WORCESTER gardener Julia Scott has designed a new feature for Birmingham Botanical Gardens, using organic principles and reclaimed materials.

It is laid out as a typical suburban garden, aiming to show how people can convert their own gardens to the organic system.

It will be officially opened on Tuesday, July 30.

Mrs Scott and her husband, William, have developed their own Walled Garden in Rose Terrace, Worcester, on similar principles.

"Nineteen years ago, I began to feel very concerned at the amount of chemicals in the food chain and all around us," she said.

"I decided that the very least I could do would be to start growing vegetables in my own garden."

Her first decision after being invited to transform a neglected patch in the Birmingham Botanical Garden, in Edgbaston, was to clear everything except one sorbus tree.

"If you make a garden from scratch, you have to wait a number of years for height and maturity and the tree gives that, as well as lovely spring blossom, berries and autumn colour," she said.

"It's a typical back garden, long and narrow and the tree's to the side, near the bottom, with the compost heaps arranged around it."

The garden was on a slight slope and now has a patio on the higher level with herb and flower gardens, while steps lead down to the vegetables and fruits, a winding path encourages exploration and a dragonfly sculpture by Alan Jack captures the eye.

"I have put in soft fruits that crop well and would be used in any normal household, with apple and plum trees, espaliered against the fences to save space," she said.

The vegetable garden is arranged on a four-bed rotation system and will be planted with a mixture of climbing and ground cover crops.

"I was very careful to choose flowering plants that work well in an organic system.

"There are ivies on the fences to give shelter to the necessary insects, and hedges that will also attract beneficial insects," she said.

"The insects will attract birds, which will pick up slug and snail eggs and others you don't want."

A little pond in the garden, fed by water from the roof of the garden shed, will attract frogs and toads.

"I was delighted to be asked to design the garden, because most public spaces in this country don't give proper attention to the fact that they shouldn't be spraying chemicals around," said Mrs Scott.