Episode 8 The Instant Gardener

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

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.

-Da-da!

Danny Clarke is an expert at transforming gardens.

And these will really bring the 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!

-OK.

..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, thank you so much.

-Oh, wow!

-That's unbelievable!

Today, we're in Southampton -

a city on the south coast of Hampshire.

This historic port town is still a thriving industrial hub,

and while its sunny climate

and coastal charm are a gift to gardeners, Southampton,

like any large city,

has its urban pockets where green space seems very hard to find.

A stone's throw from the sprawling tower blocks of Southampton

is this - an urban oasis, an acre of farmland - loved

and cared for by the local community.

But they need a little bit of instant help.

-Richard!

-Hello.

-Good to see you.

-Pleasure. Thank you.

You have literally got your hands full. Who have we got here?

Yes, we've got Lily and Beatrice and Chloe and Clementine -

our Golden Guernsey goats.

Lovely as they are, they're not going to be very useful for us

-today, are they?

-No. No, I can't imagine they will.

Let's go and meet some of your volunteers,

who are on hand to help at the garden.

Let's do. Let's do.

The Oasis Down to Earth Farm is a charity-run urban farm in the middle

of an area with one of the highest rates of deprivation in the country.

Run by staff like Richard plus an army of volunteers,

it offers a rare taste of the outdoors to adults with learning

disabilities, local school groups - in fact, anyone who needs it.

The farm is a lifeline to its users who can interact with

the animals and grow crops.

But what it doesn't have is a garden area for socialising in.

With every penny stretched to the max and every volunteer working

to their limits, their garden dream is always just out of reach.

Step forward the Instant Gardener.

No, no, not him - that's a sheep.

This, however, is Danny, and he's on his way down to the south coast

to get a better idea of the challenge that awaits.

So I'm coming down to the farm today to have a little sneaky peek

because it's very important for me to have a look

and get the lie of the land before we start to change it.

Every garden is different

so every garden needs its own application, and this is

an example of something that's very different to what we've done before.

I can see lots of raised beds here and it appears to me that they're

really heavy into recycling.

Beyond that fence over there, I can see pallets,

I can see a silver birch that's been logged up over there.

Almost certainly, we can re-use them.

So I don't want to bring anything new into here

cos it's going to jar with the surroundings.

Now, over here is the piece of land that I think

we're going to transform.

It obviously wants something that's secluded,

an area that's not overlooked.

For a social area, this is going to be absolutely fine.

I mean, it's very rough.

If you look down here, you can see how rough the land is.

I mean, the grass is very sparse.

There's not a lot here and it does look pretty unkempt,

very untidy, but it still has huge potential.

I think we can make this look pretty smart.

This is about people wanting to get involved with nature,

so really, I'm thinking about enhancing what's naturally here.

So let's see if we can come up with a design that suits

this environment.

There's a design taking shape in Danny's mind,

and today, he's back to put it into action.

But first, he's going to meet the team who will be helping him.

-Hello, Helen.

-Hello, Danny.

-How are you?

-Hello, Richard.

-Nice to meet you. How's it going?

-Danny, Richard, Mary, Nigel.

-Nice to meet you.

-Hello, Nigel.

-Hello, Danny. You all right?

-You OK?

-Yeah.

-Good.

-Richard, just talk us through what this place is.

Oasis Down to Earth Farm is a community farm,

in the biggest sense.

We work with people with learning disabilities during the week,

we run educational sessions, both regular and special needs,

and we are open to the public on the weekends to come

and visit the animals, the garden.

We run groups of people living with dementia.

Yeah, many, many things happen at the farm.

-So very much a community facility?

-Absolutely, absolutely.

We have five...six members of staff who work at the farm

and we have a core of approximately 40-45 volunteers who help us out.

Two of which we have here.

Mary and Nigel, you both volunteer at the farm.

-Mary, what makes you want to come down here?

-I love coming out here.

It's in the city but it's green, and so... There's something about

being around greenness - it just helps your spirit, I think.

-It helps mine, definitely.

-It is brilliant.

I mean, I wandered past a couple of tower blocks then wandered in

-and saw Snowball, your cow.

-Yes, I know.

So it's a farm in the middle of the city, which is

bizarre to a country girl like me.

Nigel, what about yourself - how much time do you spend down here?

I come in, basically, for one day a week.

I'm retired and I was looking for opportunities.

I live in Southampton.

I've lived there for 20 years and didn't know it was here.

-It's incredible.

-There is so much going on here.

There's kind of pockets of activity everywhere

but what do you think you're lacking?

We have a large area here at the garden which is unlandscaped.

I am looking to create something that can be combined with

a social space where people can sit and relax,

but also, potentially, I'd like a fire pit with a shelter over it.

So, if I can get this straight in my mind,

you're after a communal space,

somewhere where you can socialise, somewhere that's sheltered?

Yep, somewhere that's sheltered, preferably where we can all

sit round the fire and do a bit of cooking.

-That sounds like my kind of place.

-You're not going to leave, are you?

-I'm not going to leave.

You can come and join me after we've built it, no problem.

Well, I'm not going to take Richard away

because I feel like he's better off by your side, helping you out.

Keep him on track, you know. Make sure you get what you want, Richard.

Nigel and Mary, we'll disappear

and get some inspiration from a nearby garden. Anything you need?

Yes, if you could just go and get something for me.

-I'll give you the renowned book.

-OK. Grasses and...

-Some latifoliums.

-Some latifoliums?

-Yes, please.

-OK, excellent.

-Good.

-See you in a bit.

-See you soon.

-See you later.

-Take care.

-See you later, guys. Bye, bye.

While Mary and Nigel slip away with me to look for inspiration,

Danny needs to get moving.

He has nine hours to turn this bare patch of land into a beautiful

garden. What's the plan, Dan?

This is a community farm but it's got no communal garden,

and that's what we're going to provide.

What we want to do is make this area sheltered cos it's so exposed.

So we want to make it a little cosy haven

and what we're going to do is create concentric circles,

so you're looking down and you've got two concentric circles.

So the way I'm going to create shelter is by using

a combination of fencing

and hedges in a circular form with an invisible entrance.

And in the centre, we're going to have a fire pit.

So that is going to be the centrepiece of the plan.

And then we're going to enclose that fire pit with gravel.

And then, on the outer circle, we're just going to bark it.

And on the bark, we're going to have seating.

On one side of the circle, I'm going to create a mound.

And on the mound, we're going to house grasses and we're going to

have some silver birch, multi-stem silver birch -

one of my favourite trees.

It's going to look absolutely fantastic.

The grasses, as well as providing movement on the mound,

the roots are going to hold the mound together.

And that's what I'm trying to create here - something that looks

really natural, and grasses are a great way to do that.

And in addition to that, I'm going to do something extra funky -

I'm going to put a shade sail up, so if it rains,

they've got somewhere to shelter.

So it's not just going to be shelter from the wind

but also shelter from the rain. And do you know what?

I think we'll get moving because there's rain coming in very,

very soon.

In just one day, Danny plans to create an enclosed circular

seating area with a fire pit as the centrepiece,

banked on one side with birch and grasses

and covered with a shade sail for protection from the elements -

something he could do with today because here comes that rain.

But a drop of water won't stop Danny or his helpers today -

right-hand man AJ and farm volunteer Amanda.

The first job is to create the outer fence from the farm's own

salvaged materials.

-So now, what we need to do is source these pallets.

-Yes.

Let's go and have a look round the farm.

-Let's go on a little treasure hunt.

-We're going on a pallet hunt!

For Danny's circular fence, the team have found just the thing.

I tell you what, if we can get enough of these, it's perfect.

Yep, and we've probably got one of our farm volunteers,

-which will help, to pallet-break them.

-Brilliant.

-Brilliant.

-We've got a good team here.

-I'm starting to like this!

Now, the idea is that we're using pallets because there's going to be

gaps between the slats and they're going to act to diffuse the wind.

We don't want to have a solid block there

because the wind will hit it head-on and it will weaken the structure

and it could fall over and hurt somebody. So these are a great idea.

Great find, team. Now to arrange them as per Danny's design.

If we get the pallets in position,

we can get a couple of conifers in and we can play around with it.

The conifers are just there. Get three conifers, then.

It's always a great idea to lay your garden out before you're actually

putting the stuff in so you can visualise how it's going to look.

Each upright pallet will be separated by a couple of conifers to

create the outer boundary, leaving a gap for the hidden entrance.

It's very important that we have enough gap here for wheelchair

access. So we've calculated this, Amanda, what, roughly...

About 1.20m, then anybody self-propelling can easily

-get through without scraping knuckles.

-OK, which is good.

With the trees in place,

the fabulous farm volunteers are sprucing up those pallets.

Just taking some of the pallets apart to actually re-use the planks.

So I believe AJ wanted more planks on his original pallet.

They're just beefing up the slats as they're quite sporadic,

so just to make it look more like a pallet.

What we're going to do now is just clear the debris from these

inner circles cos we want to make this as flat as possible,

as debris-free as possible. We just rake this through.

It sounds easy but there's quite a lot of rubble under there, and with

the rain still bucketing down, the team have brought in a bit of cover.

I'm not sure it's going to make much difference.

The trick to this - it's a very, very special technique,

and it's called brute force.

While Danny and the team are scratching

the surface of his design, my plan for the day is well underway.

OK, Mary, Nigel, we are off

to a garden that will hopefully give you a bit of inspiration,

maybe have a few ideas that you might want to

pinch for your garden going forward.

Today, our inspirational visit is to Knoll Gardens in the neighbouring

county of Dorset - a wonderland of grasses, shrubs and trees.

-Have a look at this.

-That's fantastic.

-Huge eucalyptus.

-That's fantastic, isn't it?

-It's amazing.

-You just want to climb up it, don't you?

-Don't let me stop you there.

You go for a climb, if you want.

Now, that has clearly fallen over by accident,

-but it looks impressive like that, doesn't it?

-Amazing, yeah.

-It's like something out of Jurassic Park!

-Yeah.

-It's a piece of art, isn't it?

-It is like a piece of art, yeah.

Much like Danny's design, Knoll Gardens aims to work

with its surroundings to create a natural style of planting.

That is definitely far from formal.

Do you think you could have something like that down at your garden?

Well, I think Richard will probably make something out of it.

I know this was an accident but it's obviously quite carefully managed now, isn't it?

Quite a lucky accident.

Much of the garden's naturalistic look is down to

the huge range of grasses. Even early in the year,

they're beginning to show off a wide variety of colour.

Look at these! Grass, grass everywhere.

It's a huge plot, too - about four acres -

so there's plenty for us to explore.

They're a bit different, aren't they?

They're beautiful - really sort of lovely colour.

Back at the farm, the garden plot - or should I say "pond"? -

is being cleared and to help the job go faster,

Richard has got out the farm's rotivator,

a machine for preparing the ground.

Are you an alien? Because you're very good at crop circles.

With the levelling finally in hand, AJ can start

turning the pallets into windbreaks.

My job today is to make these windbreaker pallet fence things

that Danny wants.

Three steps. One - build the pallet fences,

two - dig the holes,

three - cement them so they don't go anywhere.

The first task is to make legs for each panel.

With the gap between the front and the back of these pallets,

I'm slipping these posts through.

Now I've just got to measure the two foot that's got to go

into the ground.

So, then, make a good fixing between some of these slats

and then through the side.

There we go. First one all built.

Now to dig the holes to fit the legs into.

Next, a hole needs to be dug for each post.

I'm going to get this beast started up which is a petrol hole digger.

Now, this is a skilled job and not to be attempted

unless you have plenty of experience.

You can always dig the holes by hand and indeed, sometimes you have to.

Unfortunately with these, they can catch stones or whatever which then

stops it from working and so we then pull out and use by hand.

It's a bit of mix and match of manpower and machine power.

Let's go for it.

I'm going to go down two foot into these holes to make it a good decent

depth so we can get a lot of the posts in the ground, which will only

make whatever is connected to it above

a lot more stronger and firmer.

Da-da! Thank you. Thank you, sir.

Danny? How is that looking?

You know what? I think that looks really cool.

Now there's just one more step to take.

The last thing to do on this section here is to get

the cement into the holes with some water for it to go off

and then these should stand up by themselves.

This quick-drying cement is specially designed to set superfast.

All you do is pour the dry cement into the hole and add water.

And there we go.

That quick-drying cement should go off in about 20 minutes.

Even in the pouring rain, the design is starting to come together,

thanks to all that hard graft, and the volunteers

and I are just as drenched at the inspirational Knoll Gardens.

Time to take a bit of cover and meet the man behind the magic.

Neil, come on over. Come and join us in this lovely marquee.

Tell us about Knoll Gardens.

Basically, we've been here for 22 years but it was originally,

the bottom half of the garden was actually a carrot field.

That is how sandy the soil is.

And then it became a botanic garden in the late '70s which is

why we've got so many of these fantastic trees that we see today.

The garden is a labour of love for Neil, who has developed it

into a natural but impressive shore garden with year-round interest.

We love the garden. It is quite a relaxed feel.

We've always loved the natural environment

and I think trying to have a style of gardening that actually

honours that, I think, is what I've been trying to achieve.

We call it naturalistic as opposed to formal.

I like the fact that it looks so natural

and it looks like you've allowed nature to dominate,

as it were, nature to take over and it doesn't look forced.

Not everybody has four acres in two decades.

How do people emulate this kind of garden?

Some of it is actually quite easy

because it's the style of plants, not being too fussy,

using plants that don't need staking, deadheading, spraying.

Planting the area up in one go,

so it's a border that is done completely and mulching.

It sounds so simple but the less we have to interfere

with the area, with the garden, the more the wildlife can take over,

so it's actually very simple steps.

Well, contrary to popular belief, these gardens don't

happen by accident so we'll let you get back to work, Neil.

-We'll have a bit of a wander round. Shall we go that way?

-Yep.

You might not have four acres to play with,

but any garden can have a gorgeous, natural look.

Plant grasses in a sunny area.

Plants like these thrive in sunshine and aren't always big fans

of claggy, damp soil.

Limit the range of plants you use.

Rather than 12 totally different species, go for four kinds

but get three of each.

In a large area, be even more generous for giant sized impact.

And give those green fingers a rest.

A naturalistic garden shouldn't be too tidy.

You just need to chop grasses back to the ground at the end

of winter ready to reveal new shoots and start growing all over again.

Back on the farm, the outline of the garden is coming together

but it's gone midday. Danny needs to start piling on the pressure.

Now we're forming a mound just here.

This is going to be a fairly simple structure.

It's going to kind of add a little bit of shelter for what is going

on inside there, inside the circle, but also it's going to be a great

way to show off the grasses that we're going to use in the design.

If I'd just used compost, it's not going to hold.

So I'm going to mix this with some of the turfs

and some topsoil that's on the other side of the farm.

And Danny's got plenty of help to transport the soil into position.

This looks impressive, doesn't it? There must be a local display team.

I think they call themselves the Red Barrows.

Very good, Danny!

Do you want to bring it through?

-That's it.

-OK.

The mound's building nicely.

And despite the weather, morale is high.

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

It does help having a good team behind us, though.

Danny said, keep it coming.

You guys are brilliant.

I'm very encouraged by the design, but I do know what the time is.

We're only just getting the fencing in

and we've still got to plant the trees, these trees,

and the hedge.

We've got to put the log edging down, plant up this bank,

we've got to put a membrane down and we've got to add the bark to it.

And we've got to put some shingle down for the fire pit.

Not to mention the shade sail, Danny,

which could have saved you a soaking.

Better plough on with the next task - edging that circle.

I'm using this log-roll edging here to contain the bark chippings

within this area.

There's a bit of snobbery attached to log-roll edging, I think.

A lot of people refuse to use it

because it's kind of regarded as old-fashioned.

But I'm using it in this environment because it works.

It works with this rustic feel.

Once you've rolled it out,

you just attach the next roll to this end

and then twist this wire round the wire

that's in the one you're going to attach it to.

So it's very simple to use.

Once I've gone all the way round and I'm happy with the way it looks,

I'll put three or four stakes in

along the entire length of this roll, then I'll screw

the log-roll edging to the stakes

and that will keep them nice and firm.

While Danny is creating the farm's garden,

I'm finding out how the farm has helped nurture those who work on it.

I think we could have a few minutes in the dry,

because it's pretty damp out there.

-Mind you, you must be used to that by now, Mary.

-Yes, I am.

I don't mind being outside in the rain cos I love the farm,

I love the fresh air, I love the fact that it's a little gem.

What kind of an area is the farm and garden in?

Some people say the area is a little bit of a deprived area,

but that's good because people who don't get to see

farm animals and greenery

can just have that little experience right on their doorstep.

The kids get a lot out of it, definitely.

That's one of the best things.

If you're here in the daytime and hear the kids coming,

-it's brilliant.

-Yeah, running around.

It's a fantastic atmosphere there. We get a big diversity of people.

We get older people with learning disabilities,

but also we've had little children who've come there.

We've had a deaf child who wouldn't speak, was terribly shy,

and when he saw the garden, he was, "Mum, look at this!

"Mummy, look at that!" And he was chatting away to us as well.

That makes it all worthwhile.

Because it's the community farm, it's very satisfying to work there.

-And I get a lot out of it.

-What about you, Mary?

What do you get out of it?

It's completely changed me from sort of getting up late,

what am I going to do with the day?

And now I get up, I look forward to going to the farm,

I've got things to do there.

I can achieve something.

I did work for 17 years, then I had a bit of a breakdown

from stress and anxiety and then I found the farm,

it's given me a purpose,

it's got me back into work and it's given me confidence.

It's just stolen my heart.

What do you think this new, improved area would bring to the garden?

Primarily it's going to be a social space.

I think we lack that at the moment

because I think the social places tend to be indoors.

So this will be an outdoor social focus-y place.

But it will be brilliant in the summer.

In the summer evenings it will just be brilliant.

Today is going to make a huge impact.

We'd better get those plants that Danny needs

-or we'll never get that garden finished.

-Yeah.

Yeah, come on, crack on, right, lead the way. This way.

On the farm, Danny's design is looking promising.

But with only three hours remaining

and the rain coming down even harder,

there's a long way to go.

Oh! It's great to be out of the elements.

It's absolutely tipping down outside.

And I'm sheltering with these two beauties -

this Betula jacquemontii

and this Thuja "Emerald".

Conifers are much maligned and they really shouldn't be.

There's one particular conifer that's given the others a bad name,

and we all know which one that is. That's the Leylandii cypress.

But this is an absolute beauty.

And you know I can tell the difference between this

and the Leylandii cypress - it's its gorgeous smell.

It smells of pineapple.

The beauty about this particular specimen

is that you can cut into the old wood.

You can trim up your hedge and it will still look great.

It's not going to go brown.

Now, the reason I've chosen this in this particular design

is because I wanted something that is fast-growing.

But I didn't want something that's difficult to handle.

And this really does fit the bill.

So, the other tree I've got is this lovely silver birch -

Betula jacquemontii.

It's absolutely gorgeous.

And this is the multi-stemmed version of it, which basically is

that the stems are growing from just down below.

It actually acts as a windbreak,

so we'll filter the wind through before the wind hits the enclosure.

And also, it offers dappled shade.

So when the leaves are in, you haven't got

that thick block of shade.

It will filter the sun through.

I love the silvery bark. It's absolutely gorgeous.

And, you know, it will discolour over time, but all you need to do

is to rub it with some soapy water and it will be gleaming white again.

This is an absolutely show stopper of a tree.

And you know what? I think it should take a bow.

Before the trees take centre stage in the garden,

Danny still has to dress the mound of soil.

And the rain just isn't letting up.

I love this weather.

-All right, Amanda?

-Yeah, fine.

-How's the weather treating you?

-It's been kinder, hasn't it?

-How long have you been working here for?

I started volunteering 16 years ago now.

16 years ago?

-So you've been here a long time.

-Definitely, yes.

And what does this place mean to you?

It's just a great sense of community.

We've got a pupil referral unit literally next door to us.

Some of those youngsters are struggling a bit

-in mainstream school.

-Yeah.

But they come over here and interact with the animals,

do a bit of hard work and they love it.

So it's a real boost to their self-esteem.

-And it must be a boost for you as well.

-Oh, definitely, yeah.

-You're giving a lot of yourself to this project.

-Yes.

For me, it's a family concern as well,

cos my children were basically toddlers

when I started as a volunteer and both of them have grown up helping.

It's been really good for us cos I was a single parent

when my two were really small.

So that made me come out with the children

-to do something which is worthwhile.

-Yeah.

-Really important.

-So it's quite varied then?

-Today you're doing this.

-Yes, this is great fun.

-This is good fun.

-In the sunshine.

-In the sunshine.

-Never a dull moment.

-Never a dull moment, but definitely a dull day.

THEY LAUGH

-We can brighten it up, though, can't we?

-OK.

At least it's stopped raining on Nigel, Mary and I.

It's time to get stuck into our shopping list.

Danny's golden rule of plant shopping is to set out with

a clear idea of what you want to help you avoid impulse buying,

which can lead to bad choices

and a garden that looks a bit of a hotchpotch.

Today's order is for some grasses, including 10 latifoliums.

-You see, I like these.

-They're nice, yes.

They look hardy and quite easy to look after,

like you wouldn't have to do too much.

Mary, you know the kind of plant I like.

Knoll Gardens has its own nursery, specialising in ornamental grasses,

so I'm in the right place to pick some brains.

Ladies, sorry to interrupt. You look very busy.

But I'm overwhelmed by all the grasses here.

How many types of grasses do you have?

Oh, absolutely hundreds, I wouldn't like to count.

-Too many to count.

-Yes, too many to count.

So, what is so good about grasses?

Why do people love grasses in their gardens?

Because they prolong the season in the garden.

Even the deciduous ones that go straw coloured through the winter,

they still retain their shape and their form

and they look absolutely stunning when the frost is on them.

How easy are grasses to look after?

They're very easy. The deciduous ones,

you just ground-level from around mid-March, up they pop again.

Depending on what grass it is,

they'll grow very quickly in the right situation.

They're not no-maintenance, but they're very low-maintenance.

-All right, I'm going to go in search of some grasses.

-Brilliant.

-Liz, can I borrow you for some assistance?

-Mm-hm.

-Come on then.

We'll let you crack on. Thank you.

-She's busy, isn't she?

-She is very busy.

-This way?

-Yeah.

With only two hours to go, the circle is still carpeted in mud.

This one could go down to the wire.

But Danny is carrying on as best he can

and the next job is to cover all that mud

by laying the bark chips and gravel.

We've got another edging material here. And this is made of aluminium.

We're trying to make a circle out of it.

And this is normally used in contemporary gardens.

I'm just using this to separate the bark from the gravel.

-WHISTLES

-Jump through, hop!

-Go on, go on.

-Really?

I don't know if I can jump that high.

THEY LAUGH

Have you got the pegs?

-Let's go centre to the big one.

-OK.

Which will be about there, won't it?

Now, I'm just going to put some membrane down.

Here it is, all nice and neatly rolled up.

And the reason I'm putting this down

is to stop any weeds coming through the bark.

And what's good about this also, because it's got

lots of little perforations, it's kind of a bit like a teabag, really.

It still allows the water, the rainwater, to filter through.

Because we don't want the bark swimming around on some...

watery...mess.

When the chips are down, there's only one thing to do -

get the chips down.

The always frugal farm has managed to wangle these woodchips

from a local tree surgeon for free.

You can buy 100 litres of bark for less than a tenner though.

The bark does migrate over a period of time.

You know, the wind will blow bits away,

so just keep an eye on it and make sure it's topped up.

Although the gravel is now going down,

the garden still needs its planting.

To help this, I've got to get Danny's grasses in the bag.

So while Nigel is on a mission for one of Danny's favourites,

the latifoliums, Mary and I are getting expert advice

to help us pick out a couple more, and fast.

Mary. Meet Liz.

-Hi, Mary.

-Liz is going to guide us through...

-Hi, Liz, nice to meet you.

-And you.

-..some grasses.

I believe these are a good one.

They are very good for your situation.

They like dry shade,

they're a lovely spring flower, lovely white flowers.

Heads that sit up to about 60 centimetres in height.

So they would be good in that sort of socialising area.

-And easy to look after?

-Very easy, yes.

They're evergreen, you just tidy them through

mid-March, April time. And then off they pop again.

You might want to give them a little haircut, but not much,

but it's as simple as that.

-Sound doable?

-Perfect.

-Is there anything else you can recommend?

Because we need to get two or three.

-Nigel is off looking for another one.

-Another nice one

is the Carex "Evergold", which is here.

It's got a lovely bit of colour to it.

Again, it's evergreen.

-Gets to about 40 centimetres in the right conditions.

-Right, OK.

And again, you just tidy that through, mid-March onwards,

and then off it will go again. You see the new shoots coming through.

And they're lovely. Add a nice bit of colour.

Yes, that offers something different, doesn't it?

That grows upright, this spreads out sideways.

-Different bit of colour.

-Yeah.

-OK, let's take a few of these and a few of these.

-Great.

-Do you want to grab some of those, Mary?

-Yes, will do.

-Liz, thank you so much.

-OK, no problem. Thank you.

-We'll load ourselves up with these.

-OK?

-And head on. Thank you.

-Thank you.

-I've got mine.

-Good find! Good work. What are they called again?

Brill! They look good, and that's all that matters, right?

Yeah, fabulous.

With some carex, luzula and Danny's longed-for latifoliums on board,

it's time for me to get back to the farm.

After nearly nine hours of work, the rain has finally stopped,

and a minor miracle has happened.

Danny!

AJ!

I am genuinely in awe.

Hello, Helen, how are you?

-It's been a terrible day...

-Yes, it has.

-That is an understatement.

-..weather-wise.

I thought we were going to get back here and it would be a mud bath.

I genuinely can't believe what you've done.

We're not complete, it's not finished, as you can see.

Cos the weather did hold us back quite a lot

and it was a complete nightmare, really.

OK, not the result you wanted, but an amazing effort,

-given the conditions.

-Yes.

-And it will get finished.

-Hm.

-So don't cry too much.

-We'll try not to.

The trees might still need to be planted

and the shade sail might be nowhere to be seen,

but we do have just enough time

to get my purchases planted before sundown.

Grasses, grasses. Get your grasses.

Helen's brought back some lovely grasses.

-I love those ones.

-They're brilliant, aren't they?

Just look at the way it's brightening up the bed.

It does look fantastic. Especially against the compost.

What's great about grasses is that they'll grow in most soils.

-Quite often, the poorer the better.

-Oh, OK.

So they're as tough as old boots.

-In this situation, they require very little maintenance.

-OK.

-Do you like these?

-Yeah, I do like them. They're nice.

And they grow very tall, which is good, which will give us a screen.

All sides of the circle are now enclosed

and the fire pit is in place.

But the shade sail and tree-planting will just have to wait.

Do you like? Or do you like?

-We like.

-Beautiful.

Guys, I feel like you're a bit flat and a little bit sodden.

But do you know what? You shouldn't be, because this looks amazing.

It's a massive transformation, you're so close to the end,

it's practically finished.

You can't do anything about the rain, you can only do so much.

It's been pretty tough today,

but really we've got to be positive about this

because this bit of land here looked like that bit of land this morning.

And I think we have made an improvement.

I know these guys well, I know they'll get it finished.

-And to be honest, you'll probably get it finished in about an hour, won't you?

-Yes.

-Yeah, when the sun shines.

-Sorry, a dry hour.

-Yeah.

So, this garden wasn't quite as instant as usual,

but a few weeks later, Danny and AJ are back to finish

this almost completed garden.

The weather is ten times better than last time.

It's much better, isn't it?

And to make things even easier today,

the farm's fantastic volunteers

have already dug in the trees around the border.

It looks great, doesn't it? I really like it.

Everything's really settled in nicely.

But Danny still needs to get that all-important shade sail up.

-That's it.

-That's nice and taut.

-That's perfect, isn't it?

Yeah, if we go that height there, then the two posts there,

we can go higher and get that sort of nice sort of angled canopy.

Right, I'll get these screwed in, get these hooked on

and then we can then come back to it with the posts

-and just manipulate it that way.

-Yes.

Right, I'm going to drill a hole here,

just a pilot hole with a smaller drill bit, smaller than that,

and then the eyelet will go in, we'll twist it in, screw it in,

and then, once that's in, we'll clip on the clip,

the other side is the shade sail

and then we'll then move on to the post.

While AJ works on the sail, Danny's checking up on

the conifers that have been planted in his absence.

The one thing I've noticed is that...

these have been put in the holes -

which is absolutely fine, the depth of these holes is fine -

but I would have made these holes slightly bigger.

And what I would have done is mix some compost in with the soil,

then I would have backfilled with that.

What you're in effect doing is,

before the roots get to the poor soil here,

what they're going to do

is find their way through the nice soil.

And the root system is going to be stronger

before it hits the soil that's not so good.

That sounds like a good excuse

to use some of the farm's lovely natural produce.

-Hi, Richard, all right?

-Hi, Danny, how's it going?

-Not too bad.

-Good, good.

-Lovely sunny day.

-Yeah, much better than it was.

-For a change.

-Absolutely.

I see you've got some lovely compost for me.

I've got some home-made stuff from the farm, yes.

Home-grown here at the farm from everything we've got here,

-so it is good stuff.

-It's absolutely gorgeous.

What I want to do is make this a square hole

and make the hole bigger,

and with the soil that comes out, mix it in with that lovely compost.

-That way, we give this tree the best possible start in life.

-Lovely.

What's the theory with the square hole versus the round hole?

Basically, we don't want the roots going round and round on them.

So, we want the roots to go out and hit the sides.

And Danny's got one more little tip for growing strapping shrubs.

What I'm doing here is spreading some mycorrhizal fungi.

I'm not going to mix it into the soil

because I want this stuff to make direct contact

with the root system on the tree.

Now, it forms its own root system, which attaches itself to the tree.

So, what it's doing is making a secondary root system for this tree

which will help this tree establish and help it suck up more water.

While Danny works his way around the rest of the trees,

AJ needs some holes for his poles.

What we're going to do with these posts here is -

which we always seem to do with the post -

is to have them at a slight angle.

If they're angled away from where the pressure is

from it being pulled, it just gives it that little bit of leeway

cos if they were absolutely perfectly sort of straight,

and then you did get a big gust of wind, it'll just pull it,

where, if you're at an angle like this, you've got more strength

with it in the ground and it'll just sort of not fall over, basically.

Right, I've dug the hole now, clipped it on there,

now I'm just going to put the post in and connect the sail

just to get the angle of the post before we start cementing it in.

I'm happy with that. Nice angle there and it's nice and taut.

There's enough excess on the chain to slacken it off if they want to.

And the sail should look good.

So, it's quick-drying cement,

so, in theory, Luke's only got to stand here for 20 minutes.

Now, with the final touches in place, a little later than billed,

Danny can finally hand over the finished garden to the farm.

After all that work, we got it done in a couple of hours.

-Yeah.

-And it's looking great.

-Now for the big test. Shall I go and find them?

-Yeah.

-And see if they like it?

-Definitely.

But I think you may have to hold this pole.

-Yeah, I know you're fatiguing now.

-I am fatiguing, yeah.

See you in 15 minutes.

Before Danny started, this patch of the farm was

a bare and barren wasteland, with no place to sit and socialise.

Now, Danny has utterly transformed it

into a serene and sheltered space,

where this hard-working community can take some well-earned time out.

By making the most of the recycled materials,

he's created an eye-catching design with a sociable layout...

..enhanced by some stunning trees and sturdy hedging

to offer protection from the elements.

All capped off by a colourful shade sail.

Its rustic materials match perfectly with the farm's laid-back vibe.

And those gorgeous grasses bring the bank alive with graceful movement.

What's more, it was all done on a shoestring. And in almost one day.

Top job, Danny. Now it's time to see what everyone thinks.

Oh, check out the sun sail! Very nice.

A fire on the go, beautiful, very nice.

Looks fantastic. Very open, very airy.

I'm looking forward to bringing people down here.

Just basically scrubland, that's all it was,

-so it's a complete transformation.

-Love the sun shade.

-Good.

-Do you think it works well with this environment?

-It does, yes.

It really offsets the green, I really like it, yes.

You can easily move around, which is what we needed.

It's away from the hustle and bustle of the main farm,

so potentially you can do all the hard work down there,

then just come down here for a bit of a chill-out and relax.

It just shows what you can do.

All that hard work, that terrible weather you had to put up with,

-and it's beautiful, it's peaceful.

-We've got all the grasses you chose.

All the grasses we chose, yeah. Good choice there, guys.

Very good choice, I'm impressed with that.

It's going to mean an awful lot to the users of the farm.

The kids I can bring down here for the holiday activities,

the fire-lighting, people with learning disabilities can come here,

if they feel anxious, they've got a nice place to relax and be calm in.

Yeah. And I suppose what's great for this is

it makes a good focal point as well, doesn't it?

-We might even have our next staff meeting down here.

-LAUGHTER

It's not just for you, you know.

If we can bring some of the people down here...

-You most certainly can.

-OK, no problem.

Hello, welcome, everyone.

James, if we get bored of woodwork,

we can come down here and have a fire, mate.

No problem.

Yeah.

What do you like most about this space?

-Pretty.

-It's pretty?

Do you think you'll be use it a lot?

Yeah.

Well, it's your space, come and enjoy it.

THEY ALL CHATTER

That reaction speaks volumes, and I know, with that design,

I have really hit the spot.

And I am so pleased.

Congratulations, Danny, this design is a definite hit.

Join us next time for another Instant Garden.