Not a yard of space without flowers

7:40pm Thursday 4th September 2008

With such a small backyard, Saltaire resident Vicky Mitchell has had to come up with a couple of ingenious ways to create a beautiful garden.

But Miss Mitchell, of Higher School Street, must be doing something right as she is this year’s winner of the Saltaire Backyard Competition.

One of the ways she gets around having a 10ft by 4ft backyard to work in is by “growing upwards”, placing plants on top of pots to give the feeling of height, and using old olive oil tins to house some of her plants.

Such techniques obviously impressed judges of the competition, sponsored and organised by Rance Booth and Smith Architects.

She said: “I’m very pleased because I hear that one of the judges was a professional gardener and that is slightly different from previous years when it has been more design-based.

“Because I’m more of a designer than a gardener I was very pleased they chose mine.”

Miss Mitchell is not new to the experience of winning as she won the competition, which aims to enhance the privately-owned areas of the World Heritage site, once before in 2004.