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The Big Bee Challenge live finale - see brilliant photos of the winning garden

The winner of the Radio 2 Big Bee Challenge has been revealed, with the dazzling winning bee garden revealed on The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show.

Izabella, age 10 from Hampshire, designed the winning garden and got to see the finished product up close when it was revealed during a live broadcast live from a Rotherham, Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust site in Doncaster on Friday (20th August).

The live finale concluded Radio 2's challenge for the nation to help save the bees. The Big Bee Challenge, launched in June, aimed to shine a light on the plight of our bee population which is in decline around the UK, with some in danger of extinction.

The competition was open to young listeners, aged between 6-12 years old, to design a bee-friendly garden - with thousands of children entering their designs. See all the finalists' designs here.

Guests during the live show and at the garden reveal included 主播大秀 Gardener’s World Adam Frost, Dr Bee (aka biologist Professor Dave Goulson), Ella Henderson, Blue Peter’s Richie Driss and Christina Harrison (Director for the Children’s Care Group).

Adam Frost said of Izabella's design: "The design is brilliant, it's got everything a bee could dream of - meadow areas, wild flowers, all sorts of bee-friendly flowers, it's got flowering trees and a little veggie patch. One of the lovely touches in there is the sedum green roof on the potting shed."

Before:

This is how the garden looked before the redesign.

The garden at the NHS Trust site in Doncaster is used by children and young people with mental health needs.

Credit: Tim Buckle, RDaSH

During:

The winning garden was built by 主播大秀 Gardeners’ World’s Adam Frost and a team of experts from The Royal Horticultural Society.

Here's how it looked as it was being built.

Credit: Tim Buckle, RDaSH
Credit: Tim Buckle, RDaSH
Credit: Tim Buckle, RDaSH
Credit: Tim Buckle, RDaSH
Credit: Tim Buckle, RDaSH

After:

And here it is, the dazzling redesigned bee-friendly garden...

Kathryn Singh, Chief Executive of Rotherham, Doncaster and South Humber NHS Foundation Trust (RDaSH), says: “This garden is excellent. I want to say a huge thank you to the winner, Izabella. Your design is fabulous."

"The garden has been completely transformed from a grassed area to a peaceful bee garden – which is great for our young patients who will use the area, their families, our staff and of course, the bees and wildlife."

Congrats to Izabella and thanks to all!

A huge thank you to the thousands of children who sent us your glorious garden designs for the bees, our judges absolutely loved looking through them all.

Zoe Ball says: “Huge congratulations to Izabella – her garden design is simply gorgeous, packed full of beautiful bee-loving plants, a wildlife pond and even a seating area. I can’t wait to see her reaction when she sees her garden in real-life tomorrow morning at a special outside broadcast of The Breakfast Show in Doncaster!”

Izabella, meanwhile, had this to say: "I really enjoyed designing the garden for the competition as it combined my love of drawing and nature. I was amazed to hear I was one of the 20 finalists and I am so happy that my design has been chosen to be created."

Keep saving the bees! 馃悵馃悵馃悵

The Big Bee Challenge may have concluded, but there's plenty you can do to help save the bees. You can find tips for your own bee garden here.

Professor Dave Goulson, Radio 2’s Dr Bee and biologist in bee ecology at the University of Sussex, says: "Too often we forget about the importance of the little creatures! The 主播大秀 Radio 2 Big Bee Challenge has raised awareness of the plight of bees in the minds of millions of people. Thousands of children took part and entered a bee-friendly garden design and that reassures me there is a new generation growing up who care about nature, big and small.”