Following Usk’s success in Wales in Bloom, the results of the local town competition have also been published. As in previous years the judges had difficult decisions to make with such an array of gardens, tubs and baskets to look at in every street in Usk.

The results are divided into residential , and sheltered and commercial buildings, and this year there was also a category for allotments. Gold winners in the residential categories are as follows: Best Front Garden: 88 Maryport Street, Station House Abergavenny Road, 2 Porthycarne Gate,  5 Ladyhill Close, 28 The Meadows and 11 Baron Street.

Best House without a front garden: 14 Newmarket Street, and The Old Surgery, Newmarket Street.

Best Hanging Baskets: 26 Castle Oak, 7 Chepstow Road, 84 Maryport Street, 22 Priory Gardens, 9 Chepstow Road.

Best Window Boxes: 1 Baron Street, 2 Mill Street, 3 Mill Street, and 4 Mill Street.

In the Sheltered Housing and Commercial Properties section, Gold awards are given to the following: Best hotel/pub: The Olway Hotel and the Nag’s Head, Twyn Square.

Best Commercial Premises: The Copper Tree, Usk Dental Practice, Prime Cuts, Usk Traditional Fish and Chips, and Tangles, who also took First Prize in the Best Dressed Window category.

Best Public Building: The Sessions House, and Usk Prison, Maryport Street.

Best sheltered accommodation: Manor Court and Plas Mawr.

In the new allotment section, there were no gold awards this year, but silver awards go allotments number 2, ( Mr. Phillips), 7 ( Mr. Jones) and 14 ( Mr. Meredith) on the Factory Road allotment site, and number 1 (Mr. McAllister) and number 3 ( Mr. Cook) on the Sessions House site.

There was also a competition at Usk Primary School to design a poster about Wales in Bloom, and this was won by Alexy Levien-Wynne.

All t he prizewinners, including the numerous gardeners who were given silver and bronze awards, will be invited to an awards ceremony at the Glen-yr-afon H otel on Sunday October 12th.