Calling all green fingered tenants!

Entries have opened for the seventh annual Hull City Council Tenants’ Garden Competition, and hopefully they’ll have a bumper crop of entries.

People can enter the garden competition if they are Hull City Council tenants living within the Hull city boundary. The only other rules are that each entrant must have done the gardening themselves, and they only accept one entry per household.  For the communal gardens category, the gardens must be shared by more than one property.

You can request an entry form by email from tenant.resident@hullcc.gov.uk or telephone (01482) 612 010. Entries close on Friday 30 May.  Entrants compete against each other in their home area – west Hull, north Hull, and east Hull. Then, all the winners go into a grand final to choose the overall citywide winner for each category.

The categories are: individual garden; communal garden; eco garden, and container garden. The judges will visit the gardens in July, and they will be looking for original ideas and design, colourful and bright displays, the quality of the plants, and imaginative use of available space.

Nationally, gardening is one of the most popular outdoor past times. There were many newcomers to gardening during the COVID lockdowns when access to outdoor space was limited. Then, its popularity continued to grow as the cost-of-living crisis started to bite and more people starting to grow their own fruit and vegetables.

Pauline Edwards, one of the 2024 competition winners said, “I am a relative newby to gardening and only became a keen gardener when I retired. Now I’m hooked! Whether it’s flowers, shrubs, fruit or vegetables – you can’t beat the sense of achievement when you’ve grown your own! Plus, it get’s me outside, it’s physical, so I’m getting regular exercise.”

Cllr Paul Drake-Davis, the council’s Portfolio Holder for Regeneration and Housing comments, “The garden competition enriches the city, making it brighter by bringing a splash of colour to our neighbourhoods. we love the fact that it offers something for everyone. From a pot by the front door, sharing a community garden, or having your own front or back space – you can grow your own and be proud of it.”

“Over the years that the competition has run, we’ve noticed that it has become an increasingly social activity too as friends and neighbours swap ideas, seeds and plants, and share the produce they’ve grown, and of course, celebrating at the awards ceremony.