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Nick Knowles on why new homes should all have gardens

Nick Knowles, RHS Ambassador, has presented BBC One’s DIY SOS for nearly three decades. He explains why the gardens they build are every bit as important as the houses

How DIY SOS has become as much about renovating the garden as it has the house

Nick explains: “When we first started, DIY SOS was about redoing houses for people in desperate need. But about six years in, we expanded to convert whole homes or build huge charitable buildings and with that came landscapers and gardeners asking if we’d like the gardens done, too. Soon the gardens took on a life of their own and became as important as the buildings. Since then, we’ve built around £25 million-worth of homes, respite centres and specialist builds all with beautiful gardens. There have been sensory gardens for autistic children and dementia gardens where the scent of a certain flower brings memories flooding back. Over the years I’ve seen how a good garden can offer people therapy no textbook can teach. Gardens are life, literally and figuratively.”

We were warned that directly under the garden were MRI machines that could be destroyed by even a tablespoon of leaking water.

Nick Knowles, RHS Ambassador
Nick’s most memorable garden builds

Nick says one of his most memorable garden builds was actually a show garden relocation: “The Morgan Stanley Garden for Great Ormond Street Hospital, designed by Chris Beardshaw was relocated from RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2016 to the rooftop of Great Ormond Street; it was certainly memorable. We were warned that directly under the garden were MRI machines that could be destroyed by even a tablespoon of leaking water. That job involved super cranes, 300 volunteers and nerves of steel!”

The garden afforded the children a green space to help with their recovery, parents a place to contemplate bad news and a place for staff to recuperate. “One young lad used to wave at us out of the window during the build and would occasionally put up little signs saying “thank you for the garden”, says Nick. “I still hear from his parents about how well he’s recovering, as well as other families who use the garden. Another memorable one is the garden at a centre for children with life-limiting illnesses in Peterborough, where we built wheelchair access to a treehouse 35m up in the canopy. I’ve heard the children are being taken up the slope by their brothers and sisters and then having wheelchair races down it!”

The Morgan Stanley Garden for Great Ormond Street Hospital at RHS Chelsea 2016
Nick says the domestic gardens they create on DIY SOS are just as important: “In the new series, we build a sensory garden filled with herbs and grasses near Preston, Lancashire, for a 15-year-old lad called Daniel who’s been in hospital since he was 12 as his home couldn’t accommodate his semi-recumbent wheelchair. He’s now home and able to head outside to an accessible garden. I’m absolutely passionate about what gardens bring to people.”

The RHS is trying to help housing developers and planners consider outdoor spaces when they build new homes, as every home deserves a decent space to garden as standard. Nick says, “As an RHS Ambassador, I was asked to speak at RHS Chelsea, with MPs and other decision makers in attendance, about how gardens like those I’ve worked on can transform people’s lives. London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, came up to me afterwards and said it was good to understand how much wellbeing is gained from gardens.”

“With the right advice and consultation, it would be simple to build good gardens for all housing, social or otherwise. People want interaction with nature and to grow their own things. That’s why waiting lists for allotments are long. In the 1960s we made the mistake of creating tower blocks and concrete environments that took us away from nature. With a little bit of thought, those spaces could be transformed into areas for play, community and social interaction. A good example of this is the Barbican in London, which is a brutalist building. It had grassy areas before but after its renovation, it’s now filled with a rich mix of cultivated plants, which is great for biodiversity,” Nick says.

Nick Knowles is an RHS Ambassador and TV Presenter
Growing up in an urban environment 

Nick grew up on a 1960s housing estate in Southall, west London. “Then, if you had a garden, even in an inner city, you looked after it. My memory is of our neighbours on both sides, Mr Smith and Mr Wilson, who were always out tending their gardens, and of my dad cutting our little front lawn with a pair of kitchen scissors. Now, people tend to pave over their front gardens so they can put their cars on their driveways. Also, in the 1960s, my mum stayed at home and my dad went to work, so she had time to do the garden. With our faster modern pace of life, gardening has become a different thing. Interestingly, it’s young people who are getting into it and transforming balconies and being creative with plants.”

“I see vertical horticulture creeping in all over the place. They get the value of it almost better than the middle generation. And when their generation come to buy houses, they’ll be looking at what the garden is like. It makes sense to not just build gardens, but good gardens.”

What does a good garden look like? 

Nick explains what modern gardens should include, “When you build a new set of houses, you end up with a load of rubble. Historically, a hole has been dug in the back garden and the waste put in before it’s all grassed over. Modern builders are getting better at understanding that by taking the rubbish away and putting topsoil in the back garden, the buyer gets a decent lawn and borders for plants - a good garden.”

He continues, “A good garden can also be a service station for birds, butterflies, bees and anything else that’s traveling through to stop, rest and feed. Instead of a fenced-off lawn, why not plant mixed hedges that benefit bees and birds with berries in autumn? These things are a minor inconvenience for developers to plant, but the difference it could make to people and wildlife is worth it. Also, by making the most of the garden you’re getting an extra 50, even 100 percent more living space. Really, the garden should be considered as important as the living room or kitchen.”

Nick thinks good gardens aren’t being built because the public sector is under pressure in terms of housing and finances: “Things considered a luxury, like a beautiful garden, are deemed secondary and not necessarily worth spending taxpayers’ money on. You can understand why they come to that conclusion, but landscaping doesn’t have to be massively expensive. I don’t think those commissioning housing necessarily have the specialist advice on gardens they need. Gardens shouldn’t be a luxury or even just a nice-to-have. They’re essential for our physical and mental health, community spirit, wildlife and even recovery from trauma. An influential medical study [by Roger S. Ulrich, published 1984] suggests that even having a view of trees in the room you’re recovering in can be beneficial.”

Nick’s healing space

Nick says spending time in his garden in Windsor helped him heal from an injury : “I detached my bicep while changing a wheel on my car and then damaged my knee while competing on Strictly Come Dancing in 2024 – I spent 40 years playing rugby and it’s the Charleston that finally did me in! After four major operations for all that, being able to shuffle outside and sit in my garden while recovering has been really important. It pushed me to recover faster because when I could kneel again, I began to plant things. I work in a helter skelter industry and am quite often away. To come home to my garden, which isn’t massive by any means, and do 45 minutes of mindful weeding, or look at my foxgloves, agapanthus and alliums all growing into each other, is a lovely, calming thing. It takes me away from the lunacy of the television world. I can’t imagine life without it.”

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