Love your Garden is a British television show that awards (and surprises) local heroes with a garden transformation. Alan Titchmarsh and his team of experts lead the show with helpful tips and advice, whilst pulling together local businesses to turn neglected gardens into treasured retreats for the lucky people selected.
The show recently came to Cardiff, South Wales, just down the road from our Newport ColourFence Head Office! With the show being so close to home, we wanted to offer our time and services to a very deserving lady; Irene Hicks.
Irene Hicks, who has had her fair share of hardship, was nominated for Love your Garden by a local councillor. She tragically lost all 3 of her sons in the space of 12 years, but despite all her heartache Irene has managed to raise more than £75,000 for the Llandough Hospital Breast Cancer Fund. Irene started raising money for Llandough Hospital after her daughter in law was diagnosed with breast cancer. She would never miss an appointment with the hospital, seeing first-hand how much support they really gave, so she wanted to give something back.
Irene has since given up all her time (and household space) to store donated items and then sell them to raise money for the charity. Unfortunately, this meant she couldn’t tend to her garden or turn it into the relaxing space she always dreamed of. That’s where Love Your Garden came in!
The renovation took place over a few days and there were many people on hand including; The Solar Shed, Ecodek and Gravel Master. We had 3 team members installing our fencing; Bo from ColourFence Oxford, Jon from ColourFence Cardiff and Gary from ColourFence Gloucester.
Choosing a theme that they knew Irene would be happy with was helped by her love for roses and butterflies. Irene had already planted 2 rose bushes in the memory of her sons. Love your Garden wanted to continue her memories and fill the new garden with plenty of butterflies and roses. However, with Irene’s busy lifestyle, the garden also needed to be low maintenance.
After years of other priorities taking her away from maintaining her garden, her old wooden garden fence was in poor repair; rotting and falling apart. Therefore, Love Your Garden thought it would be a great idea to have ColourFence’s metal garden fence installed so her garden looks great all year round and doesn’t require any serious care – just a splash of water every so often which Irene can do as she waters the plants! We wanted her garden to be a place of relaxation, thought and mindfulness and we think taking away the annual chore of painting her garden fence will help!
We had a team of three guys at the site fitting ColourFence and it was quite the task! Before any work could be started, the old wooden garden fence needed to be removed and holes needed to be drilled into the solid concrete ground – a tricky job, but not impossible! We also fitted two lockable gates for easy but secure access.
The garden was levelled, decking was then added and a raised pond to attract wildlife. Irene also had a shed, washing line and a greenhouse in her newly revamped garden! We really loved the pond and the nice touch of a Welsh dragon proudly watching over!
Our cream ColourFence, garden fencing with trellis was chosen for Irene as this colour really makes plants pop. It also brightens up a dull day and suited the colour theme of the garden. It was hard to envision the final look as it was filled with team members hard at work digging, planting and trying not to stamp on each other’s toes! But we think it’s safe to say that Irene now has a beautiful garden which she can enjoy for many, many years!
From left to right; Bo from ColourFence Oxford, Irene Hicks, Mark Stewart-Woods – ColourFence MD
Visit our before and after page for fence transformations.
To see more garden makeovers, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.
