Gay Search picks garden in Addison Grove as winner

Bedford Park’s Best Front Garden 2011 is at 1 Addison Grove in the heart of the “first garden suburb”. The garden is owned by Clive and Edwina Humby and designed by Iain Macdonald.

The competition was judged by TV gardening pundit and author Gay Search with the assistance of Bedford Park Society Committee member Carol Woolner.

The competition is organised by the Society to mark Civic Day, a national celebration of what makes the place where we live attractive, enjoyable and distinctive.

“There is no doubt” says Gay Search “that a well-designed, planted and tended front garden gives pleasure not only to its owners but to neighbours, visitors and passers by , and adds hugely to the amenity of any area , especially a conservation area such as Bedford Park.”

“Our criteria for judging were simple. First the garden must be visible from the street , second it must conform broadly to the conservation area ‘s guidelines for fences , gates,and proportion of hard landscaping to planting, and finally , it should, in the words of the great Edwardian garden designer, Gertrude Jeckyll, “ curtsey to the house “ .

“We saw many very attractive front gardens, in a variety of styles from the wildlife-friendly to the tropical, from the muted to the riotously colourful.”

“The winner’s combination of formal hard landscaping, clipped hedges and topiary with softer informal planting is almost ideal, setting off the architecture of the house beautifully.”

The gardens of 7 Queen Anne’s Grove and 10 Woodstock Road were highly commended.

Civic Day is a national event organised by Civic Voice, ofwhich the Bedford Park Society is a member. Civic Day is a national celebration of what makes the place where we live attractive, enjoyable and distinctive. Civic societies across England will invite people to celebrate their area and discover more about where they live. A diverse programme of events and activities took place on Saturday June 25th 2011 as the first Civic Day.

June 27, 2011