In 2022 OiB tidied up and planted the corner of the Gallows Hill carpark. This survived despite the drought but it suffered badly from dogs, leaping from their cars and using this corner the way only dogs can. We tried building a fence of broken branches which worked well. Unfortunately some tidy person thought the fence looked terrible so they took it away.
Fast forward to April 2023 and OiB decided to learn how to weave willow, we asked the Friends of Gallows Hill to cut us some willow and we wove our own “tidy” willow fence. Looks good, tidy and it seems to keep dogs out!
People and Groups; I’d like to thank all the people who help Otley in Bloom do their work. This includes Otley Town Council (OTC), Otley BID, Rotary Club of Otley, Inner Wheel Club of Otley Chevin ,Otley Maker Space, Wildlife Friendly Otley (WFO), Courtyard Planters, Otley 2030, all Otley businesses, Leeds Parks Department and the many individuals who give up time to help us. It continues to be a real pleasure to work with you all to make the town a greener and prettier place.
Litter; in 2022 the need for litter picking has reduced significantly, though some parks, roads and hidden places have received impromptu tidy ups.
Climate Emergency; we have continued to use locally grown perennial plantings wherever possible as well as peat-free compost. Biodiversity has also influenced our decisions.
Planters and Beds; OiB maintain some 85 different beds around Otley, from the very small to fair-sized gardens. Some require irregular rubbish removal, cutting back, dead-heading or re-planting. Where possible we maintain benches, fruit trees, herbs and bird boxes to enhance areas.
OiB spent time with OTC and the BID confirming planter responsibilities. OiB has removed its branding on the Insta-planta planters. OiB has taken on weeding and litter clearing of the Kirkgate planters.
Watering; OiB has requested that OTC, Leeds and other organisations add lockable taps to the outside of the public or semi-public buildings to simplify watering around town. This will become more important as climate change attacks local water supplies in the coming years. Plants need water. If Otley wants a green centre then it has to make water more easily available. 2022 saw a hose pipe ban with the likelihood of another in 2023 looking probable.
Advice; where we can, OiB offers advice. This years we offered help to OTC, Inner Wheel Club of Otley Chevin, Hug on a Tray and Leeds Parks.
Wildflower plantings; the BT garden contract between WFO and Openreach, which OiB practically support, came to an end and at present we don’t know what will happen from the end of 2022 going forward (update, Wildlife Friendly Otley have done a deal with Openreach so hopefully all will be fine). We hope the project can be continued. We believe that having that semi-natural garden in the centre of town is a real benefit.
OiB highlighted the potential destruction of Wharfe Meadow’s large flower beds as part of Leeds Park’s cost cutting actions early in Spring and thanks to some fast foot work from OTC, WFO, Otley 2030, Leeds Parks, OiB and other interested parties we reached an agreement for local organisations to take over the maintenance of four flower beds. OiB aimed for perennial plantings with high insect attractiveness that were somewhere between the human-orientated plantings of a traditional park and the wildflower meadows that insects would love. Given that the soil lacks any water retaining organic material we spent many project days planting up, watering and weeding (so much weeding) to achieve a planting that worked. Watering stopped once the hose pipe-ban came into force. Before the year end we hope to make a major modification to the soil which should mean less work in 2023. From feedback in the park this has been a success and we should all pat ourselves on the back.
OiB was asked to plant up a corner of Gallows hill into an insect re-fueling station. We cleared and dug over the space. We cleaned lots of streets of leaf litter to provide a better structured soil. Planted insect-focused plantings and built mini fences to protect the area from dogs needing a tree. The dry spell in the midst of the Summer killed some plants and so some additional planting was required. Hopefully that will be less of a problem in 2023.
Despite an early drought back in April, which occured soon after we planted this garden, we managed to keep all the plants growing, now as we enter another dry period most look to have become established and should not require additional watering (at this time). But like the whole area the plants are stressed.
We discouraged dogs from using the garden as a toilet by slightly fencing off the garden with some dead branches. The result has been a garden that is helping out local insects. We will be reducing the nettle population of the garden as so much of Gallows Hill has fine stocks of nettles
And we manage to get a morning together to tidy it up.
Otley in Bloom 