Tower Hamlets gardeners win covted silver medal at Chelsea Flower Show

A GROUP of homeless gardeners from the East End have won a prestigious silver prize at the Chelsea Flower Show. The team from Bethnal Green based Providence Row Housing Association, Crisis Skylight and Look Ahead in Whitechapel all helped created the

A GROUP of homeless gardeners from the East End have won a prestigious silver prize at the Chelsea Flower Show.

The team from Bethnal Green based Providence Row Housing Association, Crisis Skylight and Look Ahead in Whitechapel all helped created the prize-winning Places of Change garden.

Paul Pulford who led the team of East End gardeners and designed their section of the garden said: "Everyone is buzzing, it's a pinnacle in everyone's life."

They were part of the team of 500 gardeners from some 400 homelessness agencies and eight prisons who teamed up with the Cornish based Eden Project to create one of the largest gardens ever shown at Chelsea.

Mr Pulford said: "We grew all the plants for our section at Tower Hamlets cemetery park, the wood we used would have gone in the chipper and the grass for the roof would have gone in the compost heap. We think it's the cheapest garden, it cost us about �500 or �600 in plants."

He added: "It's a wildflower garden and we've got butterflies and bumble bees there. We took 2.5 kilos of meal worms there which are attracting birds. It's the year of biodiversity and this fits right in.