A DAY care centre for the elderly has appeared on national TV after getting a helping hand from a garden makeover show.

Bosses at Knightswood Day Care Centre, in Asheldham, were thrilled after the revamp by Channel 5’s The Great Gardening Challenge.

Presenter and former Pop Idol judge Nicki Chapman visited the centre with film crews last September.

Two teams of professional landscape designers competed to transform part of a paddock into new gardens.

Knightswood’s Carina O’Mahoney said: “Channel 5 came along in top secret and filmed around the Dengie while the designers worked on the garden.

“We enjoyed having them here, and we managed to run the day centre with lots of new faces coming and going – the clients thoroughly enjoyed it.

“Nicki Chapman came into the centre and chatted with the clients, asking them how they would like the garden to be, so all the way through it was about what the clients wanted.

“The reveal day came and it was amazing to see two gardens in place of part of the horses’ paddock which was kindly donated by D J Fisher Farms.”

Channel 5 first approached the centre last year.

Carina said: “We were obviously delighted with not only the fact we would get a fabulous garden at the end but also the excitement of being on TV. Knightswood helps adults from all over the Dengie in a fantastic purpose-built day centre, but was lacking outdoor space.

“With no government funding we rely purely on donations so saving for a garden was a long way down our list.”

But Carina admits it wasn’t all plain sailing.

“After the film crew left we found the garden wasn’t as accessible as we had hoped so clients were unfortunately unable to use it,” she said.

“Knightswood trustee chairman Ken Thompson put many hours into attending to issues to ensure it was safe for everyone.

“Ken’s wife Shirley has kindly taken on the task of looking after it, and has spent tireless hours in the garden weeding and making sure it is well maintained.”

The winning garden, designed by Catherine and James Burrage, features Colchester poet David Canning’s poem Bradwell-on-Sea painted on the inside wall of a potting shed.

David said: “I was really excited when Catherine Burrage called me last year to say that she wanted to include one of my poems. Naturally, I was very happy for them to use it – it was a great honour to be part of such a great project.”

The centre is having an open day with cream teas for people to see the garden on Saturday, August 3, from 11am to 1pm.