Disabled gardener scoops top prize
Green-fingered Margery Sharp, who has been battling to overcome debilitating health problems which at one stage confined her to a wheelchair, has still managed to lick her West Looe garden into such shape she has been declared a top Looe-in-Bloom winner.
Margery has been disabled for the past five years, since a virus attacked her muscles. From being an active person, working for social services in London, she found herself relying on a wheelchair, and having to take high doses of steroids which damaged her bones.
In the past year, however, she has made progress, and can now walk with the aid of crutches. She has also managed to spend much more time in her garden, working while sitting on a chair - and as a result has produced a display of flowers and shrubs which have won her first prize in Looe-in-Bloom's large garden section. It is the first time she has entered the competition, and she said the result has given her 'a great boost'.
Margery moved into her home at 4 Lower Goonrea, The Downs about 12 years ago. She was working then, and so had little spare time on her hands. She also found she had to work from scratch in the hilly garden, because it was just shale and weeds. For the first few years after the virus struck she found it extremely hard to garden at all. But since improving to such an extent that she can use crutches, and sit outside on a chair, she has made great progress, both physically and outside with her flowers. She will have two operations next year, and is hoping that after that she will feel even stronger.
She says she has filled her garden with many flowering shrubs, climbers which cover large areas, geraniums and fuchsias. Every day she ensures she spends some time planting, wedding, bedding or dead heading. She has found that the work she has put into her garden has helped her a great deal. Such is her optimism that she thinks that next year she may invest in a small greenhouse.
She said: 'I only have a semi-detached bungalow, but the garden is quite secluded. Those who do see it tell me it's rather like a little paradise. To me it's like another room I can use.'