Garden Of The Year 2011: Best back gardens

Paul and Patricia Swales of Ravensden were judged the winners in the best large back garden section.

Meanwhile Roy Richards of Wootton was voted the best in the small back garden category.

Click on the link on the right to view a gallery of pictures of the two gardens taken by Tracey Goodacre.

Garden Of The Year 2011 is run by the Bedfordshire Times & Citizen and Biggleswade Chronicle with Frosts at Willington and is sponsored by Bedford In Bloom.

Gardening is a family affair for large back garden winners Paul and Patricia Swales.

Paul, 72, and Patricia, 75 have enlisted the help of Patricia’s sister Julia, 72, to help them create the garden of their dreams over the years that they have lived in the house, in Cleat Hill, Ravensden.

And the labour of love has taken 50 years, and represents the couple’s married life together at their home.

Mr Swales said: “We have been here for 50 years and done the garden bit by bit.

“Nothing has ever been planned, we like geraniums and bedding plants the most.

“We were pleased when we found out that we had won because we haven’t entered a competition like this for many years.”

And the garden is not just for show. The trio have planted a vegetable garden which produces a wide variety of seasonal vegetables.

Mr Swales said: “We grow lots of vegetables, we still have to buy some things but depending on what is in season we can use produce from the garden, we can’t grow the same vegetables all year round.

“We also enjoy the trees in our garden, we have just enjoyed doing the garden for 50 years.”

Runners-up in the best large back garden category were Mr and Mrs McDonald of Station Road, Langford and Mark and Judith Jeffery of Brookfields, Pavenham.

Roy Richards, 62, who has built up the garden over the last 15 years with help from his wife Dianne, has won the category of Small Back Garden.

Roy and Dianne, of Elmsdale Road, Wootton, have been gradually creating the Japanese-themed garden after they saw a similar garden in Bournemouth.

The couple decided to enter the competition after they opened up their garden to the public for The National Gardens Scheme to raise money for Macmillan Nurses.

Dianne said: “Roy works really hard on the garden and he has done a great job.

“He does pretty much all of it. I just help out with weeding and sweeping,

“We both looked round a Japanese garden in Bounemouth and said to each other ‘We could create that,’ so slowly but surely we worked on it.”

The garden is full of a mix of acer and bonsai trees, as well as clamaytis flowers. It also has a pond filled with Koi fish.

Dianne added: “We had great feedback from people when we opened up our garden, so I said to Roy why don’t we enter. He was really pleased when we found out we had won, it was a bit of a shock.”

Runners-up in the best small back garden category were Susan Roberts of Gratton Road, Queens Park, Bedford and Edwin Pearson of The Close, Clapham.