Christen Pears meets Brigid Press, The Northern Echo's new gardening columnist.

SHE may not be as famous as Charlie Dimmock but Brigid Press is a celebrity gardener in the North-East. For the last two years, the 34 year old has appeared on a live weekly phone-in session on Radio Cleveland.

"Because I'm on the radio, people don't know what I look like but when they hear my voice, they recognise me straight away. It's quite a strange feeling, although I have to admit I quite enjoy it," she laughs.

"Because it's a live show, I was absolutely terrified at first but I love it now. There are some real characters who phone in on a regular basis and it can be great fun."

Brigid, who lives in Kirkby, North Yorkshire, gained her love of gardening and the natural world from her mother, who is a botanist. She was born in Zambia, where her mother was working for the Forestry Commission, but the family moved to England after civil war broke out.

She trained as a teacher but decided it wasn't the career for her and re-trained as a fitness instructor. She had always loved sport and was a member of the England women's cricket team for several years, playing against sides as diverse as Ireland and India.

"I had a great time. Women's cricket is huge down south although it's not as popular up here. I still like to keep my hand in though and play for a local team."

While studying for a degree in recreation and environmental management at Sheffield Hallam University, she took up gardening to earn extra money.

"I had always been interested in gardening as a hobby but it suddenly just took off," she says.

After qualifying, she worked in the fitness industry for two years but continued with her gardening and, in 1994, took up a job at Chatsworth, the Derbyshire stately home.

"It was a wonderful experience but unfortunately, they only employ people on one-year contracts so I had to move on. I spent most of my time working on the adventure playground so I always seemed to be moving bushes and tree trunks around but I learned an enormous amount."

In the mid 1990s, she moved to Middlesbrough, where she set up Curvy Borders, her own garden design and creation business.

"I enjoyed working for myself but, in the end, the business got too big for me to manage on my own. More and more people were asking me to do their gardens and it got to the stage where I was either going to have to employ someone else or look for another job. Fortunately, a job did come up and I was lucky enough to get it."

Brigid has been horticultural supervisor and head gardener at Nature's World in Middlesbrough since November 1999. As well as looking after the demonstration gardens on the 35-acre site, she is responsible for the training of volunteers, who have physical and learning difficulties or are long-term unemployed. It's a job she finds extremely rewarding.

"The scheme is part of the New Deal and it's becoming increasingly popular. A couple of years ago, it was at the bottom of all the volunteers' lists but now they actually want to do it.

"I think a lot of it has to do with gardening programmes on the television. There are a lot of them now and I think they've done a lot to raise awareness and they've really got people interested in gardening and the environment."

* Look out for Brigid's gardening column in The Northern Echo every Saturday. Her radio show goes out on BBC Radio Cleveland from 11am to midday every Sunday