For many years this competition has been a popular annual event, spurring town residents into better and better displays of annual and perennial bedding.

Open to any resident with a front garden, no matter how small, no application is needed. Each year in early July, Committee members view every front garden in the town, from Felbridge in the west to Ashurst Wood in the east. What is looked for is gardens that obvious effort has been put into, with particular attention to annual bedding plants and the colour they impart.

The garden size is unimportant; one year the winning garden had had as much attention paid to hanging baskets and flower pockets as the beds themselves. It is the bright, cheery look that shows the resident cares that matters.

There are sections within the Front Garden Competition covering Best Group of Gardens, wherein 3 or more adjacent properties are judged; the Best Street, with all the gardens in a given street comprising the entrants along with sections covering permanent landscaping and commercial premises.

The Committee members then provide their lists to the Judge, generally a professional in the field and varied each year. The Judge is never a Committee member. It is the Judge's job to view each property and make the final decision.

The pre-judging is usually carried out early enough that they can be included for viewing by the South & South East in Bloom judges who, in early July, are judging the whole town.

For further information on the Front Gardens Competition contact Jenny & Peter Wakley