are challenges, and sometimes we have to take a bit of risk. The tougher plants can stand up to the cold weather, like geraniums, but we would hang on to things like begonias until the beginning of June just in case.
We also asked if pests and animals can be a common cause of headaches among the parks team.
Mike said the gardeners only spray plants when pests are identified and they try to prioritise using biological control insects, like mites, to cut down on chemicals.
The Stray Ferret alo wanted to know if the council has any reserves in place in case plants are destroyed or perform poorly.
Mike said there is a contingency of a “couple of thousand” in place, which gives the team a bit of flexibility if disaster strikes.
Flowers on Prince of Wales roundabout and West Park in Harrogate.
As with all local government services, the parks and grounds department is funded by the taxpayer.
The Stray Ferret asked Mike and Johnathon if they feel spending public money puts added pressure on the team to deliver the highest quality beds.
“Harrogate is a big tourist destination”, Mike says, and admits this comes with a level of expectation to keep the town looking smart.
Jonathon added the gardeners work hard to keep the whole district looking pristine, but agreed standards built up over time need to be continually met.
They also told the Stray Ferret tourists often call the council to ask if certain areas have bloomed, including a dahlia bed in Valley Gardens and the cherry blossom on the Stray, so they can align their visits with the plants blossoming.
Upcoming beds
Mike shared some designs for upcoming summer beds with the Stray Ferret.
One design, which depicts a dove, was designed by a local schoolgirl and will be planted at the entrance of Valley Gardens (below)
The plants have been amended slightly due to needing seasonal flowers, but the dove will be created using a range of begonias.
The adapted design, which will be planted in Valley Gardens.
Another design, created by a local boy, will be brought to life in the grounds of Knaresborough Castle.
The original design has been altered to fit the bed, but geraniums, begonias and petunias will all be used to depict a steam train.
Mike also designed a brightly coloured bed, which will be planted at Ripon Spa Gardens, with a rainbow of begonias and petunias.
The bed will mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day.
Finally, a bed marking the 80th anniversary of VE day (pictured above) will be planted on Montpellier Hill using begonias and petunias.
The men told the Stray Ferret they both feel extremely proud of what they deliver across the district.
“Once the flowers are out of the greenhouse and they’ve come up, I just think: ‘we did that’”, Mike says.
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