Garden Rescue

Simon and Nancy would like the team to inject some of the glamour of Tinseltown into the unloved, neglected garden of their 400-year-old cottage. They have recently moved to the UK from Beverly Hills and are desperate for a nice spot to sit with some shade and privacy that reminds them of the home they left behind. Can Charlie and Chris bring their vision to life with £4,000?

Janine needs the help of the team to create a wildlife-friendly garden in her bare, boring and depressing new build plot. She wants a space that is sympathetic to the Welsh countryside around her, where she can relax and practise yoga as well as sit and watch the visiting birds and bees. Can Charlie and Lee come up with a design that ticks all her boxes for £5,000?

Eleanor and Rob from Hereford would love an eco-friendly garden for themselves and their two daughters to enjoy. Of primary importance to the couple is that their garden is low/no carbon, and that it is friendly to the environment. They would like the garden build to be based on a ‘circular economy’, ie any carbon spent would be offset by reusing materials. They want lots of habitats for birds, butterflies and bees, and to use as many natural materials as possible. Also, Rob is South African, so barbecuing is in his DNA. He would love a purpose-built spot for a Braais in his new garden, and the couple would love some raised beds for their girls to grow their own plants. They have a budget of £4,500, but with their current garden being a neglected concrete jungle, Chris and Charlie have their work cut out to give them everything they’ve asked for.

Riya and Nanda have a sad and unloved garden in Groby, with an outdated pink and yellow ‘Battenburg’ patio, a tumbledown shed and a huge gravel slope. This really is a plot that needs to be rescued, especially as Riya is soon to be married, and they are hoping to host some of the celebrations in the garden. Desperate for some inspiration, they’ve asked the team to create a garden fit for the upcoming nuptials, but also a lovely space for mum Nanda, once the wedding is over, all for £3,500. They would like Charlie and Flo to pick up on the reds and golds of Riya’s wedding colours in the planting, but most of all they want the gravel slope gone. They’d like generous seating areas and storage, as well as a herb garden for keen cook Nanda. It’s a long wish list – can Charlie and Flo deliver?

Debra from Wigan wants her new build plot to be transformed into a calming zen garden for relaxation and contemplation. She’d also like it to be low maintenance and maximise the views from the woodland beyond. For £6,000, can Charlie and Lee bring her vision to life?

Hannah and Marc in Swindon want the team to turn their unloved, shabby garden into a 21st-century productive cottage garden for £4,000. The couple would like a space in which to entertain their friends, which isn’t their current rotten deck and, most importantly, an ingenious way of dealing with the whopping five-foot ‘landslide’ slope they have in the corner of their plot. Will Charlie and Chris rise to the challenge?

Bal and her family have moved into her parents’ house after her mum passed away and now desperately need the team's help to restore the garden to the standard to which her late mum would have kept it. Recently, it has been a little neglected and reduced to nothing more than an empty space with uneven concrete pavers, save for a few pots and a couple of treasured keepsakes of her mum’s. They would love an elegant Indian-inspired space where the family can gather and an outdoor cinema screen to watch Bollywood films. They would also like a riot of colour all year round and a space to contemplate and remember lost love ones. With a budget of £6,500 to spend, can Chris and Lee make their dreams come true?

Charlie and Flo go head-to-head to design a garden with £4,000 for Jo and Jack, to suit their lovingly restored Victorian terraced house. The garden is very long and thin and heavily overlooked, with a dumping ground at the back. They’d like a garden with some symmetry, typical of the Victorian era, sensory plants and a lawn so that Jack can perfect his stripes. A new usable patio and a secluded space at the back of the plot for socialising is also on their wish list, but will Flo and Charlie be able to tick all those boxes?

Donna and Dan's garden is small and messy, with lots of sharp, difficult surfaces that present a problem for their youngest daughter Emilia, who has Down’s syndrome. Emilia and her sister Maya love nothing more than playing in the garden, but currently it’s unsafe. The family need the garden to be redesigned with more forgiving materials, so they don’t hurt themselves. Mum Donna was born and raised in Norway. She would love a garden with a Scandi theme to remind her of where she grew up. The family would also like a sensory garden with lots of varieties of scent and texture for the girls to enjoy, some bomb-proof plants that they’ll be able to keep alive, and an area of grass. With very specific needs to cater for and a modest £3,000 budget to work with, the designers are going to have to draw on all their experience and creativity to give the family what they need.

Chris and Lee are in Runcorn to transform Craig and Craig’s blank canvas. The only problem is each of the Craigs has different ideas about what they want. One wants a stylish, contemporary space with clean lines, and the other wants to fill the garden with wildlife. Can the team create the perfect garden that pleases them both for £5,000?

Hannah and Michael and baby Arabella from Redditch dream of a safe, usable garden rather than the steep inhospitable slope they currently have. For £6,000, can Charlie and Lee turn the empty, vertiginous, treacherous slope into a haven the whole family can enjoy?

Sylvia and Matthew in Wokingham want a romantic garden full of scent, blooms and enchantment. However, their garden currently is anything but – it's tired, messy and overgrown with little to tempt the couple outside. For £5,000, can Flo and Lee bring back that loving feeling?

Claire and Andy’s three-tiered garden, entirely covered in concrete slabs, leaves a lot to be desired. They dream of a chic Melbourne-inspired space to rekindle happy memories of their years living is Australia. With a £4,000 budget, can Charlie and Lee create a stylish, elegant spot that brings Antipodean vibes to the couple’s lives?

Chris and Lee have travelled to Nottingham to see if they can give retired couple Jennifer and Alfred a garden to be proud of. Having had extensive building work done on their downsized home, their garden has been left looking like a builder’s yard with rubble, large concrete pads and a gigantic, ugly shed. Jennifer would love a garden where she can relax and read in the evening sun, and Alfred would like a dedicated spot for his barbecue where he can prepare meals with his grandchildren for his large family. They both love the modern, clean-lined look of the Mediterranean, and they would dearly love some lawn for the grandchildren and some olive trees. They have a healthy £6,500 to spend. but the garden looks like a forgotten wasteland. Will the designers be able to create the Mediterranean paradise they’re hoping for?

Lesley’s garden in Telford is a barren new build, devoid of plants, interest or charm. She would love an enchanted space suitable for her beloved cat Gizmo to share with her, and importantly, her very own outdoor gin bar to relax with her friends. For £3,500, can Charlie and Chris make her dreams come true?

Michelle wants to transform her large overgrown, unruly plot into a fun, quirky, sociable spot. Charlie and Lee head to Southampton, bringing colour and fun with them, to conjure Michelle’s garden up into a tropical paradise – the perfect space to relax with friends and family – all for £6,000.

The Garden Rescue team are in Wilmslow to transform Adam and Lauren’s tired, boring and unsafe plot into a Chinese-inspired family space with a woodland twist. The new garden needs to remind Lauren of her happy years spent in China and Adam of his outdoor play as a child. For £7,000, Chris and Lee make their dreams come true.

Gareth and Rob’s large new-build plot in Burton Latimer is boring and devoid of character. The couple wish to enjoy it with friends and their two beloved dogs. They also want to bring the sunshine into the plot with a Mediterranean theme and a sheltered spot for their hot tub. With a generous £8,000 budget, can Flo and Charlie add a southern European flavour to the space?

Bindu and Vivek have recently taken on their first garden after years of living in flats. Originally from India, Bindu grew up with a garden full of vegetables, nature and birdsong, and he would like to recreate a bit of that in their modest garden in Warrington. The garden is a sun trap, so they’d like some height and shade in the plot, as well as raised beds for growing fruit and veg. It’s very important to them that they try and care for the environment too, so they would like the means to harvest rainwater and compost waste. With a relatively small budget of £3,000, can Charlie and Lee create a garden that is both eco-friendly and looks beautiful?

Angus wants a garden that reminds him of his favourite holiday destination, Cyprus. Currently, he hates his awkwardly shaped plot and absolutely loathes the domineering dark grey retaining wall, which he thinks makes the space look like a prison yard. Angus loves to barbecue and would like a generous, Cypriot-inspired space where he can entertain his friends. He is also keen to try and grow his own produce. Can Flo and Lee make his Mediterranean island dreams come true with a budget of £6,000?

David and Michelle have recently caught the skiing bug and now love it so much they would like a garden with an ‘après-ski’ socialising space they can use all year round. Their garden was beautiful when they moved into the house ten years ago but totally unsuitable for two young children, so they simplified it and just laid turf. Now it’s time for Michelle and David to reclaim the space for themselves, and they’d love an alpine-themed bar area where they can socialise with their friends. They’d also like a water feature and somewhere for their pet dog to run around. A ski-themed garden is a first for the team. Can Charlie and Lee pull off a snowy mountain scape in Liverpool with a £5,000 budget, or have they bitten off more than they can chew?

Charlie and Chris are in Shropshire to convert Denise and John’s bland, inaccessible garden into an Italianate idyll. It needs to be user-friendly for ex-footballer John, who is a wheelchair user but also a haven of peace and tranquillity for his wife and carer Denise. Can the team achieve all this on a £6,000 budget?

Charlie and Chris travel to Stoke-on-Trent to meet Doris and Petra, who would love to make their higgledy-piggledy garden, full of trip hazards, safe for Doris to potter around in. Doris is a keen gardener, but after a recent fall over her garden wall, needs the plot to be level and safe for her to spend time in. She would also love the planting in her new garden to echo the meadows she was surrounded by in Germany, where she was born and grew up. With a budget of £4,000, will the designers fulfil Doris’s dream?

Angie’s late husband Mark was a keen gardener, and since he passed away, Angie hasn’t felt able to tackle either his plot or the back of the space. She’d love a design to bring the whole garden together that reflects her proud Welsh heritage, with plenty of red flowers. She’d also like somewhere to sit and remember Mark, his area of the garden to be bought back to its former glory, and it all to work for her faithful dog Stan. Can Charlie and Lee do all of that for £5,000?

Charlie and Lee are in Fareham to transform Lisa and Mike’s unloved plot into a practical, productive garden that the whole family can enjoy. The couple would love the space to remind them of the pocket gardens they saw when on holiday in Finland, as well as the lush tropical jungle they experienced on their honeymoon in Borneo. Can Charlie and Lee marry up such diverse inspirations with the £3,500 budget?

With a £6,000 budget, Hannah and Dominic have high hopes for a beautiful garden that they’re keen to spend time in. The only problem is they have totally different ideas about what they want. Hannah wants a super slick, chichi place to hang out in, while Dominic is keen to have a naturalistic space that will draw in lots of wildlife. They’re starting with a new-build blank canvas – will Chris and Lee be able to pull off a garden of two halves that keeps both Hannah and Dominic happy?

Indie and Nathan’s garden in Gloucester hasn’t been touched since their house was built in the 1970s. It’s dull and grey, with swathes of gravel and concrete slabs. The garden’s only saving grace is a beautiful magnolia tree. Having lovingly done up the house since moving in, they would love the garden to be an extension of that space and a place to entertain and spill out into in the summer months. They would like it to continue the minimalist Scandi theme, with sharp angles, that they have inside. They need their new garden to be low-maintenance, as they are not very green-fingered, but they would like to dip their toes with some veg growing, as Nathan is a keen cook. They have £5,000 to spend – what will Chris and Charlie come up with?

Rhiannon and Chris need the team’s help with their new-build garden. It’s dull and boring with nowhere to sit, no shade, and it’s dominated by two huge garage walls, which flank it on either side. Rhiannon and daughter Seren like fairies and would love an enchanted woodland feel to the garden, whilst Chris is keen for a generous entertainment area to relax in at the end of the day. With £3,5000 to spend, can Lee and Flo give them everything they wish for?

Charlie and Flo head to Leicester to create an easy-to-navigate garden for visually impaired Luigi and his wife Julie. They need a garden that is safe for Luigi to get around and has plenty of shade to relax in with family and friends. Can Charlie and Flo transform their higgledy-piggledy plot, full of changing levels and trip hazards for £6,000?

Charlie and Lee are in Bolton to transform Debbie’s tired and overgrown plot into a relaxing south east Asian-inspired haven, a perfect spot to remember her late father and practise yoga. Debbie would like to share her garden with as much wildlife as possible and would also love a natural pond. For £3,000, can Charlie and Lee make her dreams come true?

Charlie and Chris head to Exeter to convert NHS nurses Dan and Amy’s overgrown, unloved horror into a chilled-out, festival-inspired garden. The couple would like a space to relax with friends and family, but which will also be safe for the baby they are expecting. It also needs to remind them of all the fun times they have had at festivals over the years. Can the team give them everything they want for £4,000?

The team is in Keynsham, Bristol, where Craig and Becky need their help to create a relaxing, contemporary, Zen garden for them and their three boys. Their garden is an awkward, new-build, wide, shallow plot with nothing in it except grass and one shrub. With limited gardening expertise, the couple need the designers’ help to make the most of their £5,000 budget. Lee and Chris both offer schemes to turn the garden into a relaxing, Zen extension to the home, but who’s really nailed the brief?

Charlie and Chris have travelled to Cheadle to tackle Joy’s tired, unloved and unsafe plot, which is home to a rotten and decrepit death trap of a deck. The dangerous state of her garden is preventing pastor and PhD student Joy from getting outside. She’d like a spot to relax, read, entertain and study in, with some privacy from the overlooking houses. Can the designers come up with a design to meet Joy’s demands with £5,000?

Karen and Kathryn from Sheffield have called in Charlie and Flo to help them with their bland, fake-grass-clad back garden. The couple love to spend time outdoors – walking, reading, sunbathing, eating, playing with their dog – but need a space less reminiscent of a football pitch to enjoy. They have their hearts set on a garden with a forest feel, with informal, wandering paths and a log cabin vibe. They’d like trees to make them feel more enclosed, a barbecue zone and a quiet, restful spot for reading. They have a healthy budget of £6,000, but even so, Flo and Charlie will have their work cut out creating a forest garden from an expanse of plastic turf.

Lisa and Chris are from Hemel Hempstead and dream of a child-friendly garden where they can all safely spend time together playing, growing produce and learning about nature. However, their garden is currently a ramshackle spot with a treacherous patio, a troublesome lawn, a huge concrete pad and no real character. For £3,000, can Flo and Lee create a fun zone for the children and a relaxing haven for mum and dad?