Over 2,500 fans of Radio 4's Gardeners' Question Time flocked to Sparsholt College, near Winchester, for the programme's garden party.

The show, which has been running for 57 years, has its own garden and its famous potting shed in the college's horticultural section.

With the garden nicely established, producer, Trevor Taylor, decided that a party would be a great way to show it to some of the two million regular listeners.

The celebrity team members included Eric Robson, Roy Lancaster, Bob Flowerdew and Matthew Biggs, with Pippa Greenwood in the chair.

Specialist horticultural staff from Sparsholt provided a continuous series of practical demonstrations to ensure the crowd had plenty to see.

Rosie Yeomans, the college's horticultural lecturer, said: "Everyone enjoyed meeting the celebrities and seeing the potting shed. Many people still don't believe it but the panel do actually record the letters programmes from there."

Head of horticulture, Ray Broughton, said: "As the number of tickets rose, we begun to wonder how everyone would fit in, but the day turned out perfectly, with a huge team effort from the college and close co-operation with all our friends at GQT."

The garden party was a first in the radio programme's long history and the BBC says that if the audience's reaction was anything to go by, there's a good chance it will be repeated.