National Trust's Sky Gardening Challenge 2025

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Let's green Greater Manchester's Skyline together. Help nature thrive from your balcony or window box.
Whether you’re a gardening novice or a planting pro – if you have a balcony or window box, you can green the city above the ground. The sky really is the limit.
That’s why we ran Sky Gardening Challenge 2025 - to encourage Greater Manchester residents to welcome nature into their skyline space.
To help balcony gardeners get started, we worked with growing experts to create inspiration, guidance and gardening challenges to have a go at. You can still access the balcony gardening guide where all of this is available.
NB: Make sure you check the terms of your lease and get relevant permissions from your housing provider/building owner before making any changes.
Sky Gardening Challenge Competition
We also ran the Sky Gardening Challenge competition, which closed 31 July 2025.
The competition received so many fantastic entries, including a balcony that housed a whole brood of ducklings, memorials for beloved family members, a mixed pot of seeds from discarded fruit and vegetables, and many more. Out of all of the brilliant entries, there were five top prize winners - one for each category.
• Emily Bush in the One Pot Power category.
• Harry Gray in the Wild about Wildlife category.
• Lana Dang in the Urban Farming category.
• Gary and Maureen Kynaston in the Greener Ground Floors category.
• Sadia in the Cultivating Creativity category.
2025 Garden Gallery
These are just some of the brilliant entries from the Sky Gardening Challenge Competition 2025.
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Essential Information
33
Together, all the balconies in Greater Manchester cover an area the size of more than 33 football pitches.
1.4 million
Greening just ¼ of Greater Manchester’s balconies could host enough flowers to support 1.4 million pollinator visits.
152
In 2024, 152 types of garden plant were grown on 60 balconies across Greater Manchester.

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Balcony Gardening Guide 2025
We’re thrilled to have you on board. Now we can get growing together on balconies and window boxes, to green Greater Manchester’s skyline.
