Gardeners World S51e26 28-09-18
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hello. Welcome to Gardener's World. Quinces are just about the most exotic fruit that
00:18I grow here at Longmeadow, and there is something magical about it. And their scent, their fragrance
00:26is both fruity and perfumed. And it also tastes really good. You can't eat them raw,
00:33of course. Quinces, when ready to be picked, are rock hard, and you need to cook them.
00:43This is a variety called Wranger, and I will gather them all and store them, and they will
00:48store for months if kept nice and cool and slightly humid.
00:58Coming up on today's show, as winter approaches, Arit shows us how to hold on to some colour
01:04in our garden.
01:05At this time of year, you can be creative and put a real oomph into the garden, giving
01:10it the lift it needs from autumn all the way through into spring.
01:16We meet a gardener who extracts a stunning array of dyes from her plants.
01:23As it hits the air, it's gone from the green to this vibrant turquoise. It's like magic.
01:33Tonight we'll be giving a masterclass on weeds.
01:55Great. This will come into use in a little while. But I'm now going to line the base
02:06for the water feature at the centre of my paradise garden. A couple of weeks ago I had
02:11a visit from Mark Gregory. Now Mark Gregory won the People's Choice Award for his Yorkshire
02:17garden that he designed, and he has made countless gold medal gardens at Chelsea. And what he
02:24advised me to do was to build a reservoir with a pump inside it, a mains water supply,
02:30and then put a grid over the top of that, and on top of that you could have a fountain,
02:34you could have a basin, anything you wanted.
02:36I have dug out a pit. And the first thing to do is to line the hole with butyl. Now
02:45butyl is a rubberised material, which is by far and away the best thing to use for
02:53a pond. If I put the butyl straight onto the soil, there's a risk that stone could puncture
03:05it. So the first layer will be a soft underlayer. Even so, I still want to just get rid of anything
03:14that could pierce that lining. So, take off all the loose material. Now this is pond underlayer
03:30and the beauty of it is it's strong. So it acts as a good protective layer even though
03:35it's thin. As a rule of thumb, when you're measuring a liner, be it to protect the butyl
03:48or the butyl itself, far better to have too much excess than not quite enough. Next, a
04:01thick butyl liner. What I'm trying to do is get the liner down in against the sides.
04:28Slightly awkward on my own. I wish I'd got someone to help me actually. Where's Carol
04:33Clyman you need her? So the next stage is to cover the butyl with another layer of protective
04:46underlay, even though it's going to be overlay. So the butyl is sandwiched between two protective
04:54layers. What is it Barry? Oh, are you coming to help me? Thank you. Okay, so next step is to knock
05:08up some concrete. I haven't done this for a fair few years. The concrete mix in the wheelbarrow
05:21is five parts aggregate to one part cement and will form the foundation of the water tank.
05:40What I'm going to do is leave a couple of bricks in
05:43and use those as a level to measure the concrete off.
05:47Well, you can see that there's going to be quite a bit more to do, but I'll keep plugging away at it.
05:53Now, there is a real feeling that even though today is sunny and I can tell you it's very warm,
05:58that winter is around the corner. But Arit has got lots of inspiration
06:04for containers that will look fantastic throughout autumn and through the winter.
06:16The first container that I'm going to plant up is everything autumnal, reminding us of Halloween
06:30that's coming and all those wonderful autumnal fires that we're going to be cosying up to.
06:36The exciting part of buying our plants, as we all know, that's the easy bit. It's the containers that
06:41we have to also put some planning into as well. Now, I personally enjoy using grey. I think it
06:47really shows off foliage, but also with the planting can also be given quite a contemporary
06:52twist as well. This is quite a deep container, so I'm filling it with plastic pots, making use of
06:58that plastic. It will fill out the bulk and it'll be quite light once I've poured the soil on top of
07:03it. I've added in some horticultural grit. That's just to help with drainage. I prefer to use a
07:10peat-free compost. The first plant I want to go for is this beautiful formium. This is going to
07:19be my focal plant and I actually want this to sit at what will be the back of the planter.
07:24All of the plants have been given a nice soak beforehand, just teasing out a couple of the roots
07:33which is looking fantastic. The next plant I think I'm going to go for is the rebecchia.
07:40What I love about this is the fact that the heads here are going to match the colour of the
07:47formium and I like the way how the leaves are just making a connection to the container.
07:55My next choice I think I'm going to go for is the leucanthemum. Now, you'll see that I have been
08:03choosing perennials. There is an intention that they would go into the border in the springtime
08:08because they wouldn't be able to live their full life in the containers as they are now.
08:13I've chosen these because all of these buds are going to give me flowers going on through
08:18the coming weeks and you can see now that white really starting to pop and lift the planter.
08:25The next plant I'm going to go for is this bronze sedge which is fabulous. I want this one to go in
08:35to add movement and also there's beautiful little bronze tips on these leaves that are
08:41just picking out again the highlights of the rebecchia and the formium.
08:48So the adjuga now comes in here and what I really love about this is that you've got
08:55that contrast of leaf shape. This is thistle which is also known as Chinese lantern and just
09:04gives this wonderful autumn colour. There are some little planting spaces in there so what better
09:13than to place in some bulbs that's going to give in some fantastic spring zing. This is ballerina,
09:20a beautiful orange tulip, so I'm going to pop these in between the spaces before I backfill.
09:26I think that's going to really add a punch of autumn colour all the way through to spring.
09:40One of the areas of a garden that can get overlooked for containers is a shady spot
09:45but it's lovely to glance to a dark corner and see plants nestled there in the autumn light.
09:53Centre stage in this container is the triceratis. It's an exotic but contemporary plant
09:58and I love its gorgeous orchid type flower that will keep going right through the autumn.
10:05The silvery variegated leaf of the brunnera will always shine out from a shaded corner.
10:10I think a real must-have.
10:14Moulin Becquia is an evergreen trailing plant which I feel is more contemporary than ivy
10:19with its black stem and glossy leaf. Trailing plants really help soften container edges.
10:25And finally I've used one of my favourites, Hacanocloa macra, for its vibrant limey colour
10:31which beautifully complements all of the purple hues of the other plants.
10:40There's still going to be so much wildlife in the garden through autumn and into winter
10:57and I wanted to make sure that this container would be able to support the insect life, the
11:02birds all the way through, as well as obviously still giving lots of visual interest. So this
11:08miscanthus will be something that will be really great for the birds. They tease out the leaves and
11:14can use that in their nests. And the little aster at the back here is great for late season nectar.
11:20That very open flower really makes it easy for bees to be able to access.
11:25Now sedums, they are a must in a container. They are so great for hoverflies. Bees love them too
11:32and what's also fabulous about them is that come the winter time their seed head remains in shape
11:39and it always gives structure within this container. I have just added in a few little pine cones
11:46so that when the insects do come to visit this container they've got somewhere to be able to rest
11:53as well. From a design perspective I wanted the miscanthus to be centre stage on what I call my
12:00froth. They're framing the front of the container to give interest and also
12:06this lovely palette of colours is really sitting well together.
12:15And at this time of year you can be creative and put a real oomph into the garden,
12:20giving it the lift it needs from autumn all the way through into spring.
12:30It's good that people are considering their gardens as having a life in winter and certainly
12:48here at Longmeadow we've really tried hard to make the garden look good in winter and also look different.
12:55Now I've got six barrel loads of concrete in there, levelled it off. It's not perfect but it's
13:06certainly perfectly good enough to form the base upon which to build the concrete block tank that
13:14will hold the water but I will leave it for at least 48 hours to go off properly. Okay that's
13:20a bit of building, let's go back to some gardening.
13:36I was going to say it has been a good year for fruit. It is a good year for fruit and of course
13:41now is peak apple time, a little bit earlier than normal. I reckon apples are at their very best
13:48around about October the 10th, well 10 days early is about consistent with everything else this year
13:54but sometimes it's difficult to know when an apple is ready. As a rule of thumb if windfalls are
14:00starting to fall that's a good sign but the best way to test is if you take an apple like this one,
14:06this is a step over apple called rather unglamorously scrumptious and if you just take it in
14:13your hand and just twist and lift gently, that's ready to pick. You haven't had to pull at it, you
14:22haven't had to yank, you just lift and twist and it's ready for picking. So in fact what that means
14:29the rest are likely to be ready too.
14:40When you have apples on a step over or a spallia or a cordon it's not too bad but when you've got
14:47a large tree like we have here in the orchard there are thousands of apples and you can see
14:52we've had a windy night last night, look at this number of windfalls and it's a real shame because
14:56this apple is called ripsten pippin. It's a beauty, it's delicious eating apple but once they fall to
15:05the ground you can't store them. You can eat them and they're perfectly edible but the bruise of
15:11hitting the ground means they won't store for more than well certainly weeks and sometimes just days.
15:17That leaves the problem of what on earth you do with windfalls.
15:21Now you can juice these, the problem with making your own juice is that it's not pasteurized so you
15:27need to either consume it fairly quickly within days if you keep it in a fridge or else freeze
15:32it quickly. Now what we discovered is there are quite a lot of local people who will bottle for
15:37you and they will juice them for us, pasteurize them, bottle them and return them for a price.
15:43Now that seems to me a very reasonable and sensible way of using up your spare apple.
15:48But you need to gather them up and I've had a good way of doing that.
15:53I got this from a farm shop. I think it's used for mucking out horses but it's really good for
15:59collecting up apples. Because it's rubber it doesn't damage the apple.
16:10Now the reason why we have so many apples this year is not because we have so many apples.
16:15We have so many apples this year is not because of the hot summer. It's because of the spring we
16:21had. If you remember spring was actually quite cold in March and the beginning of April so there
16:26was very little blossom. It was late and then suddenly the weather broke and we had a glorious
16:32late April early May. All the blossom came out therefore they cross pollinated, there were
16:38masses of insects around, no late frost and so all that blossom set fruit. But eating an apple
16:49that you have seen blossom and then slowly develop through summer until it ripens to
16:54that perfect point in autumn is one of the highlights of the gardening year for me.
17:01Now growing your own fruit and veg is something that Frances has been doing all year on her
17:06shared allotment and we pay our last visit as she prepares to show her produce at the local show.
17:22It's been over eight months since Luke and I started on our allotment journey.
17:27There's been such a huge transformation of this plot over the years. To think that back in March
17:32it was just a big mess of muddy clay and now it's really productive and full of healthy fruit and vegetables.
17:48And what better way to celebrate all of our hard work than a good old produce show.
17:52Every year this allotment community gets together to show off the best, the biggest and the downright ugliest with 15 categories up for grabs it's all to play for.
18:11Last month we decided to enter our very own plum jam into the competition but will it win us a prize?
18:18There are a few familiar faces that have entered the competition too and it seems we may have a bit of a rival for our jam.
18:26Are you entering anything chicken? I've got a few things, jam, contender, yeah I've got eggs, a tray of eggs and I'm just waiting for everyone else to bring all their heaviest stuff down.
18:37So you can work out which one to bring? Yeah so I'm just and then I'm gonna run up and go and take a fresh pumpkin hopefully.
18:43I just never knew you were so competitive. There you go, you've got to trust me.
18:50With our produce being put through its paces we've decided to compete in five categories.
18:55Each one has a chance to win and it's only a matter of time until we see the results.
19:01As more people start to arrive I catch up with fellow allotmenteers to see how their growing
19:06year's been and if they think they're in with a shot of a prize.
19:11So this is an entire plot's worth of just pumpkins. Well actually this isn't.
19:18This is? Wow.
19:24Rachel that is amazing. It's nice isn't it? How do you grow something that big?
19:31Uh, ask chicken. Ask chicken. Stick it in the grind and hope for the best.
19:36It looks like you've got an amazing basket of food going on. Yeah.
19:39Yeah do I expect I'm going to win with anything? You never know.
19:45And you've got callaloo, are you entering that bunch of callaloo? Yeah.
19:49There you go, good luck Barry. Okay.
19:54Behind the scenes at any produce show is a set of judges waiting in the wings
19:58to judge the best from the rest and this year they've invited me to join them.
20:02But don't worry it won't be rigged, I am keeping well away from any of the categories that we're in.
20:09I'm teaming up with judges Jess Kinewood and Tim Foster.
20:16I think my personal favourite, look at that, it's weird and rude.
20:27Lavender, herbs, berries and it's beautiful quality produce.
20:33It is good quality. First prize goes to number 27.
20:39It's the best bunch of callaloo but I think this one has to win because there's so much of it.
20:49Bees down as first prize. First prize.
20:52And I think the number 30. You're going to go for number 30 as well? Okey dokes.
21:02Yeah so that's heavier. Okay so let's do these then.
21:06Oh yeah. That's it. That's the winner. We have a winner.
21:11With judging duties completed, the organisers start to toss up the results
21:15and Luke and I decide to head back to the plot to have a catch up on what we've achieved this year.
21:22So a year has gone by. I know, so quickly. Yeah, so fast isn't it?
21:27The difference from what it was. It's incredible.
21:29Yeah it's been so easy to kind of focus on one bit and be like I need to get that bit,
21:34I need to get that bit but like it's nice to kind of sit back and go actually it's not just
21:39a pile of mud anymore, we've got an actual allotment plot. That's it.
21:42Big revelation for me has actually been kind of flowers on the plot. I think I was so kind of like
21:46veg, veg, fruit and actually in those bits where you've just got things coming up or the slugs have
21:51eaten everything, the flowers have really been one of the things that have like made my heart sing.
21:56Being able to grow things for yourself is something I have always aspired to do and so
22:02I'm really grateful that you've kind of shared this with me and allowed me to
22:06to grow things for myself because there is nothing like it is there, homegrown produce.
22:10No, no it's been great and thank you.
22:12Oh I'll be back.
22:13Brilliant, no getting rid of you now.
22:16Shall we go and see how we did?
22:17Let's do it.
22:18Cool.
22:24I think we've got one first and a couple of highly commended.
22:27One heaviest squash.
22:28We've got the heaviest squash.
22:29Oh that's good.
22:30No we've got two firsts though, we've got two firsts.
22:33The jam category was a heavyweight title.
22:37It was fiercely fought.
22:43I don't think as many people actually produced their jam on their allotment like you two guys did.
22:54How did you do?
22:55First prize on the most unusual vegetable.
22:57This was yours was it?
22:59What is this?
23:00So it's a cucumber from Sikkim in Nepal.
23:02Amazing.
23:03And we won best bunch of callaloo which is like a Jamaican kind of West Indian green.
23:07Oh well congratulations that's ace.
23:09Thank you.
23:10Well done.
23:11Cheers.
23:17It was the creativity that swung it for you you know.
23:20No well done you should be proud and your bees should be very proud as well.
23:24I will go and tell them individually.
23:25Absolutely.
23:31Hey how are you doing?
23:32Yeah good how did you do?
23:34We got a highly commended on the old Chevelle Verts.
23:39Your horseradish concoction.
23:40Yeah what's really inspiring is seeing all this stuff and being like.
23:44And the lovely people that have grown it you know.
23:46Yeah it's really nice hearing their stories and kind of where they've come from doing it.
23:49Yeah definitely.
23:50I reckon there's some seed swapping to be gone over the autumn.
23:53I'm already on it.
23:54I've got loads of seeds have you what have you been doing?
23:56Wasting my time obviously.
24:00Today has been such a great day and a fitting end to a lovely year here on the allotment.
24:09As you can see behind me this is such a fantastic community
24:12and they've really welcomed Luke and I with open arms.
24:16And that's really what allotments are all about they're the communities
24:19learning from each other growing with each other
24:22and it's been such a privilege to be a part of that this year.
24:30So
24:42there is no doubt in my mind that growing your own fruit and veg
24:48and eating it with family and friends is the best culinary experience you can ever have.
24:55But having said all that it doesn't matter how long you've been doing this
24:58and I've been growing vegetables for over 55 years
25:01you can guarantee at any one time something will be going wrong.
25:10This is Florence fennel and you grow it for a nice big fleshy bulb at the base of the plant.
25:16Fantastic in salads very good poached.
25:20But if you look more closely an awful lot of them have got a flowering stem
25:25and some of them are even producing flowers right now
25:28and if you pull that up you can see that that flowering stem is really woody and hard
25:36and there's not much else on it.
25:38However if you've got some base to them keep them eat them.
25:45So for example that I'll never get a really big bulb from it but that'll be good to eat.
25:52If you're growing chicory and in particular radicchio
25:57what you're after is a really bright crimson vegetable.
26:03You can either have a round ball chicory or like these rossa de treviso which are tall.
26:10Anything that is green will be bitter.
26:13Now you can see this is all mainly green but it is beginning to turn red
26:16and that's a result of the weather getting colder.
26:19What you need to do is remove the green foliage as it starts to fall
26:24and that will allow better air circulation because there is a risk
26:28if it gets really damp that these can get soggy and rot
26:31and by November I like to have all the green leaves removed
26:35so all you're left with are the red radicchio themselves
26:39which you can harvest right through winter and will regrow
26:42and very often you can get three cuttings from each root.
26:45Now I've no idea whether the intense red of radicchio would translate into red dye
26:53because vegetable dyes don't always come true
26:56as we found out when we visited Christine Lewis at her home in Welford in Northamptonshire.
27:03I enjoy dyeing textiles with plants because it's always a surprise.
27:07You never know what you're going to get from a plant.
27:11The colours that you see in a plant are not necessarily the colour that you're going to get on the fabric
27:18and it's just a privilege to work with people who are really passionate about their craft.
27:24I'm a textile artist and I've been working with people for a long time
27:28and I've always been interested in the colour of the textiles on the fabric
27:33and it's just a privilege to work with nature's beautiful palette.
27:42Back in 2012 I read an article in a magazine about how you could turn food waste and plants
27:50into colours for textiles.
27:53I was intrigued because actually I have formal training as a chef
27:57so off I went I started to create my first dyes.
28:07We built the shed studio then it seemed only natural then to create my own dye garden.
28:16You have to be prepared to accept what nature gives you so I work with the seasons.
28:22Here we've got examples of the plants that I use for dyeing
28:26and they illustrate perfectly the changes that the seasons bring to the dye pot.
28:31This is dyed with nettles.
28:33This mitre shade here was one of the first dyes of the spring.
28:38As we go through you can see that they're getting darker and darker.
28:44The colour I'm getting is certainly darker this year than it has been in the last year.
28:52We have a drought affecting the way the plants grow.
28:57Plants are stressed and that is evident in the results in the dye pot.
29:05So today it's a really good day because it's nice and warm to be harvesting the indigo.
29:10I'm not creating a fermented indigo vat that you would expect your indigo
29:15genes to be dyed with for instance.
29:16This is quite a unique colour and it's called fresh leaf indigo
29:21and I understand that these can actually be regrown.
29:23If you pop them in water they'll regenerate
29:26so you can plant them again if you'd start it early in the season.
29:29So there we are.
29:33You can actually see some of the blue coming out on these already.
29:37Hopefully it'll be a good strong dye.
29:39This is a great example of seasonal dyeing.
29:43It's got a small window opportunity from about July through to September
29:47so it's one to look forward to in your dyeing year as it were.
29:58It's rather like making pesto.
30:00Okay so that's done so now it's time to add the fabric.
30:06So we pop it in.
30:08It doesn't stain your hands too badly, not this one.
30:11The longer you leave it the deeper the tone of colour you'll get.
30:14Right I think that's ready now.
30:16So we just gently squeeze it so we don't lose any of our precious dye.
30:29And then to release the blue we plunge it into cold water.
30:34It's changing now even in the water.
30:37And as I lift it out it's gone from the green to this vibrant turquoise
30:43and as it hits the air it will continue to develop for about 30 to 40 minutes.
30:48It's like magic.
30:53People often ask me how I make the dye stick.
30:57Well we use something called mordants which just means to bite.
31:02My most used mordant is actually soy milk made from soybeans.
31:07It makes the dye particles adhere to the threads in the fabric.
31:13In the middle of the winter I'd be drawing on barks and then as we move into the spring
31:20we get first nettles appearing which are fabulous.
31:24I'll be sowing seeds and then the marigolds will come.
31:27As we go into autumn I'll be using more of the hedgerow brambles and acorns.
31:35So it's a constantly evolving year for me.
31:43My favourite colours from dye plants are pinks and golds.
31:49I had a real surprise when just popping some dahlias into a dye pot.
31:54I got a fantastic gold.
31:57And I didn't grow them with the intention of dyeing.
32:01I grew them just for cutting.
32:03But one day I've got a lot of heads that have dropped off this polka variety.
32:08So now I'm growing them you know in abundance really.
32:11These will be dried.
32:12I can keep them and the colour variation isn't too great between fresh and dried.
32:17So that's wonderful.
32:20The other colour I like is the pinks and the corals through to reds that you can get from madder.
32:28It looks quite insignificant but the colour all lies beneath.
32:32We grow madder for the roots.
32:34It's a labour of love really because once you've sown it,
32:38it takes at least three to four years for the roots to mature.
32:43Enough for you to be able to get any dye colour from them.
32:47It's quite a juvenile plant really but look the roots are coming on.
32:52You very very gently simmer it and you'll get the beautiful beautiful shades.
32:57It's right into scarlet reds.
32:59For anybody wishing to start out, just keep it really simple.
33:04Get a mixture of annuals, perennials and shrubs.
33:09Because you'll be able to draw on things throughout the season.
33:12And remember you don't have to have a big space.
33:14You can grow things in pots on the patio or even on a kitchen windowsill.
33:22When I look back, I can see that I've grown a lot of plants.
33:27When I look back on everything I've done with natural dyes,
33:31I can't believe the journey has been so rewarding.
33:36To know that I've actually grown the flower that's coloured the textile,
33:41gives me such a good feeling.
33:43And it's just so lovely to be able to talk to other people about it
33:46and hopefully inspire them as well.
33:58I love the delicacy of those colours.
34:08They're completely fascinating and also the way that they change
34:11as the weather affects plants and the colours that they result in.
34:16And then there's the magic of the transformation from that green to blue on top.
34:21It's just a joy.
34:23Now talking about the way that weather affects things, come and have a look at this.
34:27These are the flowers of Galtonia, rising up like sort of giant white bluebells.
34:36And I planted those in April expecting them to flower in August,
34:41even early August, and there was nothing.
34:45And the reason why they're flowering so late is because it's been so dry.
34:49So in a year when most things are 10 days to two weeks earlier,
34:55these are at least two to three weeks late.
35:01Still to come on today's show.
35:03After the blazing summer we've had, Adam goes back to RHS Wisley
35:08to see how their new borders have fared.
35:13Wow. We've been feeding it.
35:24It's time for a bit of redistribution.
35:28These were tiny little seedlings of Persicaria virginiana.
35:33And when I took them, the parent plant was quite interesting foliage
35:38with this lime green and coffee coloured chocolate splodges on it.
35:45Perfectly interesting, but not very dramatic.
35:48But now that we come to late summer and autumn,
35:52it hits its stride with a glorious trend
35:56because they have these long, delicate stems,
36:00highlighted and pinpricked with tiny little coral pinky red coloured flowers.
36:07It's absolutely beautiful and I love it.
36:10And these were seedlings that were just scattered around the parent plant.
36:13I potted them up in spring and now they're ready to plant out.
36:16And you can see that they're a good size.
36:19This is about a third the size of the parent plant.
36:21And next year, I'm sure it'll be performing really well.
36:24So I'm going to add them in amongst these borders, which are semi-shaded.
36:28And this is a plant that does its best in light shade.
36:32It doesn't like the glare of full sun.
36:39There's a mass of forget-me-not seedlings, a myasotis, which I can just plant through.
36:43What I'm looking for it to do is to fill the area under the branches of this rose,
36:48which is called Charlotte Glut, and it has particularly good hips.
36:52It also has vicious thorns, so I need to be careful.
36:55You moaning in the background, what is it?
36:58Oh, I see, I see, I see.
37:06Would you like me to plant this one?
37:08Look, I've got it here.
37:09Look, I've got it here.
37:12Look at that.
37:15Right.
37:18Finished? Happy? Stolen the show?
37:22OK, we can continue.
37:24So that's one in.
37:33Although this will self-seed, it's not invasive in any way.
37:37The seeds fall around the plant, and there's a certain amount of self-selection,
37:40and it gradually spreads that way.
37:43Now, they're members of the Polygyneceae family, and I like growing them.
37:47And if you've got space, you can really make a big impact.
37:50But there is one member of the family, Fallopia, which comes from Japan.
37:56It was introduced as a border plant and has become the worst weed
38:03that this country has ever had to deal with.
38:06I'm talking, of course, of Japanese knotweed.
38:10And Nick has been to find out what on earth we can do about it.
38:25Japanese knotweed, or Fallopia japonica,
38:29it's Britain's most aggressive, destructive and invasive plant.
38:34For those poor souls that are affected by it,
38:36it can feel like an inescapable, unceasing nightmare.
38:41If it's set free, it can be incredibly damaging to native flora,
38:45suppressing and preventing its growth.
38:48But it can also cause huge damage to houses and to roads.
38:57But for those lucky, unafflicted viewers, don't switch off.
39:01It's estimated that knotweed costs Great Britain around £165 million every year.
39:07And it's been confirmed at thousands of locations in all corners of the UK.
39:12Unfortunately, these days, you're never far away from knotweed.
39:19Like many invasive species, Japanese knotweed was introduced to the UK
39:24as an ornamental plant over 200 years ago.
39:27And at first sight, it's easy to see it's a fairly attractive plant.
39:31It's got these bamboo-like canes with a speckling on the stem, heart-shaped leaves,
39:36and then these white plumes of flower which appear in late summer and autumn.
39:42But little did the Victorians know the curse that they were unleashing on the UK.
39:46The plant soon escaped from gardens, made its way down watercourses,
39:51and has now spread all the way across the United Kingdom.
39:58South Wales has some of the worst-affected areas in the country.
40:02Here in Cardiff, it's an ongoing battle to stop the spread.
40:08One chap who knows all about that is Yestin Jones,
40:12an expert in Japanese knotweed removal.
40:15Yestin, I think people are aware that knotweed is a huge problem in the UK,
40:20but what are its primary means of spreading?
40:22It's mainly through the rhizome system.
40:26How far will they spread from an individual plant?
40:28Up to seven metres.
40:29Wow.
40:30Well, it depends on how established the plant is.
40:34How much of a problem is it here in Wales?
40:36So it's mainly where there's people,
40:39because it is predominantly people that spread the Japanese knotweed.
40:42There's a lot of dumping of contaminated soil, which contains the rhizome.
40:46They're spreading it through the DIY method of getting rid of it.
40:51If people try to dig it up, for example, what's the worst thing that can happen?
40:56What's the risk if they do that?
40:57There's a risk that they're going to compound matters and make things worse.
41:00So that means that bits of chopped up rhizome can then regenerate potentially?
41:05That's correct, yeah.
41:06There's always the chance you can make matters worse.
41:08Then what's your particular approach to managing Japanese knotweed?
41:12I use a systemic herbicide that goes right into the roots
41:16in order to kill the rhizomes and the plant itself.
41:21And I use this from between three and five years,
41:25and that's followed by a monitoring phase.
41:27So on year one, we spray the herbicide during the growing season
41:31and then return then for the following year,
41:34and we'd be hoping for about 25% regrowth or less.
41:38And then to spray then when it's between 60 centimetres and a metre high.
41:43So that's year two?
41:44Year two, yes.
41:45And just to keep on going, really.
41:48As a rule of thumb, we need to have two years of no regrowth
41:53in order for us to issue that certificate of remediation.
41:56And so it's remediation rather than eradication?
41:59You don't say that it's absolutely gone?
42:01No, because technically you've still got the rhizome system still there on the property.
42:06So I can't technically say it's been eradicated.
42:11Long-term chemical treatments are one of the most common and effective,
42:15but there are other methods being used to get this thug under control.
42:20The best advice is to bring in a professional company that can deal with it for you.
42:25However, if you know what you're doing,
42:27there's a few things you can do to weaken and knock the plant back.
42:31So one of the first is to remove the stems.
42:37But one of the key things is what you do with those stems.
42:40You need to allow them to dry down completely.
42:44Once they get to this sort of state,
42:46then you can burn them to dispose of them.
42:48But if you don't have that capacity, you can take them to registered landfill.
42:53And the same technique applies to the rhizome.
42:56So if you're going to dig those out,
42:58you need to work very carefully to get every last piece out.
43:01Allow them to dry out on the ground,
43:03and then either burn them or take them to a specially registered landfill.
43:08But this is a really serious business.
43:11And if you fail to dispose of Japanese knotweed correctly,
43:14you could be prosecuted, fined, you could even go to prison.
43:21Whatever method you choose, it's not an easy road to travel.
43:24And knotweed doesn't just pose a threat to your garden.
43:28In recent years, mortgage companies have become increasingly wary
43:31of lending money on properties that are affected,
43:34which means house sales can fall through or be devalued when knotweed is present.
43:41So I wanted to meet someone who's gone into business
43:44who's gone into battle with this invasive fiend and come out the other side.
43:49Alicia Lewis lives in central Cardiff.
43:51When she bought a flat two years ago,
43:54she quickly discovered Japanese knotweed growing in her garden.
44:01Gosh, so this is where the beast emerged.
44:05Yeah, it popped up like in that corner over there.
44:08And it literally has just been this entire sort of back area.
44:13It was almost to the top of the wall there, so.
44:16Wow, OK.
44:17And so how many years down the line are you now with treatment?
44:20I've been here for two years now, and Yesen's been looking after it.
44:24But he's been looking after it since before even I moved in.
44:27So I guess it's probably a typical three, four year cycle to that point.
44:32And now it's only, well, it's only just beginning now
44:35that I can actually start planning to have a natural garden.
44:38I mean, it looks like it's worked, but I'm noticing it alarmingly.
44:41It is over the fence there, isn't it?
44:43And so there's a chance it could come back through.
44:46My advice probably would be to sink a rhizome barrier or something similar.
44:50So that could be concrete slabs.
44:52So you should be able to prevent it sort of coming back in.
44:59It might be big, mean and green,
45:01but Alicia is well on her way to conquering this weed once and for all.
45:06So if you have a knotweed problem, there is light at the end of the tunnel.
45:12And another glimmer of hope emerged earlier this year.
45:16Researchers at the University of Leeds established that Japanese knotweed
45:20is not nearly as damaging as previously thought.
45:24In fact, they've concluded that although it can exacerbate structural problems,
45:28it's no worse than woody plants such as trees.
45:32That said, it's not something you want anywhere near your property.
45:36So if you find it in your garden, contact the experts.
45:40Be prepared for a long battle, but know that you can defeat this garden tyrant.
45:57Knotweed is a monster.
46:00And as an organic gardener, it is even more difficult to get rid of.
46:05And it can be tempting to resort to chemicals.
46:08Although by cutting it back, it does weaken it.
46:11And in Japan, I know that they are doing trials on biological control,
46:16which may be interesting.
46:18However, not all weeds are monsters.
46:21We have plenty here and some are more vigorous than others.
46:24One of the more pernicious weeds we have here is this.
46:27This is oxalis.
46:30And it really likes compacted hard soil.
46:34So it grows, for example, in amongst the cobbles here.
46:36And you can see there are seed heads here.
46:39And the seeds are then flung up to three foot or more.
46:44And it's very hard to control it unless you can keep on top of that.
46:48The important thing is to time your work correctly.
46:53So, for example, with the oxalis, get it before the seed heads form.
46:58Soon as you see the flowers, cut it back.
47:01I think another secret about weeding is to do it regularly, little and often.
47:06If you think you need to weed, it's too late.
47:10But I've got a weed that was here when we came
47:13and has remained in the garden for the last 25 years
47:17and taken up residence in the jaw garden.
47:28By and large, the jaw garden is pretty devoid of weeds.
47:32But a weed I've never been able to get rid of.
47:34It's cooch grass.
47:36Now, cooch looks like ordinary grass.
47:39And it's very vigorous.
47:41It's very tough.
47:43And it spreads.
47:44Now, if I lift this out here using a fork to tease it out,
47:51I'm going to have to take the ophiopogon out as well.
47:55There is a piece of cooch.
47:57Tease that out.
47:58I don't want to break it.
47:59That's area.
48:01Now, if you can see, there is the grass.
48:06And you can see these underground rhizomes
48:11and the little hair roots coming off it.
48:13But the rhizomes store food.
48:16And any part of it can generate a new plant.
48:20So if it breaks and it's very brittle
48:23and snaps off when you dig it up, a new plant will grow from that.
48:27Now, obviously, digging any of it up helps.
48:31Cutting it back helps.
48:33It doesn't get rid of it.
48:34To get rid of cooch, you do need to systematically take it out.
48:38But that should not go in a compost heap.
48:41Now, in fact, about 10, 12 years ago,
48:44we got a bad infestation of bindweed.
48:46And that's the same principle.
48:48You need to dig up the roots.
48:49They're very brittle.
48:51So you've got to be very careful about it.
48:53Take every scrap out.
48:55You can compost the top, but do not compost the roots.
48:59Burn them if you can, bag them up, take them away,
49:01and they can be disposed of by the council.
49:04And if you keep at it, you can get on top of them.
49:08And that way, you and weeds can have a sort of steady relationship
49:13once you've got the upper hand.
49:16Now, this summer, actually, the weeds haven't been too bad.
49:17It's been too hot and dry for them.
49:19And it's been exceptional.
49:21And it's been exceptional.
49:22We've all had to adapt to weather that we really haven't been used to.
49:27And Adam went along to Wisley to see how they had adapted.
49:36This year, we've enjoyed one of the hottest summers on record
49:39and seen our gardens bathe in weeks of continuous sunshine.
49:46But it's not been all plain sailing for us gardeners.
49:49You're anything like me at times.
49:51I struggle to keep things alive in that heat.
49:54But think back.
49:54Before that, we were dealing with a beast from the east
49:57and that really slow spring.
50:00And I've come here today to RHS Wisley to see how they got on with it.
50:11I'm meeting Matthew Pottage, who is the curator.
50:17Matt, nice to see you again, mate.
50:18What was I here 12 months ago?
50:20Was, yeah.
50:21To look at the exotic border.
50:22Because I remember it.
50:23The structure was in there, but I suppose it looked new.
50:26Put it that way.
50:27It was fresh, small, almost bedding-like around them.
50:29And it kind of just needed that time to knit together.
50:32And on that point, I can't wait to get in there and have a look,
50:34see what this summer has actually done to it.
50:36Let's go see.
50:42Wow.
50:43What have you been feeling there?
50:45A very hot summer.
50:47I'll tell you what, this blown me away.
50:48You know, last year you could see everywhere, couldn't you?
50:50This year, you're lost.
50:51I know.
50:52Now it is like you're in this immersive jungle.
50:55Wow.
50:56This is just cannas, aren't they?
50:58Nothing that unusual.
50:58It's just canna indica purpurea.
51:00And this very, very full established look is because these have been in overwinter.
51:04And you just left these in?
51:05Yeah, these were very cold.
51:06So we went down to minus nine here at some points.
51:09These were mulched with a shredded bracken.
51:11Big, thick mulch over the top.
51:13We're on sandy soil, so of course that helps.
51:15Good drainage is always so key with getting these things through the winter.
51:18And then that heat in the early summer just got these back into action again.
51:27Here's the amazing sugar cane.
51:29The colour foliage is fantastic.
51:30I haven't seen one like this.
51:31And a lovely midrib.
51:33And obviously it's been a hot summer and this is towering above us.
51:36But even if it was a cooler summer and it was half the size,
51:39it's still super impressive.
51:40There's a bit of a wow factor to it, isn't there?
51:43And speaking of surprises, just next door, do you know that?
51:46Looking at the label?
51:48Eupatorium?
51:49Eupatorium, yeah.
51:50You know, this has really grown for its foliage.
51:52I didn't actually think this would be hardy at all.
51:54So I said to the team, take lots of cuttings,
51:56course some of it then survives.
51:58So as a bit of an insurance policy,
51:59or if you're gardening in quite a cold part of the UK,
52:02you know, you could do a tip cutting of this about now.
52:04Just something about this kind of size.
52:06Root it, keep it in a cooler glass house,
52:08and then bed it out in the spring.
52:10And that is just one season's growth on that.
52:12Fantastic, isn't it?
52:13No, I think it works really well.
52:20Wisley Equinox Border has been designed to hit its peak
52:24at the spring and then autumn equinox.
52:28We've got these big generous groupings of the asters
52:30for this late summer colour splash,
52:32or actually symphotrachum, I think I should be saying, not aster.
52:36Do you know what, don't you love a botanist?
52:37Yeah, don't you?
52:38And I think to a lot of people at home,
52:39I'm sure there always will be mycelomastasis.
52:42And these will just keep going and going,
52:44you know, right until the end of October.
52:46You see there's loads of buds coming in here.
52:49With these borders, they do have a spring content
52:51for the spring equinox.
52:52And you can see with some of the peonies,
52:54you know, they haven't enjoyed this heat.
52:56They're a bit shorter than they would normally be.
52:59We'll probably give these a bit of a feed
53:01and a bit of a boost late winter, early spring.
53:04It'll be fine.
53:04They'll all be back, won't they?
53:05They will.
53:09This is good.
53:13So one thing that's really enjoyed the heat this summer
53:16is this dwarf pomegranate,
53:17which just weighed down with fruit.
53:20Absolutely incredible.
53:21And in my, you know, some nearly 12 years at Wisley,
53:23I've never seen this fruit this heavily.
53:25And you know, Wisley's not a warm garden
53:27by any stretch of imagination.
53:28In the wintertime, it's not unusual to have,
53:30you know, minus 10 and colder.
53:32And this hasn't actually died back at all
53:34in the years I've been here.
53:35I sometimes think that actually they can cope with the cold
53:37as long as they've not got their feet in the wet.
53:39So I think me at home,
53:40I'd feel safer putting it in a container.
53:43Yeah, and that's all about understanding your soil, isn't it?
53:45And the drainage of that.
53:46And I think south-facing, west-facing walls here,
53:49sunny, dry, hot corner,
53:51it's just done so well.
53:59Do you know, I do love wandering around
54:01this beautiful old garden.
54:02And it's definitely got me thinking today
54:04about adding to the array of plants that I've got at home.
54:07But there's one thing that I'm going to do next year.
54:10I'm going to celebrate all the things that go right
54:12and not worry at all about things that go wrong.
54:30It's tempting to say that Wisley doesn't know what cold is,
54:34compared to what we have here.
54:36But actually one of the coldest days filming I've ever had in my life
54:39was in April at Wisley.
54:41So it can be chilly.
54:43But the truth is that the weather is changing
54:46and no doubt the way that we treat plants
54:48will have to change as well.
54:50And this connects with a letter I've had from Mr Mitchell
54:53from Tadworth in Kent.
54:55And he says that he has a fig tree that's grown well,
54:59covered in figs, but he's not sure when to pick them.
55:01How does he know when they're ripe?
55:04This is a variety called Brown Turkey
55:07and the ripe figs turn a lovely chocolatey plum colour.
55:12And you feel them and they're a bit soft.
55:14But my figs have behaved unusually this year
55:19because they've loved the hot weather,
55:20they've grown just as they do in the Mediterranean
55:23and they have produced a mass of fruit.
55:26There's just one problem.
55:27These figs are the second crop.
55:30The first crop was very few and far between.
55:33I don't suppose we have more than a dozen figs
55:34from trees we've got in the garden.
55:36And I think what the fig tree has done,
55:38it's behaved as though it was in the Mediterranean
55:40and put its energy into the crop
55:42that would ripen later in the year
55:45if we were in a Mediterranean climate.
55:47But despite our exceptionally hot summer,
55:50winter is going to kick in
55:51and I'm afraid that for you, Mr Mitchell,
55:54and for me and all of us who grow figs,
55:56that in a few weeks' time,
55:58we're going to have to pick them all off and discard them.
56:01Otherwise, they'll take energy from the tree.
56:05However, we don't have to do that for a few weeks.
56:08But I've got some jobs for you to do right now, this weekend.
56:25If you pot up hyacinths now,
56:28they should be flowering for Christmas and the new year.
56:31Be sure to buy specially prepared bulbs.
56:34Use a very free-draining compost
56:36and leave the snouts or the pointy ends
56:38sticking out into the air.
56:41Keep them lightly moist
56:42and put them in a dark place for the next few months.
56:45And then when there is a pale shoot about an inch or so long,
56:49bring them out into light and heat
56:51and they will flower a few weeks later.
56:54Now is a good time to hoe underneath hedges,
56:58particularly if they're recently planted.
57:00This will mean they'll go into winter weed-free
57:02and also leaves the ground clear for planting bulbs.
57:07And then when they appear in spring,
57:09they won't have any competition.
57:17If you're going to grow a hyacinth,
57:19you need to have a good, clean,
57:22It's not too late to plant out young salad plants
57:27like lamb's lettuce or rocket for a winter harvest.
57:32Garden centres are selling plants in plugs.
57:35The beauty of this is that they can be grown
57:37just as easily in a container as they can in the ground.
57:41When you've planted them, water them
57:43and be prepared to protect them from frost
57:46with fleece or a cloche.
57:52It's a shame to see the apples on the ground,
57:54but it seems to me that as well as being very prolific,
57:57the apples have better colour than normal this year.
58:00And that's true of all fruits.
58:02So I love the way that the hips of the rambling rose,
58:05Ethel, are beginning to colour up really well.
58:09And the Amelanchier below it is taking on its full autumnal hue.
58:15So the autumn colour is really coming through.
58:19Autumn colour is really kicking in.
58:23And Nigel is eating as many apples as possible
58:26before I gather them up to juice.
58:29But that is it for today.
58:31I'll be back here at Longmeadow at eight o'clock next Friday,
58:34so join us then.
58:35Bye-bye.