Keen gardeners Derrick and Jane Taylor have transformed a wilderness into landscaped gardens including ponds, vegetable plots, woodlands and orchards.

But the finished product is not just for show, as within their 19-acre plot is a 5,500sq ft computer-controlled greenhouse where the couple produce thousands of bedding plants.

When the Taylors bought Springfield Farm, Southmoor, in 1984, it was far from complete.

Mr Taylor said: “The house was unfinished and there wasn’t a single shrub in the garden, just bare grassland as far as the eye could see.”

After Mr Taylor completed the building work on the house, he added a croquet lawn, stables, two ponds, a tennis court, a barn, a two-storey garage/workshop/ office, an equipment store and a pool house with indoor swimming pool, whirl pool, sauna and bar.

He also planted about 13,000 trees to create seven acres of woodlands that include oak, cherry and ash.

Mr Taylor had the £12,000-greenhouse imported from Holland eight years ago because he wanted to be able to be able to garden all year round.

He said: “It contains tens of thousands of freesias, dahlias and many other types of bedding plants we have grown from cuttings.”

The Taylors also grow many types of fruit and vegetables including tomatoes, melons, carrots, beetroots and potatoes, raspberries and rhubarb, apples, peaches and plums.

Mr Taylor’s love of gardening began as a boy: “My father insisted I help on his allotment. Years later when I was in the Royal Navy, I studied horticulture at evening classes.”

In the 1950s he worked at Hawker Siddeley but ran a plant nursery from home in his spare time, getting up at 5am to take surplus stock to market before work and potting plants until midnight. Mr Taylor started his own commercial electronics business in the 1980s, which was later floated on the Stock Exchange.

He added: “Having made money from selling shares, I thought I’d buy a house with a big garden.”

Springfield Farm, which is arranged over three floors, has four reception rooms, a gallery-style landing, eight bedrooms and six bathrooms.

Mr Taylor pointed out: “We don’t sell anything we grow, we give it all away to friends and family.

“But although it is just a hobby for us, an enterprising buyer could turn it into a business venture.

“We have a magnificent garden, but as I will be 80 on my next birthday, I want to move to a house where there is less gardening to be done.

“I will buy a greenhouse to go in the garden of our new house but it will be much smaller.”

Springfield Farm is on at a guide price of £2.5m. For more information, contact Savills on 01865 33970 or see the website savills.com