The Northern Echo's gardening expert Brigid Press, has been given her own radio show.

The head gardener at Nature's World, in Middlesbrough, has appeared on a live weekly phone-in session on BBC Radio Cleveland for the past three years.

From March 9, Brigid, 35, takes over Sue Sweeney's two-hour dedication slot from noon to 2pm every Sunday.

She said: "I'm absolutely delighted. I've really enjoyed being on the phone-in but this is my own show.

"I love presenting and I love talking to people and helping them sort out their problems."

The show will include interviews, reports from across the region and phone chats.

Brigid, who lives in North Yorkshire, gained her love of gardening from her botanist mother.

She trained as a teacher and fitness instructor and took up gardening as a means of earning extra money while studying at Sheffield Hallam University. In 1994, she started work as a gardener at Chatsworth, the Derbyshire stately home, but moved to Middlesbrough in the mid-1990s, where she set up her own garden design business.

She has been horticultural supervisor and head gardener at Nature's World since 1999.

* You can read Brigid's column in The Northern Echo every Saturday.