Building a garden against the time constraints and demands of a TV show is hard enough, but when the crew make you dismantle the garden because they missed filming some of your work, you just want to scream, as CHARLIE DIMMOCK exclusively reveals!

Television star

Charlie started her career by training for four years as an amenity horticulturalist in Winchester and Somerset, as well as a year at the Chelsea Physic Garden in London. She was working at a water-gardening nursery and built a pond for the Meridian TV series, Grass Roots, when TV producer John Thornicroft discovered her.

Five years later when he was putting together BBC's Ground Force, he remembered her and made her part of the team. Over the years Ground Force has transformed countless gardens, including those of celebrities, such as Nelson Mandela, who famously told Charlie that she looked like a Spice Girl.

Gardening under the unblinking eye of a TV camera is not easy. 'People always remember the disasters,' laughs Charlie, 'and the film crews love them because they add spice to the show.

'Everyone remembers the painted floor that wouldn't dry and we were always living in fear of the person for whom we were secretly doing the garden coming home early. Then there was the danger of outside contractors turning up and blowing our cover.

'I clearly remember one show we did in America where we ordered a skip and we wanted it delivered at 11am, a good two hours after the man of the house was supposed to have left for his three-day business trip. What happened? The skip was dumped on his drive at 7am and he couldn't get the car out of his drive.

'His wife was frantically making up a story about it being delivered to the wrong house. But then of course she had to get it shifted so he could get his car out of the garage and drive to the airport. We managed to cover our tracks, but only just.'

It might be a constant and frantic race against the clock but when a garden comes together there is no better feeling for gardening guru, Charlie Dimmock. In the years that she has been on BBC's Ground Force there have been plenty of moments that have made the blisters worthwhile. A smiling customer is the best reward for her hard labour!

A taste of the Orient

One of Charlie's most rewarding experiences came in the last series and it was, on the face of it, a simple job.

'One of the best experiences was when we created a Japanese garden in the back yard of a small terraced house in London. It was the story behind the garden that made it even more special.

'When the economic crash happened in the 1980s, the owner of the terraced house decided to sell up and head for Japan. While he was out there he met a Japanese woman who was a teacher, they fell in love and married.

'That wasn't exactly the right thing to do in terms of the cultures and her parents were not overjoyed at the match. Anyhow the couple decided to move back to London but one of the things she always missed was her Oriental-style garden.'

If ever there was a challenge that was made for Charlie, this was it. 'Funnily enough the changes in climate are not too extreme and because of this we didn't have to compromise on the sort of plants that we were using,' she recalls.

'The major thing about a Japanese garden is the colour theme, there is always colour in the garden. There is evergreen for winter, cherry blossom in the spring, irises and lilies in the summer and maples in the autumn. 'The design is fairly simple, the plants are potted, there is raked gravel but even so a Japanese friend of mine who has a German husband thought we were mad to attempt it.'

The vindication, however, was in the man's wife's face when the garden was revealed. Japanese culture is fairly non-emotional but you could just tell she was bubbling underneath and was delighted. 'It was just a great moment,' Charlie says. 'It gave you a warm, satisfied feeling of a job well done.'

Lights, camera, action

The demands of filming make for a structure to the show that is not always sympathetic to the needs of the labourers.

'In terms of dramatic footage the best bits are the beginning and end. The garden as it was and the garden as it is transformed. The overhead shot is done on the first day so although we turn up early the crew need their bacon sandwiches, they need their top high shot and by the time we can set to work half the day is as good as gone.

'Then thankfully we can get to work but there are still problems lurking. While the crew is off around the area getting some local shots we set to work. There was a famous occasion when we really got cracking, actually built a sandpit. Back came the crew and they were furious that we had made so much progress. We had to take the sandpit apart so that they could film it being put together!'

It'll be alright on the night

As the series became a favourite of the nation so the projects became more daring. 'We learned what we could do, more importantly we built up a list of contractors and suppliers that we could rely on so there were none of those problems like we had in the US,' remembers Charlie.

'That gave us a lot of confidence and more time to do the job, hence we could start to push the boat out in terms of what we attempted.'

Just sometimes, however, there were circumstances that were beyond anyone's control. One of the most fabled disasters was when the team turned up at a fire station to do the garden. The fire chief was due for retirement and was going away on a week long course.

'To start with,' says Charlie, 'it snowed so you couldn't really see what we were working with. Next the fire chief phoned to say that he wasn't doing the course and he was coming back.

'There was nothing for it but to halt the mission and come back a week later when he was clear of the station. We got there in the end but it was all pretty nerve wracking.

'There have been numerous times when the shout has gone up just as we were finishing. It was out the backdoor, over the garden fence as the front door swung open.'

A busy bee

Since the end of Ground Force Charlie has still kept busy. There was Cheers for Charlie (a one-hour TV special where she joined the circus to become a trapeze artist), Charlie's Wildlife Gardens, Charlie's Garden Army, The Early Show, Girls on Top, Holiday and Celebrity Ready, Steady Cook.

She has also been prolific with her word processor. Her writing works include Enjoy Your Garden, The Ground Force Water Garden Workbook as well as this very magazine, At Home with Tommy and Charlie. Charlie often writes for the national press and has her own CD-Rom: Charlie Dimmock's Water Garden Designer.

Amazingly for a woman who has made such an impact on TV she doesn't have a TV in her house. And when asked if she prefers being a gardener, or a gardening TV presenter, she says: 'It's swings and roundabouts. I get frustrated because I don't get to do enough gardening, but then I do get to meet lots of people and see people's gardens that I wouldn't normally see.

'You're set challenges, which leave you very satisfied,' she says. 'I remember we did a garden for a deaf couple who had hearing-able children.

'They wanted a garden the whole family could enjoy and the husband was being pestered by his wife to get on with the work. He kept delaying, knowing we were coming, and was getting in deeper and deeper trouble at home.

'Eventually we got there and the idea was to create a garden with good light because the family tended to lip read rather than use sign language. An added problem was that the wife was a hay fever sufferer so we had to avoid high pollen plants.

'The trick was in the lighting and the position of the relaxation areas. We got there in the end and had a garden mum and dad could enjoy as much as the kids.

'The shows were always well researched and there was always a quest to have a strong human story behind the garden, but that was something special. It was very rewarding for all of us to be involved in a project like that.'