Gardeners World S51e05 13-04-18
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hello, welcome to Gardener's World, and the first hour programme of this year.
00:20In fact, all the programmes for the rest of this year will be a full 60 minutes long.
00:28And although we've had a hard winter and a very late spring, the sun is warming the
00:33air as I speak, and the garden is bursting into life, and I do realise that I need to
00:38get on with some of these winter jobs, like pruning the buddleias, which normally I might
00:42have done a month or so ago, but the combination of snow and ice and wind and rain and maybe
00:48just a little bit of laziness has meant that I've got behind, so I'm cracking on with those.
00:55On tonight's programme, Carol celebrates the seasonal beauty of Camellias.
01:01They adorn the dank, dreary garden with these gorgeous, voluptuous, brilliant flowers.
01:08We meet a gardener who went on holiday and fell in love with a plant.
01:12If you walk out on a summer's morning and spot the Campanula's flowering, it really
01:17will put a smile on your face.
01:19And I shall be planting a spring flowering shrub in the orchard beds, as well as making
01:24a start on the new paradise garden.
01:46A few weeks ago, I covered this bed with fleece and I put some cloches on another bed to try
01:52and warm the soil up, and since then, we've had about 18 inches of snow, we've had really
01:57cold winds, and it's important to try and keep the soil a little bit warm if you want
02:02to get going and planting and sowing now.
02:13Now the fleece obviously lets moisture through, but it is very effective at just helping warm
02:20up what would otherwise be quite claggy soil.
02:24And these raised beds are much better for drainage and warming up than the other beds.
02:31These will be ready ten days, even two weeks earlier than a normal bed.
02:35And if you just feel the soil, and it feels cold to your fingers, then it is too cold
02:42to sow or plant, and that's a really good rule of thumb.
02:45However, that is fine, and I'm going to put some rocket in here.
02:49Now I have a confession to make to you.
02:51I have prepared some rocket that I sowed in January.
02:57We then had all that bad weather, they sat in their plugs too long, and the result is
03:02that these have bolted.
03:03So that's a pity.
03:04But I'm not going to throw this away.
03:06I will plant a couple of rows, and I'm also going to sow some landcress, which is a half-way
03:12house between watercress and rocket.
03:16I know I've said this lots of times, but if you're new to raised beds, the first, second,
03:22and third rule you must follow is do not stand on them, ever, because the whole point about
03:28a raised bed is that you don't have to dig it, and it doesn't compact.
03:32So use a board, and we will plant these out.
03:39And you can see I've used a plastic plug tray, which is broken.
03:46So I will chuck it away, and not buy another to replace it.
03:52I'll use an alternative.
03:55And I'm planting these about six inches apart.
04:02There might be a slight temptation to ditch these, because there's no way back once things
04:12start to go to seed.
04:14However, with rocket, it is worth keeping them, because although the leaves are smaller,
04:20and they're not so subtle in their taste, they're still good.
04:24They're still very edible, and will take a lot of re-picking if you grow them as decent-sized
04:32plants.
04:33But I'm not going to plant them all out by any means.
04:36Just one more row, and then we will sow some seeds.
04:48Now what I can do with these is just nip out the leading shoot.
04:55So if I cut that back, and take that back, I'm cutting the main stem right down to the
05:02bottom rosette of leaves.
05:04This won't stop the process of going to seed, but it will delay it, and put more energy
05:10into the foliage.
05:15I am going to sow more rocket.
05:17I've also got landcress.
05:19Now I've grown landcress for years, but I don't think many people do.
05:23It's sometimes known as American cress.
05:26It's got that distinctive peppery taste, it belongs to the brassica family.
05:30And as well as tasting good, it's one of the few plants that will germinate in cool soil,
05:36and likes fairly cool, moist weather.
05:40Ideal for March, April, and into May, and then you don't grow it again until the autumn.
05:47The seeds of all these plants look very similar.
05:49They have a distinctive round shape that you get in the brassica family.
05:54I'm just going to flip that over, and that will give me the spacing, and just run a drill
06:02along, and down that side, and as with all seed sowing, nice and thin.
06:11There we go.
06:15These will germinate quite fast, and will be ready to eat in about five weeks' time.
06:27Just cover up the seeds by running my fingers down either side of each drill, and obviously
06:36label them.
06:39And the other rocket, which I'll plant out in about two or three weeks' time, will come
06:45through, and then I'll sow some more rocket indoors, and we'll just keep that succession
06:50going.
06:51And if you can plan ahead, and organize your salad crops so that you always have some ready
06:59to harvest, and some coming through, there's no reason why you can't pick some salad leaves
07:05365 days of the year.
07:09Give them a good soak, and keep them well watered.
07:12It will respond to drying out, as rocket does, by going to seed.
07:22I started growing vegetables very young.
07:24In fact, it was my entry into gardening, and in many ways has remained my first love.
07:28But looking back, I realized I was incredibly lucky to have both the encouragement and the
07:33space.
07:35And when I got older, and bought my own house, there was a garden, and I could grow things.
07:40But increasingly, that is becoming very tricky, particularly for younger people.
07:45And Frances found herself in precisely that position.
07:48A desire to garden, great knowledge, but nowhere to grow veg.
07:53Well, she's come up with a solution.
08:00Allotments.
08:01A simple patch of earth with endless possibilities.
08:05We Brits have a long history of growing our own, from the prize-winning vegetables to
08:09the odd mistake.
08:12From a young age, I have fond memories of helping my mum on her allotment, and I've
08:16always wanted to take on one of my own.
08:18But it hasn't been so easy.
08:20In fact, it's been five years now, and like many people up and down the country, I'm still
08:25waiting.
08:26But today, that's all going to change.
08:33Over the course of the year, I'm going to become part of this allotment community in
08:36Bristol and discover the highs and lows of growing your own fruit and veg.
08:43I'm meeting fellow allotment newbie, Luke Murray, who's agreed to let me share his rather
08:47challenging plot.
08:48Hi Luke.
08:49Hi Frances, how are you doing?
08:53Really well, thanks.
08:54Love the allotment.
08:55Thank you.
08:56It's getting there.
08:57In return for my help, I get a section to call my own.
09:01So you've had it for a few months.
09:03What was it like when you first got here?
09:05So it's totally overgrown.
09:06I had brambles all over here.
09:09I've found a couple of raised beds at the back, which was great, but again, I had to
09:12clear that.
09:13That was all grass all the way up to a bit of a jungle, really.
09:16Sounds like I left you with all the really hard work, and I've just come along when it's
09:21all ready to grow things in.
09:22There's going to be plenty of hard work, don't worry.
09:24We're on a huge hill.
09:25Anything getting up here is hard work.
09:27That's very true.
09:28Were there lots of plants here then already?
09:30Yeah, it was pretty good, actually.
09:31I was quite surprised.
09:33I've got a couple of currant bushes.
09:34I might get you to help me identify them at some point.
09:36I know they're currants, but that's about it.
09:38Cool, that's good.
09:39I love any soft fruit.
09:40That's good.
09:41And I've got what I think is possibly a plum tree.
09:44It could be a cherry or a plum, prunus of some kind.
09:47And yeah, and some of these I've kind of found.
09:49Herbs and strawberries.
09:50Yeah, nice.
09:51There's a lot of kind of ifs and buts and maybes at the moment, but I think once they've
09:54got leaves on them, hopefully together we'll have a bit of a better idea of what's going
09:57on.
09:58Definitely.
09:59Do you have a plan in terms of planting and areas for certain things?
10:01I want lots of perennials, so it's kind of having the soft fruit bushes and the trees
10:06and building a space that is, once we've kind of got that hard work in, we can kind of just
10:10each year just come in and trim in and kind of keep it on top of.
10:14So it's not, you know, it's not an absolute kind of market garden kind of thing and impossible
10:18to maintain.
10:19But then also having some annual beds that are a bit experimental and kind of just putting
10:23stuff in and hoping as much of it survives as possible and figuring out what works with
10:27the soil, really.
10:28That makes sense.
10:29And you have a space that you don't mind me being let loose on.
10:33So this amazing sea of black plastic is, I think, what we're going to go for.
10:39Absolutely no idea what's underneath.
10:40I haven't lifted it yet.
10:41I'm kind of, I'm excited to find out.
10:43Could be all sorts.
10:44Shall we lift it?
10:45I think that sounds like a plan.
10:46Let's do it.
10:47I'm nervous.
10:48Oh, wow.
10:49Look at that.
10:50That's really good, isn't it?
10:51It's a bit of a result.
10:52You have things like bindweed.
10:53If it was going to be a no-dig perennial veg bed, definitely get that out now.
11:01Having said that, if this is an annual bed, you will be digging it up or pulling things
11:12up every year.
11:13OK, great.
11:14There's quite a mix of things in here, isn't there?
11:22Yeah.
11:23But if you look in here, it's a mixture of strawberries and your sink foil.
11:30I've not come across that before.
11:31What is it?
11:32It's a potentilla.
11:33So it's very closely related to strawberries.
11:34And you can see the slightly different leaves.
11:35But we're going to have to be careful when we weed this not to dig up and kill the strawberries
11:42whilst we do it.
11:43All right, we're going to need a fork to really get this proper.
11:55And there we go.
11:57Tiny weed on top.
11:58All of that root.
12:01With annual weeds, the golden rule really is never let them go to seed.
12:05If they go to seed, you'll have weeds year after year.
12:08A really good way of telling what kind of soil you have, whether it's sandy, silty,
12:13or clayy, is just by rolling it around.
12:15If you can roll it into a sausage like that, then it's a silt or a clay.
12:21If you can't roll it, then you have a sandy soil.
12:24And if, once you've made that sausage, you can turn the two ends so that they meet without
12:29cracking, then it's definitely a clay that you have.
12:32And that's what we have here, a really heavy clay.
12:35It's always a good idea to check your soil.
12:37So I'm going to use a soil pH testing kit.
12:40It's simple.
12:41Add soil and water to the powder in the tube, put the cap on, and shake it thoroughly.
12:49Allow the soil to settle.
12:51When it's done, compare the colour to the pH chart.
12:54Well, I've waited a couple of minutes, and that is a really good result.
12:58Green means neutral.
12:59And in terms of what you can grow, that really gives maximum opportunity.
13:02So I'm pleased about that.
13:05One of the really great things about allotments is the people around you that have worked
13:08here for ages.
13:09And there's so much history here.
13:10So I want to find somebody to get some extra advice before I really begin on this plot.
13:16Maggie Moss oversees these allotments as well as looking after her own.
13:20So she is the perfect person to speak to to get a lay of the land.
13:25What kind of things work well here?
13:28What kind of things don't work so well?
13:29Things that are really good, beans, any kind of beans, courgette, squash, soft fruit, potatoes
13:36do well, leeks, onions, they're all good.
13:39So there's a big variety, really.
13:41Yes, definitely.
13:42Are there any big things to avoid or things I should make note of?
13:45Well, I think the key thing is that this site is really heavy clay, but it's very fertile.
13:53Keep off the soil if you can, because if it's really heavy, you compact it.
13:58So don't stand on the soil.
14:00Add as much compost, as much extra material as you can.
14:05You know, you really want to be getting the soil loosened, so you want to be adding.
14:11Just keep on top of it.
14:13I think I have my work cut out, but thank you very much, Maggie.
14:15Good, nice to meet you.
14:16Yeah, you too.
14:19What's so exciting about this allotment space is that you can rent a section of their communal
14:23polytunnel.
14:26So nice having a space like this, because it means that even with all the cold weather
14:30we've been having, I can make a start and actually grow some plants.
14:34So I have some seeds, and I can bring them all on in here, which means it'll be nice
14:38and warm.
14:39So I think no allotment is complete without some tomatoes and some chard, just for its
14:45aesthetic, but also its taste.
14:47I love chard.
14:48And I also have some rather interesting, a cross between a brussel sprout and a kale,
14:51which means the leaves and the sprouts are edible.
14:55So there's quite a nice mix here.
14:57Hopefully Luke and I can find a good place to put them.
15:07Well, it's been a really good day, but quite a hard day, and seeing the plot I have, it's
15:12going to be a hard work plot to maintain, but that's good.
15:16And seeing all the people around that they do it every year, it's really quite humbling.
15:20I'm just looking forward to the weather getting a bit warmer, so I can actually begin to get
15:23some plants in, which is when it gets very exciting.
15:27We will be paying repeated visits to Frances on her allotment to see how it progresses,
15:41and I have to say, I think that seeing such energy and enthusiasm of people showing allotment
15:47is absolutely fantastic.
15:58I made this bed from grass a couple of years ago, and it is obviously a huge space to fill
16:08with plants.
16:09The trees give it height and structure, but if I just had herbaceous perennials and bulbs,
16:14it would be terribly flat.
16:17And the way to fill that big space between knee and head height is by using shrubs.
16:25I've already planted quite a few shrubs, there are a lot of roses, hazels, I've got
16:30mahonias, I've got a viburnum, plicata marisii, but I've got another plant which I'm adding
16:36in today.
16:37And this is another viburnum, but it's a different type, it's viburnum opulus rosea.
16:43And this is the gelder rose, a great snowball of white flower that will appear at the end
16:50of May.
16:51It's sterile, so it won't have any berries, but it has really good autumn colour.
17:04You can see it's a bit of a tangle of branches, but never prune this when you plant it.
17:10The time to prune a gelder rose is immediately after flowering.
17:15So end of June, early July, you can cut it back, but the beauty of this viburnum is it's
17:20very adaptable to soil types.
17:22Now you can see that's a very nice plant, just break that up a bit to stimulate the
17:28roots.
17:29Now I'm going to add some mycorrhizal powder, and the idea with the mycorrhizal powder is
17:36just to sprinkle it directly onto the roots and onto the bottom of the hole, because you
17:43need to make contact.
17:45And the powder is merely a medium for carrying a fungus.
17:49Now it feeds off the sugars of the roots of the plant and acts as a conduit to feed moisture
17:56and nutrients from the soil into the plant.
17:59So it's a symbiotic relationship.
18:01And what that means is that a plant like a shrub, a woody plant, will get established
18:07much quicker.
18:16When you're choosing a shrub, you really have to think about what it would like for
18:23its growing environment.
18:25You want plants that are really happy to be there, that like the soil, like the amount
18:30of light or shade, and therefore thrive.
18:33And most gardens, even very small ones, have enough variety of position, be it an east
18:39wall or a west one, or a slightly damper bit, or one that's more sheltered, to have a really
18:44good variety of plants.
18:45You don't need to try and grow plants that don't want to grow in your garden.
19:00Don't hold back on watering.
19:02Give it a really good soak and don't let it dry out for the first year either.
19:06If you have a very hot dry period, give it a soak once a week.
19:09I will have to wait at least a month before my viburnum begins to flower.
19:14Although, of course, right now, one of the flowering shrubs that is at its very best
19:20is the camellia.
19:21And Carol is celebrating the camellia and seeing it in all its glory.
19:34As winter gradually ebbs away and we sense the first gentle murmurings of spring, there's
19:42one plant that announces with a clarion call, the new season's here.
19:48With its glossy foliage and its big voluptuous flowers, it's the camellia.
19:59It originates in Asia, and thousands of years ago, the Chinese discovered that the dried,
20:06stewed leaves of the plant camellia sinensis created a delicious hot beverage.
20:12Of course, I'm talking about tea.
20:15But camellias aren't all about tea.
20:18In the early years of the 20th century, great plant hunters like Ernest Wilson and George
20:25Forrest brought the camellia to our attention as an ornamental plant.
20:30And today, they're one of our favourite shrubs.
20:37When camellias were first grown in Britain, they were definitely the preserve of the rich.
20:49They'd all be grown in glasshouses because people believed that these exotic, gorgeous
20:55blooms needed protection.
20:58And it wasn't until glasshouses began to become dilapidated during the war that these
21:04plants were exposed to the elements.
21:07They didn't die.
21:08They lived.
21:09They thrived.
21:10And people began to realise that they were a lot hardier than they'd originally thought.
21:15And it was at this point that camellias began to pass into general cultivation.
21:21And us gardeners realised that we too could have camellias in our gardens.
21:28There are more than 250 different species of camellia.
21:32But it's the hybrids that are amongst the most common in gardens up and down the country.
21:38None more so than Donation, a pink semi-double.
21:42It's an easy plant to grow.
21:44It's one of my favourites.
21:46Lots of us have got it in our gardens.
21:48No wonder.
21:49It's prolific.
21:50It's dependable.
21:52It's prolific.
21:53It's dependable.
21:54And each of these flowers is truly beautiful.
22:06There are all sorts of different flower forms in the camellia family.
22:10Personally, I love the single ones.
22:13They have a simple grace and elegance.
22:16And I find them much easier to incorporate into a garden setting.
22:21This one's Adelina pati.
22:23She's absolutely adorable.
22:25Very simple coral flowers with a white edge.
22:28And you can always see that central boss of stamens.
22:33Once you've got a camellia in your garden, you'll undoubtedly want to make more.
22:38And it's really straightforward to do.
22:41You can just take cuttings.
22:43Here's a nice shoot.
22:45Lovely new wood, all made during the last year.
22:48And you can just cut it off.
22:50And you can just cut it off.
22:52And you can just cut it off.
22:54And you can just cut it off.
22:56And you can just cut it off.
22:58And you can just cut it off.
23:00And they're all made during the last year.
23:03And you can tell that because it's quite bright in colour.
23:06It's almost reddish in comparison to the old wood.
23:09Which is already taken on a greyish tinge.
23:12And take a sharp pair of secateurs.
23:15And aim just where the old wood meets the new wood.
23:18Right above the leaf bud.
23:20So that you're not damaging the plant in any way.
23:23That one's ideal.
23:30Now I've got a pot full of lovely gritty compost.
23:45Each cutting is going to consist of a piece of stem and one leaf with a little leaf bud
23:51tucked in that axle and I'm cutting right in here, right across there.
23:57So that's my cutting.
24:00So I've got leaf bud, leaf and a piece of stem.
24:04You just want to make sure that the top of the stem and the leaf bud are resting on the
24:09surface of the compost.
24:11Now it's that leaf bud that will actually make the new shoot and the roots will be formed
24:16underneath the surface of there.
24:18So I'm going to take four or five more of these.
24:33When all your cuttings are in, just finish it off with a fine layer of grits.
24:38It'll retain the moisture, it'll make sure weeds don't grow and it will also protect
24:44the crown of your cuttings.
24:47And they're going to stay in there probably for several months and when you start to see
24:52roots protruding from the bottom of your pot, you know you can knock the whole thing out
24:57and pot them individually for new camellias.
25:27This camellia is called Inspiration and that's surely exactly what camellias do.
25:33They inspire.
25:34Although you can get camellias that flower at different times of the year, when the spring
25:40festival comes, they adorn the dank, dreary garden with these gorgeous, voluptuous, brilliant
25:48flowers.
26:03The one camellia that I can grow here is not yet in buds, so it's really nice to see such
26:09an extraordinary collection of them in full flower.
26:14Now camellias may not grow very well at Longmeadow, but nepeta grows almost too well.
26:20And this is a member of the mint family, so it's very vigorous anyway and will spread.
26:24And I've got a variety here called Six Hills Giant, which is exceptionally tall.
26:28And what happens in our rich soil is that it grows really tall and lush with lots of
26:33foliage and good flowers and then flops all over the place.
26:38So all the plants around it tend to get swamped.
26:41And like all herbaceous perennials, when you start to see healthy, vigorous new growth,
26:48it's the best time to move them, divide them, if that's what you want to do.
26:53If I just dig up a clump like this, and then I'm going to divide it.
27:02And the root system is really substantial.
27:04That's quite heavy.
27:07And the best way to divide that is to simply chop it.
27:13There we go.
27:14Now that section I'll put back.
27:17I can then fill around it, and that will very quickly fill up the space it had.
27:22And I've got another really good clump, which actually I can divide again to make two more.
27:27Now, this central section here, the most woody section, and you can see the woody roots there,
27:39is the oldest, and I can discard that.
27:42I can chuck that away.
27:44Whereas the outer bits on the outside part of the plant are the most vigorous, because
27:50like most herbaceous perennials, its inclination is to grow outwards.
27:55And in time, it leaves an empty centre like a doughnut.
27:59So that is a really healthy clump, which I can replant elsewhere.
28:08By and large, herbaceous plants are tough.
28:12So a little bit of digging up, breaking up, is not going to stop them.
28:17I think Nepeta would look really good underneath these three yellow roses.
28:31Now, to do that, I need to clear some of the forget-me-nots out of the way.
28:36So let's make space here.
28:39Whenever you transplant or divide a herbaceous perennial, do give it a good soak.
28:45Oh, there you go.
28:53Now, whilst Nepeta is certainly robust, if not a bit of a thug, not all the summer-flowering perennials are like that.
29:02Not all the summer-flowering perennials are like that.
29:05One of the more elegant and charming ones is Campanula.
29:09It comes in all shapes and sizes.
29:11And last summer, we went to visit the National Collection in Suffolk.
29:21I love Campanulas for their irresistible charm, their dainty looks, although they are tough.
29:28They're a tough breed.
29:32I love the blues, the purples, through to the white.
29:39I've just come to love them dearly.
29:43I first saw Campanulas when I was a student in Italy, and I regularly visited the Dolomite Mountains.
29:50And there are one or two endemic Campanulas to that part of the world.
29:55And I saw them in little crevices by the paths.
29:59They were just like little jewels.
30:01I realised then they must have been great doers and would be good plants to grow.
30:11When I decided to apply for a National Collection of Campanulas, I was squeezing them all into our cottage garden.
30:19And I realised that it wasn't going to be long before I needed more space.
30:25The walled garden here at Langham Hall needed a custodian.
30:29I came to see the then owners and asked them if I could come on the condition that the Campanulas came to.
30:37And luckily they agreed, and the rest is history.
30:44They love it in the walled garden. They get some protection from the walls.
30:47But also they love the open nature of it. Light all round, and they flourish here.
31:02With Campanula, there are hundreds of different varieties and species.
31:07But really you can divide them into two sections.
31:11We have the herbaceous Campanulas, which are more suitable for borders.
31:16So they tend to be taller, anything up to four or five feet.
31:21And then we have the alpines, which form my collection.
31:25They are low-growing. They have five petals and five stamens.
31:32Some are star-shaped flowers, but generally the flower is bell-shaped.
31:37Their common name is bellflower.
31:46This is Campanula rotundifolia, our native hair bell, or blue bell in Scotland.
31:52I love this because it's so versatile.
31:55It does grow as far north as the top of Norway into the sub-arctic.
32:00But it also will sit very happily on a scree bed like this.
32:05It sets seed, so you can easily grow it from fresh seed in July, or just let it sprinkle its seed around where it is.
32:14And it will reward you with many flowers all the way through the summer.
32:27Whilst this might look like a herbaceous Campanula, in fact it could be classed as an alpine,
32:32as it pales from the high scrubland areas of mountain regions.
32:37It's Campanula trachelium, the nettle leaf bellflower, or bats in the belfry.
32:42And I love it because it's such a good doer.
32:45It will grow in shade here under the tree, and it's good in those rough places, poor soil, sun or shade.
33:01This is Campanula stansfieldii, another one of my top picks.
33:06Suitable for containers because it just flowers all summer long.
33:11What I do with these is regularly deadhead, and when it looks like all the flowers are finished,
33:16cut it right down to the base.
33:18Liquid feed, always recommended to keep them going in containers.
33:22And it will spring back with fresh foliage and another flush of these pretty deep violet pixie hats in August and September.
33:36Everyone should have Campanulas in their garden, particularly the alpines,
33:41because they will fit into a little corner and shine out and give you so much pleasure.
33:46And if you walk out on a summer's morning and spot the Campanulas flowering, it really will put a smile on your face.
33:54I do love Campanulas.
33:56And actually, I think the ones that would be really exciting to grow are the alpine ones,
34:02which I could put in a container or even a stone trough.
34:05So I'm going to do that this year.
34:07Now I'm just adding, not Campanulas, but a few Euphorbias here to the jaw garden.
34:12This is Euphorbia sp.
34:14This is Euphorbia sp.
34:16This is Euphorbia sp.
34:18I'm just adding, not Campanulas, but a few Euphorbias here to the jaw garden.
34:22This is Euphorbia martini, and it does well for me.
34:26It's got a really good combination of this electric zingy green flower
34:32and then the burgundy, slightly pinkish colour to the stems and the foliage,
34:37which is perfect here for the jaw garden.
34:40This is sold in a coir pot, which is great, but there is a slight quandary about how best to treat this.
34:47Do you plant it still in the pot, because the roots do grow through, you can see that,
34:52or do you try and take it out of the pot, which will free the roots up,
34:56but will damage them to a certain extent?
34:58I think, having tried both over the years, that there is a halfway house that works best,
35:03which is to cut the pot before planting.
35:08If you get a knife and just cut down a bit, don't worry about damaging the roots,
35:13because actually all that will do is stimulate some regrowth.
35:26So that is going in the ground, pot and all.
35:30These will grow about three foot tall, with a spread of about the same,
35:34depending on the soil and the situation.
35:37That's good, I do like Euphorbias.
35:40Now, still to come, Adam visits a garden that is tropical and exotic, and in Dorset.
35:48But first, Nick helps us get to grips with those bits and pieces in our garden
35:52that we should have done by now really, and who knows, we've all got those,
35:55but will help us go into summer really well equipped and ready for anything.
36:01Spring
36:07With spring in full swing, us gardeners are getting ready for the year ahead.
36:11But a quick look into the potting shed can be a bit daunting.
36:15The old seeds, the mouldy bulbs, the blunt tools,
36:18but actually getting all your gear ready for the year ahead is much easier than you might think.
36:25Now, we're all guilty of shoving things in the glasshouse or the potting shed
36:30at the end of summer into winter and forgetting about them.
36:33One of the most common things is old packets of seeds.
36:36People often ask, are they still going to be viable after they've been sat in a glasshouse or shed?
36:41Well, the answer is a mixed bag.
36:43Things like sweetcorn, for example, doesn't have particularly long life,
36:47so after a year or two you won't get much germination at all.
36:50However, leafy veg, say like lettuce, is much more likely to germinate for up to about six years.
36:56And one of the best ways to keep the seeds really fresh
36:59is to put them into sealable plastic boxes in the fridge.
37:03But you don't want any moisture to build up in there,
37:05so you can just use these little packets of silica gel.
37:08You often find them in camera lens cases or binoculars,
37:10but you can buy them from a hardware store,
37:13and it will keep these seeds viable for up to about ten years.
37:17Now, another thing that lots of us tend to have hidden away in our garages and glasshouses
37:22is old containers like this that maybe had bedding plants in last year.
37:26You can do lots of stuff with this soil.
37:29You can add it to your compost heap, you can add it as a mulch to your beds,
37:33or you can actually clean it up, rejuvenate it, revive it and reuse it for this season.
37:39A word to the wise, though.
37:41What I'm talking about here is reviving your compost to use it again for general growing
37:46or for container growing of display plants.
37:48I would never use this for growing seed.
37:51There are various different products you can use.
37:54Organic forms like this fish blood and bone.
37:57And then something like this granular product is great
38:00because it will release the NPK nutrients, so that's nitrogen, potassium and phosphate.
38:05Some will release really quickly.
38:07Others will be in about three months' time, and then some will be in about six months.
38:11Now, one other thing to bear in mind, it's worth checking if you've got vine weevil larvae in there.
38:16If you suspect there may be problems, then just treat them with nematodes through the season
38:21like you would with the rest of the garden.
38:29You're going to need your lawnmower in its best condition.
38:33You're going to need your lawnmower in its best condition
38:35to help you cultivate and enjoy a beautiful trim carpet of grass later this year.
38:40Before carrying out any maintenance on your mower,
38:42make sure it's unplugged or the spark plug cap has been removed.
38:47After a season of hard work, mowers can look a little bit bashed around,
38:51so it's well worth getting the blade out and giving it a sharpen before the start of the season.
38:56Just use a basic spanner.
38:58And you can see there just how sad the blade is,
39:01so it's literally just bashing the grass rather than cutting it.
39:05The other thing to think about is the deck, particularly with a hover mower.
39:08It needs the air to circulate well underneath so it can do its job properly.
39:12So you can just use a trowel or a similar hand tool, scrape all of that rubbish away.
39:17It can go straight onto the compost heap,
39:19and the machine will be much more efficient going into the new season.
39:23Now, time to try and sort out this sad looking blade.
39:36Now there's a few things I need to do to get this blade back into a decent workable state.
39:41To start with, I'm just going to give it a brush off with a wire brush
39:44to get the worst of last year's debris out of it.
39:54Then it's simply a case of getting it into the vise, secured and ready for filing.
39:59Now, I'm just going to use an old steel file.
40:01You don't need anything fancy, and that will do the job.
40:03It'll take a little while, but it's well worth it.
40:11You can see there, even after just a few minutes,
40:14we're starting to cut back into that steel and give it a really good edge again.
40:18I'm going for about a 30 or 40 degree angle roughly on here.
40:22It will get bashed up during the season, but it's worth getting it right now.
40:32Something that's really worthwhile checking as you go is that the blade is balanced.
40:36If you've got a lot more material left on one side and you put it back into the mower,
40:40you'll find the mower will judder around. It's difficult to use.
40:43So a tip an old gardener showed me years ago is to find any small object like this,
40:47even a screwdriver will do,
40:49pop it into the middle and literally check it, see-saw-like, to see if there's a balance.
40:53Slightly lower on that side.
40:55So it just means I need to take a little bit of material off there to get it to balance.
41:03OK, final check. I think I'm happy with that.
41:07Back onto the mower.
41:12Now, if you're wondering when to make the first cut on your grass,
41:15it will give you a few clues.
41:17Over the winter, snow and rain and wind will have repressed it and pushed it down a bit.
41:22As it starts to respond to the sun and light,
41:25those blades will just lift up and say they're ready to be cut.
41:28The key thing is not to cut it as short as you ordinarily would on that first cut.
41:33So just come up a couple of notches from your normal spot.
41:36Now, it doesn't want to be super firm,
41:39because remember, you'll be taking it off again next year to keep it sharp.
41:43So with a clean-up and a sharpened blade,
41:46our mower is now ready to go for the season.
41:51Keeping garden tools sharp helps you with all your routine gardening tasks,
41:55as well as lengthening the life of your equipment.
41:59Back to the trusty vice.
42:02Try and bring this hoe back into shape.
42:04I'm completely obsessed with having them super, super sharp.
42:08It makes such a difference when you're weeding.
42:10It makes life so much easier.
42:12So I'm going to look at putting a decent edge back onto this.
42:17The sharper a hoe or a spade or any garden implement is,
42:21the easier it is for you to use.
42:23In other words, you need a lot less labour to push it through the soil.
42:26Now, I'm not quite going to manage to shave with this,
42:29but it's going to last a good couple of months before it needs another freshen-up.
42:37Well, that's all the hard work done.
42:39By investing just a few hours now,
42:41it'll make your gardening year so much easier.
42:59Well, having a good sort-out is both good for the garden and good for the soil.
43:02It makes you feel virtuous.
43:03And now is the time to do it, as it is to start any new big projects.
43:09Come in. Come on in.
43:17This is where my most ambitious project this year is going to happen.
43:23I used to have a greenhouse here.
43:25The greenhouse got dilapidated and would cost more to repair than replace,
43:29so it's gone.
43:30And this is now the opportunity to make a new garden.
43:33Last year, I travelled all over the world visiting paradise gardens,
43:37and it created a huge impression on me.
43:39So, in this space, I want to make my own version,
43:43or my own interpretation, of a paradise garden.
43:49I've just put this down on paper to scale.
43:53That's 1 to 100.
43:55So I have my four sunken beds, a certain amount of soil,
44:00so I have my four sunken beds, a circular water feature in the middle
44:04going into a square pond or tray,
44:07spilling down a rill or run right down the garden,
44:10and at the end, that far end there, a building.
44:13Now, that's the basis of the garden.
44:15Once you've worked out the ideas,
44:18there are certain techniques to getting them onto the ground
44:21as efficiently and as effectively as possible.
44:26Now, you will need a tape measure of some kind,
44:31a ball of string, the bigger the better,
44:34and some canes.
44:36What I do is, as garden canes break, I cut them off
44:39and I keep them for exactly this purpose.
44:41You can get a spray paint that you spray on the ground.
44:44The disadvantage of that is that if you want to change it at all,
44:47then you've got lines that you have to sort of dig out and erase.
44:51So if I just put that on there...
44:53Right, we're seven foot in this direction,
44:56or it should be this one here.
45:06It is important to get the canes in firmly
45:09because you're going to be pressurising them with string,
45:12so not too flimsy.
45:15This is slow and it's a fiddle,
45:18but it is really important,
45:20so don't feel pressurised to do this sort of thing quickly.
45:23I'm really slow at it.
45:25It's taken me ages to work the plan out, even though it's so simple.
45:28The whole of Longmeadow has been destroyed.
45:32It's been destroyed.
45:34It's been destroyed.
45:36It's been destroyed.
45:38It's been destroyed.
45:40It's been destroyed.
45:42The whole of Longmeadow has been laid out like this.
45:46For the last 25 years,
45:48I've been fiddling around with bits of string and cane and a tape measure
45:51and measuring wrong and tying it up wrong and trying again,
45:54but gradually you get there, and the system does work.
45:58Two foot, how about that? Spot on!
46:05Right, that may not look like anything other than some muddy ground
46:08with some sticks sticking out of it, but watch.
46:12All right.
46:14Here's the moment of truth.
46:16This is where...
46:19..hopefully...
46:22..what was an idea on a piece of paper
46:25starts to look like reality on the ground.
46:38Well, that's the first bed marked out.
46:40It's still a long way to go, but it's just a glimmer.
46:43But it doesn't matter where your inspiration comes from.
46:45You take it where you find it.
46:47Last summer, Adam went down to Dorset
46:49to visit a garden that was transformed
46:52by seeing a garden in Norwich.
47:00Wow! I've literally just come off a busy main road
47:03and this is no average front garden.
47:05I could well be in the tropics.
47:11The atmosphere in this garden is absolutely fantastic.
47:14You feel like you could be sort of moving through a jungle,
47:17and the planting's really dense but detailed sort of beautifully.
47:21And I'm looking around and there's plants that I recognise,
47:24but also there's so many in here that I don't.
47:27It just leaves me really wanting to find out more.
47:34The creator of this suburban paradise is Mike Clifford.
47:38It's a stunning garden, mate,
47:40but tell me where that sort of passion for exotics started.
47:44It started about 20 years ago
47:46from a gentleman called Will Giles in Norfolk
47:49who was on the TV and he had a tropical garden.
47:52And we didn't grow tropicals at all.
47:55We grew heathers and conifers.
47:57And we decided to rip the whole garden out and start afresh
48:02and start growing these exotic plants.
48:04So three years, but how did you actually go about designing it?
48:08Well, I actually designed it one wet Sunday afternoon on a piece of paper
48:12and I drew out the scale and I just tried to maximise the space.
48:16So the summer house is right in the corner,
48:19we've got a potting shed behind,
48:21all the borders interlinked so you can't see where you're going.
48:24I was just trying to make the best use of space.
48:27Yeah, because actually, though it's not a big garden,
48:30you can get lost at different points in the garden.
48:33I often get lost, yeah.
48:35My wife's always searching for me down the garden.
48:49It's got a bit of a colonial feel down here, hasn't it?
48:52It has, yeah.
48:54So this is our homage to Abbotsbury's subtropical tea rooms,
48:57so we tried to mimic that look.
49:00You strike me as actually someone that likes to collect.
49:04I do, I love collecting.
49:06I love collecting little curiosities, much as the plants,
49:09I like collecting plant-related curiosities as well.
49:20So in here I've got some of my favourite plants that I grow,
49:23my giant dandelions, Sontius.
49:26And seed heads, the same look?
49:28Exactly the same as a dandelion.
49:30I'm hoping these are going to flower this year.
49:32These are two years from seed.
49:34I love the fact that most people are trying to get rid of dandelions.
49:37You're collecting them.
49:39There's a tapioca plant through there with that beautiful snowflake leaf.
49:45It's a stunning plant.
49:47With this mix of cut leaves, I've got Scheffleras.
49:51Because I think that, as a designer,
49:53some of the plants I recognise, some I don't,
49:55but there's so much interest, even without flower, isn't there?
49:58Oh, absolutely, yeah.
50:00Where do you get all these seeds and plants from?
50:02At the end of October, November, I pack the garden away
50:04and then I spend the winter months searching for rare seeds,
50:08run a couple of groups on social media,
50:10and we all share seeds and plants and cuttings from all over the world.
50:14It's amazing.
50:15That's a fantastic sort of community, isn't it, honestly,
50:18being built out of just that same passion for plants.
50:21Absolutely.
50:22It is incredible, it really is.
50:25Yeah.
50:35This is an interesting plant.
50:37Brachyglottis repanda.
50:39Wow, that's a mouthful, mate.
50:40Absolutely.
50:41Can you guess what its common name's called?
50:43No, go on, what is it?
50:44Bushman's toilet paper.
50:46It is? Seriously, is that...?
50:47It's used as toilet paper in Australia, yeah.
50:50So you're telling me when you're stuck upstairs and you run out,
50:53you don't have to pick something?
50:54Just a few loose, yeah.
51:03Wow.
51:06This feels like you could be eating in here, doesn't it?
51:09This is my cold greenhouse.
51:10This is full up with ferns and sarracenia and venus fly traps.
51:15And fly traps.
51:16Full of flies as well.
51:18This is obviously a lot propagation goes on.
51:20Do you have an idea on how you go about it?
51:23Well, most of the stuff's seed grown, to be honest.
51:25A lot of them are seeds or cuttings.
51:27So do you have one mix or ten mixes for how you propagate your seeds?
51:31Most of the seeds I grow, the basic stuff,
51:34is all done in a general multi-purpose seed compost.
51:37I use a peat-based one with perlite.
51:40Wow, and then that literally then sow seed and then into heat?
51:43Yes, into heat.
51:44I've got several propagators I use,
51:46all different ones set at different temperatures.
51:49This begonia here is seed grown as well.
51:51This is one of the biggest begonias in the world.
51:53Hey, seriously, they look like they're on steroids, don't they?
51:56People are going to think this must cost a fortune,
51:59but in reality, you can do this on a budget.
52:01You could do this on a very tight budget, yes.
52:04Seeds are incredibly cheap
52:06and you could grow a good tropical border for £50 any year.
52:11You might be setting yourself a challenge there, pal.
52:13I think I might be, yeah, I think I might be.
52:20So this is my propagation area.
52:22Ah, you don't normally let people in here, do you?
52:24No, I don't let anyone in here.
52:26Can I have a look? Of course you can, yeah.
52:28Oh, wow, that's incredible.
52:31This is where I do all my begonia leaf cuttings and grow from seeds.
52:35So this is streptocarpus, yeah?
52:37That's a unifoliate streptocarpus donei, which has a red flower.
52:41It's quite unusual, very hard to find seed.
52:43So you knock these out and then just prick them all out?
52:46Prick them all out. And plant them on?
52:48Plant them out into single pots, that's what I've done last week.
52:51And off they go.
52:53I tell you what, I feel like a kid in a sweet shop, seriously.
52:56If I don't go home with a calf, I'm going to be upset, I tell you.
53:00It's brilliant, superb.
53:02You've been on an incredible journey with this garden
53:05and what are you going to do in the future?
53:07What are you going to do?
53:08We're opening up our garden again for the National Garden Scheme
53:11so I've already started to label most of the plants
53:13that we have around.
53:14So when people come to visit, they can see the plants,
53:17they can look them up, they can take pictures.
53:19It encourages them to want to do this sort of gardening,
53:22to want to do the exotics.
53:32You know, gardens never cease to amaze me
53:34and I think over the years I've learned to design them,
53:37build them and care for them.
53:39I feel a bit like a GP.
53:41I know a bit about, I suppose, a lot of stuff
53:43but you come somewhere like this and he's a specialist, you know,
53:46and he's been on this journey and learnt about exotics.
53:50To be honest with you, it's infectious
53:52and I think for me now, I'm going to go home,
53:54I'm going to look at the planting
53:56and maybe I am going to add just a few exotics.
54:12BIRDS CHIRP
54:18I knew Will Giles a little bit in Norwich,
54:21who provided the inspiration for that garden
54:23and it's great to see that Adam is inspired by him.
54:27This fabulous garden has been made
54:29and although he died a few years ago,
54:31the fact that his influence remains is really good.
54:34I don't know about the planting yet here.
54:36I've got some ideas but we'll come to that
54:38because there's quite a lot to do first.
54:40You can see we have four beds marked out in a square.
54:45They will be dug out and sunken.
54:47This will be a raised-up central area
54:50with a bowl in the middle which will have water bubbling out of it.
54:54It will overflow into a square retaining basin
54:57which in turn will overflow, run down into a rill.
55:01Now, a rill is a very, very narrow little canal.
55:05Run out here, this area is bricked,
55:08the rill running through the middle of it
55:10where we can sit and have seats and pots
55:13and here at the end with these tall bamboos is a building.
55:17And the rill will run into the building
55:19and there will be a little pool inside the building.
55:22Now, this means that we have a lot of work to do
55:25because apart from buildings and bricks and sunken beds,
55:29we've got to fit in water,
55:31a pump with electrics to get it flowing round
55:35and all that before I can begin planting.
55:38Now, this will take time,
55:41but it's something that I can do and share with you
55:44over the coming months.
55:46But here are some things that you can do this weekend.
55:57Now is a really good time to sow beetroot.
56:00You can sow them direct outside,
56:02but I like to sow them undercover in plugs or coir discs,
56:06sowing 2, 3 or even 4 seeds to each one.
56:10I don't thin them, grow them on and then plant them out as a group
56:14and this makes them easy to harvest
56:16and also it's a very efficient way to use seed.
56:24In many parts of the country, and particularly the warmer south,
56:27you can put out citrus that has been kept
56:30under cover all winter for protection.
56:33Raise the pots up on chocks and give them a really good soak.
56:38They will gradually harden off over the coming months,
56:42but if it does turn very cold,
56:44have some fleece to hand so you can wrap them up overnight.
56:53Many of us have cuttings like these verbena benariensis
56:56taken at the end of last summer.
56:59Now it's time to separate them and pot them on.
57:02Carefully divide the plants with as much root as possible
57:06and put them into a fresh, peat-free compost in their own container.
57:10Give them some protection, a soak
57:13and they'll rapidly grow into large plants
57:16that you can plant out into the garden.
57:23Perhaps it's inevitable that after a long winter
57:27and a very delayed cold spring,
57:29that all our thoughts are geared towards the future
57:32and certainly in the garden at this time of year,
57:34a lot of our work is planning and planting
57:37and pruning and shaping so that things look great in summer.
57:41And sometimes you can overlook what's under your nose.
57:44For example, there's a little flower here.
57:46This is a scilla, scilla bifolia, which never gets very big,
57:50but it is such a beautiful, intense blue.
57:54Even the daffodil is something to be treasured,
57:57because it'll be gone.
57:59So I think it's really important that sometimes
58:02we just stop and enjoy what we have in the garden for what it is.
58:08That's the end of today's programme,
58:10but of course I'll be back here at Longmeadow
58:12same time next week for another full-hour programme.
58:15So join me then. Bye-bye.
58:25.
58:26.