2024: A year in the life of well known Seaford garden, Driftwood By Sea

On 22nd March the garden was featured for the 2nd time on BBC Gardeners’ World with Geoff talking to camera in a 7-minute film, about his style of gardening and explaining the recent changes he’d made to cope with climate change and getting older. The BBC crew from Bristol had visited the garden back in August 2023 and shot the film.

In the lead up to the screening, BBC SE Today’s Juliette Parkin and a cameraman came and interviewed Geoff about the upcoming film and his garden plans for the year which was shown on the local news.

Moving on to April and Charlie Felgate, a reporter from ITV Meridian News, came calling and made a short film, also shown on the local news, talking to Geoff about his involvement with the National Garden Scheme over the last 12 years and his role as their Publicity Officer in East & Mid Sussex during that time.

Geoff opened the garden gate at Driftwood on 1st June, through until the 5th August, last Summer and saw in excess of 500 visitors, pre-book to visit and help him raise over £6000 for charity, mostly for Macmillan Cancer Support, for whom he has raised over £120,000 and the rest for the National Garden Scheme, for whom he has raised over £33,000.

The first 2 visitors of the year were Alison and her Mum who posted this review: “Driftwood Gardens offers something special and unique. An unexpected jewel hidden away. All proceeds go to charity which is amazing. My mother and I were the first visitors to this beautiful garden this year. Geoff was the perfect host and really went out of his way to make our visit memorable. It was really interesting hearing his story and how he created this little piece of paradise. You have to see it to believe it! Geoff has managed to create a really interesting and relaxing outside space with many different plants, water features and decorative items. Geoff is also pretty talented at making cakes and tea! Coffee & Walnut Cake was scrumptious! We had a wonderful afternoon and will be back. Would highly recommend a visit.”

In July a 6-page feature on Driftwood was published in a national monthly gardening magazine, Garden Answers, and later that month TripAdviser awarded the garden a Travellers’ Choice Award for 2024, placing it in the top 10% of similar attractions worldwide. Driftwood currently has over 240 five-star reviews from visitors in recent years.

Also in July, the local TV station in Brighton, Latest TV, came and interviewed Geoff in the garden and a 20-minute film of him chatting with Angi Mariani was aired on the channel several times during the week and posted to You Tube. The film was an in-depth study of Geoff’s creation of the garden and some of his favourite plants.

In August, The Sunday Times came calling, with the editor sending one of their reporters, Sharon White, to interview Geoff for a piece published both online and in the newspaper on age-proofing his garden, published on Sunday 18th.

After Geoff had started to put the garden to bed for the winter, surprise, surprise, Plum Pictures, a TV production company based in Bristol, commissioned by C4, approached Geoff to ask if they could use his garden for some location shooting for a new, upcoming programme in early 2025.

As part of the programme the team planned to visit beautiful and unique gardens where they gather inspiration to incorporate into the chosen garden designs for the homeowners. The team said that through their research they had found Driftwood and thought it would be perfect inspiration for a seaside garden that is being designed. They wanted to know if he would consider allowing them to film mid-October? Geoff’s initial reaction was to say decline, as he felt his garden was far from its best with all the summer décor and tender plants already put away for the winter. That said, the production company were clearly very keen, so, he relented and filming took place on 11th October. More importantly the company paid a £150 location fee which Geoff donated to Macmillan Cancer Support. Geoff will post details of the program in the New Year on his social media channels.

2024 will go out with a bang for Geoff too, as another national monthly gardening publication, Modern Gardens, will feature a 2-page article on Geoff and his plot in the December issue of the magazine, out on the 20th November.

You can catch up with all the garden information on Geoff’s website at driftwoodbysea.co.uk

The garden will open for pre-booked visitors again in 2025 from 1st June through until 3rd August.