Retirement Housing Gardening Competition 2025
This summer we held our first Retirement Housing Gardening Competition. We invited residents from across our retirement housing communities to nominate themselves or their neighbours to enter their gardens.
There were a great number of entries from across the schemes and the standard was exceptionally high. Residents with small gardens have been truly inventive in their use of space and getting a lot of colour and interest in every square inch. Others with larger spaces have created great outdoor entertaining areas or highly productive fruit and vegetable patches. Some residents had help from friends, while others had tackled the whole project themselves, often inspiring and supporting their neighbours along the way. The determination of many to create their own oasis in the face of illness, declining mobility, and in some cases bereavement, is truly inspirational. The competition was really stiff, and the judges found it very hard to pick winners.
But pick they must, and here are the winning entries!
Winners:
Diane and Jacques Laboure, The Acres
John Harrington-Brown, Pine Tree Close
Runners-up:
Alan Butler, Eye Satellites
Ailsa Lunny, Herlington
Tracey Lowndes, Assistant Director of Older People Services, said: “The standard of gardens in our communities is exceptionally high. Residents have put their heart and soul into their own little paradises and have created something uplifting and wonderful. We wanted to reward their efforts and hopefully encourage others to have a go in their own gardens. Some of our residents are lifelong gardeners while other only discovered their green fingers in retirement – it’s never too late to get started! We really hope this competition will become an annual event and energise our residents into getting out into their gardens to enjoy the mental and physical benefits of being in nature. It is such a pleasure to see the joy their gardens bring to themselves and the whole community.”