Wild garden volunteers
Each year the Blooming Lambeth Awards highlight and celebrate incredible gardening in Lambeth. Now in their seventh year, the awards – organised by Incredible Edible Lambeth – feature eight categories. Four are judged by a panel of garden experts, four by community vote. Overall, more than 3,500 nominations and votes came in for the public categories.
Lambeth’s great gardens
The £4,000 in prizes – to be spent on garden improvements – was claimed by 28 winners (including commended and highly commended) at the annual awards event in Lambeth’s Assembly Hall one wet and windy November night, with more than 80 guests. The biggest audience cheers went to the school gardens and young gardener awards. Guest speaker was Errol Ruben Fernandes from the Horniman Museum Gardens.
Winners of the expert judging
- Best Garden in Bloom – Gipsy Hill Community Gardens. Spring bulbs inspire bees and pollinators to cross-pollinate autumn fruit trees and volunteers keep things watered and maintained all year; Highly
Blooming Lambeth – spring bulbs in flower
Commended: Catherine McGrath. Chrstine Makhlouf.
- Ivor Picardo Award for Abundant Growing of Edibles – Streatham Community Gardens. In the Rookery’s historic secret kitchen garden, volunteers transformed an overgrown wilderness into a garden growing vegetables and many varieties of fruit; Highly Commended: Slade Gardens; Commended: Myatt’s Fields Park.
- Most Imaginative Greening of a Small Space – Rando Wagner’s urban garden started during lockdown with upcycled / rescued plants, pots, tables, shoe racks, skateboards, bathroom sinks and more; Highly Commended: Christopher Goodes.
- Best Volunteer in a Community Garden – Heather Seal at Loughborough food growing Farm, also making time for Wyck Gardens’ forest garden and community orchard.
Winners of the public votes
- Best School Garden – Five shortlisted schools received 778 public votes. Winner –Norwood School Health and Wellbeing Garden; Highly Commended: Dunraven Primary School; Commended: Loughborough Childrens Centre Garden; Rosendale Primary School; Heathbrook Primary School.
- Most Enthusiastic Young Gardener:– Winners: Ephraim of Norwood School Garden who created fantastic planter designs and makes everyone smile; and Milena who has acquired an impressive set of gardening skills since joining the community garden team aged 5. Highly Commended:
Streatham Community Gardens greenhouse
Oscar and Anna.
- Best Space for Encouraging Wildlife – Tony Danford for biodiverse planting, dead hedge areas for composting park waste, and new mowing regimes to support biodiversity in Myatt’s Fields Park; Highly Commended: Carnac Community Garden;: Greenham Close; and Streatham Common Community Garden.
- Best Resident-led Community Garden: 322 votes were cast, making the winner Kathleen McCann of Moorlands Nature Garden Allotment. Once a derelict housing site, it now has a wildlife pond visited by Hillmead School and Lambeth Living Well Collaborative visit, as well as growing food. Highly Commended: Siobhan Mooney; John Chenery.
Get planning your own Blooming Lambeth
Winter is perfect for planning next year’s garden – start thinking about what you’ll grow and which category you want to win – get ready to apply for Blooming Lambeth 2024.
More information
- More about Incredible Edible Lambeth – see their web pages
- Thank you for all photography by Debbie Sears, including the certificates
- Food for the awards ceremony was provided by the Little Cat Café and Blackbird Bakery, and music by Clement Regert.
