A Bankside charity have achieved gold at the 2022 London In Bloom Awards for their contributions to green space in Southwark.
The awards recognise organisations that “maintain our precious Green Spaces” and had a record 347 entries.
Better Bankside and Bankside Open Spaces Trust (BOST) maintain nineteen individual parks and gardens across the borough, as well as urban forests, ponds and green walls.
Special praise was reserved for BOST’s Red Cross Garden, Borough, which received a gold category award.
Nicole Gordon, CEO of Better Bankside, said: “Green spaces play such an important part in urban communities and we are very proud to have been recognised for the hard work that has gone into creating and maintaining these essential areas across the SE1 district.
“Bankside Open Spaces Trust is an invaluable partner to work with on this initiative, which has grown beautifully with the help of their volunteer programme.”
The gardens are tended to by volunteers who participate in roughly twenty hours of gardening sessions every week.
The charities explore “different approaches to gardening in the city” such as the planned new Low Line – a ‘corridor’ of plants and wildlife from Bankside to Bermondsey, via London Bridge.
Business Improvement District, Better Bankside and BOST say they adopt an “ecological approach” to their gardens.
They are organically managed, with no pesticides or weed killers, use peat-free compost, and plants are carefully chosen based on the environment they’re to grow in.
To find out more about BOST click here