The Gardens Community Garden on Doncaster Avenue, N4 has been specially commended in the 'Gardening Against the Odds Awards', run by the Conservation Foundation. 

I was lucky enough to attend the wonderful awards ceremony in the Great Conservatory at Syon Park on a beautiful sunny day. I had a chat with Andy from the project who described the long struggle residents had in the late 90s to find out who owned the land and the challenges they faced transforming the derelict and anti-social plot into a community garden for all to enjoy.

These days it's a beautiful patch that also has a lively events programme, leading it to be nicknamed 'the community centre without a roof'. 

Andy used to live in Wood Green and when I told him about Bowes & Bounds Connected he said, 'you've got a community garden up there, haven't you?' I felt a twinge of local pride that our Bowes Park Community Garden is known beyond our immediate bounds! 

The Gardens celebrates 10 years this year so do drop by and visit if you're down that end of the ladder. There are some more photos on Flickr here.