大象传媒

"If we're lucky", says botanist Phil Gates "we gardeners get to experience the seasonal rollercoaster of gardening emotions about 70 times. Just 70 spring, summer, autumn and winters in a lifetime... and with each passing cycle those that remain become even more precious". In this series, recorded over a year, the relationship between a gardener and his garden are explored, and the emotions evoked by each season. In a modern, high-tech consumer society cultivating a garden remains perhaps the most direct way in which we can maintain an emotional and sensual link with the natural world.

It's now late Spring and in Phil's suburban garden in County Durham, there's a real sense of expectation as buds swell, and a songthrush sings for a mate from a high tree perch. A woodpigeon nests in the Pear Tree whilst blackbirds and wrens set up home elsewhere. The dark hues of winter are transformed into a rich variety of greens. Duckweed runs rampant across the pond, cloaking it with an emerald veil. In the glasshouse, the strawberries which were planted earlier in the year are now ready to move outside, and all across the garden the green shoots of spring are bursting through the soil. After the long cold months of winter and the wet days of spring, Nature is gearing up to blossom and grow in the weeks ahead.

Presenter Phil Gates
Producer Sarah Blunt.