De Beauvoir Gardeners love the idea of planting up areas in public view that make the neighbourhood a more pleasant place. We would like to give these growing spaces some recognition by awarding a prize of £25 for ‘Community Planting’. A planting can be any space which can be seen from the street, including window-boxes, pots, front gardens, tree-pits etc. It doesn’t necessarily have to be beautiful, we would welcome entries from front garden veg plots and wild flower projects as well. You may enter your own ‘planting’ or nominate something interesting you have seen.

Entries must be from an area covered by the club, that is London Fields, De Beauvoir, Mildmay, Dalston, East Islington.
The planting must be visible to passers-by.
If entering on someone else’s behalf, you must have their permission, name and contact details.

You can nominate a planting by sending a photo with your name and address to dbgardeners@gmail.com
The photo of the winning planting will be posted below. Community planting awards can only be won once per location.

Winner September 2021

Ann Pembroke and the Clerkenwell Green Preservation Society Ltd.

‘Work carried out by Clerkenwell Green Preservation Society members included cleansing the granite of the Listed Victorian Metropolitan Horse and Cattle Trough on the historic public open space of Clerkenwell Green, the first Conservation Area in the London Borough of Islington so designated by Islington Council.

It all started with Islington Council Highways Department ceasing to maintain and plant the Trough, on grounds of cost. The Trough became used as a dumping ground for Council waste sacks, from which noxious liquid flowed! Very unhygienic. The Society approached the Council with objections to this policy, following which notices were put up to stop this inappropriate conduct and the waste bags were taken elsewhere. The Society is proud that their activities have brought the Trough to life for public enjoyment.’

Winner August 2021

Yasmin Shaoul – a disused treepit on Wolsey Road, Mildmay

‘My sister and I, along with the help of our grandma, created a tree pit during lockdown for a school project. We dug up the asphalt that previously covered the soil and then we also reused some of the pieces of asphalt around the edges of the tree pit.’

Winner March 2020

Barbara Barnett – treepits on Ufton Road

DBG member Barbara Barnett has been tending the treepits on Ufton Road for a very long time. They look lovely all year round with a succession of flowering perennials – the picture below taken in early March.

The treepits on Ufton Road south in early March

Winner April 2019

Diana Mansfield – the horse trough on the corner of Englefield and de Beauvoir Roads

Long time DBG member Diana Mansfield continues to work diligently on the horse-trough at the Englefield/de Beauvoir Rd junction. It has been looking lovely.

Winner March 2019

Julian at the Rose Lipman Centre

Julian is a passionate volunteer community gardener who is planting up fallow parcels of land around de Beauvoir estate with butterfly and bee friendly plants to support diversity. Planting up and looking after the planters around the Rose Lipman centre. His ideal is to create cottage gardens around the centre to uplift the visitors mood as well as to provide food for bees and butterflies. His experience is that when people see nice gardens and flowerbeds it has a positive effect on taking care of their environment and that it even helps to prevent anti-social behaviour.

Winner May 2016

Constantine Sibastian Edwards 15 Hilborough Court, just off Albion Sq

Constantine Sibastian E dwards (Junior for short) learned most of horticulture when he was a boy at school in the West Indies. He’s been in the Uk since the sixties. He fell in love with dahlias and has many varieties including ice crystal, mystery day, noordviijk’s glory (“unpronounceable but beautiful”). He also has Lilium longiflorum, Begonia, Calla lilies, Tuberus begonia, Fuchsia, Catching fire Cyclamen, Hydrangea, Oleander and many more!

Everything is beautifully labelled. It’s a great neighbourhood talking point and junior welcomes chatting to people about gardening. Everything explodes with colour in July and August.

He says ‘Well I enjoy it immensely because people from all walks of life stop and congratulate me for what I’ve done. The people upstairs enjoy it more than me because they get a better view than me.’

Winner April 2016

SALLY SELBY – 689 Lavender Grove, E8

Tigger writes ‘ As an old woman who rides a bicycle, I choose Lavender Grove as my favourite route out, as it only has bumps in the middle of the road, which you can avoid. All year round, I am delighted by the garden at 68, which has no railings and is there for everyone who passes to enjoy. There is always something lovely to look at, but most of all, it is the delicate choice of plants and colours that delights. Now in spring, it is simply gorgeous, complemented by the pansies in the window box.’

Winner November 2015

This is Katerina Soteriou’s front garden. She has lived in Tottenham Road for many years and has always loved gardening. She got her green fingers from her father who was a farmer in Cyprus, where Katerina lived before she came to UK. Katerina just has access to the front garden but it always looks lovely over the summer months and people often stop to admire the flowers as they pass by. Katerina is a regular visitor to the Hackney Cypriot Association, a local community organisation in Balls Pond Road, near Dalston Junction.

Winner June 2015

This month’s winner is Jenny Topper at 24 De Beauvoir Square. Jenny says …We were lucky to have bought the house that had, for many years, belonged to the gardener designer, Jude Moraes. Unlucky that, after her untimely death, the back garden was submerged in ivy & bindweed & much of her planting lost. Yet I do believe that the two beds, either side of the front path still reflect her ideas – & her eye. I have never known the name of the wonderful plants that, in high summer, are like enormous green plates but I promise that I will now find out their name. Rather wonderfully, in the spring, before the leaves unfurl, there are the flowers – small & pink on proud stems – like a rather royal version of London pride.
But before they arrive there are Jude’s “Glory Of The Snow” & my snowdrops & white crocuses & then a profusion of Lenten Roses, the first of them given to me by Juliet Webster. The white theme continues with an Iris that came from where I now cannot remember but I should because its flowers bring me great joy each May. As does ‘the bridesmaid’ that, in spite of my poor pruning, tumbles over the railings to the delight of many passers by. Through June & July the white theme, enhanced by the lilies brought from my mother’s garden, has blue added to it – cornflowers & Mrs Johnson geraniums & then, defiantly, the rambling rose, planted as much for its vicious thorns, as anything else, throws out its pretty single, red flowers. Now, as Autumn steals upon us, the double white Japonica take their stately stand &, any moment now, the rose hips will be almost as red as the flowers from whence they came.

Winner May 2015

The winner this month is Sun Studios at 90 De Beauvoir Rd. I have looked at this garden for a couple of years with pleasure. Keep an eye on it through the season! Helena Smith of Sun Studios says …This is a ‘no budget’ garden – we have a budget of zero! We use reclaimed wood and mail sacks for planters, and everything is from cuttings, or grown from seed donated by the Evering Road Garden Project . Compost is collected from the Dalston Eastern Curve Garden – it’s made at the London Waste eco-park from Hackney’s food and garden waste. The Sun Studio doubles as our greenhouse. Photo by Georgia Kuhn.

Winner April 2015

The winner this month is Jules Darker at 100 Downham Rd. for his Sedum rooftop (on top of the bins at the front of the house). The person who nominated this garden said …’ I live high in the sky (15th floor) so passing Jules’s lovely front garden is always a pleasure for me’

Winner March 2015

We are pleased to announce our first winner which is ‘71 at 71’ a front garden filled with herbs at 71 Richmond Rd. Mac says …‘I am not the best of gardeners but there is an enormous interest in herbs beyond the basic ‘parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme’ and all I try to do is try and add a little more interest and gun. Even the youngest children enjoy strong smelling plants, especially the chocolate mint. I am happy to give away seeds and cuttings.’