Downing Gardens team in double win at BBC Gardeners’ World Fair
Downing College’s Gardens team enjoyed another successful year at the BBC Gardeners’ World Autumn Fair at Audley End House, Essex, winning two awards for their show garden.
The team received a Gold Award from the judging panel and won a People’s Choice Award for the entry Seedlings, Saplings, Trees: A passage through a lifecycle, which showed the growth, change and connection to past and future generations.
Led by Head Gardener Jack Sharp, the College’s Gardens team worked together on the concept, design and construction of the show garden.
A central feature was the Downing College armillary, a mathematical model of the universe with Earth at the centre, representing relationships bigger than the planet itself, such as the cycles of sunrise, sunset and daylight.
Other features of the show garden included a solar-powered water feature, wooden mushrooms, and a cedar bench made from the old College cedar tree that was felled in 2021 due to disease.
Sustainability was at the heart of the design, with most of the plants propagated at Downing with our own compost and reused plant pots.
This year’s triumph follows on from the success at the 2023 Autumn Fair, where the team won a Platinum Award for the showcase Rest to Follow Your Path: A Wellbeing Garden.
Jack Sharp, Head Gardener, said: “The Downing College showcase garden, Seeds, Saplings and Trees, was designed to be accessible, so that every visitor could travel through the garden and experience the story we were trying to tell. We were delighted to win the People’s Choice award, and I’d like to think that’s a sign we achieved our goal.
"Thanks to everyone in the Gardens team for their hard work, and I’m grateful for the support from Downing College colleagues and our fantastic sponsors.”
If you would like to find out more about the Downing College gardens, Jack and his team host garden tours and workshops. Information is available on the College website.
Published 23 September 2025