PERIWINKLES, geraniums, begonias and busy lizzies grow from colourful buckets and up-cycled colanders in Islington’s best – and possibly smallest – community garden, tucked into the corner of a community centre between Upper Street and Essex Road.

Garden club members at Little Angel Studios – sister venue of the puppet theatre on nearby Dagmar Passage – have created this tiny green space on a shoestring over the past two years. Last month, their efforts were rewarded with an award for best community garden at local horticultural competition Islington in Bloom.

Community engagement manager at Little Angel Studios Imogen Newman said: “When you’re in an area like Islington, you don’t have access to huge spaces like you would outside of London, so it naturally brings up that innovation and creativity in people.

“I think gardening and being outside have such wonderful benefits for mental health and wellbeing and it’s lovely that we’re still able to access that, despite being in an N1 postcode.”

Ms Newman was surprised by the win, which she credited to the group of children and parents from surrounding estates who tend the garden, as well as their gardening teacher, Kelly Frost. The garden is on the other side of the fence from one estate that backs onto Little Angel Studios, and Ms Newman said she often sees the children who live there peeking through the gates to check on their plants.

The garden is only about three square metres and it has blossomed despite being overshadowed by a large tree and situated on shallow soil, meaning all the planting has to be in pots.

The hope, Ms Newman said, is that this recognition from Islington in Bloom will help raise funds for staff and garden club members to spruce up their tiny oasis even further, including with a mural, a pathway and a repurposed dresser with flowers growing from open drawers.