We would like to thank all of the entrants for joining in and helping make this year’s Community Garden Competition a success. We’ve had just over 100 entries, who have shared the story of their community garden via email or social, and we have been moved by how many of you are involved in such amazing and caring communities!

Our 3 lucky winners have been randomly selected and each entry had to answer this question:

How does your garden benefit the local community and how would a donation help it thrive?

Each community garden donation winner has been informed via email about their big win. So, without further adieu… here are this year’s winners!

Catterall Village ‘Chatty Bench’ WIN £30 worth of bulbs!

A little village situated north of Preston in Lancashire are trying to put the heart back into the community with gardening!

They have recently made a community garden. At its centre is a beautiful stone bench, west facing, where we hope people will sit and socialise with others. We are going to call it the ‘Chatty Bench’ and surround it with flowering shrubs and plants so people can sit and be joined by others who fancy a chat. This Chatty Bench is intended for young or old and may be the start of other Chatty Benches in the village. It will enable the lonely, vulnerable, or isolated amongst us to feel connected to the world around us and there is no better way than by being in a garden.

The Chatty Bench team would like to win a bulb donation to organise a community Bulb Planting afternoon and involve families especially children, to help decorate the village with flower bulbs.

Southborough SOS Community Garden WIN £50 worth of bulbs!

Southborough SOS’s mission statement is “Help tackle problem areas within Southborough Community, i.e. weeding, cleaning, vandalism etc. General goings on and events. Let’s help each other”.

Since April 2019, members of Southborough SOS as well as beavers and cubs from the 19th Royal Tunbridge Wells St Matthews Scout Group have started transforming two areas of land in Southborough into two community gardens. Sadly the area has a mixture of community problems but the gardens have made a vast difference and given the community a huge lift. The local beaver and cub groups now can’t wait to get out and help again this year. They would like to win a bulb donation to continue the good work started last year!

Leicester’s Hospital Secret Garden WIN £100 worth of bulbs!

This garden based at Glenfield Hospital in Leicester is centred on promoting health and wellbeing.

They have a project underway to restore a neglected Victorian walled garden, to provide not only a haven of tranquillity for the users, staff and visitors of Leicester’s Hospitals, but also an environment and facilities to benefit the local and wider community. Plans for the garden include sensory areas, space for quiet reflection, an organic growing area and open spaces for people to gather.

With a focus on the therapeutic and social benefits of gardening, they would like a donation of bulbs and plants to help provide a valuable and much-appreciated boost to the hospital’s garden.