Events such as Chelsea took the media by storm earlier this year, and BBC2’s Your Garden Made Perfect has taken a fresh approach to showcasing what the industry can do. So, is garden design getting its moment on the small screen? And how accurate is its portrayal?
ProLandscaper Magazine October 2024
Taking to TV – Words by Ashleigh Browne
Garden design might not be new to those already working in the landscaping industry, but those on the outside are arguably just learning about the profession and what it entails. Gardening programmes in the past have perhaps made the process look easy – and cheap. But this appears to be changing with new programmes hitting our television screens which show exactly what goes into bringing a client brief to life, and why it’s worth paying for.
“The reality is you cannot design and build a garden in
£5k, says garden designer Manoj Malde, who features on BBC2’s Your Garden Made Perfect. “If design, plants, materials and labour are provided for free, how is this realistic?”
With this kind of budget, the workmanship also needs to be questioned. “This was why, when I was approached for Your Garden Made Perfect, the first thing I asked the producers is, are they going to be honest and are the budgets realistic,” says Malde. “Only then did I agree to be part of the programme.”
Having always been interested in gardening and looking for a career change from working in the fashion industry: Malde felt that he had the transferrable skills to study and practice garden design. His husband had already started his own business maintaining gardens too. Now an award-winning garden designer, Malde also works as a TV and radio presenter, as well as being an accomplished author after publishing his first book earlier this year. He has appeared in series such as Your Garden Made Perfect, Garden of the Year and Secrets of the Royal Gardens.
When I was approached for Your Garden Made Perfect, the first thing I asked the producers is, are they going to be honest and are the budgets realistic”
When designing gardens for TV, like with domestic gardens, the designer still has to create a masterplan, setting out plan, planting plan and lighting plan, complete with 3D sketches, explains Malde.
“These then go to the VR company with as much information and images as possible so they can start developing the VR presentation,” says Malde, referring to the process for Your Garden Made Perfect, which uses VR to showcase the design to the client.
“At this stage, there is a lot of back and forth between the VR company and the designer but, ultimately, the designer guides the development of the VR.” The timescale for designing the garden is dictated by the filming schedule, though – and these can be tight deadlines. “The design work is done within a maximum of five days. The VR then takes longer,” says Malde. Although the development of the design work is not captured on camera, the site visit and consultation with clients are, as well as a visit to an inspirational garden and the presentation of the VR design to the clients.
Garden designer Lucy Willcox recently appeared as the garden design expert on new show Alan Titchmarsh’s Garden Club, after being contacted by Titchmarsh and his team.
On the show, Willcox was able to feature two gardens she had designed, one being a courtyard garden, providing tips on how to design small spaces, and the other feature was on her own garden, giving a guide on how to design larger spaces by creating zones.
“It was an absolute privilege to be part of this programme.
The producers pulled together a great team of experts and presenters to highlight the different aspects of gardening and to showcase some great community projects.
“When the programmes are considerately produced and thoroughly executed, it highlights the skill of top designers and landscapers, especially when they provide realistic budgets – then it’s hugely beneficial to the industry. It can be greatly informative for the public on the entire process and expected costs.”
Willcox had been producing television commercials before joining the industry back in 2005 after an “epiphany moment” in her own garden. Since then, her studio has come into fruition, offering a complete garden design service; from initial consultation to design, implementation, and beyond.
“I have been incredibly lucky to have had some brilliant clients who gave me a free reign on the design and trusted my iudgement which meant I’ve been able to produce a great variety of design schemes,” says Willcox.
In 2012, Willcox returned to the world of TY. having met Alan Titchmarsh when he was filming one of Willcox’s gardens as an inspirational space for the ITV show Love Your Garden.
“We had some great conversations and discussed what a difference gardens and horticulture can make to people’s lives, says Willcox.
“Soon after he asked me to present a section on Britain’s Best Back Gardens about my own garden; on how to design family friendly gardens without giving the garden over to the kids!”
For garden designer Peter Donegan, it was his reputation for taking on landscapes that nobody else wanted to tackle that eventually led to his first TV appearance.
As a child, Donegan was drawn to planting – even though the Yellow Pages had less than a page for garden designers and the listed gardener was a man with a beard wearing a woolly jumper in a potting shed, he says.
Nevertheless, he grew up studying horticulture, and aged 17 was one of a few qualified horticulturists doing work experience and managing the construction of rooftop gardens on top of a multi-story car park.
His practice, Peter Donegan Garden Design, was officially launched in 2001, offering garden design and landscape architecture to those across the public and private sectors. He started to pick up work, and not just in Ireland.
“As I remember it. this particular garden I designed was about 30ft below street level in an old dried-up moat as part of a 13th century castle in Northern France,” says Donegan. “It had just been inaugurated when I realised that I was one of 14 designers selected globally to create these show garden builds and this, combined with my redesign of a 17th century 27-acre estate, led to a radio interview where one producer phoned another and eventually, I got the call.” From there Donegan went on to feature in a series of programmes including The Brennan Brothers, The Afternoon Show and most recently DIY SOS The Big Build Ireland, as the series’ garden designer.
Although, as Malde highlighted, not much of the design process makes it into the final cut, the process for Donegan follows the same steps as in his day-to-day work: making sure to design for the client, designing to complement the architecture, and making sure to really visualise the space when drawing.
“Timelines restrictions and budgets invariably decide what happens or doesn’t happen in any project and a good designer and landscape architect should be able to see past all of that so what is drawn can actually be built within those constraints,” says Donegan.
A little like show gardens, designing for TV is an opportunity where something good is bound to come from it – you just don’t know what or when, says Donegan. And inevitably, using modern platforms such as TV is what inspires the next generation or horticulturists and designers.
Currently in the middle of recording alongside contractors Maylim, Donegan is once again making the impossible, possible; working on the rear garden of a 150-year-old Victorian house where the access is under the house.
All in all. television presents a great way for businesses and industry
professionals to raise their profile. For the garden design sector in particular, it presents another platform for reaching potential clients and showing exactly what they can do and how the end result is really achieved.
