Diary of a weekend gardener

BBC Gardener of the Year

Well, if you saw the programme you'll know by now that I won...

I found out for the first time tonight how we'd all done in the individual elements, and understood for the first time just how close it had been. So here are my immediate thoughts on the competition and the programme.

Mike should be very pleased with how well he did on the pest quiz - he simply didn't believe it when a BBC crew member told him he had top scored on that element. And with such a difficult brief he still did brilliantly.

Kirby is such an all round gardener - I'm really not sure why he didn't do so well on the quizzes. I was filmed saying I thought they were struggling to implement their design. This was in response to a specific question about the others' gardens. But the reason Kirby and Rosie had to change theirs was because the plot dimensions differed from the plans they had been sent. Taken out of context, my comments seemed mean - but they were meant to be sympathetic!

Martin - I really thought he would come through as winner or second. I thought his design structure worked well and I guessed that he'd scored high on the tests - he's such a cool, calm person. And I'm so impressed with his garden at home. Beats mine hands down.

Lorraine - well what an inspired design. It's clear from the final scores that she got the top design score - how else would she leap from 5th to second? Winning the competition meant such a lot to her, yet she was composed enough to congratulate me warmly and to send me a bouquet of flowers afterwards.

Anyway - after four months of waiting, I can finally publish this photo...

posted by Sue Beesley @ 11:50 pm