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00:00Hello, welcome to Gardener's World. I'm propping up this acanthus. This is acanthospinosus
00:24and it sure is spiny, it's really prickly. And I'm doing that as much as anything else
00:29so I can get at the alchemilla mollis that is underneath it. Now for the last two months
00:34this long path has looked great. The combination of the yellow of the alchemilla that has spilled
00:43over the path and then the arching stems and flowers of the acanthus and then the repetition
00:50of the green has been one of the nicest things in Longmeadow in the last 25 years. Almost
00:56accidental because in fact what happened? At the beginning of June there was a tremendous
01:00downpour and thunderstorm and it flattened the alchemilla. So it then grew horizontal across
01:06the path. Normally it's a little bit more upright and it was that freak of nature followed by the
01:12drought that made it look so good. But that's done and now it's time to cut the alchemilla back.
01:17And alchemilla mollis is one of those essential plants that any garden has to have because you
01:24can grow them in deep shade, you can grow them in some sunshine, they have lovely flowers and
01:29they'll take any amount of cutting back. And then next spring they will look fantastic again. So it's
01:34a useful plant as long as you can keep it back or as we did to simply not use the path. So one of
01:41the things that's happening today is I'm getting my path back. Coming up on today's programme we
01:48visit a woman who's been successfully growing pineapples in Preston for the last 10 years.
01:54I don't buy a pineapple now because if I do I have to plant the top. We also have a look
02:00at a brand new three-acre garden in Northamptonshire based upon an 18th century model.
02:07Just pick three fine plants like this, repeat them throughout and it can work perfectly well
02:14just like it does here. And here at Longmeadow I shall be planting pomegranates as well as
02:20harvesting peas.
02:41Given what a long hot dry summer we've had, the dam garden hasn't fared too badly.
02:49The fern, the shuttlecock fern, Natutia, has got a bit frazzled but that will come back perfectly
02:55well next year. The quinces have never been better. They like hot summers and the fruit
03:01are looking great and I'm looking forward to harvesting those in about a month or so's time.
03:05Obviously the hostas are huge and a little bit sun-scorched and a little bit nibbled but nothing
03:12significant. We mainly grow large thick leaf varieties like Summon Substance, Snowdon,
03:20Cyboldiana that are just too tough for the slugs and snails to chew. And the second is we have a
03:27mass of predators so if we get a sudden surge of slugs and snails then they get eaten up.
03:34One of the problems of growing big hostas like this one is that smaller hostas just get shadowed
03:47out. So I'm going to get in here, lift out a great big chunk, divide it and then I've got spare ones
03:53that I want to take up to another part of the garden. And this is where you've got to be brave,
03:58be bold and strike hard. Okay there we go.
04:06Normally this is a job that one would do in March or April. The problem with that is you
04:12always underestimate the range of their growth. So by lifting it now and dividing it and replanting
04:18I can really allot the correct space to it.
04:22Here we go.
04:32I'm much more worried about the spade breaking than I am the hosta. There we go.
04:44So I can divide that up, it's really heavy, I can divide that up into about four different sections.
04:49I think I've got a good new home for these hostas in these beds and with a bit of careful division
05:08I think I can probably make four new hostas out of that,
05:11that next spring will have a really dramatic impact.
05:19Can you hear that?
05:24I have never divided hostas in full growth before, I've always done it in spring.
05:30I'm assured by people I trust, in fact I've got this tip from the great Helen Dillon who
05:35came here to see the garden and if it's good enough for her then it's good enough for me.
05:38There, now that is a nice new plant. We've got four good growing sections and stems
05:51and so I can transplant that and know that that will make a vigorous new plant for next spring.
05:58First one I want to put in is right in here.
06:02These beds are perfect for hostas because the soil is rich and water-retentive and hostas
06:10can cope perfectly well in sunshine if they've got plenty of water. The more shaded they are,
06:15the drier they can be, so light woodland shade like this is absolutely fine.
06:22And obviously get the same depth, pretty much, that it was in the ground before.
06:29I'll firm that in well. The next thing to do is just cut it right back.
06:37We've dug up the roots, we've reduced them dramatically and the demand of the leaves
06:42will be too great for the root system and it will be too much for the plant.
06:45We've dug up the roots, we've reduced them dramatically and the demand of the leaves
06:50will be too great for the root system and it will tax the plant hugely.
07:05Well with a really good drink like that, the roots will grow and that's what we want to worry
07:09about this autumn and the next spring with a good root system, those huge leaves will grow
07:16really vigorously. Now don't be daunted by this sort of thing, just give it a go and you'll be
07:21amazed what can happen. In fact, give trying to grow anything a chance and it is very surprising
07:27how successful you can be, as we found out when we went to Lancashire to visit Dorothy Eastman
07:33who has been growing pineapples for the last 10 years.
07:40I've always enjoyed gardening ever since we were married.
07:44Keeps you happy and healthy and it's not very good if it's pouring down and you've
07:48rain dripping off your raincoat into your wellies but that's par for the course, isn't it?
07:55Goosner, it's just a small village just north of Preston in Lancashire. I've lived in this house
08:00and area for 46 years now and now when I'm so-called retired, I've got a big garden and plenty to do.
08:14I must grow best part of four or five thousand dwarf marigolds every year, different colours.
08:21I buy 36 bags of compost at one go, five bags of bark and I don't know how many packets of
08:28seeds and then I sow the seeds usually mid-March and then start pricking them out about April.
08:35Well in total it would probably be about 8,000 plants this year. It takes a couple of weeks to
08:41get them all planted out then you sit back and wait and hope everything works out all right.
08:46It's a heck of a lot cheaper buying a few packets of seeds.
08:49I also enjoy the challenge of growing exotic fruit and veg. I grow melons, peppers and tomatoes.
08:56For the last 10 years I've been growing pineapples in the greenhouse which apparently,
09:02according to the experts in this country, especially Lancashire,
09:05isn't very common. And if somebody says you can't do it, you have a go, don't you?
09:10Right, this is my hot greenhouse where I grow the exotic plants and these
09:15are the peppers I am growing and this is this year's fruit and the flowers are very pretty
09:20little things up at the top there. These are just grown from a pepper that I buy from the supermarket.
09:27Scoop a few seeds out into a pot, cover it with a polythene and then I'll just let it sit for a
09:34couple of weeks. They should start showing through till we end up with one plant in a seven or eight
09:47inch pot and hopefully that's the one you'll get your peppers off. There's quite a few coming on
09:52and they'll be ready to pick in a couple of weeks and as well as peppers I also grow melons. I buy
10:00melons from the local supermarket in about March, enjoy the melons, take the seeds out and grow my
10:06own and now I am getting my own melons. And what I'm also seeing to be getting famous for now is,
10:14as you can see in the greenhouse, we have pineapple plants and if you look over to this one
10:20Guzna Granny has grown a Preston pineapple.
10:25Apart from one year when I missed I've had at least one pineapple every year for the last 10
10:30years but I've never had as good a year as this year but I think that's definitely down to the hot weather.
10:41And this is how I propagate them, just an ordinary pineapple from the supermarket
10:47and I cut the top off, enjoy the pineapple and then I start just peeling these lower leaves
10:58off and you have to do it till you expose about an inch
11:04of the stump. The first pineapple I ever grew, it was fashion back in the 80s to grow pineapples as
11:10a house plant which I did and the pineapple lived in the bathroom for over 20 years, never did
11:17anything, then suddenly after 20 years it grew a pineapple and I'd say I've been hooked on growing
11:23pineapples ever since. So once you've peeled enough of these back you'll notice there's little
11:32nodes where the root system will start developing from, just get an ordinary jam jar
11:39and I just use a bit of cardboard to support it, put it in that and then leave it on a
11:45kitchen windowsill for about three or four weeks till you get enough root growth
11:51then I plant it into about a four inch pot of good quality compost, leave it in the greenhouse
11:57then come winter take it into the house then next May take it back into the greenhouse and
12:03hopefully after about four years you might even get a pineapple.
12:12I don't buy a pineapple now because if I do I have to plant the top and there's a limit to how many
12:19pineapple plants you can get in the bedroom in winter.
12:25Some people say I am obsessed but I think I have to agree with them but it's the one thing I can do.
12:33I love my gardening, everybody knows that I'm very much into gardening, give me a wheelbarrow,
12:38a bag of compost, some seeds, I'm happy, I'm not interested in your girly going to your spa days
12:44or anything, I just love getting my hands mucky and that'll do me.
13:02Well I'm with you there Dorothy, I'm never happier than when I've got my hands in the ground
13:06and they're thoroughly mucky. Now I want to plant something that's actually not in the ground,
13:12they need to go in pots because they're tender and it's something that I've never grown here at
13:17Longmeadow and that's a pomegranate. Now it's unlikely that you're going to grow a pomegranate
13:23that sort of size to ripeness in this country but even if you just grow them for decoration
13:30they're fantastic because they have wonderful intense orange flowers and I'm going to pot up
13:35a pair and I will keep them indoors in winter and you can see they're fairly straggly,
13:43even raggedy plants but they respond very well to pruning and they're from a reputable source,
13:50if you're buying these trees which are exotic and come from abroad do find out where they
13:55come from for biosecurity. Pomegranates really like hot dry conditions so they are brilliant
14:05for growing either as a house plant or in a conservatory and the biggest problem with growing
14:12say oranges or lemons indoors is that invariably with central heating it's much too dry and they
14:19suffer horribly. Pomegranates are the exception to the rule, as long as there's enough light they will
14:25thrive. So this is my homemade compost of bark compost that I've bought, sieved garden compost,
14:36leaf mold, a little bit of garden soil to add bacteria and plenty of grit because we want good drainage.
14:49You don't want too rich a mix because what you'll end up with is
14:53masses of growth and fewer flowers. Let's take this out.
15:03When you're potting up any of these fruit trees, whether they're exotic or not, don't be tempted to
15:09put them into too big a pot straight away because the feeding roots have a very small growing area
15:15and then if you have a large expanse of compost all it will do is absorb moisture and there's a
15:20real risk of it being too wet. An inch or two around the existing root ball is plenty.
15:33And you can see here that you have three stems and they are all rubbing and the truth is
15:40that two of those three have got to go. So I'm going to take it off right down the base.
15:51Quite dramatic, but immediately it opens the plant out. For shape that's a good start.
15:59Now, Joe went to Northamptonshire to visit a modern garden which has elements of paradise at its core.
16:11This is the Old Rectory, a stunning and classic garden filled with sumptuous luscious planting.
16:18Drawing on the Old Rectory's 18th century history, this grand three-acre space has been divided into
16:24six garden rooms with a contemporary edge fit for the 21st century family. And it's the brainchild
16:31of garden and landscape designer Anoushka Fyodorova, who designed the garden and landscape
16:38of garden and landscape designer Anoushka Fyodorova. Anoushka, what a fabulous garden. So where did you
16:44take your inspiration from? It was largely inspired by the 18th century rectory in the architecture.
16:50The definition of a perfect garden in the 18th century had six parts. So it had a pleasure
16:57garden, a park, an orchard, a kitchen garden, a menagerie and an orangery. And so I thought it
17:03would be lovely to reinstall those elements into this garden but give them a very distinctly 21st
17:10century twist. In the pleasure garden for example we've got a natural swimming pool. The menagerie
17:18is more about children and their interaction with wildlife so we created a woodland area with lots
17:23of natural clay and we brought in quite a few quite semi-mature trees. We didn't want to wait
17:3020 years because the children would be grown up and having their own children by then.
17:35And then the parkland that has a maze. The kitchen garden is more ornamental.
17:42The glasshouse is a beautiful garden room that can be used at all times of the year.
17:48Where are we now? So we're in the heart of the flower garden. There's this exuberant quality to
17:55it. A real celebration of wonderful plants that do well in the UK and
18:00just using the idea of creating this sort of heavenly paradise.
18:12This is such a lovely shaded dining area in the shade of these plain trees. Just nice simple
18:18formality but a generous table with herbs in the middle just ready for picking. And I love the
18:24generosity of this garden overall. This terrace spans the entire width of the back of the house
18:30but there's separate elements that are tied together really nicely. So here we've got a
18:35large planting area which has roses and grasses and the grasses have that lovely soft textural
18:41feel but set the tone for the garden with a contemporary element. The planting tears up
18:47towards the back and the grasses are a key plant throughout. And this terrace is in effect a sunken
18:55garden so it's got retaining walls all the way around but Anoushka's designed them at the perfect
18:59seating height. Rather than just having a stone face she's softened it up with lots of planting,
19:05green lush plants that are thriving in the shade. Things like this Hekuna Kloa grass and this has
19:11got an irrigation system just constantly dripping keeping these plants nice and moist. And then
19:16we've got a water feature and the sound of the water feature is just lovely on a warm day like
19:21this. It brings a cooling presence to the garden and it lines up absolutely perfectly with the
19:27back door and that axis runs right through the garden. There's a real sense of formality here.
19:39This is Anoushka's interpretation of a kitchen garden and
19:43well it's a very loose interpretation that's for sure because she's having a bit of fun with it.
19:48There aren't actually any edibles in here at all. She's got this wonderful Winchester Cathedral rose,
19:55a lovely white rose. We've even got white butterflies flying through here today and of
20:00course the white planting relates to the house and that heavenly theme running through the garden.
20:06Now when that dies back she's got this nice grass underneath. This is Ciceleria Autumnalis. It
20:12allowed plenty of winter interest and texture to keep it going. And for the structure there are
20:17eight Osmanthus Armatus and Anoushka has painted the trunks of them white. This is a nod to the
20:24Mediterranean where people paint trunks of trees to prevent pests getting in and here it's purely
20:30ornamental. She's painted this white lime-based waterproof paint which lets them breathe but what
20:37it does is add a wonderful sense of theatre and atmosphere to this space and if you've got an area
20:43of your garden where you think I can't quite keep on top of that, I don't know what to do with it,
20:47it's looking a bit messy, just pick three fine plants like this, repeat them throughout and it
20:53can work perfectly well just like it does here.
21:07This is a fabulous garden building, beautifully made, oak frames with a nod to the history of
21:13this location and when I first saw it I was slightly concerned about the placement of it
21:19in the garden because you'd normally see a building like this tucked away in the corner
21:23of a garden or at the back rather than so centrally placed but when you get inside
21:29you realise why it is where it is because from in here you have got a fantastic 360 degree view
21:41and it's actually the axis of a lot of the paths so you're looking down these paths to the seating
21:46area, looking down that wonderful avenue of hornbeams, this one you're looking through to a
21:52fire pit and another seating area and then this way is through the archway in the hedge and then
21:58you sit down and you realise you are completely enveloped in the planting, everywhere you look
22:05you're looking out onto plants and it's just fabulous and this is a covered area so all year
22:11round you can look at the planting as it decays into the autumn and as it emerges in spring and
22:17okay this is an all singing all dancing garden building, it's double glazed, it's got electrics,
22:23lighting and it's even got wi-fi but all you really need is a covered area and you can get
22:29out into your garden and look out onto the planting, if I had one of these I wouldn't be in
22:35the house, I'd be out in the garden all year round, fantastic!
22:40So
23:00you can go and see the garden for yourself because this Sunday it is open
23:03under the NGS scheme for one day only so if you're in the Northamptonshire area
23:09go along and enjoy it yourself. Now I have been getting huge pleasure from this dahlia and I've
23:17got four or five of them here in the jewel garden, it's called Chat Noir and it is the most voluptuous
23:26burgundy red that you can imagine and these lovely cactus flowering petals but it's also very tall
23:34and this particular one has fallen over and you can see that the flowers are then
23:38turning back on themselves towards the light so I need to prop it up before it gets too late
23:44and the dahlias this year have been very tardy to flower, ones like David Howard for example
23:50are only just beginning to bud up whereas normally they're flowering from early July and that's a
23:57direct result of the weather but I've made a note that this one seems to mind the heat less than
24:01others. There we are, it's still on a cant but at least I can see it and it will straighten itself out
24:10and what a joy it is.
24:14I used to think that you couldn't have any pink in the jewel garden at all and that
24:20I had to weed it out so to speak but actually shocking pink works really well against
24:28the burgundy colours so these two dahlias together and the Cosmos which is Dazzler works supremely.
24:41This dahlia was fairly hidden by this peony. I was looking earlier and lifted it up and there
24:48you discover these seed pods and this is a tree peony, Peony Lutea with yellow flowers.
24:58Of course this time of year is the perfect time to start gathering seeds, storing them ready for
25:04next year and there are a select group of people who grow plants primarily for the seeds
25:12and we went to Monmouthshire to meet one of them.
25:19My name's Adam Alexander and I call myself a seed detective.
25:23What I'm doing is hunting down rare and endangered varieties of vegetables
25:29to grow for seeds that I can then share with others.
25:37I'm what is called a seed guardian and there are about 170 of us throughout the whole of the UK
25:43and what we do is we grow out certain varieties of vegetables that are held by the Heritage Seed
25:51Library and I'm very keen to be doing this in Wales where there are a number of varieties
25:58of vegetables that are specific to this part of the world. This garden is in a little microclimate
26:08looking out over the Bristol Channel in South Wales and it's kind of my Eden.
26:15In this garden I am growing 60 or 70 varieties of vegetables.
26:20To me one of the most important things is to reconnect ourselves with what it is that we
26:27grow and eat locally in the same way as in Wales they're proud of their Caerphilly cheese,
26:33well I hope that they're going to be proud of their award-winning runner bean.
26:44There are four distinct varieties of runner bean that have been grown locally here for a very long
26:49time of which this is one and it's called Stenna and there was a guy called Mr Stenna unsurprisingly
26:56from South Wales who bred this bean in the 70s as a show bean and it became a fantastic champion
27:04and for 20 years it was sort of unrivaled and then he passed away and the bean kind of fell
27:11out of use but I am growing this in order to be able to return seed to the heritage seed library
27:20so that other people can grow it and I also share it with my neighbours.
27:27This is a ripening bean it's only fully ripe when it's dry.
27:32These are ones that I've saved from a previous year
27:35and this is how they need to look when they're properly dry.
27:38Today, like most days at this time of year in the sort of high summer, it's seed collecting time.
27:47It's very important to have this complete link between growing something, saving the seed,
27:53eating the produce and then continuing that cycle over and over again.
28:00This is a broad bean called Seville which I'd never grown before and I'm growing it out for seed
28:06and it's actually really, really lovely and soon I'm going to harvest that and then this is a French
28:13bean called Fowler and I selfishly just grow this for myself and save a few seed. I'm not sharing
28:22this with anybody and then this is my absolute favourite pea. It's a heritage variety called
28:31Robinson. It's very long, you get about 10 peas in each pod and they are unimpeachably sweet and delicious.
28:42There are a couple of things to bear in mind when saving seed. First of all, the seed needs to be
28:48absolutely dry when you put it into store and that means that in the case say of peas, some of those
28:56peas may not be completely dry so I like to put them out somewhere that's airy, away from direct
29:03sunlight until they've completely dried off and then I will put them in an airtight container,
29:08a jar and stick them in the fridge and there's really a simple rule which is keep them dry
29:14and keep them cold and actually seeds will last for many, many years. I have seeds that I've had
29:21in my library for 15 years that are still perfectly viable.
29:34I love to save my own tomato seed. This is a variety called Lister's Protection Perfection
29:41and it's British. Scoop out the seed into a sieve to clean and you're left with lots of lovely
29:52clean seed and then these I will put onto a piece of greaseproof paper. This is very important
30:01greaseproof paper because it means that when they're dry they scrape off easily
30:06and then put this in a nice airy place to dry, put them in an envelope ready to sow next year.
30:17I am a completely unreconstructed vegaholic and seed anorak and I do really get a kick
30:27out of finding varieties that have been forgotten or lost.
30:34There's nothing nicer than meeting somebody who says look I've had these seeds for 30 years
30:42and I can't grow them anymore. Will you grow them? That is a wonderful, wonderful thing.
31:01I think there is a definite heroic quality to preserving seed like that because over the last
31:0840-50 years the varieties of seeds that used to be common have diminished drastically. All over the
31:17country there were hundreds of different local varieties of almost every type of vegetable
31:22and by growing these plants keeping the seed sharing that is preserving an essential part
31:29of our heritage which otherwise will be lost forever. Now still to come Juliet Sargent visits
31:37Board Hill to see a tree in flower which may not be that extraordinary except for the fact
31:43it's only flowered four times in the last 90 years and I shall be harvesting here in the
31:49vegetable garden and also preparing for next spring. Now Adam Alexander has sent me four
31:56packets of seed to grow myself and I've got a winter radish, pasque, which will be harvestable
32:05sort of November-ish and keeping the ground until Christmas time he says. I've got Robinson,
32:10the pea which he reckons is the tastiest and the best of the lot. Delaware which is a spring and
32:18summer cabbage from Ireland and a winter lettuce, mesher. Now all of these except the peas can be
32:24sown now so the first ones I'm going to sow directly is the radish, pasque. Now the others
32:31are going to be sown undercover but these I'm going to sow into this patch of ground.
32:35The onion here is still growing it's not ready for harvest but I've got a corner here
32:47and I'll just make a little drill with my hand along the edge like that.
32:55Radish is not something that many of us think of as a winter vegetable
33:00but actually the Japanese in particular grow lots of winter radish and this is a pinky red one
33:08and Adam tells me that it's got a good crisp flesh it actually grows quite big.
33:14I'm trying to space them out because the healthier the plant and the better the root system
33:21the more flowers I'll get the more seed I'll get. You know I'm gonna have enough for two rows that's
33:26great. Now you may not want to grow an unusual and rare seed but you can buy quite a few different
33:39types of winter radish and if you sow them now you'll be harvesting them October, November,
33:45December so do give it a go. Now I'll cover those over like that
33:56now this is an investment in the future but I've got a crop to harvest
34:01which has cheated the season and it's delighted me
34:06because I thought my peas were a bit of a disaster. I sowed them as I normally do in April
34:15and then overnight one night rabbits came and ate the whole lot off and that was the end of it
34:21and I sowed a second batch in mid-summer June the 22nd. It's a variety called Eddie
34:28and it is suggested that it would be very good for a late sowing and I just put them in the ground
34:33I protected them against rabbits and I promise you I've done nothing else at all. I haven't
34:38weeded, I haven't watered, I haven't staked them, nothing and yet they've grown completely happily
34:45and presented me with a bumper harvest.
34:52Oh lovely that fresh green zing of peas from the pod
35:00is fantastic and to have that on the edge of September is a first for me but it won't be
35:07a last because I'm going to do this again next year. Hmm yum right another harvest these.
35:23Now while I've been growing peas out of season
35:27Frances has been enjoying literally the fruits of her season down on her shed allotment in Bristol.
35:38It's a busy time on the allotment with harvest in full swing.
35:45Luke and I are harvesting our plums and we seem to have a bit of a bumper crop which is
35:49really good news. Every year the allotment has its very own produce show and we've decided to
35:57go ahead and enter. With a month to go we need to get our act together. Could our plums be prize
36:04winning? Well I think these might be gone over by September but we could certainly do something
36:09with these. Yeah maybe some kind of preserve or jam I think there's a thing in the competition
36:14for that. There is. There's weirdest fruit or kind of knobbliest vegetable or something.
36:22Any any competitors for that do you reckon? Well I've got a couple of beetroot which are
36:27going a bit on the gnarly side I think if we kind of leave those in the ground.
36:34Plums come into season in August through to October so there's plenty of time to harvest.
36:40With so many already ripe we couldn't miss out on this opportunity to create our very own jam.
36:47It's easy, chop up two kilograms of plums, add 200 milliliters of water, bring to a simmer and cook
36:54for about 10 minutes. Then add the sugar, ground cinnamon and lemon juice. Cook for a further 10
37:00minutes then increase the heat and bring the jam to a full rolling boil. It's coming on really nice
37:07actually, I just need to let that cool down and set and then we'll taste it later and see if it's
37:12good enough for the competition. Over the year Luke's really been getting stuck in, no challenge
37:19has dampened his enthusiasm and today he's working on making a greenhouse out of some upcycled
37:26material. While Luke grapples with his greenhouse I'm cracking on with the rest of the jobs on the
37:33allotment, starting with sowing some winter crops. And this is going to be a lovely coriander bed
37:40which is one of my favorite herbs. Despite its association with warmer climes, coriander is as
37:46tough as old boots and will keep on growing well into the winter months. So what I've done is just
37:53made a little trench about two centimeters deep and I'm going to just pour in a nice scattering
38:02of seeds through there and then once they germinate you thin them out to about every 10 centimeters
38:06you want one plant. And if it is a dry autumn and they do start flowering and seeding, the bonus is
38:12you can collect all those seeds either to sow again or to eat. Cover them all up, give it water and
38:20they should germinate quite quickly in this lovely warm soil. And there are loads of other vegetables
38:25that you can grow for the winter and this is a really ideal time to do it. So things like pak choy,
38:30chicory, spinach and chard are all really good things that will keep performing through the winter
38:36and now's the time to think about them.
38:45For a first year on an allotment we've actually had quite a good harvest this year
38:49but I really want to make sure that next year we continue to do so and I'm going to propagate
38:54my strawberry plants. Now strawberries need doing quite regularly. About four years you have out of
38:58them but they will stop being as vigorous, stop producing as much fruit and can get prone to
39:02disease. But the nice thing is they're really easy to propagate and they kind of do the work for you.
39:09This time of year they send out runners or stolons with small plants on the end of them so all you
39:14need to do is get these plants to root, cut them off and then you have a brand new plant that will
39:19give you much more vigorous growth in future years. Fill a small pot with compost and insert
39:25individual offshoots from the parent plants. Peg down and make sturdy with something like
39:30a coffee stirrer. As soon as it's rooted you can snip it away from the plant
39:35and move it to anywhere that you want it to go.
39:37Having an allotment hasn't just helped me to hone my vegetable growing skills,
39:41it's also reinforced an idea I've had for a long time that there's always somebody
39:45that you can learn something from and here they're often not very far away at all.
39:53Sam Stevenson is one of our neighbours. He's nearing the end of his second year on the allotment
39:58and doesn't mind sharing with me his experience of growing vegetables in his own garden.
40:03He's nearing the end of his second year on the allotment and doesn't mind sharing with me
40:07the trials and tribulations he's had along the way.
40:10Hello neighbour. Hiya, how are you doing? I'm good thanks, how are you? Yeah great.
40:15This is your second year here on the allotment isn't it? Yes, so I was mainly over that side
40:20and growing a lot of potatoes and things like that last year and I've worked this area,
40:26sort of terraced it and put these big raised beds in with plenty of compost. Really, so this whole
40:30area started the same time as Luke and I started ours? Yeah pretty much. You seem to have come quite
40:35a long way further than we have. Yeah, it's a bit more of a sort of industrial approach I think.
40:40But it looks lovely, I really like the look of this with the big posts coming up, it's very
40:44kind of architectural isn't it? Yeah and these sort of enable you to net as well. Yes. To sort
40:48of keep the butterflies away. So I'm going to feel reassured that the reason that this looks so much
40:53more advanced than ours is because you had a year practicing on this side beforehand as well. Yeah,
40:57made a few mistakes. What did you learn from the first year? Well, I learned mainly about things
41:02like how close I'm planting plants together. I mean I haven't quite got the hang of it because
41:07you can see they're all sort of intermingled still this year. Now I've got these big beds,
41:11I can plant up stuff I know is going to do okay. Yeah. And then I can sort of start experimenting
41:15a bit more. So I've tried out doing some peas this year. Nice. And I'm sort of planting at different
41:21times as well because another thing I learned on the first year. So I've got sort of a couple of
41:26different crops of corn and I'm sort of trying out some aubergines. They look amazing your
41:31aubergines. Yeah, they've done okay actually. They are perfect, unblemished leaves aren't they?
41:37Are you submitting anything for the show next month? Yeah, so I've got lots of cucumber pickles,
41:42some courgette pickles and some rhubarb jam. How's your rhubarb jam turned out? Pretty nice.
41:47We'll be in direct competition. Yeah, it looks like it. Well, may the best man win or the best
41:53jam win I should say. But the proof is in the pudding and now it's time to test our jam.
42:01That's really good. Really good. I hope they like it. Do you have a chance of winning?
42:08I'm going to say yes. As an optimist, yes we're definitely going to win. I'm going to say yes
42:12with a pregnant pause beforehand.
42:16Cheers. Cheers.
42:30I love Homemade Plum Jam. We've got an old plum tree just on the edge of the house. The truth was
42:37they didn't taste very good and then Sarah made them into jam and that very bland fruit is
42:43transformed into nectar. Now there's big transformations in this part of the garden
42:49actually because the squashes are really putting in a gross bird now and I'm going to have to start
42:54picking off fruits to keep them small soon but for the moment they're doing really nicely. This
42:59is the chicory I planted the other day and the carrots have had a mixed year. The first batch
43:06germinated terribly badly. That's not uncommon with carrots particularly with an early sowing
43:11but I did a second sowing and I used a variety I'd never come across before called Nigel which
43:19is a good late season carrot. Nigel do you want to come here for the opening ceremony
43:24of the carrot Nigel? Come around here. Come on. Okay in here is a carrot named Nigel.
43:31Let's have a look. Just loosen the soil a bit. There we go.
43:40There we are. A carrot Nigel. Have you seen that? Look at that Nigel. Is that delicious?
43:47Would you like one? No he doesn't like carrots but they're shaping up nicely and importantly
43:55there is no evidence of carrot fly. Carrot fly you notice because you get little holes
44:02like pockmarks on the outside and as you cut through them they've been eaten through by
44:06little maggots which of course are the larvae of the carrot fly which lays its eggs on the
44:11surface of the soil and the best way to avoid them is to harvest them in blocks. Clear an area.
44:19Don't leave any behind and that means the ones that are left have not been disturbed.
44:24So I'll just take a few more there and I've got a clear piece of ground
44:29and actually that's the size I like to eat them. That's exciting. That's good.
44:39Most root crops have actually done well this year which is counterintuitive because you would
44:44think in a very hot dry summer that root crops would suffer. My early potatoes
44:52were good and we're just coming to the end of those so I want to dig up some of the main crop.
44:57I've got two varieties I've not grown before. One is purple Violetta and the other is bright red
45:03which is red Emily and this is the Violetta. I want to see what they look like. So let's just
45:09take the tops off gently. Take that out. Oh look there you are. I can see potatoes coming up with
45:14it. Look at that. I have to say they're not instantly attractive but interesting.
45:23Now this is a variety that is said to stay purple when you cook them if you keep the skins on.
45:31Most purple vegetables in fact change colour when you cook them but these guys could give you,
45:40if you cook them in their skins gently they can give you purple mashed potato or purple chips if
45:45that is what you desire.
45:55So a rather sort of dirty looking outside but then when you scrape it away you can see
46:01there's an interesting interior and if I cut across that
46:06and there it is there is a purple spud.
46:10A tip about when you're harvesting your potatoes. If you're going to do them all in one go cut off
46:16all the foliage and the stems. Take them to the compost heap then leave them for a couple of
46:21weeks if it's not too wet and then dig them up and the skins will harden up. The harder the skins
46:28the better they will store. Now moving gracefully from the earthiness of purple spuds to exotic
46:38to exotic plants at Board Hill in Sussex and Juliet Sargent went along to see
46:45one tree in particular and that's because it's flowering which is something it doesn't do very
46:52often.
46:53The gardens at Board Hill Garden in Sussex are beautiful in their own right
46:59but for plant historians they are an absolute paradise.
47:05This garden is a living museum full of rare trees and shrubs collected by plant hunters
47:11from all over the world and it's all the more beautiful when you look at it from the outside.
47:18Trees and shrubs collected by plant hunters from all over the world
47:23and it's all the vision of the man who created it.
47:29Colonel Stevenson Robert Clark founded Board Hill Garden 125 years ago. A keen zoologist and botanist
47:36he sponsored several plant hunting expeditions and asked for specimens from as far afield as China
47:43to be brought back to his home for cultivation. As a result,
47:47Board Hill contains the best private collection of champion trees in Britain.
47:55This is the pride of India or the golden rain tree. It's just one of the very unusual species
48:02here in the garden. It was brought here in the 1930s all the way from China as a tiny seed
48:10and it's been nurtured to this magnificent maturity here in the garden. This tree is a
48:16colrutia and because it comes from eastern Asia it just loves hot dry weather like we've been having.
48:23It flowers in the height of summer with tiny yellow flowers that then develop
48:28into these unusual seed pods and they're just starting to dry out now. You can hear how crispy
48:33they are and inside are the seeds which will become dark brown later on. Just imagine it was
48:42a seed like this that travelled all the way from China to West Sussex in the 1930s and has resulted
48:49in this fantastic tree. The golden rain tree isn't the only tree to benefit from the heat wave.
48:57The hot weather has brought one of Board Hill's rarest trees into bloom.
49:02In the 90 years that it's been growing in this garden it has flowered only three times.
49:09But this year it's done it again and it's possibly the best display yet. The Emanopteris
49:17henryi. I've been coming to this garden for years and I have never seen this tree in flower. It's
49:23so exciting to see it covered with blossoms. They're these beautiful tubular shaped flowers
49:31and then really interesting detail is these bracts on the side and just standing here the
49:37scent is wonderful. It's a sort of light lemony scent with a little bit of cucumber and
49:44even some jasmine in there. It's absolutely wonderful. It originates from China where
49:50unfortunately it is endangered now but in its native Chinese forest it can grow to 45
49:58meters high and live to be a thousand years old.
50:08Andrew John Stevenson Clark is the great-grandson of Colonel Clark.
50:15So Andrew John it is wonderful to see the Emanopteris flowering.
50:19When was it that your great-grandfather planted this tree? Well my great-grandfather received
50:24some seeds from the Victorian plant hunter George Forrest which came all the way from central China
50:29and he planted this in 1928. How does it feel to finally see it flowering? Oh delightful and
50:37a huge surprise of course because my grandfather and my father would come along here and think I
50:42wonder if it's going to flower and see nothing and so I was looking at it thinking well it doesn't
50:46flower here it never will. You can see that the little flowers although small are really pretty
50:52to look at. It's got this little white bract on the side so from a distance it looks very
50:56interesting but in the spring it also looks lovely with no flowers because the little red
51:01bit that you can see here actually shows that in the spring you've got this reddish colour to all
51:06of the leaves which is unusual. So it's a good all-rounder as well? It certainly is yes. Why do
51:10you think it's flowered now? This year has been particularly hot and it's the heat that it likes.
51:16We originally thought it was both a cold winter and heat because every time it has flowered it
51:22had before a cold winter as well but I don't think that's been the spur because if you look
51:26at where it comes from in China they don't have particularly cold winters. And now that it is
51:31flowering what do you think the chances are that it will be pollinated? Well the bees love it and
51:35they visit it but I wouldn't want to hold hope that it would but of course if we had seeds
51:40not only would we plant some here but we would share it with other gardens as well.
51:45I am sure that your great-grandfather would be very very proud. Well I'm sure he would have been
51:49and it's only a sadness to me that my grandfather and father the two generations in the middle
51:54didn't see it and how delighted we are as a family to see it flowering. So it's not just
51:59my generation it's my children as well. This way yeah come on.
52:13Up here on the mound I've got a Chinese goat horn which flowers in some cases once every 90 years
52:26or at least there's one in Northern Ireland which took 90 years to flower so I don't think I shall
52:31see that but I'm going to plant a eucalyptus which will give you a performance on the display
52:38almost quicker than any other plant and this is a particularly
52:42delicate one which I think will work here up on the mound.
52:56This is called France Bleue and what I like about it is its delicacy and then there is a kind of
53:04pinky almost coral coloured flush to the stems. It's very very nice indeed. Now eucalypts are not
53:14wholly hardy so hopefully this will survive. We get up to or get down to I should say about minus
53:2315 here and it won't like that but I could protect it a little bit and the drainage is quite good up
53:27here on the mound. It doesn't need particularly good soil so if you've got fairly poor soil
53:36this is a good one and on the mound here we have a substrata of stone and rubbish and all kinds of
53:44stuff and then just topsoil on top of that so that's good news. It's been grown in one of these
53:51pots that allows the roots access to the air so you just unwrap it like this
53:57and actually that can be reused. Take the bottom out and there you have a sort of honeycomb root
54:05system and because these are the fresh new roots they haven't wrapped around they're nice and
54:10straight that should grow out into the soil nice and quickly and adapt.
54:21Well while I'm just firming this in I'll go and get some water and give it a drink.
54:25Here are some jobs for you this weekend.
54:29If you've got a spare patch of ground don't leave it empty all winter but sow a green manure. There
54:35are a number to choose from and I'm using Pasilia here. The virtue of a green manure is that the
54:41roots provide good organic material, they open out heavy soil and the top growth can then be dug in
54:48in spring and then they can be reused. I'm going to show you how to do that.
54:58Adding fertility as well as good structure.
55:09The buddleja were a little late in flowering this year but now they are at their very best
55:15and the butterflies love buddleja more than any other plant and it's important to deadhead as
55:21much as possible. Get as high as you can, cut off all those spent flowers and that will stimulate
55:28new growth and butterflies and you will be able to enjoy them well into autumn.
55:40This is an easy job, pick runner beans. The more you pick the more that will grow so harvest them
55:47before they get too big, enjoy them and keep on picking regularly. Come on then.
56:09The end of August and the month of September is the perfect time to be cutting hedges,
56:13particularly evergreen hedges like this yew one. The birds have finished nesting and they will
56:19remain sharp right through winter. But whatever type of hedge you're cutting there are certain
56:25things to bear in mind. The first thing is that every hedge, whatever type it is, grows thicker
56:31and faster at the top than it does at the bottom. So when you cut your hedges you should always cut
56:36them at a slight angle which is called a batter. The second thing is it's much easier to cut the
56:41sides before you do the top. Now I'm choosing to use hand shears because they're sharp and
56:48I enjoy using them but it doesn't matter whatever you use, make sure it's sharp. It'll a. be easier
56:54and safer and b. it's much better for the plant because instead of crushing it, it just cuts it
56:59cleanly and it'll heal better. Now's the time to do the top and there's a little trick to make sure
57:07it's crisp and even. With a low hedge like this it's quite important that it's reasonably level.
57:19So what I'm looking for is a low tight clipped hedge. It'll take another few years before it
57:25looks as it will finally be intended to be but we can help it along the way.
57:30I'm leaving this end piece to make a finial but you can see there's much more growth at this end
57:36than there is here for example in the middle. Whereas if I hadn't put the line the temptation
57:41would be not to cut that so hard but I'm just going to cut to the line.
57:45There we are. We're beginning to get a hedge-like appearance back into that. I do think that one of
57:52the secrets of enjoying hedge cutting is not to see it as this terrible chore that you have to do
57:58but an enjoyable job. You're making something that is a really important part of the garden
58:04and keeping it alive and keeping it alive and keeping it alive and keeping it alive and keeping
58:10it alive and keeping it alive and keeping it alive and keeping it alive and keeping it alive.
58:15So I'm going to quietly keep doing this for the next hour or so but that's it for today
58:24and we'll see you back here at Long Meadow next Friday at our normal time. So until then, bye-bye.