Gardeners World S51e24 14-09-18
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hello, welcome to Gardener's World.
00:12I love this time of year in the garden.
00:15It has an unlikely combination between delicacy and energy.
00:22And that delicacy comes from the way that the plants are getting thinner,
00:26and what you're left with are spaces that the light can find.
00:31And the lower light that comes slanting across drifts through plants as though they're made
00:37of gauze.
00:38But along with that, there is the energy that comes from the purples and the oranges.
00:44And put these two things together, and for a few weeks, you have a really magical time.
00:52Coming up on today's show, Francis meets a man with a happy obsession for dailies.
01:00It's got to be nice, tight centre.
01:03It's got to be absolutely perfect.
01:06Adam visits a slice of India, nestled in the Gloucestershire countryside.
01:12This is a mughal garden, and you can see that passion for India in the space.
01:17And I'm getting a visit from Mark Gregory, who has created dozens of gold medal winning
01:25gardens at Chelsea.
01:26And he's going to be advising me on the water feature in my paradise garden.
01:42This is sad, but it's the end of my crop of peas for this year.
01:45This is a variety called Eddie that I sowed as a replacement batch that went in in June.
01:51And they've been fantastic, really delighted with them.
01:54Now, there are still peas, so I'm not going to throw these away.
01:57I will go through picking off every single pod, and we will eat them with relish.
02:02But I need the ground, because I do like to get garlic in the ground in September.
02:10And elephant garlic is what I want to put in today where the peas are.
02:19We were always taught that if you grew legumes, they were nitrogen-fixing, and somehow that
02:25the soil would be full of nitrogen, which is why you grew brassicas after them.
02:30But actually, latest research seems to show that the plants use up most of the nitrogen
02:36that they take from the air.
02:37They actually leave very little behind in the soil.
02:41So if you want a bit of goodness, it's a good idea to add it, and I'm going to add some
02:47compost to this.
03:08Now, this is plenty.
03:11You don't need to put masses and masses of compost on.
03:15When I break this out, this will be less than an inch over the whole area.
03:20The idea is to just top the soil up, just to give it a boost, a restart.
03:24And you don't need to dig it in either.
03:27That will work in perfectly well, process of worms, rain, taking the compost down into
03:34the ground.
03:35Now, I'm a big fan of elephant garlic.
03:41In fact, technically, elephant garlic is a leek, but it looks like a garlic, it smells
03:46like a garlic, and it tastes like a garlic.
03:48But it grows about four times as big as the next biggest garlic.
03:53And you'll see from the cloves here, each one is a whopper.
04:00And you will get six, seven, or eight cloves in a bulb.
04:05Now, although they're so big, elephant garlic is milder than almost all other garlic.
04:11And the technique for growing it is exactly the same as normal garlic, which is to grow
04:15it in rows, spaced about nine inches apart, and to bury it so that it is at least an inch
04:25below the soil.
04:29And of course, just like normal garlic, you'll see that one end is pointy and the other end
04:36is flat.
04:37And that's the basal plate from which the roots grow.
04:41So the flat bit at the bottom, pointy bit up.
05:00What I should do is just rake over it lightly to cover them over.
05:05And they will appear in about three, four weeks' time.
05:11And they're perfectly hardy.
05:12And they do need cold in order to form nice, big bulbs ready for harvest round about the
05:19beginning of July.
05:20Right, I'll just label that.
05:23Don't need to do anything to those.
05:26Just keep them weed-free.
05:27But I do need to start going through these to pick the peas.
05:35I should be keeping some of these for seed and the rest we can eat fresh or freeze.
05:40And one of the features of British gardens is that even the smallest contains plants
05:46from all over the world.
05:48But season cot near Morton in Marsh was based almost entirely on one country.
05:54It is a homage to India.
05:58And Adam went along to pay it a visit.
06:10British gardens have long been influenced by plants and designs from across the globe.
06:15Deep in the Gloucestershire countryside is a house and garden that takes its inspiration
06:20from the architecture and spiritual traditions of one particular country, India.
06:29Built in the early 1800s, Season Coat House is an extraordinary interpretation of classical
06:34Mughal design with a graceful garden boasting grottos, a Hindu temple and cascading spring-fed
06:43pools.
06:46I've come to meet Edward Peake to discover more about the history of the house and its
06:50fascinating gardens.
06:53His family bought Season Coat in the 1940s.
06:56This place is absolutely stunning, the architecture is fantastic, the garden is beautiful.
07:01But you look at the history of this place and it's complex, isn't it?
07:05Complex and unique, really.
07:07It was a family called Cockrell who'd been out in India in the 18th century who were
07:11responsible for it.
07:13They came up with this idea to recreate the Mughal architecture of northern India here
07:17in the Cotswolds.
07:19Their advisor and the kind of genius, really, behind the whole design was this artist called
07:24Thomas Daniel.
07:25Now, he'd been out in India for about eight years at the end of the 18th century and he'd
07:30done a whole series of beautiful pictures of Indian buildings, but he always surrounded
07:35them with these wonderfully sort of romantic landscapes.
07:38So here at Season Coat, he sort of recreated one of his pictures of India.
07:42So he came up with the design for the house and he had a free hand in creating the garden
07:48which surrounded the house.
07:50So the fact that it faces east to the rising sun was very important.
07:55The whole garden on the north side of the house runs down a ravine with a spring at
07:59the top and then flows down the garden, sort of blessing it, as it were, with its water.
08:07The house was completed in 1807 and Season Coat remained in the Cockrell family for most
08:12of the 19th century.
08:15In 1944, the estate had fallen on hard times and was bought by Edward's grandfather, Sir
08:22Cyril Clivert.
08:23It was still a wildly romantic place, but the garden was completely overgrown and the
08:29pools were all dried up.
08:31My mother tells stories of how she and her two sisters were sent out into the garden
08:34with scythes to cut down the grass to try and discover where the pools actually were.
08:40As a sort of advisor for the garden, they called in Graham Stuart Thomas, who was the
08:44great garden plantsman of the day.
08:47And advisor to the National Trust at the time.
08:49Absolutely.
08:50And he's added on his own personal touch.
08:54All the way down the stream, he's created these sinuously edged borders with his typical
08:59palette of plants, lots of stillbys, wagersia, hostas, that kind of thing.
09:04And then in a sort of final flourish, my grandparents, after a visit to India in the 1960s, created
09:09a paradise garden here, with the canals and the Irish hues pretending to be cypresses.
09:19The architecture of the house is often the starting point when designing a garden.
09:24And with such a distinctive building, creating a garden that reflects and complements its
09:29style is key.
09:32This is a bugle garden that Edward's family have added, and you can see that passion for
09:36India in the space.
09:40Traditionally, paradise gardens have a rectangular layout, divided into four quadrants.
09:47Here, Irish hues have been worked through the space, creating a simple but beautiful
09:52symmetry that works against the sweeping curve of the grand orangery.
09:58Flowing water is another essential element.
10:02The long reels help set the geometry, with the central fountain creating the main focal
10:07point.
10:08But it works off the house as well, not only in lines, but the detail that sits up there
10:14in the balconies, repeated in the pool.
10:26This part of the garden really fascinates me.
10:29When you look at it, first of all, it could be a classical English scene, and I think
10:33that's because the planting's been added to over the years.
10:35But as a piece of design, I have to strip it right back.
10:39There probably was a real spiritual connotation to this when it was designed.
10:45It was put here because there's a natural spring that fills the pool and then disappears
10:49down the valley.
10:50But the temple there, which is the ode to the sun god, face east, so you can watch those
10:55beautiful sunrises.
10:58It's the shape of a womb, and that representation of life, and so many of those Mughal gardens
11:03carried those spiritual representations, which for me, is quite a cool way to design a garden.
11:12For Edward and his family, Susan Cote's ancestral connections with India are reflected in their
11:17own continuing relationship with the country.
11:22We absolutely love India.
11:23There is so much that I treasure most about the oriental tradition here at our home.
11:29It's kind of saturated with a sense of the kind of spiritual gardening of the east.
11:35Have you got a special place in this garden that you just like to go and be, you know?
11:41Well, if I had to choose one, it would be the philosopher's seat, as it's called, under
11:46the bridge.
11:47It's like a Mughal pleasure pavilion with water running underneath and the sunlight
11:52bouncing up onto the walls and views up and down the garden.
11:57What I find especially inspiring is the Mughal architecture that they've copied, combining
12:03the Islamic and the Hindu elements that made up the Mughal kingdom.
12:08The bridge is very much a Hindu in style, you know, the domes and the minarets are very
12:13Islamic in style, so the drawing together of those two things, combined with the fact
12:17that Mughal gardens were all about creating serene, peaceful places for spiritual contemplation.
12:27And it's just beautiful to see people enjoying the garden at that really deep level for which
12:33I think it was intended.
12:48Season Kut is a garden I haven't visited, but I must get round to it.
12:52It's fascinating.
12:53Of course, I have a particular interest in Islamic and paradise gardens, having visited
12:57so many across the world, and I'm making one here at Longmeadow.
13:02It's very much in the idiom of the garden.
13:05It's not meant to be a show garden, but to blend in with other things we're doing.
13:08But there are key features that you have to have, and one of them is water.
13:14You must have moving water of some kind.
13:17And that has to be the next stage before we can progress.
13:20Now, I'm not an expert in water features like that, so I need help.
13:26And I've asked Mark Gregory, who has made many gold-medal winning gardens at Chelsea,
13:32and last year designed and made the People's Choice Award, the Yorkshire Garden.
13:36So he is uniquely qualified to set me straight.
13:44I see you've made a friend, Mark.
13:46Yeah.
13:47How are you?
13:48Very well.
13:49Nice to see you.
13:50You too.
13:51Thanks for coming, because I really need some advice.
13:53Being a paradise garden, it has to have a water feature.
13:55There is no compromise on that.
13:57So there will be a square, because it needs to be a circular feature.
14:02On a square.
14:03On a square.
14:04That is absolutely essential.
14:05OK.
14:06And what I'm thinking of is a dish, quite big, gently bubbling, overflowing, so you
14:11can hear the splash, and then obviously just recycling that.
14:15OK.
14:17Putting the choice of the vessel to one side, obviously you're going to need to have an
14:20underground catchment area, for want of a better word.
14:25You can even make that, or you can buy a proprietary...
14:28Well, we've got these here, which I suspect is not nearly big enough.
14:33This kind of system would be great if you had a very, very simple, small little rock
14:38with a little burble, that would be big enough for that.
14:41The type of thing you're looking for is you need something that will create volume of
14:45water.
14:47So it needs to be probably, in your case, probably four feet square, 1.2 metres square.
14:54So basically, then you start with a submersible pump, hardwired in, most pumps now come with
14:59at least 10 metres of cable, and on a feature like this, it's probably the most expensive
15:03part, in actually getting the right pump, and actually getting properly put in electric
15:08feed to it.
15:09Bearing in mind that the cable needs to be below your digging depth, and armoured as
15:12well, and obviously then the connection by a professional electrician.
15:17And then I would say that depending on the volume of water, most people always tend to
15:21undersize the pump, so always get a little bit more than you think.
15:25Because you can always turn this down, you can crank this thing down.
15:28Is there an equation or a way of finding out what you think, because you say get a bit
15:32more than you think, I'm thinking, I want a bubble, I want it to overflow, how do I
15:36work that out?
15:37All the pumps that you buy, in all the right aquatic centres, there will be a flow chart,
15:42and it's basically about the head height, so they talk about head height, so that's
15:46the depth from the pump to actually where you have the water fall over, it breaks.
15:52Pumps are designed to go 24 hours a day, but I would say in your case that you should have
15:56it on a timer, so there's no point in going all night, and you'll increase the life
16:00of your pump.
16:02One of the things we always do as well, would be to balance the water, because these pumps...
16:08I don't know what you mean by that.
16:09Well basically it's the pH, so in a lot of areas of the country, the tap water is full
16:14of lime, lime and pumps don't go together, you put a little bit of dry acid in, and just
16:19neutralise the water.
16:20Okay, that's a good tip, so just to be clear, what you're saying is, dig a pit that is the
16:26right size, line it with a wall of some sort?
16:32What we would use, and what I recommend everybody use, is a butyl rubber.
16:37And then on top of the grating, I was thinking of putting brick.
16:40As long as you've got gaps for the water to get back in, but obviously you need to allow
16:44room for the trap to get to service your pump.
16:48Also pumps are designed to have a decent amount of water over them to work efficiently, so
16:53if you're getting water that's excited, you're getting evaporation, you're getting splash,
16:58think about the possibility of putting a feed there, a top-up feed.
17:01The fact we've got the water feed, we should use it.
17:03Yeah, I mean, if you didn't have the water feed, what could you do is build a bigger
17:07chamber, a deeper chamber, so there's more volume of water.
17:10Brilliant.
17:11Okay.
17:12Let's have a look.
17:16That is a lot of really helpful, practical information from Mark, and I will be having
17:23a go at installing the water feature here in a few weeks' time.
17:29Now I know what I've got to do, I'm certainly out of my comfort zone doing this sort of
17:31thing, but Frances is very much in her comfort zone in the sense that she's gone to visit
17:38an allotment, but it's not her own.
17:40This time she's gone to Birmingham, and to visit somebody who is not growing fruit and
17:45veg and herbs, but one very particular floral harvest.
17:55When it comes to allotments, anything goes.
17:58At first glance, it may look like there's little method, but what I love is that there
18:02is always plenty of madness, with growers experimenting all over the place.
18:09Here I'm told there's one allotment here whose plot really stands out.
18:18Brian Carter is a self-confessed dahlia lover.
18:22He's dedicated his whole plot to his highly prized blooms, which he's grown to show in
18:26competitions.
18:30Brian, 40 years of competitions, have you ever missed a year?
18:35No way.
18:36No way.
18:37So what got you into growing for shows?
18:40I went to a dahlia show, and the colour was amazing, and I thought, we'll have a go at
18:45this.
18:46First year was a disaster.
18:47Why?
18:48I didn't know a great deal about them, but when I saw the standard I was growing, I just
18:53walked away and said, I'll be back.
18:55I started off with 25 plants, and snowballed up to something like 900.
19:01Really?
19:02Wow.
19:03Well, I would love to find out what you need to do to grow prize-winning dahlias.
19:06Can I have a look?
19:07Yes.
19:11There are 14 classes of dahlia that can be shown in competition, but Brian likes a bit
19:16of razzmatazz, so he concentrates on pom-poms, cactus, decoratives, balls, and water lilies.
19:32But one thing's for sure, they must be in tip-top condition.
19:37So what are the judges looking for in an absolutely perfect flower?
19:42It's got to be neat, tight centre.
19:47That centre's gone.
19:49You can't show that, it's gone too far, but you see how it goes back, right to the stem?
19:56So this one could potentially get selected?
19:59That's not out yet, but when it does open, it's...
20:02Oh wow, so that's too early, that's too late, so it's got to be absolutely perfect.
20:09It's got to look like that, Saturday morning about 10 o'clock when the judges go round.
20:15The judges expect to see a specified number of each cultivar looking perfect.
20:21So with this mini decorative, for instance, Brian needs to find 10 identical flowers.
20:27There's some flecks of yellow in this, is that a good thing or a bad thing?
20:30It's a bad thing.
20:31OK.
20:32And what about the size, is that important?
20:35Yes.
20:36It's got to go through the ring.
20:38It's gone over, but it's done.
20:40What is this ring?
20:41It's the National Dahlia Society approved ring, 115mm.
20:46And that's for a specific class of dahlia?
20:49That's the miniature.
20:50It touches the ring, NIS, not the schedule.
20:53Disqualified?
20:54Yeah.
20:55So why have they come up with this ring system?
20:57It was stopping people growing an oversize, bigger isn't better.
21:02All about quality.
21:03Yeah, that makes sense.
21:09That's a giant dick.
21:11Is there a ring for that one?
21:13No.
21:14OK.
21:15I don't think a ring would be good.
21:16It would be a hula hoop.
21:19Over the decades, Brian has won 128 national medals.
21:24So the stakes this year are high.
21:27This is impressive, isn't it?
21:30A Mardi Gold.
21:31A giant dick.
21:32It's lovely as well with the dark leafed foliage, isn't it?
21:35The flowers stand out really nicely with that different colour leaf.
21:39So do you think you'll have three for Friday?
21:41No.
21:42OK.
21:43So maybe this one won't be going in?
21:45No.
21:46We'll move on then, shall we?
21:47Too late.
21:53So is this one that you're a bit happier with?
21:55Yes.
21:56Canada Valentine.
21:57Full-size bloom.
21:58Nice centre.
21:59It's always in the first three.
22:00I can see why.
22:01What category is this one?
22:02Large dick.
22:03OK.
22:04Wherever I go, I take my large dicks.
22:05Is they your favourite ones?
22:08Yeah.
22:09That's perfect.
22:10OK.
22:11Do you reckon you'll have three of these for the show?
22:12I hope so.
22:21Dahlias grow from tubers beneath the ground which store all of their nutrients.
22:25Now, over the years, those tubers will bulk up and you'll end up with a very bushy plant
22:29with lots of smaller flowers.
22:33But Brian doesn't want small flowers for his shows, so he has a nifty trick.
22:37He'll take cuttings from those tubers in the spring and grow a single stem.
22:42And then he'll pinch out any side shoots, nurturing just this flower at the top, which
22:47means he'll have much bigger and much more refined blooms.
22:52Before a competition, Brian marks the best flowers with canes.
22:58Then it's time to take the plunge and prepare them for their journey to the show.
23:04So you're taking a nice long stem?
23:06Yep.
23:09Of course, it's a thin handle, right?
23:11It's a tight water.
23:12Oh, I see.
23:13So because it will soak up all the water, it'll be a nice, long stem.
23:17Yeah.
23:18It's a tight water.
23:19Oh, I see.
23:20So because it will sit like this on the bottom, that makes sense.
23:24Yeah.
23:25And then what's the next stage?
23:27Cane.
23:28Put the cane.
23:29And is that just to keep the stem really secure and sturdy?
23:33Yeah.
23:34Right, it's ready for crating.
23:37Push the knife in below the water line.
23:44That's bled now.
23:45It's full of hair.
23:47Probably to last all week.
23:49If I don't, two hours time, it'll just collapse.
23:54That is secure now.
23:55You can take the bends as fast as you like now.
23:58Oh, yeah.
24:04Brian has dedicated so much of his life to growing dahlias,
24:07and I'd love to know what spurs him on.
24:13Are you here every day?
24:14Yeah.
24:16I have to be coming out.
24:17I have to be growing me dahlias.
24:19I enjoy it that much.
24:22Keeps me out of trouble.
24:26Do you have a holiday ever?
24:28One holiday.
24:29Do the housework before I come out.
24:38I have to say, there aren't many allotment plots in the country
24:41that look better than yours.
24:43Absolutely stunning.
24:57You won't be surprised to learn
24:59that Brian did win a first prize at his show
25:01and the grand sum of nine quid for his pains,
25:04but I guess he grows for love, not money.
25:08I was also very interested to learn
25:11that he'd had some problems,
25:13and that's slightly comforting,
25:14because here at Longmeadow,
25:16it's been the worst year for dahlias ever.
25:19For example, round here, I've got David Howard
25:22in ten different pots.
25:24Normally, by the middle of September,
25:27this would be an intense orange plethora of colour,
25:32and it's not there.
25:34There are buds there, and we've had a few,
25:36but they're really not performing as I might expect.
25:39That's the same for Rothesay Revelo,
25:41which is a dahlia dominating the orchard beds.
25:44Hardly any at all.
25:46Now, I suspect this is because of lack of water
25:49at the critical period in June and July when they were growing,
25:53and we've just simply underestimated
25:55the effect of the heat of the summer.
25:57But if we're going to get more hot summers,
25:59we need to adapt the way we're growing,
26:01and I would be really interested to know
26:03if any of you have had a similar experience with your dahlias.
26:07If you have, or you've got any tips even,
26:10then go to our social media page,
26:12and if you've got pictures, so much the better,
26:14because we'd love to see them.
26:27I've had these trays soaking
26:31because I want to sow some phyllitrum seeds,
26:35and it's often easier, particularly with a small seed,
26:38to sow them onto damp compost
26:40rather than sow them and then water them,
26:43because they skid about on the surface of the compost.
26:48Now, the reason I'm sowing the phyllitrum is I love it.
26:51Phyllitrum deleveii is one of my favourite plants this time of year.
26:55A tall, these bobbles of mauve flower,
26:58and it has elegance, it has a sprightliness,
27:02and I'd love them to run right through the grass borders
27:05and the orchard beds.
27:07But to do that, I need about 50 plants,
27:09and the best way to grow phyllitrum is from seed.
27:12I've got some seed here.
27:14Now, in general, these will germinate best
27:19if you use fresh seed, i.e. collect your own.
27:22But obviously, if you don't have a plant to collect from,
27:25then you have to buy them.
27:27Now, I'm just going to scatter these thinly
27:31on top of the damp compost,
27:34trying to space them out if I possibly can.
27:37This idea of having masses and masses of the same plant,
27:41it's a really good way of getting a strong theme.
27:47And if you have one plant that dominates,
27:50you can then work all kinds of other things around it
27:53throughout different seasons.
27:55I'm going to cover these with a bit of grit,
27:58and that will hold them in place,
28:00because where you have seed that doesn't put down roots
28:04for quite a while, there is a real risk
28:06that they either get blown away
28:08or bashed about by heavy rain,
28:10and this will protect them.
28:15So, phyllitrum thalavei.
28:20Now, I need to put this in a protected place,
28:25but outside, no extra heat,
28:28and I'm really going to protect it
28:30from heavy rain and snow as much as anything else.
28:33Cold is not a problem,
28:35and a little bit of damp isn't a problem,
28:37so I'm going to put it in a part of the cold frames.
28:41There'll be nothing to see until next spring,
28:45and then they will germinate.
28:47I can prick them out, and then they'll grow quite quickly,
28:50and so they'll be ready to plant out
28:52at the end of May, beginning of June.
28:54They will not flower in their first year.
28:56You have to wait until 2020 to see those flower.
29:00But it's well worth the wait,
29:02because I should have,
29:04because I'm going to have to wait
29:07Now, that is planning for the future,
29:09but a plant that is doing its best right now,
29:13and in the most dramatic, exotic way possible,
29:16is the ginger.
29:18And you may think that ginger is something that is tropical
29:22and we only use it in the kitchen and can't grow it in the garden,
29:25but you'd be wrong.
29:27And Andrew Gaunt grows ginger in his garden,
29:30and it's a fantastic plant.
29:32Ginger can't grow in the garden, but you'd be wrong.
29:35And Andrew Gaunt grows an awful lot of them,
29:38so we went to see him down in Chichester.
29:50This is the National Collection of Ginger Lilies.
29:55Their Latin name is Hedicium,
29:57and they range from parts of China and Himalayas
30:00right down through to the tropics of Malaysia and that part of the world.
30:06About 15 years ago, I really got interested,
30:09and it was just by chance.
30:11I went to a local nursery that had got one,
30:14and I was rather taken with the fragrance and the flower.
30:17It's a gardenia-type, strong scent.
30:20It was an unusual plant.
30:22It's not something you come across day to day.
30:25And I thought they were so easy to look after
30:28that I bought one or two more and bought one or two more
30:31until I actually outgrew the garden,
30:33and now I've taken over a glass house, as you see here today.
30:39The collection is made up of 214 species and hybrids,
30:45and the aim of a national collection
30:48is to grow as many of that genus as possible.
30:51What it is is a living library.
30:54There are three types of flower.
30:56There is the shuttlecock, where the blooms are forcing upwards.
31:00There is a cone, where the blooms come out sideways sequentially.
31:04And then this more typical butterfly-type ginger,
31:08where there's a big cone of flower on there.
31:13Edicium gingers are related to quite a few things that you might know.
31:18Zingiber, which is the edible ginger.
31:21Cannas and bananas, the musa,
31:24are all in the same Zingiberale family.
31:28When it comes to flowering, there are three stages mainly.
31:31They start flowering from the longest day onwards,
31:34which is the first flush.
31:36You then get a second flush in sort of September, late August, September.
31:42So things like the Thai spirit, which is a very tall one,
31:46with a lovely large bottle brush orange flower on it.
31:53And we're now bringing back into cultivation one called rubrum,
31:57which is almost a red.
31:59There are only a few of those in the country currently.
32:02And then the later ones will come in October.
32:05So you can get a nice succession of flowers through the summer
32:09when a lot of the summer bedding is starting to fade.
32:17This one is Edicium coccineum.
32:20It's a very good, hardy variety
32:23that produces a very nice, lush flower
32:27that can be grown easily in the UK gardens.
32:30To grow them, you plant the rhizome in the ground,
32:34you feed it with a general-purpose fertiliser,
32:37a little bit of lime to provide the calcium,
32:40and the Epsom salts to provide the sulphate and the magnesium
32:44that the heavy crop requires.
32:50Edicium almost have a natural insecticide,
32:54so nothing really touches them at all.
32:57The slugs don't touch them,
32:59and nothing disease-wise really affects them at all.
33:03It starts growing in about May time,
33:06and in August you get these lovely long orange flowers on there.
33:12What you do then is wait until the winter starts to arrive,
33:17wait until the frosts burn the leaves,
33:20and then you chop it off at ground level.
33:23And then I use a bit of wood chip over the top.
33:27That allows the rhizome to breathe,
33:30but protects it from the worst of the weather.
33:33And then you'll get a lovely crop in the following year.
33:37A lot of the early varieties, like this one, which is euninensis,
33:41produce seed pods which are dark green,
33:44and then when they're ready,
33:46they literally explode open into this lovely colour of red and orange.
33:51You take the seed off, you dry it,
33:55so these seeds then are small and brown.
33:58You put them in a paper bag,
34:00keep them cool and dry for the winter period,
34:03and then sow them early in the spring
34:05when the light levels start to pick up again.
34:13The ginger lilies arrived in the Victorian times.
34:17They were brought back from our colonial countries
34:20and were grown in the heated glass houses of the Victorian era.
34:24After the World Wars, a lot of the gardeners died
34:28and weren't able to look after them, so they fell out of fashion.
34:32But now, with modern plant hunting,
34:34they've now found much more hardier varieties
34:37that will grow in our gardens today.
34:46Come on. Good boy, good boy, good boy.
34:58It feels like a bit of a gamble,
35:00but that has inspired me to try growing a ginger here in the jewel garden.
35:08I got this magnificent specimen,
35:11and this is a Hedicium densiflorum Assam orange,
35:16and it's supposed to be particularly hardy.
35:19So in the ground, and good luck with you.
35:25Now, I think this will look well
35:28with the cannas and the dahlias and nifofia
35:31and, of course, the stocking grape banana behind.
35:34But what gingers really like and need is rich soil.
35:40Plenty of moisture, plenty of goodness...
35:44..and good drainage.
35:48Let's try it.
35:59Ooh, it's got this amazing whiff of ginger.
36:03So, let's tease it out of the pot.
36:10There we go. Look at that.
36:13There are the roots. You can see. Look at them.
36:16Really fleshy roots.
36:19Pop that in the ground like that.
36:23Being as gentle as we can.
36:29Right, I'll give that a drink.
36:32Enjoy it for the rest of the summer.
36:34And then, when there's the first bit of frost,
36:37when it starts to get really cold,
36:39I will cut this back, let it die back, and then mulch it thickly.
36:43And by thickly, I mean sort of a great mound.
36:45I'll probably put that much mulch over the top of it
36:48as an insulating layer to protect the roots.
36:51And if the roots are OK, then it will grow back next year.
36:58I'm sure it will.
37:04Still to come,
37:06Toby Buckland seeks inspiration from a sensational garden in Cheshire.
37:20But first, we go to Welshpool in Wales
37:24to join Nick at Powys Castle.
37:29Welcome to Powys Castle.
37:33This magnificent stately home stands proudly above formal gardens,
37:38featuring bountiful herbaceous borders and spectacular yew hedges,
37:43which date back to the 17th century.
37:47Hedges are one of the most ignored,
37:50but arguably one of the most important features in our gardens.
37:54They provide privacy, screening, protection, a home for wildlife,
37:59and a fantastic backdrop to our borders.
38:17I'm meeting Edwin Van Holsen.
38:20He's one of the gardeners who has the mammoth task
38:23of looking after the formal hedging here on the grounds.
38:26This, of course, is a yew hedge or a taxus,
38:29but there are other hedges you can tackle at this time of year.
38:32Yeah, pretty well, any sort of evergreen privet is a good one to do.
38:35Box if you haven't done your box yet.
38:37OK. When some people tackle it at home,
38:39this nightmare scenario starts to happen.
38:41They start to cut deeper and deeper into here,
38:44and then it gets wider and wider and wider.
38:46The more you stretch over, the more it goes out.
38:48And that causes all sorts of problems for the hedge, doesn't it?
38:51It does, eventually.
38:52If it gets too wide, it might get snow on it, it'll collapse.
38:55Particularly sort of formal hedges, the sharp line will disappear.
38:58Now, you've got a particular technique that you use here
39:01to keep this vertical.
39:03This is your straight line on the floor.
39:05So you've got a string line at the bottom,
39:07and so effectively, as you're cutting it,
39:09you're sort of looking down that orange string line to keep it...
39:12I'm making the orange line appear in front of us.
39:15So obviously this technique deals with the face of the hedge,
39:18but one of the things that's a real giveaway
39:21is the level of precision on top.
39:23Now, what do you do to ensure that?
39:25It'll be a similar sort of principle,
39:27and we're going to go right across the top of that.
39:29As it happens, I think one of my colleagues is on the other side.
39:32Fantastic.
39:33This is one year's growth on the yew.
39:35It only starts growing sort of beginning of the summer,
39:38and all of a sudden it'll put on 6, 8, 10 inches of growth.
39:41So this cut now will essentially hold this
39:44all the way through to next summer?
39:46Yeah.
39:55Garden hedges are more than merely boundary plants.
39:58There's all sorts of things they can do
40:01to add to the design and structure of your garden.
40:04Now, this buxus here is working brilliantly.
40:07It almost sets this planting up as a raised bed,
40:10and it helps pin the planting
40:12and tie it back to the walls behind it.
40:14But it's also hiding a secret.
40:17Behind this hedge is a not-very-attractive
40:20concrete slab retaining wall.
40:22So it's disguising that,
40:24and it does far more than just a boundary hedge.
40:28Arguably, Powys' biggest highlight
40:31is the 14-metre-high top terrace hedge.
40:36Formal yew hedges were planted beside the castle in the 1680s,
40:40and by the end of that century,
40:42they were allowed to grow naturally
40:44and become more tree-like in structure
40:46and abstract in shape.
40:49In Victorian times, they were clipped back
40:52using only hand shears and balancing planks.
40:55Using only hand shears and balancing precariously
40:58on very long ladders.
41:01Nowadays, Dan Bull, one of the gardeners here,
41:04goes up in the air on a hydraulic cherry picker
41:07to complete all the high-level hedge cutting.
41:14Dan, this is quite literally at another level, isn't it?
41:18Yeah, we're pretty high up here.
41:20This hedge is so, so dense.
41:22By cutting it every year,
41:24we're producing side growths,
41:26which is making it a lot denser.
41:28So it just gets thicker and thicker?
41:30Just thicker and thicker, yeah.
41:32There's some areas around here
41:34where we've actually cut holes to get the light to come in,
41:37and that just sparks buds off and we get the regrowth.
41:40The yew's great, it regenerates really well,
41:42so we cut back quite hard into it.
41:44And the amazing thing is, of course,
41:46we could fell this to the ground.
41:48Yeah, and it'll come back up again.
41:50Even though it's a man-made entity,
41:52it just blends so beautifully into the landscape.
41:54Yeah, it just blends in, doesn't it?
41:56Even when it's all been cut from a distance,
41:58it does look like a rock face as well.
42:00Are we going to give it a go?
42:02Yeah, do you want to have a go?
42:04Yeah.
42:06All right, then.
42:08There you go.
42:10Lean out.
42:18How's that?
42:20Are there any feet more to go?
42:32Hedges here are on a truly grand scale,
42:36but the techniques that are used to manage them
42:38can be applied absolutely anywhere.
42:41It's all about precision and timing.
42:44Get those both right, and you'll have a perfect hedge.
42:51Yeah.
43:03I last went to Powys Castle over 25 years ago.
43:09It is an extraordinary place,
43:11and I'd urge anybody who's not been there
43:13to go and have a look for yourselves.
43:21It's in there.
43:23Well done. You're so clever.
43:30I'm just placing these out
43:33because this is a new border,
43:37and it's hardly a border at all.
43:39It's a strip that we cleared under the hedge.
43:41The hedge wasn't doing very well,
43:43but it's a new border,
43:45and it's hardly a border at all.
43:47It's a strip that we cleared under the hedge.
43:49The hedge wasn't doing very well.
43:51So cleared the grass, mulched it thickly,
43:54and that improved the state of the hornbeam.
43:56And now it will cope with a little bit of competition
43:59from a few plants.
44:01However, the plants have to be well chosen
44:03because they may not cope with what the hedge is doing.
44:06So I'm starting off with these ferns.
44:09This is a polypodium.
44:11They are more or less evergreen
44:13because they stay green if it's at all mild all winter.
44:17And of course that is going to help
44:20because most of the planting I'm doing in here is geared at spring.
44:23So we can just pop those along.
44:26I've dug up some primroses,
44:29which I can divide and spread,
44:32and primroses grow really well along the bottom of a hedge.
44:35In fact, they self-seed themselves along all the hedges here.
44:38And now is a perfectly good time
44:40to dig up clumps of primroses of any kind
44:44and just break them apart like that.
44:46You've got the roots there,
44:48and then that will spread and form a new clump.
44:51And then the final plant I've got in is cyclamen.
44:55Now, I've got a tray here of cyclamen coon.
45:00This is actually a white version,
45:03but they're very often pink.
45:05The leaves are fully formed,
45:07and they've got this extraordinary glossy burgundy colour underneath
45:11and a sort of green on top.
45:13But the flowers won't appear
45:16until January, February or even March if it's cold.
45:20But really cold weather, snow and ice won't in any way harm them.
45:25And they're pretty tough, easy to grow.
45:28I've added plenty, not compost, but of leaf mould to this
45:32because these are woodland plants.
45:34I've got these around.
45:40Right, we're starting to get
45:43a natural feel of planting in a tricky place.
45:48And when you talk about natural planting,
45:51what you're really saying is it shouldn't look planted.
45:54It should look as though it's just happened there.
45:57OK, I'm happy with that. I'm going to start planting.
46:05I did say that this is a tricky spot.
46:07This is essentially dry shade,
46:09and it's quite difficult to get right
46:12because your range of plants is limited.
46:15And one of the best ways of getting information and inspiration
46:20is to go and visit gardens,
46:22look and see what other people have done.
46:25You're just looking for ideas.
46:27It could be just two plant combinations
46:29that you haven't thought of before and looks fantastic.
46:33And if you're lucky, you might get a nice cup of tea and a piece of cake too.
46:38And that's what Toby has done.
46:40I don't know if he got the tea and the cake,
46:42but I do know he went to visit a very nice garden in Cheshire.
46:51I love visiting gardens.
46:53I mean, it's a chance to enjoy the fruits of other people's labour.
46:57And, of course, it's a wonderful opportunity
47:00to hoover up good ideas of my own.
47:06And that's why I've come here,
47:08to the Cheshire Plains and Streatham Old Hall.
47:11It's a garden of rooms,
47:13each one themed and packed with summer colour
47:16and created with as much care and flair
47:19as the designs at the Chelsea Flower Show.
47:31The garden's like a living lesson on design.
47:34It's divided into rooms and each one has its own character,
47:37its own personality, but the clever thing is,
47:40they're connected either by steps or paths
47:43or tantalising glimpses one into the next.
47:46What I like, though, is the garden's groove.
47:49It's all about rhythm and movement.
47:52These vestigiate hornbeams, like so many of the plants in the garden,
47:56are planted symmetrically,
47:59but yet at their base there's amorphous, naturalistic planting
48:02and huge pools of the same thing.
48:05And then there's the water, connecting the different areas together.
48:10And up close, the garden doesn't disappoint either
48:13because the attention to detail, well, it's remarkable.
48:17I mean, here, you've got that wintered bracken-coloured brickwork
48:20chiming in with the carex and the leathery leaves of heuchera.
48:25Clearly, this is the work of a designer at the top of their game.
48:33To find out more about how the garden evolved,
48:36I'm meeting the owner, architectural designer
48:39and self-taught garden designer, Ken Roscoe.
48:43Ken, your garden is fabulous. Thank you.
48:46You have a kind of innate understanding of space.
48:50Would you say that's true?
48:52Um, that's very kind.
48:54To me, I find that the easy part.
48:57The hard part for me in the garden
49:00was understanding each of the plants
49:02and how this is not a static space
49:06in building a house or an interior.
49:09It's done. Day one, it's static.
49:11Did you expect it to be?
49:13I did, if I'm truly honest.
49:15But I've enjoyed the challenge of how it's evolved
49:17and how it builds and builds.
49:19So tell me about the garden rooms.
49:21We like to play with scale and form in the real gardens,
49:25which started from the smallest of plot sizes
49:28through to the size of the garden I grew up in.
49:32Three bedrooms, semi-detached house, very long, narrow garden,
49:36and then into the kitchen garden.
49:39Here we are on the main terrace,
49:41and so bringing in the oversized pots with the olives,
49:44they make a larger space feel more intimate.
49:48It has a real feeling that it's been here for a long time.
49:52How did you achieve that?
49:54You have to have something that grounds the garden,
49:57and so we reused paving from the original driveway,
50:01things like the doors into the kitchen garden.
50:04We found them in a reclamation yard, imported from India.
50:07We actually built the wall around the door,
50:10and so having the pieces that have real heart to them,
50:13that's what I think grounds the garden.
50:16OK, now I'm going to nip off and breathe in some of the magic,
50:20but it really is glorious. Thanks for having us. Enjoy.
50:33Aren't these late-season flowers just lovely?
50:36That's partly because at this time of year
50:38there's a lot of dust in the atmosphere,
50:40and that makes the sunlight look red,
50:43and it picks up the orange centres of Echinacea
50:46and the noses of Hellenium and bright red Chrycosmia,
50:50and makes them almost seem iridescent and glow.
50:54The lesson here, though, is about perspective.
50:57Now, most of us plant our borders so they look good side-on.
51:00However, if you change the perspective, that changes everything.
51:04Viewed from the end, it's as full as a florist's bucket.
51:14Sometimes in gardening, less is more.
51:17This vision of green is made up of just three plants.
51:21The top layer sticks only around Tartica or tree ferns.
51:24It gives an exotic vibe.
51:26And then there's boulders of box that add solidity to the ground level.
51:30And in between them is a roiling mass of Hacanocloa grass
51:34that looks like a green sea,
51:36particularly when it moves around in the breeze.
51:39Just lovely.
51:41This could be scaled right down to that difficult-to-plant dark bit
51:45at the bottom of your garden,
51:47but they look good for such a long time through the year.
52:01The terrace is my favourite part of the garden
52:04because it has such personality and a long season of interest.
52:08And that's largely thanks to these tapestry borders
52:11that run down the side of the path.
52:13It's basically silver thyme with black Ophiopogon grass,
52:17lovely tactile stachys and sanguisorba.
52:20And it's clever because it's weatherproof.
52:22In a sunny year, the thyme and the silver stachys will really thrive,
52:26and in wetter years, well, the Ophiopogon will really like that.
52:30And then there's the pots.
52:34Have you ever had the feeling that you've been downsized?
52:37Well, I'm 10 years younger.
52:39I feel about 10 years old stood next to this.
52:42It's just wonderfully playful.
52:44You could copy this idea with perhaps a plastic container,
52:47something made of wood, homespun,
52:49but by supersizing, you create, well, a piece of living sculpture.
52:54Now, olives are wonderful container trees
52:56because, well, you can forget to water them a couple of times
52:59and they won't die off, they're very robust.
53:01But it's this St Peter's port daisy that really makes it.
53:06It's called the Harvinsky anus.
53:08It's just a lovely thing. I've got it in my garden.
53:10And, you know, it's in flower and looking good all year round.
53:15This is a garden that is obviously easy on the eye.
53:18And although it's on a grand scale and it's packed with plants,
53:22it's also packed with really good ideas for gardens both big and small.
53:37I really like those giant pots with the olives in them.
53:41I think these are pretty big and I'm very happy with them,
53:44but wouldn't they be fantastic if they were twice as big?
53:47And what's interesting about that is that they were used
53:50to make a big area seem more intimate,
53:53but you can work it the other way.
53:55If you've got a small garden, think about putting in a really big pot
53:59or even a couple if you've got room.
54:01And although that might seem counterintuitive,
54:04in fact it makes a small space seem bigger.
54:07A few chosen large objects or plants
54:10will actually expand the space rather than constrict it.
54:15And what I've been doing here is just tweaking these,
54:18just taking off anything that's just sticking out slightly,
54:21because it's all part of the process we've tried to do
54:24across the whole garden over the last week,
54:26which is to cut hedges, cut edges, cut entrances and exits
54:31to give it crispness to the general way
54:34that the garden inevitably at this time of year
54:37is fading and thinning out.
54:39That gives it another energy
54:41and keeps it looking good for an extra few weeks.
54:45OK, there's one tip.
54:48Here are some jobs to get on with this weekend.
55:02Thank you. Come on.
55:09If you grow large, vigorous brassicas
55:12like purple-sprouting broccoli or Brussels sprouts,
55:15they will need supporting before winter kicks in.
55:19Use good, strong canes or stakes and drive them in firmly
55:24and then tie them securely.
55:26That way, they'll be able to withstand
55:28the worst of the winter weather.
55:40You can make your own turf for lawn repair very simply.
55:45Take a seed tray, fill it with compost
55:48and then sprinkle over some grass seed,
55:50pressing it down so there is really good contact with the compost.
55:54Cover that lightly and put it somewhere sheltered.
55:59Keep it well watered
56:01and the grass will germinate and sprout very quickly
56:04and then you can use it to repair worn patches.
56:14Now is a good time to plant out biennials
56:17such as these foxgloves where you want them to grow next year.
56:21You can either buy young plants
56:23or, as I've done, redistribute self-seeded ones
56:27where you want them to flower.
56:29Plant them now and the roots will go on growing
56:31until the weather gets cold
56:33so you'll have nice, strong plants for next year.
56:52I'm assembling a very rough-and-ready pair of bays
56:56for our shredding material.
56:58This is what goes on behind the scenes.
57:00And what we try and do here is recycle everything,
57:04use everything we can.
57:06So this is for all the prunings,
57:08whether they be cutting back trees, hedge trimmings,
57:12not anything really spiky.
57:14That gets burnt and then the ash put on the compost heap.
57:17This bay here is intended for leaves.
57:20We've dumped prunings in there for the moment.
57:22But the idea is that we have all that sort of material in here
57:26and then, when it's completely full,
57:28we shred it and put it into there.
57:31And it takes about four bays to fill one of these bays.
57:34And it can stay there all winter
57:36and then in the spring we can either use it as a mulch
57:39because it will have rotted down enough
57:41or we can use it for paths,
57:43which are very good in the vegetable garden, straight.
57:45As soon as we shred it, it goes down on the path
57:47and that works well too.
57:50So...
57:56Now, these pallets are from a builder's merchant.
58:00They're a mixed bag, they're not the same,
58:02they don't look very fancy, but they do the job very well indeed.
58:05You just can bang a post in,
58:07you can tie them together with string or wire,
58:09you can screw them, you can nail them.
58:11But as long as it does the job for a few years,
58:14they work well and you're recycling all that you can.
58:19OK, I've got a bit more to do and I'll be busy,
58:22but I'll see you next week back here at Longmeadow.
58:24Till then, bye-bye.
58:26OK, let's make sure that is in line with that.
58:49OK, let's make sure that is in line with that.