Glorious garden wins through (From Gazette Series)

Glorious garden wins through

A GARDEN in Wotton-under-Edge has reached the final of the BBC Points West Real Gardens competition.

The garden at Brackenbury, Coombe, belongs to Peter and Margaret Heaton, and reached the final of the large gardens competition by winning the Gloucestershire heat.

The competition is restricted to gardens not belonging to country estates, National Trust homes or created by expensive designers. They are real gardens made by real people who are passionate about their patch, with sections for community, small and large gardens.

The two-thiords of an acre garden has more than 1,000 hardy perennials, a vegetable garden and cottage garden area.

Mr Heaton, who opens the garden for charity four times a year, said: "We've been opening the garden for 21 years for charity and it is a well known garden in the area.

"The competition is called Real Gardens and we look after it ourselves. We had as good a chance as anyone of winning - it certainly is a compliment to win. We hope that it will bring more people to the garden to raise more money for charity."

Points West viewers will be able to vote for the garden to win by logging on to www.bbc.co.uk/pointswest. The winner will be announced on Friday, July 30.

The garden will be open to the public on Sunday (2-6pm). Money will be raised for a number of charities, including he Macmillan Nursed and the Cotswold Care Hospice.