"Can you imagine being confronted with a plot like this?"

Steep inclines, exposed conditions and a truly remote location were just some of the challenges overcome by the couple behind this glorious 2022 People's Choice award-winning garden

- By Adam Duxbury

What do you do when you don't have a garden at home but still want to create a relaxing retreat? For Vicky and her partner Maxine, the answer came when they discovered this bramble-choked, allotment-style plot right by the sea.

Over the past 13 years - or just one decade if you count the years they weren't even sure how to tackle the garden - the pair have created several distinct zones in which to express their creativity and love of local plants and found objects.

Their main challenge on what they lovingly refer to as "The Lottie' has been to bring everything they need by hand, along a coastal path 20 minutes from their home, but their hard work and ingenuity have paid off and hundreds of you voted their plot this year's People's Choice award-winner.

How did you set about creating the garden?

We had to clear it first and we did that mainly with hand tools. I think eventually we did use a strimmer, but it kept breaking so we ended up clearing it by hand. You couldn't actually access any of the levels that you see now at all. It had clearly been terraced in the past, though, and you can see remnants of the old walls, but it was so overgrown that you couldn't get down them. So we had to be quite inventive with how we did that. At the start I was literally dropping myself down the banks, using an old bed frame as a ladder. I did look for a slide - one of the old metal ones. It would be a great way to get around!

Can you tell me more about each of the garden's areas?