Love Your Garden, Burton-on-Trent ITV Series with Alan Titchmarsh

• Special Projects

Frosts Landscape Construction was commissioned to Design and Construct eight gardens for the fourth television series of Love Your Garden fronted by RHS ambassador Alan Titchmarsh. The third garden of the series belongs to Pete and Suzy McGinn and their three children.

The third garden of the series belongs to Pete and Suzy McGinn and their three children. Pete is a serving police officer in the West Midlands Police Force, and in June 2013 he was seriously injured whilst attempting to arrest a suspect and nearly died due to complications. Pete and Suzy enjoy being in their garden and had just started to make improvements to it when Pete had his accident.

The McGinn family wanted a garden that could be enjoyed by the entire family, with separate but integrated zones for:

• Hot tub for rehabilitation
• A swing for Amelia (who is severely autistic)
• An area to dine together and entertain

It was a very bland garden which sloped both ways, making it difficult to use without levelling. Another major issue was the sticky clay and poor drainage, this was overcome by elevating the garden and importing good quality soil and mushroom compost. This change in level provided the family a garden that could be enjoyed throughout the year.

Frosts wanted to create a feeling of spaciousness in what is effectively a small plot by using bold structural planting in repeating units. The Curapay hardwood decking was selected as it is one of the lesser known imports, spreads out the demand and relieves pressure from the more popular tropical woods as it is in everyone’s best interest to maintain diversity in the world’s forests. Giving value to various trees means they will be less likely to be slashed and burned to make space for population growth and ranching.

Amelia loves being out in the garden, and Pete who will be spending at least another 18 months at home recovering from his injuries, will really benefit from this lovely, usable garden.