Great British Garden Revival episode 10: Chris Beardshaw wants everyone to plant herbaceous borders in their gardens. He visits a garden which is a true labour of love, originally designed by one of our most celebrated garden designers, Gertrude Jekyll. He meets a mother and daughter who are championing the must-have plant for any herbaceous border – the aster. Plus Chris tries to teach two non-gardening students the key design elements of this truly iconic British garden feature. Throughout the show he gives his ultimate design tips, shows how to get the best from borders and offers advice on how to deal with the gardeners’ enemy, the weed.
Alys Fowler celebrates the glories of the kitchen garden. More than an allotment or a neglected veg patch at the bottom of the garden, she thinks the kitchen garden should be a place of great ornamental beauty that provides food all year round. As well as sharing her top tips and growing advice, she reveals the secrets of one of Britain’s oldest kitchen gardens, gets a taste for unusual edible plants that take your breath away and finds out about the communities up and down the country who are turning unused spaces into super-productive kitchen gardens.
Great British Garden Revival episode 10
Chris Beardshaw
Beardshaw was formally trained in Horticulture at Pershore College and holds an BA Hons and PGDip in Landscape Architecture from the University of Gloucestershire. He has won 35 prestigious design awards, including 12 RHS Gold Medals, the latest was for his Morgan Stanley Garden for the NSPCC at RHS Chelsea Flower Show in 2018 which also was awarded the coveted Best Show Garden Award. He has also been voted for the People’s Choice Award 5 times.
His first TV appearance was in 1999 as the expert on ‘Surprise Gardeners’ for Carlton TV. After this, he moved to the BBC TV and Real Rakeovers as the expert contributor. His first show as solo presenter was Weekend Gardener for UKTV Style in 2000. Also in 2000, he co-presented Gardening Neighbours for BBC 2. This was followed by three series of Housecall. After this, he joined Gardeners’ World Live as a specialist presenter, and then soon moved on to become a presenter on Gardeners’ World, alongside Monty Don and Rachel De Thame. Beardshaw was perhaps best known for his The Flying Gardener series for BBC2 which ran for four series. He currently presents Beechgrove Garden and is a regular panel member on BBC Radio 4’s Gardeners’ Question Time.
