We are back for a new series of Love Your Garden! See behind the scenes of episode one, showing our fantastic team and how we created the garden.
1 This is Katie and Frances sitting on a digger at the side of the Portaloo. There are no seats for us. When you get a minute in between filming, you grab the nearest thing to sit on. I notice here that Katie has got the comfy seat while poor Frances is sitting on the Caterpillar tyres. Typical.
2 Here is Kevin from Frosts Landscapes. He’s a cheeky monkey! He is always trying to get in on the behind-the-scenes blog photos. Here he is setting up the artificial plant wall which looks really good. It took a lot of twiddling to get it into position and stretch out the foliage and he did a great job.
3 Meet a new star in Love Your Garden: our series producer Colin. He’s the boss and spends his time telling us what to do. He also mucks in himself and he’s always trying to get on camera! Here he is carrying a roll of weed block and trying to look like one of the workers.
4 Next shot is Alan and Katie side by side getting ready to present a piece on the grow your own section in the garden. I love that little area with the railway sleepers – I’ve got something similar in my own garden.
5 Here is a picture of Colin with Hayley, one of our directors. The two of them are bossing us around, telling us where to go and what to do. I thought you should see what they look like when they are giving us direction.
6 This is Will, our producer-director. He shoots a lot of the videos and close-ups. He’s a hardworking guy. He’s always popping round with his camera, and he keeps telling us that he owns his own kit.
7 This is Sam. He’s one of the Frosts Landscapes guys and he’s our muscle man. He can walk in with a pallet on one shoulder and a wheelbarrow full of soil on the other! He works with Kevin and the two of them were landscapers on the Olympic Park, so they know what they’re doing.
8 Frances is here with her little pots that she was making ready to put on the pallet on the wall. There were a lot of pallets in this garden. But she’s smiling because she’s got a cushy job, sitting out in the sun planting up little pots of succulents.
9 Look at this viburnum that we put into the garden. It’s a beautiful variety called viburnum x juddii. I remember the distinct fragrance of this plant – it takes me back to about 1987 when I was working in a garden centre. It’s a beautiful scent. This is certainly my favourite plant from the whole series.
10 This is our catering van. We are always well looked after with food to keep us going. The problem is that you only get five minutes to eat it before you are back on set again! It was quite nice for this episode because it was shot in the sunshine near a small common, so we could sit on the grass and eat lunch. That’s a lot better than sitting on the kerb, which is what we normally have to do!
11 I love this picture. Tam is hanging up a set of windchimes, only to be told off by Matt, our lead sound man. The last thing he needs is a load of wind chimes tinkling in the background while he’s trying to film Alan presenting.
12 Would you believe that our Portaloo was called the TARDIS? Here is Katie, who has always fancied herself as the Doctor’s assistant. I’m not sure about her and her sonic… secateurs. But she’s trying to look the part anyway.
13 This is Matt, the supervisor from Frosts Landscapes. He had a big hand in the pallet sofa set, a brilliant job and here he is posing and trying to look cool with the finished results.
14 This is a shot of me on the hanging seat from when I went out looking at different types of garden furniture. I love this – it was taken when we were doing the James Bond shots. Actually, that seat is a lot more comfortable than you would think.
15 Here is our researcher Annie, nose to nose with the Buddha statue. She finds all the locations of the filming for the short videos that we do. And you can see Colin in the background – I told you, he’s always trying to get in the shot!
16 I have got to put up a picture of the garden I visited in London with the outdoor lounge. It’s a superb garden and one of my favourites from the series. It’s very cleverly designed and they have put so much in a small space.
17 Here is a photo of Tam. Goodness only knows what he looks like! That is actually the mask and ear defenders he wears when he is using the disc cutter. As you can see, when he’s not working he simply sticks them on his head like that, and he wonders why we are all laughing.
18 This is Colin (again!) giving me some direction. He is nonchalantly doing this with a pack of pasta in one hand and a plastic fork in the other. In the photo, he’s busy telling me to get on with it. The cheek!
19 This is Stef, Matt and Natalie giving us direction as we were passing the wigwam over the wall. This is the part where I get attacked!
This has been a fantastic first episode of a great series, and a very deserving family. I hope you found all these behind-the-scenes photos fun and revealing!
P.S. Check out the photos of the finished garden here and see my Get the Look guide for a plant list!
David Domoney is a Chartered Horticulturalist, Broadcaster, and Author. David has worked with a number of the UK’s leading garden retailers as a plant buyer and strategic consultant. With more than 30 years experience, in horticulture, David is as passionate about plants now as he was when he bought his first plant at a village fete.
This was such a heartwarming end for the family. I blabbed rather a lot as all the hard work was so well done for these lovely folk. Excellent and very moving. Thank you
Loved the show, the people, such a tremendous amount of hard work but so rewarding. I’d love to put the “stars” in my garden, hanging from trees to capture the sunlight and remember loved ones no longer here x where can I buy them ?
Hi Jane, we made them from these stars from Etsy – we glued two together and made a little hole at the top for some string. Here’s the link> http://etsy.me/1Lmdz5e
Catching up on the new series – what a heartwarming show, and a wonderful garden for a very lovely family. I am really keen to identify the garden furniture set featured in the modern contemporary garden, that ultimately inspired your homemade pallet sofa. Does anyone know what make this is? Thank you.