Under the supervision of Sue Hinton, Hook In Bloom volunteer, children worked to smarten up the large brick planter outside Hook Fish and Chips on Station Road. Surrounded with benches, this brick planter is perhaps un-noticed by most and children aim to change this by removing the weeds and replacing them with more appealing plants.

With a medium sized maple tree at its centre, the planter has already been cleared of larger weeds this year by a number of volunteers. Children have been pleased to contribute to this process; they found and removed many saplings from the Maple, along with some weeds growing in the bed and also around the feet of the surrounding benches. The bed will soon be green with shoots from a special selection of wild flowers from the Pictorial Meadows' Classic Wild Flower Mix, a special selection of 12 wild flower species including Papaver rhoeas Shirley mixed, Linaria maroccana, Coreopsis tinctoria, Rudbeckia amplexicaulis and Ammi majus.

The seed mixes contain a mixture of native wild flowers that are well suited to our climate and varied growing conditions and are selected in order to develop the diversity of plant life found across the UK and also to provide habitat for the many animals native to this country.

Children have volunteered their time by way of contribution to the celebrations of the Queens 90th Birthday and in acknowledgement of the Queen as a servant of the people. As a gesture of appreciation for the good work of the Queen, children have been volunteering their time to improve their surroundings. Activities will culminate with a celebratory party in the school grounds on Friday 10th June.

Hook In Bloom has benefitted from two grants this year - one from the Big Lottery Fund and another from Tesco. Hart District Council is also supporting the project and has supplied the Pictorial Meadows wildflower seeds. This support has enabled the participation of children from Hook Junior School and also the planting of many different flowers and shrubs around Hook for the benefit and enjoyment of the community. The grants enable In Bloom planting around the village, the Hook in Bloom residential and business competition, and also support the Hook Village Show on Sunday 11th September.