Farringdon residents Lorraine Mills and David Williams had their 15 minutes of fame when they took part in the BBC Gardener of the Year 2006 competition.

Lorraine entered the competition last summer and after a barrage of horticultural questions and a visit from the BBC found herself in the final.

“Quite early on the BBC asked me who I would take as my ‘helper’ if I reached the final, when I would have to build a real garden on television,” said Lorraine. “The first name that came to mind was David’s as I knew if I took my husband it would be divorce on national television!”

Unfortunately for Lorraine David took a lot of persuading but, once on board, he proved to be a perfect partner.

Lorraine’s brief for the 8.5m x 5m garden called for a low maintenance, hard wearing contemporary space for entertaining. The owner, a golf pro, did not want a garden full of plants so Lorraine put the emphasis on textures, shapes and colours.

With a budget of just £1200 to cover everything Lorraine, who is studying Garden Design at Sparsholt College, Winchester, chose organically shaped paving with rubber matting for a circular seating area. The rest of the garden was covered with a mulch of shingle and slate.

As the owner asked for metal rather than wood, Lorraine asked David to create a semi-circular screen to draw the eye away from the garage wall and create a sense of enclosure around the seating area. As she couldn’t afford metal, it was made from plastic pipes sprayed silver. “I’ve only just got the sensation back in my finger from all the spraying,” she joked.

Finishing ‘metallic’ touches were a stainless steel water feature and planters and seating made from gabions. “I decided to fill the gabions with empty wine bottles.” said Lorraine, but it was touch and go whether I could collect the 300 bottles I needed. Fortunately the residents of Farringdon rallied round!”

Lorraine and David had three weeks to prepare and three days to build the garden in Tamworth, Staffordshire. The garden received top marks from the judges – Chelsea medal winner Andy Sturgeon, presenter Rachel de Thame and Gardeners’ World editor Adam Pascoe. However, Lorraine was beaten to the title by one point on her horticultural knowledge.

“It was a very intense period and we didn’t realise quite how exhausted we were until afterwards,” commented Lorraine. “Having cameras and microphones on us the whole time was quite an experience but we really enjoyed it.”

She added: “I couldn’t have done it without David’s hard work and the tremendous support we received from Farringdon. The village was right behind us.”

Lorraine is now working as a garden designer and collaborating with David on a few projects.

More information can be found on the Farringdon web site and the BBC web site.