In 2019, Alex built the headline garden show garden at BBC Gardeners World Live! She won a Platinum award and the Best Show Garden! The Watch maker’s Garden.

Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter is a bustling, cosmopolitan area, steeped in history. In the late Victorian era the area was booming with trade as the jewellery and watchmaking industries expanded, with it being common for craftsmen to set up workshops in their back gardens to meet demand. The ‘Watchmakers Garden’ is inspired by these 19th century back-garden horologists.

Step into the garden and you’ll step back in time into a watchmaker’s garden workshop, where the city’s iconic Chamberlain clockface is mid-production, with a workbench surrounded by original tools and artefacts. Outside of the rustic building, the garden is bursting with heirloom and heritage vegetables, including some varieties which would actually have been grown as far back as the Victorian era, herbs growing alongside traditional cottage garden plants and self-seeded native flowers. Unkempt grass areas surround the space, with rustic paths and fencing along with nasturtiums and climbing peas scrambling up posts. Trees and shrubs border the garden, giving a mature feel, as well as screening the boundaries whilst reclaimed and weathered materials are used to create an authentic effect.