Best Kept Gardens winners for the 2021 are announced

Published: 27 October 2021

There was plenty of competition in this year’s Haywards Heath IN BLOOM Best Kept Garden competition, with award-winning master fishmonger Sebastian Candelon and his Fresh Fish Shop winning first prize in the Business Category, John Awcock and Sandra Westmoreland taking home the cup for overall Gardener winner and Melvyn Cook being the overall winner in the allotments category.

The awards have been presented annually by the committee for over 25 years and this year included a communal garden category, which was won by Winnals Park plus a special award, made to Carolyn Brading of St Richard’s Church, for the beautiful display of sunflowers in front of the church. The winners received their awards at a special ceremony at the Town Hall, hosted by the Town Mayor, Cllr Howard Mundin, and the Chair of the Haywards Heath IN BLOOM committee, Cllr Sandy Ellis.

Sandy comments:

‘Thank you to everyone who entered our 2021 Virtual Haywards Heath IN BLOOM Gardening Competition. Our competition encourages everyone in our town to think about their local environment and how flowers, plants and trees can enhance the area and protect our wildlife and is a great opportunity to showcase the variety of gardening talent we have in Haywards Heath!.

It has been truly amazing to see the effort and pride that goes into the planting that makes our gardens, allotments and businesses beautiful for everyone to enjoy. After the last couple of years, more and more people have realised that gardening is a great way to keep active and healthy, is good for our mental health and has a positive impact on the environment. Our warmest congratulations to this year’s prize winners and to everyone who took part, we really had so many beautiful entries and they are all a credit to their community.”