A garden should be a place to let go and be free in

In a highly competitive year, the judges' Highly Commended award was fiercely contested - but ultimately all the judges fell in love with this couple's tiny tropical oasis in Manchester.

- Adam Duxbury

When Deanna and Rob Bailey moved into their terraced house in Greater Manchester, they initially spent all their money and effort on renovating the interior. Their tiny back garden was a boggy patch of lawn, mainly used to store the bins.

But just before Covid hit, they decided to transform it into a lush tropical paradise. Despite being gardening novices, they used their skills as professional illustrators to design and create a high-impact outside space that quickly became a lifeline for the pair during lockdown. Now they relish every opportunity to enjoy their jungle paradise, watching wildlife visit and learning all they can about the plants they're growing.

Did you have any gardening experience before you started?

Neither of us had much experience at all. When we were growing up, we both had family members who were interested in gardening but neither of us were. In our work we draw a lot of natural things - lots of leaves and plants. And we can be very controlled in the type of work we do and in how we have done up the house, so the garden has just become this release, a real place to let go in and see what happens.

What was it like to design and build the garden together?

We definitely had some difficult conversations about the design! One of us was drawn to the tropical look and the other to a softer more prairie style. But we soon realised a prairie wouldn't work here.