Garden hailed as one of best

It's a virtual winter wonderland when temperatures dip, with its frosted trees and icy ponds, while in summer its prized perennials make it pretty as a picture.

This all-seasons garden created by Pat and Vic Griffiths in Willenhall has been billed by experts as one of the most fascinating in the Black Country with its huge range of trees and shrubs, which are potted to perfection. And now it is being celebrated in a new book as one of the most beautiful in the country by a distinguished gardening professional.

In the book Room Outside, by David Stevens, the humble back garden in Beech Road features alongside those of millionaires in Kensington and Chelsea.

But there are no extravagant exterior designers at work here. The hard work is all down to the green-fingered grandparents, who have been slowly revamping the once three-acre field into a beautiful garden since they moved in 30 years ago.

Mrs Griffiths, aged 65, said: "It is a lovely honour to be included in the book. You would never think the garden was in Willenhall."

The garden starts literally at the kitchen window with pyracantha and ivy growing up the walls, interspersed with honeysuckles and a gorgeous clematis. Around the back door there are fine pots of evergreen plants and lilies leading to a lovely bed of mini-shrubs including a cotoneaster and senicio with a cranesbill geranium scrambling through it to find the lights.

The borders of the garden are protected by trees, including four mountain ashes. Then inside there is a treehouse, two ponds and a stream amid shrubs such as berberis, hollies and cornus.

Foxes and squirrels live side by side in the garden, which is also home to an owl, a woodpecker and its young.

Mrs Griffiths added: "We decided to develop it as a living garden, that could look beautiful but still be enjoyed by everyone."