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Four Seasons to feature on ITV "Britain's Best Back Gardens"

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We are delighted to announce that Four Seasons garden will feature in Alan Titchmarsh’s new series: Britain’s best back gardens!

Britain’s Best Back Gardens, ITV, Tuesday 6 January, 8pm

Alan Titchmarsh has spent a year travelling the length and breadth of Britain to find the best back gardens. Over a year ago he asked people who love their back gardens to get in touch and send him pictures. Out of 600 entries, he whittled them down to just 30, which he said was one of the hardest jobs he’s ever had!

The series is in three parts and each one-hour show counts down 10 gardens. Four Seasons will be featured in episode one, which looks at challenging plots – amazing gardens that have been created despite restrictions in size, location or circumstances.

The Radio Times, dated 3-9 January, has a feature about the series and includes photos of our garden in all four seasons. The 20/27 December 2014 Amateur Gardening magazine has an exclusive interview with Alan Titchmarsh about the series and one of the key photos is our garden.

Alan Titchmarsh and his team came to ‘Four Seasons’ in July. Filming took place during a four-hour thunderstorm with torrential rain. It was the afternoon when a local garden centre got flooded and four cars in their carpark were written off! Marie got very, very wet!!

With nine people in Alan’s team, it was very busy so we didn’t get photos of the rail track for the tripod stretching across the lounge! Because of the lightning, umbrellas couldn’t be used. They might have considered abandoning the session but could see that the garden could withstand the onslaught of heavy rain.

Our carefully planned clothing was altered at the last minute and we had to grab anoraks that didn’t make crackling sounds through the microphones pinned to us. Alan dried his hair with our hairdryer part way through the afternoon – Marie didn’t have the opportunity!

One of their two main cameras stopped working, and the monitor misted up despite best efforts to dry them with the hairdryer. Alan seemed to find the whole experience exhilarating: “It’s like being in the tropics!”

We are honoured that our garden has been chosen for such a prestigious programme. We designed our garden to give beauty in all four seasons and we think that this particularly impressed Alan.

Alan wrote in our visitor’s book: “Thank you for a memorable visit to a very special garden, seen at its best in thunder and lightning! Loved it!”

More blog posts by FourSeasonsGarden

Previous post: Four Seasons Open Garden - Sunday 23 September 2012

Next post: Four Seasons open days Sundays 17, 24 and Monday 25 May 2015



Comments

 

Hello Tony and Marie ...
.... nice to hear from you.
My current blog features all this week's garden television programmes, but at the time of writing, I hadn't realised your lovely garden is included.

Well done ! :o)

6 Jan, 2015

 

Thanks, Terratoonie

We have been incredibly busy for the last five years. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to keep up with lots of things, such as GOY.

We retired in October 2009 and don't know where the time has gone! We haven't been away for three years, or even out of Walsall for several months!!

Our first grandchild was born 15 months ago and we look after her for a minimum of 2 days a week, and sometime 6 (and nights)!

We were only going to open our garden last year for a weekend in May, but gave in to public pressure and opened again in late October. This year we're planning to open in May and October and will try to have a quiet summer (some hope!)

Best wishes to you, and all GOY members. Thanks for all your hard work.

Marie and Tony

6 Jan, 2015

 

Wow.. you've been busy ! Congrats on the granddaughter ... a budding gardener for sure !

There is that well known saying from retired people ... 'we don't know how we ever had time to go out to work' ...

Looking forward to your TV programme ...
including Alan and the rain ! Lol.

6 Jan, 2015

 

Looking forward to watching the program tonight :o)

6 Jan, 2015

 

Absolutely loved it Fourseasons! And your top garden is a truly worthy winner!!

I've a feeling that Grenville's garden was also on the list so congrats to him too!

6 Jan, 2015

 

Tony and Marie, Many congratulations .... I have just finished watching the program with my wife. Your garden is wonderful. To get first slot as well ! You both must be very proud.

6 Jan, 2015

 

Well done Marie and Tony on your number one slot ... despite the thunder storms !

... and nice to see other familiar faces ... Grenville, Jen etc.

6 Jan, 2015

 

Thanks, everyone! It was rather surreal to get the top slot! All 10 were fabulous! It was so much less traumatic and quick compared to other TV programmes we've been on.

6 Jan, 2015

 

Well done its nice to hear you are still around. I am sorry to say I have just seen this so missed it, Hopefully it will be repeated

6 Jan, 2015

 

This is the link that has been posted - we are in the last few minutes of the programme:
https://www.itv.com/itvplayer/britain-s-best-gardens

6 Jan, 2015

 

Really enjoyed the programme and what a truly worthy winner,fabulous !!!!!!

7 Jan, 2015

 

It was lovely to see more of your glen last night...even more stunning than I thought. Well done u.

7 Jan, 2015

 

well deserved if I may make so bold. It is a stunning garden. well done.

10 Jan, 2015

 

Thanks everyone! We're still in shock! We had no idea of our final placing until the broadcast.

Alan Titchmarsh was great! He is so knowledgeable and puts people at ease. He doesn't patronise and is always quick to joke, even at himself!

In all, a thoroughly positive experience and it was all done and dusted for us within about eight months. Unlike the BBC2 Gardeners World special feature about our Four Seasons garden. This was filmed in eight sessions between April and December 2008, but wasn't broadcast until Valentine's Day 2010, and had been postponed four times! It was finally televised at 11.30am on a Sunday morning, which happened to be our first open day of the year so we couldn't watch it 'live'! The voiceover was by Toby Buckland and we believe we were caught up in the backlash against Gardeners World that was going on at that time.

For this series: Britain's Best Back Gardens, we submitted our application online and a few days later checked if it had been received - it hadn't! Their inbox was full, so we could have fallen at the first hurdle. The initial filming was done June, when one of the producers came to do a reccy and said that Alan Titchmarsh said he wanted us included.

The team of nine came in early July. They had filmed another Walsall garden in the morning (amazing that two out of the final thirty gardens selected were from Walsall!) During the morning filming the sun shone and the afternoon storm was not predicted.

The vehicles arrived just before 1pm. My husband went to greet Alan, who said he would stay in the car until the few drops of rain stopped - he didn't want to get his shirt wet! However, within a few minutes it was obvious that the rain wouldn't go away quickly. The rain and thunder and lightning came in biblical proportions! Umbrellas were abandoned due to health and safety.

Alan said he was pleased that our garden didn't rely on perennials and said he worried about some special plants in his own garden in Hampshire being damaged if they were receiving the same amount of weather onslaught.

The team left at about 6.30pm - very wet and bedraggled, with a lot of failed equipment due to the rain!

The series was due to be televised in the autumn but Alan was so delighted and excited about it that he persuaded the powers that be at the ITV to find some slots during January.

We have been overwhelmed and humbled by the number of people who have been in contact with us. From their kind comments they seem as excited and delighted with our garden's achievements as we are!

11 Jan, 2015

 

Hi again Marie and Tony ..
Very interesting to read the 'behind the scenes' info. about your garden entry application and filming. Yes ... you might have missed out .. just because of an email not arriving !
Good that Alan encouraged ITV to arrange broadcast slots in early 2015. Yesterday I watched the repeat and taped it onto video :o)

11 Jan, 2015

 

Dear Mary and Tony are you! Very glad to meet you, I am a Chinese Chan, your four season garden is very popular in China, and China has just started in gardening, would like to have your advice, we are diligent gardener, China will host the awards, giving gardeners pay recognition. Hoping to be recognized by your blessings and thank you!

12 Jun, 2015

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