Kitchen Garden Forum

How fantastic that Andy got 'Best in Show' along with his Gold Medal. After the year he's had, he deserves the recognition.

I loved Alan T's remark that they'll call him 'golden bowls' now.

Who's Andy Sturgeon, Tigger? I live a sheltered life [I've even got 2 sheds on the allotment].

He's a professional gardener Mike. He's done some TV before now and he writes for the Telegraph. He always comes across as one of the good guys.

He's had several 'golds' before now but never best in show. He didn't do Chelsea last year but said he'd be back for this year. Then his wife Sarah died in her sleep last year, at just 37, and he thought about pulling out of Chelsea. Instead he decided to dedicate the garden to Sarah.

He has 3 little boys to bring up, aged 5,7 and 10, so it can't have been easy for him to get through the year.

I didn't know about Andy's wife - that's awful

I didn't know about his wife. That's really sad. I didn't like the garden at first but it kind of grew on me. I adored the Music in the Moors one. That is my type of garden to be honest.

Good luck to Andy for the future. He seems like a nice guy

Thanks Tigger, and yes, I feel sorry for the man and his children. Now I understand your remarks in the original post.

I'm afraid I watch hardly any gardening programmes on TV, as they all seem to deal with gardening on immense estates or tracts of ground, or suburban gardens with sun, which has little to do with what I've got. The Chelsea Flower show means nothing to me at all.

But that a person will come back from such a tragedy and persue his profession in the memory ofhis loved one is a heartening story and has the potential of enabling other people to be more up-beat in considering their own problems, when they are lesser ones.