A GARDEN designer from St John's hopes a live spot on a popular TV show will be a launch pad for her new business.

Carol Smith is one of the Escape Committee which has created a garden around a fantastic two-metre high copper dragon for the prestigious Gardener's World Live Show at the NEC.

The dragon has been built by coppersmith Richard Taylor, who Carol met at last year's Spring Gardening Show at Malvern.

She says they are determined to go for gold this year.

Gardening experts Charlie Dimmock and Alan Titchmarsh will present the programme, which will televise highlights over the week, starting on Wednesday, June 13.

"The sky's the limit and we hope to get lots of new contracts," said Carol, who set up her own garden design and consultancy business a year ago.

"This is a second business for me and the other Escape Committee members, because we all do other things.

"We were asked to help out last year when Richard was let down by his contractors. We had just three weeks to design, plan and build the garden and get the garden organised with me doing the planting.

"We won a bronze medal and featured on the programme, and I hope we have an even bigger slot this year."

The team decided to work together for this year's show with Carol as planting designer and co-ordinator.

The garden is based on the theme of Egyptian-style obelisks and the Ouroboros dragon.

The planting consists of formal geometric shapes with softer, more natural planting around the water features.

It uses scent, colour, shape and texture to appeal to all the senses.

Over the past three years, the garden has raised money for the charity Water Aid and people have paid a pound to make a scale for the dragon.

"We've been planning this garden since last October," said Carol, who explained that the business's name was taken from prisoners who found ingenious ways to escape during the Second World War.

"We felt we'd made some pretty ingenious innovations to complete last year's garden time," said Carol. "The show will be the perfect showcase for our work and we hope it will lead to even more contracts."