Harrogate Flower Show 2025

It was a huge honour to work alongside York Foodbank and help them claim not one, but two awards in the Harrogate Flower Show 2025. The garden, titled ‘Food is Our Common Ground’, took a Gold Award as well as the coveted President’s Cup.

Designing the edible garden which inspired the show display, that showed the importance of food as one of the most basic human rights, was a real privilege and a monumental group effort. Over three hundred hours of volunteered time was given over to the community garden project, with many local groups and businesses joining in.

We prioritised food security and sustainability in this garden design and showed how a public garden can be used to benefit the local community and support biodiversity. There is a huge variety of edible plants, herbs and trees included in this garden project. Edible perennials offer year-round interest and reduce the need for yearly replanting. Trees and shrubs provide shade and structure to the garden, as well as fruits when in season.

Supporting York Foodbank

Harrogate Flower Show welcomed an estimated 45,000 people in 2025. Every day, thousands of people walked through our show garden, learning about sustainable, edible gardening and the incredible work of the York Foodbank team.

Cash donations for the foodbank were very gratefully received over the event, and the donations have continued to come in. The Gold Award comes with a £450 cash prize, which was donated to the York Foodbank, alongside a very generous £200 donation from the Bellrock Community Impact team.

Having the edible garden available for all the community to use is raising awareness for the need for both short-term food relief and long-term food security. Social gardening is an excellent opportunity for encouraging and strengthening bonds between people in the community, as well as supporting mental and physical wellbeing.

Nothing goes to waste

After the flower show, the display garden features were all redeployed into the community. Approximately £2000 of plants and willow screening were gifted to St Andrew’s Church in York to build a lasting community garden everyone can enjoy.

Clifton Moor Industrial Estate Orchard has received many fruiting plants to expand their woodland. The reclaimed scaffolding and gravel found a new home in an allotment to be used to create a climbing plant supports and stable pathways.

Each wooden shelving unit was donated to a pub for use in their beer garden. Any unclaimed leftover wood was then sent for wood recycling, and the benches were returned to Hortricap for use in their staff garden.

Thanks to everyone who joined us

A huge thank you to everyone who has been involved with this community edible garden project, to everyone who attended the 2025 Harrogate Flower Show, and the judges for bestowing this garden with such high honours.