NEW Gardening Series on RTE 1

Are you passionate about gardening? Is it your ambition to be a garden designer? Do you see yourself as the next Charlie Dimmock or Alan Titcshmarsh?

Vision Independent Productions, the company that brought you 'I WANT A GARDEN', SHOWHOUSE', 'OPERATION TRANSFORMATION' and 'THE RESTAURANT' is making a 6-part series to be broadcast in June. They are looking for ambitious amateur gardeners to take part in this televised competition. A passion for gardening is a must, as is creative flair and the ability to design a garden to a deadline.

Five amateurs will be chosen to take part in the show, by a panel of gardening experts. Each finalist will be allocated a real garden to design and must liaise with the client, the owner of the garden to come up with a mutually acceptable design. Each garden must be completed within 6 weeks and a budget of €10,000 will be provided.

Each finalist will design and build their garden during the months of April and May and must be available for filming at that time. Designers can enlist the help of friends and family to complete their task, such as building the perimeters, installing any structures, creating water features and of course planting the garden. All must be amateurs, no professional gardeners or landscapers are permitted to assist.

After six weeks, each garden will be visited by our panel of experts. They will assess each and give their opinions. But the judges don't choose the winner. On the sixth and final show, we will revisit all five gardens and recap the judges comments on each, then the designers and their gardens will go up for a public vote and the audience decides who wins the accolade of Top Designer and a super prize.

If you are an amateur gardener or recent graduate of garden design and would like to find out more about how to enter this competition.

Call Mark O'Neill 085 849 6440 Email gardenshow08@gmail.com

John Hosford joins Patricia Messenger on the first Wednesday of each month at 12.15pm to answer listeners gardening questions and offer seasonal and topical gardening advice. www.c103.ie