The Beechgrove Garden 2024 episode 15
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🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hello and welcome to Beechgrove Garden.
00:17Coming up this week, we're cutting some summer salads and planting colour for next year.
00:24We reveal this year's big success.
00:29We show you you don't need a big space to produce big tastes.
00:35And we plant mechanopsies that suit cool, damp conditions.
00:40Welcome to Scotland.
00:45But before all that, Carol, let's come over here and look at the wildlife garden.
00:49Now, this was an area that was created a number of years ago, and you've had a revamp of it.
00:54Yes, with the help of James Sylvie, our wildlife expert from RSPB.
00:59The whole idea of a garden for wildlife is to encourage the wildlife, whether it's the
01:03insects or the birds, and create this wonderful ecosystem.
01:07And this is a bed that has been revamped, and straight away I'm drawn to this.
01:12James and myself were planting the bulbs.
01:14Is that not fantastic?
01:15An Allium Miami.
01:16That's an absolute cracker.
01:17I mean, that's a bee magnet.
01:19They just cluster on that on a warm, sunny day, which would be nice to have.
01:23Well, I think they look like fireworks, don't they?
01:25Yeah, they do.
01:26And then we've got something else.
01:27You know, this is purple.
01:29And then we've got white over there, which is the honesty.
01:31Normally, it would be the pink honesty, just a common one, but that's a white one.
01:35And the white flowers, I think, George, white is lovely in a garden, because it's really
01:39bright, but also, at night time, it attracts the moths, doesn't it?
01:42That's right.
01:43And they are important pollinators, the moths.
01:45But also, is that not a good food source for some of the butterflies?
01:48Yeah, it is.
01:49Well, the thing that's interesting about that one is that the orange-tipped butterfly lays
01:53its eggs on the foliage and the young pods, and it feeds on those, so there we have it.
01:57Now, also, I think we've got to think about flowers, not early on in the season, right
02:01through all the seasons, but, you know, we're going to get some autumn flowers off the buddleia,
02:06and lots of people maybe don't have space for the really large buddleia, and this is
02:10a dwarf one.
02:11Well, the large ones would be up here and dwarf everything.
02:13That's a good one.
02:14Yeah, so that is from the Buzz series, Indigo.
02:17Oh, well, that's it.
02:18Gosh, what a display here.
02:19Now, look at that.
02:20That is good.
02:21I mean, you can't beat cat mint, can you?
02:22You can't.
02:23Nepeta, that's it.
02:24Brilliant.
02:25And the bees have been buzzing around it, haven't they?
02:26Oh, they love that.
02:28And it relies on the geranium.
02:29I mean, they've been going for the geranium, and what I love about the geranium is it's
02:31got these little honey guides, which take the bees down into the middle where the nectar
02:35is, and that's what you want.
02:37And geraniums, the perennial geraniums, they flower for a long, long time, don't they?
02:42Same really goes, I mean, these don't flower quite so long, the foxgloves.
02:45Now, I have to admit that Mrs. Anderson has a love-hate relationship with foxgloves, but
02:51there's still one or two who escape our attention, and we've got them coming up in the garden.
02:55But the bumblebees just love them, don't they?
02:57Well, yeah, I mean, we're catering for large insects and small insects, and large bumblebees
03:02can get right up inside there, and I just love them, because they do provide insect
03:06interest.
03:07I think they're fantastic.
03:08And no staking with that.
03:09Now, George, do you want to keep Mrs. Anderson happy?
03:11You might want to pull out one or two of the foxgloves.
03:12I'll go and have a look for some.
03:13I'm going to go and look at another success story.
03:26Well, here we are, down in one of the greenhouses, and this story is all about my observation
03:34of seven different varieties of cucumbers, and they are all cucumbers that produce the
03:40snack-sized cucumber, so we are cropping them around about 150 centimetres or six inches
03:46in length.
03:47And what I'm doing is I've got one of each variety in a pot, and then in the beds here,
03:53I've managed to fit in two of each of the varieties.
03:56And I think you'll probably notice straight away what's the difference between the pots
04:00and the beds.
04:02The pots ones, I think, are looking a little bit yellow, so maybe not so much nutrition,
04:08and I feel a little bit like my tomatoes in the small eight-by-six greenhouse.
04:12We need to up the feeding, so let's feed it every time we water, but a weaker feed.
04:18As for the ones in the ground, they look so healthy, they're very productive, and obviously
04:24that ground has definitely got more nutrition in it.
04:28Now, you'll also notice that the floor is quite damp, and when we've got weather like
04:33this, you really want to increase the humidity, because that helps against two things, red
04:39spider mite and also powdery mildew.
04:42So of course, it is all about the cropping, it's all about the tasting, and we've got
04:47the samples right across here, and this is my crib sheet, because this is where we've
04:51got the dates of when we cropped, how many.
04:54And baby, and also piccolino here, these were the first to crop.
05:00We started cropping these on the 4th of June, so that really was quite early, and I have
05:06to say the smaller ones, you are able to crop them a bit earlier than the really long cucumbers.
05:12And then, as for the numbers, what comes out there, well, the most productive, and if I'm
05:17talking about the beds here, where we've got two plants, party time has been absolutely
05:23amazing.
05:24Just here, 26 cucumbers I've had already off of two plants, but second and quite close
05:33is this one here, baby, I've had 19.
05:37Not quite so productive in the pots, and I suppose that's to be expected.
05:41And then of course, it is all about tasting as well, I think that is so important, because
05:45you might have a very productive cucumber, but you don't like the taste.
05:48And so I've asked the gardening team to give them a taste, and I've tasted them as well.
05:53And it's quite interesting with the results of those, because three of the gardeners actually
05:57came up with this one, Bait Alpha.
06:01They really liked that, and the description from there was it's crunchy, stronger flavour,
06:07but it is a slightly sort of tougher skin.
06:10Whereas myself and our new head gardener, Jennifer, both like baby.
06:15And what we would say there was that was quite sweet, a soft flesh, a very sort of tender
06:21skin and really good flavour.
06:24Now the thing is, this is only us into July, we've still got quite a cropping season to
06:30go.
06:31So we will definitely come back at the end of the season and we'll round up.
06:35And finally, just a little bit about training.
06:37So you know, these are very much again like the cord on tomatoes, they go up these strings.
06:42I won't necessarily let them hit the roof, but we'll pinch out the top.
06:46And then that tends to produce these side shoots, and it's very similar to grapes.
06:51So in other words, once they produce a cucumber and you've got the side shoot, leave two leaves.
06:58Now it's off to a Glasgow garden in the Pollock Shields area.
07:04In recent years, Mistu Gray has been on a mission to transform her traditional family
07:09garden into a colourful and productive space that welcomes wildlife.
07:17So we moved into this house about 30 years ago.
07:21And at that time, it was very, very different.
07:24The garden is really all laid to lawn, there were a lot of tall conifers at the back of
07:29the garden.
07:30We had a young family, you know, football, trampolines and swings were all part of what
07:35a family garden needs, I guess, if you're lucky enough to have that space.
07:42So when the children left home, I thought I would like to have the chance to change
07:47things into the confidence, just if it doesn't work, it doesn't really matter, you can try
07:51again later.
07:51So a few years ago, this was all grass.
08:03But as you can see, I just think it's so much nicer to have the fullness of all the different
08:08plants.
08:09And I'm not an amazing gardener, but it's lovely to know that you can actually grow
08:13quite a lot of quite simple things for yourself.
08:17Got some peas here growing up a wigwam.
08:19The weather that we've had has been a bit problematic.
08:22So they're really not as tall as I would like.
08:24But however, the peas are still coming through and they taste absolutely delicious.
08:28This is a climbing squash.
08:29Again, you can just see it's tied in and that will come over the frame and hopefully produce
08:35some really nice vegetables for us.
08:37I've got some marigolds in here.
08:39And the reason for that is that they're quite highly scented, they will attract the pollinators
08:45in and you need the pollinators in to fertilize your squash plants so you can get a decent
08:51crop.
08:52And just over here, we've got some of the apple trees.
08:56Well, I've got two apple trees in tubs.
09:00And you can see we've got a few, quite a few apples coming through already.
09:11So this is a great place to sit at the end of the day.
09:14It's west-facing, so it catches the sun.
09:16I try to make it quite a sensory place with the textures of the plants here with the cosmos.
09:21But also a lot of fragrance.
09:25This is a daffodil that's called Pink Fragrance.
09:28It's evergreen, so it gives lots of structure in the winter.
09:32But just now it's covered in these beautiful pink flowers, which are absolutely gorgeously
09:37scented.
09:39And then behind that, I've got Trachlospermum jasminoides, which is a climber.
09:44It should be evergreen, provided it's relatively sheltered.
09:48And the idea is that it'll be tied into the wires and trained along the fence there.
09:56The other thing we've got is a dahlia, totally tangerine.
10:01Dahlias are not known for their fragrance, but they make such beautiful cut plants.
10:06With dahlia, it's just really important to cut them back quite regularly to encourage
10:11more buds, so you get the cut flowers for your house.
10:17But also it keeps the plant producing flowers throughout the season.
10:21They do need feeding and regular watering.
10:23They're quite hungry and quite thirsty plants.
10:26So a seaweed feed perhaps once a week or once a fortnight, depending on what our weather
10:31is like.
10:32So this is my favourite spot to sit at the end of the day.
10:45So having the pond here is one of my favourite parts of the garden.
10:51The sound of water is actually so relaxing and it's a real magnet for wildlife.
10:59We've got several frogs there.
11:01We've missed tadpole season, but in the spring it's full of tadpoles and you do see the frogs
11:06hopping around the garden.
11:08When you've got a pond, it's really important to build up the sides.
11:12This was originally built with quite straight sides and that's absolutely no good for wildlife.
11:16So what we've done is stacked stones and bricks and just had these various points where animals
11:22can get in and out of your pond.
11:25That's really important.
11:26When you are cleaning it, we've got a little bit of pond weed here, when you clear that
11:31away it's really important again to leave that at the side of the pond for a few days
11:36just to let any creatures that might be there make their way back into where their home is.
11:41We get birds coming in and bathing in the ponds as well as the frogs and there's even
11:47been a heron as well.
11:56I just like experimenting, so things get changed around and it's such a peaceful place.
12:08When you're pottering and doing things, you just realise you've been completely engrossed
12:12in gardening for hours at a time sometimes.
12:27A number of weeks ago we visited the garden at the Pitlochry Festival Theatre, the Explorers' Garden.
12:36And what we saw there was a collection of mechanopsis, the Himalayan blue poppies.
12:42Now we've got a collection here and blue poppies really do well in Scotland.
12:48They love the wet that we have in Scotland and I have to say we certainly get a lot of wet.
12:55So the collection here is starting to go back a little bit and I thought maybe it was time
13:00to buy some more and just bulk it out again.
13:03So I went to my local nursery and I indulged myself.
13:08Mechanopsis are hungry, hungry feeders. You have to really feed them.
13:12So what I've done in this area is I've added a fair bit of balanced fertiliser to the areas
13:18that I'm going to be digging and planting in.
13:21So that's what we've got, a fertile soil, one that's moisture retentive
13:27and one which will allow the plants to really flourish.
13:31What do you do when you go to the nursery? What plants do you buy?
13:35Well, I always feel that a garden is really a bit of social history.
13:40So what I did on this occasion was I had a look for plants that have something,
13:46that mean something to me.
13:48So we've got a variety here which is called Susan's Reward.
13:52You think, how did it get that name?
13:54Well, Susan Syme used to work for Betty Sheriff
13:58and Betty Sheriff was the wife of the man who went out to the Himalayas
14:03and was one of the first to start introducing Himalayan blue poppies to cultivation.
14:09So that's quite interesting.
14:11Why is it called Susan's Reward?
14:13Well, when Susan Syme finished working with Betty Sheriff,
14:16Betty Sheriff gave her a present of a plant and it was this mechanopsis.
14:22Susan took it to her Edinburgh garden, grew it on there
14:25and it grew so well in the slightly drier situation of Edinburgh
14:29where we only get somewhere about 26 inches of rain a year
14:32that it has become a very popular plant for the cooler and drier east coast.
14:38So that's why we've got that one.
14:40We've got this one here which is called Sir George Taylor.
14:43Sir George Taylor was the director of Kew
14:46and he was again instrumental in bringing the blue poppy to Britain
14:52along with George Sheriff.
14:54So he is a must, he has to be in this.
14:57Now having mentioned that Sir George Taylor and George Sheriff
15:00introduced mechanopsis for the Himalayas by seed,
15:03what we've got to remember is that many of these cultivars
15:06and varieties that we have now don't produce fertile seed
15:09and so there's no point in trying to save seeds from the seed capsules.
15:13So what we'll have to do then is to lift them and split them
15:16and that's the case with this one here which is Mophead.
15:19Now what I've done there is I've lifted it and split it up into small pieces like that
15:23and then I'll plant these into this area here
15:25and that will increase that particular planting.
15:28So while I finish off this,
15:30why don't you go off and visit a wonderful garden in Strathday, Berthshire.
15:36When Penny Kennedy moved to Mouse Cottage in 2016,
15:40she was drawn to its unique setting and immense potential.
15:44In the following years, she set about creating a lush floral garden to be proud of.
15:52When I first came here, the garden was very different to how it is now.
15:58It was lovely but it was kind of neglected
16:02and the fences had fallen down and it was quite a bit smaller than it is now.
16:07But the main problem with it was that there were all these enormous trees
16:11in the middle of it, Christmas trees and all sorts of things
16:14and I like trees but there were only three flowering plants in it
16:18and I'm rather keen on flowers.
16:22But it was magical so I knew that I had something that was going to be special
16:28but it's the first garden I'd ever designed.
16:31This was a big project and a very exciting one.
16:42Now we're going to walk down the long herbaceous border
16:46which is one of my favourite parts of the garden.
16:49Quite a lot of planning went into it originally
16:52but then the self-seeders have joined in and made it rather wonderfully surprising and glorious.
16:58The main excitement is that we have the white foxgloves which have self-seeded in here
17:04but behind it we have the irises which have just landed here.
17:10That's why I'm so careful with my weeding because I love the self-seeders.
17:14It's full of surprises and excitement and you just never know what you're going to get
17:18and I certainly didn't expect the irises which are just so, so beautiful.
17:24Now this part of the garden is only four years old
17:28and it was golf course land and it was in such a mess.
17:33Stones and bracken and all sorts of terrible things.
17:37And so this year I mulched it twice in the autumn and then again in the spring
17:43and all the plants this year have started to knit themselves together and hold hands
17:48and have just created this wonderful abundance which is all I dreamed for and more.
17:55And there's loads of exciting things to come out and are coming out now
18:00and it will continue to change for the rest of the summer.
18:03Music
18:16So I'm very fond of this little part of the garden.
18:19It's a really special place and when I came here and I took all the trees out of the middle
18:24I made a little path from the drive in here and then it twists round through the rest of the garden
18:29and there's a wee secret bit in the middle so there's a lovely view from here.
18:32And the thing that I really loved most about here was this wonderful round tree
18:37full of magic and superstition.
18:40So I had quite a lot of garden furniture but this is my favourite piece
18:45and it belonged to my grandfather-in-law and it is 100 years old this year.
18:51So that says something for wood.
18:53You don't have to have plastic if you want to have something that will last almost forever.
18:58There's this wonderful little curved duck board and this little matching table
19:02and I just think in this little part of the garden it's perfect.
19:07But it was perfect when it came but now it has joined hands with the tree
19:14and all the lichen that was on the tree has grown and joined into the seat
19:20and they have become one.
19:22So this is one of my most favourite spots in the garden.
19:26MUSIC
19:38Now we're coming into my secret garden, my cool garden in every way.
19:44It's always shady and nice and on a warm day it's a wonderful place to sit.
19:48A lovely place for a little drink with a candle in the evening
19:51and when it's really warm during the day I bring my deck chair down here and have a little snooze.
19:55But I've always been interested in gardens with rooms
19:58and when I visit gardens I tend to be attracted to gardens that have rooms.
20:03So this is one of my rooms and it's green and it's lush and it's light and secret.
20:10And the things that I love about it also is I inherited these three bushes here
20:17which were all wild and crazy.
20:19So they're all trimmed and looked after now and I call this the pear parasol.
20:24This is the beach bomb and this is the holly brolly.
20:28And I just love it and nobody knows you're here. Perfect.
20:33MUSIC
20:48Well here I am in the container garden and I think this shows you
20:52you don't have to necessarily have a garden and you can grow things and be productive.
20:57And it was six weeks ago that I was here sowing some very sort of quick maturing crops.
21:03A mixture of salads and oriental greens.
21:06Now what I'm doing here with the spring onions is I'm really just sort of thinning them out
21:11and that way I can leave some of them to bulk up.
21:14But these are fantastic in salads and that variety is called totem.
21:18Next to it here I've got some great sort of stir fry vegetables.
21:23Mizuna and mibuna.
21:26And these are real sort of cut and come again.
21:29So you know I can just pick off a few of these leaves
21:32and as I say they're absolutely great for stir frying.
21:35And in a salad adds quite a strong flavour with the mibuna.
21:41Also what I've done is you might remember that I was sowing in this pot here seed pellets.
21:48So in other words one pellet had lots of seeds in it and I only put three pellets into this pot.
21:54And I've ended up with this fantastic mixture of plants and it's called wonder wok salad.
22:01Because what I've got is I've got things like mustard, I've got the mizuna and I've got pak choy.
22:07And that is so easy to do.
22:09I've already harvested a few of the radish, that's called royal purple.
22:14And as usual I've had to have a little bit of a taste and that is fantastic.
22:18Even though that's quite a size it hasn't gone woody and it's really good flavour.
22:23Back here it's something that I've grown in my own garden.
22:26And this is a mustard called wasabina and it tastes of wasabi.
22:31So again a really sort of strong flavour.
22:34And if you keep picking it then you get fresh leaves.
22:37And I've also picked this, isn't this fabulous?
22:39This is a pak choy called macaw and it really is quite miniature.
22:44But that looks beautiful and I think that would be fantastic for stir frying.
22:48And also I have this, it's not a flower but it's called tagetus, called drop shot.
22:54And I wish you could taste this because it's absolutely amazing.
22:58If I put this in my mouth straight away I'm getting aniseed, licorice.
23:04So that would give a wonderful flavour in a salad or you could even make a tea.
23:17I've come into the polytunnel where last autumn we sowed some sweet peas.
23:21And just look at this, the scent in here is overpowering.
23:25And it's quite interesting because if you compare the growth in here
23:28with the growth of the sweet peas we've planted out on one of the plots
23:31it's quite astonishing the difference.
23:33The ones outside are just starting to flower.
23:36Anyway, I'm going to cut one or two of these.
23:38And remember the more you cut them the better they flower.
23:41The more flowers you have for the house and that's something which is quite important.
23:46And I know somebody who likes sweet peas.
23:55Here we are Carol, brought you some flowers.
23:57Is this some bribery for the strawberries?
23:59Oh yes, absolutely.
24:01And I'm really pleased with the strawberries as well
24:03because these were planted this year.
24:05So first year, first crop.
24:07So what have we got?
24:08Okay, let's start off.
24:09I'm actually going to start off with the late variety, Melwina.
24:12And you know, it's doing exactly what it says
24:15because we haven't cropped it at all at the moment.
24:18Just maybe going to start.
24:20Just starting.
24:21So then let's go back behind you.
24:23That's the early season, Allegro.
24:25There's still one or two to crop.
24:27So nearly finished.
24:29This one behind, Alcenta.
24:31Well-known variety, isn't it?
24:33That's in all the supermarkets, isn't it?
24:34It's a really big favourite.
24:36It's a good cropper and lots of fruit there.
24:38And then this is the Perpetual.
24:40So it's kind of little and often right through the season.
24:43And that one's called Flamenco.
24:45Well, Flamenco, that's interesting.
24:46I grow that at home in a big pot.
24:48We put the straw on the strawberries to protect the fruit.
24:51Do you do that at home?
24:52Well, in the pot that I've got, I bought a wool product
24:55which comes with a little blanket and I've used that underneath.
24:57And the advantage of that is it stops the slugs as well.
25:00Oh, brilliant.
25:01Absolutely.
25:02Now, the other thing, have you noticed,
25:04I've started to take off the runners.
25:06I know you can, for example, look,
25:08there's a great little plant that you could propagate from,
25:11pin it down into the ground or put some compost in a pot.
25:14That's right.
25:15But that's OK if you've got established plants.
25:16When we've got new plants like this, if you leave these on,
25:19it takes all the energy out of the crown of this plant.
25:21Absolutely.
25:22And you want to take it off, therefore, and grow the plant up.
25:25Here we go.
25:26That's it.
25:27There you go.
25:28Give it a haircut.
25:29You're doing it, George.
25:40Well, George, Programme 15, I'm going to take you back to Programme 2.
25:43All right.
25:44When it was such a wet day and we decided to cut back this privilege.
25:48I remember it well.
25:49You had water over your ankles in here,
25:51paddling about in the gutter with it.
25:53You know, just incredible, wasn't it?
25:55Wet, wet.
25:56Wet, wet, wet.
25:57But the reason we were doing this cutting back of the privy
25:59is it was very bare at the base.
26:01That sort of first 12 inches.
26:03Yeah.
26:04It's something that happens when folk plant hedges,
26:06that they forget that they really should prune them a third back at least
26:11so that the roots have got a better chance of developing.
26:13So all the growth was at the top.
26:15Now, the good news is, in that time,
26:17you can see that it is starting to sprout, isn't it, at the base?
26:21Well, I think most of them have actually started to sprout at the base.
26:24And what we should maybe do now is take a pair of shears, typical George,
26:28and go along there and just cut the tops off
26:31just to get the growth encouraged right at the base.
26:34Keep encouraging that basal growth.
26:36Anyone would think we know what we're doing.
26:38No, we don't.
26:39But look, you know what you're doing here.
26:40Look at that.
26:41Isn't it fantastic?
26:42You were with the sweet peas, that wonderful perfume.
26:44We both looked at the strawberries, cucumbers galore.
26:48And is that the last of the cherries?
26:50That's the last of the cherries,
26:51but we've got peas and black currants as well.
26:52So, this is the time of year when, you know,
26:54all the crops are starting to produce,
26:56and that's what this gardening game is all about.
26:58It's fantastic, isn't it?
27:00But that's it from us this week.
27:02Yeah, it is.
27:03Next week, Kirsty and Callum are here,
27:06and they are looking at the pumpkins in the new uggo bed.
27:09And also, they're going to be showing you
27:11what you need to do with your laburnum.
27:13Nice.
27:14And Brian is at Old Schoon,
27:16and he's looking at summer care of lawns.
27:18And don't forget,
27:19if you want to watch any of the programmes on this series,
27:21just go to the iPlayer.
27:23So...
27:24That's it.
27:25That's it.
27:26That's it.
27:27So, from both of us, bye-bye for now.
27:28Goodbye.
27:49Bye-bye.