A group of gardening neighbours in the lower part of Alexandra Park Road have won first prize in the category ‘Gardens that Make you Smile’ for a Gardening Against the Odds competition in memory of Elspeth Thompson, garden writer for the Telegraph, who supported gardeners she deemed to garden against the odds. Sadly, she took her own life while suffering from severe depression.
The awards were presented at Syon House on Wednesday. Our local gardeners were nominated by Susan Bennett, who wrote the following in support of her nomination:
Walking home from work in many London suburbs, the weary commuter is confronted with wheelie bins clustered in front of houses where once there were gardens with greenery to please the eye and calm the spirit.
Most householders, it seems, are resigned to being ‘GREEN’ by accepting the appearance of hoards of ugly, mainly BLACK, containers outside their homes while striving to create a personal ‘Interior Paradise’, indifferent to the effect their indifference has on the street scene.
How refreshing to discover a group of neighbours, who, since opening their gardens for the National Gardens Scheme, have collaborated to present passers by with imaginative ways to incorporate their wheelie bins into their planting schemes. Some have even garnered metal garbage bins and converted the bland into the blatant, with brash, exciting use of bright annuals and perennials.
Despite having many of their best containers and plants stolen, one owner, not to be defeated, and battling with serious illness, retaliated with imaginative ways to create beauty using everyday objects, unifying the effect by painting them all the same colour, to set off the vibrant flowers and climbers both within and outside their tiny garden. The smile that put on my face has broadened since learning that just as they doggedly overcame the effect of the vandals, their health problems are also in retreat.
You don't have to visit an art gallery or go to the Chelsea Flower Show to enjoy creativity at its best. Just take a walk along this stretch of Alexandra Park Road and, like me, you won't be able to take a step without smiling.
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