Former BMW test driver Olivia Stewart is on track to become the country’s top young garden designer.

Olivia Stewart, 27, has been named as one of the three finalists in the prestigious Royal Horticultural Society Young Designer of the Year competition, which will be taking place at the RHS Show at Tatton Park in Cheshire from July 21 to 25.

Ms Stewart, the daughter of Oxford University human sciences don Philip Stewart, developed her love of gardening growing up in the family home on Boars Hill.

But she landed her place in the final with a design inspired by a camping trip to the Lake District.

Ms Stewart, of Shirelake Close, near Folly Bridge, Oxford, said: “It’s a wonderful opportunity but also very daunting. I was very fortunate to have had an upbringing in such a beautiful setting outside Oxford.”

But she only realised her passion and flair for gardening on reaching her twenties. She now runs Olivia Stewart Landscape Design Ms Stewart said: “I started working with BMW, test driving Minis. But I quickly came to realise that it wasn’t my cup of tea and became interested in gardening, going on to set up my own garden maintenance business.”

She later decided to go to the Oxford College of Garden Design, graduating last year, where she studied for a postgraduate level course in residential landscape architecture.

She had to submit designs for the competition and will receive a grant of £12,000 to create her garden, with funding from the North West Regional Development Agency and the RHS. The winner will be announced in July.