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00:00Hello, welcome to Gardener's World.
00:10This is Viburnum plicatum marisii, which is a bit of a mouthful, but, boy, is it a fantastic
00:18plant.
00:19It's a shrub, the Japanese snowball, comes from Japan and the Far East, and as well as
00:24having these beautiful blossoms, it has a very distinctive format because you can see
00:29that the branches form layers or tiers that carry all the flower on the top side of the
00:36branches.
00:37So, as well as being really strong and flower-filled, it has real elegance.
00:44It'll grow in light shade or grow in sun, and in most soils, it's a doer.
00:50And if that wasn't enough, in autumn, the foliage develops the richest colours.
00:56It goes from red, to plum, to purple, to almost chocolate.
01:03It's certainly the strongest colour in the whole garden in October and November.
01:08This is one of those plants that I would regard as indispensable.
01:12Now, underneath it is this pot, which had tulips in last year and has had nothing since.
01:17I couldn't quite decide what to put in it.
01:19Well, I have decided, and I'm going to fill it, but not here.
01:27There we go.
01:30You might have to move, Nige.
01:36Coming up on today's show, Mark Lane is exploring how to design with plants, and this week,
01:42he's sharing his tips on how best to create the perfect woodland garden.
01:47By following a few golden rules, you can create the woodland of your dreams.
01:54Frances is back at the allotment she's sharing in Bristol, and seeing how her salad crops
02:00and veg are faring.
02:03Allotment life does have its ups and downs, and here, we've had our first disaster.
02:08And I shall be doing the Chelsea chop.
02:13As well as explaining exactly what that means, I'll be trying different versions.
02:24Right, I'm ready.
02:38The reason I'm really keen to use this pot is because I want to plant climbers into here.
02:44The end of March, I sowed cobia scandens.
02:49This is a climber from the tropical areas of America, and it grows really strongly and
02:55flowers profusely with bluish, purplish, cup and saucer flowers from late summer, round
03:03about mid-July onwards, right into autumn, until the first frost.
03:07It's not hardy.
03:08It's a half-hardy annual, so once the frosts come, that's it.
03:11It's done its stuff.
03:12But it's quite vigorous.
03:14In fact, if you let it, it will grow up to 20 feet tall.
03:18It's really good against a sunny wall or fence.
03:21So I'm going to give it something to climb up.
03:25And this will tie in with the rest of the wigwams in the garden, and because the pot
03:30is big, it can take these bean sticks.
03:35There we go.
03:42OK, that's good and firm.
03:47Now, cobia is quite greedy.
03:51It does like a fairly rich soil, so all the more reason to add some goodness, and that
03:57applies really to any climber.
03:58They've got a lot of growing to do in a fairly short space of time.
04:03So I'll plant one for each of the supports.
04:08There we go.
04:15Now, I will tie those in until they reach about that height, and then they will twine
04:20quite happily unsupported.
04:23They will give me a really good display up at eye level in the mid-story and on above.
04:29But I want colour down around the base of the pot, and because this has got so much
04:33goodness in it and because it's quite big, I can cram this.
04:36I can absolutely pack it with colour.
04:39I'm starting with a good old ordinary petunia.
04:44These are a beautiful, rich colour.
04:47They will go flowering and flowering and flowering all summer long.
04:53This is a variety called Sophistica, but just find the colour you want and go with it.
05:03Right.
05:05On top of the petunias, I also love Bidens.
05:10And what I love about these Bidens is they're a whole range that have marmaladed caramel
05:17colours.
05:18These oranges touch with yellow, and it works so well here in the jewel garden, and particularly
05:23in relationship to the depth of colour of the petunias.
05:33I will make sure it's watered once a week, and if it's really hot, every other day,
05:39and give it a feed of liquid seaweed with its weekly watering, and that's all I have to do.
05:50There.
05:51That will look at its very best round about the middle to the end of August, but will
05:57keep looking good until the first frost.
06:01Now, earlier this year, we started our hunt for really exciting, creative, small gardens.
06:09Under the competition, every space counts.
06:12We asked you to send in pictures of your garden, with the only proviso being that it must be
06:17no more than six metres by six metres.
06:19Now, of course, we had hundreds, and we've whittled those down to a short list of just
06:24five finalists.
06:26We've shown you the first four over the last month, so now it's time to see the fifth and
06:32final one.
06:41I'm Zoe.
06:42I live just off Brighton Seafront.
06:44It's normally sunny, but unfortunately, not so much today.
06:48The garden itself was created in the spring of 2016.
06:53To be honest, it got worse before it got better.
06:55At one point, this garden was looking like a dump.
06:58It was during the flat refurb, and it was just full of rubble bags and a cement mixer,
07:04and you name it, it was in this garden.
07:06And I remember thinking to myself, how on earth is this ever going to look like a garden?
07:13Well, the shape of the garden, being sort of long and thin, so it's sort of just over
07:17eight metres long and just over two metres wide, with the ridiculously high walls, just
07:22lent itself to being an extra room in the flat.
07:28The inspiration comes probably from salvage yards.
07:30I absolutely love salvage yards, antique shops.
07:33You can either find things and put them straight onto the wall, or you can find things, fiddle
07:39about with them yourself and make them into something even more beautiful to go on the
07:42wall.
07:44Now that the garden's finished, there are still challenges, definitely, one of them
07:48being watering.
07:49There are so many pots everywhere and hanging baskets and wall baskets, you name it, and
07:55it can take an entire evening to water these sometimes.
08:01This year's the first time I've tried growing anything from seed.
08:03It's some sunflowers.
08:05There's three of them.
08:06They're about this big.
08:08But they're growing well, I'm hoping.
08:10But they're growing well, I'm hoping.
08:12So, yeah, fingers crossed on that one.
08:14As far as cuttings go, I haven't yet, but that's definitely something for next year
08:19when I'm feeling more confident as a gardener.
08:23I remember when I first came up with the crazy idea of building a fake fireplace in a garden,
08:28there were some raised eyebrows around the kitchen table.
08:31But actually now it's all done, I'm really pleased with it.
08:35I've, you know, made the mosaic tile behind it using some smashed up old tiles that were
08:40left over from the flat refurb and I think it really works.
08:45I love aces.
08:46I just think they're so beautiful and so delicate.
08:50I've got four varieties growing in the garden and I absolutely love them.
08:54I also love petunias.
08:56I think they're stunning when they come into full bloom.
08:58Obviously not quite in full bloom yet, but I have planted some red and orange ones in
09:03the fire pit and also some blues and purple petunias in the fountain at the end of the garden
09:09just to give the illusion of water cascading out of the waterfall.
09:14This garden's really special to me because up until a couple of years ago I could barely
09:18keep a house plant alive.
09:20And having created this now, it just brings me such joy to come and be in the garden
09:25and have friends over and spend time in the garden.
09:28And I'm really proud of it.
09:34COW MOOS
09:40Now that you've seen all five of our finalists, it's your chance to vote which one you think
09:47most successfully makes every space count.
09:50And I'll be telling you how you can do that next week.
09:54Poor old box has had a tough time of it over the last decade.
09:59Box blight has ripped through the country, certainly ripped through this garden.
10:04Sometimes I feel as though boxus is a plant that we used to grow in our gardens
10:10and its days are gone.
10:12But it has been so important, so important to me,
10:15that I've decided to give it a go.
10:17Box used to grow in our gardens and its days are gone.
10:21But it has been so important, so influential in gardens from the 17th century
10:27right up to the 21st century.
10:29If you wanted any kind of formality in a garden, box was the first plant you turned to.
10:34This is a variety called Hansworthiensis.
10:38These are all taken from cuttings from one set of plants I got about 26 years ago.
10:44And its great virtue is it has very large leaves, it's got a very upright growth
10:50and it seems to be, if not resistant to blight, it recovers from it.
10:55I didn't clip them for a couple of years because blight tends to attack through wounds
11:00and obviously clipping creates a series of wounds.
11:03Tomorrow is Derby Day and that's a traditional day when you clip box.
11:07The key thing I'd say to you is watch the weather.
11:10It's been very variable over the last few days here.
11:13The weather forecast is no rain for three or four days and that's the time to clip.
11:17Now when you're clipping any box, first of all use something sharp so the wounds are clean
11:22because otherwise it rips them and then the wounds are much more likely to get infected.
11:27And when you're cutting, this is a pyramid that I want to shape, just follow a plane up.
11:33So kip away like that.
11:38I'm not cutting too hard.
11:41Now if it's too hard to cut, don't force it, use a pair of secateurs.
11:49The reason why I've got a bucket of water with me is every five minutes or so,
11:53just dip the blades in water and that will lubricate them and stop them sticking up
11:59because the box, and it's the same with you, has a kind of stickiness to it which makes clipping harder.
12:08Now obviously if you are clipping evergreen shrubs like box or yew or holly,
12:15that's great for a formal style of gardening, that's the key to it.
12:19But there are lots of ways of making a beautiful garden,
12:21be it a Mediterranean garden, a dry garden, a cottage garden.
12:24And this week, Mark Lane gives his tips on how to make a really beautiful woodland garden.
12:32As a garden designer, there are some archetypal garden styles that I return to
12:38over and over again for inspiration, and you can do the same.
12:46Today I'm at Fuller's Mill in Suffolk, home to a wonderful example of a woodland garden.
12:52Sun-dappled glades combine with luscious beds and borders,
12:57and the whole feeling is relaxed and completely enchanting.
13:08The gardens were created by Bernard Tickner, who died last year aged 93.
13:14During his lifetime, he transformed an area with poor sandy soil
13:18into this tranquil woodland wonderland.
13:23Now the seven acres are in the safe hands and green fingers of head gardener Annie Dalbridge.
13:31Can you tell me a little bit more about Bernard?
13:33Bernard was in the brewing industry, horticultural workers,
13:36and he was very passionate about his work.
13:39Can you tell me a little bit more about Bernard?
13:41Bernard was in the brewing industry, horticulture wasn't his first thing at all.
13:46He came here to the house and it was a tiny, tiny garden,
13:49and over time he acquired more and more land from the Forestry Commission, made it into a garden.
13:53He was self-taught, and really the more he learnt, the more he wanted to do.
13:57That's incredible. How did Bernard go about designing the garden?
14:01Well, he never actually designed as such as we understand design.
14:05He acquired trees, shrubs, sometimes from friends, and he put them in the best spot for that tree.
14:10So it was right plant, right place every time.
14:13And then obviously, being a woodland, lots of trees, lots of canopies,
14:17are there any limitations from a gardening point of view?
14:21No, there's only challenges.
14:23You sometimes find things you don't expect to find in a woodland garden.
14:26We've got the silver leaves, the lavenders, the iliagnis, the artemesias,
14:31and we've got alliums, great big swathes of them as well.
14:34Again, a plant that you associate with big sunny areas, but they're quite happy in the shade as well.
14:40Woodland gardens are prone to dry soil, and then of course you've got the shade to contend with.
14:46But don't let that put you off.
14:49By following a few golden rules, you can create the woodland of your dreams.
14:57This is all about building layers.
15:00I see it as a theatre.
15:03The trees provide the upper circle with light and shade.
15:08And then we come down to the mid-layer, and this is where the smaller trees come in really handy.
15:14They create silhouettes and shadows that just dance and bounce off each other.
15:19So there's a form of mystery within the woodland.
15:24And then we have the understory and the ground cover.
15:28And then these wonderful jewels of colour that just pop up and come and go before the canopies get too dark.
15:35So we have the bluebells, we have the anemones, and we have the poppies.
15:40They're a delight to see.
15:44Forget straight lines and go with the flow.
15:47Most woodland plants self-seed, so avoid organised lines and opt for more random spacing.
15:55And how is this for simplicity at its best?
15:59Just two varieties of comfrey, a deeper blue one and a white one.
16:04And they're just flowing seamlessly through this space.
16:08It's absolutely beautiful, and it's alive with bees.
16:15From a postage stamp to a stately pile, plants are the key to a fantastic design.
16:22And they can work on any scale and any budget.
16:27Here's my guide to the VIPs, the very important plants to kick-start your own wooden-style garden.
16:40First up, you're looking for height.
16:43You could go for a fruit tree, but don't be afraid to try something like Acer or an ornamental cherry.
16:50Lots of trees come in smaller sizes and create the canopy and dappled shade effect of a woodland.
16:59And next up, we're building up those mid-layers.
17:02Now, of course, we could go for a beautiful fern, but why not go for something slightly different
17:08and go for Telema grandiflora or fringe cup.
17:12I love this one because it's a froth of flowers.
17:17And if you look closely, they're like tiny dangling bells and still look great, even after they've gone to seed.
17:25And finally, we're down to the ground cover.
17:28Why not go for this swathe of pink Dicentra, which will just come out at this time of year, and then continue the theme.
17:38Asarum europaeum offers lovely ground cover with its shiny leaves,
17:44which will sparkle in the summer rain.
17:49These few plants will give you that instant woodland effect.
18:07Woodland gardens are my own personal favourite.
18:10And here at Longmeadow, the Copse gives me more pleasure than any other area, I think,
18:15but particularly in spring, from mid-February through to the end of June.
18:21And now, as we just enter into June, it's still holding on to that lovely luscious green you get,
18:29the light spangling through the leaves and then the cow parsley still flowering on the fringes
18:37and touches of late bluebells.
18:40But above all, it's a feeling. It's this green shade you get everywhere.
18:58A lot of us use these things.
19:00They're made of plastic, but sooner or later, they will become unusable, so you throw them away.
19:06And up till now, I've always ordered more.
19:09But I'm really trying not to buy new plastic if there is a viable alternative.
19:14And that's soil blocks.
19:16Now, what soil blocks are, essentially, is you make the inside of a plug without any wrapping whatsoever.
19:23Therefore, no plastic.
19:25And to make the blocks, you need to buy the soil blockers.
19:31That's the sort of standard, average one, and you can see it pushes out.
19:36They're simply a stamp with a nipple on the end which creates a hole to put the seed in.
19:41That's the basic component. And they get bigger.
19:44There's a very useful size, which is this one here, which is what I'm going to use today.
19:48The place to get them is online. Just put in soil blockers and you'll find various suppliers.
19:53Now, you need to mix the mixture in a flat-bottomed container of some kind.
19:59And I'm going to use this truck.
20:01The first thing you absolutely must have when you're making soil blocks is something to bind it together.
20:07It's four parts of coir to one part of each of these.
20:13This is loam from the garden.
20:15Really important to add bacteria to the mix, but also because it helps bind it.
20:20This is sieved leaf mould.
20:23You need some garden compost. That gives it nutrition.
20:26And then you need either vermiculite or perlite.
20:31Recipes vary. I'm not saying it's perfect.
20:34It's just what works for me.
20:36And mix it up just like you would a cake mix or a dough.
20:43Now, the next magic ingredient, which is water.
20:47You want to make this much wetter than you think you do.
20:50Essentially, you're making mud.
21:00Now, I think by luck I may have got it about right.
21:03You can see that that is actually quite wet.
21:06It's certainly not too wet.
21:08And if I squeeze it, water should run out.
21:13Yeah, it does.
21:15It is distinctly wet.
21:17So first of all, I put it into a bucket of water...
21:23..which stops it sticking.
21:25Push it into the mix.
21:27Give it a little twist.
21:29Squidge it.
21:31And go into this.
21:34And hope it comes out successfully.
21:40Not too bad.
21:42Put a little bit of water to clean it off.
21:47Give it a little twist.
21:51Into the tray.
21:58There you go.
21:59But you can see there's an element of trial and error about it,
22:02but it hasn't worked too badly.
22:04And there are little divots in which to put the seed.
22:08And as this dries out...
22:11..they will come apart slightly
22:13and they'll be very easy to take out.
22:16And the important thing is that the consistency that they will hold together
22:20but not become solid concrete lumps.
22:23How about that?
22:25Now let's sow some seed.
22:27I'm going to sow parsley.
22:29Parsley is one of those crops that you need to sow successively
22:33to have a constant supply.
22:35So what I do is make three sowings a year.
22:38OK.
22:40You can put them into anything as long as it's got drainage holes.
22:43You don't want them to be sitting in a puddle.
22:46And one of the great advantages of them is because they're open,
22:49they're air-pruned, and that makes a really good compact root ball.
22:54These do transplant incredibly well.
22:57Now, Frances has wanted to grow vegetables for a long time
23:02but never had the opportunity because she didn't have anywhere to do it.
23:05And this year she's managed to share an allotment in Bristol.
23:10And this week she goes back to see how it's faring
23:14as spring has progressed through every kind of weather.
23:27Ready? One, two, three.
23:29Allotment newbie Luke Murray is kindly letting me share part of his allotment
23:33for helping him get the plot in shape.
23:35And I can't believe its transformation since I first came here in March.
23:41Luke has been really busy continuing building the raised beds
23:43and other bits around the allotment.
23:45And I've been planting up my four raised beds
23:47with things I've been growing in the polytunnels.
23:49So I'm really pleased generally with how the allotment's progressing.
23:53But allotment life does have its ups and downs.
23:56And here we've had our first disaster.
23:59Slugs!
24:01These slippery customers had a good feasting,
24:04decimating our salad crop.
24:07The slugs started appearing in the eating room
24:09so I had to channel my kind of inner Jean-Claude Van Damme
24:12and kind of came up here, head torch, kind of off an L in hand
24:15and was like, right, I'm going to win this battle.
24:17And I'm not.
24:19No, I mean, night time attacks are pretty good
24:21because that's when they're most active.
24:23But, yeah, we need to work out what we're going to do
24:25to actually protect our crop.
24:27Let's do this properly, is that what you're saying, yeah?
24:29If you have an integrated approach where you're kind of
24:31preventing the slugs from coming,
24:33but then also having controls down that if they do come,
24:36hopefully things will be less damaged.
24:38OK.
24:39You can use physical barriers as one way of stopping them
24:42from getting to the plants, or you can use kind of chemicals,
24:44you know, pellets and stuff.
24:46I'm really anti putting any chemicals into my soil
24:49and kind of the surrounding areas,
24:51so I'm getting my housemates collecting eggshells
24:53like there's no tomorrow, so I'm going to try and put those down
24:56to give a bit of kind of roughage to stop the slugs coming on there.
24:59I've kind of looked into beer straps a little bit,
25:02but I'm just totally open for ideas that you've got, really,
25:04that you can bring to the party.
25:06Well, I agree with you about that, the chemicals.
25:08I mean, pellets and stuff, they work well,
25:10but I personally don't really ever use them.
25:12I think if we have a little experiment
25:14and see maybe what works better than other things,
25:17and by the end of the year we'll know what to do next year.
25:20Yeah, exactly.
25:22But, yeah, I feel like there might be a little competition
25:24within this... Oh, potentially.
25:26..to see who can keep the most slugs at bay.
25:28You have that end. Yeah, yeah.
25:30I'll stop there. Oh, yeah. Brilliant. Cheers.
25:33Slugs are such a pain.
25:35There's not that much you can do to actually get rid of them.
25:38So the best way of dealing with them
25:40is all different approaches combined together
25:42just to put them off and make the problem as minimal as you can.
25:46What I'm going to use is something I've used before on things like dahlias,
25:49and it's sheep's wool pellets.
25:51A thin layer on the soil is all you need.
25:53It's just the feeling of the wool on their stomachs.
25:56They don't like it and they won't cross it.
25:58And once it's watered, that will expand.
26:01And the nice thing about using something like this
26:03is that it will break down and actually feed the compost
26:06for future years as well, which is always a nice bonus.
26:10So we'll have to wait and see how our slug defence is fair.
26:14But things are looking much more positive in the communal polytunnel.
26:18Last time I was here, it was quite bare and the plants weren't really doing anything,
26:21but what a difference a month makes.
26:23It's so lush and there's always people here kind of swapping plants and stuff.
26:27It's really nice.
26:30With the winter months behind us, it's now peak time for planting out.
26:34But some plants need more attention than others, including my sweetcorn.
26:39When you're planting sweetcorn, it needs quite a nice, rich soil.
26:43So there's plenty of manure and compost in here.
26:46It should be absolutely fine.
26:48If you haven't got any, then maybe just add a little bit more feed to it.
26:51And normally you'd put them about 45 centimetres apart,
26:55but we have quite a small plot here and we're limited for space.
26:58Just make sure you harden it off a little bit before you stick it straight outside,
27:01because the nights can still be cold, even if they're not frosty.
27:06Normally when you plant vegetables, you put them in rows,
27:08and that's how you can hoe in between them.
27:10With sweetcorn, I'm doing a whole grid,
27:12and the reason for that is because they're wind-pollinated.
27:15So you need a breeze to flow in between them and maximise your yield.
27:19If there is not enough airflow in between the plants,
27:22then you won't get any cobs forming.
27:25While I've been planting, Luke has been busy prepping his next allotment project.
27:30Hi, Luke.
27:31Hey, Frances.
27:32I love this bench, it's so good.
27:34What's your plans for it as it goes on?
27:36So it's going to be like a herb and tea bed.
27:38So get all the weeds out and plant a load of amazing smelling and tasting things in here.
27:43That sounds like a really good plan.
27:44Yeah, so I'm hoping that I can kind of, you know,
27:46fill all these different pockets with different types of soil,
27:49so I can grow a real variety of stuff,
27:51and sit down on my bench with a cup of hot water,
27:54pick all my teas,
27:55not having my clot, having my rest.
27:57That sounds ace.
27:58Do you know what?
27:59We're getting there.
28:00It won't be long.
28:01We'll be sitting here with a cup of tea, relaxing.
28:04I feel like we've earned a few in the bank already.
28:06I think so.
28:07It's coming on, isn't it?
28:14I'm really beginning to get to know people here on the allotment.
28:16And the thing I love about this site is that
28:18you never know what you're going to find from one day to the next.
28:22Rachel and Adam, known to his friends as Chicken,
28:25have been here for the last three years
28:27and created their very own little oasis.
28:31What was here when you first kind of got here?
28:33It was pretty much just a flat piece of clay, soil,
28:37no raised beds, lots of bean stakes.
28:40You must have had quite a vision then to sort of turn it into this.
28:43It all happens when you get stuff.
28:45You acquire a bit of decking, you make a bed.
28:48It's been sort of a natural process of design.
28:51Oh, look, the chickens are coming out.
28:53Here we go.
28:54Here, chick, chick, chick.
28:55Oh, wow.
28:56They're so cool.
28:58Do you use the chickens for kind of fertiliser,
29:02the manure and stuff like that?
29:04I mean, do they help around the plot?
29:06In winter, you can put the chickens on the beds.
29:08They will rip out all the weeds, eat all the weed seeds,
29:11eat all the slugs.
29:13So they're doing a job for you.
29:15You don't have to feed them as much because they're doing that.
29:18They add the bonus of eggs.
29:19So you can use the shells as well to keep the slugs off the beds.
29:22Keep the slugs away.
29:23We're having a bit of slug trouble on our plot.
29:25A lot of slug trouble.
29:27We've got frogs in the pond, so they're like our little army.
29:32This morning we found two slow worms, didn't we?
29:34Yeah, we found two slow worms.
29:36They're our favourite thing, slugs.
29:38Humans always try and shape nature to do what they want it to do,
29:41but actually if you just sit back and watch nature,
29:44then there's always something that comes along
29:46to eat whatever you don't want there.
29:48Yeah.
29:49We have a no-dig policy on our plot, but it's much, much smaller
29:53and it's just sort of little raised beds.
29:54So as kind of veterans of permaculture, do you have any advice?
29:57I'd say you want to start off stopping the weeds.
30:00So cardboard's a great help with that.
30:03Layer it up and on top of that, put on whatever you can.
30:06I'm lucky to get a lot of hops and manure and straw from the farm
30:10and the local breweries.
30:12The council drop the leaves off in the autumn,
30:14so we've got a lot of good inputs there.
30:16That adds a good humus to the soil.
30:18The worms will pull down all the leaves into the soil
30:21and hopefully the clay will start to change.
30:23So basically wait, keep layering and eventually it will get there.
30:27Yeah.
30:29Have we got time?
30:33It's great to see what people can do with their allotment spaces
30:35and actually, in not that long a time at all,
30:38the sky is the limit and it's very inspiring.
30:53Francis is discovering what everybody who grows vegetables
30:57has to deal with all the time,
30:59and that is that you've always got problems with slugs and snails.
31:04But it is worth getting them into context.
31:06A healthy crop like this chard
31:08is never going to be ripped into by slugs and snails.
31:11You get the odd hole.
31:13That's not a problem and therefore not worth worrying about or spending time.
31:16It's young plants that they like.
31:19That's where to put your attention.
31:22Now, coming up, we visit a garden just outside Birmingham,
31:26which you might call Caribbean woodland.
31:30And I take stock of the fruit trees that I planted last autumn in pots.
31:45This Easter, I tried a little bit of an experiment.
31:50I sowed some first early potatoes, Casablanca,
31:54in three different types of container.
31:57Two potatoes, same size and exactly the same growing medium.
32:01One in a conventional, quite large plastic pot.
32:05One in a recycled pot, which uses plastics,
32:10but was the first of its type.
32:12It was good to see. And one in a plastic bag.
32:15Now, you can see straightaway there's a big difference.
32:18The two seed potatoes in the plastic pot couldn't be healthier.
32:23They're growing really well.
32:24In the one in the recycled bag, there is only one growing.
32:28And the one in the plastic bag is one really pathetic attempt.
32:36When I put my hand in there, that is cold.
32:39It's actively cold to touch.
32:41And I think this is the root of the problem.
32:43However, just because you've got a lot of top growth,
32:46it doesn't mean to say you're going to have a bigger harvest of potatoes.
32:50It doesn't mean to say that what has survived in these two won't catch up.
32:54So we'll persevere with them.
32:56And the next thing to do to ensure that they grow well is to earth them up.
32:59Now, when you earth up, you're doing two things.
33:01You're protecting the top growth from frost,
33:04which for most of the country is increasingly unlikely now.
33:08And also, you're protecting any potatoes from getting exposed to light,
33:13because that's when they turn green and then they become poisonous
33:16and you shouldn't eat them.
33:17So earthing up simply means putting earth, or compost in this case,
33:22the same compost in all of them, around the growing stems.
33:26Don't worry if it goes over the leaves. It won't hurt them at all.
33:29So just go like that.
33:38So earth them up, keep them watered,
33:41and we'll come back to them nearer harvest time.
33:44Now, we've asked you to contact us
33:46if you've got any problems in the garden that you think we could help you with.
33:49And we had a letter from Dawn Parsley in the Wirral,
33:53who, when she was digging in the garden, had a very unusual discovery,
33:58which she didn't quite know how to deal with.
34:00So we sent Nick along to give a hand.
34:12Wow.
34:14So this was completely submerged in shrubs?
34:17Yeah, rhododendron bushes completely all over it.
34:21Came down and just cleared it
34:24and found this formation of beautiful 14 steps in a gorgeous curve down.
34:30So it was almost like being an archaeologist.
34:32It was like an archaeology dig.
34:35After months of digging and clearing,
34:37Dawn uncovered this spectacular undulating bedrock
34:41with graffiti etched into the stone going back to the 1940s.
34:45It was a privilege, really, Nick, to sort of...
34:48What a lovely thing. ..do it.
34:50It's an extraordinary feature, and I know you want to make something of it.
34:54Well, I think at the moment we've got this beautiful, but it's quite dull,
34:58and I think it kind of, like, needs the right plants that will live on it
35:03and enhance it.
35:05Dawn's rocky steps are a find
35:07and the key to successfully planting around them in any kind of bedrock
35:11is to work with the shallow, sandy soil that surrounds them.
35:14Mediterranean plants are ideal for these kind of soil conditions,
35:18so I'm going to help Dawn plant up a small part of the bedrock
35:21so she can get lots of ideas of what to do in the rest of the area.
35:25So, Dawn, the first thing we need to do is to get these, thank you,
35:30get these structural plants into the ground.
35:33I've chosen Cystis corboreansis
35:35for its beautiful, white, tissue-like early summer flowers.
35:40Lavendula, imperial gem,
35:42for its silvery foliage, scent and long flowering.
35:48And Stippa tenuissima for its contrasting, delicate foliage.
35:58You know, it's always worth, with any planting you're doing,
36:01wherever it is, just stepping back to get that overview.
36:04Yeah.
36:09The vital thing, Dawn, to make sure all of these plants are really happy
36:13is to get the ideal kind of Mediterranean soil mix.
36:17Now, you're really lucky here
36:19because you've got this wonderful kind of sandy soil,
36:22so it's a really good start.
36:24So what I want to add to that and add into the crevices
36:27is this mix I've made up.
36:29It's about 50-50 of a peat-free compost and then horticultural grit.
36:46Always do your firming round the sides,
36:48especially important with these sort of Mediterranean plants.
36:51You don't want to bury any of the stem or any of the foliage
36:54because it will cause it to rot away.
37:00Now, we've placed the key structural plants.
37:03Dawn and I are going to set out the crevice and trailing species.
37:11Crevice plants are perfect for those tiny little gaps
37:14and the trailing plants will beautifully cascade over the rocks.
37:21I think the first thing to get into the ground
37:23is going to be a little bit of soil.
37:26I think the first thing to get into the ground is going to be these thymes.
37:30What's brilliant about these is they make perfect little ground cover.
37:34What will be lovely here is you walk up the steps,
37:36these will just creep over and you'll end up sort of stepping on the edges of them
37:39and getting some lovely kind of Mediterranean scent.
37:43Next plant I want to introduce to you is...
37:46It's a real Mediterranean stalwart
37:48and it's commonly known as the sun rose or the rock rose.
37:52And it'll flower right the way through to July.
37:59So, the next plant I'd like to get in is this.
38:03Now, it's called serestium or snow in summer
38:06and it's a real favourite of mine. It's brilliant for rock gardens.
38:09The thing that makes it special is that it trails
38:12so it will make its way across the rocks.
38:15And the reason it's called snow in summer
38:17is across the top of all this silver foliage
38:19you get this wonderful dusting of white star flowers
38:22for several months through summer.
38:25Now, these are a little sedum.
38:28What they'll do over time is start to make their way down across these rocks
38:33and they'll love the heat coming from the rock
38:35and will just fill in all these gaps really nicely.
38:42You know, I really love this plant.
38:44Its common name is houseleek or sempervivum is the botanic name.
38:48What's great about it is it hardly has any root
38:51so it'll go in these smallest of crevices that you've got.
38:55And what you can see is these little babies which will slowly spread out
38:59but you can also nick off individual ones like this.
39:02And plant them out.
39:03Leave them on a rock for about 48 hours and they'll dry out
39:07but if you then put that into damp soil it will root and start to grow.
39:11Oh, right.
39:12So you can get them into the tiniest little crevices.
39:15So I think this little chap is going to go very nicely here.
39:18Oh, it's like one lovely flower raised to the sun, isn't it?
39:21Yeah.
39:23To give a real sense of the plants inhabiting the space
39:26I'm introducing a variety of trailing species.
39:30Prostrate rosemary will provide aromatic scent
39:33and pour over the edge of the rocks.
39:38Cotula will provide interesting ground cover
39:41and its dainty flowers will go right through to midsummer.
39:47And Euphorbia myosinites will sit happily on the rock surface
39:50and trickle over the sides in a beautiful cascade.
39:57Do you know what? I think we're finished.
40:00I think it looks fab.
40:01Let's come back and have a look.
40:04This is just a taster, of course.
40:06Do you feel confident enough now that you can take this theme,
40:09this style of plants and replicate it across the rock and link it all together?
40:14I will. I'll keep the same theme going, I think,
40:16because then the colours will come and they'll match and they'll balance.
40:19It's beautiful. It's beautiful.
40:21Thank you.
40:22Oh, you're welcome.
40:23Thank you so much.
40:34It never fails to surprise and delight me
40:38the way that plants can find a home in the least likely of situations.
40:44However, my apricots have not wanted to make a home here.
40:49They've died on me.
40:51We had that very sharp frost in December, minus 14,
40:54and I keep referring to it, but it was cataclysmic.
40:57And that damaged the plant.
41:00And that damaged the plant.
41:03It was followed by cold, wet weather,
41:06and it's caused bacterial canker.
41:08Now, this is a disease that the prunus family can get.
41:13Plums, gauges, cherries, apricots.
41:17And you notice it, as much as anything else,
41:20by this gummy ooze that comes from lesions on the bark,
41:25on the trunk and on the stems.
41:28And on a healthy tree, it could be just a sign of damage.
41:31And as long as you prune it out completely,
41:34it won't necessarily kill the tree.
41:36But this poor little chap,
41:39which has been here only since late last summer,
41:42early October, never had a chance and has died.
41:46So, let's take this out.
41:53And in its place,
41:54I'm not going to put another member of the prunus family,
41:57but a pair of olives.
42:00You can see that it's got very good drainage,
42:02which is great for olives.
42:04But there's one feature which I didn't add to this,
42:06which I think will improve the chance of an olive,
42:09and that's loam.
42:10So, I'm just going to take a little bit of that out.
42:15Not too much.
42:22And then top it up.
42:28Now, this is loam.
42:29It may look just like normal soil,
42:31but actually this is from my turf stack.
42:34And loam is essentially soil with a very high organic content.
42:39It adds bacteria and fungi and living organisms
42:43to what can be a little bit of an inert growing material.
42:47Don't worry too much if you haven't got a turf stack.
42:50Most people haven't.
42:51If you can find a peat-free loam-based compost
42:56and add plenty of grit to the mix.
42:59Mix it in, and you don't need to be too specific about it
43:03because the roots are going to access it.
43:08And that now will please the olive a great deal, I hope.
43:16I'm a late comer to olives.
43:18I used to think it was pointless growing them here
43:20because of our climate.
43:22Too wet, too cold, too miserable.
43:25Keep them to where they're happy,
43:26which is fundamentally the Mediterranean.
43:28Well, I'm very wrong, and I'm sure that many of you
43:31watching in the warmer parts of this country
43:34will have been growing olives for years.
43:36But this is a first time for Longmeadow,
43:39and it's a symptom both of climate change and also adaptability.
43:42They're quite hardy.
43:44Olives can survive down to minus 10, but don't bet on it.
43:48Protect them if possible.
43:50And they will grow perfectly well in a pot,
43:53as long as you can move them.
43:56Needs to just slip down in.
43:58We'll take that out there, and it's a very nice root system.
44:15Now, the next stage is to prune it.
44:18Olives fruit on last season's growth.
44:23So anything I cut off that regrows won't bear any fruit.
44:28But we do want to get a nice shape,
44:30and this is growing very upright,
44:32and really I want a pom-pom.
44:34So that's the width there.
44:37So I don't want the height to be any more than the width.
44:40So if I just take these off like that,
44:44and that,
44:46and the best time to do this in principle
44:49is early spring, late winter.
44:51I won't do any harm by doing it now.
44:55They do have fabulous powers of regeneration.
44:58So don't worry too much if you cut off where you shouldn't do
45:01or you take off a little bit too much.
45:03It will reform.
45:05But we want to try and get it as right as we can.
45:15I will water these in well
45:17and give them a weekly soak with a weekly feed,
45:19and they should be fed through till late summer.
45:21And if you can lift the pot and you have space,
45:25they will be much happier if you bring them indoors in winter.
45:29But don't bring them into the house.
45:31That will be too warm and too humid.
45:33Somewhere cool but not freezing.
45:37Right, well, that's the start of something new,
45:40and this is the sad end of something old.
45:43A failure.
45:45But I've learned something.
45:50There.
45:5317 years ago, Joe Manchester moved to his house
45:57south of Birmingham in Worcestershire.
45:59Now, the garden was unremarkable,
46:01but over the years he has transformed it into something special,
46:05and I think perhaps you could best describe it as a woodland garden,
46:09but with a twist.
46:16I love plants. I just can't help myself.
46:18It's like a kid in a sweet shop.
46:20I love going to garden shows and finding the most unusual plants
46:24that people, when you go to a normal garden, you don't find.
46:33When we first came here, most of the garden was just trees and different shrubs.
46:38So I twisted it, put a different feel on it.
46:44This is what I call my hidden garden.
46:48What I wanted down here is to look tropical
46:51and also woodland as well at the same time,
46:53which is very difficult to do,
46:55but hopefully I've managed it.
47:00Today I'm getting things ready because I open for the NGS,
47:04so the garden's got to be in top form.
47:07I originally came from a little Caribbean island called Nevis.
47:11I originally came to England in 1967.
47:16My dad came first. He was a keen gardener, then followed by my mum.
47:20I've got two other brothers.
47:22When we were young little kids, my dad used to stand us aside and say,
47:25look, this plant does this, this does this.
47:27My dad was a keen... He loved dahlias and croissants,
47:30and by the time we was about ten, we knew every little croissant's name,
47:34every little dahlia's name.
47:36When my mum died of breast cancer, I thought,
47:39well, how can I give something back?
47:41Because my mum always had that beautiful smile on her face.
47:44What I knew was gardening,
47:47so I opened a garden for a local hospice to raise money for them.
47:52For the children's hospital, I did Alice in Wonderland theme.
47:55Hence you could see the clocks up in the tree, the big mushrooms,
47:59got little rabbits up the back, things like that.
48:01I even got a little wishing chair at the top.
48:04So it was an adventure for them to just find different things,
48:07and to me it just makes people, just for half an hour,
48:10forget all that they're going through.
48:13I will put in the garden, I've got beautiful leaves,
48:16I've got the hostas, I've got the ferns, I've got the ligularis,
48:20I've got loads of different things,
48:22and I just love how they match together.
48:26I love the Caribbean feel,
48:28and I want a bit of sunshine back into the garden.
48:30That's why I go for all these different leaf shades.
48:36The podophyllums are really weird in a sense.
48:39It always reminds me of a frog's back, just looking at the top of it.
48:43It's brilliant.
48:47This garden I will call a really high maintenance.
48:50Not many people will take this on, but I just love the challenge.
48:55I normally work in this garden, call it seven days a week.
48:59I normally put in at least four hours every single day.
49:05When I put my bananas in the conservatory,
49:07it gets attacked by green fly.
49:09So what I have to do, first of all, wash all the green fly off.
49:13In every spring, I always mulch the ground first,
49:16because it just gives a shine to the leaves.
49:22Well, in this pot I've got loads of different variety of gingers.
49:26After a while, you get a beautiful flower head on here,
49:29which normally it's around, I would say, over Christmas time.
49:33Before I bring them out here, I normally just snip it off.
49:36As you can see, it doesn't die back at all.
49:39It just stays the same and it grows like this.
49:42To propagate it, I break it off like this
49:45and I fit it beautifully into there.
49:48Normally, when I put that in,
49:50it's got to be the same depth that I've taken out.
49:52If it goes in too deep, what will happen is, because of the water,
49:55it will start rising up and rot the bottom of it
49:58and the roots won't take.
50:03Most of the plants in this garden are hostas.
50:05I just think they're an absolutely wonderful plant.
50:08Each one's got a different leaf, different texture.
50:11Two of my favourite plants in this garden,
50:14the first one I've got there, hosta white feather.
50:16Beautiful, beautiful white feather in the spring
50:18and then come the winter, near the winter, it change to green.
50:21The other one I love, down the back there, is Chinese sunrise.
50:24It's got a beautiful colour on it, it just reminds me of the Caribbean.
50:28I normally knock them out, start it every year.
50:31In here, this pot here, I've got horse compost.
50:34Well rotted, doesn't even smell.
50:36Absolutely beautiful.
50:39Now I'll measure for size.
50:42Perfect.
50:46Now, normally, I put gravel on the top of it.
50:48That does two things.
50:50One, it will stop the weeds and two, it stops them slugs as well.
50:54Now, there's another little trick that I use.
50:57I heard this story from a little old lady one time.
50:59Now, when I met this lady, she told me about the garlic.
51:02Best thing to do, she said, just boil it up, put it in a spaker,
51:06put it over the leaves.
51:09May not work for some people, but for me it does.
51:12As you can see, I've got no problems.
51:15All different hostas, not a bite in one.
51:23When I sit in this garden, I forget about all my troubles, everything,
51:27so it's like I've opened the door, I've come in,
51:30and what I've done on the other side stops,
51:32and my garden just enlightens me.
51:36I just love it and I love giving something back to people.
51:39When I originally set this garden up,
51:41I thought if one person smiles when they come through the door,
51:44it's worthwhile to me.
51:47BIRDS CHIRP
51:55Jo's Garden is open by appointment till the end of August,
51:59but this weekend the National Garden Scheme
52:02has over 300 gardens open across England and Wales.
52:07The details of where they are and what time they're open
52:10can be found on our website,
52:12but there's bound to be at least one garden
52:15near you, and I do urge you, if you've got time,
52:18to go and visit as many as you can,
52:21because seeing gardens of all kinds and of all sizes
52:24is the best way to get inspiration,
52:27to get new ideas and to learn something,
52:30and is always really good fun.
52:36You may often have heard the expression,
52:39the Chelsea Chob,
52:42and it gets its name because it's done absolutely at this time of year,
52:46around the time of Chelsea Flower Show.
52:48But a lot of people make the mistake of thinking
52:51that it's a tidying process,
52:53but that is not what the Chelsea Chob means.
52:57The Chelsea Chob is actually about pruning late flowering perennials
53:02to control the rate of their growth,
53:05the timing of their flowers and different heights.
53:08So if you have a plant like this,
53:10this is Lysimachia chileata firecracker.
53:13It's got this dramatic purple leaf
53:16and then has tiny but very vivid yellow flowers.
53:20Now, all this clump is going to grow up
53:23and flower about this height towards the end of July,
53:26beginning of August.
53:28But if I cut some of it back, I give it the Chelsea Chob,
53:32and cut it back by at least a third and as much as a half.
53:36So if I go like this and just cut across like that...
53:42..that's going to do a number of things.
53:44First of all, it's going to stimulate side shoots,
53:48so it's going to be bushier.
53:50Secondly, this is going to flower later than the one behind,
53:54which gives me successional flowering.
53:56So rather than just one display, it'll stagger it for longer.
54:01And thirdly, this won't grow so tall,
54:04so that we'll have just a little bit more structure
54:08and range within a border.
54:14This is an Aster.
54:16Aster umbellata.
54:18I love it. It's got tiny little white flowers,
54:21which keep on coming from July right through into autumn.
54:25I've divided it this spring,
54:28taken half and put it over on this side of the path
54:31to balance it out,
54:33leaving space in which I can use to bring in tree dahlias
54:36and other tender plants,
54:38which will be ready to go out next week
54:40when the nights have warmed up a bit.
54:42Now, this does form a kind of solid mass flanking the path.
54:47And what I can use the Chelsea Chob for is to slightly rake it back
54:52so it's taller at the back than the front
54:54without losing any flowers.
54:56So if I cut here, making sure I don't cut these lovely
54:59self-sown aquilegias that pop up all over the garden.
55:02And so I just cut in here like this, in the front.
55:06I'm not going to forfeit any flowers at all.
55:12They will just come a little bit later
55:14and remain a little bit lower.
55:18And so you can see that the whole thing is on a slope going back up.
55:25And that will just give it
55:28a little bit more of a dimension and structure.
55:31Now, you can use this in all kinds of ways,
55:33but just remember that you don't do it to anything
55:36that has already got flowers or buds on.
55:39These are only for plants that are yet to form their flowers.
55:43Now, it's a good job to do now, around the next week or two,
55:48but here are some others you can do this weekend.
55:56Now is a good time to sow biennials, like wallflowers,
56:00for flowering next year.
56:02And a good way to save plastic is to do this
56:04direct into the ground, into a seabed made in a spare corner.
56:08Prepare the ground well and rake it to a fine tilth.
56:13Draw a shallow drill and sow the seed thinly along it.
56:22Cover them over and water them well.
56:31If, like me, you planted trees, hedges or even shrubs in the winter,
56:39don't forget to water them well
56:43and give them a good soak every week for the rest of the summer.
56:47And this will set them up for life.
57:00If you've grown peppers and chilies,
57:02now is the time to pot them on into their final pot
57:06and, ideally, a good-looking terracotta one.
57:10If you haven't sown your own seed, don't worry,
57:13because you can buy plants from garden centres.
57:17And these also can be potted on into a well-drained compost
57:21and then put them somewhere bright and warm.
57:31MUSIC FADES
57:40Well, that's a few bits and pieces to do over the weekend,
57:43nothing too arduous.
57:45And here we are. It's summer, it's June.
57:48And always at Longmeadow, the shift is spelt out by the jewel garden.
57:55These extraordinary purple sensationalliums,
57:58which are just getting going,
58:01coupled with the intensity of the orange of the euphorbia,
58:05it just gets richer and richer now, right through into autumn.
58:12I'll be back here at Longmeadow next week
58:14and also we have the RHS Chatsworth show
58:18and we'll be covering that as well on Gardener's World.
58:22And on top of that, we have a full one-hour extra programme from Chatsworth,
58:27which will be going out at seven o'clock on BBC Two on Thursday night.
58:32So, summer, Longmeadow and Chatsworth, all coming next week.
58:38See you then. Bye-bye.
58:41Good girl. Come on.
58:43MUSIC FADES
58:52MUSIC CONTINUES