Who we are

Blooming Whiteway was set up by Claire Loder & Jude Rice. Here's a bit about us and how it all started:

Claire

After years of waiting for a house with a decent garden my family and  I moved to Whiteway in 2015. Loving the brilliant bushes full of birds that boarder the drive but less enamoured with our barren block paving, I started looking for front garden ideas.  Realising that so many homes on the estate had a front garden of one sort or another and watching the birds and other creatures buzz and fly around our estate's network of hedgerows, wild spaces and places an idea began to form in my mind about a front garden festival.

After a bit of googling and five months of research, meetings and making connections with the growing community in Bath and beyond I set up Blooming Whiteway Front Garden Festival in Jan 2017. 

Jude was on board from early on (we met at Bath City Farm where she volunteered at the time) with advice and general enthusiasm for all things growing & community.

My family and I have lived with this garden for a decade now, we have planted over 200 trees, dug a pond, built a greenhouse, planted hedges, fruit trees, a veg plot, set up composting, habitat piles, embraced the wild plants and wood chip, welcomed badgers, foxes, sparrow hawks, slowworms, squirrels, starlings, jays, wrens and loads of other birds, along with many moths, bees, wasps and hornets, frogs, toads, damsel and dragon flies and others - visible and not.

I started gardening in street planters in lockdown - and this has developed into gardening a few verges and a tree pit close by.

 

Jude

I've grown up around planty and outdoorsy people - from green fingered grandparents and family members to friends with plant nurseries. I’ve always felt more at home outside than inside - with my hands in the soil or with plants. I'm especially interested in growing as a way to connect and share knowledge with people about food and nature.

 

 

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