An amateur gardener who delights neighbours every year with his multi-coloured garden has had his best year yet - with over 2,000 plants in full bloom.

Shaun Schroeder, 60, spends up to three hours each evening tending his 200 hanging baskets.

The grandad-of-two got into gardening during lockdown and found himself hooked, and this year his garden is better than ever, drawing people from all over Bristol.

Shaun, a demolition supervisor, plants everything in one whirlwind week in May - so everything blooms at the same time around late July.

He spends all summer maintaining his blooms - with such care he even removes every slug and snail by HAND to ensure none can feast on his handiwork.

But the grind doesn't stop for Shaun when summer ends - because you'll find him out in the garden preparing cuttings ready for next year.

Shaun budgets around £1,500 per year for the garden - including all plants, compost, fertiliser, pots and tools.

Shaun, based in Whitchurch, Bristol, said: "The garden is in full bloom at the minute - this year the 200 hanging baskets are looking tip-top!"

"I actually planted 199 to start with but as soon as I counted them, I had to plant one more to make the round figure."

Shaun always gardened in his modest 4m wide garden but it became his passion during lockdown - when people began to notice it more.

He would get people pass and tell him the garden "brightened up the doom and gloom" during lockdowns - which spurred him on."

He even had people post letters through his letterbox praising his multi-coloured garden - and locals taking detours on their daily walks just to pass by for a peek.

Since then he's been hooked - and makes it his yearly mission to turn his garden into a piece of artwork, each year better than the next.

One week in May each year, Shaun books a week off work to have a solid week of planting ready for the summer bloom.

In 2020, he had around 1,000 plants and 100 hanging baskets, and he has upped his numbers each year since then.

This year saw him top his personal records - with over 2,000 petunias, begonias, fuchsias, calibrachoas, impatiens, geraniums, lobelias and verbena.

This includes precisely 200 stunning hanging baskets spilling over with the brightly coloured flowers which make his garden a local tourist attraction.

When he gets home from work he spends between two and three hours in the garden

planting, tending, dead-heading and watering, as well as all his time on weekends.

He said with costs rising, plants have become more expensive, but he's tackled that by doing more cuttings - so propagates plants rather than buying them all new.

This way, a plant costing £3 can generate ten cuttings - meaning each plant only costs 30p.

Around 500 of the 2,000 plants in his garden this year were taken from last year's cuttings.