A retired accountant who created an authentic Shetland crofthouse garden using plants — and even a ruined crofthouse — donated by islanders won a gold medal at the Chelsea Flower Show today.

Martin Anderson, 61, has never designed a garden before, let alone exhibited at Chelsea. He came up with the idea for the garden, which is set in 1940, while on holiday in the Shetlands last June. “I am an accountant, not a gardener — I mow the lawn at home, but that’s about it,” he said. “It was the challenge of just doing it, and for the Motor Neurone Disease Association.”

The garden features the endangered Shetland Mouse-ear — the first time this rare white-flowered plant has ever been displayed at Chelsea. “It grows only on one square mile of one island in the Shetlands: Unst,” said Mr Anderson. “I wanted it fresh so had to dash up to Edinburgh on the Flying Scotsman to pick it up on Saturday from the Royal Botanic Garden. The seed came from Unst; it’s going back to Shetland after the show.”

He added that it had been “a relief” to win a gold in the courtyard garden category. “So many Shetlanders helped that I feel it is recognition for them.”

The Dorset Cereals Edible Playground, and the Good Gifts garden by AW Gardening Services and Conway Landscapes, also won gold in the courtyard garden category.

Crowds were six and seven-deep at the Shetland crofthouse garden today. “The judges told me I very nearly won best courtyard garden in show, and so many people have come up to me and said that it’s nice to see a proper little garden at Chelsea - they don’t seem to like the show gardens. Hopefully we will get the people’s choice award.”

It cost Mr Anderson about £25,000 to create the garden; he has received some sponsorship but it covers only about half the total cost. He is selling the garden after the show in an attempt to recoup his outlay - offers should be made via his website, www.earthlygardendesigns.co.uk. Any donations or sponsorship above the cost of the garden will be donated to the MND Association.

Mr Anderson, who is a founder member of the MND Association and was appointed MBE last year for his services to the charity, appealed for help with his garden on BBC Radio Shetland in January. “We asked for plants and people dug them up and sent them in boxes in droves — it was a team effort by the whole of Shetland. I think people thought the idea was a bit bonkers at first, but they were very helpful and sent in about 200 plants, including rare Shetland spuds like the Foula Kidney and Blue Heart.”

The garden bursts with genuine touches. The crofthouse itself and driftwood fence were donated by a Shetland sculptress, Ruth Fisher, after she heard the radio appeal; the faded Shetland jumper belongs to Mr Anderson himself; and the wind-dried fish hanging on a line, and walking stick by the front door, were lent by Hazel Gray, the postmistress of Mid Yell in the Shetlands, whose father died of MND. The stick symbolises the crippling nature of the disease.

The plants in the MND Association Shetland Crofthouse Garden are noticeably smaller than mainland UK natives: “The wind is so harsh on Shetland that things like red-hot pokers and foxgloves don’t grow as high,” Mr Anderson said.

Mr Anderson, who lives in Nottingham, approached a local designer, Sue Hayward, who lectures part-time at Nottingham Trent University, to help him realise his idea. He described his vision of the crofthouse garden to her, she drew it and the joint design evolved from there. “I had never been to Shetland, or designed a garden at Chelsea, when I did the drawing for Martin,” Ms Hayward said. “He approached me out of the blue and I thought he was a bit crazy: Martin was an accountant, I had never been at Chelsea and had only been a garden designer for four years. But I decided to go for it and see how it went. We worked together well.”

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