Preparing our green spaces

As we get into the swing of summer, Better Bankside is preparing to showcase our green spaces for some exciting upcoming awards including Green Flag, London in Bloom and a fantastic nomination from Britain in Bloom for their Urban Community Category in association with Bankside Open Spaces Trust and Southwark Council.

Our Urban Gardener, Dan, has been working hard to raise the standard of our horticultural impact, in an often challenging urban environment. This has been reflected in previous awards and recognitions, including a gold award for best in category (urban community) for London in Bloom 2022 and 2024, Britain in Bloom awards 2018, 2023, 2025 and Green Flag 2018-present. Although it’s fantastic to achieve high scores and gold awards,  these competitions offer us a chance to connect and share innovative ways to strengthen, adapt and listen to other organisations. Our goal is to showcase our green spaces as an alternative to standard city planting, where focus is normally based on low-maintenance evergreen planting. Instead, we want our sites full of life and buzzing energy with a particular focus on biodiversity and space for pollinating insects.

Summer is not the time to be relaxing as a gardener, so you may notice Dan fussing in the beds preparing for the next few months. Jobs include, staking perennials, planting out seedlings (collected from and grown in Bankside), pruning evergreen shrubs, selective weed control (we leave most to encourage pollinators) and of course litter picking. As sunny outdoor lunches return,  litter often finds itself in our beds which can have negative implications, especially cigarette butts, which release harmful toxins into the soil, so always use bins provided to keep our green spaces clean.

We are always exploring innovative ways to enhance and expand our greening practices within Better Bankside to create bigger and braver green connections, so watch this space.