Episode 1 The Instant Gardener

Beautiful gardens are one of Britain's most glorious sites,

but if your green space is more mess than majestic,

making it over can be a daunting prospect,

especially if you're short on time and money.

Well, The Instant Gardener is here.

Ta-da.

Danny Clarke is an expert at transforming gardens.

And these will really bring a smile to my face.

Each time, our gardening guru will be showing you

how to create gorgeous garden makeovers.

Doesn't that look great?

Each transformation will be packed with brilliant ideas

to help you get to grips with your own outdoor space.

Just continually deadhead

and you will keep getting that plant to flower.

He'll be turning garden junk...

Oh, look at that.

..into garden jewels.

It's going to be used as a planter and I think this is going to look

absolutely terrific.

And showing you how to spend a small budget wisely...

That's why Danny makes me bring a list.

..be it on shrubs or salvage.

Would you like that in your garden?

And because Danny is The Instant Gardener,

everything you see will happen in a single day.

Oh, my...

Oh, wow.

That's unbelievable.

Today, we're in the cathedral city of York.

Dominated by the spectacular 13th-century York Minster,

this walled city welcomes seven million visitors every year.

It's also home to some fabulously fertile soil,

sitting as it does in the Vale of York, where two rivers meet -

the Ouse and the Foss.

But more recently, York's natural

blessings have hit the headlines

for unfortunate reasons.

Last year, the city was flooded

and nobody expected the water to get as high as it did.

Homes and gardens were badly damaged,

including the once peaceful haven belonging to today's family.

-Hello.

-Hello.

-Rich.

-Yes.

-Good to meet you.

-You too.

-Hi, George, nice to meet you.

-Nice to meet you.

-Let's have a look at this garden.

-Come on in.

Thank you.

George and Rich have lived here

right beside the River Foss

for eight years, during which time they've worked hard

to create a lovely family home and garden for their kids,

Benny and Lawrence, to enjoy.

But just as all that work was coming to fruition, disaster struck.

Shortly after Christmas,

York was hit by some of the worst flooding in the city's history.

Some 600 homes were affected and George and Rich's family home was

consumed by the rising river,

completely submerging their garden and most of their ground floor.

Six months later, the family are still in temporary accommodation

and their house is still being repaired.

As for their once flourishing garden, well,

it's a washed-out mess and they've no idea when or how

they'll be able to restore some life to this sad space.

Luckily, I know just the man to help in a crisis and, a few days earlier,

Danny paid the site a visit.

I know that this road has been devastated by the flood

and I want to see what I'm up against,

so I'm coming along to have a look.

Wow. You know, as you come out, you really kind of stop here.

There's a bit of a hill here.

We've got some decking over there with some steps leading down

to the lawn and we've got another lump of concrete here,

which is raised.

This was a flooded garden, the water was at least up to here.

Now, if plants are submerged in water for too long,

the roots will get damaged, they will rot.

But, fortunately, the water wasn't here for too long,

it did recede quite quickly.

So, really, it was just the delicate plants that got washed away.

The stronger plants have survived.

There's a bamboo over there,

that seems absolutely fine and I can see some geraniums over here and

they've survived the flood.

But the lawn looks like it's definitely seen better days.

It looks like it really did take a pounding.

I would say that this hedge is dominating this garden,

I think it's too high and it could do with a good trim.

The owners of this plot, you know,

I can see they're disheartened with it,

because they once had a nice garden that they were proud of.

So, hopefully I can do something with this plot

and give them some direction.

Some green shoots of hope already, that's what I like to hear.

A few days later, Danny is back with a rescue plan in mind,

but not before we meet this battered garden's owners.

-Hello, Mr Clarke.

-Hello, Helen, how are you?

-I'm good.

-Good.

-This is Rich.

-Hello, Rich.

-This is George.

-Hello, George.

-Hiya, nice to meet you.

-Good to meet you.

Now, stepping over the threshold,

it's clear to see you were flooded earlier this year.

-Yes.

-What happened?

The whole garden

was completely submerged.

If you see the fence over there, the water was as high as that fence.

So, the whole thing was completely submerged.

They told us not to come out here for about a month afterwards,

because it was just like a bog.

-It was a shock, wasn't it?

-Yeah, yeah, it was really, weren't it?

We kind of went numb,

because we'd just never faced

that sort of thing before.

What did the garden look like before the flood?

-We'd just got to a point, hadn't we?

-It was nice.

-It was really nice.

We'd just got to a point where we only had a small amount

of work to do on it this summer.

It's taken us eight years to get to that point,

because we started working on it

from the minute we moved into the house.

-Your boys are six and four...

-Yes.

-How important is this outside space?

-Oh, it's vital, yeah.

-They just...they live out here.

They have their tea out here, they play out here from the minute

they get home from school to the minute they go to bed.

And we spend a lot of time out here as a family, don't we, as well?

They've got the Wendy house over here, which they love,

-and the hill, which is brilliant.

-GEORGE AND HELEN LAUGH

-Do you roll down the hill?

-We've got sledges.

We go sledging down it in winter, don't we?

-Yeah, yeah.

-Until you hit the fence?

That's what the fence is there for, to stop you going into the river.

Stop you going into the river.

Is there anything you'd like to keep in the garden?

I take it you want to keep the slope?

We'd really like to keep the slope, yeah,

-cos they just play on it all the time.

-OK.

And we'd just finished putting that little patio area in down there

and me dad had helped us put that in, so we would prefer to keep that.

So, what do you do on a patio area?

-We did have some furniture on it...

-Right.

-..but it floated away.

-Oh.

-So, I don't know where it is.

It's floating about in the North Sea somewhere.

So, really, it's got to be a garden for both of you -

-for you and the kids.

-Yeah, yes, definitely, yeah.

-OK.

-More the kids.

-More the kids.

Rich has volunteered to help you out today.

-Yeah.

-George and I are going to get out of your hair,

go in search of some inspiration, get you some plants.

What would you like us to get?

-It's in the book.

-Right.

He likes to keep me on a tight leash.

-Wild flower seeds.

-Right.

-We can get that.

-Yeah.

-Have a lovely day, chaps.

-And you.

-We will.

-You might stay dry for once.

Lead the way, George. Bye.

So, while George and I head off on our travels,

Danny's got a plan to raise this garden out of the doldrums.

My plan here is to make this garden flood-proof,

but I also want to make it childproof.

We want to make it tough and sturdy.

So, the first thing I'm going to do, in the corner over there,

I'm going to put a raised bed.

Now, the reason I'm doing that

is because we want to keep the plants' feet dry,

we don't want them to be wet, just in case there's another flood.

And the other thing we need to do is to do something with this lawn.

So, I'm just going to do a section of it, so,

I'm going to replace this bit here, but keep the bank and pretty it up,

put some wild flower seeds in there.

So, we're going to have lots of nice, exciting colour in that area.

I think it's going to look great.

And they can roll down it all they like

and they're not going to do any damage.

This area here lacks unity.

We've got this concrete bit over here and we've got the decking over

there, but the way I'm going to unify it is by using colour.

So, I've chosen terracotta as a colour here

and that should do the trick.

I'm going to do something with this hedge,

at the moment it's very untidy and it could definitely do

with a trim up.

But I'm going to reshape it in a very interesting way,

because I want to allow some light into this garden

and it would be nice if Rich and George could have a view out.

And I'm going to take my inspiration from York Minster,

I'm going to carve a turret or maybe even two turrets into this hedge.

And you know what? It's going to look absolutely terrific.

So, in just one day, Danny will create a flood-resistant raised bed,

re-turf the flood-damaged lawn

and add wild flowers to the bank.

He'll unify the different areas

by using colourful paint

and open up the view a bit

by sculpting the hedge.

There's a lot to do to knock this garden into shape, but, fortunately,

our hero won't be flying solo.

As ever,

he's joined by handyman AJ,

as well as Luke

and Amyrose.

Rich will be getting stuck in too

and he's roped in father-in-law,

Phil, for good measure.

So, more hands to the pump, the merrier.

You're obviously just lifting the lawn for now.

-Yeah.

-Do you want a hand for that?

-Yeah.

-OK, so...

-I'll do that.

Rich will do that. And, perhaps, Phil, you can help me?

-That'll be good.

-Cos what I want to do is trim that hedge over there,

so perhaps you can foot the ladder for me.

-I can do that.

-Yeah, cos I don't want to be falling

in the river, cos I didn't bring me armbands today. All right.

So, first, AJ and Rich put their backs into getting that old turf up.

What we're doing here is just sort of, like,

digging the spade into the ground, so, like an inch and a half,

two inches, whatever, so it's going to be easier

when we come from the side, so, like, just shovelling underneath

to pull this old turf off.

Lawns are actually pretty resistant to flooding,

but this turf has also been compacted and damaged

by the building work done to repair the flooded house.

So, Danny's decided it's got to go.

Once this is up, give it a little bit of a rake over,

then we've got some really nice sort of, like,

topsoil to go back down on here, which will then, obviously,

be a nice layer to put the new turf on.

-ITALIAN ACCENT:

-And mwah! Mamma Mia.

Your green grass is going to look marvellous.

OK. Small amounts of turf and topsoil don't cost much

but will give small gardens a very quick face-lift.

Now, with Phil on hand to foot his ladder safely,

Danny's turning his attention to that unruly privet hedge.

Privets are kind of regarded as quite old-fashioned, but,

I quite like them.

Because, you know, if they're well maintained,

they will stay nice and tight.

And because they can keep nice and tight,

they can be formed into all kinds of shapes.

I mean, balls, spirals,

and cubes are the obvious ones,

but I've seen them as trains, teddy bears, faces.

So, you know, you can do lots of things with it,

which is really what we're going to do with this.

Danny plans a York Minster-inspired turret,

let's see if he creates a work of towering genius.

With an overgrown hedge, I find it's best to do the sides first.

Don't start at the top.

If we do the sides first,

you can get a better sense of perspective,

you can see where you're going with it.

Electric hedge trimmers like this should be used with great care,

if you're not used to them, a pair of hand shears is

a safer alternative, but a little slower.

Sides trimmed, it's up the ladder to start levelling off the top.

I'm going to use these secateurs to make a start.

Because I want to see where I'm going with it.

And I also want to give myself a little bit of room,

a little bit of swing room.

Reshaping and reviving an existing hedge costs nothing

but will bring an immediate sense of clarity and tidiness

to your boundaries.

It can also increase the light levels in your garden.

The beauty about privet is that you can cut into the old wood,

it will regrow and it will thicken up.

So, this is what happens when you get light and air into the plant.

If this was starved of light and air, you wouldn't get this regrowth,

it would stay like a solid stem.

If we get lots of this, then this is going to thicken up quite nicely.

Tell you what, Phil, there's a lovely view

of the river through here.

Come on, Danny, stop admiring the view and fire up that hedge trimmer.

It's probably at this point that I need to step back and really

assess it, just to see where I'm going to go.

Yes, I'm quite happy with my line, so I'll keep on going.

Good luck, Danny, we're starting to see the wood for the trees.

Meanwhile, George and I are off to visit another riverside garden

that suffered during the floods...

-George, here we are in the Museum Gardens.

-Yeah.

I know you come here a lot with your children.

Yes, we do, yes, they love it.

I bet they do, I bet they go wild in here.

We do, we just come and we just let them run and off they go.

Because it's very big, it's very grand,

but there are actually a lot of things that your garden

has in common with this place.

Let's have a look around.

The Museum Gardens sit amongst the medieval ruins of St Mary's Abbey.

Right in the middle of the city and flanked by the River Ouse.

With parts of it prone to flooding and subject to heavy footfall,

this garden, like George's, needs to be tough.

But there's plenty of proof here that a hardy garden

can also be full of life and colour.

I feel like this is the perfect time of year to come to these gardens,

-cos look at this.

-Yeah.

Everything's springing to life, nice bursts of colour.

-Yeah, it's beautiful.

-What do you make of this section of the garden?

I love this, because this is my style of planting, just, like,

fill something really full and throw the stuff in and hope it comes up.

I'm sure there was a lot of technical planting going on here,

but to me this looks lovely,

cos it's so full and there's so much colour

and there's a lot of different things going on as well.

-It looks effortless, but it's clearly taken effort.

-Yes.

Which makes it relaxed and it gives you kind of a nice atmosphere,

-doesn't it?

-Yes, it does.

I like that it's Benny-proof,

-you said your son is quite aggressive with the garden.

-Yes.

GEORGE LAUGHS Hopefully these plants

will be protected.

Right, let's have a wander round.

While we go off for an in-depth explore of this gorgeous garden,

back at George's, half the old lawn is in the skip,

but the team still has a long way to go before this garden

is flood-proof.

Meanwhile, AJ's putting together a rather ingenious

time-saving solution for the raised bed.

What we've got here is a raised bed kit.

So, it's in bite-size pieces.

I mean, this just comes like any other flat-pack kit, you know,

with instructions, pieces, a few screws to put together -

done and dusted.

We're using it here today,

because we're having to walk through the house,

which means we can just walk through slowly with all the bits without

scratching any of the new walls or the house decorations

or anything like that.

It's easy to handle.

A flat pack is a good solution where space is limited or your carpentry

skills are non-existent,

but it will be more pricey and you could build one

fairly easily and more cheaply using sleepers.

The first thing you need to do is make sure

you've got a level playing field and get the foundation perfect

and the rest will just build nice and easily.

So, at the moment I've sort of dug out a little bit of a trench

to try and get it as level as possible and then I'm now

propping up the trough with this sand, which it'll all sit on

and then that'll be, hopefully, fingers crossed, perfect.

Good thinking, AJ.

While he gets on with knocking all those bits together with these pegs,

Danny's making good use of his other hired help.

-All right, Rich, how's it going?

-All right, yeah.

-Yeah?

So, I need you to do another job for me, if that's possible?

-Yes.

-If you could do some painting?

What are we going to paint? That's what I'm thinking.

-That over there.

-The concrete?

That concrete, we're going to paint it

and we're going to paint it a nice terracotta colour.

-Yeah, I can do that.

-And we're going to paint that bit of concrete there

and the strip by the door just to give the whole area

a bit of cohesion.

A splash of bright paint in the garden is really worth considering.

With a little bit of practice, it isn't difficult to apply,

it's a cheap way to make a big transformation

and if you decide you don't like the colour,

you can always repaint in a different one.

Meanwhile, Danny's still tackling that topiary,

a work of art that's still a work in progress, shall we say.

-What do you think?

-What's your inspiration here?

-York Minster.

-Oh.

-Have you heard of York Minster?

-Is that a ruin as well?

-DANNY LAUGHS

No, more importantly, what does Richard think?

I like it, yeah.

When we first moved in, our first idea was to cut

castlements out of the hedge,

so, it's not a million miles off that, is it?

-Fairly similar.

-And I thought it was my idea originally.

Evidently not.

Chin up, Danny, I'd say full marks for mind reading and it means

the turret cutting can commence.

There's a lovely river down there.

At the moment no-one can see it, no-one can enjoy it, so,

let's see how it goes.

Tell you what, that's really opened the view out,

that looks miles better.

It took more than 200 years to build York Minster and it's taken Danny

almost as long, but at last, I think, we're done.

You know what, I think it looks absolutely fabulous.

I'm really pleased with it, it's really opened up this garden,

it's let a lot more light in and what's great,

George and Rich have got a great view through to the river.

I think it's superb.

The hedge might look like a fortress now,

but it won't be able to keep out any possible future flooding,

Danny's going to be keeping that in mind with his planting scheme.

At the Museum Gardens,

this riverside section has recently been replanted for that very reason.

So, we're hoping to pick up some tips from garden manager, Alison.

-Alison.

-Hello there.

What a glorious day for a wander around the Museum Gardens.

Isn't it, it's fantastic, isn't it?

-It's always like this, right?

-Of course.

The sun always shines in York, apart from when it's raining.

Apart from when it floods,

which this bit of the garden floods regularly, doesn't it?

It does, it does. I mean, we're only a stone's throw away

from the River Ouse here, so, yeah, it's pretty much

a yearly occurrence.

Obviously, last year it was particularly bad, I mean,

the water was about four feet deep over this path,

so you would literally be wading up to your waist in it.

But, surely, plants are never going to survive a waist-height of water?

It's the length of time they're underwater that's important,

not necessarily the depth.

If it retreats quickly, that's good for the plants.

We generally reckon that if plants are underwater

for less than a week, they'll be OK.

If it's more than a week,

that's when you start getting problems with the roots dying off,

the stems rotting, fungal infections getting into them.

If flooding is inevitable and you're not going to build a huge great

concrete wall, are you? So what do you do to cope with that?

Well, you've just got to work with nature,

you've got to go with the flow,

so you've got to look at plants that are really adaptable

and really robust and cope with those sorts of fluctuations.

So, ivy, normally seen growing up trees,

but here we use it as ground cover,

that's really, really useful,

very robust roots, so that's a good choice.

And in this bed here

we've got tansy and this has a very sort of

distinctive aromatic leaf to it.

It's really pungent. Quite a bitter sort of smell.

-Wow.

-And this is actually a native plant

and it grows on the riversides,

but it's quite ornamental too and it has

these beautiful sort of flat heads of yellow flowers.

And geraniums are always good as well,

because they look good for months on end.

We've got a nice bed of them behind you.

These ones haven't come into flower yet,

but they get lovely pink flowers on.

Again, they suck up a lot of moisture.

So, there's plenty

of things you could plant in your garden?

-Definitely, yes.

-OK, we're going to have a little bit

more of an explore, cos there's so much to see here.

Alison, you're doing a fantastic job. Thanks for your time.

-Thanks very much.

-You're welcome. Bye-bye now.

Almost all gardens will have an area where the soil is wetter

than anywhere else.

Adding well-rotted manure can help break down the soil

structure and improve drainage.

You can choose plants that like

having their feet wet,

such as hostas, comfreys

or phyllostachys,

that's bamboo to you and me.

If your garden is prone to flooding,

use ground cover plants like ivy or geraniums to anchor your topsoil

and help prevent it from being washed away.

Back at the house, there are just four hours left

to restore this battered back garden into Danny's vision

of a flood-proof and flourishing family space.

And by the look of it, AJ's raised bed kit has sprung up nicely.

Just finishing off this and I'm just putting a bit of liner

on the inside, just to give this treated wood

a bit more of a lifespan.

That'll soon be ready for planting.

Rather than overusing expensive topsoil,

the bottom of the bed is filled with recycled turf from the lawn

and Danny's making use of what he's already got elsewhere.

In this bed, there are a few plants that did survive the flood

and one of them is this gorgeous bamboo.

It does look a bit tired, but we can revive it.

So, I'm going to get in there as low as possible

with my secateurs and just cut it out,

I'm not even sure what this is. You know what I'm going to do?

I'm going to give this bamboo a mate, cos I think it deserves it.

It survived the flood,

so I'm going to put one over in that corner just to balance things out.

But before Danny does that,

it's time to plant up that raised bed

and he's made sure it will all be built to last season after season.

We've got an array of plants here.

And I've chosen these for successional planting,

which means that when one plant stops flowering,

another one will flower, cos what we want to do

is have continual interest throughout the seasons.

I've chosen these marguerites,

they're flowering now and they're for your spring,

so they will flower all through the season.

So, just keep an eye on them and just continually deadhead

and you'll keep getting that plant to flower.

For summer, I'm going to plant some gladioli bulbs

and 100 days after planting, they will flower.

And what I'm going to do, I'm going to dot them about within this bed.

Now, for the autumn, we've got these senettis, absolutely beautiful.

Again, just keep deadheading them

and they will flower through the season.

Now, for the winter, we've got these hebes,

they're as tough as old boots,

but they will survive any condition

and they will be great in this garden.

With the successional planting,

you're going to have interest all year round, it can't be ignored.

It's going to look absolutely fantastic

and I know that Richard and George are going to absolutely love it.

Nice one, Danny, that bed looks glorious and, most importantly,

it will resist any future flooding.

At the Museum Gardens,

I want to find out from George just what it was like back in December,

when the river rose.

On a day like this, I don't believe that it ever rained in York.

GEORGE LAUGHS However, it rained

a phenomenal amount in December.

What was it like for you?

To be honest, we still, even after we had the phone call,

even after we were told we'd be evacuated,

we didn't believe it would flood.

So, we got everything from downstairs, we got it all upstairs,

we got it all out of the way and then at two in the morning,

there was a knock on the door,

so we went outside and it was the mountain rescue who came

and took us out of the house.

And I said to them, "It's fine, we don't need to get in the boat,

"we don't need to get in the boat, we'll just walk."

And he went, "Madam, you can't walk, it's flooded."

There was army vans, there was police, there was fire,

they were offering us emergency accommodation

in one of the local schools.

It was like a film, it was like nothing I've ever,

ever experienced before.

What was it like going back to the house

once the water had disappeared?

It was just a shock. I was...

I think I was a little bit stunned, because I just kept saying,

"I've just finished decorating."

And me cooker had water in it and things like that.

And I was just like, "Well, this is terrible.

"What's happened to me cooker?"

And just completely, not thinking of the bigger picture at all.

Because I think if we had thought of the bigger picture,

it would have been a lot more difficult.

What about the boys? How have they reacted to this?

Lawrence has reacted to it a lot better,

but when Benny went back to the house,

he thought that all of our things were gone,

he thought that all his Christmas presents from Father Christmas,

he thought the flood had taken them all away.

But, you know, he's got some things that he won't let go of now

that he's clinging onto, kind of thing.

And every time we go, he goes upstairs

to make sure his toys are there.

-Oh, so it has really affected him?

-It has, yeah.

The family are still holed up in temporary accommodation

while their house repairs are completed.

But I'm hoping that when they do return,

it will be their garden that'll make the biggest difference

to the outdoor-mad boys.

How much do the boys use the garden?

They're in there constantly, both of them love it.

Even when we come back to the house to visit to see what work's gone on,

they both come running in and the first thing they do is,

"Can we go outside?"

The insurance company told us not to go out there for a month after

it was first done, so every time we went they would literally

stand at the back doors and peer out and go,

"Oh, can we go in the garden? Can we go in the garden?"

So, as soon as the weather's been a little bit nicer,

they've been going out in the back garden.

But they just love it, they absolutely love it out there.

Well, your boys are never going to be able to reclaim their garden

-if we don't go and get those seeds.

-No.

-So, let us get on the road.

-Yes.

-And get a bit closer to getting your garden to back to what it was.

Yeah.

Danny and the team have made a lot of progress,

but with only three hours left,

they'd better get some of his flood-resistant plants

in the ground.

We've got a lovely array of plants here.

Now, we've got some

achillea, which I'm going to

dot around in this bed.

And over here, one of my favourite plants is this verbena.

It's absolutely gorgeous.

Now, this would grow to, you know,

a fairly good height and just look at this flower here,

it's got this, like, fluorescent colour

and this will, like, glow

as the sun's going down in the evening.

What's good about it, it will self seed, so, you know, eventually,

in this bed, you'll have plenty of these babies going on.

So, another new bed full of colour takes shape

and there's a spot for that new bamboo as well,

designed to balance that hardy flood survivor.

You know what? They make a great swishing sound.

But you don't always have to splash out on new plants,

Danny's discovered a few good'uns in the garden

that simply need a better position.

Look at this fuchsia,

I think it's too close to this spiraea.

So, they need to be moved apart.

Now, don't be frightened to move plants.

So, all you need to do is to make sure that you dig

most of the roots out,

I'd say all of these are reasonably shallow-rooted,

so they should come out complete without any problem at all.

I think I'll dig out the fuchsia, there we are.

When I re-plant that, that'll be absolutely happy

and it will romp away.

I would say the lavender isn't happy here.

I can tell, because it's very leggy,

hasn't really flourished where it's been situated and it hasn't been

able to stand the competition.

I'm going to put this in a position where it's going to get the light.

And try and give it the best possible chance in life.

Those plants will provide much more bang for the buck

in this garden now.

And AJ's come up trumps with another great bit of money-saving recycling,

using the leftovers from the raised bed kit.

You know you said you wanted to make a bench?

-Yeah.

-Well, I've had a bit of a plan.

-What's your plan?

Well, actually, I've kind of put it together, but not hammered it.

-Do you want to come and have a look?

-I'll come and have a look.

This sounds very interesting.

-AJ, I love it.

-So...

I think it's brilliant.

..I'm trying to get it in to interlock like the system works,

-I mean, I've got to put the pegs in.

-I think it's perfect.

I know I've got to be careful, but shall we sit on it?

Oh, it's passed the weight test.

It's passed the weight test, hasn't it?

It's going to fit.

It's soon put together and there's a perfect spot for it

on that newly-painted patio.

If you can avoid stepping on it, cos I don't think it's quite dry.

But, of course, there's no time to sit and admire the view.

What's the time, Danny?

We've really got to get moving now, cos time's running out.

The sun's beginning to go down and I know that Helen's

going to be here soon.

Soon-ish, because George and I have yet to complete

Danny's wish list of finding those wild flower seeds.

We are heading to Arkendale to pick up some seeds for the wild flowers.

-Right.

-What, if any, is your experience of wild flowers?

I do not have any experience of wild flowers.

Well, today is an exciting new day for us.

And I found an unusual place to source some interest.

Not a garden centre or a specialist nursery, but a trading estate.

I am really excited about this place, very special,

these guys know what they're doing, Danny wanted wild flowers,

he's going to get wild flowers.

He's going to get some of the best in the country.

Head this way.

This specialist company supplies wild flower seeds and sales manager

Stuart is our guide.

-Stuart, let me interrupt.

-Hi.

-This is George.

-Hello, nice to meet you.

-Hiya, are you OK?

-Yes, thank you.

-I'm so excited, this is a total

-treasure trove, isn't it?

-It certainly is.

-Can we have a look around the seed den?

-Yeah, definitely.

Come on through this way.

-Is that what you call it - a seed den?

-Yes, we do.

It's where it all happens, really.

What we've got is all of our mixes here,

so this is everything that's already premixed, so you can see

in here there's going to be maybe 30 or 40 different species.

We have got all sorts of British native wild flower mixes,

so you're going to have things like cowslips, primrose, ox-eye daisy,

but we make sure that everything's in there in the right proportions.

You say primrose, but they're British.

How important is it to have them in seed form?

Aren't they just going to spring up?

It's really important to do that, cos, yes, they will grow

out in the countryside, but what we want to do

is get people creating more seed habitats.

If we can get some seed mixes down with all this diversity,

it's going to help with actually keeping the species alive.

OK, I can see there's a whole world of activity going on behind you.

What's happening in those red drawers?

What we've got here is all of the individual species

that will go into the mixes,

so we'll have maybe 200 different species, all British native,

at any one time here.

And then Barry will do the mixing.

So, it's depending on whether somebody's got clay soils

or maybe a really waterlogged soil,

you might have a particularly

dry and sandy soil,

there'll be different species

that need to go in the mixes.

Not a traditional garden centre. What do you make of this process?

I love it. I think it's fantastic.

You have a garden that is prone to getting water.

-Yeah.

-Sometimes more than others.

-Sometimes more than others, yeah.

Could we get a mix that would work well for George's garden?

-Yes, absolutely, we can go ahead and have a look at that.

-Brill.

But with only an hour left to work on the garden,

there's still an awful lot to do,

not least of which is laying that new lawn.

The good news is, that looks like new turf arriving to me.

I know this turf is hard-wearing turf,

because it's full of rye-grass.

Now, this is ideal for this garden,

because the kids are going to be playing out on it.

Now, look at it, there's no yellow in it,

so I know it's good quality and if I lift it, if I show you,

it should hold together.

Now, that's holding together, so, I know this is ready for the garden.

I'm very happy with this, so we'd better get laying.

And Danny's leaving this job to our resident turf-laying expert.

When you're laying a lawn, there are a few easy steps

that I'm going to show you to hopefully make it perfect.

First step is to aerate the soil of the area

that you're going to re-turf.

I'm doing this with just a fork, sort of, like,

three inches, stab it in the ground, give it a bit of a kick

and a little bit of a twizzle and there you have it.

And you do that just to let the air in and then on the second step,

the topsoil will also then go into these holes.

Right then, this next step I'm doing here is just breaking up the top of

this soil to try and stop the troughs and the peaks,

try and flatten them out.

It also digs up, sort of,

the slightly bigger boulders in the soil here

which are no good for the new grass to go down on.

And the most important thing to do when you have new lawn put down

is to water it.

Water it, water it, water it.

Right, the next step is the topsoil.

Get it in.

Going to rake it around to make it a nice, flat plain surface,

ready for the lawn to be rolled out on.

Right, the next step is to flatten this topsoil down,

try and get it as flat as possible,

then we can rake and flatten and rake and flatten.

Apparently, Danny calls it the duck walk.

-So, I'll have to flap me wings.

-There we go.

Next stage, rolling out the turf.

Now, we've got two pieces, just nip them together,

I find lift them both up onto their edges

like this and then push down.

So, while AJ rolls out the rest of the lawn,

everyone else is trying to avoid damaging it and Danny's treading

carefully with his next choice of plant too.

I've got some foxgloves here.

I absolutely love them and, you know what?

The bees love them.

And the flower is like a landing pad,

you often see bees going in and out of them.

But before putting it in this particular family garden,

Danny wants Rich to be aware of one of the foxglove's less pleasant

qualities that you should be aware of if planting in a garden used by

small children.

I kind of feel duty-bound to tell you that

there is a very, very minute risk

-of poisoning by ingesting a part of this plant.

-Right.

Now, it's entirely up to you whether I put it in the ground or not.

I can't imagine it's going to be,

they're old enough now to know better.

Unless it's a baked-bean plant or potato waffles,

then I don't think they're going to be chomping on it.

OK.

So, with Rich's blessing, it's a yes for the foxgloves,

I'm sure the kids are likely to be much more interested

in their favourite slope

and Danny's planning to spruce that up for them too

and for Mum and Dad.

Now, I'm not going to re-turf this area,

cos I want to do something a bit different,

something a bit interesting,

and what can be more exciting than wild flowers?

So, we're going to have a little miniature wild flower meadow here

and they come in various forms.

One way to do it is by using this.

There's wild flowers in this turf.

All you've got to do is roll it out and job done.

This is the quickest way to achieve a wild flower meadow.

And then the next way to do it is by you getting them in plug plants.

All plug plants are are young plants

that come in these small containers

and I've got some cowslips here.

And all you've got to do is just

dig a little hole in the lawn

and just stick that in and away it'll go.

But the cheapest way is to use seeds

and I believe Helen's coming back with some.

Well, Danny, don't worry, George and I are setting to work

in the seed den.

Production manager Barry is the mixologist in residence here

and he's going to help us put together our very own

wild flower medley.

Barry and the team have hundreds of wild flower varieties here.

We're following a recipe for a classic British collection.

So, what we're going to do today is do a simple recipe with 500g

for wild flower for you to take today.

So, we'll start off with lady's bedstraw.

-Oh, here we go.

-Lady's bedstraw. So, pull that one out there.

I'm being tentative, because I suspect that bag of seeds

-is worth quite a lot of money.

-Yes.

Hence no sneezing. Oh, yeah.

So, if you want to put 70g.

There we go. Perfect.

Right, next one, I'll get the next one.

Meadow buttercup.

Meado-o-o....

Now, if you open that one and smell that one.

Oh, wow.

Let's hope these little guys look as fabulous as they smell.

It is very much like baking, isn't it?

We don't put this in the oven, hopefully.

-BARRY LAUGHS

-Ox-eye daisy. There we go.

Oh.

Completely wrong shelf.

And before long, our aromatic blend is nearly complete.

That is a work of art in itself, isn't it?

-Yeah, yeah.

-That really does look like a load of baking ingredients.

-It does, doesn't it?

-GEORGE AND BARRY LAUGH

Finally, a bit of a hand with the blending and we're done.

Now, that's complete.

Wow. That's how it should look.

So that is one day going to be a lovely wild flower...

-And you've made that.

-Made it by hand.

-Is this what you expected, George?

-No.

It's great fun, I've absolutely loved it.

Barry, thank you so much for your expertise.

-No problem.

-50g of hand-picked, hand selected, hand-mixed seeds,

how do you feel about that?

It's really exciting, it feels really special

and it feels like it's something just for our garden,

really specific.

I'm hoping the rest of George's garden

is starting to look a bit special now.

While she goes off to pick up the boys,

I'm back to see for myself.

Wow. Blow me down.

-Do you like it?

-I am so impressed.

-It's beautiful, isn't it?

Normally I come in here and tell them off and say,

"What have you been doing?!"

This is an incredible transformation, you've done so much.

-Yes, got a raised bed.

-You've painted that.

-Yeah.

-You can't walk... No, stop, stop!

-What?

You can't walk on the lawn, I've just laid it.

Wow. Danny, this looks brilliant.

-I've brought a contribution.

-You've got some seeds, brilliant.

We went to an amazing place today, the seed den.

We've got a mix of rare, native British wild flowers.

-Right, OK.

-I think these are going to look beautiful.

They're going to look lovely, yeah.

So, with a light dusting of soil to bed them in, my cowslips,

buttercups and other wild flower seeds are sprinkled into place,

ready to bloom in the years to come.

All that remains is somewhere to admire this new view from.

The blue against the terracotta looks brilliant.

-It looks great, doesn't it?

-I'll just test it out for you.

You test it out. You stay there and I'll get the rest of the stuff.

-This is brilliant.

-Do you like it?

-Good job.

-In fact, it's quite a good viewing platform, isn't it?

Yeah.

Yes, the day is done and what a tall order it's been.

Before, this garden was in a sorry state,

the family's hard work had been ruined by the floods

and what hadn't been washed away was damaged

and struggling to thrive.

But after an intensive day of TLC,

the team have created a rejuvenated and vibrant family garden.

Ready to grow with its residents and withstand the elements

in years to come.

That damaged lawn has been replaced with fresh turf,

so the kids can reclaim this space once more.

While native wild flowers add colour

and interest to the bank.

Danny's shaped the unruly hedge into a turreted showpiece,

which also restores lost views through to the river and beyond.

The new raised bed provides a safe haven from any future floods

for a colourful range of seasonal plants.

And some transplanted old favourites line the garden boundary.

New seating on the freshened up patio areas

provide a place to sit and take it all in.

All done in just one day and on a budget.

I'm impressed, Danny.

But what will the family make of it?

OK, I have a young man here who is like a coiled spring, Danny.

Benny is desperate to see his new garden.

-Come on, Lawrence, come on, George.

-Wow, Lawrence, look.

Oh, look at this. Wow. It looks like a castle.

Straightaway she got it.

Oh, wow. Oh, that's amazing.

It's quite a lot to take in.

Look at that. I can't believe it, how hard you've worked.

George, what do you think?

It's amazing, it looks completely different.

And it looks brilliant.

I'm absolutely amazed.

It looks fantastic, thank you.

-My pleasure.

-I'm with George in that I can't believe how much you've got

-done in a day.

-Yeah.

It looks massive.

It looks absolutely huge.

Yeah. And it just looks clean and fresh.

Oh, look at Benny jumping all over the freshly...laid...lawn.

Look. Look at Danny.

I've broken out in a sweat, sorry.

I would try and stop Benny running all over the lawn, however...

-It's not going to happen.

-GEORGE LAUGHS

No, it's a battle I'm not going to win.

If you could avoid walking on it for ten days.

Lawrence, what do you think of the garden?

I had no idea it was going to look like this.

Have you missed your garden?

Because you couldn't play out here for a little while, could you?

-No.

-But now, I think you've got a garden

that you and your brother can enjoy,

-but I suspect Mum and Dad can enjoy too.

-Yes.

How happy is that sight?

Given that you haven't had this for a good few months.

It's incredible. It's just brilliant.

Well, I think it's fair to say that these guys have their family garden

back with a few added extras.

The lawn's definitely new and improved and it's already

facing quite a tough test.

Another successful instant garden.