I READ, with interest, the High Sheriff of Lincolnshire has officially opened the Sir Joseph Banks' Tribute garden in Horncastle.

I would like to point out my name is Vee Reed and I am the person whose garden design, including a planting scheme which included identifying and sourcing plants attributable to Sir Joseph Banks and his fellow plant hunters, was chosen by the society early last year while I was a full-time horticultural student at Riseholme College in Lincoln.

My design, which followed the brief I had been given, was then immediately subject to changes which actually meant a total redesign, which I completed.

Like others, my time and services were unpaid and amounted to hundreds of hours of to-scale artwork and research into Banks' plants that would survive the Lincolnshire climate and I spent a considerable amount of time sourcing plant suppliers and managed to secure a good price for supply and delivery, which would meet the society's deadline for the next injection of Lottery funding.

I was asked for and supplied the society with a hypothetical account for all the work I had done.

This, I was told, would help secure more Lottery funding.

As the hard landscape was nearing completion I advised the society on soil type and quality, pointing out the existing patch of Japanese knot weed could prove a problem in the future.

I also sourced soil suppliers and negotiated a good price.

At this point, other people were volunteering to be involved in the garden, planting and ongoing maintenance, etc, which, for the sustainability of the garden, is essential and to be welcomed.

Unfortunately, the garden design, plant list and planting scheme became subject to quite a lot of criticism and sarcasm, to the point where I felt I had to withdraw from the project.

Please don't misunderstand me – I felt, and still feel, very honoured to have been involved with the garden.

Hopefully, it will still be there when I am long gone.

I do not regret one moment of my involvement.

What I do regret is that I did not receive an invitation to the opening and that, for whatever reason, my name is spelt incorrectly.

I did not expect anything, but the pleasure and honour of being involved with this project, but the truth is I did much more than design the hard landscape.

I truly hope the people of Horncastle use the garden. It is their lottery money, after all. However, I suspect it will be used by very few.

VEE REED Carlisle, Cumbria.