All hands were on deck in Plains as residents prepared for a visit from Beautiful Scotland judges.
The village’s Community Futures group were hard at work ahead of the occasion, making sure the area’s communal gardens and popular planted barrel displays were looking their best.
Judges saw a presentation about the volunteers’ work before visiting the new Stanrigg Park, community gardens at Beverley Park and Main Street, plus the village’s Stanrigg mining memorial.
Plains Community Futures won a silver award at last year’s ceremony, and are now waiting to find out the 2019 results which will be revealed next month.
Group chair George McCutcheon said: “We hope to improve on last year due to the amount of work and progress made, and we are delighted with the support residents and partners have shown us.
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" In particular, North Lanarkshire Council’s land services and Craigmarloch nurseries assisted with large donations of bedding plants to help make the village look really colourful.
“Feedback from the judges was positive, but we won’t know how we’ve done until the awards ceremony on September 12.”
He added: “We aim to improve Plains and make the village a nice place for residents to stay and people to visit.
“We’re keen to hear from any residents willing to help with our work, and can be reached via Facebook.”
The group were also assisted in their preparations by staff from Morrisons in Airdrie, who donated dozens of planters to show off the team’s green-fingered work to best effect.
Residents then turned their attention to the village’s popular annual Bonnie Barrels contest, which sees Plains neighbours tend to the array of colourful planters dotted across the village.
