Judges celebrate 2024 with drinks at The Guildhall

On August 20th, 2024, the Bury in Bloom Certificates of Merit judges celebrated with drinks at The Guildhall.

Bury in Bloom Certificates of Merit now covers over 20,000 gardens. The borough of Bury St Edmunds has been divided into 11 zones. Zone 11 is Marham Park. Each zone is subdivided into a sensible number of subzones which this year resulted in 34 sub zones. A team leader  supervises the judging for each zone . All judges are volunteers. Policy is to allocate them to a zone where they do not live.

Judging is by two or three judges. For insurance reasons viewing is from the pavement or end of a drive. Judges will only enter a garden to post a certificate through a  letterbox.

Judges attend a briefing a couple of weeks before judging starts to highlight what they need to be on the lookout for and to start to bond with  their team leader. Judges are expected to prewalk their subzone as not all estates are as well loved  and it has always been policy to assess in the context of nearby roads so it is very important judges have a good appreciation of what  they can expect to see in their subzone before they actually start judging.

In numerous publications and websites earlier in the year, residents were asked to email certificates if they were aware of a property where the residents had numerous challenges in life but found escape in their garden. A handful of emails were received including one from Canada.

Judging ran from July 4^th to sunset on Sunday July 14^th. Any queries from the public received via email certificates@buryinbloom.org.uk were followed up by the end of July when judging for 2024 finished.

What everyone always wants to know is how many Certificates were awarded! Good news significantly more than 2023!

Residential Certificates  increased from 1584 to 1875, an 18% increase. Residential Highly Commended  also increased from 68 to 86, a 26% increase

Commercial Certificates would appear to have dropped from 56 to 49 but we believe one subzone ran out of certificates so suspect the actual number awarded was very similar to 2023