These artists from the Whartons Year 1 each won a butterfly, bee or ladybird for their poster colouring skills, showing the value of gardening and plants. Well done everybody!
Poster competition winners
Author: bilboburgler
Timayane Day 2018
June saw Otley in Bloom’s 2018 Timayane Day when Prince Henry’s students assist the community. At Otley in Bloom, some 20 students came and planted out many many plants into all the tubs around town. Thanks to all the help provided “many hands made light work” and the town is prettier for it.
Carnival
You may have noticed a familiar face or five in the Otley Carnival Parade – just our way of celebrating gardening and maybe raising a smile (and perhaps a bit of cash too).
Great British Clean-up back on
After the Beast-from-the-East took out the original Great British Spring Clean, it’s on again
You are invited to ….. the Great British Spring Clean.
We aim to tidy up the town and the countryside in the middle of April.
- Friday 20th of April. Meet at the Maypole, Manchester Square at 11am until 1pm with refreshments back at the Core.
- Saturday 21st of April. Meet at the cafe in Wharfedale Park Cafe (Wharfemeadows) at 10am until noon.
- Sunday 22nd of Mach. Meet in the car park at Gallows Hill nature area at 10am until noon.
Pickers and bags provided, but you may want to bring your own gloves. Let the council know you are coming so Otley Council can supply enough equipment by sending an email to Otley Council admin@otleytowncouncil.gov.uk or drop into the Core and book your place.
Where does all our rubbish go?
OIB was interested in where our rubbish goes and visited the Leeds RERF (Recycling and Energy Recovery Facility ) at Cross Green. The RERF takes all the waste from our black wheely bins. The building is based in a heavily industrialised part of Leeds and towers 7 stories above the locality. After the waste is delivered (6 days a week) it is shreaded and they take out the ferrous and non ferrous metals along with a range of plastics letting the remaining mixture of cardboard, paper, waste food, plastic film and companion-animal poo flow into a massive chamber which then is burnt to feed a steam turbine generating enough electricity to power 22,000 homes.
This means that nothing goes to landfill, the waste only sits around for less than a week in the massive chamber so does not generate smells. The output from the chimney is washed to remove the nasties apart from CO2. The building has a massive green wall all down one side which softens the site. It has an interesting mixture of plants including Berberis, Harts tongue fern, common Hazel. There are three planting layer areas with a mix of native, wildlife friendly and ornamental species of shrubs perennials, grasses and bulbs. In total there are 110,000 plants used to create this green wall. Plus the odd bee box, bird nest and yes a gardener with a cherry picker.
The RERF is relatively new and can be visited (see website) and they also offer education support for schools/colleges etc.
Otley in Bloom 