A GARDEN grown from seed by two grandparents has been judged one of the best in Halton.
George and Rosie Willis’ back garden in Alexander Drive, Widnes, won the top category in Halton Housing Trust’s annual best kept garden competition.
This year the couple succeeded despite cutting costs by nurturing new plants from seed rather than buying them fully grown.
“This year we grew a lot from seed because money is tight,” said Rosie, 54.
“George has a lot of ideas that he likes to try. Sometimes they don’t work but most of the time they do.”
The Willis’ garden is a mixture of flagged areas, lawn and flowerbeds.
It serves more than just an aesthetic purpose by providing them with fruit and vegetables and a playground for their 17 grandchildren.
“The garden is well used by the grandchildren so it has a practical use as well as looking nice,” said Rosie.
Halton Housing Trust’s annual garden competition is aimed at inspiring customers to care for their gardens, bringing flashes of colour to the neighbourhoods around Runcorn and Widnes.
Gardens were judged how they look by a panel, made up of Trust employees, customers and representatives from Vale Contract Services who gave marks for presentation, colour, condition and imagination.
The winners of the best garden, communal garden and new customer garden each received £100 and the winner of the hanging basket/pot/container and runner up of the best garden category received £50.
Other runners-up and winners included:
• Runner-up for Best Garden: Mr Alan Peter Jones of Beech Road, Runcorn.
• Best Pots, Container and Hanging Baskets: Mr Grant Forbes of Lugsdale Road, Widnes.
• New Customer Garden: Miss Ann.Bibby of Ansdell Road, Widnes.
• Best Communal Garden: Miss Louise Stanier, Mr. Andrew Spruce and Mr. Grahame Wilkinson and Mrs.Linda Wilkinson of Bancroft Road, Widnes.
Hazel Lea, a Legal Support Officer at the Trust who organises the event said: “The gardens we saw were really beautiful. People had gone to great lengths to produce gardens that anyone could be proud of.”