"If you needed to be experienced, I'd be a dead failure. It was my late husband who was the gardener, not me, I inherited it," Mrs Jenkins said.

"I belong to the Orange Garden Club.... and some of them are incredibly knowledgeable. I'm not. I know one weed from another and that's about it," she joked.

When Mrs Jenkins moved to Orange 22 years ago with her late-husband, Alex Jenkins, there was just "sheep and a few houses" in the neighbouring plots and "nothing else".

Now her home in North Orange is surrounded by houses, but many of the trees and plants which were put in the soil all those years ago by the married couple are still going strong.

"Gardening is wonderful, [particularly] at the present time because it enables me to go outside [and] I'm not stuck inside, unlike people in the city and anybody who's living in an apartment or townhouse," Mrs Jenkins said.

"It's very rewarding and it's very satisfying."

The therapeutic benefits of gardening had always been apparent to her, but that became especially true during the lockdown.

While the multitude of birds which frequented the small paradise she and her husband had made were also a source of constant joy - especially the ducks who had taken up permanent residency on her pond.

"Gardening is very therapeutic, very satisfying... and it's very healthy because you're doing exercise," she said.

"It's a wonderful therapy, I would recommend gardening to anybody."

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