Over 50 enthusiastic young gardeners from more than 30 London schools converged on the Tools Shed great garden tool giveaway recently and left equipped for a productive year in the school garden.

These weren’t any old garden tools. They’re garden tools repaired and refurbished in the workshops of HMP Wandsworth, where The Conservation Foundation’s Tools Shed programme has been piloted in partnership with the Prison.

The children and their teachers were joined by Ian Mulholland, Governor of HMP Wandsworth, David Shreeve, Director of The Conservation Foundation, Kate Hoey MP and volunteers from UK Parliament, at Lambeth charity Roots and Shoots, which was turned into a giant tools shed for the day.

Unwanted and broken tools came from a variety of sources, including the Royal Parks, contractors at Hampton Court Palace Flower Show and Wyevale Garden Centres, which held a tool amnesty at its stores. These were then restored in the prison's workshop

With the London pilot successfully launched, The Conservation Foundation is planning to take Tools Shed to other prisons and schools. “Schools tell us how difficult it is to get the equipment they need for their gardens and a recycling project which helps equip the next generation of gardeners, reduces waste and provides practical skills for prisoners, seems the ideal solution,” said The Conservation Foundation’s David Shreeve.  “With more and more schools ‘growing their own’, there is great demand for garden tools and rarely any budget.”

He continues, “There is interest in the next stage from potential partners including local authorities, UK-wide garden outlets, schools organisations and the Prison Service.  The pilot has taught us a lot.”

The world’s best known ‘garden’ was filled with award winning London gardeners recently.  Many came to Covent Garden Market equipped with the tools for the job – albeit broken ones for repair in the workshops of HMP Wandsworth* - when they received their London’s Green Corners Awards from Alexander Nicoll, CR Director of Liberty International. The presentation took place in a specially created Green Corner within the world famous gardeners’ market normally reserved for customers of a wine bar and opera singers.

All 50 winners have played their part in making the capital a brighter, greener and healthier place to live. They’re the unsung heroes who lift our spirits in gloomy times with their exuberant window boxes, wayside and community gardens and out of the way green spaces.

Speaking to winners, their guests and the people who nominated them, David Bellamy, president of The Conservation Foundation, praised them for their enthusiasm and creativity. “Green Corners recognises the individual Londoners who are making their corner of London a pleasanter, healthier, less stressful place to be,” he said. "When these Green Corners are added together they begin to contribute to a growing green lung for Londoners and biodiversity for London's wildlife - especially our bee population that needs all the help we can give it.” He continued, "Every person today who has won a Green Corner award made a garden for the love of it and in return we want to say thank you to them for making green pockets of pleasure."

Susan Lees who collected a Special Award on behalf of Islington Gardeners’ Forgotten Corners, a group of seven who care for pavement side plots in Islington, was enthusiastic about meeting many liked minded Londoners, “It is so very encouraging to see other people's work in making our urban environment more attractive and less grey and depressing,” she said. Olley’s Fish Experience in Herne Hill, see above,  won a Blooming Fantastic Award for a gloriously colourful display that attracts attention from everyone going up and down Norwood Road. Owner Tony Niazi said, “Customers really appreciate the display and tell us it makes all the difference. It’s good for business too.”

HMP Wandsworth won two awards and the Admin Garden, which greets everyone as they come through the prison walls, was singled out for a Blooming Fantastic Award. Collecting it on behalf of the prison’s gardeners – staff and inmates - Dave Jones said, “No one coming through the prison walls expects to find a garden in full bloom and it’s fantastic to have this recognition, it’s very good for morale.”

 Other Green Corners honoured this year were a garden scheme to improve a garage site in Twickenham, an edible garden, a traffic island and hospital garden in Lambeth, and restaurant in Westminster, which has been turned into glorious green space on Drury Lane, a green oasis filled with colourful flowers.

London’s Green Corners Awards were held last year as part of The Conservation Foundation’s 25^th Anniversary and proved so successful that both organisers and sponsors, Covent Garden London, joined forces again with the aim of finding even more examples to honour. No space is too small and imaginatively planted window boxes and whole streets were amongst the entries. Neighbours and passers-by are encouraged to put forward Green Corners that brighten their day - and many also attended the award ceremony to receive a bottle of champagne for their successful nominations.

The winning projects received garden centre vouchers and an engraved ‘Green Corners’ trowel, certificate and copy of The London Gardener. The judging panel included David Bellamy, Susan Hampshire, Gary Marcuccilli, Managing Director Covent Garden London, Alexander Nicoll, CR director of Liberty International, Elspeth Thompson, journalist and author, Pattie Barron of the Evening Standard’s Homes & Property, Matthew Appleby of Horticulture Week and The Conservation Foundation’s David Shreeve.

*The Conservation Foundation’s Tools Shed project in association with HMP Wandsworth repairs broken garden tools for distribution to London schools.

The weird, wonderful and simply gloriously green are celebrated in The Conservation Foundation’s London’s Green Corners awards and there’s still time to enter the unsung gardening heroes who make the capital a brighter and healthier place for its human, insect and bird life and improve the biodiversity.

 Is your day brightened by the vividly planted roof terrace you overlook, the splash of floral colour you pass on the way to work, the exuberantly green restaurant terrace that transports you far away from the city street or the peaceful green space at your school of hospital? Nominate them for a London’s Green Corners Award.

Closing date for entries is 14 July. More details on how to enter or nominate a Green Corner on the Conservation Foundation website - take a look at my profile...