So what did you think to last night’s show? (If you missed it, get on ITVPlayer now!)
Here’s what the garden looked like when we got there!
And here’s the finished article:
It took a lot of hard work, and I set about pruning everything, including the sound man Matt’s mic!
Stunning arches by Gardman
Incredible mosaic
Enjoying a well-deserved glass of champers with the garden owners, Ian and Claire.
You’ve seen the show, now check out what happens behind the scenes!
(Missed it? Watch it on ITVPlayer now!)
This is something for every spaghetti Western fan – Frances’ wellingtons with her special secateurs boot holder, ideal for a quick draw ready for any pruning, broken, damaged or diseased branches.
This is our series producer Phil and production manager Jim. This is the camera on a telescopic boom that goes into the air to film a lot of the top-shots down onto the garden. I can’t tell you how much hard work that particular pole is! It needs programming, fine-tuning, resetting – it’s so frustrating! However it has given us some great shots of the garden. In previous episodes we’ve filmed shots from a neighbour’s roof, but this gives incredible sweeping views.
Here’s Thea, one of our associate producers. She pulls together most of the products, from paving to arches. She does a marvellous job getting everything together for us.
Here is Tam and Sam, also known as Mr Muscles! They work for Frosts Landscapes. It’s amazing how much soil we’ve put into gardens, especially when it’s raining or the soil is particularly poor. We moved literally tons and tons of soil. It’s exhausting!
This is our intrepid production manager Jim getting to grips with the power tools. He’s the best guy for assembling the BBQ and other garden furniture. Here he’s busy posing with a drill instead of using it – he thinks he’s James Bond. Brooke Bond more like!
This is Dan from Frosts. He’s always got a smile on his face. It’s a lovely atmosphere when we’re creating these gardens, because it’s such a great bunch of people. Between the production team, the landscape support, the suppliers and presenters, there’s marvellous camaraderie. And we really pull together against impossible deadlines.
Everybody is getting stuck in here. Alan’s down on his knees with Katie as they’re putting some of the works together for the centrepiece. In the background is our series producer Phil, who is meant to be encouraging Alan but looks more like he’s wrestling with that bush!
Here’s me getting in trouble again for taking photos for you, dear readers! The things I do for you. Frances is doing some presenting in the background, and Natalie, one of our directors, is busy telling me off!
Here we have a mud cake – this is actually a real chocolate cake, but it does look like a joke one! I thought I’d lend a hand with the slicing and serve it on a spade. Not everyone was happy about it though – apparently people wanted to eat it! No sense of humour.
This is us on location looking at all the different greenhouses. It’s the Manor garden, which was absolutely superb and one of the best gardens I’ve seen in ages. The greenhouse at the end is spectacular and we had a very enjoyable day filming.
I was late to turn up to the greenhouse video because I was stuck behind this for about 15 minutes down a one-track road. What a nightmare. I took this photo as evidence to show the director Ben that it wasn’t just an excuse! Ben, if you’re reading this, it was true!
This is the bird of paradise, the strelitzia, I was talking about while doing the greenhouse video. I don’t actually think it looks like a bird, but check out those amazing colours. The vibrant orange and the purple with the silvery green stem looks as if it’s been handcrafted! It’s marvellous.
Here’s a shot of the glamour of television. Alan is getting ready to present over a table propped up by a couple of fence posts. Katie, Frances and I are waiting in the wings. The reason this shot looks so funny is because it has just started hailing! Alan’s cowering under that umbrella, and poor Steve in the background is running through the hailstones for a spare battery! Not glamorous at all.
Here’s some more glamour in the greenhouse! It’s pouring down with rain, and Alan, Katie, Frances and myself all got inside, along with the cameraman and the director. But it was so packed, there wasn’t room for our poor sound guy Matt, who had to wait outside in the rain! Here’s a lovely photo of him pouting, and he won’t be pleased that I’ve put it in the blog!
Here’s another shot of action. Steve is almost taking a foetal position as he tries to get a shot through those flowers to catch Frances going back to the garden with her wheelbarrow. It’s always a pleasure to work with Steve – he goes the extra mile!
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You’ve seen the show, now check out what happens behind the scenes!
(Missed it? Watch it on ITVPlayer now!)
Here’s one of our producer/directors, Ben, filming the introduction. He shoots the short videos while we’re away from site, and acts as the third cameraman during the day.
This is Holly and Eleanor, who co-ordinate most of the events and keep us refreshed with tea, coffee and fruit. It sounds very healthy, but don’t be fooled – there’s cake too! Just behind them you can see the huge pile of rubbish we’ve made on site!
The artificial turf in this episode was delivered by Easigrass and the sales rep turned up in this quite amazing car. But he was quickly told to get it off site and park it somewhere else…
This is our catering van, serving up some delicious meals. We get a bit of breakfast when we get on site and always have a nice lunch. It’s important to keep refreshed because you’re working in the rain against tight deadlines and having your every move filmed.
I love this shot! Meet Steve, one of our three cameramen, and behind him is Matt, our sound technician. In the camera lens you can see the director Alice, and you can also see Frances reflected in the window to the right.
This shot is a couple of the lads! Matt in the foreground is one of the hard landscapers and a brilliant paving guy, and Shaun is a carpenter who works on all the wood in the garden. They are great guys and always keep us entertained.
Here’s Ben filming for my piece on repairing your decking. The problem was that just as we had got most of the stain in, the rain started pouring down. Ben is getting soaking wet while I’m keeping dry under an umbrella!
Here’s a shot of Alan presenting a piece about that beautiful Acer. It’s one of my favourite plants from the show, and it looks amazing in that raised bed. It’s things like that – a few hero plants, that really make a garden.
Here’s me getting into trouble! I thought I’d have a quick go with Ben’s camera, but he didn’t think it was that funny. In the photo he’s telling me to stop messing about with such an expensive piece of equipment! It’s a great shot with a beautiful backdrop of um… Hippobag collecting all the rubbish.
Here’s a shot of Frances really getting her hands dirty and getting enthusiastic about her grass planting. The garden is starting to take shape, but we’re under a bit of pressure now because time is definitely running out.
Alan really puts his all into the show. Here he is lifting up Katie so she can tie the evergreen clematis in to the trampoline arch. The lengths that we go to, creating these makeovers – it’s above and beyond the call of duty!
Here is a photo of Katie presenting in the garden as she’s planting a fatsia. Often when you see it on TV, it looks as if they are just talking to you, but there’s a whole group of people on the other side of the camera!
This is what it looks like when you’re being filmed! It’s not just one cameraman! This is from one of the scenes at the end. From left to right you’ve got Matt on sound, Steve the cameraman, Natalie who’s first director for this episode, then second cameraman Stef, second director Alice, our co-ordinator and photographer Jim, and Grant the second sound guy.
Here’s a picture of the finished garden! This is what it looks like from the other side of the camera, when all the family come out to see what we’ve done. Alan’s raising a glass to a very deserving family and a spectacular garden. It really was a pleasure to work on it.
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