The Garden Media Guild Awards 2019 Winners

New Vegetable Garden Techniques by Joyce Russell & photographer Ben Russell

The Peter Seabrook Practical Book of the Year sponsored by The Garden Press Event

Joyce Russell says New Vegetable Garden Techniques is ‘the book that I wish I’d had when I started growing fruit and vegetables’ and it will undoubtedly be appreciated by new gardeners, and possibly show those with little more experience a thing or two. The judges felt this was a well-structured book that enabled new growers to gain confidence in the garden through a number of practical projects that encompass new techniques and variations on some tried and tested methods. It’s fun, easy to use, imaginative, informative and well written. The book’s layout follows a modern approach and the overall design gives it a lively feel.

RHS Colour Companion by Dr Ross Bayton and Richard Sneesby

Shrubs by Andy McIndoe

RHS Design Outdoors by Matt Keightley

New Vegetable Garden Techniques by Joyce Russell

Field Guide to the Orchids of Europe and the Mediterranean by Rolf Kuhn, Henrik Pedersen and Phillip Cribb

Kiftsgate Court Gardens: Three Generations of Women Gardeners by Vanessa Berridge

Garden Book of the Year

Celebrating the centenary of this family-run garden, this is a well written, thoroughly researched and fascinating title. The evocative copy and striking photography helps to bring the garden, and three generations of gardeners, to life.

The Galanthophiles by Jane Kilpatrick and Jennifer Harmer

The Secrets of Great Botanists by Matthew Biggs

At West Dean by Jim Buckland and Sarah Wain

Wisteria by James Compton and Chris Lane

Garden Design Journal edited by Stephanie Mahon

Garden Publication or Garden Section of the Year sponsored by Westland

The judges loved the clean and fresh approach of the Garden Design Journal. The stories are relevant and about new and exciting concepts, the photography is exceptional and the writing is engaging; special mention should go to John Wyer’s regular column. The flow of the magazine is very well balanced with contrasting, pacey and informative pages with stunning full-bleed double page spreads that superbly display the work of some of our industry’s most brilliant photographers. The magazine is clearly targeted at garden designers, but its appeal must surely also be to a wider audience.

Gardens Illustrated edited by Lucy Bellamy

Which? Gardening edited by Ceri Thomas

The English Garden edited by Clare Foggett

BBC Gardeners’ World edited by Lucy Hall

Marian Boswall for Design Ideas in Gardens Illustrated

The Dr David Hessayon Columnist of the Year Award sponsored by Vitax

Marian's very detailed, highly informative writing brings together history, design and planting in an engaging manner.

Dawn Isaac for articles in Cambridge Independent

Lia Leendertz for articles in The Garden

Marc Diacono for articles in The English Garden

Alex Mitchell for articles in Evening Standard: Outdoors, Homes & Property

Marc Rosenberg for stories in BBC Gardeners' World Magazine

News Journalist of the Year sponsored by Briggs & Stratton

Marc Rosenberg’s articles are punchy, timely and on point. He consistently demonstrated a clear talent for tackling big issues head on. His three articles were highly topical and soundly researched in-depth from a wide variety of sources. 'What's in our Bird Food' deserves particular mention as a new and thought-provoking consideration to this fast-growing and immensely popular activity. The judges found Marc to be the clear winner in the News Journalist category.

Sally Nex for stories in The Garden

Ruth Hayes for stories in Amateur Gardening

Sarah Johnson for stories in BBC Gardeners' World Magazine

Miranda Janatka for stories in BBC Gardeners' World Magazine

James Alexander-Sinclair for articles in The English Garden and The Garden

Journalist of the Year sponsored by Viking

James Alexander-Sinclair approaches the subject from an original angle and is unrelentingly energetic and inspiring. Across a broad range of subjects, covering a client’s design, Pensthorpe and the RHS’s This Planet Needs Gardeners, he displays a diverse set of writing skills, including passion, persuasion, description and inspiration. He paints a picture, writes tightly and informatively, and his work unanimously impressed the judges.

Monty Don for articles in BBC Gardeners' World Magazine

Caroline Donald for articles in The Sunday Times

Alex Mitchell for articles in House Beautiful, Garden Answers and The Evening Standard Homes & Property

Jane Perrone for articles in Financial Times

Jason Ingram

The Gordon Rae Photographer of the Year Award sponsored by Candide

Jason Ingram's entry shone out for the diversity of pictures. He showed good gardens in all seasons, as well as portraits of plants and gardeners.

Clive Nichols

Tim Sandall

Andrea Jones

Marianne Majerus

Jason Ingram for photographs in Gardens Illustrated

Features Photographer of the Year

The gloriously atmospheric photographs of Folly’s Farm put the house and garden in their historic context perfectly and chime with Anna Pavord's words. The Tulip Society feature was masterfully planned and executed and the use of the black background totally appropriate to the subject matter. The beautiful opening shot of Wildgoose Nursery and the informative and well-shot plant profiles would entice any reader to visit.

Richard Bloom for photographs in Gardens Illustrated, Country Living and Garden Design Journal

Marianne Majerus for photographs in Garden Design Journal, Garden_Lab and House & Garden

Carole Drake for photographs in Homes and Gardens and Country Living

Clive Nichols for photographs in The English Garden, Gardens Illustrated and Country Life

Great British Gardens - Channel 5

The Roy Lancaster TV Broadcast of the Year Award sponsored by the HTA

This year, the submissions were not only represented by traditional broadcasts, but also by online submissions with new ideas and formats. From entry-level gardening through to more complex academic ideas, the submissions covered a wide range of subjects to engage the viewer. The final result was extremely close, but the winning entry stood out for its engaging presentation weaving sound gardening knowledge within a personal story.

Wildflower Special - BBC Gardeners’ World

Houseplant Fashions - ITV This Morning

The STIHL Spring Guide - YouTube

Alan’s Secret Garden - GardenersWorld.com

Sarah Wilson – Roots and All Podcast

Radio Broadcast/Podcast of the Year sponsored by Evergreen

The level and quality of entries in this category reflect a big increase in the importance of podcasts in delivering gardening knowledge. In a hard fought over category, there were some great submissions that didn’t get into the shortlist. Of those that did, they reflect the wide range of specialist expertise and great stories out there that we are now able to easily access. The winner stood head and shoulders
above the rest for the enthusiasm of its presentation and the pursuit of new and interesting stories to engage the listener, both keen amateur gardener and professional.

The Garden Organic Podcast

BBC Radio Newcastle – Gardenmania celebrates 2018

The Plant Based Podcast

BBC Radio Ulster – Gardeners’ Corner in France: Gardens of Remembrance

Blackberry Garden – Alison Levey

Blog or Vlog of the Year

From a bumper crop of high quality entries, Blackberry Garden stood out for its warmth, accessibility, engaging and relevant content and sense of humour.

Life on Pig Row – Andrew Oldham

Bramble Garden – Karen Gimson

Living on One Acre or Less – Sally Morgan

Grow Like Grandad – Matt Peskett

National Garden Scheme

Website of the Year sponsored by Honda

This website hooks you in immediately with bold branding and confident use of imagery. The pleasing user experience continues with the Find a Garden function. Easy to use, it produces results quickly and information about the organisation's 3,500 gardens is clear and useful. There is also the ability to save your favourites and get calendar reminders of their opening days. This excellent search facility, fully optimised for mobile, acts as the pivotal feature in a website packed with horticultural content, which is both lively and relevant to its growing audience. Through its website, the NGS demonstrates its mission with clarity as well as having an intimate understanding of its customer. It delivers with imagination and innovation.

Horticulture Week

BBC GardenersWorld.com

Richard Jackson’s Garden

Thrive

Sally Nex – The Garden: series on plastic

The Beth Chatto Environmental Award sponsored by the Beth Chatto Education Trust

This was quietly ambitious with attainable ideas relevant to a wide audience. You can tell that this has been a practical hands-on challenge, and yet the author refrains from preaching to the reader. This topic has been covered numerous times before, but the writer
revealed her anxieties and concerns and wrestled with the pros and cons of plastic-free gardening. Congratulations must also go to The Garden for giving significant space to such an important environmental issue.

Jean Vernon – The Garden: Bees in your Summer Garden

Charlotte Petts – Growing Wild

Matthew Appleby – The Super Organic Gardener

Nic Wilson – Dogwood Days blog

Tom Brown

The Alan Titchmarsh New Talent Award sponsored by Hayloft

Tom Brown’s quiet passion and wide-ranging horticultural skills are evident in both his writing and presenting examples, and he has a subtle yet extremely engaging style. He’s an experienced, passionate plantsman and gardener. Tom brings his subjects to life both on the page and presented to camera. His love of plants shines throughout and it is a joy to read and watch material backed up by in-depth knowledge along with a great deal of hands-on experience. Tom Brown is the clear winner, but the judges would like to make special mention that Lauren Hall was a very close second; Tom’s horticultural knowledge and expertise in tackling different types of media made him the winner.

Lauren Hall

Joff Elphick

Miranda Janatka

Julianne Robertson

Alan Titchmarsh for articles in BBC Gardeners' World Magazine

Practical Journalist of the Year sponsored by Thompson & Morgan

Alan has a wonderful writing style combining touches of humour, history and personal experience. You feel safe in his expert hands. Super readable and comprehensive technical information. His writing keeps you interested in subjects you’ve not read about before. There was a good balance of historical background, information about how to do and why you should grow things. The way he writes should encourage others to approach the topics in such an enthusiastic way. His enthusiasm, humour, how-to expertise, historical knowledge and warmth shine through.

Val Bourne for articles in Garden Answers

Paul Hervey-Brookes for articles in Home Building & Renovating Magazine

Sally Nex for articles in BBC Gardeners' World Magazine

Lucy Chamberlain for articles in Amateur Gardening

Sally Chandler – Beth Chatto’s Plants and Gardens, Instagram and Facebook

Social Media Influencer of the Year sponsored by STIHL

There was a wise range of entries, all lively, diverse and informative from terrific communicators. They demonstrate why social media is now such an important part of spreading information and ideas on gardening and horticulture. Sally Chandler was a worthy winner with her original and creative approach to promoting Beth Chatto’s Garden Notebook. Sally created a beautiful celebration of the life of one of our greatest gardeners. She uses excerpts from the Notebook to compare the garden then and now, with beautiful up-to-date images illustrating the plantswoman's inspiring words. This approach, while simple in concept, has been executed with exquisite attention to detail and brings Beth's achievements and her spirit right to the core of this creative, content-rich information. Special mention goes to Charles Dowding, who ran a close second with his content, impressive in quality, quantity and spread across social media platforms.

Jane Perrone – janeperrone.com

Charles Dowding – YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter

Candide – the Social Media Platform for plants and gardening

Great British Gardens – Instagram and Facebook

The Galanthophiles – designer, Chris Knight

Cover of the Year sponsored by Cobra

Quirky and original, this cover stood out from the rest in doing something different, which cleverly summed up the book’s subject in one image.

Kew Magazine – designer, Alfonso Iacurci, photographer, Jeff Eden

Country Life – designer, Sarah Readman, photographer, Andrea Jones

The Garden – designer, Mark Timothy, photographer, Richard Bloom

Which? Gardening – designer, Lucie Williams, photographer, Jonathan Buckley

Carol Klein

Lifetime Achievement Award sponsored by Westland

Kenneth Cox for Woodland Gardening

European Garden Book Award

Pat Havers of Waterperry Gardens

Marcus Harpur Award, presented by the PGPA