Diane Kane's backyard can be summed up, in the words of the inimitable Lynn of Tawa, as a "visual symphony".
Her Hampden home and garden is a veritable feast of fixtures and fittings - from pots and pans hanging in trees, to mushrooms carved out of stumps, teapots on bushes and gumboots sprouting grasses.
"I like cramming things in. If there's a space, it's got to be filled. It can't be minimalistic," Ms Kane (60) says.
Her backyard has been named the best in the South Island in a competition organised by Stihl Shop.
She was nominated by her daughter, Cindy, who lives in Auckland, who said: "it's beautiful and she deserves a new set of gear to keep it going".
Ms Kane and her partner, Peter, were walking through a refuse shop in Timaru - "I adore refuse centres" - when she received a text from her daughter, saying she had won.
The garden was "as cottagey as you could get" when the couple bought the property eight years ago and that was what attracted Ms Kane.
It was created by their now neighbour, Jennifer Black, and they have "toned it down a wee bit" and put their own mark on it.
While Ms Kane loves gardening, she also enjoys creating things.
"If I find an old pot or something, I'll titivate it and hang it in a tree."
She picked up a chair from the tip at Hampden this week when she dropped off her rubbish.
Her latest project is a nautical garden, complete with rowboats, buoys and paua.
It is "good fun" and visitors are usually gobsmacked, she says. The house is just as full as the garden.
The prize includes $1000 cash, which Ms Kane plans to give to her daughter, and a variety of Stihl appliances, including a water-blaster and lawnmower, which she is thrilled about as hers have "just carked it".
The winner of the South Island's worst backyard is Jayne Moffat, of Gore, whose house and garden burned down.
She has since been battling insurance companies.
"This is just incredible. It has been a stressful time for us and this provides us with something to be excited about and keep us going," she said.
Photos by Peter McIntosh; prints available from otagoimages.co.nz.
