Pictures show dramatic transformation of people's gardens since Somerset Levels flooding in 2014

Families in Moorland were forced to move out of their wrecked homes in 2014 as a massive clean-up operation went ahead.

It also saw well-tended gardens obliterated by the floodwater which contained sewage and oil.

Moorland, pictured, after the flooding in 2014

But now nine houses in the village have taken part in a National Open Gardens Scheme.

It showed the general public how they have bounced back from one of Britain's worst natural disasters in recent memory.

Retired teacher Lana Smithen, 69, and husband Phil, 68, decided to organise the event after taking part in a similar one 25 years ago.

The couple, who have lived in their house for 42 years, were forced to move out for ten months, and in the immediate aftermath of the floods discovered dead badgers and foxes floating in the water.

Their summerhouse was flooded up to the windows - to the same height as Mrs Smithen's chest.

They no longer eat the produce from their vegetable patch for fear of what the earth might be contaminated with, but have brought their garden back to life in a stunning display of colour.

Mrs Smithen said: "Some people say 'are you still flooded out?' We want to show the world that Moorland is on the map again.

"We are no longer underwater. People are moving into the village. But there are still empty houses."

When they came up with the idea two years ago, few people were willing to take part.

But the active Gardening Club became a mechanism to rope in friends and neighbours, who were often impressed by what changes they had seen in the years since 2014.

Mr Smithen still blames the Environment Agency for inactivity in preventing the floods, which they hope will never happen again.

He added: "I've never seen such growth in the plants as this year.

"The garden has regenerated."

Betty Gibbs tends to plants in her garden

Just a few metres down the road, Betty Gibbs, 73, still has a surviving ornament from before the floods - a stone fox in her back garden.

But she faced a double tragedy as while the floodwaters ravaged her home, her landscape gardener husband Graham was dying of prostate cancer.

Betty returned home to start from scratch in the house they had shared for 28 years.

She said: "I got back and thought 'I can't move back here.' "The smell was terrible - but I did.

"They did a good job drying it out."

She added: "I belong to the Gardening Club and I was surprised by what people had done since the floods - that's what the visitors will experience."

A garden in Moorland on show. 

With the lovingly planted flowerbeds which Graham had planted washed away, Mrs Gibbs returned home to find only a few shrubs and the stone fox left.

"A terrible situation it was," she said. "You've got to start all over again, and knowing what plants and what shrubs to put in is hard - you want something to last."

The great-grandmother said: "As time drew nearer I thought 'why did I put myself up for this? Will they appreciate it?'"

Angela and Dennis Cox in their garden

Also grappling with nerves was Angela Cox, 68, who feared her garden was too small to warrant a place in the event.

She said: "The flood killed all the trees and the garden was disappearing into a drainage ditch.

"It brought in a lot of weeds."

Along with her husband of three years, Dennis, 70, Mrs Cox restored the garden with a new pebbled area, a summerhouse and an outbuilding.

"We lost a lot of the plants, all the dahlias," she said.

"Everything rotted in the ground."

The bungalow where she has lived for 20 years had never flooded before, and when they returned, the wooden floorboards were floating.

Mr Cox added: "It was unprecedented so nobody could do anything about it."

He had to dress in waders and carry Mrs Cox on his shoulders, but the water was still chest-high.

He added: "We're not confident it will never happen again but we've got everything crossed."