Episode 4 Get Up and Grow

Fabulous flowers, luscious lawns, verdant veggie plots and backyards.

What does your garden say about you?

If it's crying out for an overhaul or you simply need help to get started,

then we're here to inspire you.

-We're happy.

-Is that a good shot for you?

I'm Chris Beardshaw - passionate horticulturist,

landscape architect and mad-keen cyclist.

I propagated my first seeds when I was four and haven't looked back since.

HE SNEEZES Excuse me.

Is that broad appreciation?

And I'm Colin Donaldson - builder, landscape gardener and mad-keen biker.

For me, it's always been about the property

and the landscape working together.

If there's heavy machinery involved, all the better.

Are you trying to get a tune out of that?

Bah! We're on a mission to help six families transform their gardens.

So let's get up and grow!

Paul Malone is a graphic designer who works in the heart of Belfast.

However, he lives with his Great Dane,

far away from the busyness of Belfast in a converted church near Templepatrick.

Around his home lies two acres of potential,

but at the moment it's fair to say it's a wilderness.

Paul is a self-confessed gardening virgin.

To be honest, I don't know an awful lot about gardening

and I don't pretend to at any stage.

So that's precisely why we, on our first visit,

attempted to ease him into gardening

by building him just a small wildlife pond.

I'm not sure what your definition of small is, Chris, but it looks well.

It's not the finished article, but you've been a busy boy.

I feel it's definitely getting there.

There's a more colour, more green and less brown, which is a good thing.

But, I mean, I think this is a good start.

It's one of the things that we need to now think

a bit more broadly about how you incorporate it within the rest of the site.

At the moment you've got a field.

This isn't a garden, this is a field.

What sort of gardener do I think I'll be?

I hope I'm going to be a keen gardener.

I hope I'm going to be an empty vessel

waiting for all this knowledge and all this experience to come to me.

'Two acres and a virgin - I think we've got a bit of a challenge on here, Chris.'

We need to get to grips with what the possibilities are.

What the potential is for out here.

As long as it's easy to keep and I don't have to

give up the day job to be here every day.

You have to start to distil

what's actually going to work here and what you need on the site.

So let's distil ideas. The second is let's clean the site.

At the moment, you can't look at that. We have to annihilate it.

And then look at that as a blank piece of paper

and find out what we can start to impose on the site.

I love learning about new things.

And this is an exciting project.

So hopefully I can do it justice

and hopefully I'll become a good gardener.

With two acres of scrub facing us,

I'm pleased you volunteered to be the man who went to mow.

I note that you and Paul made a sharp exit there.

No, no, this is called an inspirational visit.

We headed off to the stunning gardens at Greenmount College.

These gardens are laid out in a series of little inspirational packages.

Don't worry about budgets or practicalities or your own knowledge, nothing.

What I'm interested in is your passion. What stimulates you?

There was pretty gardens, there was very well manicured gardens,

there was wild gardens, there was shady gardens.

It just showed me what a garden really can be.

Are you an informal or a formal man?

What is it that does it for you?

I contradict myself.

Being a designer, I love straight lines and organised grids

and things to be in their place,

but for me, that's not a garden.

For me a garden is, it's curves, you know, it's things poking out.

It's different plants being beside each other.

I think the garden Paul wants is still ahead of him.

He talks about what wanting it wild,

but even the wildest gardens need meticulous planning.

This is brilliant because

you've just hit exactly what the problem is with your garden.

Your tendency is to go informal and to be relaxed

and to be a little bit hands off,

but put the structure in it and you have something

which stands up and it's proud of itself.

Today, we've ripped the grass away from this site and it's enabled us

to have a clear vision of what it's all about.

It's such a difference now you've put that mower through.

Well, it's taken this to give us clarity

about what the site is about and really to expose the imperfections.

It's the first time that we've seen the boundaries

and you're right with imperfections, just look at that fence.

It's just hiding the building.

What's the point in having a building like that if you're going to screen it off?

It was a site within a site. Now, it's the whole thing.

Faced with a blank canvas

and a series of rather spasmodic ideas

which is what we found at Paul's site,

there has got to be some discipline.

Some order brought to the ideas. You've got to have a vision

of what this thing is going to be like once it's mature.

I think by leading him bit by bit and getting him to maintain

little areas at the time,

we can maybe pull this one through, but it's a big ask.

-It's got to happen, hasn't it?

-It definitely does.

OK, Chris, enough talking about it, we need some of your doodles.

Let's deal with the first things.

I think that the sense of coming in here

and being able to park your vehicle in this zone here

is a real intrusion into the site, because for me this is all garden.

Anything down here is garden.

-OK.

-I mean, I think there's a need to put some sort of division there.

So that immediately means that this zone becomes

-A serviceable area.

-I can get a car park in there.

You can get a race track in there, not just a car park.

I love the idea of keeping this private

so whenever friends are up or whatever, you can go,

"And here's the garden."

See if you like the next bit. THEY ALL LAUGH

Creating a good design is like playing poker -

never, ever reveal your hand all at once!

The ground floor is kitchen window, clearly that has to be

a view that rewards, if you let me take that fence down.

-What have you got here?

-A big shed.

-A big shed.

-It wasn't me!

-Knock the shed down and look at the view you get.

Great for an evening terrace.

But this becomes a really key area of the garden here.

I reckon up here somewhere there should be a collection space.

That's the punctuation, that's the full stop.

-It's a focal point.

-You're beginning to see the zones that we're creating,

and each one will have its own little different type of maintenance.

So what we need to do then

is to think about what happens in these spaces

and the garden has to become more informal.

Then if we can drop some sort of circular lawn in there,

it'll give you the same gain...

-A focal point that way and that way.

-Exactly.

I can't tell you how excited I am about this.

That's great cos we thought you'd hate it.

-Concrete it all.

-We can go now.

-Drawing it out is easy.

-Yeah.

Putting it on the ground and then bringing it to fruition

is entirely different.

It's all very well having this and paying for it,

but Paul has now got to step up to the mark.

We're only here to steer him to make sure he gets what he really wants.

If I could do it half the justice

that it looks as if it could be on paper,

it would be an immense place.

First thing to do is a little marking out and measuring.

-Do we measure down?

-Measure centre line of window to corner of building.

6.5.

That's 9.30.

That's six and a half to there.

'There's no doubt the task that lies ahead of Paul is enormous.

'I mean, it's a two-acre field that he's trying to tame.'

I don't know many experienced gardeners

who would be prepared to take it on even in a relatively relaxed way.

I'll run up there with 30 metres.

'I said a little marking and measuring, perhaps that was an understatement!'

We need to bring that one through here.

Do you want some help?

Thank you, sir.

That's the radius of the circle.

'But finally and after a very long day,

'this part of the garden started to take shape.'

And when we returned a few weeks later,

Paul's mission had been to clear the site and cut the grass.

There's a new family member... Which is this.

It's affectionately called Timmy because it's a Westwood,

-so it's Tim Westwood.

-'Do you get that?'

'No idea, just smile.'

Everybody laughs at that.

It sounds really bad whenever people talk about my relationship with Timmy,

I actually do know my girlfriend is jealous.

I bet on a summer's evening

-you come out here and stroke Timmy, don't you?

-Rub WD 40.

I do feel slightly uneasy about the relationship between Timmy and Paul.

Every now and again it's good to get out of the house

and spend quality time with him.

-Go and caress Timmy!

-OK.

'Oh, dear! What have we unleashed?

'We? But what a difference he's made clearing that fence and all that rubbish.'

This is the back door, will be the back door.

And that's the view you get.

You know, it's a limitless view of landscape.

I know we looked over the rubbish the last time

and you could see this, it didn't encompass all of this.

I think the most important step that he made

was just taking those fences and those horrible raised beds

and the awful sheds away.

That's the gate into the front garden

and we'll have a hedge across there, another gate coming through,

a terrace so that you can kind of walk-out of the kitchen door

and come out to that point.

When you sit here you've got the view into a garden here

which is associated with the building,

you've got the view through to the old gate,

and then you've got that view down through the rest of the garden.

-And we can deal with developing all that as time goes on.

-OK.

Happy? Do you think we've got enough material?

This is where the real work starts.

Now time for some big toys with big horsepower.

You've ordered in lots of them - and such pretty colours too!

But having never had a garden here, we've got to scrape and level.

It has been tough, I'm not going to pretend it hasn't been,

but all we've done is moved soil and moved bricks and moved sand, you know?

It's important to get the levels right

especially coming out of the house.

And the old rule, it's so much nicer to come out nearly at floor level.

-OK.

-It's my old rule.

The old rule that I expect everybody to know.

If you come out on this level, then this whole section of garden

will be at the same level and then we'll step down into that piece of garden there,

so you're on an elevated platform up here.

There's a switch, I think, that's been turned on.

And Paul seems to have a purpose in relation to his garden.

And that's a really important step

because without that, the garden doesn't emerge.

I think he's on a roll.

I'm learning the whole process.

It's OK.

The red lines are roughly the finished level with sand.

The bottom of the red marker will be great, roughly.

We don't want to go any further than that, OK?

Once you've got this whacked,

-we'll spray mark it so we've got more of an accurate...

-Have you seen the whacker?

I thought it was a hairdryer.

Are we better pressing it out with our thumbs?

If you get everyone onto the patio, I'll get everyone on to the terrace.

Chris says "terrace".

Terrace every time.

And I say probably terrace too, but today I've been saying patio.

I'll start a terrace, you can start a patio at the other we'll meet in the middle.

The terrace was constructed out of a series of sandstone sets

that Paul had found amongst the rubble once the site was cleared.

That day Paul thought that we were done

ripping up his garden, but he was wrong!

But this isn't ripping up, technically this is fluffing.

What, Chris?

I think once we've run that through a few times that will fluff it up quite nicely.

Because what we want to try and do, Paul,

is get that area of the garden a little bit fluffy so we can seed it.

I'm trying to visualise where there are pegs in the ground,

and then I'll be able to tell the difference between

what is lawn and what's going to be wilder, at a glance.

We will have to annihilate this again.

I believe you'd like to fluff it up.

You talk to any gardener and any gardener will tell you that fluffing is what...

On a cool summer's day, being fluffed is probably the bit that they...

So we're a couple of fluffers?

So, yeah, the idea is to get the garden to the position

where we can then start to get some green coming back.

I'm not sure out of my comfort zone. It's a lack of knowledge.

I like starting a task that I know I'm capable of.

At the minute, I feel I'm slightly out of my depth with landscaping.

You know, I look forward to being a gardener.

I never really want to be a landscaper.

You can stand and, you know, gaze at your naval for as long as you like,

but nothing happens unless you really seize it and do something about it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not work-shy.

I don't mind getting my hands dirty and moving things and doing stuff.

I have a certain amount of apprehension because it's work that I'm not used to.

OK. So jobs for today.

I want to scruff this up and then you can come in and fluff it.

Scruff it. You're a scruffer now!

Let's have a modicum of decorum here.

This is serious gardening.

-By the end of today, we should have something that looks more garden than field.

-OK.

So, Chris, is that you scruffing or fluffing?

Another vital component of a flowery garden has just been delivered.

So far once, Chris, Paul is giving you a lesson on the machine!

This isn't just any old machine, this, of course, is Timmy!

-Has it been ridden by anyone else before?

-No.

Be gentle with him!

-Put on the cutter.

-OK.

'Chris, don't pull that lever. Oh!'

Paul. I think I've upset Timmy.

Out of gear.

Did you kill Timmy?

He's a bit temperamental.

He just needed a stroke?

After years of Paul parking and driving all over this site,

it really does need a good rotovating.

And are you going to tell him it all needs to be raked by hand?

To leave Paul to rake this,

it would be like leaving him Everest to climb.

He'll do it. I have confidence.

Chris, Paul wants to know what you've been doing with Timmy while he's been raking.

A bit of definition to the shapes really

so that this path will take you round to the pond.

How come you get the dry seat and do you know how it works?

INAUDIBLE

Four seasons in one day, that's normal in Templepatrick.

Wait for the sun to come out.

-How long will that be?

-Tomorrow.

Ah, good, just the right weather for some more raking for Paul.

OK, time to give Paul something new to get his teeth into,

laying turf and seeding a new lawn.

You need it to look a bit like the top of a crumble.

-OK.

-It's got to have that sort of consistency about it.

And then get your seed, you need a handful per metre square. It sounds very precise

in an area like this. The best thing to do is roughly mark out,

that's a about a metre square that I've just raked there.

And then just roughly mark out...

Well, if you just get used to how much seed is being spread,

you'll find it very easy to gauge it.

And then all you need to do is just give it a shake.

You can see the seeds are pretty evenly distributed.

You might get a cut before winter, but you might not.

Don't worry if you don't.

The manure can go in next and then a layer of topsoil.

I'll throw a scoop in here and then load you with some sha-la-la.

OK. Is that a cocktail?

It's a bit ripe, isn't it?

Your dog is going to love that.

Is that a new aftershave you're wearing?

Here. It's too much that.

It's just pure...shinola!

Sorry, I can't hear.

It's pure...shinola!

You can taste it, can't you?

And of course, the only thing worse than trying to dig it in,

is to be foolish enough to try and rotovate it in or even stand up in it!

Whoa.

If he needs to get his manhole, he can pull the geotextile back.

-Oh, you know it all.

-And it will stop the weeds from coming through too.

After all the machinery and ground preparation...

the plants arrive.

One of the great things about a garden like this

is that you can play with the arrangement of the plant materials.

And the good thing about all of these plants is they're easy to maintain.

It's a very informal, it's a very relaxed garden.

So the basic principle is to sort out the rhythm first, that's created by the phormiums.

Then blocks of flower colour with the leucanthemums.

Then think about the way the grasses move.

And then an under carpet of things like the geraniums and the filipendulas.

And the whole thing will just mesh together.

One thing you have to do in spring, when the new shoots start to come through,

just cut everything down to about 15 centimetres in height.

That's the only maintenance you'll do apart from pulling out the odd weed.

-Everything?

-Everything.

It's like somebody has made me a colouring book.

They've drawn in the lines and I just have to shade in

the areas as and when I can.

I can see me spending more time out here doing things,

pottering and things cos I want it to look

as good as I think Chris has it in his head.

OK, Chris, time for a recap.

The challenge of this site is tying the spaces together.

The new terrace and planting around the house,

the fine grass avenue, mown lawns through an orchard

and right down reaching off to the wildlife pond.

I would say that Paul has a two-acre field

that we're slowly turning into a two-acre garden.

And what I want to do now is at the opposite end of the garden

-create a fire pit, with a clock face of tree planting.

-Say what?

We just need to mark a centre circle

and then put in ring in for the trees and things.

We could just use your feet.

A 12-inch foot!

If we just spin it around.

-I'd put them near that.

-That's seven metres.

-I think six.

-Really?

-And you've got 12 trees.

-OK.

-So what you need to do is organise a clock face.

-Or would you like to put in giant numbers?

-Numbers, please.

Giant birthday cake numbers.

You can align it perfectly

so that the sun comes through at summer solstice if you want it to.

-Do you want to do that?

-I think that would be nice.

What I don't want is for somebody who just says yes all the time

because we're not always right.

36, every three metres.

What?

Isn't it?

I like the way you wander around then,

confidently, when no-one can see, you just go, "Yeah, that's looking great."

That's going to be the most cockeyed compass I've ever seen.

Are they generating any stone out of that?

Can you manage that one all right?

Ah, that's no problem.

Have you seen The Flintstones?

We'll just tell him that's where the sun is setting, shall we?

It will sometime in his lifetime.

What we need is for somebody who asks questions and challenges

because we may have missed something. He lives here. We may have missed a trick.

That stone there is sunset at summer solstice.

So how do you want your seats, do you want them,

one, two, three four on the compass points?

OK. Yeah, perfect.

Do I've a disclaimer here?

Hit it, not me!

How accurate are you with the holes?

-Are you digging exactly where your cane is?

-Yeah.

What is he doing?

Are you trying to get a tune out of that?

-What's that all about?

-It's like super glue.

-You're digging them in the wrong place.

-Why?

-They don't line up.

-I'm digging them right on the X.

-They don't line through.

You must have limped at this point.

We've got more mess with a digger than a man with a spade.

-'Cane marker - what cane?

-Stop grinning at me and look where you're going?'

If you put the fertiliser into your planting hole

all it does is encourage rich growth of root in the planting hole.

It doesn't encourage interaction.

When you start fertilising, do it in a ring that's about a metre outside

of where the canopy is and that will encourage the roots to chase out.

The following year you can do it outside again and again,

and you encourage that constant root growth out from the centre.

This is carpinus betulus fastigiata.

-I'll never remember that.

-Which is the upright hornbeam.

Hornbeam is a native plant, but this is an upright form

so it forms a really nice candle-flame shape.

It'll make this inner bit look almost private.

What you're trying to do is create a visual link between

that part of the garden and this part.

And that's what these trees will do.

Create an identity in this part of the garden

where normally you wouldn't have bothered venturing.

Young plants will over time

bring an air of formality to what was once wilderness.

Close mown lawns, wild flower meadows, an orchard,

a wildlife pond and ornamental planting around the house complete the ensemble.

I'm really enjoying it now because there's the direction.

I can see an end goal. I can see what it'll be like.

I want to do this justice so I don't mind spending that time.

It is extra work, but it's enjoyable extra work.

It's important to remember this isn't an instant fix.

It's going to take time for the plants to mature.

But, more importantly, Paul has to feel as though he can live in and around his new garden.

I look forward to sitting down here with a can of beer

and sitting by a fire. I think it'll be amazing.

In two or three years time!

In a garden like this, the fire pit serves not only as a focal point,

but also as a great social space for friends and family,

a chance to sit at the end of the meadows

and look back at the glory of the rest of the garden.

When the sun is starting to set, there's a calm amongst the plants.

With gardeners as well, everything pauses before it gets dark. It's a lovely time of night.

This garden now is on the starting blocks.

Paul has to develop it from now on in

and the structure is set up to enable him to do that.

The only way of dealing with a wilderness site like this was to impose that structure.

It may look quite bold and quite austere initially,

but now Paul can personalise it.

The garden is a series of discreet spaces, you're teased from one space to the next.

You're constantly discovering.

And that sense of being able to deliver different views,

slightly different cameo features as you progress through

keeps us interested in our gardens.

When I go into work and say, "What did you do at the weekend?"

They go, "I went to the pub," or "I played video games." I go, "I've done something."

You've proved to yourself, I think, that you can garden.

And when we came, I don't think there was much confidence

that you could get, you know, a stick to grow.

But look, you've been sowing grass seed over there.

That's better than Wembley.

He's probably a legend in his own living room

when it comes to gardening, but I believe he will take it on board

and get stuck in and really enjoy it.

The space before all this began, it was a field.

But now I refer to it as a garden.

By next spring it should be a really beautiful place.

There's no reason why, by the close of the year,

this garden doesn't feel just like a very special paradise garden,

Paul's piece of paradise.

Page one of the maintenance regime that Colin is going put together for you, will say,

maintenance, crossed out, gardening.

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