Garden of the Year

Garden of the Year

Garden of the Year is a new 6 part Gardening Programme first shown on More4 on 22 August 2022.

Zoe Ball is joined by award winning Garden Designer Manoj Malde and former Young Horticulturist of the Year Lachlan Rae as Judges.

Each week they will visit 4 gardens in a different region of the United Kingdom and take us on a tour of the garden pointing out all the design features and planting.

They discuss the ideas the Garden Owner / Garden Designer has used and show us the highlights of each design.


The Judges

The Judges will all then score the garden out of 10 with 1 Judge withholding their score so we will not know which Garden has won until the end of the programme and will go through to the Grand Final.

The Judges will also decide on which is their favourite spot in the Garden and this will be marked with a little watering can and left for the Garden owner.


These are not your normal back gardens, some have been done by Garden Designers which for me spoils the concept as it might as well be Garden Designer of the Year!

They have shortlisted it to just 4 in each Region with the first programme very 'London' heavy for the South of England.

When it comes to the final score it is not difficult to guess the winner as it is always the 4th garden on the board!


Unfortunately it is another programme of Channel 4 Genre of House of the Year but now they have moved to the Gardens and like the houses most of us can never afford.

The Judges make the programme and show genuine enthusiasm and interest in the Gardens, we know of Zoe's love for her garden, Manoj is always a pleasure to watch and nice to see a new Gardener in Lachlan with all his knowledge.


Can you take this as a serious programme to find the very best Garden in the United Kingdom when we are blessed with so many amazing gardens... No but as a bit of a nose round some stunning gardens and to grab a few ideas or plant choices it is an easy watch.


Presenters

Zoe Ball




Narrator

Alison Steadman


Television programme


Episode 1 South of England
Winner The Villa Garden designed by Sara Jane Rothwell

Episode 2  Wales & the West of England
Winner  Ceredigion Hidden Garden by Jez & Cath Young Facebook

Episode 3 Central England and the Midlands
Winner  Urban Exotic Garden by Annemarie and Andrew Swift News Article

Episode 4 North of England
Winner  Contemporary Countryside Garden in Cheshire by Ken Roscoe & David Bradley Stretton Old Hall NGS

Episode 5  Scotland and Northern Ireland
Winner  The Victorian Secret Garden near the Firth of Forth  Rene, James & Peter McLaren Glassmount House Garden Blog Facebook


Episode 6  The Final
Winner 
Contemporary Countryside Garden in Cheshire by Ken Roscoe & David Bradley
 
Stretton Old Hall is regularly opened as part of The National Open Garden  Scheme and in 2021 was the Regional Winner, The English Garden's The Nation's Favourite Gardens.

The Garden has Previously been featured on Gardeners' World Episode 24 in 2018 when Toby Buckland visited Clip

The Head Gardener at Stretton Old Hall is Stephen Gore and you can follow him on his Instagram and Twitter 


Runners up
Urban Exotic Garden by Annemarie and Andrew Swift 
Ceredigion Hidden Garden by Jez & Cath Young


All photographs are copyright of Channel 4


5 comments:

  1. Agree,should only be gardeners,not designers

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  2. The Chester garden should not have won. Just shows you money talks. Eather of the other 2 finalists I would be happy with. Won't be watching again. Hidden garden for me.

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    1. I totally agree with you 100%

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    2. The winner of Garden of the year shouldn’t have won ! I was shocked I thought that a garden is something that is designed and created by the owner/owners and not by a garden designer and maintained by other people ! The garden that won was a disgrace , manicured and looked fake not at all natural and cared for by the owners . This was not a good representation of a true garden in my opinion it just smelt of money and that isn’t what a true garden should represent ! I was horrified what were the judges basing their views on ?
      This garden was my least favourite for reasons I explained , it wasn’t personal and loved it was synthetic and fake .

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  3. Very disappointed with winning garden - obviously had a fortune thrown at it that's unattainable to the vast majority of the rest of us to aspire to. For us the urban exotic was a wonderful demonstration of what can be acheived with a lot of imagination and effort in the sort of space that's more representative of what the rest of us have available!

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