Durham coastline wins landscaping gong

British garden and greenhouse owners with an interest in landscaping may wish to pay a visit to a stretch of County Durham’s coastline formerly known as the Black Beaches.

Now renamed Durham Heritage Coast, the area between Sunderland and Hartlepool has won a prestigious competition that will see it battle it out for supremacy against rivals from the continent.

The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) reported that the coastline was awarded the first ever UK Landscape of the Year gong.

It has now been entered into the finals of the European Landscape Convention’s Landscape Award, which is in its second year.

The prize was awarded following a 15-year clean-up operation to reverse the effects of decades of dumping by the local coal mining industry.

Collieries used the beaches to tip sludge, sewage waste and spoil, which ruined the environment and its wildlife.

However, clearing the slag heaps and extensive work to redevelop the landscape has led to the return of wetlands, limestone grassland and wildflowers like blue moor grass and fragrant orchid.

Meanwhile, the RHS has reported that the popular BBC show Gardeners’ Question Time that was recorded at Lindley Hall recently is to be broadcast on December 10th and 12th.