Best Front Garden Competition 2026
October 12th, 2026Report by Sara Messenger
As we’re now in our 14th year I think we can safely say that our annual best front garden competition is a firm fixture in the town events.
We started back in 2013 with just 5 gardens and our first winner was Maureen Hopkins who, despite everything life threw at her, continued to always be in the top three. Maureen, although very shy about her green fingered talents, always bought a megawatt smile and a sense of impish fun to the competition, so we were very saddened to hear of her recent passing. Maybe in her memory, next year we will have a trophy to award to the best single hanging basket
This year like last year the extended period of exceedingly hot weather wilted both gardens and gardeners alike and put many off from entering, and from those that did enter, we had several urgent emails along the lines of ‘please hurry up and do the judging before we get a hosepipe ban!’
We were lucky in that all those that did enter were in the large garden category so the small garden shield is now resting for a year in my filing cabinet, a ‘safe place’ I am sure to forget. For 2027 we are thinking of running the competition late spring or early summer to avoid the heat waves that seem to have become a permanent part of our British weather.
However, I am sure you just want to know who won this year so without further ado I would like to say Congratulations and Well Done to everyone that entered.
Our 2026 winners are:
Best Large Garden 2026
1st place: Paul & Judith Johnson
2nd place: David & Jenny Neale
3rd place: Richard & Gill Love
Facebook Favourite 2026
Richard & Gill Love
Greenest’ Garden 2026
Paul & Judith Johnson
Runners up (in alphabetical order)
Bluebell Gardens Gardening Club
Jitesh Mistry
Krishnan Rambadhran
Michael Mundy
Richard & Alisa Aquilina
Swati Vyas
Our 1st place winner received the main shield, which is returned after a year and also, to keep, an engraved glass trophy and gold medal, a framed certificate and a £25 Almondsbury Garden voucher.
Our 2nd place winner received an engraved glass trophy and silver medal, a framed certificate and a £20 Almondsbury Garden voucher.
Our 3rd place winner received an engraved glass trophy and bronze medal, a framed certificate and a £10 Almondsbury Garden voucher.
And our Facebook Favourite and Greenest Garden winners each received an engraved gold medal, a framed certificate and a £10 Almondsbury Garden voucher. With the Greenest Garden also getting an engraved glass trophy.
Our runners up didn’t go home empty handed as they also nabbed an engraved medal and a framed certificate.
All the gardens had their own strengths showcasing everything from amazing perfume, dazzling colours, an abundance of fruit and flowers, food and water for the local wildlife and hanging baskets groaning under the weight of blooms, but the highlights for us were:
1st Paul & Judith Johnson – “I’m not sure exactly what clinched this prize again for them maybe it’s the awesome veg bed with companion planting, or the bird feeders or the insect boxes or the bees or maybe the pond, there was just so much to look at.”
2nd David Neale & Jenny – “a garden full of charm, quirks & colour. A new rope spiral and an abundance of red roses, hops and a love seat makes me think that romance and beer aren’t dead here, even if the fairies tried to trip me up” (first time in the top 3 for this lovely garden).
3rd Richard & Gill Love – “the sheer exuberance of this garden has in the past given them 4 consecutive wins, and with so much to see it was also an obvious choice for the Facebook Favourite. This is another garden that has changed much over the years along with a pond full of huge koi and some very cute gnomes”
I’d like to say Thank You to this year’s judges for putting up with me snuffling all the way through the judging process, to Bradley Stoke Town Council who started the group and support us all the way, and to our current Mayor, Jenny James and Deputy Mayor Jon Williams, who faultlessly handed out the prizes. To Timpsons who not only still seem to charge us little more than they did in 2013 but who also never tell in advance who the winners are!! And of course, to Richard at Almondsbury Garden Centre who always provides us with many generous vouchers.
The BSiB team and I are now going to enjoy our own gardens for a while but we look forward to seeing you all again next year!
