The 2025 winners of the Islington in Bloom awards

ISLINGTON’s highly anticipated annual gardening competition is officially open, with entries from green-fingered amateurs accepted over the next month.

Islington in Bloom awards have now been running for over two decades. Categories cover everything from best window box to best edible garden, and previous winners have included Sunnyside Community Garden and Humdingers cafe in Hornsey Road.

Anna Portch, garden manager at Sunnyside near the Elthorne Estate, said she would encourage everyone to enter. She added: “It’s a really fun thing to get involved in and to find out about all the different entries and organisations and groups. It’s a really good way to acknowledge all the brilliant gardeners in the borough.

“We don’t have much green space in the borough so we have to make the most of it.”

Ms Portch’s group won “best community garden” in 2025. She said: “For us it was brilliant to have all of the hard work of our volunteers recognised and it felt very special to be able to celebrate them. It definitely feels that more people are coming to volunteer, which is amazing because there are so many jobs to be done.”

Gardening as a hobby is on the rise, and groups have sprung up across the borough.

“Being outside is always lovely and physically touching and doing stuff is good,” added Ms Portch.