Waste land that grew up to be Chelsea Garden Show’s corona gold champion!
Alas, the main event’s off – but just look at the first ever amateur winners...
WINNING the prize for best garden at the Chelsea Flower Show would usually be the preserve of Britain’s top professional horticulturalists.
But after the hugely popular event had to be cancelled because of the lockdown, the chance for glory fell to the nation’s army of green-fingered amateurs.
Some 7,600 entered the ‘My Chelsea Garden’ competition by sending in pictures of their spectacular front and back gardens – as well as indoor displays. The judges said they were moved by reading many stories describing how gardens have provided us with a place of calm and solace during the coronavirus crisis – as well as a distraction.
The prize for the best back garden went to Terry Winters, 62, from Salisbury, Wiltshire, for his finely sculpted hedges and shrubs.
Just nine years ago, when Terry moved in, the site was a wasteland. He described how he and his partner Vanessa shared a passion for tending to their third of an acre plot.
A former advertising executive, Mr Winters said his colleagues in the heady days of the 1980s and 1990s laughed at him when he took up gardening.
‘They were all into fast cars and motorbikes,’ he said. ‘I describe my garden as my personal stress-relieving flotation tank. After just 15 minutes outside, I’m in the zone again, especially now in this crazy world with everything going on.’
He added: ‘I’m lucky to have a garden, many don’t. I am even luckier in that I have created my garden from what was a blank
canvas back in 2011. It is a personal space, one to escape life’s pressures and experience the changing seasons.’
Judge Sue Biggs, the director general of the Royal Horticultural Society, which puts on the Chelsea Flower Show, said: ‘What the garden meant to Terry was an example of so many people who are looking for an escape from life’s pressures at this difficult time.’
The other judges were TV presenter Alex Jones – who unveiled the winners on BBC1’s The One Show last night – Daily Mail columnist and Gardeners’
World presenter Monty Don, and RHS head of shows judging James Alexander Sinclair.
The winner from each category will receive four tickets for RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2021 and will be sent a special RHS Award commending their garden.