A GARDEN designer has been given two awards.

Pershore based Nikki Hollier won platinum and ‘best border’ for her ‘beautiful border’ at Gardeners’ World Live at the NEC in Birmingham for the popular magazine and TV show which is hosted by Monty Don.

The border was called the ‘Jar of Life’ and is based upon an analogy where a jar is filled with rocks to symbolize the most important things in life such as health and wellbeing.

It was then followed by gravel and sand to signify the next levels of importance such as socialising and watching TV, which fill the spaces in between the rocks.

The border included sensory plants such as scented roses, tactile grasses, great tasting herbs plus lots of beautiful flowers to look at which all contribute to our wellbeing. A water feature created the focal point which was a great talking point and was also featured on the TV program Gardeners’ World.

Ms Hollier was previously in IT for 20 years and retrained to become a garden designer after moving into a new build property and the garden was a blank canvas.

She said: “I had no budget and no clue what to do with the garden, so I enrolled on a course at Pershore College of Horticulture and I quickly realised there are so many new homes being built and everyone is in the same boat of not knowing much about plants or what looks good together.”