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Summer watering has now finished for 2025. See you all next year.
As followers of our facebook page will know last year’s spring bulbs have been replanted in the grass at the Wick Country Park. Wickford in Bloom and Friends of Wickford Memorial Park volunteers went along to help out with the planting today. Good to see that a group from Abacus school were also able to join in the planting. We are sure the bulbs will look lovely in the spring
We wanted to share the BBC Essex Make a Difference awards video as it really shows the town in a positive light.
We hope you'll all agree, the flowers looked fantastic and the blue skies certainly helped.
Thanks to Marian Scott and Robbie Sparks who were interviewed for the clip.
You can view the clip here.
You may have noticed that the 2 trees along the High Street outside Cowling & Payne and Pizza Hut are not looking their best.
We are aware of this and have made the decision to remove them and they will be planted in the new area of the Wickford Memorial Park. We have been working with the Friends of Wickford Memorial Park to arrange plans for this later this year once the ground is soft enough to plant.
We have new plans for these planters, the location in terms of wind, sunlight etc may mean something different from trees, so we will let you all know once new plants are purchased.
September 2025.
With the summer coming to an end, we wanted to take this opportunity to thank all the amazing volunteers who have helped with the watering throughout the summer.
This hardy group of volunteers come out and help every Wednesday and Sunday for around 4 months or more, without you it just wouldn't be possible.
You all know who you are, so give yourselves a jolly good pat on the back!
Its also that time of year again to think about the spring bulbs. If you want to support the Wickford in Bloom spring bulb appeal all the details are shown below. Thank you for your continued support.
Wickford in Bloom have arrived at the BBC Essex Make a difference awards evening.
Some amazing groups and individuals here, all of them are winners already
11th September 2025.
We were nominated for the BBC Make A Difference Awards 2025, held at Hatfield Peveral Place. We were in the Green Awards.
We didn't win our category, but everyone here are winners, sharing the room with some truly inspirational people this evening and it was an honour to be nominated.
The town looked amazing in the nomination video and we will try and share that soon.
4th SEPTEMBER 2025.
Yes we did it, Wickford has been awarded 'Gold' in this year's Anglia in Bloom awards for the Large Town Category
What a fantastic journey from when we formed in 2020 and this being just our 2nd time of entering the competition.
Thank you to all the amazing volunteers, our sponsors, donations, local business support, Wickford Town Council, Basildon Borough Council, Windowflowers and all those who were part of this year's entry. Without you it wouldn't be possible. See the Anglia in Bloom Page for more details.
JUNE/JULY 2025.
The trailing begonias are really beginning to bloom now and the colours in the high Street planters are amazing. We should thank A E Harnett and Sons Nursery again for supplying the plants. We must admit we were quite surprised to see the sunflower there!
On Sunday 6th July the Wickford Wombles carried out a High Street clean up event to support the entry into Anglia in Bloom.
They did a truly amazing job of making the High Street look spotless, thanks for all the help.
Together we can make Wickford Bloom Brighter than ever!
18th May 2025.
Busy day today planting up all the planters with the summer display and then watering. Thanks to all the volunteers for giving their time, now just the simple task of keeping them watered through the summer.
17 May 2025.
The WiB team have started early again this morning to collect the plants from our supplier A.E Harnett & sons.
They are all being sorted ready for tomorrow plus many other jobs in the town.
16th May 2025.
A few weeks ago we heard the Perrywoods Garden Centres had very generously awarded Wickford in Bloom £1000 to be spent at Perrywood Buckhatch on sustainable planting. Yesterday Dave, Robbie and Marian were met by Kay to chose plants to put in the 3 big planters standing on the corner outside Cossons. These planters were given to Wickford by Basildon Borough Council under the Government’s urban greening scheme. We had a wonderful time browsing the plants and came away with loads of lovely plants which today were planted in the planters. We still have £600 to spend so we will be going back for more plants once the summer plants are in and we can take time to assess what we need. The aim is to ensure more planters have a framework of perennials which will provide interest and colour throughout the year. The original Basildon Borough Council Plants were relocated to our other planters.
Out with the old, in with the new.
Out with the old, in with the new.
15th May 2025
On Thursday night,, we held our AGM at the Railway Club, the committee have all remained in place and are looking forward to the year ahead. The Chairman's and treasurer reports will be uploaded to our website shortly.
13th May 2025.
The team were out in town this evening to plant a new tree in the Peacocks planter. They also straightened up the tree down by Pizza Hut. Thanks to Dave, Robbie and Graham.
All this in preparation for Sunday's summer planting event, everyone is welcome to come and lend a hand. No experience needed, just bring yourself along, some gardening gloves if you have them.
Thanks to all the lovely people who went out of their way to stop and thank us for the work we do in the town It's really appreciated and makes it all worthwhile
The New Tree in place
27th April 2025.
Wow what a busy morning we had.
A great turn out of volunteers, around 15 of us today to lift out all the spring bulbs and tidy up in preparation for summer planting.
We salvaged around 150 Hacynith and Tulip bulbs which we will use again this autumn. We also had hundreds of daffodils of various varieties. They are being dried out and will be replanted later this year at the Wick Country Park.
Thank you to everyone that helped today, thanks also to Julie and Tommy (Duke of Edinburgh award volunteering), the extra help allowed us to get it all done fairly quickly.
Next up, the summer planting schemes
March 23rd 2025.
March 23rd 2025.
Last weekend we took the conifer out of the Headlines planter as it had grown a bit too tall and replaced it with a Viburnum. The new plant is doing well. We also trimmed up the Hebe at the same time to try and make the shape of the planter look a bit more balanced
Last weekend we took the conifer out of the Headlines planter as it had grown a bit too tall and replaced it with a Viburnum. The new plant is doing well. We also trimmed up the Hebe at the same time to try and make the shape of the planter look a bit more balanced
March 8th 2025.
March 8th 2025.
Lots of the donated daffodil bulbs are fully out now and looking lovely. The hyacinths have been a little slower but they are on the way.
Lots of the donated daffodil bulbs are fully out now and looking lovely. The hyacinths have been a little slower but they are on the way.
March 8th 2025.
March 8th 2025.
Tiered Planter looking lovely in the Spring Sunshine.
Tiered Planter looking lovely in the Spring Sunshine.
March 5th 2025. Louise and Marian attended the Basildon Borough Volunteer Awards 2025 at the Towngate Theatre as WIB were nominated in several categories. We didn’t win an award but it is clear that there are a great many volunteers giving their time to all sorts of projects throughout Basildon borough. Congratulations to the winners. We weren’t allowed to take our own photos but official photos will follow.
February 29th 2025. Its not graffiti but the location of new planters that are being supplied by Basildon Council as part of a new initiative. Two round planters by the Town Council Sign near Peacocks, and three smaller round planters by Cossons. Watch this space for details of planting but should be around 24th March.
February 29th 2025. Its not graffiti but the location of new planters that are being supplied by Basildon Council as part of a new initiative. Two round planters by the Town Council Sign near Peacocks, and three smaller round planters by Cossons. Watch this space for details of planting but should be around 24th March.
February 19th 2025. Louise and Robbie have been out and about this morning checking the trees and planters. It is lovely to see the Spring bulbs starting to bloom.
February 12th 2025. We thought we should have a big shout out to River Crouch Conservation Trust for dealing with a recent flytipping incident along the bank of the River Crouch in Wickford. Although WiB is not part of the Trust two of our members are, and were involved in this clean up of fly tipping from residents of the flats in Lower Southend Road and the subsequent reporting to both Basildon Council and the Police. Issues like this detract from all the hard work we do to make the high street more attractive to residents.
Dumped trollies and childs bike in the river.
This was the fly tipped mess from the flats. Not very nice as there were soiled nappies and worse in the bags.
An after picture following the clean up.
18 black sacks of rubbish, awaiting Council Collection. Apparently this was far too dangerous for council workers but ok for a group of dedicated pensioners to do.
Feb 6th 2025. Our group, Wickford in Bloom, has been nominated in the Basildon Council Volunteer Awards for the voluntary group/project of the year. We won’t know if we have been successful until the 4th March but many thanks to those of our supporters put our group forward for the award.
Feb 6th 2025. Our group, Wickford in Bloom, has been nominated in the Basildon Council Volunteer Awards for the voluntary group/project of the year. We won’t know if we have been successful until the 4th March but many thanks to those of our supporters put our group forward for the award.
Jan 27th 2025. Louise and I had a look at the planters in the High Street this morning. We had a bit of a tidy up and are pleased to report that most of the bulbs are doing well. There are a few losses but there should be a lovely spring display in a couple of weeks time. We thought we had lost one of the trees in London Road but very pleased to say both look as if they have tiny leaf buds on them.
Spring Bulbs Emerging in our planters January 2025
Spring Bulbs Emerging in our planters January 2025
Jan 17th 2025. Bit of important admin as we would like to announce that as of today we have a new email address. To contact us please send your emails to wickfordinbloom@gmail.com. Messages sent to our former Virgin email address will be forwarded for the next 3 months. Many thanks go to Richard Sparks of www.ethuse.co.uk for helping us make this change. News about our new Wickford in Bloom website will be coming soon.
Dec 31st 2024. Happy new year to all our supporters. Nevermind the gloomy winter weather the days are already getting longer. The bulbs are already coming up in the planters so looking forward to a lovely spring display in a few months time.
Dec 17th 2024. Wickford in Bloom wishes our supporters a very happy Christmas and a peaceful new year. We would like to say a big thank you to all our wonderful volunteers and we look forward to seeing you all in 2025 when we start planting once again. Our work parties are advertised on our Facebook page or we can add you to our volunteer WhatsApp group. Meanwhile we have the spring bulbs to look forward to
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