Prize winning gardener shocked by 'deliberate' poisoning

Ray Winsley's garden is his pride and joy. He spends all his time tending it, and visitors to Bishop Sutton in North Somerset often stop outside to take photographs.

In fact, a few weeks ago Mr Winsley won the Containers Category for the Bath in Bloom competition.

But it seems not everyone was delighted with his success. Mr Winsley believes someone deliberately put weedkiller in his water butt, and as a result most of his plants have died.

Virtually every plant is now dead or dying after they were watered with weedkiller.

There's even a trail of destruction on the lawn where the tubs were watered.

In fact, Mr Winsley knows who watered his garden. It was his neighbour, who wanted to help him out whilst the Winsleys were on holiday.

What that neighbour didn't know was the water butt had been contaminated with weedkiller. When Mr Winsley tipped it all out, he found traces of it inside.

He doesn't know who the culprit is, but puts it down to jealousy.

• A member of the Royal Horticultural Society has offered Mr Winsley free replacement plants, and a team of volunteers to help plant them. Jon Mitchell says he's saddened by events:

Now Mr Winsley plans to put a large fence round his water butt.