I’m Not Bragging, But…….
David and I have just been awarded Gold: Best Small Back Garden by The London Gardens Society All London Championships for the fifth time in ten years. What’s more, we won Gold: Best Container & Window Boxes Displays, and Gold: Best Patio. We also received Bronze: Third Place for our Small Front Garden. I now retire; it would be rude not to!
It was very much a North London affair at the Awards Presentation Evening, held at the stunning Guildhall this week. Hampstead Garden Suburb Horticultural Society won the coveted Wakefield Cup for Best Affiliated Society. But there were two other winners in particular that were close to my heart.
Coming third, with a bronze medal, in the Garden In a Public Place class, was the Kids Gardening Club, based at St Judes Church in the heart of the Suburb. The brainchild of this wonderful project is Suburb resident Dominic Rose, who teamed up with the inimitable Reverand Em, to create this children’s community garden and woodland area. With two young children himself, Dominic enlisted local young families to come together every Tuesday after school to build this small garden into a mini nature reserve. With sponsorship from the HGS Horticultural Society, and donations of materials and equipment, Dominic built a greenhouse, raised veg beds and a wildlife pond, using sustainable, organic methods to create a balanced ecosystem. The woodland area, a short distance away, has a log circle for children to gather, for games and stories. It even has a prairie style planting display in a repurposed bathtub. As LGS Master of Ceremonies, and former gardener to the late HRH Queen Elizabeth, Jim Buttress said, These children are the gardeners of the future.
The Leopold Road Neighbourhood Garden in East Finchley, a stone’s throw from our house, was only entered at the last minute, because David encouraged them to go for it! This small enclave, along The Walks passageway, has it all. As well as a sustainable, year-round planting scheme, full of pollinator friendly perennials, bulbs and shrubs, it has a bug hotel made from old wooden pallets, a bench, a mural painted by a local artist, even a small lending library. Despite being judged in the pouring rain, it ticked all the boxes and won Gold: First Place Best Community Garden. Well done to all, for making “a permanent contribution towards beautifying London, by the growing of flowers and shrubs, thus improving the urban environment”.
Love, Caroline
