SOUTHWICK gardening fanatic Rob Dawson said he was delighted to reach the final of BBC2’s British amateur gardening competition The Great Chelsea Garden Challenge.

Mr Dawson, 35, who works at the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council in Swindon, made it to the final three of the new show, where he was beaten to the prize by 52-year-old nurse Sean Murray.

Mentored by Gardeners’ World presenter Joe Swift, the designers had just four days and a limited budget to build show gardens in different styles, including cottage, formal and conceptual gardens.

Despite missing out on the biggest prize in gardening - a chance to design and build a garden feature at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2015 – Mr Dawson said he loved his time on the show.

“I couldn’t believe I made it through to the final because I felt like I was on the back foot for a bit,” said Mr Dawson. “It was pretty nerve-wracking to design a garden to that scale but I loved the end design.

“When I saw the last episode with Ann-Marie looking at my garden and saying she loved it, I had tears in my eyes because it means such a lot to me. To get that feedback is something you dream of.

“It turned out exactly how I wanted it to and I don’t think I could’ve done anymore. I think my favourite moment was completing the first cottage garden.

“I’d never done anything like that before and actually completing a successful water feature made me think for the first time, I can do this.”

For the final challenge the budding gardeners designed a show garden and were judged to Chelsea Flower Show standards by judges, including the Royal Horticultural society’s James Alexander Sinclair and gold medal winning garden designer Ann-Marie Powell.

Mr Dawson, who hopes to continue designing gardens in the future, was grateful for the support he received during the competition, with the hashtag #RunRobrun even trending on Twitter due to him dashing about with a wheelbarrow to finish his garden.

He added: “The support has been amazing. One night I had about 400 messages on Twitter and it’s great to see people getting involved, taking more of an interest in gardening and enjoying the show."

Mr Dawson is now helping series winner Sean design his show garden and hopes the programme will help sow further seeds of success for him in the gardening world.

“I learned so much. It was a once in a lifetime event and fingers crossed something will come of this and I will get to do a lot more gardening design in the future,” he said.

The Great Chelsea Garden Challenge aired from May 11-14 and is now available to watch on BBC iPlayer at www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer