East Brighton put in a fantastic effort at this year's Brighton & Hove City in Bloom awards with a number of projects across the area winning recognition for their blooming good displays of plants and flowers. 

The annual gardening competition recognises individual residents, communities and businesses for their part in making our city a greener, cleaner and more attractive place to live, work and visit. 

Moulsecoomb Primary School came third in the Best Primary School category and The Green Centre on Manor Hill won joint third for best wildlife garden. Kemp Town Gardening & Community Group came third for best street, wonderful news for us to hear after supporting them with a grant to get them going.  

Committee member Barbara Aston ( a green thumbed enthusiast who herself won best hanging basket and shared the award for best window box) wrote to us to let us know how the funding from East Brighton Trust helped the Kemp Town Gardening & Community group and enclosed a beautiful picture of some the hanging baskets:

"The £500 that you kindly awarded us to help towards paying for the hanging baskets to adorn our three streets and to allow us to enter into the Best Street category was the catalyst which encouraged the neighbourhood to engage to raise the additional £1,100 needed for the hanging baskets. We did this through a series of coffee mornings, open gardens and bric-a-brac sales, a quiz night and also through residents donating cash directly to the Group.

It encouraged all the houses in the neighbourhood to plant up and tidy their gardens to increase our chances in the competition. We also planted around the trees in the three streets and scattered wild flower seeds too. The result really encouraged neighbourhood pride and everyone talked about and is still talking about how beautiful our streets look."

She also told us about an unused alleyway nearby, which local residents are now keen to clean up and cultivate, motivated by the way their neighbours have used plants to brighten the area!

Well done East Brighton, keep up the good work!