BBC’s Gardeners’ World to feature Warwickshire gardener at new-build home
AS the sax player in the band the SKAlectrics Dionne Sambrook is used to being in the spotlight.
But this week she’s taking a step up and broadcasting to the nation when she appears on prime time television to speak about her other great love besides music: gardening.
Dionne’s wildlife-friendly new-build garden will be appearing on BBC Gardeners’ World 2024 episode 19 which will be going out on BBC2 on Friday (2nd August) at 8pm.
The Herald previously covered Dionne’s success as a finalist for Gardeners’ World Garden of the Year 2023. After she featured in a special wildlife edition of Gardeners’ World Magazine in February this year, the producers of the TV programme decided to visit the new-build garden at Meon Vale to look at ways to encourage wildlife into a new garden and chat to Dionne about why gardening with nature in mind is so important.
“I’ve been a regular viewer of BBC Gardeners’ World for many years so it was hugely exciting for me when a director contacted me about filming a short feature about my wildlife-friendly garden,” Dionne told the Herald.
“I’ve no previous experience in filming, so it was really interesting working with the crew and seeing how a TV feature is put together. I have to admit that it took some time to get used to doing a gardening task whilst talking through what you are doing and most importantly never looking directly at the camera. There was also a lot of walking around my plot looking wistfully at things whilst being filmed, but some fascinating close-up filming of wildlife.”
The mum-of-two moved into her new house five years ago and has turned the blank-canvas garden into a well-established wildlife haven in just a few years.
She is not alone in her gardening duties – husband Darren Bench is always willing to lend a hand, as are sons Joe and Will, when they are visiting home from university.
During the BBC filming, Dionne shared her naturalistic approach.
“I really enjoyed the opportunity to share some of my favourite plants, especially native plants and wildflowers which I grow having been inspired by the beautiful countryside we have in this part of the world, such as geranium, ragged robin, knapweed, meadowsweet and wild carrot,” she explained.
“I also grow plants to remind me of places I love to visit, such as samphire which reminds me of the marshes of North Gower in Wales (plus it is delicious to eat) and I grow cotton grass which I’ve seen growing on peat bogs in Highlands of Scotland. But I also grow some less familiar native plants which I’ve never seen in the wild but are simply beautiful or simply interesting and deserve space in any garden.”
Like most people, Dionne doesn’t have masses of free time to spend doing genteel pruning in the garden – as well as playing in the band she works at Escape Arts as a creative programme manager. She says “a relaxed approach is my approach”.
She continued: “It is important to me to have an outside space where I can feel grounded and calm, where I can spend time just pottering about, hopefully doing something positive or productive.
“It is just a little back garden – nothing special and certainly not very glamorous by any standard. But to me it is a beautiful and interesting space which is full of surprises (and admittedly occasional disappointments).
“I am really looking forward to sharing it with others.”
