Green fingered Burnley residents encouraged to enter Best Garden of the Year competition

Members of the Friends of Ightenhill Park group were crushed when they had to scrap both the annual Bee Day and Ightenhill Festival due to the pandemic.

But they were determined to do something to help raise funds for the group while sticking to the 'stay at home' guidelines.

Committee members came up with the idea for the garden of the year competition as so many people have been spending time in their gardens due to lockdown and the recent glorious weather.

Aimed at residents in the Ightenhill and Gannow areas, there will be a cash prize for the winner. There is an entry fee of £5 per garden and the prize will be 50% of the total amount raised and the remaining 50% will go back into funds for park improvements.

Chairman Barrie Bamford said: "We want to encourage as many people as possible to enter the competition.

"I bet everyone's gardens are looking lovely so why not take this opportunity to show off your hard work and help to raise fund for the park too?"

Judging will take place from Friday to Sunday, August 14th to 16th, so there is plenty of time to get your garden looking in tip top shape.

Formed 15 years ago, the Friends group has gone from strength to strength and is the powehouse behind a series of initatives and projects to enhance the popular park including staging the annual Ightenhill Festival.

It also has bee hives, which volunteers have been trained to take care of, and raised beds for people to grow their own plants and flowers

The group installed a polytunnel, donated through the Tesco Bags of He.lp scheme, to grow flowers for planting in the beds in the park.

The park also as an outdoor library for families to enjoy and recently the toddlers' sandpit was improved with the installation of new logs around it.

Anyone who would like details about how enter the competition is asked to go to the Friends of Ightenhill Park facebook page.