Time to honour unsung gardening heroes

The 2011 Gardening Against the Odds Awards, launched by The Sunday Telegraph in association with The Conservation Foundation, are calling for entries to help find the ordinary gardeners throughout the country who garden 'against the odds.'

The organisers are looking for entries from individuals and community groups who garden in often unpromising and unlikely places or in the face of physical or psychological difficulties and in so doing bring joy to all who see them. This is the second year of the awards, dedicated to Sunday Telegraph writer, Elspeth Thompson, who sadly died in March 2010. Elspeth saw beauty in the unexpected and her weekly columns inspired a huge following.

Relatives, friends, neighbours and passers-by are urged to nominate those who deserve recognition but may hesitate to put themselves forward. Joining this year's judging panel are The Duchess of Northumberland,  Sunday Telegraph columnist Francine Raymond, botanist David Bellamy and Elspeth Thompson's Sunday Telegraph editor Anne Cuthbertson, garden designer Bunny Guinness, actress Susan Hampshire, Guerrilla Gardening's Richard Reynolds, Green & Black's founder Craig Sams, Conservation Foundation director David Shreeve, Elspeth’s husband Frank Wilson and Christopher Woodward, director of the Garden Museum.

Anne Cuthbertson, The Sunday Telegraph Life editor is delighted to be launching the second Gardening Against the Odds Awards: "The entries we received last year were so inspiring; they were stories that made your heart sing. The awards have been the most fitting tribute to our dear and much-missed colleague Elspeth Thompson. They continue Elspeth’s championing of ordinary gardeners who create something beautiful and honest under challenging circumstances."

Last year's winning gardeners were honoured at a presentation event in the Conservatory at Chiswick House (pictured). All had their own story of gardening against the odds – winner Andrew Barnett told of how his garden helped him cope when severe depression left him unable to work as a head teacher. Andrew was nominated by his daughter who commented that the garden saved her dad and dad saved the garden.

Other winners included a group of 16 blind people in Bingley who used to have only their blindness in common but now share a garden which gives them pleasure as a well as a way out of isolation.

Entries for this year's awards closes on 16th September, 2011 – entry forms can be found on: www.telegraph.co.uk/gardeningawards2011


Photo caption: Winners of the 2010 Gardening Against the Odds Awards, pictured at Chiswick House. ©Andrew Crowley/Sunday Telegraph