A garden in Falmouth has been shortlisted for the prestigious BBC Gardeners’ World magazine’s People's Choice Award.
Front-line workers Claire and James Eckersley’s multi-level garden in the town stunned the judges with its confident and varied planting. James has recently joined the Navy as a medical officer and Claire works at Treliske in end of life care.
Claire and James have needed a sanctuary to escape to this year more than ever and their multi-level garden makes it clear how much they relish outdoor living, their hard work has really paid off.
Claire said: "We were very surprised to have got to this stage.
"We bought the house as a new build and moved in in January 2013. After some building work in 2018 the garden was full of machinery so we wanted to spruce it up.
"We've done it area by area as it was a blank slate.
"It's good to look back at how it's developed over time.
"Neither of us had expertise in gardening so it's been trial and error. The garden's quite an unusual shape so we were excited to think what we could grow here compared to in our garden in the north east where we moved down from.
"We've got a tropical area where we've grown plants we wouldn't have been able to grow before, we've got kiwis, bananas and tea plants.
"It's been a lovely haven to come back to from work and transition from work-mode into a more mindful state. It gives us something positive to share with our patients. It's really helped us."
The 2020 BBC Gardeners’ World magazine Gardens of the Year Award received over 1,000 entries, from gardens of all shapes and sizes, with BBC Gardeners’ World magazine’s horticultural experts whittling the long-list down to eight finalists for a panel of horticultural experts, including Alan Titchmarsh, RHS Chelsea gold medal winning designers Diarmuid Gavin and Kate Gould and BBC Gardeners’ World magazine editor Lucy Hall, to decide the Judges’ Choice winner, won by Elizabeth and Malcolm Schofield from Moray in Scotland.
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Now all eight finalists are vying for the People’s Choice Award, which is voted for by the general public.
You can vote in the competition online at: www.gardenersworld.com/garden-competition. Voting closes at midday on October 27, with the winner announced in the December issue of BBC Gardeners’ World magazine.
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