A DONEGAL man has proudly won first prize for a garden display that he designed from memories of holidays in Letterkenny.
Edward Doherty, has lived in Manchester for 20 years, but is originally from the town.
He recently won Platinum, Best Beautiful Border, and Gardeners’ World Subscribers Awards at the BBC’s Gardeners’ World Autumn Fair.
Edward named his display ‘Reflection’ – a personal interpretation of his early memories of life in Donegal.
Edward Doherty, from Letterkenny, entered the BBC’s Gardeners’ World Autumn Fair for the first time and won the Platinum, Best Beautiful Border, and Gardeners’ World Subscribers’ Awards.
Edward Doherty’s award-winning garden display included a bottle of Donegal’s very own Football Special.
He said: “My garden design was inspired by my childhood growing up in Donegal.
“I included a football to represent my first run-ins with flowers; kicking a ball into granny’s border.
“As for the blackberries, they represent something purer and less destructive.
“We would often walk as a large family group through the countryside down broken paths for some fresh blackberry picking.”
The competition was held at in Essex from September 11 to Sunday September 13 – and Edward won on show garden debut.
He added: “One of my fondest memories with my siblings was of us climbing, and often falling out of, a giant oak tree in our garden.
“Engraved into every piece of oak are the GPS coordinates of where each of us now lives. This means that when I sit and relax in this garden, I have that sense of comfort that they are with me.
“Not only that, but the oak bench itself is also engraved with the GPS coordinates of the family home in 1980s Donegal.”