Episode 4 Big Dreams Small Spaces

Do you have a small garden but a big idea?

Do you know what you'd like it to look like,

but no idea, really, of where to begin?

Well, you're not alone.

Over the last year, I've been working with people right across the

country, helping them to make their garden dreams become reality.

Monty Don has listened to their hopes and plans.

It's an absolutely crazy idea and I love it.

He's given advice...

Don't be frightened to push plants into crevices.

..and he's rolled up his sleeves.

Let's not talk about it, let's do it.

Talk about a lean, mean gardening machine.

Things haven't always gone to plan.

I thought we were going to make four raised beds?

I'm a bit worried that we might have killed it.

But it's been worth it.

-What a beautiful garden.

-So happy.

-Thank you, Monty.

-ALL:

-Cheers!

I do believe that however small your garden is,

everybody can cultivate a big dream.

Just lean it the other way if you can, very gently.

This week, Monty helps two families create gardens

that are for the children as much as the adults.

-It's not too bad, is it?

-He gets tough in Doncaster...

There's a tendency for this household to be a bit chaotic.

Just a little bit.

..cuts to the chase in Walthamstow...

I don't think you've thought this through at all.

No, I don't think we have.

..and as always, where there's pleasure, there's pain.

Everything seems to just be going wrong.

This is Finingley in Doncaster.

And down this quiet cul-de-sac live Nicky and John and their family.

There's their one-year-old little girl, Anna,

and Nicky's other children, Ninette who's ten, and Ted, who's seven.

All of them enjoy a particular lifestyle.

I don't know, we might sort of be seen as sort of hidden hippies.

That makes sense, there's always this really bad stereotype,

isn't there, that people have?

The family moved here six months ago, and together with a new home

came a new enthusiasm to grow all their own food.

At times, it's been a bit hit and miss.

We've got some lovely purple-podded peas

but I don't know what's happened to them.

But it hasn't put them off. On the contrary.

I want to be able to make a whole meal from things that

I have picked from my garden. That is my aim.

And it'll be up to this garden novice, John, to do

a lot of the hard graft in between his shifts at the local supermarket.

I think it's all going to be a bit tricky, cos I've never done

anything like this before.

The whole family of five rely on his wages,

so no splashing out on loads of plants here.

We're on a very tight budget, obviously,

because we're on a low income but I do believe it's doable

and it's going to be very interesting getting there.

The inspiration for our next garden in the sprawling

suburbs of Walthamstow, East London, couldn't be more different.

This terrace, set on a busy road, is home to university lecturers

Nicola and Oliver and their children Daisy, 13 and Scarlet, eight.

Their passion is their home town.

Walthamstow actually has a hashtag of "awesomestow".

What better way to celebrate this, than by making a model

village of their area in their front garden.

The garden will be unique to Walthamstow

and it may also be unique in the world.

That's dream number one for the front garden. But that's not all.

Dream number two is to capture life at the seaside in their back garden.

It's really sunny in our back garden

and we really want to embrace that and make it

feel like we're on holiday every day when we're at home.

That's two offbeat plans to accomplish.

I think we're a little bit eccentric.

Yeah, I think we ought to get interested by new things

and we've never really done a lot of gardening before,

and now that's something we want to have a go at.

It's late summer in Finingley, Doncaster,

and Monty's on his way to help Nicky and John plan their dream garden.

Growing vegetables is a passion he shares with Nicky,

but his idea of an ideal kitchen garden might be very different.

I want it to be an edible haven.

I want it to be somewhere full of edible plants and organic-looking -

natural, as opposed to regimented, I don't want regimented lines.

I don't want it to look like an allotment, if that makes sense.

-Why not?

-Why not?

Well, there's nothing wrong with an allotment on an allotment,

but I want this to be somewhere where we can sit on the patio on a

summer's evening, enjoy a glass of wine and for it to be beautiful.

-Is that what you want too?

-Yes.

My main aim is to have a meal that is actually picked from my garden.

One meal a year?

I mean, are we talking about every meal?

-What are we talking about?

-No, we're thinking, erm....

-As much as we can.

-As much as we can, yeah.

Nicky and John's dream is to grow lots of edible flowers,

vegetables, herbs and fruit,

all mixed together in a central bed and up the fences.

They've got a budget of only £500.

I think they need a more organised approach

if they're to get the quantity of crops they want.

If you want to grow a meaningful amount of vegetables,

as opposed to the odd thing here and there,

sooner or later, you're likely to come back to rows or grids because

it's easier to harvest them and weed them if you have them in a grid.

So, all I need to know is, are you saying,

"No, that's not what I want - I want it mixed up and that's the way

"it's going to be," or, a little bit of this and a little bit of that?

I think this comes to clumps, I think growing things in clumps

is almost a grid system, isn't it?

I don't want straight, long rows. Does that make sense?

-Can you...?

-Er, no. Clumps are not a grid system.

Not in anybody's language, anywhere!

You can have clumps in a grid. It's your garden, you can

have clumps. If you want clumps, you shall have clumps.

Beautiful clumps, edible clumps.

To help them get a garden that yields more than just

a dish, I think they should create four central beds instead of one.

Each bed could still have clumps of edible plants

but they'd be rotated throughout the seasons.

That way, they'll be growing more produce to live off.

That would make very good sense, because we could keep

the sort of perennial, more backbone things to the outside.

And in the middle of each bed, you could have a fruit tree.

-You could have...

-That would be beautiful. Oh.

Nicky's got a long wish list of plants to show Monty,

but she's got no idea where they should be planted.

What's your worst fear?

That we plant certain things that are sort of more

big-ticket items for us, like trees, and that they fail.

I don't think that's a worry at all.

But what I would worry about much more is the lack of plan.

By plan, I don't mean lists of plants.

I mean physical layout.

You need to know where things are going to go, even if they are random.

Sometimes, I think it is a confidence thing and sort of avoid

planning it too much, because it makes it sort of become very real.

Well, I would say, get real. Time to bite the bullet.

Do it. You're talking a good talk, now walk the walk.

It's been quite a day having her dream garden plan

interrogated by Monty.

But Nicky's taking it in good heart.

I feel that talking things through with Monty has made me

feel a lot more confident about some of the ideas that

were in my head and actually getting them out.

And what we could potentially achieve here,

if I become a little bit more organised for a change.

Well, I really believe that they want this to happen

but the whole place is amazingly chaotic.

And they do need to get their act together and fast,

if they're to have any chance of a good harvest by summer.

And from this quiet corner of rural life, Monty heads 165 miles south

to East London and to the hustle and bustle of busy Walthamstow.

Nicola and Oliver have the nerve-racking task of taking

gardening guru Monty through their plans.

At 4 by 2.5 metres, it's a tight squeeze, but they have big dreams.

What are your plans for this area here?

What we're planning to do here is build a miniature

village in our front garden.

We're going to have a layout of the local area,

like a 3D map with lots and lots of tiny houses

-that we're going to build ourselves.

-Why?

Well, for a lot of reasons, I suppose, but mainly

-because no-one else has got one and we think it'll be fun.

-OK.

Well, it's a great idea, I like it, it's good.

What sort of scale are we talking about?

Well, we started to make some sample houses like the ones over there.

-So these ones here?

-Yeah.

-I mean, it's minute.

-It is indeed.

-It is.

What we're going to have is lots and lots of them.

Nicola and Oliver want to build a model of their area with

a budget of £600.

They plan to cover their front garden with a wooden peg board

and then build hundreds of miniature buildings to fix onto this base.

And they want to include miniature plants to look like trees

and bushes.

I'm starting to feel very confused about how you're going

to represent any planting on that scale.

I think I was envisaging almost like a bonsai garden outdoors.

Have you seen any bonsai?

-They're about that big.

-No, they're not about that big.

A SMALL bonsai is about that big.

In order to make the plants work, I think

they should scale up the houses dramatically, and once that's done,

amongst others, they can include miniature trees, alpines and mosses.

I think it's completely barmy.

I think it's an absolutely crazy idea and I love it, it's great.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

But the big dreams don't stop there.

They want to do the back garden too.

How do you want to change this?

What we've got in mind is something inspired by Derek Jarman's garden.

We want to have some stones, and plants amongst the stones.

What sort of planting?

Something sort of frondy-type thing.

And, really, is that it? ..What about you?

I think I'd like things a bit more spiky, really.

Nicola and Oliver want to copy the seaside shingle garden of

the late film director Derek Jarman on their heavy London clay.

But they don't want to take anything out to make room.

You want to keep this enormous great swing, you want ferny frondescence,

you want spikes, you want a Derek Jarman Dungeness beach effect.

Anything else you want while you're chucking it in the pot?

No. I think that's probably more than enough!

Do you know what I think? I don't think you've thought this through at all.

No, I don't think we have!

-All those three things are almost mutually incompatible.

-OK.

Ferny and frondy does not really tend to go with spiky.

Even if you DID do it, I don't think it would look very good.

-You don't think you'd like it, in the end.

-It doesn't matter if I like it or not.

-But you don't think we'd like it?

-I don't think you would, actually.

-I think, in all serious, I think some editing is necessary here.

-OK.

How would you feel about pushing the children's stuff to the back?

What, moving the swing to the back of the garden?

So it became a play area.

OK, yeah, I can see that.

If I steer you towards a kind of planting that is less Derek Jarman

and more sort of structurally, architecturally dramatic...

-Yeah.

-..would that appeal?

That would be great.

Oh, very much so, yeah.

Well, that seems like a good compromise, for now, anyway.

The back garden is all over the shop.

There are too many different things going on.

Too many ideas without any real articulation of them.

I think we need to go back to the drawing board.

I think it's au revoir to the beach theme.

It's not going to be Dungeness anymore, I don't think.

Our couples may have very different dreams,

but their gardens begin life the same way -

with a lot of back-breaking work.

Each garden will be stripped back to a blank canvas before the fun

part can begin.

Nicky finds working out her design difficult to do, so Monty's

arranged for her to visit East Ruston Old Vicarage in Norfolk to

see just how much goes into creating even the most wild-looking garden.

Her guide is the co-owner, Alan Gray.

Hi, Nicky, how are you?

Hi, fine, thank you.

There are numerous themed gardens here,

each designed to replicate different growing conditions

and planted for maximum effect.

Today she's here to see one in particular.

Well, Nicky, this is the walled garden here.

And what I really wanted to do here,

I wanted it to be a combination of flowers, fruit and vegetables

in the most beautiful and tranquil setting that I could make.

And I'd just like you to look at this little section here.

We've got some curly kale and we've got some sprouting broccoli,

but we've got dahlias,

and I think you might think it looks a little bit less regimented.

Yes, you can see that there are lines here, but for me this is

so much more what I had in my head because it's mixed in together,

it's very abundant.

It still manages to look more free and easy

and I just think this is just wonderful.

This garden began life with meticulous architectural plans.

So you think drawing you a plan's going to help?

Yes. I'm actually feeling a lot more positive about the idea

of drawing a plan now.

Having seen this is actually very helpful.

'Coming here, I've been able to see some of the organisation'

under what appears to be a natural scene.

I think it's given me a little bit more confidence that what

I have in my head is doable.

And about how I might go about that.

Back in Doncaster, Nicky has returned from her inspiration trip

ready to tackle her vegetable garden.

For her, the desire to live off the land is much more than just a whim.

She's a full-time mum, and home-schools her children.

Home education is something that's very important to me

because I feel it offers more control over what they're

learning and it can be targeted towards their interests.

For Nicky, the garden is an extra classroom.

A place to teach her children about nature and plants.

Yeah, I like planting

and actually, I buy a lot of things with my own pocket money.

Over the last six weeks, the couple have been working diligently

to get the hard landscaping done before the winter sets in

but, after an initial flurry of activity, progress has been slow.

I spend about a full day a week in the garden.

Obviously with me working and studying as well,

I don't really get much time at the moment.

John's work isn't the only reason they're moving

forward at a snail's pace.

There's also baby Anna.

Oh, dear.

BABY CRIES

We can only do work in the garden when Anna's happy for us

to do work in the garden because

there's no explaining to a one-year-old child.

You don't realise you're getting in the way, do you, little one?

BABY CRIES AGAIN

-I'm just going to give up and take her in.

-Yeah.

Yes.

Monty is due back in a few days

and the couple are worried by their lack of progress.

The way the garden is at the moment makes me feel a little bit nervous.

It's a mess and, obviously, Monty's coming out next week

so we have to get everything prepared for him.

Yes, we were hoping to plough through a bit to get it done.

There's still quite a long way to go, though.

Over in Walthamstow, the mood is altogether more chipper.

The family's dream is to create a model village of their local area

and today Ollie and his ten-year-old assistant, Daisy,

are tackling the first stage by resizing prototype houses.

They're keeping it simple.

Step one - saw a rectangular block.

Step two - sand the block.

And step three - stick a triangular piece on top.

So far, so good!

Monty said to increase the sizes of the houses,

essentially, as much as we could bear.

I originally planned a really tiny scale, like this.

Obviously, the bigger we make the houses, the easier it is to get

everything in proportion, but then you'd just end up with one house in

your front garden, which isn't really a model village,

it's a model house.

Yeah, I think they need to be a bit bigger,

but imagine if we found something

that was going to be about that size.

-OK.

-And we found something for the roof.

-Mm-hm.

We'll put that on there, all the way down

and all the way along.

Like a sun house rather than a shed.

We're not going against Monty's advice,

we're having a go and then...

hearing a softly spoken Monty on our shoulders saying,

"No, that's not big enough."

-Oh, wow.

-Wow, it's huge.

By their own admission, Oliver and Nicola are lost

when it comes to planting their model village,

so Monty sent them to the oldest one in the world,

Bekonscot in Buckinghamshire, for inspiration.

-Here's the train.

-Here's the train.

-I like the noise, as well.

-Wave to the kids.

Wave to the people on the train!

Bekonscot captures a vision of 1930s England

complete with ten scale miles of railways.

There are parks, trees and gardens, all in keeping with the mini size.

There are plants amongst the houses, aren't they?

Yeah, and I want it to feel like this.

You want it to be a garden as well as...

I do want it to be a garden.

Yeah, I don't think I realised quite how much until we came here.

-But it's a model garden as well as a model village.

-Yeah.

Peter Crowther is on hand to give them some good tips.

This group, copse of trees, cypress, the end of the airstrip.

-Cypress?

-Always looks nice, yeah.

OK, so how big does that grow?

As big as you like, if you leave it.

OK, and is that a box at the back?

-Yeah, a little privet.

-OK, a bit of privet.

We've plenty of those from small.

You can make a lovely long hedge, or a boundary.

Yeah, yeah, cos we need a boundary.

So what's that one there?

That's a Chinese elm, really good... quick-growing, easy to shape.

That's really helpful.

I think I'd quite like some of these in our garden.

-Yeah, I think I could see us using some of these.

-Yeah.

Most of these trees aren't actually dwarf varieties.

They use normal stock

and they're given the bonsai effect by precise shaping and pruning.

Nicola and Oliver watch carefully

but will they manage as well back home?

What's interesting is how quickly you've put all those layers in...

-Yeah.

-..and leave it looking so nice.

Over the next couple of years it will thicken up.

-Those layers will close up a bit.

-Yeah.

I think one of the things I'll take home is the fact I don't have

to make a replica of where I live and I don't necessarily have to have

all the plants the same scale as the buildings that we build.

It might be more fun to actually have fun plants

and the right sort of plants

and not to worry too much about the size.

Do you think we can fit a train in, as well?

I'd quite like a train, I don't know if it should be an Underground,

-given we live in London.

-Maybe...

It looks as though their dream garden keeps growing

bigger and bigger.

Two months after his initial visit, Monty is back in Doncaster.

He has agreed to lend a helping hand and has come ready for action.

Last time I visited Nicky and John's garden

I was worried that it was a bit chaotic

and it seemed really vital that they impose some order

into their planning and the execution,

if they're going to grow a decent crop of vegetables for next summer.

The couple dream of making an organic-looking edible haven,

mixing flowers, herbs, fruit and veg.

-Hello, Nicky.

-Hello.

-Are you OK? How are you?

-Yes.

Well, you've been busy.

Yes, we've managed to get a bit done.

Yeah, so let me just take stock of what you've done.

-You've made these two raised beds.

-Yes.

I thought we were going to make four raised beds?

Well, it worked better with working with the paths that were here,

but also we do have the large side beds which are predominantly

for fruit, but obviously can be an overspill for crop rotation as well.

It's one thing not to have followed the plan

but, as Monty predicted, the garden is still totally chaotic.

We have a number of things started but nothing finished.

Well, at present I know we're on quite a slow timescale

because I'm rather hampered by a small child and the weather

and when John's available, as well, to help.

Now...I asked you to do a scale plan.

-Yes, I've got one done.

-I'd love to see that now.

-OK!

The plans look ever so much neater than the garden itself.

The reason I asked you to do it was actually to organise yourself

just so that you have to measure, set it out,

rather than lots of dreams and lots of ideas.

Let's be honest, there is a tendency for this household

-to be a bit chaotic.

-Just a little bit, sometimes.

Now, listen, that can't happen in the garden.

What you want is fantastic, and coming out with lots of energy

and enthusiasm, doing a bit and then giving up is not practical.

Focus it on bits at a time, and I would say do one bed

and do nothing else until that bed is finished.

If you've only got ten minutes, do ten minutes' work... CHICKENS CLUCK

The chickens agree with me!

End of lecture and onto something more fun.

Nicky has told Monty that what she's most worried about

is that she'll kill off expensive items like fruit trees.

Today he's going to demonstrate how to plant

her very first Hessle pear tree.

So we're going to plant the pears as espaliers along here.

Now, an espalier is any tree, but particularly a fruit tree

that is grown in tiers and there can be as many tiers as you like.

Incidentally, the word "espalier" originates from the Italian word

"spalliera" meaning something to rest the shoulder on.

Down a bit, up a fraction.

'So we begin by creating a support system to train the tree.

'This is very straightforward and simply requires eyelets and wire.

'We're making three tiers, about 45cm apart

'so we run wires across the fence at those intervals.

'Next we dig a hole that's wide but not deep.'

I would never, like, if left to my own devices,

-I would not have cleared a space as big as this.

-Right.

'We position the tree so it's angled back towards the fence.'

Now, at this stage, when you're heeling it in,

you don't want to damage the roots but you do want it to be firm,

so just go like this all the way round.

Give them a generous soak.

Then add plenty of mulch,

tie them with twine and that's a job done.

These buds here are going to provide us our lateral growth.

You grow this up at 45 degrees,

and then, in winter,

lower them down.

Don't force them down, it might take two years to get them horizontal.

Then all these can be pruned off.

It'll take roughly a year for each tier,

and I would have every expectation of that lasting

for at least 100 years.

And that's the important thing, really, isn't it, to get it in?

It's not just for us, it's for other people, as well.

Nicky's also sourced some cheap plastic guttering that

she wants to fix onto the fences to grow plants in.

What had you thought of growing in the guttering?

Things like strawberries that might sort of manage

to be in a shallower space.

The first thing of any length of guttering

is you're going to want some drainage.

'We begin by drilling the holes about 10cm apart.

'Then we fasten the guttering to the fence with brackets.

'OK, now we're ready to plant up.'

What we need to do is take a handful of compost...

put it in the end and line the bottom.

There's not enough room to put drainage in.

If it was a deeper container I'd put some stones or crocks in

but this is just too shallow.

'Shallow-rooted herbs like chives can also work well in guttering.'

All right, how about that?

Beautiful.

So what we now need to do is pack compost around them.

'There's not much soil in there

'so these strawberries will need regular watering, but keep them

'moist and, all being well, they should successfully bear fruit.'

Vertical gardening can be done on almost any budget.

If you've got the means,

tailor-made hydroponic systems can look spectacular.

If not, improvise and it can be virtually free.

Now, what I'd like to see is every single inch

of your vertical walls used.

That way you're adding, what,

a third as much again to the size of your garden.

Monty and Nicky have worked hard all day,

but they've tackled just one small corner of the garden.

My concern is that sometimes people around me worry...

but, for me, I always knew it was going to go a little bit slowly.

It isn't a surprise to me that it's a little slow.

This garden is still a disaster zone.

I don't think, as things stand, that Nicola has any chance

of creating the edible haven that she so wants.

But I really hope she proves me wrong.

I'm not worried that it won't be done, of course it will be done.

It will have to be done.

In the cold months, both our gardens have come to a grinding halt.

In Walthamstow's back garden the turf has been dug up

and the Wendy house has been squeezed behind the shed

to make space for the swing.

The front has also been dug over and grit added for drainage,

ready for model-building and planting next year.

The winter season brings the wettest weather

the UK has seen in nearly 250 years.

In Doncaster the gales have been wreaking havoc.

We had four fence panels go down in the recent winds,

which made one hell of a noise and a crash.

And there was quite a lot of damage

and, obviously, everything spread all over the garden.

The greenhouse was against one of the fence panels

so we rushed out, obviously, to try to stop that going over, and failed.

So we moved it here and, as you can see,

that wasn't successful at all

and, yes...

the metal frame, I think, has actually snapped in two.

I don't know how fixable that is now.

Although they're splitting the cost of replacing the fence

with their neighbour, it's an expense they can ill afford.

We set out with a fairly low budget, with about £500,

and, yeah, it can't help but be affected by the fact

that the fences have gone down, erm...

That's quite a big expense.

Probably, effectively, starting to move towards almost

half of the budget, I think, realistically.

I'll be honest and say I don't know how that's going to affect

things right now.

For now, Nicky's trying to re-establish some sort of order,

but the damage has left her really downcast.

People have been quite badly hit and a lot of people

have had to deal with stuff, but it is quite difficult at times.

You try to keep positive because it is hard

when everything seems to just be going wrong.

Over the last few months Nicola and Oliver in Walthamstow have

steadily transformed their back garden.

They've laid down pebbles and sleepers and bought large plants.

It's time for Monty to catch up with them.

On his first visit the couple had wanted their back yard to resemble

Derek Jarman's seaside garden, but were told to go

back to the drawing board by Monty, as their ideas jarred.

Now he's about to find out if they have a new plan.

Right, my guess is, because of the pebbles,

-you stuck with your Derek Jarman inspiration.

-We have.

-So that's a little bit of Dungeness.

-Yeah.

You've still got that enormous swing taking up literally

a quarter of the garden and the shed taking up another quarter.

One of the things that worried me then,

and worries me now, is that it'll be bitty.

So what you do need to do is relate these other spaces

to this central area, which is what you first see.

I would love to see all this pebbled

so you had a complete unity of theme,

and it would undoubtedly look better -

I know it's fairly rude of me to say that.

No, that's OK.

The great secret of small gardens is to be ruthless in your editing.

-Get rid of everything that isn't essential.

-OK.

And then slowly pull things in.

I would suggest the way to do it is with a bit of wit

-and charm - I mean, play.

-OK.

The couple haven't followed Monty's advice about plants either.

They are combining spiky and frondy types, despite Monty's

suggestion that they just choose one of them.

This 6ft tree fern is their biggest purchase by far,

at £500.

You have this glorious tree fern which is Dicksonia Antarctica.

-Are you confident you know exactly how to look after it?

-Not at all.

-All right. Do you know where they come from?

-Yeah, from New Zealand...

Right, well, they love that cool,

rather moist air and some shade.

OK, we've not got much shade.

-Now, where were you planning to put it?

-About where it is.

-You must give it some shade.

-OK.

The two places I would plant it, were it my garden,

is either that far corner,

-or as near into that corner as you can.

-OK.

-So what do you think of it there?

-It's nice there.

Down... Lean it the other way if you can.

Very gently, that's it.

-It looks better there, doesn't it?

-Yeah.

Time for a quick swing to make sure they don't damage

their very expensive fern.

-It's not too bad, is it?

-No, it's nice.

-It looks nice there.

-I think it looks better there.

What makes Dicksonia Antarctica, and tree ferns in general, so unique

is the fact that their roots are here where my hands are.

-On the outside?

-On the outside of the trunk. And these are bone dry,

-you've been watering the soil.

-Yeah.

-Which means you haven't been watering it at all.

-Oh, dear.

Now, what I've been dying to do for the last half-hour

is give this poor thing a drink, it needs it terribly.

This is how you water a tree fern.

Oh, it starts to come out the sides!

-OK?

-That's like being in a rainforest.

Yeah, and this is, you see, how the rain filters down,

which not a lot of it reaches the ground,

but the plant has taken it up and used it before it does.

-Thank you.

-Right, well, that's a new home for that. That easy.

Now, the back garden, they've splendidly ignored everything

I advised them to do.

I said, "Don't mix textures, don't mix styles,

"work out what you want and go for it."

And they've got a little bit of Derek Jarman's Dungeness,

they've got a little bit of tree fern.

They've still got the swings, they've still got some decking.

Monty thinks that we've got too much going on at the moment

which, I guess to some extent, feels a bit like being told off

by a teacher, but I think we need to learn from that

and he's right, we have got too many things going on

and don't quite know how everything's going to fit in.

It'll be hard to make that garden look coherent

and that's really important

because otherwise it just ends up as a mishmash.

Over in South Yorkshire, Nicky and John's edible garden

is at last beginning to take shape.

Spring is most definitely in the air

and Nicky, for one, is delighted.

All four fruit trees that we planted are now coming into leaf.

Here's one of the fruit trees.

This is the one we did with Monty, it's coming up...

Yes, I'm really pleased with it cos it was a bit hairy for a while.

You put...with fruit you put these bare sticks into the ground

and you look at it and you think, "I'm sure that's dead."

But, no, it's all springing back.

So, yes, we are getting, we are getting fruit.

It's all hands on deck, and Ninette has become quite the gardener.

In the propagator we've been planting tomatoes,

cucumbers, butternut squash

and edible flowers, like electric daisies.

Not to be defeated by broken fences,

the couple have found a novel way to do vertical gardening.

They're using wooden pallets to hold pots.

And Monty's pep talk has paid off - by finishing one bed at a time,

all four are ready to go.

Just one change, though, they aren't raised beds any more.

I think it was Nicky's idea to take the raised beds out

because it looked more spacious,

and, to be honest, I think she's right.

I was a bit annoyed about it because I put a lot of work into it

but, at the end of the day, it does look better.

Now Nicky can get on with the part of gardening she loves best -

the planting.

But, being Nicky, she's doing it in her own special way.

Some of the more traditional things I've done is

the growing of carrots in grids

but then other parts of the garden have been more in clumps,

as I originally suggested and, I know, horrified Monty a little.

And, also, a lot of plants that people might consider weeds,

I'm keeping some of them,

like the fat hen, chickweed and the nettles.

I'd like far more nettles, actually.

Gardeners across the country will be horrified,

horrified, but I do.

I do, and I want more dead nettles. I like dead nettles.

So lots of weeds growing in with lots of vegetables.

Let's hope it pays off because

there's no budget left to fix any mistakes.

I think there's still quite a bit to do

because some of the beds are really bare.

Every minute I can, I am going to spend in the garden

making it how we want it to be.

In Walthamstow, six months in, the front garden is virtually bare.

Ollie and Nicola dreamt of making a model village

with miniature houses and trees, representing their neighbourhood.

So far they've built a model of their street

and followed Monty's advice by making houses

that are seven times taller than their original version.

-I see you've begun the houses for the front.

-We have, we've done the first block

I can't help noticing that these are a bigger scale than you talked about.

Yes, and I think what became important is that we wanted

a garden, not just a model village.

It's a model garden, as well.

-So therefore the plants are dictating the scale and you fit your buildings to them.

-Yeah.

-Fine, well, that's a huge improvement.

-Yeah.

-Have you thought about the planting?

-Yes, we've got alpines,

we've got miniature conifers,

we've got some saxifrage-type plants.

They're things that are very low.

My only worry there with that -

I mean, obviously, the alpines give you the scale -

-is most alpines, not all, like full sun.

-Oh.

Saxifrage is actually one of the few that will take some shade,

and there are more, so we need to carefully choose the alpines

so they will cope with that shade.

So you've got bare root box unprotected, sitting there.

Yeah, oh, dear.

-It's been like that for ages.

-Have they?

-Yeah, they've been fine.

We've just storing the plants in that one for the front.

I have to say it's one of my complete fetishes.

If you've got bare root plants, keep them covered,

keep them covered all the time.

-I mean, literally all the time.

-OK.

There's one plant that does love moisture and shade,

and that's moss.

To harvest some from a roof, gently lift it up, making sure

that as much of the root is attached as possible.

-Right, we've got a little bit there.

-OK.

Moss should not be removed from natural areas

as it's a crucial part of the ecosystem,

but it can be bought if you need some.

So we've got moss and I know you want to use it as lawns

-and also perhaps on the roofs?

-Yes, some green roofs.

OK, well, what we can do, if we take a small piece,

-you can glue it...

-Glue it?

-..to wood or stone.

-And it'll stay alive?

-It'll stay alive.

But if we just put a dab of glue - there's rather a lot on there -

-and stick it on a roof like that, OK?

-Yeah.

Keep it wet and that will grow.

-Fantastic.

-That's all you need.

Right, the second way is if you want to make a moss lawn,

-you can't glue it to soil.

-Glue it to soil, no.

So the first thing to do is establish compaction.

So you go like that and press it down.

Now, I've got some moss here and this has just been lifted off the soil

and that can just be pushed down onto there like that,

-and as long as you keep it nice and moist...

-Again.

-Yeah, always.

Keep it moist.

-That will grow on that surface.

-That's amazing.

The third method is a bit more dramatic.

I'm going to blend it,

-I'm going to make a kind of moss soup.

-Oh, excellent!

So if we pop the moss in there

and then I'm going to add a few of these moisture-retentive crystals.

So we're going to add some of those in there

and I'm going to add some water, quite a lot of water, like that.

Now, we put the lid back on...

..and then give this a whizz.

OK, that will do. So...

We can just stick a paint brush in.

If you can imagine that this was a wall there,

if we painted this on...

-..and put it in the shade.

-Yeah.

..there is enough moss there,

even though it's all chopped up incredibly fine,

-for the moss to grow.

-Wow!

Is that any help?

That's loads of help. I think particularly the idea that we

can get lawns but we can actually get creepers

and fine detail of plants, never occurred to me, so that's great, thank you.

A month later, Nicola from Walthamstow is off on a moss hunt.

Her daughter's school has an abundance of it.

The head has given Nicola the green light to

harvest as much as she wants.

She finds a whole lot of it.

Enough to make a mini model town.

Scraping moss off a school playground floor

has to be one of the strangest things I've ever done in my life,

let alone for a garden.

Back at model HQ,

armed with her moss and miniature plants,

it's time to get to work.

OK, do you know where that goes down?

What we're planting here is miniature conifers,

and then we've bought a miniature elm tree

and a miniature willow tree, as well.

That tree represents the one down the street

and Nicola wants to trim it to be an exact match.

You look at that, and then tell me if I'm getting it right.

-It's rounded at the top.

-And what else?

And the trunk goes straight up, so it's not really like that.

I remember from being at Bekonscot that you could actually be

-really quite bold with them.

-Yeah.

Outdoor bonsai in the making.

Next up, it's alpines, and Monty advised them

to study which ones suit this environment.

I don't think we did a lot of research

-about anything beyond the trees, really.

-No.

I can't remember what likes sun and what doesn't like sun, to be honest.

I have looked and I can't remember any more.

Hedge, what do you reckon?

Yeah, can we sort of separate it out and...

Yeah, cut it into bits.

Well, take it apart, you need both hands.

No, both... Pull it.

Pull the soil.

They seem to have destroyed the all-important roots.

What do you reckon? Do you reckon they're OK?

What have I done to this plant?

I'm a bit worried that we might have killed it by separating it.

If Monty was here, he might tell me to stop,

and think about what I'm doing here,

and what am I actually trying to achieve with these plants.

We're going to plant the hedge in front of our house, maybe?

I don't know, I think the hedge is a bit problematic, isn't it?

The hedge is problematic.

That's not the only problem.

The larger box hedge is also looking the worse for wear.

That's the one Monty saw starved of water on his last visit.

Some of the hedge may be dead.

Monty said about not having bare roots exposed

for longer than about 30 seconds

and we must have had it exposed for about 30 days, so...

Lastly, it's moss-gluing. Hopefully, that might survive the ordeal.

This is quite messy fun. I like this.

-I think that's quite cute.

-Yeah.

Miniature gardening is much trickier than I imagined.

So, that's one Walthamstow street in miniature.

Well, Rome wasn't built in a day!

And, apparently, neither was Walthamstow.

It's early summer in Doncaster and Monty's on his way to see

the final fruits of Nicky and John's labours.

The couple have struggled for months to create their garden,

but today they're wrestling with another worry.

Naturally, I'm slightly daunted that Monty's coming,

cos he's a well-known gardener and he knows his stuff.

Any advice where we've gone wrong or anything like that...

We haven't gone wrong!

Or anything like that...

No!

The main problems, obviously, have been with the wind. Acts of God.

There's been a lot of trials and tribulations.

We've done well, I think.

I haven't been back to see Nicola since last autumn,

and I left there not feeling terribly optimistic.

I'm not sure that she herself

can get organised enough to put it all together.

Nine months ago, this was a desolate, unproductive plot.

And now, it's been given a new lease of life.

Well, big changes! It's filled out.

Every plant in Nicky and John's garden is edible.

They've doubled their growing space by enlarging their beds

and growing produce vertically,

using rows of cane wigwams,

wooden posts, and creatively recycled pallets.

As well as containers on the fence panels.

There's plenty of food,

like tomatoes,

courgettes and strawberries

and the style is very wild and organic.

Vegetables and herbs are mixed in with flowers

and there are edible weeds everywhere.

Conventionally,

all advice is to weed vegetables completely.

Is there any reason why you haven't done that?

I do quite like the weeds.

I sort of have a bit of a fear of just bare soil.

-It's something I've struggled with around the peas...

-I can see.

..and it's bare and I hate it.

But it's not bare, it's really not bare.

They are full of weeds, that's the fact.

If you want to maximise your harvest,

in terms of small space, which is pretty much what you talked about,

then you do have to get on top of the weeds. If, on the other hand,

you want a nice garden that makes you happy, it doesn't matter.

I want both of those things.

What I would suggest is that you have some areas

that are rigorously devoted to maximum food

and around the edges, you let some areas have some more weeds

and a little bit more looseness.

Let's go on looking at the garden as it is now.

By the fence, the vertical garden is thriving.

And the fruit trees and strawberries have flourished.

The idea is right. It's using space, going upwards.

Peas, lovely purple-podded peas,

which are so beautiful, and I like what you've done over here.

Yes, it was our simple, no-skills, DIY solution.

-And this is your potting shed.

-Yes.

Standing here, it looks nice, doesn't it? Are you pleased?

Yes, I feel we're really starting to move forward.

As the saying goes, the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

So, Nicky and John have invited Monty for lunch,

and are cooking an entire meal from the garden.

It doesn't get fresher than this.

-We have elderflower.

-Fantastic, and a lovely looking salad,

and look at that frittata! That looks fabulous!

Delicious.

Now, here we are, sharing a meal where everything is from the garden.

So, that's complete success, mission accomplished.

Yes, and we really are getting there.

And I love being out here, I really do,

and I sit here and I look at it,

and it does make me happy.

I know that this year has been a tough one for Nicky,

and she finds the whole process of making the garden

and looking after it fraught with anxiety,

but she's done what she set out to do,

which is provide food for her family.

I recognise that this maybe is not

a lot of people's typical thought

when they think of a perfect garden,

but it's nice for us.

I think something else will increasingly happen, too.

The garden will look after Nicola.

It's almost time for Monty to come and inspect the team in Walthamstow.

Nicola, Oliver, and their nephew, Freddie, are adding final touches -

or is it flourishes - to their beach-themed garden.

-Nicola is very proud.

-It's going really well.

It was looking lovely this morning.

When the sun was shining, it felt very much like

being at the seaside, the big, spiky grasses,

and now Freddie's painting the back wall,

which makes that seem white and summery, as well.

I like what they're doing with it.

And I like the tropical plants,

the pebbles, the grass.

In line with Monty's advice,

they've tried to harmonise their planting

by sticking to more spiky types.

We did listen to him on the advice about plants,

but I'm not sure we've listened to him

on the advice about garden design.

On his last visit, Monty was concerned their creation

might appear too bitty,

and he urged them to try and pull it together as one.

Perhaps with more pebbles.

What we've got in the garden is four squares.

We've got a square for the turf, a square for the pebbles,

a square for the table and chairs

and a square for the wooden structures.

To tie the garden together, Monty thought it would be better

to extend the pebbles under the table,

but I'm quite happy with the way the garden is at the moment.

Maybe if we'd spread them out, it would have been a bit too much.

What might be too much

is the eclectic range of objets d'art they've acquired,

including four mannequins.

Monty said that we'd got rather too much going on

as it was in the garden,

and I'm not sure if he was aware of this part of the plan.

Auntie Nicola seems to be into these random bits and bobs

that she picks up from places.

I like the ideas she has. The problem could be, as it's a small space,

that they might put too much in, and be a bit of an eyesore, in a way.

In Walthamstow, the lively E17 Art Trail

has kicked off across the town.

It's a community festival with pop-up exhibitions

in unconventional spaces and in open houses.

From a knitted fairy-tale garden...

We do love the Art Trail.

Some people think we're a bit crazy and a bit mad,

but most people generally enjoy it.

..to fruity memorabilia.

My piece of work is called Mr Del Monte, He Say Yes!

And entered as exhibit number nine on the trail

is Nicola and Oliver's model village.

Monty's on his way, and the couple are feeling the pressure.

Today's the last day, so we're excited

and a little bit anxious, I think.

When you've got someone who's a world expert on gardening

coming to see your very-much-amateur garden,

it is quite nerve-racking.

But he's a really nice guy,

so fingers crossed he'll like it.

Nine months ago, Oliver and Nicola's front garden

was a dull shingle-covered space

that only served to house the family's bins.

Now, it's become an art installation.

Wow! So, you've made it. You got there!

The model is a replica of three adjacent roads in Walthamstow

next to this house.

Oliver and Nicola have fashioned trees from small conifers and elms

and they've created hedges and lawns

from moss stuck onto the peg board.

Around a central log, they've added herbs and other small plants

all of which fit the scale.

But chances of survival for some are slim.

Plants like lavender are never going to like this situation.

They need perfect drainage,

really good drainage, and full sunshine.

The same goes for the thyme.

-It won't last.

-No, Mediterranean herbs must have sunshine.

What's clear is the model is what matters to you.

Always, this was going to be

a...a very singular project.

So, the fact you've realised it

is great, and I like its singularity.

I think, you know, that's part of its charm.

Three cheers for wackiness is the main thing!

-Now I want to see the back.

-Thank you.

On Monty's first visit, this was a dull,

nondescript back garden, dominated by a swing.

Now, it's been given a new look,

but will Monty still think it's a bit of a mishmash?

It's all come together, hasn't it?

The seaside has definitely come to Walthamstow,

with a tiny beach and deck chairs.

But Nicola and Oliver have given it a quirky and arty twist,

and a character all of their own.

Now, it does seem to me

that you've made it, with some respect, more coherent.

-Oh, that's good.

-At just first glance!

We've kind of simplified it by clustering things together

into groups, rather than having them all mishmashed together.

Which is just better design, really, isn't it?

One of the things that would strike me as a gardener

is there's not a lot of gardening opportunities.

And by "gardening", it means plant care and tending.

Is that deliberate, or is that something that you might develop?

I think we see this as, if it's not too grand a phrase,

"a work in progress", an ongoing thing.

-It's a pretty accurate phrase.

-We've got this big swing at the moment,

but the children won't always be young enough to play on a swing.

So, over time, that will go. And we'll probably develop beds

-that have got more planting opportunity.

-Are you happy?

Really happy, delighted!

We had a visitor to our house the other day

who we'd never met before, and she saw the garden

through the patio doors and said, "That's a really nice garden."

No-one has ever said that to us before, and that was delightful.

It's time to open the house for the Art Trail

and see what the locals think.

I love the model village, I think it's great.

It's a really, really lovely thing.

Really fun, and invites people in.

-Hello, come in!

-Hello!

-It's great!

-Thank you.

-Cheers.

-Oh, cheers, congratulations.

Cheers, thank you. Thank you for your help, Monty.

It's always a pleasure.

We've got deck chairs and pebbles and it's really sunny

and feels a bit like a beach. So, success, I think.

If gardens were measured to be a success

only by their plants,

I think you'd have to say

that Nicola and Oliver's garden was not a success.

I think that they are as much baffled by plants

as they are delighted by them.

But that isn't the only measure of success.

A garden is what you want it to be.

Now, nine months ago,

they had this quite confused, but interesting, goal,

and now they've got a space that they can enjoy.

Now, on anybody's terms, THAT is a success.