Episode 6 Big Dreams Small Spaces

Do you dream of having your own special outdoor space?

A small garden that you can admire, enjoy and call your own?

And then you stop and think, "I have no idea how to make it."

Well, you're not alone.

Over the past year,

Monty Don has travelled up and down the country,

visiting amateur gardeners

and working with them to make their dreams come true.

He's cast a critical eye over their plans.

Don't be too horrified, OK, Monty.

-Everything's possible.

-I know it seems unusual.

It's just PROFOUNDLY unusual.

And given advice.

Just pinch that off...

But they took so long to grow.

He's got stuck in.

Monty Don in my garden!

Oh, my goodness!

And everybody has worked incredibly hard.

Look at the size of that!

The results are truly exciting.

-It's really nice.

-Ooh!

I do believe that everybody, however small their garden,

can cultivate a big dream.

This time, Monty is meeting two completely different amateur gardeners.

Both have great ambitions.

Yes, there are dozens of things I have on my list.

I want giant flowers.

For one, the sky is the limit.

-What is your budget?

-5,000 to 7,000.

And the other wants a fantasy garden on a shoestring.

I don't have any money at all.

But neither have a green thumb.

I would not in a million years have done that.

What do I know? I don't even know what a trowel is.

Can Monty Don help make their dreams a reality?

ALL: Cheers.

Our first big dreamer lives in the leafy London suburb of Teddington.

Self-employed entrepreneur Jennifer Wood

works from home in an office at the end of her garden.

She hopes to change her shapeless,

muddy plot into an Italian-themed haven, perfect for working,

relaxing and entertaining.

She's enlisted the help of her sister, Jill,

to make this garden a family affair.

We are three sisters. There's another one,

a middle sister who lives in America.

Part of the reason why we can do this garden now

is because our mother died in January.

There's a bit of money that we can use

to do something actually really special.

Hopefully our sister will be over at some point.

It'll be almost sort of created in her memory.

I am hoping that, together, we can create something...

that will look...rather lovely.

Our second big dream comes from Kerensa Robertson,

a job-centre work coach from Billericay.

I want to show you the fairy at the bottom of the garden.

She's no expert,

but hopes to turn her back garden into a veritable wonderland

to enjoy with her daughter Delphi.

This part of the garden down here, I want to create a secret garden.

A sort of Alice In Wonderland type of theme,

where there are lots of teapots together, toadstools,

potentially a pagoda with roses,

and the border on that will be all different bottles,

but turned the other way.

No shortage of ideas here.

I wouldn't call myself an experienced gardener.

Just look outside my front door. There's two plastic bushes there.

That's about the extent of my gardening skills.

And she wants to do it for next to nothing.

The manpower is going to be my friends, you know,

and the little things that we need to buy, I'm sure I can negotiate.

I've got more cheek than probably anyone you know,

so I'm sure if I can't get a freebie from somewhere,

I don't know who can!

It's March, and Monty Don

has come to Teddington, on the outskirts of London,

to meet Jennifer Wood and her sister Jill.

It seems as though our sisters are quite keen to meet Monty.

I've always had... I've always had a bit of a...

Oh, yeah. He's absolutely on my wavelength with gardens.

-Hello.

-Hello, Monty.

Nice to meet you.

Come, Pedro.

Lovely. Here we are.

It's a beautiful tree.

The question I always ask people is, what do you want from the garden?

Because a small garden can't give you everything.

I know I want an Italian, Mediterranean-inspired garden.

I would really like to have two separate places with different atmosphere,

low-maintenance.

-Right.

-Gravel, cos it's very shady, and probably big terracotta pots.

And in practical terms, what's your budget?

It's about 5,000 to 7,000.

When people say that to me, I think,

"Forget the five," because five to seven - you're going to spend seven.

Whereas if you said, "Five, and it cannot be more, cos I don't have more,

-"it can't go..."

-Yes.

-..that's a different thing altogether.

-It should be five.

-But it will be seven.

Jennifer certainly has a decent budget,

but what will Monty make of her plans?

-So, just to be quite clear...

-Yeah.

-This is the house.

It is. And garden office at the end.

-Right.

-So, at the moment, we just have this strip going between the two.

The terrace I want to extend out further,

and this is where the raised barbecue section will be.

Jennifer wants to create a large terrace

for alfresco cooking and dining.

She envisages a sunny area for relaxing, with a water feature,

as well as the path leading to a screened-off area

around her office at the back of the garden.

The path, such as it is, actually goes that way, into the shade,

nudging past the barbecue,

away from all the nice smelly plants, to the office.

I can tell you, you'd walk like that every time.

I was going to say that.

It's the line of desire, and if it's too sinuous and you're in a hurry...

You'll step across. The other question is grass and grass management.

I know it's incredibly important

to keep some kind of drainage going on in the garden.

If we pave the whole thing, that's appalling for wildlife...

-Can I just stop you for a second?

-Yes, you can.

I think that's a bit simplistic.

-OK.

-Paving a garden need not be bad for wildlife at all.

In fact, it can be actively beneficial.

Mown grass is not actually particularly good for wildlife.

Long grass is.

-Yes.

-Long grass is fantastic.

Different types of paving don't have to be cemented and concreted.

You could have plants growing in the cracks between things, or in gravel.

You can have perfectly good drainage.

Monty suggests dividing the garden into three very separate areas.

The lawn will be replaced with a paved area,

losing the meandering path.

He also spotted a fundamental problem with her layout.

This drawing, which is fine, absolutely great, it's not to scale,

and it's really helpful to get proportions right

because, otherwise, in your mind, there's a lawn and...

Sweeping borders.

Sweeping borders, and the avenue of cypresses and whatever it might be.

You are bound by the limitations that are there.

And the sooner you can work to those,

the better what you actually do will fit in and work.

I like the way that Jenny is so clear about what she wants.

She wants an Italian,

Mediterranean garden with a generous area for entertaining,

and a retreat from her busy life,

as well as having the source of that busy life, her office,

at the end of the garden. Until she gets that spatial awareness right,

I think the details of the planting are irrelevant.

Oh, having Monty in the garden is great.

Absolutely brilliant.

He immediately has a complete sense of, I think,

what I'm trying to achieve.

Putting visions of the Mediterranean to one side,

Monty heads to Billericay to meet Kerensa,

who's brought in a friend for support.

-This is Chris, this is Monty.

-Hi.

Hello. Nice to meet you.

-So, is Chris going to help you?

-Yes, Chris is going to help, aren't you,

-Chris?

-I am. Yes, been roped in to help make the plans come to life.

So, what are your plans?

Well, I've always been a fan of Alice In Wonderland.

-Right.

-I wanted to turn it into, like, a secret garden,

a fantasy garden, through the rabbit hole.

Why now? Why haven't you done it before?

Well, my daughter, she's turning four this year, she's starting school,

and it's her birthday in August.

-So it's got to be ready by then?

-It's got to be ready by August.

-And what's your budget?

-There really isn't a budget.

-The sky's the limit?

-No, I don't have any money.

-Oh, I see, no money.

-I don't have any money at all.

You don't have an unlimited budget, you just...

-I don't have any money.

-And will you take over the whole garden or just

-part of the garden?

-I'm doing the whole garden.

-With no money?

-No money.

-No knowledge?

-No knowledge.

-No experience?

-No experience.

What the hell?

That's why she called me.

Despite claiming to have no budget,

Kerensa tells Monty she has £500 to spend on the project.

But how will her plans wash with Britain's favourite garden expert?

The Alice In Wonderland sort of effect,

we have a giant love-heart flowerbed,

the chessboard feature...

And then this is Delphi's play area, is it?

This is going to be all Delphi's area here.

Right. And then this will all be planted up, in the middle?

-Yes.

-You've got topsy-turvy planters.

-Yes.

-Recycled bottles.

Mixed wild flowers, cornflowers, poppies.

Are these plants that you've always known and loved,

-or are you coming to them new?

-I'm coming to them new.

Have you ever had any interest in gardening?

Last year, I had a tomato plant and it grew, um...

five... I got five tomatoes off it.

And I felt quite positive that, you know, this is something I can...

I can take forward.

So, Kerensa's quirky scheme includes a chessboard patio,

a heart-shaped lawn, and planting beds.

There's a path to a willow tunnel,

along with all manner of Alice In Wonderland-themed ornaments.

The one thing that strikes me about this is that you've got two things

going on here, and they're not mutually compatible.

One is a growing love of plants, an excitement about them,

and two is the desire to create an extraordinary and rather wonderful

stage set for your daughter's birthday on August the tenth.

You need to decide what's more important.

Are you making a garden for the future

that will get better and better and change,

or are you making a stage set for August the tenth?

-A bit of both.

-I thought you might say that.

Have you planned the work or is it just going to happen when it happens?

It's going to happen. Like everything in my life, it just happens.

OK, you're all catered for.

-You don't need me.

-Yes, we do.

Well, I will come back.

When you think you're ready to start planting, give me a bell.

-Yeah.

-I'll roll my sleeves up and we'll start doing it.

-It's fun.

-OK. Great. Can't wait.

I will admit some scepticism about the plans that Kerensa outlined

ever becoming into reality.

I thought, "Well, this is fine and this is fun,

"but it ain't going to happen."

But...I think - I hope - I'm wrong about that.

When I first told Monty about my plans,

he looked at me rather quizzically, but I think, yes,

I think I've got him on board,

and he seemed to enjoy the idea of the heart-shaped flowerbed

and the up-cycling and recycling and salvaging

that's all going to be part of the project.

And she's got a very,

very clear idea of how it could work in the garden.

Whether it'll be finished by August the tenth is very doubtful,

and I think that's the real issue.

In the weeks that follow, Kerensa gets the wheels turning,

enlisting some free help from Chris and another pal, Lawrence.

They start by carving out the garden path and patio area.

I struggle to mow the lawn, never mind do any digging, so, really,

with the boys, Chris and Lawrence, they've been tremendous.

But without money for a skip,

there's the question of what to do with the rubble.

So, what are we going to do with the waste?

That's going to be a bit of an issue, as we go on.

I've got no idea, Lawrence. What can we do?

How about we make a mound, you know,

to tie it in with the Alice In Wonderland thing?

-What do you think, Chris?

-What we can then do,

we can build up a mound, so as you go down the garden path,

it's almost as though the path starts dropping down,

the ground comes up around you,

so it gives the illusion of going down underneath the rabbit hole

with the lawn pulled over, which will act like a hedge,

and with the planting along that, it will just be a grassy bank.

Kerensa's friends have truly entered into the spirit.

They could yet prove Monty wrong...

if they keep it up.

With summer rapidly approaching,

Monty has decided to send Jennifer and Jill to the stunning garden

of Iford Manor in Wiltshire.

-Jill.

-How are you?

So, I gather you're in Italian-garden mode, is that right?

Very much so. We've come here for inspiration.

Well, maybe we should go and have a look at the upper terraces.

-Perfect.

-Great.

-Lovely.

William Cartwright-Hignett is on hand to show the sisters the garden

that was designed by Harold Ainsworth Peto.

Peto acquired Iford in 1899,

and based the garden design on the old Italian gardens he discovered

on his travels around the Mediterranean.

This garden is a great example of how clever division of space

can give one garden many different points of interest.

WATER BUBBLES AND TRICKLES

-Can you hear something?

-Yes.

A bit of water round the corner.

One of Harold Peto's great design ethos -

never give you the whole story at once.

He'll have a little bit of water round the corner that you can't see,

so it entices you to continue up a path.

The sound of this fountain is really beautiful.

It's very deep, isn't it, the sound?

That's partly to do with the depth of water.

If you pour water from a lower height, it's much higher.

-Yeah.

-It doesn't get the velocity.

And we find here that this gives this lovely deep texture to the sound.

It does. Really soothing.

What I find so inspiring about this section of garden particularly

-is the scale.

-It is, it's very human.

It's actually very approachable.

We are, what, ten metres long from inside the loggia

to the end of the pond.

Anyone with a reasonable-sized garden can create this sort of thing.

It's a patio with a water element, beautiful planting,

which helps to soften the edges of the structure.

It's a perfectly sort of intimate space to sit with a cup of coffee

-in the morning.

-It's the sort of... the total Italian experience.

-It is, yes.

-Just what I want.

-Perfect.

Well, it seems Monty has sent our sisters to the perfect place.

Every turn brings to life another aspect of the Mediterranean,

including beautiful stonework, topiary and potted plants.

Here we come to a sort of Mediterranean patio garden.

I love this area because, in the summer, it's a real warmth...

a trap for the warmth and the sun

and you get this use of pots.

We love pots at Iford because it's a way of growing what you want,

where you want and when you want it.

And it's so Italian, isn't it?

Yes, I'm planning to have quite a few pots around the garden because

there's not going to be grass.

I obviously want to bring foliage, colour and some green.

As long as it's, er...

I need a reasonably low-maintenance garden.

But low-maintenance gardening is great.

It is lovely. Patios like this behind us

is a really good example of a way to make all of the effort to bed it out

and then over the season

you give it a bit of weeding and titivating and deadheading,

it rewards you over and over and over.

Yeah, so you can just enjoy it.

As the day drifts away, the sisters seem reluctant to leave.

It is an extraordinary place to be.

I mean, we've been here all day

and I feel quite sort of saturated by beauty.

Every direction you look,

there is another expression

which is completely different from...each other.

I'm staying in this garden.

Yours is lovely but I think I'll stay here.

Before the evening sets in,

there is still time for William to point out

how Peto cleverly divided the separate spaces in the garden.

So often at Iford, you see a space which is kind of blocked off or...

interrupted, you might say,

and I think something which is quite counterintuitive is that it is

precisely that action of blocking

which creates the impression of space.

So what are the key devices that Peto used to break up the spaces?

When we look out here, we are interrupting the view with columns.

-One of the columns is interrupted itself with a rose.

-Yeah.

Something that gives you the impression

of the beyond and the near without telling you both.

Small parts of this garden

can be transported into a bit of your garden.

Yes, they can.

I thought the terracotta pots were particularly inspiring.

The water feature.

Maybe there's some way that we have to...

Maybe our water feature doesn't become the feature

as you step out of the house - bang, there it is.

Maybe that has to be in some way slightly more hidden.

Inspired by the clever division of space at Iford Manor,

our Italian dream team get to work in Teddington.

What we're going to do is stake out the areas

where the barbecue preparation area is going to be,

where the water feature is going to be and where the

screening will go and the division into the next section.

We can reduce that to about...

-Here seems sort of obvious to have trellis for some reason.

-It does.

Doing what Monty suggested

has really given me a vision of these thirds,

which I couldn't quite imagine before.

Should the planting start narrow?

Instead of having the big curve that you thought of.

-Stagger it.

-Yes.

I think what he's done, actually, significantly,

is just open the whole thing out instead of it being...

a little bit cramped and the proportions completely wrong.

With the three areas marked out,

the next step is the ground in front of Jennifer's office.

This is a separate area that has to have a different atmosphere

to the rest of the garden.

It's going to be gravelled and I chose the gravel,

finding who delivers in bulk,

maybe not having the most beautiful tiny pale pebbles that I envisaged.

We've got actually fine, regular, standard gravel.

That's good.

It's incredible.

It took so little time and actually very little effort,

particularly on my part.

The whole thing is completely transformed.

It's absolutely remarkable.

Meanwhile, Monty has sent Kerensa and Chris to Waddesdon Manor

to see some rather spectacular raised bedding.

The gardens here were created by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild

in the late 1800s

and today still retain a sense of 19th-century wonder and magic.

Head gardener Paul Farnell is on hand to explain more.

Wow, this is absolutely phenomenal.

I've never seen anything like this before, Paul.

This is what we are actually famous for. This is seasonal bedding.

I'll give you some tips and let you know

how to go about thinking about bedding. Creating a bedding scheme.

I think this could really work in my garden.

Kerensa is clearly tickled but she's going to need some more tips

if she stands any chance

of recreating bedding like this at home.

Oh, this is just amazing.

In my garden, I was thinking about a heart-shaped flowerbed

and I wouldn't have a clue where to start, so what can you suggest?

Where are you going to have your heart-shaped flowerbed?

Is it an established bed or is it going to be in turf?

I think at the moment, it would be in the turf.

Well, then, you've got to draw it out to start with and what I suggest is

marking it out in sand, because if you get it wrong,

you can always rub it out and then mark it out again.

That's a really good idea.

Before you start cutting the turf.

If I had my way, I would be plonking them in willy-nilly.

Is that the way you do it?

You've got to get a little bit of space.

Rule of thumb for something like a begonia

-is probably about three-quarters of a trowel.

-A couple of inches?

No, we're talking about six inches.

-Three quarters...

-What do I know? I don't even know what a trowel is.

So Paul gives our novice gardener a lesson about growing begonias.

They prefer sunny spots but will also be happy growing in shade.

They can be grown indoors in pots from seed.

This should be done in October.

He also suggests an alternative, pansies,

which like similar conditions and come in a wide range of colours.

So how would I maintain something like this?

It's fairly easy. You've just got to keep an eye on deadheading

because you've got to deadhead plants regularly.

-Deadheads, yeah.

-Yeah, yeah.

-Can you show me how you do that?

-Absolutely. It's not rocket science.

-All right. It is for me.

You just get down and nip off the...

Oh, right, OK.

Sometimes, if you wanted to be pedantic,

you'd take something like that off because it's almost over.

And you see we've got a brand-new one underneath coming along.

I think I can manage that.

That's marvellous, then.

Well, you're one step closer to Wonderland, Kerensa.

And Waddesdon still has another treat in store

that takes raised bedding to the next level.

I've got something round the corner here that might surprise you.

Ooh, yeah.

Oh, my word.

Wow!

-That's amazing, Paul! Did you make that?

-Pretty much.

It's based on a Victorian idea.

We found an image of a bird very similar on an old diascope

and we thought we would have a go at recreating it.

That's just magnificent.

-Has he got a name?

-He's just a pheasant.

If you think about it as if it's a huge hanging basket, really.

There's a metal framework and a wire frame over that.

The compost is packed in between the wire framework and the metal frame

underneath. And then we plant into that compost through the mesh and

eventually the plants fill out and away it goes.

It's completely bonkers.

Isn't it?

My head feels like it's going to blow off my body.

I have seen so much,

I've heard so much that I just need to go and lie down

and let it all be absorbed.

And wake up tomorrow and I shall have a bit more of a clear plan

of what I'm going to do.

In the weeks after her inspiring visits to Waddesdon,

Kerensa has cracked on with her garden.

She's acquired a selection of plants and even laid a garden path.

Laying the path has been really, um...been hard work.

The first batch of concrete I made didn't work out properly

but I learned from that and the second batch we've got right

and we were able to lay the path.

Kerensa set out to create a chessboard patio,

a heart-shaped lawn and planting beds and a path

leading to a willow tunnel

along with all manner of Alice In Wonderland ornaments.

All on her modest budget of £500.

It's a good moment for Monty to come and give her a helping hand.

The problem I have with Kerensa is twofold.

One, I'm generally not sure what she wants.

It wants to be fantasy,

it wants to be wacky, but it's not really realised enough.

The other thing is plants don't enter into it.

There's nothing wrong in having your garden with no plants

but you've got to be clear about that.

In all honesty, I don't think I'm on top of the job at all.

We still have got a few weeks to go

and I'm really going to have to crack on with it.

-Hello, Kerensa.

-Hello, Monty.

Hello. You've got a path in.

-Yes.

-I can't wait to show you the path.

-It starts off perfect.

-Right.

The further down the garden we get, it starts to break away into chaos.

Which is my favourite word, chaos.

You've been very generous with the cement.

When you get to the edges here,

-you won't be able to plant up to the edge of the path.

-Right.

It seems that Monty's not as impressed as Kerensa had hoped

and he's struggling to get his head around her approach to gardening.

-Now, what I don't quite understand is, where the grass is now...

-Yep.

..what surface is that?

Are these borders?

-I don't know!

-You don't know.

The way that this garden has happened,

it's kind of been split-second decisions

but it seems to be working.

The way I'm operating this whole garden, it seems to be working.

Monty isn't convinced.

Time for a serious chat.

The truth is, Kerensa,

you are quite a chaotic person.

You've got that right.

And this has the makings of quite a chaotic garden.

There are two things we have to do.

One is steer you in such a way as it actually gets made,

because I could see in four months' time

it wouldn't look very different to this.

-OK.

-Two...

..we should celebrate your chaos.

You wanted a fancy garden, you wanted Alice in Wonderland.

It should be wacky and it should be yours.

If we start with that mound, if I take up the turf, that's number one.

It's not going to be a rockery per se, because a rockery,

you need more stone and there's too much soil underneath it.

But we can have rocks in there and also it can be what you want.

It can be wacky, it can break every rule in the book, it doesn't matter.

That's what I'm good at, breaking all the rules.

Pep talk over, now on to the job.

Time to turn this mound of earth into a garden feature.

The next thing is to start thinking about stones and bringing them in.

If we get... Let's just take this one.

If we put that...

And you put another one across there.

Thank you, Monty.

Is that going to work or not?

Yes.

By placing the rocks together on the face of the mound,

Monty is creating pockets for planting.

You need to get more soil or compost,

pile it up in, so that we draw...

The rock looks like it's just been uncovered.

Rather than sitting on top of it.

-Yes.

-And if you sowed a mixture of wild-flower seed,

because of all the rubble under there,

that would be quite poor soil and therefore the flowers would grow.

-OK?

-Yes, absolutely, I love the sound of that.

-We're getting somewhere.

-We are, finally.

Just needed you back at the helm of the ship.

Monty recommends Kerensa chooses wild flowers like poppies and

cornflowers, as they are an easy, low-maintenance way to add colour.

All she has to do is sow seeds between March and May in full sun

and they will flower throughout the summer.

In any partially shaded spot,

he suggests bluebells or red campion instead.

Kerensa has bought a selection of plants,

including ferns and campanulas that, as luck would have it,

are ideal for the new rock feature.

When you're planting on something like this,

you want to start with your biggest plants and work around them and

work out where they're going to be.

And don't plant anything until you're pretty comfortable

where you know it wants to be.

Your ferns we could put by the side here in a kind of screen.

This will get bigger.

So we could put one there and maybe another one there.

-OK.

-I think the other really important plants

are these campanulas,

which are absolutely perfect, and they could go

in little pockets like this.

-Yes.

-OK.

This is where your creativity comes in.

You could just arrange them so they look good.

This is my favourite bit so far.

Now I'm actually working with the plants and the flowers.

What you need to do is make a hole and stick it in.

And work out where I'm going to put my flowers.

And my little leeks in between the rockery.

An important feature of Kerensa's garden

is the patio-cum-chessboard near to the house.

Having already made a start,

she's hoping Monty can show her what to look out for when planting thyme

between the paving.

The first thing is it needs absolute full sunshine, it hates shade.

This is the perfect spot, then.

Good. The second thing it needs is very, very good drainage.

-OK.

-And this, of course, is sand over hardcore,

so it should drain really well.

And Monty has created the perfect mix,

consisting of half subsoil and half sharp sand.

A lot of plants wouldn't grow at all well in that but thyme will.

We just make a bit of a hole in the middle.

-And just place it in.

-And then with this...

..just grout round it so the roots have a little bit of goodness,

but only a little.

-And eventually this will expand and grow into the space.

-Yes.

Thyme is ideal for filling gaps between pavers

because it doesn't mind being stepped on and it chokes out weeds.

Not to mention its fabulous smell.

'I feel better now than I did when I came this morning

'because, to be honest,'

I looked at this garden

and, although the path was in place and the patio

was going down, it was a bit chaotic.

Having Monty here, he is a very calming influence

and he has put into words what I had in my mind.

What matters is she is starting to see this garden

as a series of small projects

that can then come together to make the bigger garden,

and if she can keep that going over the next few months, she might - MIGHT -

arrive where she wants to be.

Over in Teddington, Jennifer's garden is a hive of activity.

She wants to create a large terrace for cooking and dining.

Along with a sunny area for relaxing, with a water feature

and a screened-off area around her office

at the back of the garden.

Things have been moving on apace.

We have actually scoured back the garden,

so it's almost ground zero and now we have got stuff coming in.

We haven't changed very much from his suggestions.

His suggestions were completely right.

Now the groundwork has been done,

Monty has come along to help with the planting.

When I left last time, it seemed to me

that the really important thing they had to deal with

was sorting out the different spaces within the garden

and how they were going to use it.

So I will have a look inside.

Big trees, big changes.

-You've been busy.

-Yes, Jill has been very busy.

She has been busy clearing and digging.

I have been fiddling around the edges but mostly...

-Shopping.

-Mostly shopping.

While I'm here today, is there anything I could do?

Because I'm not going to lay your stones for you.

But is there anything I could do now?

Yes, there are dozens of things I have on my list.

One day.

First on the list is potting a couple of lemon trees,

which require good drainage.

Monty starts by adding polystyrene chunks to the bottom of each pot.

This will also make them lighter and easier to move.

You start with your basic compost.

If you pass the bag, I'll do all-purpose peat-free compost.

To improve drainage, Monty adds an equal amount of sand to the compost.

A nice sandy mix.

The next one...you have brought some topsoil.

-Yes.

-Let's have that.

I spend quite a lot of time in Italy

and all the people who grew citrus of any kind,

whether they were lemons, oranges, grapefruit,

they would never tell me their soil mix.

It was always a secret and they all have their own

but they all use loam like that.

Jill is keen to be Monty's assistant.

Jennifer prefers to watch.

Just lift it carefully.

That's about right, because we want to leave space at the bottom...

-Well, at the top.

-Yes.

Because one of the things it's good to do, A, for watering -

you want to be able to get plenty of water on the top,

and, B, it's quite a good idea every spring to give it a mulch of compost.

Scrape away an inch or so of the topsoil,

remove it and top that back up with fresh garden compost.

We can just fill around it like this in the pot...

..which looks a bit odd...

but actually...

..has one or two advantages.

Now, if you grab one side,

we carefully lift it out as straight as possible, OK?

-The whole thing?

-Yeah. Lift it gently up like that.

Keep going. That's it.

-Wow.

-Now, if we take this out...

..like that, and just slip it in there.

-Beautiful.

-Yeah.

The barrow to the pot?

-Yeah.

-Rather than the pot to the barrow.

'Oh, it's brilliant, it feels like this is the beginning of doing the actual gardening.'

Incredible information. You know, you think it would be very simple -

you put a lemon tree in a terracotta pot, what is the big deal?

And those polystyrene bits in the bottom, I had no idea about that.

I thought they were completely functionally useless,

polystyrene had no purpose.

With the lemon trees potted,

it's time to move on to a vine

which Jennifer hopes to grow near to the house.

I can see there is a rose here that is right by the fence.

-Yes.

-And basically, you want to get away as far as you can,

I would say about two or three foot, so the roots have room to move.

We have got the roots of the...

Hello.

A mixture of rubble and clay.

So it's going to get gruesome soon, I expect.

It's quite important to break that pan up,

because you've got a really solid pan of soil.

Vines like good drainage, that is important.

But it doesn't follow that they like poor soil

and it's important not to confuse the two.

So we need to break that up and maybe dig out a little bit,

and then put some compost in that will keep it light.

Vines are found all over the Mediterranean,

but Monty explains that they will grow happily in the UK

given the right conditions.

He recommends varieties like Pinot Noir and Chardonnay,

which need sheltered sunny spots with good drainage.

They will fruit, but need time to mature,

so Jennifer may need to wait a few years

before she can enjoy a good harvest.

If we've got the pot here,

you can see I've dug a hole that's much too deep.

I'm not going to plant it that deep.

To ensure there's good drainage,

I think some of your gravel in the bottom there,

mixed up with a little bit of manure,

would just give it a good start.

We'll add soil to that.

What it means is, if you have a very wet winter

or there's...you know, a puddle forms that runs off,

it's not going to be sitting in water, which is what you don't want.

Right.

Once the vine is planted, it gets a good watering-in.

Monty also suggests mulching the soil around the base

as well as adding a top layer of well-rotted manure

for some extra nutrients.

You should repeat that every spring and then that will help...

As it grows, that will help boost it, and that's the feed it needs.

Monty has just enough time to turn his attention to

Jennifer's mature but newly acquired olive tree.

It was damaged on its journey here and needs some expert TLC.

To be honest,

I'm quite daunted by this, because...

Wow, imagine how we feel.

Yeah, in the sense that...

of right now being able to go bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, voila.

Hey presto, there is a beautiful olive.

I think it's going to take several years for that to happen.

That's off there.

That's pretty damaged there, isn't it?

It's terribly hard wood.

-Is it?

-Much harder than the citrus.

Olives grow very slowly, so do not require much pruning.

However, Monty recommends removing dead,

diseased or dying branches in late spring or early summer.

Be aware that excessive pruning prevents fruiting,

as olives grow on the tips of the previous year's growth.

Is that starting to take?

Yes, it's already looking better.

-Tell me to stop.

-Stop!

OK.

I would not in a million years have done that.

When you finally decide where you want to put it,

plant it in a mix very similar to the citrus and the vine.

Lots of drainage.

Done a great deal today.

Monty has done most of it.

It feels like he's invested in this garden, doesn't it?

-Yes, yes.

-Emotionally.

I feel he will be back.

Jen has got lovely things.

You know, the citrus, the various olives, the paving.

It's beautiful, I can't wait to see it done.

But it doesn't matter what components you have of your garden,

it's putting them together that counts.

As summer marches on, Kerensa's garden in Billericay is developing.

The chessboard-style patio has been fully laid out and planted up

with thyme, following Monty's advice.

Can you manage that?

-Yep.

-OK.

Kerensa and Chris are bringing in a variety of plants

but, due to a lack of knowledge and poor after-care,

many are dying before they're even planted.

Haven't listened to Monty at all.

But, you know, when my friends see this, they'll say, "Well,

"that's her all over. She never listens to anybody."

Can those leaves be resurrected?

They probably won't come back.

Yeah, my philosophy is the best plan is no plan.

It seems that Kerensa's controlled chaos is turning into catastrophe.

Hello, Pam.

Luckily, she's found a local gardener

who has some free plants to donate.

To the car.

Not bad for a freebie.

Let's see. They look all right, don't they?

-In we go, Chris. What do you think?

-No, not a bad selection.

In all honesty, I can't wait to get...

I can't wait for this all to be done

and then I can start with my creative flair, you know?

It seems since we've started it's been...

-Too much like hard work.

-It has been a lot like hard work.

Keeping plants alive is one concern,

but Kerensa also has a problem with her chessboard patio.

We put this down last week.

It's temporarily, just to see how it looks,

and I've lived with it for a week,

and to be quite frank, it's a hazard.

You know, when I put the chair on I fell off the chair,

so I realise it's not going to be practical

for a dog and a four-year-old.

And with her August deadline approaching,

things have taken a difficult turn for Kerensa.

So can you come round later and give us a hand?

Not all day, definitely not even later on this afternoon.

That's Dawn. Let me try Kirsty.

After dealing with Kerensa's U-turn on the chessboard patio,

Chris has had to pull out of the project altogether.

The truth is I feel quite disappointed

that Chris hasn't been able to see the project through to the end.

I mean, we're nearly there.

I think there's just a couple more weeks left of work.

If I can call on a couple of buddies,

I reckon we'll be able to get it done.

With the clock ticking,

Kerensa will have to go solo to be ready for Monty's final visit

and Delphi's birthday.

Let's get your wellies...

and we'll get some soil.

It has been a struggle and I did lose a few plants,

but I think I didn't realise

that I probably should have watered them a lot more than I was.

But now I've realised that, I'm watering them every single day now.

Just a little bit on the sunflower.

A bit chaotic, but Kerensa carries on.

Drawing on her experience from Waddesdon Manor,

she has begun work on a heart-shaped bed of begonias.

Then, following head gardener Paul's advice,

she marks out a heart-shaped lawn in sand.

This needs to be absolutely pristine,

otherwise I won't be happy when I'm sitting there.

And also, this has been a long time coming, this part.

I've really looked forward to this so that, you know,

we can sit on the grass.

Because for such a long time we've been living on a building site, it feels like.

Having come to terms with going it alone, Kerensa knuckles down.

I'm hoping when the grass grows a little bit

these lines will disappear.

As her lawn takes shape, the question remains -

will it all be enough to hit her deadline and impress Monty?

I keep thinking there's a lot left to do.

But then when I look, I'm trying... I'm saying, "OK, well,

"it's small jobs,"

so I'm hoping we can get it done for the party in August.

Yeah, we'll get it done.

Meanwhile in Teddington,

Jennifer's Italian-inspired garden is shaping up.

She has dipped into her budget and hired some help

to lay her Yorkstone patio while she puts Monty's advice into action.

I'm going to put in the Monty mix

for the...big old olive tree.

Lovely, thank you.

I'm sure Monty will thoroughly approve.

Solid, stone, tons of drainage.

With the planter prepared,

it's time to transfer the huge olive tree into its new home.

And Jennifer's good at giving the orders.

Stop now.

This way, this way.

Yes. Bit more.

Keep going. Stop, stop, stop.

It's got to be just right.

That is better.

I want to lift it and get some soil and grit under,

then push it the other way.

Keep lifting, lads. We'll get there in the end.

OK. Is this in its perfect position?

This is where it's going to be.

All sorted.

And that's nice. I like this little gnarled piece here.

That's nice and visible.

Over the next few weeks, the garden fills up with plants

waiting to be placed around Jennifer's new patio.

When Monty suggested getting rid of all the grass,

extend the whole terrace

to make it much more like an Italian courtyard garden,

-actually, it was the right thing to do.

-It looks beautiful.

And it makes the garden look so much bigger.

Exactly as we did for the citrus.

Sister number three, Deborah, has arrived from the States

to help Jennifer and Jill create this garden as a tribute to their parents.

Shall we try rotating it?

Yes.

Just tell me what to do and I'll do it.

And they're filling the space with relics from their old family home.

Our mum died at the beginning of the year.

This is the first time I've been over since then.

And...

I see so much of my mum in this garden and my dad in this garden.

It's lovely for the first time to come back,

you know, without parents, but to have them here together

and us all working together has just been sweet.

Many hands make light work,

as the sisters fill up the garden with oleanders,

box balls, and verbena.

We're on a slightly tight timeline, aren't we?

Very, very tight timeline.

-Two weeks.

-Completely confident it will all come together at the end.

It's August, and in Billericay it's time for a tea party.

But with Monty on his way, the great British summer is a wash-out.

Last-minute priorities would be to get a giant hairdryer

and dry the garden.

There's a couple of things I need to put on the wall,

need to get a tea party ready.

But it's a bit difficult, if everything's going to get wet.

The paper plates aren't really going to work, are they?

I hope when Monty sees it his eyes pop out of his head.

Because I tried to explain to him on several occasions my dream, my vision.

It was very difficult when I'm trying to verbally explain it.

I wasn't following the plans that I'd written down,

and it was hard for him to envisage what I was talking about.

Madam, put your towel on.

I hope when he comes here today

he realises that even though half the time he thought I was talking

nonsense, there was actually a method behind my madness.

This is the garden, of all of them, that I least know what to expect.

What was apparent from my last visit

was that if Kerensa was to achieve anything like her dream,

she needed to focus.

And without that focus,

I do fear that her fantasy garden

will remain just that. A fantasy.

Five months ago, Kerensa's garden was messy and unkempt.

And very far from being Wonderland.

Now she's transformed it into a fairy-tale space,

complete with a heart-shaped lawn and flowerbed...

..a meandering path that leads to a secret garden...

and all manner of quirky touches,

inspired by Lewis Carroll's classic book Alice In Wonderland.

-Kerensa, hello.

-Hello, Monty.

-How are you?

-Very well.

-Nice to see you again.

And very nice indeed to see your garden.

Real. Here.

I'm so happy that you are impressed.

I am impressed and I'm delighted,

because my one worry was that you would have it all in your head

and it would never end up all in the garden.

And it has. At least, a lot of it has.

I love the heart-shaped lawn.

-I love it.

-That's brilliant.

Now, talk me through what you've done since I last came.

In fact, this terrace was starting.

You were going to have thyme, weren't you?

-What happened with that?

-Unfortunately, it wasn't practical.

So I had to pull it all up and do it again.

I did keep a bit of the creeping thyme but just in the four corners.

This is perfect for us now.

She can ride her scooter up and down and...

Good. Is that, I can't quite see, a heart-shaped raised bed behind it?

-Is that right?

-Yes, begonias.

Has it worked out as you thought?

Because it's not exactly as you planned, is it?

This is so far removed from the original plan,

but this is exactly how I would have wanted it on the budget I had.

Remind me what your budget was.

£500.

-How much have you spent?

-565.

-Right. So, that's all right, isn't it?

-It's all right. It's fine.

I've got enough for, you know, a pot of tea and a cupcake.

One of the things that worried me was that the garden would get lost,

and I know that gardens have to be planned and structured,

and what surprises me most is that it's happened at all.

You've got it done. You did it.

You said you were going to do it.

You said you were going to do it by a certain time, and you have.

And I think that's fantastic.

Thank you.

Well, Wonderland wouldn't be Wonderland

without a Mad Hatter's tea party.

-Here you go.

-That's falling down.

-Well done.

-Thank you, Lawrence.

Well, I think I'd just like to acknowledge the fact that I think this is glorious

-and you should be proud of that fact.

-I am.

-And what's particularly glorious is I know it's been tricky.

-Hard work.

You've done it. You've achieved it.

So, I think, fantastic.

Well done.

Nothing could be nicer than a silly cake, which is good.

So, bless you. Well done.

Thank you, Monty.

I would clap you, but it would cause a mess.

It's...

It's taken its time.

Standing back and looking at it now, it looks good.

It's a garden, it's an evolution, and it's going to get better.

There was a couple of times when I thought I just wanted to give up.

Painful, laborious, people were letting me down...

..but, do you know what? I kept going.

It's completely transformed.

And it looks great.

-Well done.

-Thanks for everything.

-That's a pleasure.

'There's still lots to do in that garden. It's not finished.

'It's all part of a process

'that might take years to come to fruition.'

That doesn't matter.

What Kerensa has achieved with very limited resources,

and, when she started, almost no knowledge at all,

not only of gardens, or plants, or how to go about it, I think,

is incredible.

I hoped Monty would be as pleased with my creation as I was.

When I saw his face, he genuinely looked like he was...

He just couldn't believe it.

I think the fact that he thought that I wouldn't achieve this,

and I got that feeling from him, I wanted to prove him wrong.

I wanted to show Monty this is what I can do, and I have done it.

In Teddington, the sun is shining

and there's a party going on alfresco.

Well, we've worked very hard...

on this garden. So I really, really hope he likes it, of course,

but also it exceeds his expectations.

I hope that he thinks that we've used his ideas effectively.

Monty is on his way to find out if Jennifer and Jill

have managed to make an Italian dream a reality.

There is no question that Jen and Jill

set themselves a very ambitious task.

A lot to do in really quite a short time.

They're very competent and I'm sure they will have done most of it.

But the crucial thing is,

have they transferred the work and the efficiency

and the knowledge into making a personal garden,

a space that has meaning for them

and which will grow and become more established as time passes by?

When Monty arrived five months ago,

Jennifer's garden was an unused muddy strip

with her office at the bottom.

Now it has all the feeling of being in the Mediterranean.

From the patio, complete with a beautiful area for entertaining,

to a dedicated space for cooking,

surrounded by stunning planting including an ancient olive tree,

lemon trees and a healthy-looking vine.

There's even the soothing sound of trickling water,

as a final touch for this new dream garden.

-CHATTER AND LAUGHTER

-Hoo!

-Hello.

-Hi, Monty!

-Hello. I'm sorry I'm late.

-Hello!

-But...

-Well, we're delighted to see you.

-Boy!

I'm almost speechless,

and that doesn't happen very often, I can tell you.

It's looking extraordinary.

Good. Well, we'd like to offer you a drink, first of all.

I'd love one. Thank you very much.

This is just how Jennifer wanted to use the garden.

OK. Thanks, everyone, for coming

and this is to Jilly and Monty for making it happen.

Let's begin where I left off.

We pruned the olive, and it looks great.

And it's recovered from its traumas of being moved.

-So have I!

-But the water feature,

that wasn't there. We vaguely talked about it.

I wanted a trough and I wanted it to be elevated and I wanted to have

a little bubbling thing and I wanted to pour water

but I never expected it, actually, to come together quite so easily.

And is that wood it's sitting on?

-Because...

-Yes. The wood it came from is a broken-down table.

Everything we've used in this garden has been inherited from our dad,

who just collected wood and many other things,

and the algae has grown so quickly.

Well, I was going to say, I love the green of the algae.

It just looks established, doesn't it?

-Yes.

-One has to say that I have never visited a garden, ever,

which has been done and completed in a matter of months

that is so finished.

It is extraordinary.

The planting is very complete.

There's an element of show garden about it.

This would win a gold medal.

In lots and lots of flower shows.

That's what we've been waiting for!

This is a gold-medal garden.

Well, that's really saying something coming from Monty.

But it has come with a hefty price tag.

Jennifer has ended up exceeding her budget of 5,000-7,000,

having spent almost £10,000.

But it's all worth it.

The more I look at this garden and the more I talk to you two,

what really touches me is the fact that it has meaning.

It's about your life. It's about your father, it's about your mother,

it's about your home, it's about your sisters.

And that's what makes gardens come alive.

Definitely. And that's evolved as we've been doing it more and more.

You know, lots of people inherit different things.

We inherited buckets, and watering cans, and secateurs, and weathervanes,

and a lot of old wood, which I'm so happy to have actually made use of.

It's been quite hard work.

I mean, it's not so much hard work because it's not a...

it doesn't feel like work.

-It's been very time-consuming.

-Time-consuming, absolutely.

-But...

-It's so rewarding.

Immensely rewarding.

And I would absolutely recommend it to anyone, because you're creating

something that is very, very long-term.

-Something for the future.

-Yes.

Jill and Jenny have made an amazingly assured garden.

They've done it in double-quick time.

The results would undoubtedly win a gold medal at most flower shows.

It's a lovely space, good for entertaining and relaxing and gardening in.

But it's not that that I like most about it.

What I really like is that it is a celebration of sisterhood,

that they've made something out of their past, their present

and their future.