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Danderhall Garden Scoops Top Prize
Posted on 2nd Oct 2018 at 11:55 ( Last updated on 2nd Oct 2018 at 13:07 )
A delighted Melville tenant, whose Danderhall garden was praised for its vibrancy, life and colour, has walked off with this year’s ‘Baxter Keiller Award’ for outstanding Melville Housing Association garden.
Beating off stiff competition from a dozen entries covering the length and breadth of Midlothian, the winning garden was the first ever entry from Danderhall and was the creation of Ms Elizabeth Kelly of Woolmet Crescent.
“I was stunned and delighted to hear my garden announced as the winner, especially as I wasn’t even aware of the contest until told about it by my housing officer!” said champion gardener Elizabeth. “I’ll look forward to spending my prize in the spring and see if I can’t make the garden even better next year.”
For her winning garden Elizabeth received gardening vouchers to the value of £100 with runners-up Lynda Christison of Sycamore Road and David Bowman of Oak Crescent (both Mayfield), each receiving a £35 voucher.
“It’s unusual for the judging panel to be unanimous in their decision,” said Andrew Noble, Chief Executive of Melville Housing. “As always we’ve all been enormously impressed by the quality of entries but particularly so by this year’s winner who thoroughly deserves her award. Congratulations to Elizabeth and to our other keen gardeners for all their hard work.”
Now in its fourth year, the ‘Baxter Keiller Award’ is named in honour of a keen Mayfield gardener and Melville tenant who sadly passed away in 2014. Melville set up a gardening competition to recognise the work done in 2007 by Baxter, along with his neighbour Christine McGrouther, transforming a patch of Mayfield wasteland into a fantastic community garden.