Bringing welcome cheer to Bo'ness despite the unseasonally wet summer were St Mary's RC Church garden, and Mary Harper and David Broughton's Kinneil wildlife garden, which both scooped district-wide titles.

Elsie Sinclair of Salmon Court sheltered housing scooped the newcomer prize for Grangemouth and Bo'ness.

Criteria for the church and newcomer categories included neatness, diversity of planting and overall effect.

Credit was given in the wildlife category for caring for the environment and creation of habitats.

Seamlessly blending their Duchess Anne Cottages garden with the adjacent woodland, Mary and David's land is teeming with creatures.

With three streams leading to a pond, David (64) said: "We've got a wonderful population of tadpoles and frogs.

"We have visitors from foxes to hedgehogs and squirrels."

Mary (56), from Australia, grew an orange tree as a child. Now she has apple, plum and cherry trees.

Calling gardening her 'therapy', Mary said: "It's wonderful being outside and enjoying the plants and insects."

At Linlithgow Road it's thanks to the efforts of Andrew Liddle, Robert McAllister, John McAvoy and Ian Bark that the congregation and townsfolk have such an eye-catching church garden.

Robert joked: "The gardens are so big that once you get to one end you've got to start again. It's like the Forth Bridge!"

The team are of retirement age, but Robert said: "As long as we're quite able, we'll keep doing it."

While overall entry numbers were down on previous years, not helped by a late summer, organisers were very impressed by the volume of newcomer entrants.

Mike Joyce, Falkirk Council's community services technical officer, said: "I think it probably reflects the interest people have in their garden now as a haven, offering escapism from the wild world."

Elsie Sinclair, 89 in November and formerly of the Land Army, admitted she would "beg or steal cuttings" for her School Brae oasis.

She added: "It's absolutely crammed, with bedding begonias, geraniums and Busy Lizzies."

Provost Pat Reid will present the winners with prizes this autumn.