AN overgrown community garden in a village near Devizes became the focus for millions of TV viewers on Friday evening when it featured on BBC's Gardeners' World show.

Potterne youth leader Steve Dewar and presenter Joe Swift were seen talking about how the patch in the village could be given a new lease of life and become a hub for the whole community.

Youngsters from Five Lanes Primary are helping with the project along with the village's gardening club.

Mr Dewar, who is senior rural parish youth worker, entered the village into a competition to create a BBC Celebratory Community Garden to mark 50 years since the first BBC2 Gardeners World programme was broadcast.

He said: “When we won it was an absolute surprise but an amazing and pleasant one. This is an opportunity for the village to identify and explore its strengths through this gardening project that will have a lasting impact. It’s a joy to be part of something that allows residents to develop, experience new things, share their lives with others and build a stronger community together.

“I never expected to make it through the competition and to win. I met with BBC presenter Ali Vowles to discuss the project and we were told we’d been successful.

“The space is quite big and goes pretty much unnoticed at the moment. We’ve tried to do things with it in the past but have struggled to recruit volunteers to help. This time the Five Lanes Primary School is involved as well as the Royal British Legion and other local groups."

On Friday viewers were able to see the project starting to come together as Mr Swift drew up plans for how it could look and gave Mr Dewar a lesson in how to cut willow into an arch shape.

Mr Swift said: “I’m really excited about the Gardeners’ World legacy garden. I’ve been involved in a few community gardens over the years and love the way they bring people of all ages and backgrounds together and enable those who don’t have a garden of their own to get growing. It’s a wonderful way to celebrate 50 years of Gardeners World, a programme that’s inspired millions of people to garden and I’m looking forward to helping out in any way I can."

Over the next few weeks the show will keep viewers updated on how the garden is progressing.