A group of gardeners from Batley are celebrating a double victory after winning both a gardening competition and a community grant award.

During KNH's annual gardening competition in 2007, their garden was nominated for the 'most improved' category.

The gardeners had indeed transformed their communal land and won the category. But what impressed the judges the most the true communal nature of the garden, which was a source of pleasure and pride to everyone in the block.

To build on their success, the tenants and residents association applied for and were awarded a £500 KNH Excel Community Grant to further develop and improve their garden.

Everyone is really pleased with the grant, which will be used to buy a good lawn mowers other gardening equipment and plants.

All residents really enjoy their garden. "I like the fact that my daughters have somewhere they can play.

"Every summer we all have barbeques and we get lots of comments from visitors who all enjoy sitting in the garden when they visit my family," said Mohammed Adam.

Another tenant who has lived at Conway Crescent for 18 months said, "it's a real pleasure to be able to come and sit outside and admire this beautiful garden."

The communal garden was originally designed over ten years ago by Lesley Walsh and Rita King.

Lesley said "I started the garden with Rita and we both get a lot out of it.

"I do the weeding and transplanting of plants and Rita works with all the recycled materials. We all get a lot out of this garden."

One of the successes of the garden has been the use of reclaimed materials wherever possible.

This was noted by gardening expert Graham Porter and for Keith, Lesley's husband, who does most of the heavy work in the garden, this is a real source of pride: "I do all of the wood building, including the bird table and windmill, out of reclaimed timber. The brick borders are all made from recycled bricks which the children paint," he said.

Rita King added, "we all club together to make the garden what it is.

"Everyone, including the children, is really thrilled that we've been awarded a KNH Excel Community Grant, and we can't wait to get started on the improvements this money will enable us to make."