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I've just spent the last 12 months transforming my miserable garden into a dream million-pound masterpiece.
Mark Marshall transforms his garden into a £1,000,000 masterpiece with five unique zones, including an English garden, outdoor kitchen, wild area, private island, and sunken cinema.
Key Takeaways
- Transforming a garden into a high-value space requires careful planning, diverse zones, and ongoing maintenance.
- Incorporating technology like outdoor electrics and Wi-Fi enhances usability and comfort.
- Natural elements such as wild areas and pollinator habitats add ecological value and beauty.
- Unique architectural features like the suspended private island building can elevate garden design.
- Investing in quality materials and lighting significantly impacts the garden’s aesthetic and value.
Summary
- Mark Marshall spent 12 months transforming his garden into a million-pound masterpiece divided into five zones.
- Zone 1 is the English garden featuring steel borders, pleach trees with lighting, and a well-maintained lawn.
- Zone 2 is an outdoor kitchen area used frequently despite the UK weather, equipped with storage and an outdoor fridge.
- Zone 3 is a wild area designed to attract pollinators with bee posts and a nature-friendly backdrop.
- Zone 4, called Tina's private island, is a unique suspended garden building with air conditioning and a terrace over a pond.
- Zone 5 is a sunken seating and cinema area with a TV that rises from the ground for outdoor entertainment.
- The garden includes extensive electrics and data cables for power and Wi-Fi throughout the space.
- The project involved significant landscaping challenges including heavy winds, flooding, and complex pond installation.
- The garden lighting alone cost around £12,000, with total garden value exceeding three times the house price.
- Mark emphasizes the garden is lived in daily, with ongoing plant changes and maintenance to keep it vibrant.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction and Garden Overview
- 01:09Zone 1: The English Garden with Pleach Trees
- 02:22Plant Choices and Lawn Maintenance
- 03:18Zone 2: Outdoor Kitchen Area
- 04:16Zone 3: The Wild Area for Pollinators
- 05:24Zone 4: Tina's Private Island Building
- 06:36Building Details and Features
- 07:52Challenges and Project Reflections
- 09:14Pond Installation and Water Management
- 11:56Garden Lighting and Cost Breakdown
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
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We have faced many obstacles along the way. However, I have persevered, and I've pushed forward, and we have created something absolutely magical, and I'm going to take you on the journey with me. I'm going to explain the full
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garden, including the cost breakdown at the end. Now, I'm going to break my garden down into five simple zones. Number one, kicking off strong, is this very section which I dubbed the English garden. And the reason for that
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is growing up, I spent a lot of time at my nana and granddad's. They had a beautiful lawn, but more importantly, that lawn was edged with loads of stunning flowers. So that's what we decided to do. But when it comes to this
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part of the garden, we had a company reach out to us called Garden Edging Online, and they said that we're bringing out these steel borders in core 10, and I think they would look amazing in your garden, and they were absolutely
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right. So we ended up putting a full steel border in. A backdrop to that was the beautiful timber that we got from Emma at Edton's Timber. This was thermal treated redwood, and then I really wanted some nice pleach trees.
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So we put in six pleach trees with lights in between each pleach tree and then uplights up. So at night, it looks absolutely beautiful, which you're seeing images of right now. The problem we've got is I'm on the outside
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of a town, and we get a lot of heavy, heavy wind. So all of these trees completely snapped, and we've replaced them with red robins. We put them in, and then we had two weeks of real hot weather. So now all the
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leaves have kind of come off them. Um, but just getting to this zone was super difficult because we had to kind of work back. So, we started scraping everything out with the digger, and then we started to install
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the electrics. Now, we put in electrics right around the garden. We've got two-gang sockets, outdoor sockets everywhere littered across the full garden because I really wanted it. No matter where you were in the garden, you could have access
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to power if you wanted to charge your phone. But more importantly for us, we had access to Wi-Fi. So, we put in data cable throughout the whole garden, which means we now have a strong Wi-Fi connection. No matter where you go in
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this garden, you've got a little Wi-Fi hub inside the studio, so you get super strong Wi-Fi. Now, I'm not going to lie, this section of the garden is going to be changed quite a bit in relation to just keeping on top
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of stuff. So, right now, we've got geraniums in there because it was Milana's favorite plant. Plants change, you know, they only stay, they only flower for six to eight weeks maximum.
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So, we're going to keep swapping plants out. We're going to keep trying to make the trees work. What I have recently done is I've just cut a nice border in throughout the whole lawn because we want this lawn to be amazing. Like, we
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we've started to put the time into it now. We're cutting it every other day.
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We're keeping on top of it. I've got my cylinder mower coming. So, this lawn by the end of this summer will be as crisp as anything. Now, let's move on to section number two, which is my outdoor kitchen area. Now, it does seem
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absolutely bonkers that you put in a kitchen outdoors in the UK. However, one comment on social media said, "You only get to use it twice a year."
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Already this year, I've used it about five times. So, you do use it quite a bit to be fair because whenever my mates come around or I've got the team here and it's a nice day, I'll cook burgers
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on here. Now, this was from Clips. It was the second kitchen that they'd ever installed, and it still looked absolutely immense.
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Now, you can probably see when I'm showing you around each element of the garden that the garden is lived in. I use it every single day I'm out here. Even if it's raining because it's never just raining all day. So,
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yesterday, for instance, it was raining. It was pouring. The old man was snoring. However, we still got out, and we still did bits in the garden. We use a lot of the storage for random stuff.
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So, I've got lights in there. I've got bird food in this one. I've got an outdoor fridge which I need to put something on it because the heat is getting into the fridge, and it's not as cold as it should be. So, I need
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to get a reflective glass. But the whole purpose of this area is when friends are coming around, we can pull the furniture out, which we got from Royal Craft, and we can just enjoy it.
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The reason this area is also nice is you get a real nice clear view of the beautiful pond that you're going to see a little bit later on in the video.
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Which brings me on to section number three, which is the area which I'm probably most proud of, which is my wild area. Now, this has just been handed over to nature. I put loads of plants in that are for the birds and the bees, and
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I've just let it take over. We did do a little bit of pruning on it yesterday, just clearing out some of the weeds so the plants get a good chance. But everything in here has a specific reason, and I don't know if you can
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probably tell on the camera, it is humming. The amount of activity for pollinators in here is unreal. I can see four or five different species of bees.
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Which brings me on to these beautiful bee posts that we got from Dominic. Native bees will find a new home in these bee posts. And they've already started a few of these holes that have already been covered up. The more
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established they get, the more these holes will fill up. Now, for the backdrop, we chose these panels that we got from Charles and Ivy. Now, these light up at night, and it looks absolutely beautiful. I really wanted a
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new backdrop of the fence. The whole garden we put in a new Charles and Ivy fence, which we'll talk a little bit about more later on. But for me, this area, not only does it pack loads of meaning, it looks beautiful. Welcome to
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section number four, Tina's private island. Now, this video did extremely well on social media, might be because it was titled Private Island. However, we really wanted to push the boundaries when it comes to this garden. I really wanted a building that
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looked like it was kind of just suspended on its own little island. And that is why we built this one-of-one Cabing Master building. Now, Tina's very good friend and my good friend Amy helped me design this. I'm
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not allowed to sit down on this sofa because it's too clean, but we ended up putting air conditioning in it as well because the lads at the contracting group, they've come out and they fit us air conditioning, and it really
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does add a whole new layer to this building. You can literally use it for anything because not only does it do air conditioning, the building heats, which means if you want to kind of chill out, relax, take in the whole garden, this is
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the best place to do it. Not only that, it has two doors. Come have a look at this door. Now, this brings you out to the little bit of a private terrace that we wanted. We had a party a little bit
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of a while ago, and we had a DJ perform on this deck. What I like it for is you get to sit down, you get to enjoy the pond, and it's suspended over the pond. So pretty much the full diameter
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of this building is suspended over the pond. Now, this was built via Cabing Master. It took us two days to build. I say we extremely lightly. It was more than me. Now, there were a couple of options that I went for when
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purchasing this building. And that is this insane red cedar cladding. It is beautiful. Now, we went for the western red cedar front. We went for the gray doors.
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And the reason for that is when you're sat down having a cup of...
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a whole different layer to the full garden. [music] Section number five, which is the place I actually spend most of my time, which is the sunken seating area/ cinema area. Now, we decided to put in a TV that raises out of [music]
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the ground. We put an outdoor speaker system in which meant when we're watching the F1, when friends around, you get to enjoy the garden to a whole new level. It's so much more dynamic.
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Now, this seating area is actually the heart of the full garden for one main reason. Around about 8 months ago, my garden flooded to the point where I nearly give up everything. I nearly quit social media. [music] I nearly moved out
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the house. It was a difficult time. Now, I was stood right here when I rang Josh from the Professional Idiot, and I said to him, "Mate, I am chucking the towel in. I cannot do it anymore." There was a
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massive hole right there. It had flooded that day. All of the YouTube studio was completely [music] destroyed after my good friend Con come to help me redo that studio, make it into [music] like something that I' could never dream of.
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It was that good. And it was ruined. The whole building and the garden was ruined. And this is where I made the decision to not quit and change my idea from a underground cinema with a viewing window into a pond to the sunken seating
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area. But the reason that [music] it's so special is because right here we have installed two [music] pumps from Trace Basement and James. We've put in the whole heart of the garden here, which means if it floods, the water comes into
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here. It then gets pumped out [music] through this pipe around here. It comes round and it comes into this big [music] dipping tank. So, this is kind of a protective layer for if the garden was to ever flood again. Them [music] two
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pumps pick it up. They put it into this dipping tank. that fills up. If you come around here, I've got some pipes [music] that are connected to another drain, a separate drain that isn't overflowing, and it feeds [music] it into there. Now,
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I know you're thinking, what happens if them two pumps fail? We then decided to put a pump in here. We've decided to put another third [music] pump in just just in case them pumps were to fail. [music] Now, United Utilities have got their own
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pump which is under here. So, under here there is a pump that if it floods that is the first form [music] of defense. If that overfills then my two pumps pick up that stress. If my two pumps fail then
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[music] that pump picks up the rest of it and takes it away. Now, I know it is a little bit excessive that I've got four pumps to stop my garden from flooding. But this brings me on to the
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bonus section, which is kind of section [music] number six, the pond. Now, the pond is what everybody talks about. The minute people come in, they see the pond and they're blown away by it. I absolutely love it for this very reason.
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I was never really massively into fish, but since I've become a fish dad, I'm obsessed with them. Like, every single morning I come out come outside. There's one particular fish [music] that shakes his tail every time I feed him. Hello.
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Hello. Look, there he is. That one there shakes his tail. The more hungry he is, the more uh the more he shakes his tail.
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But these are absolutely beautiful creatures. Now, let's talk about the pond and how difficult was it to install. Now, as you can imagine, from a garden that already floods, the ground was so difficult. There was pipes everywhere. There's literally a pipe
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running through the center of the pond down there. There's two pipes that run on the other side of the pond. So, the actual shape [music] of this pond was dictated by all the pipes that were in the ground. Now, when we first started
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to repair the damaged drainage system that caused the floods, we had spent around about £2,500 just replacing all the pipe work under the ground everywhere, putting new inspection chambers in, putting new pipe work in, and then it flooded again. So, United
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[music] Utilities come out and to be fair, as much criticism as as they get, they've been super helpful. It has been a long- winded process and I have got three personal pumps that are a backup to their pump, but they have been
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they've been great with me. They've really helped me when they've been out the next day. If it's flooded, they've been out and [music] helped. When it comes to the overall drainage, they cannot refuse somebody to put a foul
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drain in a house. One drain pipe, one 6-in drain [music] pipe is designed to hold between 6 and 12 houses. This pipe has 250 houses on one pipe, but that's not their fault. It's kind of the government's [music] fault because they
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it's into law that you cannot you cannot refuse a foul drain. So, that's what's happened here. They just keep putting houses on. They've said yes and then that's the overall problem. My garden was just an epicenter for the full
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flooding. Now, when I built [music] this pond, did I think it was going to look this good? I had an idea, but it's worked out 10 times better than I can ever imagine. Now, I have had the best
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pond installers on the planet in the garden helping me produce this pond. So, you'll see elements of it of like rocks.
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[music] It looks like a slice of nature, and that was the whole point of doing this garden. I really wanted it to look like a slice of nature with a modern twist. So, this seating area, obviously, [music] it's not doesn't look like nature. So, I
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wanted it to be a modern take on nature, if that makes sense. It did to me, and I think it looked absolutely beautiful.
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Now, let's check out the decking. Now, the decking is the first point of contact with the whole garden. [music] So, when we was building it, I really wanted it as tight to the inside as possible. So, we ended up building it
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up. We had the new doors installed by Express Biffolding Doors. So the way they did the door frame is I could sit the deck in on top of that frame all inside here this little kind of vent so
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the water can go down and it can kind of get out that way. But the reason that I wanted it is so when you're walking out of the kitchen it's like one level and then you get to see the beautiful
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garden. Now my good friend Chris Kees helped me install this. Please if you're watching this go and drop him a follow.
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He's such a cool guy. Him and his misses come all the way from Scotland and helped [music] me install this. Now, these first two here, I helped him do these. It's probably not as good as these ones, but we really wanted to
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scribe the decking into [music] the rock. So, it looks like again kind of the modern world's kind of crashing [music] into nature. So, all of the decking right around has been cut individually into the rock. [music] Now, this timber is special. It's called
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Abodi and it's a heat treated timber. So, this is from New Zealand. the timber. It's a soft wood, but the way that they they treat it means it's got a 25 year guarantee.
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That is a lot. Now, this section here is what they call a wetland area. So, this [music] is designed to take all of the water from the pond. Water from the pond, it comes up through the biomedium system that we've created with them aqua
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filters. It then goes through lots and lots of rock, which means beneficial bacteria grows, and it keeps my pond looking crystal clear. Now, a life cycle of a pond normally takes about 3 years to kick in fully. Mine's done pretty
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well so far cuz we've been hammering it with loads and loads of beneficial bacteria. And what's really cool about this whole pond, [music] it is a recreational pond. They say that word right. And it means you can get in it,
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you can play, the [music] dogs can interact with it, but more importantly, you can come here, you can sit down, [music] and you can watch nature literally take its course. We have had so much wildlife come into this garden
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from the pond. It is insane. Dragon flies, skippers, frogs. We've literally had, you name it, and it's been in.
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We've not had a naughty yet, but we're trying. Greg's full ethos, is that the word? ethos is you build a pond that works with nature rather than against it. And that is [music] exactly what we have done right here. We've created a
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place where nature can come in, it can enjoy it. When it doesn't want to be here, it can go. We don't have ducks yet either. [music] It'd be cool to have ducks even though they do mess up everything. Now, let's talk a little bit
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about the whole price of the garden. Now, coming to the outside of our YouTube studio. This is the main hub for where we edit and make our videos. The price for the whole garden, it's really difficult. Now, I've labeled it the
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million pound garden. If you was to recreate this garden pound for pound and you wasn't a landscaper and you wasn't in social media, this would cost you over a million pound. And there's stuff in the garden that you don't even
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[music] see that we've had to replace that cost tens of,000. Electrics, [music] we was at £26,000. That's what has come out of our bank for electrics.
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That's like new cables, data cables, lights, fittings. There's been so much electrics added to this garden. [music] It is absolutely insane. The next thing was the pipe works. All the new drainage that we've had to fit [music] in the
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garden. Worked out around £22,000, which is mindblowing. There's been so much of the money that's been sunk [music] into the garden that you don't even see. All the electrics, all the pipe works. The biggest cost was the [music] waste. We've had, I think it was
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£18,000 worth of grabs. I cannot believe that. It makes me sick. We've had I think Tina said £6,000 in skips which quick math is £24,000 in waste [music] getting out of the garden. So that's like they're like the the figures that
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come to mind that when you're working on the garden it's just mindblowing. [music] The biggest cost of the whole garden is the pond. Now I was very blessed to work with my friend Greg and collaborate on this pond build. Now Aquacape have been
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building ponds for 30 years. They are literally the best guys on the planet to build ponds. They said if they was to [music] price this pond with the seating area, with the problems that we've had with the drainage, they would be at
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£500,000 to put this pond in. The English lads that were on it, they would have been a little bit cheaper at $400,000. [music] Um that that would be included in this.
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There was a few of the lads that said they really would really want to win this job. So, they price [music] it at around £350,000, which is more than the house just for the pond. The things that you don't
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[music] see that we've also done is the TV, the the music system that we put in, all of the electric hub that control all [music] the Wi-Fi and all the media.
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We've got LEDs around the full garden. We've got garden lighting. I think we worked [music] out on just the garden lighting is around £12,000 for garden lighting, [music] which is mental. Now, I would not be able to afford a garden
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like this if it wasn't for my social media, but I'm extremely blessed to do what I do. I love getting out on the road. I love surprising people. Now, I've spent more in other [music] people's gardens that I've actually
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spent in my own garden, which doesn't make sense for a lot of people, but I I love what I do. I love surprising people with gardens. And if I could do the whole thing again, would I do it any
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different? Probably. I'd probably do a lot of it different, including this, which is the render. [music] It's failed miserably.
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If you if you have a little look, um, all the sides are sagging. I've got a gentleman coming on Monday, and we're going to look to redo it in a completely different product. This is the only thing now that's letting the full garden
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down. Now, you can probably see my garden has a lot of plants. a lot of plants actually and [music] Tina's worked out that we are close to £30,000 on plants.
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Now I have purchased probably around about £28,000 [music] of them and we've had about £2,000 gifted to us. Um pond plants, we've had trees, everything [music] that you see within the garden has all been um purchased which it's a
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lot. Now this area which is the side of my house was another huge huge value.
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[music] Now, between here and the front of the garden, we was at around about £50,000 [music] which how does that even make sense? How does that make sense? It is just a pathway down the house. But we've had to
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redo everything, pull everything out, put new fences in. So, these are Charles and I have fences. [music] These work around about 600 per bay, and we've got 32 bays that way. And then down the other side, I think it's 18. So just in
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fences, all the all the new concrete blocks in. We put brand new drainage from here to [music] the front of the house. We put all the resin in top to bottom from here to the front of the drive. We put a new gate in. Um yeah, it
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all adds up. So when people say like, you know, is it worth a million quid? I don't know. I don't actually know. I guess it's down to you. I know if you were [music] to recreate it, it would be
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more than likely over a million, which doesn't make sense with the house that we bought the house for, I think, £370,000. [music] The garden is worth three times what the house is. But we didn't do it for a cost
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value. We did it because when [music] I'm being when I'm out on the road and I come back, I am dead. Like I am I've burnt the candle at both ends. I need to relax. So, this is what we use now to
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[music] recharge our batteries. But let us know what you think of it in the comments. There's loads and loads of detail [music] that we could just keep going over. All the garden's been completely edged up with new steels.
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It's had LEDs put in. We've got lighting everywhere. Well, let us know what you think of it. I'll see you in a bit.
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O, YouTube's telling you to watch this video now. I'm professional, aren't I? How good does that? [laughter] I'm in the wrong job. I'm in the wrong job.
Topics:garden transformationmillion pound gardenoutdoor kitchen UKwild garden areapleach treesgarden lightingprivate island gardensunken seating areagarden Wi-FiMark Marshall MK2
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