The award winning show garden for the 2025 Harrogate Spring Flower Show began as a lunchtime conversation at the Yorkshire in Bloom awards the previous year between designer and Yorkshire in Bloom judge Helena Glassup, Ian Calpin of Ian Calpin Landscape Services (the contractors for the build), and Sam Glassup, Facilities Manager for Clifton Moor and Sterling Park industrial estates.

Site owners Legal and General have a strong commitment to fostering ESG projects on their sites and as York Food Bank are also tenants on the estate, they seemed to be the perfect partners for a garden based around the idea of sustainability and food security.

Using the words of American chef James Beard, "Food is our common ground," this garden explored the universal importance of food as a basic human right. Regardless of circumstances, access to food is essential. It also has the unique ability to bring people together through shared experiences.

The garden's ethos highlighted the work of York Food Bank, whose mission is to "meet the needs of those in their local community in times of crisis by providing practical help and access to high-quality advice, leading to improved circumstances and the hope of a brighter future."

At the heart of the design was the vision of a community garden that not only nourished the soul but also sustain. The garden featured a harmonious blend of fruiting trees, shrubs, and ornamental plants that were both beautiful and functional, with edible properties as the key selection criterion.
The Food is Our Common Ground garden also explored the crucial link between short-term relief and long-term food security. By learning to grow their own food, individuals and communities can reduce dependence on emergency support, paving the way for a healthier, more food-secure future. Social gardening strengthens community bonds, promotes well-being, and fosters resilience and sustainability.

The garden served as a vision of hope—demonstrating how we could come together to nurture both the land and each other.

The planting theme created a vibrant, productive edible garden that encouraged community interaction. A diverse selection of plants provided seasonal structure and shade while offering nourishment throughout the growing season. In creating the design, we wanted to avoid having a space that looked like a traditional allotment. The plants had to be ornamental as well as edible. The result was a surprisingly beautiful space from which nutritionally diverse fruits, flowers, and leaves could be sourced.

A variety of culinary herbs were carefully positioned for ease of harvest, allowing visitors to actively engage with the garden. Edible perennials provided year-round interest and productivity, reducing the need for annual replanting and promoting a more sustainable approach to food production—one that remained both beautiful and functional.

Following on from the show, the majority of the plants have been donated to a community garden in York which acts as a collection site for the foodbank or replanted at Clifton Moor Industrial Estate as part of a community orchard on site while materials have been recycled or reused on other projects as far as possible,