Amateur gardener wins top award for topiary

A self-taught amateur gardener who had no garden at all when he first moved into his house has been named topiarist of the year three decades later.

Paul Everden, from Norfolk, was crowned winner of the Home Gardener Category UK at the Henchman Topiary Awards for what he has created at his 17th Century farmhouse.

The garden, which is in keeping with the age of the house, was created with 500 planted stems and now features a wild flower meadow, potager and vegetables.

"We never looked forward to think what might it become - it was just fun in the moment, really," he said. "We had three children under three that were very helpful at that time, and they've grown up with the garden too."

As the property originally did not have a real garden, Dr Everden saw it as an opportunity to start planting and taught himself how to create patterns.

He said he just let everything grow and the next minute he knew, "we looked and we had trees".

However, it got to the point where everything had grown out of hand and his topiary career began with starting to cut back the bushes.

"When we put this in, we wanted to create a design that was different, we wanted to put it on three levels which was different," he told the BBC.

"And we wanted to do it ourselves so that it was our piece of work, and that was supposedly the fun part," he laughed.

Paul Everden says while at the start cutting back the foliage was a "chore", he now sees the satisfaction in maintaining all the garden growth

The hedges are cut back twice a year.

"It takes probably about 10 full days [in the spring] to go round and cut it all," Dr Everden said.

"At the beginning it's great fun, by about day five I've had enough and by about day eight I'm on painkillers for a bad back!

"The thing I've enjoyed most about topiary, you get this immense sense of satisfaction - you start off and everything looks a bit scrappy and a bit messy.

"At the end of it, you go 'wow', you've sculpted something that is living that looks so precise and perfect."

Dr Everden was encouraged to enter the competition after he visited the Henchman RHS Chelsea stall.

Winners receive tickets to RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival, a trophy and a ladder from the award sponsors.

"I never thought I could possibly be good enough to win such a prestigious award as this," he said.

"It's been lovely to have it recognised... and I won a ladder."