February 2008 prizewinners!

Neil says: 'I have quite a large, walled garden – the wall is red sandstone 2.5m (8ft) tall and about 300 years old. As I have a young family (three boys) who are very keen on sweet peas, last year we grew them along the entire length of the wall and my rather resourcfull children picked them, put them into bunches and sold them at the entrance of the farm.

'We are very lucky with the amount of wildlife that visits our garden – hedgehogs, squirrels and roe deer are regulars. We are very keen on birds and often see woodpeckers, buzzards, jays and kestrels. We have a competition to see who can see the first swallows arriving, which should be in about another month.

'At the moment we have lots of snowdrops out – the daffs will be another week I reckon.'

Judith says: 'We live in Cornwall with our dog, Jake, and two cats, Arthur and Bill, on a smallholding where we are slowly learning to be self-sufficient in veg and have a very large garden. We are interested in all green issues, recycle everything we can and try to be as environmentally friendly as possible.'

Judith is fortunate in having large bird and other wildlife populations, which she says keep the garden pest-free. She's looking into keeping pigs and chickens - look out for our April issue, Judith, where we feature hen-keeping.

Well done also to Bel Piper who contributes to an interesting debate on sharing the same interests as your partner. Does it matter if you do, or don't?

Bel says about herself: 'I am 40 years old and have an established garden with apple trees, a grape vine as well as lawns and flower beds. I try to grow quite a lot from seed in my greenhouse, including bedding plants, tomatoes, cucumbers as well as perennials.

'Last year I managed to grow a Datura from seed – not sure whether it has survived the winter yet though! I like the challenge of growing something a little bit different and this year I will try some tomatoes that are not run-of-the-mill.

'I took up wine-making last year and have made some wine out of our apples – not tried it yet though!

'I have not been very successful at growing veg in garden and am looking forward to getting some tips off the forum. I have known gardening most of my life and my earliest memories were sitting in the greenhouse watching dad prick out seedlings with that lovely greenhouse smell. I did not really get too involved in gardening until I moved out of home and had a garden of my own. My ideal day would be sat in greenhouse with the radio on, pricking out seedlings – sheer bliss!'

Both Judith and Bel win Expert gardening books from Dr Hessayon.