Lights, cameras and now action!

Last August, a crew from the BBC’s Gardeners’ World filmed here and the resulting seven-minute film was broadcast in episode 2 last month. You can still see it on BBC iPlayer. There was a great introduction by Monty Don, who said: “When it comes to growing conditions, I don’t think you will find any garden in the land more different to Longmeadow than that belonging to Geoff Stonebanks. I agree with Geoff that plants have to sink or swim, and by that I mean, if they want to be here and are happy, great! If they don’t, don't try and grow them. On the other hand, I also agree with him, give it a go!”

It was a fabulous double bill as BBC’s South East Today also filmed and showed a prequel to GW on the local evening news, too.

We had so many gales in winter, the poor windmill fan palm and also the enormous jelly palm have had their exterior fronds browned and scorched beyond belief. They look pretty rough at the moment but I’m just going to have to live with it. But one area of the garden that looks wonderful now is the beach garden. The Euphorbia characias looks

especially dazzling. Daffodils ‘Rip van Winkle’ also look grand, as do the pretty flowers on the aeoniums, currently residing in the back porch.

Our tortoise Hector recently emerged from hibernation and is now back in his garden home for the summer, ready to receive our garden visitors through June and July.

This month has been the time to do my least favourite job: pressure cleaning all the hard surfaces along with the sculpture and marine rope. It’s a challenging task that takes several days, but one that makes a significant improvement on the garden’s overall appearance.

Read more about Geoff’s seaside garden at driftwoodbysea.co.uk