National winner!

Our balcony won the wildlife category for the National Trust’s Sky Gardening Challenge 2026. Stephen and I were invited to their London award event last weekend and heard the amazing news.

We’ve had some nice overage in the Eastern Daily Press. That’s TV East and BBC Radio Norfolk visited and interviewed me earlier today.

I understand that 10,000 people participated, and there were 150 applications for the challenge. We were honored to host the NT judges earlier in September.

The award includes a £200 gift card for CJ Wild, which we’ll use to buy one of their very fancy bee hotels, and a nest box for robins. There’s a robin that sings each day on the nearby sycamore tree. We’ve concluded that we need more trees if we’re to persuade it to visit the balcony, so we’ve another field maple and a common hazel coming soon.

We also won a £30 voucher for the NT shop = many delicious NT scones!