Liverpool-born shed builder and garden designer Joel Bird on why he’s proud to now call the north Kent coast his home
YOU may well recognise Joel Bird as the Liverpudlian budget garden designer from TV but there is much more than first meets the eye to this eccentric character, who now calls the Kent coast home.
The 48-year-old, who swapped the bright lights of London for Margate four years ago having moved south from Liverpool in the early 2000s, is not only a carpenter, horticulturalist, and keen bird watcher but an artist, musician and dancer too.
He’s supported Elvis Costello on his UK tour, played guitar with 90s alternative band Space and written soundtracks for TV, film and theatre productions. Meanwhile his artwork, which he describes as ‘semi-abstract’, has been shortlisted twice for the John Moore’s Painting prize.
“I’m an artist first and foremost and the life of an artist is a constant juggling act because you need to make money in order to give you the freedom to make creative choices with your art,” explains Joel, who describes himself as a modern folk artist inspired by graveyards, sea shanties and spaghetti western ride out. “So, I’ve always spent six months of the year building sheds or doing work that makes the money so that I can spend the rest of the time doing what I want to do, painting and making music.”
It was a particular love of jazz music and all things vintage that spurred him to start the Margate Swing Festival not long after he moved to the Kent town in 2019.
“I’ve always dressed funny,” he says of his trademark high-waisted trousers and braces look. “I went to a gig dressed like that in London a while back and someone asked me if I did vintage dancing too. I didn’t at the time but thought I’d learn and picked it up really quickly and it’s good for me, it’s good for your bones and core strength. Margate has such a vintage essence to it so a festival celebrating all things vintage, with live jazz music, fashion and dancing seemed like a good fit.”
For Joel, who dances a mixture of styles including Lindy Hop, Charleston, Blues, Shag and Balboa, the vintage scene is another way of expressing a philosophy that aims to preserve all that was good about the old way of living. And it was this passion for nature, heritage craft and a ‘make do and mend’ culture that caught the eye of TV producers after he was crowned winner of Channel 4’s Shed of the Year competition in 2014.
The ‘allotment roof’ shed took Joel just a month and less than £1,000 to complete thanks to his use of reclaimed materials and featured a vegetable garden on the roof and an art/music studio inside.
“That was the first shed I ever built and I’ve done a Mark II version here in Margate, which was on Gardeners' World a couple of years ago.” says Joel, who has since designed and built over 100 bespoke wooden buildings, from large professional recording studios, to small efficiently designed writer’s sheds and went on to become a judge on the competition the following year. “I do love building sheds, it’s still a creative process and I enjoy meeting families, hearing their stories of why they want a shed and coming up with a solution to whatever problem they might be trying to fix.”
In 2017 Joel wrote a guide dedicated to helping others create the perfect garden room called The Book of Shed and, in 2021, he was drafted in as the budget garden designer on the BBC’s lockdown hit Your Garden Made Perfect.
“That was crazy, it hit the 2 million mark,” he says of viewing figures for the show, which was an offshoot of Your Home Made Perfect, also hosted by Angela Scanlon. “I was put forward by Laura Jane-Clarke who was an architect on the home version of the show as I’d worked with her when judging Shed of the Year.”
Joel’s segment involved creating gardens for those with limited budgets and often included quirky space-saving features, such as fold away outdoor bars and sunken children’s sand pits.
“They needed someone who was the real deal, someone who could order the materials, cut the wood and build it for them on a budget. People think I had a team but I literally built those gardens myself,” says the father-of-two, who also presents Channel 4’s Great Garden Revolution, a garden makeover series designed to inspire Brits to get out in their gardens, alongside Poppy Okotcha, Bruce Kenneth and Errol Reuben Fernandes.
“I’ve never spent a lot of money on my own gardens, I always use raw materials and recycle everything,” Joel adds. “I just think it’s so important to get out and be surrounded by plants, whatever space you might have. Even when I was in London and had just one metre square, I’d have a log to sit on and plant a tiny veg patch so I could be surrounded by nature.”
Joel has a little more outdoor space now he lives in Margate, a place he says reminds him of Liverpool and gives him plenty of opportunity to indulge in his love of nature. In fact, it’s a place he’s decided to settle for good with his partner, Sara, and their two children, Juniper, 10 and Finch, 7, who enjoy walks together along the coast from Broadstairs to Walpole Bay.
“Margate has got this edge, there’s a real community here,” he says. “I grew up on the coast, near Dee Estuary in Liverpool and I’m a big bird watcher, so the sounds of the oysterscatchers here remind me of my childhood.
“I go to the coast everyday, it’s where I head straight after work and before I go home to decompress. I just stand and stare at the horizon. The coast is where I feel most comfortable, it feels like home.”
joelbird.com
I: @mrjoelbird
Margate Swing Festival takes place from September 8 to 10 margateswingfestival.com
Joel’s garden tips
I don’t believe in designer rules as such but I do suggest devoting 50 per cent of your garden to nature and making 50 per cent high functioning whether that be patio, pergola a bar or whatever you fancy.
When it comes to planting, plant what you like and don’t be scared of just going for it. The most important thing is to get out there in be surrounded by nature.
You don’t need to spend a lot of money – nature really doesn’t care what it sits on.
