Project – Page 15 – Otley in Bloom

Litter picking on Ilkley Road and thereabouts

Here’s the latest litter-picking news from Leonie:

Edie, Bob and I went litter picking last Tuesday afternoon. We made quite a difference to Ilkley Road and the grassy areas on either side of the tunnel under the A660, then we ventured into the green and wooded area just behind the bus stop. We’ve had a go at it before with Margaret, Jacquie and Jane. On previous occasions Ernie, Ian and David have also collected litter from the other side of the main road.
The little wood is full of wild garlic and probably bluebells, as well as discarded bottles, cans, food containers and other more disgusting objects. It could be a wonderful green space and haven for birds as well as people. Altogether we removed a couple of rubbish bags each – there’s plenty more! Although there’s now a replacement covering of sweet wrappers, cans etc around the edges we did start reclaiming a wasted patch of ground. Wouldn’t it be lovely if we could reclaim it as an unlittered patch of woodland?

Planting up the new planter in Orchard Gate

There’s a new planter in Orchard Gate outside the council’s Core Resource Centre, just behind the bus station. Edie and Sue planted it up, using only plants we had saved from last year’s displays.

Topping up the planters

The soil level in the wooden planters around town has been sinking down with all the rain, so we’ve gone round topping them up with plenty more, and tidying them up as we went. It took lots of us to do this, including two new volunteers – I hope they enjoyed it.

Tour de France display

We’ve been busy sorting out some yellow bikes for Otley in Bloom’s Tour de France display. Ian and Ernie have done a lot of work on cleaning and painting them, and last Sunday a few more Otley in Bloom members went to see what had been going on and to help with a bit of cleaning. Many thanks to Beks (in Beks Arcade in Kirkgate) for donating the yellow paint.

There will be flowers involved too, of course. More will be revealed nearer the date.

Getting ready for Spring

Spring is nearly here, so Otley in Bloom have been doing some spring cleaning – we’ve picked up litter from Bremner Street corner, around Myers Croft Beck, and at the garden outside HSBC, opposite the Post Office. Edie and Jacquie also did some weeding and planted some more primulas in the HSBC garden, where the bulbs are already beginning to show their leaves.