Celebrating our Sloane in Bloom award

We did it! Our beautiful woodland display for Sloane in Bloom scooped first prize, and we couldn’t be more thrilled or proud of our team. It has been an absolute pleasure to share our little corner of botanical Britain with you and I have been delighted by the events and conversations that it has inspired. Thank you so much to everyone who supported us during the week by coming to see us.

I am now about to embark on the task of dismantling our display. As sustainability is so important to me, I am pleased that the 14 trees we have used will be going on to a happy life with Trees for Cities, a wonderful independent charity working with local communities on tree-planting and landscaping projects. Their aim is to tackle global warming, create social cohesion and beautify cities through tree planting, community education and training initiatives in urban areas of greatest need. Throughout their work they place special emphasis on the involvement of local people, especially the younger generations and those from ethnic minority backgrounds. Trees for Cities are going to use our hazel coppices for planting in a fruit and nut planting scheme in London where the local community will be encouraged to harvest and eat the nuts. The rest of the plants are making the journey back to our home on the Isle of Wight where they will be the foundation planting of a botanical ingredient scheme… I’ll keep you posted on the development of this.

In the meantime, as I slather Foot Repair Moisturiser on my feet and put them up for a well-deserved rest, I’m already thinking about what we could do next year…