Forum topic: There's Gold in them there gardens!

Five for the Friends

Not content with two Golds, Friends of Broomfield Park also picked up Silver awards for the Community Orchard and the Growing Space and Bronze for the Walled Garden.

Broomfield Conservatory is a serial winner of Enfield in Bloom awards! It's now 12 years since the Friends took over the planting and turned it into our own mini Kew Gardens. It's open from 2pm to 4pm on Sundays and Wednesdays. Come along and watch the bunch of bananas get bigger by the day!

The pond was created in 2016 and is planted with native plants, including watermint, water buttercup, iris and waterlilies. It is surrounded by a native hedgerow with crab apple, hawthorn, hazel, blackthorn, dogrose. This provides a shelter for the pond, which is an important habitat for nesting birds and amphibians and invertebrates. This year a family of moorhens successfully raising their young on the pond. It's also played home several species of dragonflies, damselflies, butterflies, newts, frogs and even a stickleback.

Pond dipping in the wildlife pond is a very popular activity when local schools visit the park.

The Orchard has never looked better now that the trees are established in the setting of a wildflower meadow.

The Growing Space has become the focus of the Friends' work with young people, using funding provided by the Palmers Greenery Community Cafe (the profits from coffee and cakes all go to good causes!). West Lea pupils this year grew and harvested crops and turned them into a delicious lunch with help from Cooking Champions.

The Friends have been putting a huge amount of work into restoring the long border and other flowerbeds within the walled garden after years of neglect. So far this year the volunteers have put in more than a thousand hours - you're invited to join them every Wednesday, rain or shine.

"Winning Gold is a real team achievement"

Tony Ourris, director of Anthony Webb estate agents, said that the Gold award for Best Display in a Public Area (an advance on last year's Silver) will take pride of place inside the firm's office in Green Lanes. He says that winning it has been a team achievement. The window displays are created by office manager Martin McKelvey and his wife Suna, and then cared for throughout the year by everyone in the shop.

"We started our floral display three years ago when we asked a local Palmers Green ironmonger to make for us the industrial strength wall brackets for hanging baskets. The following year we decided to go one further by adding the 14 window boxes to our window sills. Recently we replaced the window boxes with deeper ones so that we can have even more flowers. Our new autumn/winter display has just been planted by Suna and Martin."