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!
Fantastic hot tub.
Who put those rubber ducks in there?
Such a deserving family!
You’ve seen the show, now check out what happens behind the scenes!
(Missed it? Watch it on ITVPlayer now!)
These are the guys from TV Times that came over to interview us. I hope you all picked up a copy – it was a brilliant article and had some great photography to go with it!
Here’s a photo of just what we were up against on site. It rained non-stop and the soil quickly turned to sticky mud. Not only does it make everything damp, cold and miserable, but it’s also really slippy, which slows everything down. It’s just not a comfortable thing, so we removed it when the rain stopped.
This is how wet I was.
Here is Ben with Natalie, who has got her foot stuck in the mud! It had rained constantly and turned to sticky mud! The first day on site is usually a nightmare trying to get the groundwork in. It’s just as chaotic as it looks.
Natalie is also quite a good stylist, and put some of that troublesome mud to good use – by making a mud face of Martyn. I think the resemblance is striking!
Here’s Ben really getting down and dirty! Everyone gets caked in mud on Love Your Garden. Here he is getting those important shots under the decking framework, where we’re going to put the hot tub.
This is a good indication of how much soil we took out of that garden! We ended up shipping out a good ten bags full. We moved tons and tons and tons of soil. It was just so muddy. Unfortunately, it was my suggestion that we take it out, which didn’t make me very popular!
And here is the fresh soil we brought back into the garden. We put about ten bags worth of topsoil and four bags of mushroom compost back into the garden. It was hard work, but the plants will thank us for it!
Here’s how the shot was done with the mud in the wheelbarrow. As you can see, Kevin from Frosts is pushing the wheelbarrow, and the camera is actually sat in the mud! Luckily, it’s not an expensive piece of kit, right…?
Here’s a shot of Alan to show how you’re never alone on Love Your Garden. When you’re digging, eight or nine people are standing watching you.
Alan was getting a lot of stick for his super clean wellies! But it turned out that his old wellies, which were covered in years’ worth of mud, are currently in the Garden Museum near Lambeth. So it wasn’t that he had been skiving off! He’s busy breaking those new ones in now.
Here’s a shot from where I am, digging in plants in the corner. I can see Katie across the garden in the rain, starting to plant up one of the first raised borders. It always feels like an uphill struggle when the first border goes in, because you realise just how much planting there is still to do.
This is a great photo of Katie and Frances. Katie has just heard the bad news – we’re going to have to work until at least 9pm tonight to get everything done! She doesn’t look very happy about it.
But it’s not all bad – I got a special mug. Cheers, guys!
Here is a fantastic shot. We’re just doing the handover when we let the family into the finished garden. Steve in the background is drenched to the skin, and this cheeky chappy is producer Phil telling me to stop taking photos for the blog and enjoy the party! I hope you appreciate the sacrifices I make for you, dear readers.
Here’s Alan and the family – everyone wants a photo with him! Alan stays behind when the garden is finished to take hundreds of snaps and selfies with the family, their friends and relatives, and the neighbours. He’s always very accommodating and the family were very deserving of such a great makeover.
We love showing you how to make over your garden. The transformation is always incredible, and it’s great to see people finally enjoying it.
But I know the prospect of a revamp without a team of experts can seem daunting, so I’ll show you the insider secrets to get the look at home. It really is doable.
And I’m not just saying that – I really do want you to Love Your Garden!
Potager is a traditional French kitchen garden that mixed veg, fruit and ornamental flowers in the same beds. It’s a great way to jazz up a veg plot and harmonise it with your other garden beds.
Start with espaliered fruit trees at the back – apple and pear thrive in Britain. Espaliered trees are high-yield because they have so many fruiting side branches, so they give loads of fruit without taking up too much space.
Then in the beds below we mixed rhubarb, beans, chard and lettuce with flowering plants like cosmos, alliums, lavender and calendula. Check the spacing for each veg crop to make sure it has room to grow into.
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These were traditionally planted in old cartwheels laid on the soil, though ours was on a bigger scale. Again we added blooms like sunflowers and nasturtiums for extra colour.
Try a mix of chives, sage, basil, rosemary, lemon thyme and French tarragon. We also added Pineapple mint, but you have to keep an eye on mint plants because they spread quickly!
For the circular paving, use small carpet stones to get a round look, and add a central focal point like our mosaic. Arches or wooden wigwams covered in climbers will add height to such a low-growing feature.
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If you want to cover a new fence, or just try something other than an evergreen hedge, use flowering shrubs! The key is to use varieties that flower at different times mixed in with evergreens. Shrubs that produce berries are great for winter colour too.
We used Lilac, Osmanthus, Ceanothus, Escallonia and Viburnum opulus. If you want a long hedge, repeat the shrubs for more cohesion. Prune them just after flowering for the best regrowth.
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I always think footballs come with a homing device for prize blooms! Embrace the danger with tough plants that will survive the occasional crushing, or that respond well to hard pruning when bits get broken off.
We used Mexican feather grass (Stipa tennuissima) and Japanese Holly (Ilex crenata) throughout the garden. Box, lavender, Alchemilla, Choysia ternata and Salvia ‘Ostfriesland’ are also fantastic options. Good shrubs include lilac, Cotoneaster and Euonymous.
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