Paul Spooner

Guildford in Bloom was founded back in 1981 and for over 40 years has encouraged Guildford residents, community groups and businesses to make the area in which we live a better place.

There have been many changes in that time, but our annual competitions have remained a constant, encouraging and rewarding gardeners, experienced ones and new ones, to adopt good horticultural practices whilst providing habitats for wildlife.
 

Now in 2024, Guildford in Bloom has become a registered charity – with the aim to continue to encourage the growers of the future.  We provide education and encouragement to all gardeners to create corridors of thriving habitat for wildlife to help save our insects and pollinators.  We work with schools to encourage children to learn about growing the food they eat, and to care for pollinators, pondlife, hedgehogs and other wildlife.
 

Moving forward, Guildford in Bloom will be working in partnership with local businesses and organisations that share our ethos of creating havens across our town and villages for wildlife to thrive.  We will have succeeded if eco-friendly practices become the norm in Guildford gardens and allotments; if there are corridors of nectar rich planting, water sources and highways for nature. 
 

Our dream is not only to see a reversal of the decline in wildlife numbers in our area, but also to create a thriving community of nature loving gardeners who will nurture our environment, and the future generations of gardeners.
 

This year we will be teaming up with Experience Guildford to tend and care for areas in the town centre that have been neglected, so we can create pollinator pitstops in an urban area, and attractive planting to bring a smile to the visitors to the town.
 

We are open to working with any organisation to achieve this aim.  We continue to be grateful for our loyal and generous sponsors and supporters who help us achieve this.
 

Importantly, we thoroughly enjoy meeting all the Guildford in Bloom entrants during the judging period and at our awards but would really encourage dialogue all year round through our social media channels and email so we can share best practice.