Nottinghamshire Garden Rescue

With her can-do attitude, love of simple gardens

and decades of experience,

Charlie Dimmock is one of Britain's best loved gardeners.

Looking good, boys.

But the new kids on the gardening block are the Rich brothers.

We want to be the brothers

that change people's perceptions of gardeners.

Winners of multiple medals at the Chelsea Flower Show...

-Oh, wow.

-Get in!

-Amazing, isn't it?

..the boys have become known for their dramatic outdoor spaces.

Now, these two different generations of gardening are going head-to-head.

I know they've got a gold medal, but I can come up with a few ideas.

They're meeting frustrated garden owners across the country...

Not a lot going on. Not a lot.

I don't know what to do with it.

..And will each pitch them a design, based on their needs...

-Wow!

-..and budget.

-That sounds amazing.

-It doesn't look like it could be our garden.

-The winner...

-Charlie.

-Yes.

Yeah!

..brings their design to life...

-Hold on.

-Sweet as a nut.

..and the loser has to help them build it.

Keep working, keep working, boy.

Whoa. Easy.

This is what happens...

Just get on with it. Some time today would be good.

..when different styles collide...

I think your brother is throwing the toys out of his pram.

Are we doing this?

..to turn garden dreams into reality.

Open your eyes.

It's lovely.

Wow!

Look at that.

Whoa! That's not our garden.

It's time for Charlie and the Rich brothers to find out

which garden they are going head-to-head over this time.

Julia, or Julie as she likes to be called,

daughter Emma and the grandchildren.

They all live together.

-Cool.

-Although that is a nice, big picture,

-it is not a huge garden.

-OK.

Julia has lived in her house for ten years.

More recently, her daughter Emma, who is a nurse,

moved in with her two children, Lily, aged 11,

and nine-year-old Jack.

When I came here, the garden was very nice,

but there was decking out the back, which I wasn't very keen on.

There was all the little dry walls and the herb garden

but right down the end beside the garage,

there was a dip and it was just full of brambles and it was terrible.

I had to put all the weedkiller down there and clear it all out.

When Emma and the children moved in,

they made the garden more child-friendly by creating

a play area by the garage,

but they have grown out of that now and it's a bit sad and neglected

and the garden's not really working for them any more.

But there is one part of the garden that's been a roaring success.

The one thing that can't go is the artificial grass.

It looked rather neat, didn't it?

It did look a bit perfect for a mown lawn, didn't it?

It has been an absolute dream.

It's been wonderful.

One of the reasons for it really was to just make it low-maintenance

cos it is just us two and we don't have anybody really to help us

so we need all the help we can get.

Another aspect of the garden that the family enjoy

was created by Jack, the youngest member.

They have a little beach theme going on at this end

-which they're quite keen on.

-To keep?

-Yeah, or sort of extend it, maybe.

-OK.

It's just evolved as we've gone along,

and we've bought a lighthouse and we collect pebbles and shells

whenever we go to the seaside

and we've got a little seagull and we just keep buying

things and making the beach.

Despite its successes, overall the garden is falling short.

It just doesn't feel very welcoming to me at the moment.

Three things that I'd like...

The height, like a pergola, arches, and things growing over,

so to give us the shade but also

to give another dimension to the garden as well.

And I think Jack would like his beach to be a bit more...

It'd be fantastic, wouldn't it?

-Bit of a Mediterranean feel.

-Yes. Yes.

And to make the dream a reality,

Julia is prepared to raid her savings.

The budget is £3,000,

which is pretty much all I've got left of my redundancy money,

so I don't think I can go over!

-HARRY:

-It's not too bad, is it?

It looks big but if it isn't that big in reality, we can spread that.

If we're keeping the lawn, that takes up most of the garden.

That's really going to put an influence on the design, isn't it?

-You can't move it.

-Can't move it.

To get a better idea of the challenge they face,

the designers head to Nottingham

to meet the family and see the garden for themselves.

Yeah, it's all looking a little tired, isn't it?

Like the lavender's sort of... needs to come out, really.

Yeah, a bit worn out, isn't it, in a way, this garden?

Although the artificial grass looks in remarkably good nick.

-Yeah, I'm impressed, actually. Not too bad.

-Patio's good area.

I think as a family, though, this could be a nice space to enjoy.

Yeah, really lovely.

Especially in the baking sun as well.

Can't quite picture it, to be honest.

Why are we not having it here? What's going on?

Uninspired by the rundown garden, the brothers head inside

in search of something that'll give them more of an idea

about the family and what the garden needs to offer them.

It's a nice, cosy kitchen, isn't it?

-It is, it's gorgeous.

-I think what I picked up on is these.

They look just like kind of Mediterranean tiles, don't they?

-They do.

-Terracotta, warmth.

Says it all. Drawing that into the garden,

transporting them to a little Mediterranean space, be lovely.

And then this, look at this!

-What does that tell you?

-Beach, yeah.

The colour's got that kind of beach shacky feel, hasn't it?

Meanwhile Charlie's finding out how the family actually use the garden.

This is where Lily likes to do her gymnastics.

Oh, so it's a very much used space?

-It is, yeah.

-And tell me about the beach.

I quite like that bit.

How did that come about?

Jack collects meerkats and...

Hold on, meerkats and beaches, they don't sort of go together.

There's one on a deck chair!

Oh! That's where it comes...

-Right, so that set the theme.

-Yes.

So we build it around Jack's meerkat!

It would actually be very nice if we could have some water

-that would be like the sea.

-OK.

And in the sitting-room, the seaside theme continues.

Oh, look at this, some more beach.

More beach, definitely a theme.

Yes, we've got that quilt, haven't we? Blue walls.

I think it's going to be important they get a little bit of beach

on there or some form of coast,

maybe doesn't have to be that kind of obvious.

What do you like about the garden?

Nothing! Absolutely nothing!

Are you gardeners?

Not particularly. I like the sunshine. We get plenty of sunshine,

you know, in the garden and it does get very hot, so, yeah...

-So you'd like maybe a bit of shade?

-A bit of shade, yeah.

-So like the sun, but not all the time.

-Yes.

The £3,000 budget is well-suited to this smallish garden, but there's

still a lot for the designers to think about.

They need to retain the family's main seating area

and the artificial lawn

but they need to think about the beach theme,

add shade and tackle the ugly side return.

It's going to be a challenge,

so the trio waste no time and head straight to their drawing boards.

Each of them must come up with a design that works

within Julia's budget,

who will then have to choose the winning design.

The loser will help the winner to build the garden.

Julia's £3,000 will be used to buy all the materials for the new garden

and Charlie and the Rich brothers,

along with a crack team of landscapers,

will provide the labour.

It's time for the designers to pitch their ideas.

Hi, guys. OK.

So this is our design.

Harry and David have seen how important it is

for the family to have a sunshiny seaside theme.

Will they go along with that

or offer something completely different?

Now we know that you really wanted this very romantic,

quite rural style of Mediterranean garden that also emphasised

-a coastal element as well.

-Yeah.

Whilst Charlie has learnt how important it is for the garden

to work for all three generations. Will that give her the edge?

I've really elaborated on the beach theme.

So Jack's beach's got bigger.

I've used slabs, tiles, small tiles over this whole area

which will make it feel warmer and sunnier

and then the side return here,

having contrasting planting to the Mediterranean plants,

so I'm going to go with a lot of ferns,

picking up on the little ferns you've got growing in the wall

but taller ones.

Things like male fern and shuttlecock fern

which look quite dramatic and lush and green.

Wow!

So, you know, this space outside the back door

really isn't doing a lot at the moment

and what we wanted to do is start the journey from there and we wanted

that Mediterranean theme to kind of carry on through.

So you know, we started off

with this lovely kind of compacted natural surface

and it's going to create this lovely kind of texture on top.

Julia told Charlie about the intense sun the south facing garden gets,

so what have the designers got in mind to deal with that?

Here we wanted to put these three large olive trees in

so you have this really nice Mediterranean kind of character

and that will create a more dappled, shaded area here

instead of it feeling quite overpowered and enclosed.

And also they're evergreen,

and they've just got their colouring and their scent,

they've just got a really lovely atmosphere about them

so you'll actually feel like you're amongst this rural olive grove.

Over the seating area,

we've got a simple pergola and take your grapevine

up and over but I want this area, because it's so hot and sunny,

it'll be a fantastic area for plants that are aromatic,

so it will really intensify the scent.

Both designers have addressed the family's need for more shade.

It feels like they're neck-and-neck at the moment

but Charlie is about to play her trump card.

There's some water there so you can sit on the end of the seating bit

there and dangle your feet into the water.

Solar powered pump and water just running in cos it's a nice, sunny

garden so you might as well use that sun to power the water feature.

But the Rich brothers have a trick up their sleeve too.

Pretty much the main feature is this archway here.

So as you can see it's an archway of colour, which is quite important.

What we want to do is create this archway and then use a few climbers

to go up it so it gives you a lot of interest throughout the year,

things like the clematis and also rose as well,

things that have a nice, very pretty, very subtle scent,

so you can journey through that and also within this area,

you can see what we want to use,

we want to try and re-use the stone you've got around the garden

and also to make the wall a little bit longer,

we'll introduce some new stone and provide you guys with this lovely,

quite rustic dry stone wall and also it would be a great place to sit.

Wow! Both designers have really pulled the stops out

and packed a lot into this small garden.

It's going to be the details that decide this one,

and Julia and Emma are giving nothing away.

They can only choose one, so whose will it be?

Will they be won over by Charlie's water feature

and warm Mediterranean hues

or swayed by the brothers' dusty olive grove and dry stone wall?

It's decision time.

You'd be able to see that from upstairs.

And look down on that. I think that'll be gorgeous.

-It does look Mediterranean, doesn't it?

-It does.

-DAVID:

-Yeah, so we went for that quite natural, rural,

loose Mediterranean vibe. Really connected with them, actually.

-EMMA:

-It's got the water in it.

-It's got the water.

I did want water.

And all these beach plants and things that she's got.

Yeah, yeah. They will be gorgeous.

And then you've got the shade here for your vine to go up over.

-Yeah.

-These lovely smelly plants.

I like Jasmine.

See, mine was full-on beach.

-Full-on beach? Sand?

-No, not sand. No, not sand.

So picking up on what they've got,

-but like two thirds of the garden.

-Really?

Which one is it going to be, then?

So it was really, really difficult to choose, really.

You know, there was lots of good things about them both.

Love them both. We had to choose.

Put us out of our misery!

-Charlie!

-It was the beach, Jack's beach.

The whole garden pivots on a meerkat in a deckchair.

LAUGHTER

I feel really awful.

I loved your design.

-It is a shame.

-It did look very romantic.

It was, it was gorgeous.

And... But I just think that the children would gain more

from this, you know, like with the water feature.

So Charlie wins this one but she'll certainly need the brothers' help

if she's going to transform this joyless plot

into a shingly shoreline to please the whole family.

Early morning in Nottingham,

and while Charlie is away fine tuning her design,

project manager Bowen, along with his expert team of landscapers,

Andy, Lee and Steve, are raring to go.

They start by clearing all Julia's precious ornaments and pots

out of the garden.

# Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda... #

Nice old clay edging. I think we'll save them.

Don't know what they'll be used for

but they'll come in for something later on in the project.

One detail of Charlie's design that won Julia and Emma over

was the water feature, which should be in the middle of

what's currently an unexpected old concrete garage base.

The lads have got their work cut out.

We just hope the concrete is nice and thin, Bowen,

so we can cut it out easy.

-Famous last words.

-Famous last words!

It'll be fine. We'll sort it.

Another key part of Charlie's design is a gabion wall,

which won't just look great but is a fantastic opportunity

to absorb some of the waste materials.

And then we just recycle all the stone in the garden

to face the gabions,

and we can also use the beach cobbles that we've got coming.

-OK.

-To front the gabions by the beach.

Just a thought, then, if we've got any concrete,

if we're taking any concrete slabs up or anything, we want to save it,

so we can break it up, put it in the back of the gabions,

just use the good stone in the front.

-And the top.

-Yeah.

And the top. Yeah.

The bits what you'll see.

The time for talking is over.

The lads need to pick up their tools and crack on

if they're going to have made sufficient progress

by the time Charlie arrives.

Digging out for the water feature.

For the end, so it's butted up to the garage and then that will

determine the height of the pontoon and me deck area.

That's the plan, anyway. Until this is in, I can't work anything else,

so...keep digging.

Meanwhile, Andy and Bowen work out how to best lay out

the paving stones in order to get the informal Mediterranean look

that Charlie is after.

I like the staggered joints.

Yeah.

I'd prefer to see that than that.

That's a little bit boring,

don't like the staggered joints.

The straight joints.

That's why you'd set it up before, it's a lot better.

I always think with the natural stone as well,

because the edges aren't straight,

if you have a straight line,

because you haven't got any clean cuts,

the straight lines don't look that good.

And it's not a clean line, is it?

It would look better with the gravel going into it as well.

I'm happy with that, think that'll look good, definitely.

-It's a plan.

-Shall we go for that?

-Let's do it, let's do it.

-Let's do it.

While Andy gets started on laying the Mediterranean style paving,

Lee's making great progress with the water feature.

Brilliant. Perfect.

Right. Now that's in, on a four-inch bed of sharp sand,

just to level it up so it'll take any movement

as we fill it with water.

It's been a tough old dig,

we've had some right rubble in here

but it's finally in now, all levelled up.

Charlie's design calls for more regular shaped planting beds

than the old ones,

so Bowen is salvaging what he can

from the existing herb bed before it's destroyed.

We're going to transplant some of this smaller fennel that we've got,

we've got some oregano which we can put into the gabion walls over there.

They'll spill out nicely

and we've managed to save a lemon balm as well.

So it's not all doom and gloom for this herb bed.

It's going to have a second life throughout the garden

and this one will live on in someone's dinner.

Unfortunately, this rosemary is too big and woody

to move successfully, so the best thing to do with that

is pick the leaves and dry them to use in the kitchen.

By the time Charlie and the Rich brothers arrive,

the team has made great progress, the patio is all but finished,

the deck and water feature are complete

and Charlie starts as she means to go on, by cracking the whip.

I am running a tight ship, so keep walking, get in that garden,

get on with the gabions.

So, Lee, I've got lots of ideas for these pallets.

This one's quite a nice one. If you give me a hand up,

I'm going to make it into a sort of planter, I think.

So I might need a hand from you a bit later but if I start it off, yeah?

-Saw.

-Saw would be good!

I might be by the end of doing the garden.

-That's good.

-Give me a shout if you need me.

-OK.

So the great thing is,

a lot of our deliveries turn up on pallets that don't get collected,

but do check before you start cutting them up

because there's still a few firms that come and collect the pallets.

But we've got lots,

so I can sort of recycle the timber and make some quite quirky

but interesting little features.

So I'm going to cut this back to about there,

so I'm going for a tall, narrow wall planter.

The thing I like about the pallets is the timber is sort of

slightly distressed, which will really work with the beach theme.

My idea is that we're going to box this in,

so using the spare bits of timber, so we'll box that in there

which will make the bottom of the first planter.

We'll probably need to box in a bit here,

so that we've got two, then we'll take out those two,

then we'll box in again here

and leave two, take out two, box in there,

so you end up with three little wooden troughs

and the plants spill out,

so this is the back and that's the front.

It'll all make sense when it's up on the wall, I promise.

Meanwhile, Harry and David have got their teeth

into a bit of flatpack action.

They're constructing the gabions for the new wall Charlie wants

to construct down one side of the lawn.

Believe it or not, these are actually going to look great.

These are the gabions and you'd expect to see them

retaining banks or preventing coastal erosion on the beach.

They tend to be much larger, but what we're using here

is the smaller garden kit, and what you get for your money, it's £11,

and you get these individual wire mesh panels

and then you also get these coils here

and it's as simple as screwing them together,

that holds them nice and firm and then they're ready to fill.

There you are. This is the one I made earlier.

I can only dream of making such a good one, Harry.

Look at that. They are actually really simple to make, aren't they?

But you've got to remember not to fix the top

because you're going to have to fill them,

and what's great in this garden,

we've got tonnes of recycled material.

So we've got this Victorian rope edging, we've bought some cobbles,

which is going to have this lovely kind of rounded character

and we've also got this natural stone,

so it's kind of endless what you can put in them.

You can put wine bottles, brick, and that's what's so nice,

you can really create this lovely kind of texture and character within them.

And they're modular and they create a really nice kind of structure

to the garden, and that's what we're going to be doing over here.

Charlie is trying to eke out Julia's £3,000 budget

by recycling wherever possible.

Talking of which, that pallet wall planter's coming on a treat.

-Any line will do.

-Any of them!

-I got in there!

-You beat me to it.

Rustic, doing the rustic, I am.

-Yeah!

-It's been worn by the sea.

Right!

Right, can I decide which is up?

You want that as up with the big one at the bottom.

-That's going to be...

-Yes.

There's going to be a planter there. Things come over top, ain't it?

That one there, that one there.

That's it, look at that!

Oh, yes, very nice!

See, I'm going to do that with plants rather than beards, though!

Harry and David have finally constructed all of the gabions

and are taking time to place them correctly.

Not too bad.

It's really important when you're laying the gabions to put it on

to a level, firm base, so what we've done is we've used

a bit of sharp sand, nothing too much,

but just enough that we can get a nice easy level,

place them on, the hard work's done.

-And the fun begins.

-The fun begins.

We've got a few ideas how we want to fill them,

but I think we'll go and check with the captain, see what she thinks.

Oh, here she comes.

See now, that sounded ominous!

What do you mean, "Oh, here she comes?"

We were just about to see the captain.

Yeah? Why?

We've got some ideas about how we thought these could look good.

They do look good, they look empty!

Well, that's the thing. We're going for minimal.

That's a bit too minimal.

Going to have to speed up because I've got other creative plans

for you over here.

OK. What we were thinking of

is using the cobbles as a kind of wave through the stone.

-What do you think?

-As long as it's quick!

We'll chuck all the cobbles in, then!

I think there. Cool.

On it, then.

The trick when filling the gabions is to make sure that you are keeping

light on the face, because when you close the lid, you want

to make sure it's nice and sharp.

You know, you can have a tendency to bow out,

and when it comes to the end, it's going to look quite untidy,

so take your time because it's going to be the face

and it's going to be the whole character of these gabions,

so it's nice to spend that little bit of extra time

and make it look really nice.

All this natural stone in the garden is perfect

for putting inside the gabions, and they're quite a contemporary look,

but by putting something aged, it's got moss on,

it really gives this kind of natural feeling, and over time,

hopefully ferns will start growing out and it'll just completely

soften this and make it kind of merge with the rest of the garden.

So here we've got these concrete slabs.

We've broken them up, and they're perfect for just using in the back,

because you're not going to see them, they help to add the strength,

and then the stuff that you've spent the money on,

like these pebbles here, they go in the front and they look beautiful.

While Bowen starts to paint the garage to emphasise

that seaside theme, Charlie turns her attention

to the once unpromising side return.

This area here, Julie really wanted us to concentrate on,

because she looks over it when she's doing the washing up,

and also looks out from the lounge, and it was a bit dull and boring.

So by putting the paving down, and it's a light coloured paving,

and then the hogging, it's lifted the colours in here.

And then by adding a few more plants,

it will make it nice and attractive.

Now, it is a difficult area to plant up, because it's shady,

it's dull and it's damp, but look at what's naturally growing here.

We've got lots of different ferns.

We've got a hart's tongue fern here, we've got another fern there,

and a different type again,

so I'm going to replicate that by using this tassel fern.

It's got these gorgeous, glossy ferny leaves,

but other plants that are going to like those conditions are hostas

and also Euonymus fortunei,

that comes in lots of different variegations.

And then over here -

I was thinking of adding a bit of colour so Julie can see it

from the lounge - this lovely double camellia.

The thing about camellias,

it's quite often they flower very early, and if there's a late frost,

it damages the blooms, but by having it against the wall of the house,

it will protect it, and also it gets the evening sun,

which will then protect it even more.

And it just lightens up this whole area.

A bit of a rocky start with this one.

These jokes are getting "boulder and boulder!"

Yeah, that's so much better now, that looks sick.

With the upcycled pallet planter in place,

Charlie can now see if it's delivering what she hoped it would.

Now I've got three planters here, one there, one there and one there,

but I actually quite like this quite minimal.

I think it's got a lot more impact on it.

I mean, I could put one there,

maybe even up there in a pot, and it just...

So if I've got that one that way, that one that way

and then that one that way, I think that's quite quirky, quite fun,

I like that.

The garden's starting to come together

and Leigh has worked miracles around what was the concrete garage base.

This is looking good, my deck area.

Gone is the old rotten bridge that was here,

and then we've used these old recycled scaffold boards,

and the joists that we're using as groins,

we have got recycled timber,

again they were the joists from a house.

So the only thing that we've splashed out on,

keep to the theme there, keep to the theme,

are these chunky round posts,

the new sleepers that we've put across there

to make this a raised bed,

and that makes that access much easier.

With most of the hard landscaping now complete,

Charlie and David have turned their attention to the planting.

Well, Charlie's pointing and giving the orders

and David's doing as he's told.

How many cistus have we got up there?

-Two left.

-Yeah, we really need that up in that bed there.

So you see where that potting compost is?

-Yeah.

-They go in there.

-Cool.

-Then...

Then what do you want up there?

-A lavender?

-Yeah, lavender could go...

-..here.

-Just one or shall I bring down a couple?

-One.

-Just one?

One. One, one, one.

-There you go.

-On that corner.

-On the corner.

Cool. And then you mentioned Carex?

Oh, no, I changed my mind.

Lavender. Right, those Armerias,

-do you want to get the Armerias then, matey?

-Aye.

And taking her role as boss seriously,

she's not finished with ordering the brothers around yet.

I would like you to make a mosaic, in there, of octopus tentacles,

or even squid tentacles.

Ooh, I'll go for octopus and you can have squid.

-Yeah.

-Yeah?

-Yeah, love that.

Just along the back, so if she doesn't like it,

she can just put some plant pots.

She's going to love it, Charlie! Don't be so negative!

Guess what? I know you're being artistic,

but could you be artistic out of my way?!

Ooh, what have you gone and done there?

You're not having a head or anything?

Oi, oi, oi. You're interrupting our creative space here.

Lose the smiley face,

and then we've got your tentacles and then another one here,

which could even do that type of thing, yeah.

-And then a smiley face.

-No smiley faces!

Have you drawn that smiley face?

-No!

-I feel like we've got it.

First off, we've got to lay down a bed of this wet cement

and that's going to kind of act like the canvas.

That's what we're going to press the cobbles into.

Then we've got to choose the stone, we've got three different types,

we've got three different colours.

One's a bit more shiny than the others, isn't it?

Do you think Charlie wants a sand castle instead?

So it's just a matter of choosing it,

sketching down the design and then just putting them in.

I think it's nice sometimes, if you do have an expanse of slabs

or you want to create a little detail,

then slabs, they have a lovely texture, but it's quite soft,

whereas if you put a bit of pebble detail in there,

then it actually makes a bit of a feature out of this section,

and, you know, it's quite a used path,

so to have that kind of nice little pattern on there

will really make a difference.

So what I'm putting down now is four spadefuls of sharp sand

to one cement, and that's going to create a lovely strong mix

and really allows the cobbles to really get cemented in.

Hey!

And then, actually, we're against the clock,

because that thing's going to dry pretty fast,

so we've got to crack on.

Leigh's boardwalk area is looking great,

but desperately in need of some planting

to soften all the hard edges and add texture.

So this area is really very minimal on the planting,

but the plants need to have good structure and go in key places.

So this lovely Carex, evergold, so it's evergreen,

it's got these yellow and green striped leaves,

with these little sedge seed heads,

I'm going to put here, because it sort of just breaks that line,

but really accentuates the boardwalk,

the timber and what will be the cobbles and big round pebbles.

Next, it's onto the water feature,

which will really bring the seaside theme to life.

This my water feature focal point,

so it will draw your eye to the corner

of my water feature-cum-foot-cooler.

It's a bit of fun, really.

It's somewhere where the children can sit

and dangle their feet off of if it's really, really hot,

or just make some paper boats to float around on the water's surface.

This piece of driftwood was £40,

so it wasn't cheap, but it is beautiful.

I've drilled a hole just here,

so the water's going to gently tumble out here.

But I need to silicone it in position

and just leave it for a minute or two.

Well, probably about ten minutes.

Charlie is securing one end of the hosepipe to the driftwood

with silicone sealant. The other end will be attached to the pump,

which is submerged in the pool.

Right, just going to squidge that in a little bit.

So I'm going to leave that to just go off.

So I'm using a solar powered pump,

and the great thing about solar powered pumps

is these days they're way better than they used to be.

So you get a panel and you get the pump,

so it means you haven't got to run electrics.

We pop the panel up on the roof of the garage,

and then we've got the pump right down in here.

You can see it bubbling away on this lovely sunny day.

It will just give a really nice gentle trickle,

so it will make you feel very cool.

Because if it's really boiling hot at that end of the garden,

you might want to come and sit down in the shady bit of the garden

to cool off.

Using driftwood for the water feature,

along with rocks and pebbles,

will help bring that seaside feeling into this garden.

Designers Mark Whyte and Charmaine Ferguson,

who have recently finished building a coastal garden in Kent,

know that the best way to get inspiration for a coastal garden

is from the beach itself.

Materials we chose to use for the garden

were obviously mainly different grades of shingle.

We don't want to go with just a normal, just one grade of shingle.

Beaches, we want to reflect again this whole natural feel,

and the fact you can have a beach anywhere.

By doing that, you need to incorporate different size of shingles.

So you can go from tiny little stones

up to the big rocks you see on the beach.

Don't be afraid to plant wild plants that you see on the beach.

They are plants that actually naturally go there,

so they grow in shingle, so they thrive without soil and things.

You don't need, like, pristine soil compost and all this sort of thing

around your plants. There's so many of these plants,

like sea kale and bits and pieces,

that you find wild on the beach that thrive,

that look stunning, and would look stunning in anyone's garden.

So don't be afraid to just veer off from your peonies

and move into some sort of things

that you might not necessarily see at the garden centre.

There are many websites that sell coastal wild flowerpot plants

like sea kale, valerian and marram grass,

so you can create touches of your very own beach,

no matter where you live.

These plants are used to thriving in harsh conditions.

They don't really need to worry about

being looked after too much,

so you can pop them in the ground and then they're going to be

up and all over the place within a few months.

When laying out the garden,

the couple again turned to the natural contours of the shoreline

for their blueprint.

We've got these nice sort of curved pathways

to get to the seating area, and sort of meander through all the plants.

The plants are sort of raised slightly on mounds,

which we'd naturally get on the beach.

So yeah, we wanted to create that, to give a nice natural feel.

In this coastal garden, the clients wanted a sheltered seating area,

where the family could gather,

much as you might shelter in the sand dunes

with a barbecue or picnic.

We've got this lovely sunken area,

so they can sort of entertain in that and feel quite enclosed

in that area, sort of quite a fun area.

It's got a nice fire pit in the middle,

so you can have the family round in the winter time, even,

and you can sit in this nice cosy area,

which you would do maybe on the beach.

You might light a barbecue or something,

might have a little fire on the beach.

It's kind of got a real communal feel.

Back in Nottingham, the newly laid patio

is where Julia and her family will gather in future.

Here, the need is to ensure it has some shade from the sun,

and so the team are erecting a pergola.

This one's a simple shape.

It's just an off-the-shelf kit

available from most large garden centres or online.

Once the silicone is dry on the upcycled fountain,

it's time to rig up the water feature.

I think that's lovely.

Nice bit of detail on it.

Nice sound.

Lovely. Really pretty.

The garden is nearing completion,

but Charlie's keen to add more planting.

So this border here, minimal planting,

and I'm picking up the planting that Julie's already got.

So she already had some Festuca glaucas

randomly through the raised bed,

so I'm just putting another one in, just to break it up a bit more.

So it's got that blue-green colour, which sort of says seaside.

If you look at the plants at the seaside,

you'll find most of them have a sort of blue-green colour to them,

so it sort of protects them from the intense extremes

of sun, salt water and wind exposure.

So if we mulch through with the sand, then put the pebbles over,

it just lightens it up.

Yeah, very beachy, isn't it?

It looks very beachy.

Harry is putting the finishing touches to the mosaic,

set into the path.

I think it's gone really, really well, hasn't it?

Yeah, it's been a lot of fun. What's so nice

is Charlie's using these same pebbles throughout the whole garden,

so there's a sense of unity and a sense of detail.

And I think it's really nice introducing a bit of art

-into the garden.

-Yeah.

-Hopefully, it will inspire the kids

to do their own little bit somewhere.

I've thoroughly enjoyed it.

-Best bit of the day!

-It's true, something so simple, you know,

and it's just so effective.

I think it works really well,

because you've got the simplicity of the slabs,

and then the detail of the pebbles.

Run past this part of the path where you get caught by the octopus.

Yeah.

As the last few plants are potted up and the finishing touches

are added to the scheme, the garden is finished.

Before they called the Garden Rescue team,

Julia and Emma's garden was tired and scruffy

and uninviting for both them and the children, Jack and Lily.

Now it's had a £3,000 makeover,

and Charlie has spent every penny of that money creating a fun space

for the children and a relaxing seaside inspired haven

for mum Emma and grandma Julia.

Charlie spent £670 replacing the old, dull patio slabs

with rustic finished natural sandstone,

to give that Mediterranean warmth.

A seaside isn't a seaside without water,

so Charlie allocated £500 to her gently trickling

driftwood water feature and boardwalk area.

The pergola was a snip at £300,

and will provide the family with some much-needed shade

in this sunny south-facing garden.

The budget was eked out by recycling some plants in the garden,

but Charlie splashed out on an additional £300

on shade-loving plants for the gloomy side return

and additional seaside plants to enhance the beach theme.

And last but not least, the gabions came in at £550.

They're filled with pebbles and rocks

and are reminiscent of the coastline.

They also provide additional seating in the garden.

Julia and Emma desperately wanted a garden the whole family could enjoy

and relax in, and they were prepared to plunder their savings

to make it happen.

It's time to find out if Charlie has delivered.

One, two, three - open your eyes.

Wow.

Look at that!

Oh, look! Ooh, I've got a thing on the wall.

You've got a thing on the wall!

You see, I know you're into your crafts,

so we got a bit crafty in the garden.

So this is just a pallet that we've made into a planter,

and it just adds a bit of interest to the wall.

Oh, I love that.

A pallet, you can do so much stuff with.

You can, so versatile!

This bed here...

-There's a hole in the ground.

-Yeah, which is where your rosemary was.

This is going to be a lovely scented bed.

We've got Daphne in there, Hebes, hostas, black sambuca.

This area here, you've got a lovely Tracheospermum

that's got a really sweet jasmine scent that will climb up there.

It will root down through,

because we've got soil underneath that bit there, and it's evergreen,

so it will come up and really shade.

But then I think you should train your grapevine this way along

and up and over, so that the grapes hang down.

We've got lavenders everywhere.

They'll waft around.

So this will be a really lovely Mediterranean scented seating area,

but slightly shady.

Fab, thank you!

Do you like it?

It's better than you thought, yeah?

Oh, it's gorgeous, isn't it?

It's like an octopus.

The boys will be so pleased!

I think they've just spotted our octopus.

-And she knew what it was.

-Winner!

We all got a bit arty,

then we got the gabions there with the cobbles in,

so it brings the seasidey side into your Mediterranean,

but also they're great,

a few cushions on there, you can sit on it.

This is our beach rustic boardwalk.

Fab. Oh, look, look, it's the sea!

So that's for you to dangle your feet in.

Oh, wow.

It's absolutely freezing!

-Is it cold?

-Absolutely freezing.

Maybe a bit later.

What's she doing?

I think it's probably a bit cold for that, isn't it?

£3,000 was a serious investment to make in their garden.

Do Julia and Emma think they got value for money?

It was money well spent, wasn't it?

Absolutely, definitely, yeah.

Yes, I think it was the best decision we've made.

I'm really pleased with it.

It just seems bigger and it's sort of all come together

and so much of it's recycled.

I mean, most of the planting is theirs.

I know, I think that's what's so nice.

I mean, we could walk out here and it just looks like

it's always been here.

I think sometimes that's a really nice quality.