Gardeners World S51e28 12-10-18

  • 3 months ago
Transcript
00:00Hello, welcome to Gardener's World. Now, here in the wildlife garden, the point is
00:19to maximise the wildlife I can get in a relatively small space and yet clearly keep it as a garden
00:27that is attractive. At this time of year, the key thing is don't be too tidy. Don't
00:32cut back seed heads because, of course, the seeds are precious food for birds. Leave dried
00:40stems because insects can get inside them and that's good protection in the worst of
00:45the winter months. And, of course, plant things like asters which are providing late sources
00:51of nectar for bees and butterflies and the same goes for sedums too. Sedums are brilliant
00:56for butterflies on a warm October day. And then if you have trees and shrubs with berries
01:02and lots of cover, you'll be amazed at the variety of wildlife that can come and share
01:08your garden. And the key thing to remember is a garden with lots of wildlife is not just
01:14fascinating. It's not just doing its bit for the environment. It's a healthy garden. It's
01:20good for the gardener.
01:26Coming up on tonight's show, Jo goes to Morvan in search of world record-breaking giant vegetables.
01:33I wouldn't want to drop it now. Why is yours such a weird one? Yours is like an alien.
01:39We visit a lush tropical garden on the Kent coast. If I'm told I can't grow it, I'm more
01:45likely to have a go at growing it. I see it as a challenge. And I shall be having a
01:50visit from Emma Sherlock who is an expert on one type of wildlife that's probably the
01:58most important that any garden could have. I'm, of course, speaking about worms.
02:23But first, I've got a big and rather dramatic job. And it's all based on a mistake. These
02:32are three individual roses called Rosa Agnes. It's got a lovely yellow flower. In fact,
02:39it's one of the very few rugoses that does have a yellow flower. But when you put them
02:43in a border like this, with very rich soil, you can see the whole bed is completely dominated
02:50by this rather dark, matte green foliage of a very prickly plant. So I've made a mistake.
02:56I've put the wrong plant in here. And I'm going to move them. Because you can move roses.
03:03And now is a good time to do it. But first, I need to tool up. Now, the reason for this
03:15is purely for protection. And I know I'm not cutting a dash. But I have been stabbed
03:23and torn too often by roses not to take necessary measures. And I have good strong gloves too.
03:40When you move any tree or shrub, what you want to think about is the top growth being
03:46no bigger than the roots. If I dug this up and moved it lock, stock and barrel, you're
03:54left with this tiny root system compared to the top growth. And the chances are it will
03:58do badly if not die. That's the easy bit. That's cut back. And now at least I can get
04:07at it. I can see what I'm doing. I can get a spade in and start the process of digging
04:11it out, which of course is the hard bit. Dig a circle around the plant. And then effectively
04:25you're going to cut the roots in that circle. There we go. I'm trussed up like a knight
04:38in armour. I could get rid of some of this stuff. Now that is still absolutely rock
04:57solid in there which means it's got deep wooden tap roots holding it in place. And I need
05:01to undercut those. Garden gym. It's good for you.
05:24I'll give you Rosa, Rugosa, Agnes. All this bag is doing is delaying it drying out. Put
05:46that in the burrow. I'm going to distribute the three roses in this area. But the first
06:09one is going to go in this bed which has never really found its right balance or theme. So
06:15it needs something substantial to go in here. And the Rugosa won't mind a little bit of shade.
06:20But first I do need to make some space. Well you can see that there's going to be quite a
06:32bit more to do but I'll keep plugging away at it. There's no question that it is never a waste of
06:42time to visit a garden. Because you're always bound to find something that will fire or inspire
06:49you or inform you that will relate to your own garden. And Toby has left his home on the south
06:55coast to go all the way north to Scotland to find inspiration in a rather special garden.
07:02It's not every day that I travel 439 miles to visit a garden. But I think
07:18Whitborough Ward garden here in magnificent Midlothian is going to be worth it. Do you know
07:31I try not to say the word gosh but my gosh isn't this stunning. This plot has been divided up like
07:43a checkerboard into different gardens each with its own theme each with its own look. Each one's
07:48spectacular. That is down to the genius of the gardens creators. Owner Elizabeth Salverson and
07:58head gardener Vincent Dudley. Do you have any favorite parts of the garden? They change depending
08:12on the time of year. Funnily enough one of the favorite ones is the clipped box in the corner
08:18which give it to all you know a sort of grounding really and structure. Bit like a picture frame. Yeah
08:25organic sculpture maybe I don't know. But I also like the colorful beds seen through the grasses.
08:32Well I think at the moment that's looking good is Veronicastrum virginicum. All the
08:38phlox is looking great. Calamagros is looking grand. It's all dying well but looking good.
08:43Dying well I like that. Well I'm dying to have a look at the garden.
08:56The reason so many gardens don't look that colorful is because the borders are too narrow.
09:04They're mean. I mean you know what I'm talking about. There's a lawn in the middle and then
09:08there's this skinny strip of color around the outside. Well if you invert that and then turn
09:14the lawn into borders and then where the borders were turn them into gravel paths you bring your
09:20garden into the center out into the sunshine and you could create an effect like this. Now I know
09:26that this section of border is part of a larger garden but it's four meters wide eight meters
09:32long. You can fit that into your average size postage stamp garden and you needn't break the
09:37bank with the planting. Most of the color in here is from annuals or self sowers. So there's
09:43verbena bonariensis, curly kale as dark as Darth Vader's cloak and next to it popping out and
09:51bright as anything it's marigold. Not just any old one this is a variety called Prince and has
09:56this rather regal purple red suffusion through the petals so it chimes in with the dark colors
10:02of the kale. What I like here though is the plants have been allowed to self sow into the paths as
10:09well and that just softens the whole garden and connects the paths to the borders. Now you might
10:14not have come across this is verbena hastata a country cousin of verbena bonariensis but a much
10:21better plant for heavy clay soils where the old bonariensis won't grow. With all the foliage swaying
10:34around in the bridge you can't help but notice that this is a windy site. Not only has it got a
10:39high latitude it's got a high altitude too. So one of the things Elizabeth and Vincent have done to
10:46reduce the amount of maintenance is to reduce the amount of plants that need staking with clever
10:50choices. Grasses like miscanthus have an elasticity to them so they can roll with the punches.
10:58Meanwhile flowers like phlomis they've got square stems like the angular corners on a skyscraper
11:05they hold the flowers up and keep them well vertical no matter what the weather throws at
11:10them. Another example is salvia amistad now this was discovered on an Andean flower market. I know
11:19talk about altitude but yes a tough and robust flower just goes on all summer long and then
11:26there are plants that you plant to protect everything else and I just love the purple
11:32cherry hedge. It's Prunus sarasifera pisadia and I've seen that grown clipped and pruned so many
11:39times and you know what it might look neat and tidy but it looks about as miserable as a school
11:45boy on the first day of the autumn turn. Much better to just prune it in September and let it
11:52do its own thing run up towards the sky during summer and create a dynamic moving barrier that
11:59filters the breeze and protects all delicate flowers in its lee. The feeding in the garden
12:18is quite unconventional. Herbaceous flowers are chopped down in early spring and their stems rot
12:24away and then feed the crowns as they come up into growth. Except in this parcel as Vincent's
12:30told me that over the years lots of wood ash has been piled into soil that is quite moist already
12:36and that makes a big flowers especially if you plant large blooming varieties. This is Persicaria
12:45fat domino so called because it's chubbier than other Persicarias and then there's Hydrangea
12:53Annabelle. I mean this is a flower with heft. I mean it's so beamy. When the flowers first emerge
13:00they're green and quite tasteful then they turn into this cumulus nimbus of petals. It just goes
13:06to show if you've got large varieties already and you feed your soil and you keep it moist you can
13:14turn your hydrangeas right to flowers as big as beanbags. With its topiary pyramids and flower
13:24combinations that look like they're lit with limelight it's a feast for the senses. In many
13:30ways it's very Vegas partly because so creative but more than that Elizabeth and Vincent took
13:38chances planting in this innovative way. Do you know what? That gamble has paid off.
13:45The truth is all gambles pay off in a garden because by taking risks by trying things the
14:04very worst that can happen is you learn something and that applies to roses because for years it was
14:10the received wisdom that you couldn't and shouldn't move an established rose and then came along this
14:17stuff and this is mycorrhizal powder and what it does is replace the mycorrhizal fungi and the
14:25relationship between the plants roots and the mycorrhizae immediately and it's essential to
14:31get the nutrients and water to the plant. I'm going to put some on the soil so where the roots
14:37touch the soil there will be some contact but most of it I will put on the roots themselves. Take it out.
14:43Now at this stage I'm just going to wet the roots with a spray of water
14:54and sprinkle the powder on and it'll stick to them. Then we just pack the soil back round it.
15:07Just wiggle it about and what that will do is make the soil sift down so it really gets
15:19around all the roots. You don't want any air pockets at all. Firm it in really well and then
15:31before I go up to the top I will get as much water in there as possible and that will work the soil
15:37in around the roots and then finally when it's had a good water and the soil is firm around it I will
15:42mulch it thickly with good compost. Right I'll let that soak in but while it's happening hopefully
15:50I will find Emma Sherlock having a look at the garden because I've invited her over to advise
15:56me about one of the most important creatures that any gardener could be proud to share their garden
16:03with and that's the earthworm. Like any gardener I know that worms do a fabulous job aerating our
16:13soils and improving its biodiversity and fertility but the truth is most of their life remains a
16:18mystery. But as part of her work at the Natural History Museum Emma has studied them for years so
16:26she's the perfect person to unearth the secrets about them. Well Emma what have you found? What
16:34have you found? Ah well I've been having a look at the earthworms under your pots here just because
16:40that's a brilliant place to start looking for earthworms in your garden. It's not the first
16:45place people would think to look is it? But actually looking under plant pots is where you get some of
16:50your rarer species and some of your more interesting species. If we have a look at this, first thing
16:56I'm noticing is the fleshy band so even though this is actually a really small worm this is
17:03showing me it's an adult. So that's an adult of what type of worm? Right so we've got about 29
17:12different species of earthworm in the UK. This is actually one of our surface feeders. These are the
17:17ones that are under leaf litter, they're in rotting logs and they're actually directly breaking down
17:23the organic matter and releasing all those vital nutrients back into your soil. If we're finding
17:28those under pots and those pots are on a brick wall, how's that working with the soil itself? These
17:34are brilliant little refuges for them. It's nice and dark under there, it keeps the moisture in
17:40for them but also little bits of organic matter are dropping down, they're then consuming these
17:46and converting them into a little kind of soil systems under the pots themselves. We should be
17:51treasuring that. Absolutely, yes. That's extra special worm compost. Indeed, yeah. I will do that from now on.
17:58Okay that's one type of worm, now let's go and look for another because I am a great fan of what I
18:05think of as the ordinary earthworm. Now just come and have a look because this area, which is now we
18:19call the cottage garden and there's a medley of plants, used to be for years and years our vegetable
18:27garden. So every year I'd add masses of mushroom compost and manure and all kinds of things. Great. And of
18:33course mushroom compost is fairly alkaline which I believe worms like, is that right? Well they vary a bit but yes they
18:39definitely don't like it too acidic. Okay well let's see if I can find any. Now of course having
18:44boasted how many I've got there probably won't be any but let's have a look. Oh great, brilliant. This is one of my
18:52favourites. You see I've made you happy already. And this is a common earthworm. Yes, so there's two that are this
19:00size, this big size, that you'll regularly see. One is this one and another one with a much deeper redhead.
19:08They're our biggest worms in the UK and these are our deep burrowers. So it's actually these burrows
19:15that are then allowing all the water to penetrate into your soil. So if you see in your garden where
19:22you've got earthworm casts maybe, so those are always the bits of soil that look like they've
19:27been squeezed out of a tube of toothpaste, but also around that you can see where little twigs or
19:33leaves have been pulled in. These are where these deep burrower worms live. Now why is it that at
19:41this time of year we see so many more worm casts than say in summer? Right, well in the summer
19:48actually the soil gets really quite dry and earthworms have to stay moist because if they
19:55dry out they die. So what they'll actually do is burrow much deeper into the soil, they'll curl up
20:01into a ball, cover themselves in mucus and estivate, so basically summer hibernation. But once the rain
20:08comes, also you've got the leaves again falling off the trees, then that's when they're at their happiest.
20:14Obviously the other big role of earthworms in your garden is also they're a huge food source for all
20:23the animals around, they're really sustaining the ecosystem. How can we encourage earthworms into our
20:31garden and get them to stay in our garden? Well the funny thing is that actually if you want a
20:37huge diversity of worms, a garden is the best place to go because there's lots of different
20:43habitats for them. So for example we looked at the pots, having a wooded area is brilliant,
20:49especially having logs because if you allow logs to rot down, that's a brilliant refuge in the
20:55summer for some of those worms which live on the surface. And maybe, I know in gardens people like
21:00to be very tidy, but maybe have some slightly messier places, some places where yeah things
21:06aren't so manicured. There's music to my ears, I have to say, music to my ears. Well look, thank you so much for coming to see the garden and I love your
21:13enthusiasm, so may it never wane. Now an enthusiasm for life in general can and is all too often replaced by a sort of grey wasteland and
21:24depression is hitting an increasing number of people as well as other mental illnesses. But
21:30gardening can be one of the keys to opening the doors back into life and a GP in South East London
21:39has been prescribing a gardening cure to many of his patients. Flo went along to see him and the project.
21:54The benefits of gardening are seemingly endless. Not only can planting bulbs, digging, pruning roses
22:01vastly improve your physical health, there's increasing evidence that it can also be very
22:05beneficial for your mental health. One in four of us will experience a mental health issue at some
22:13point in our lives. I'm here to see one initiative that's making a real difference. Sydenham Garden
22:21was set up back in 2002. This once neglected nature reserve now provides a cherished resource
22:27for adults coping with mental illness and the early stages of dementia. GP Jim Sikorski the
22:34founder was one of the first doctors to see gardening as an alternative therapy. It's called
22:40social prescribing where activity is recommended as an alternative to medication. When people are
22:47ill they often lose connection with ordinary life, particularly when it's mental ill health. You lose
22:54contact with family, friends, maybe even lose your job. So kind of your life tends to lose some of
23:02its meaning and so while drugs can sometimes be helpful, while talking therapies can sometimes be
23:07helpful, it's really important to also engage in activity. Activity that gives us rewards, meaning,
23:15relationships. The evidence is increasing that being involved in gardening will aid people's
23:23recovery, will give them a sense of purpose and I think the earth is quite a generous friend
23:28when you're trying to recover. It gives you back more than you then you sort of need to put into
23:33it, even though it can be hard work sometimes. So what type of patients benefit from this project?
23:39People with anxiety or depression or more serious problems, like post-traumatic stress and many
23:47people with long-term conditions, you know, like diabetes or heart disease, they can become quite
23:52sort of burdened by the long-term nature of their conditions and so they become perhaps a bit
23:57depressed and that's really helpful in their recovery too. We don't turn people away.
24:01I've suffered several years with depression due to different things happening in the family and
24:12just one day in particular, out of nowhere, I just broke down, completely broke down. The doctor came
24:21to see me, calmed me down and he suggested this place and slowly over the months and years they
24:28built my confidence up and, you know, I speak to people more now, if I'm travelling around, you
24:36know, I speak to people if I'm in the shop, whereas once before I wouldn't talk to anybody, I sort of
24:41like hide in my own little shell. Well I'd been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and then within
24:50a couple of years my husband was diagnosed with diabetes and leukaemia and he lost his sight
25:00completely but I had children, you know, school children and it just all got on top of me and I
25:09just didn't want to carry on and Dr Sikorsky suggested here and the rest they say is history.
25:21On an average week, Sydenham Garden will help at least 200 people with a team of horticulturalists
25:27and therapists on hand to provide a network of support. I'm joining project leader Charlotte
25:34Dove with her first session of the day. What are you guys doing? Today we are planting up near our
25:41pond area so we've renovated the pond this year and we've got this shady bed over here so this is
25:49one of our last jobs that we're doing in this area. And what's your role here at Sydenham Gardens?
25:54So I run sessions three days a week and the aim of the sessions in general is to provide a really
26:01welcoming and safe space to come and relax, feel part of nature, to enjoy the gardening
26:09and to enjoy the social side as well. So the sessions are really sociable but I think we try
26:14and maintain the garden to the highest possible standards so it's something that people can take
26:18pride in as well. A lot of it is about just building confidence and finding that
26:28sort of peace within yourself to be able to address the rest of your life.
26:36What gardening means to me is a lot of happiness.
26:41When everything starts growing and becomes alive it makes you worthwhile to live.
26:51Where I am now, I would say I'm eight out of ten.
27:00I couldn't imagine my life without coming here.
27:03People come here with really tough issues and through the beauty and nourishment of gardening
27:13they're able to start on a journey of rehabilitation, confidence building.
27:20I hope the team affect the lives of many more people to come.
27:34There's no question that the earth can be a kind and very effective healer and just the process of
27:48gardening, the rhythm of it, does an awful lot to heal a troubled mind. Now you may recall that in
27:56July I suggested that for a job for the weekend you cut back your delphiniums when they finished
28:01flowering. The reason for doing this was not so much to tidy them up but to stimulate regrowth
28:08and that would give you flowers at the end of the summer. Now there's always a slight risk that we
28:13have bad weather in August or September and it doesn't happen but this year it has and I've
28:19counted seven good flower spikes on this delphinium. There's another really good delphinium in the
28:24cottage garden and they are flowering merrily. Now delphiniums are really hardy. It doesn't matter
28:31how cold our winter is the chances of these surviving till next spring are very high indeed
28:37but plants that have evolved from near the equator where they don't have cold weather have a much
28:42harder time of it when they come to a British winter and we have to make decisions what we're
28:46going to protect and what we're going to risk. Now that's the case here in Herefordshire but down in
28:53Soundridge on the Kent coast Louise Dull and her partner are able to garden exotic plants with far
29:02more abandon. If I'm told I can't grow it I'm more likely to have a go at growing it. I see it as a
29:11challenge. I live here with my partner Steve. We're both professional gardeners. Steve's really busy
29:20at work. This is really my baby at home. The front garden's very traditional. The back garden
29:27in contrast is full of jungly exotics. To create the jungle effect we've used some huge plants in
29:41here for an architectural look. This is canna imanii. I love this canna and I wouldn't be without it.
29:47It's a definite must-have for me.
29:52So the back garden is about 22 by 17 meters. Because the space is quite small we've decided to
30:00break it up so that you can't see the whole plot from one vision. You keep going around a
30:05corner around the path and something else appears. Pathways have been put in because we wanted to
30:12create that jungle effect to feel like you're actually in a jungle and the plants that you can
30:17get up and touch them. Things like the eupatorium capillifolium. You've just got to give it a stroke
30:22every time I go past it. Unconventionally the greenhouse is in the centre of the garden.
30:29We actually wanted to use it as a feature so that in the winter it's really the heart of the garden
30:33when it's all bubble wrapped with the heater and all the tender plants are in there. The paths then
30:37became kind of a natural flow from that. We wanted the planting to be seen from when you're
30:44in the greenhouse to feel like you were still in a jungle. This here is our cordyline. It is
30:50the only original plant in the garden. So here's the cordyline with its houseplants hanging on it.
31:05They come out for their summer holiday, the houseplants and some of the Spanish moss.
31:10Lovely rippled bark on it that's very tactile. There's some bromeliads as well.
31:15We revamp the garden regularly. I get bored of looking at the same thing so every year
31:21beginning of October I start taking the houseplants in and some of the more tender things
31:27but it won't necessarily be until Christmas that I take in some of the things like cannas and dahlias.
31:32I take them in because of putting everything out in a different arrangement each year and
31:37it also allows us to divide and propagate from them. We like to change the small pictures all
31:42the time of the different combinations of things. We're very ruthless with our plants.
31:55So this is Amicia zygomeris. It's a member of the pea family.
32:00It's a hardy herbaceous perennial for us here but not necessarily for the rest of the country.
32:06It's quite a nice open habit to it so I always grow something around its bottom to cover up
32:11its bare bottoms. I don't like seeing any soil so this is a irisine herbsteite
32:17and panicum frosted explosion grown in here with it.
32:23The garden primarily is a foliage garden but we like to add a little
32:28zing of colour just to break it up but not overly flowery in the garden. This is a finbrated
32:34dahlia and most of our colour choices in the back garden are hot pinks and oranges.
32:49We're actually a lot milder than the rest of the country here so this is our
32:52our place to experiment and test the limits of some of the hardiness of things.
32:59This is fuchsia denticulata. It's not known to be completely hardy but now I've built up some
33:09stalks from cuttings I'm going to leave some out this year to see how it gets on. We try things
33:15even when technically they wouldn't work in the area. I don't always stick to the rules and I try
33:20it. Until you've tried it in your own garden there's so many varying factors that you don't necessarily
33:25know if it will or won't work. Have a go, don't be frightened of the plants. So this time of year
33:32is the main time for me for cuttings. They'll live inside for the winter on the windowsills
33:37and come out to take place of the the old parents in the spring. Things like the purple sugar canes.
33:44I'm just stripping the stem here in preparation to put them in water.
33:53So I'm cutting them at the top and the bottom. The bottom is going to produce some roots and
33:58the top will produce the shoots when they go in water so don't get the top and bottom mixed up.
34:04So in the next few weeks this will go on the kitchen windowsill and roots will appear at the
34:09bottom and then I'll pop them on and keep them indoors for the winter until they come out for
34:15planting in May.
34:34One of my favourite moments of the garden actually is in the mornings when I get up and look out of
34:38the bathroom window and I really enjoy it from there because I can't get close enough to start
34:43seeing things that I think need doing. When I'm out in the garden and I sit down and I jump up
34:49because there's something that I can see that nobody else would be bothered about but I like
34:53to tinker a lot.
35:01Now go and give me a hand. Good dogs. Tell you what because you've been good would you like a
35:06little bit of a biscuit? You have one and now if you want a biscuit you have to do something.
35:13Give me your paw. Thank you. Good girl.
35:16I think that whatever kind of plants you have, pottering or tinkering around in the garden
35:21is one of life's great pleasures but I can't risk leaving a lot of plants in the garden that would
35:28be quite happy over winter in sandwich. This is an Aeonium, Aeonium Scortscoth. They are very happy
35:35outside in a British summer but in winter they do need a bit of protection. So I'm lifting it
35:43and I'm going to put it back in a pot.
35:51It's a gritty mix but not too weak. Aeoniums actually respond well to good soil. That is
35:58now ready for its winter holiday in the greenhouse. So I'll put it in the barrow.
36:13I tend to rearrange this greenhouse as it fills up but for the moment they can go on the ground
36:31and this greenhouse is only kept to about seven degrees but we've lost nothing in here even though
36:40the weather has got really cold outside and these carnivorous plants are actually pretty hardy
36:46but I keep them in here as a kind of pest control because they eat an awful lot of insects
36:54and couldn't be easy to look after and the thing that really pleases me about them
36:58is that earlier this year I repotted them into a non-peat based compost and everybody will always
37:05say pot them in peat but you don't have to because I've used a mixture of leaf mold, I've bought in
37:12ericaceous compost made from bracken and I used a little bit of my own bracken and you can see
37:17really healthy. The one thing you do have to do with carnivorous plants is keep them wet. These sit
37:24in trays of water and wherever possible use rainwater but if you don't have a greenhouse
37:29that doesn't mean to say you can't grow carnivorous plants. Saracenus, the pitcher plant, are much tougher
37:35than you think and they will survive perfectly well all year round outside as long as you can
37:42have a little bit of temporary protection. Now this time of year the weather can be lovely, it can be
37:48cold, it's definitely a changing season and that means it's time for the autumn show at Malvern
37:55and Joe has been along with an eye for finding out the largest vegetables he possibly can.
38:05They say that size doesn't matter but there's a whole world in growing to show
38:15where the only way to win is to be the biggest, longest and heaviest.
38:23This is the world of giant veg showing
38:25and I'm here to give one of the country's top growers Cornishman Dave a helping hand for the day.
38:40Wow I can see a big onion poking out of there. Yeah we've got some onions in there,
38:44there's a cantaloupe melon there lying in the duvet, cucumbers. How many of these you got?
38:51I've got two, this is a heavy one. Okay so are you looking for for weight or or length? Pure
38:57weight on that one. Pure weight? Yeah. Do you fancy this one? It's all right, it's all right.
39:03It's all right, I mean he's pleased. What do you think Maddy?
39:07Pretty good, pretty good. So it's a long one. Yeah that's nice, H and L.
39:12H yeah the clue's in the H and L there. Yeah that's the long, that's the heavy.
39:17While there are rewards for the longest vegetables,
39:23the most coveted prizes here are for the heaviest vegetable
39:27in each category. There's no judging, it's purely down to the scales.
39:32Go on Dave, what do you reckon? Take a guess. 12 kilos. Oh he's going to be disappointed.
39:3810.34. 10.34. It's lost a bit of weight on the journey. Must have. So here we go, this is it,
39:44hang on, 6.10, 6.9, 8.5, 5.8, 4.5. Oh Dave, 10.92 and you're 10.34. Yep there you are,
39:56that's um that's how it happens. Well you're currently second. Second. Sadly Dave can't win
40:03with his heavy cucumber but he's still got a carload of veg that might be hiding some winners.
40:09I feel very trusted. You are. Right let's see how this, how much this baby weighs then.
40:15Next up is this whopping great cantaloupe melon. 8.04 kilos. 8.04 kilos. Dave you happy with that?
40:23Yeah not too bad. Yeah not too bad. At the moment Dave's cantaloupe is in first place
40:29but there's still plenty of time for him to be knocked off top spot. Over there somewhere. Over
40:34there somewhere. No that's the longest vegetables, we're not going there.
40:41When veg gets this big it can be difficult to recognise.
40:47Believe it or not this is a marrow and it's heavy.
40:54I wouldn't want to drop it now. Why is yours, yours is such a weird one, yours is like an alien.
40:59It's like a mini alligator. I've never ever had that before. How is it, how are you doing compared
41:03to everybody else here? It looks the biggest and it feels the biggest but you never know. So it must
41:08be the biggest. Well you never know because the entries close tonight at 10 o'clock so tomorrow
41:13morning we'll know who's got the biggest marrow. Does anybody come right at the end and just try
41:18and trump everybody else? Hopefully not. Growing enormous veg is no mean feat. In fact it's a
41:26full-time job. Hours and hours of watering, feeding and protecting. So why do it?
41:35What drives you in your giant vegetable? What's it all about? Just the thrill of growing something
41:41big. Okay. And the enjoyment isn't it? You know you meet the same people every year.
41:47Because you've been doing it for years haven't you? I've done it all my life.
41:49With over 500 entries things are really hotting up and there's a lot riding on this category.
41:58That's it. Does it feel heavy? It's a heavy cabbage. Dave's secret weapon, the red cabbage.
42:04Hang on there's a queue here. So um cabbages, you good with cabbages? I hold the world record so uh
42:11yes. World record? Yes. World record? World record. Red cabbage? Red cabbage yes. So how big's that
42:17been? Just over 51 pounds. I mean how's it feel to have a world record red cabbage? Is that a big
42:22buzz? Oh it is, it is. Yes um yeah that's what you aim for is breaking records. Do we have a new
42:31world record red cabbage on our hands? We never know. We never know. Is it a red cabbage? Believe
42:36or not it is a red cabbage. Doesn't it look like a red cabbage? The weight is 20.4. 20.4.
42:44No. No that's not going to do it. No because we've got to take a sheet. Dave hasn't managed
42:48to break his world record but a rival has turned up with a huge cabbage
42:52and it's drawing everyone's attention. Yeah you speak to him? Yeah yeah. Seriously?
42:59What have you got? World record for David's record. Tim? Well pleasure Dave, thank you very much.
43:04Incredibly Dave has lost his world record. 23.7. Over the moon to be honest.
43:12Yeah chuffed to bits. Really chuffed to bits.
43:18Now Tim I helped Dave and you've gone and trumped him with your red cabbage. He's now a new world
43:22record. A big shock Joe. Yeah. I never had an inkling in it to be honest. So how have you done
43:28it? What are your secret tips? Just plenty of camomile in the soil and high nitrogen feed.
43:33And I'm not trying to be rude here. No no. It is not the most beautiful cabbage in the world.
43:38There's a few holes in the leaves and everything. You know I've grown to show. Yeah. And it wasn't
43:42about size or weight or anything. It was all about perfection. Yeah. As long as it's the weight.
43:47Doesn't matter what it looks like. That's what matters Joe. To witness one world record would
43:52be amazing. To witness two would be a miracle. Ladies and gentlemen feast your eyes on the
43:59world's largest celery. Yes I said celery.
44:06How many have you got? 42. You smashed it. I smashed it. Congratulations. I am happy boy.
44:15Well done man. We are witnessing world records being broken here and now. Look at that.
44:21World record celery. Look he's even got staff working for him.
44:29This really is quite incredible in here. This morning this marquee was completely empty and now
44:34it's full of huge vegetables and fruits. And some of them you can recognize like these watermelon.
44:41You see those in the supermarket. These believe it or not are beetroot. And then others are really
44:48quite beautiful in their own way. I really like this radish. Look it's beautifully cleaned and
44:54nice and sculptural. Weighing closes at 10 and after a back-breaking day everyone is off for a
45:01good night's rest. The next morning the judges dish out the awards and the public come to admire
45:06these giant beauties. How did you get on there? Fairly well Joe. Yeah the cantaloupe you kindly
45:12carried in won first prize. Get in there. Yeah a first prize for the long cucumber and I won the
45:19cabbage class. The green cabbage class. Fantastic. So are you pleased with that? Is this a good year
45:23for you? Oh it's brilliant. Brilliant because you know the competition's fierce. There's a lot of
45:27entries here and I'm very happy to do so well. On the downside you lost your red cabbage.
45:33Yes I will try and get it back Joe. Exactly. Well that's it. I mean what happens next year?
45:38What do you do next year? Well grow them bigger. That's the plan.
45:53These are my pumpkins and squashes and I can tell you they're going to win no prizes at all for size.
46:03The plants have grown very vigorously and that's partly because I put masses of compost in the pits
46:09underneath them and I've grown them vertically this year as I did last year. The great thing
46:13about that is in a relatively small space you can have three large plants so that has worked
46:18and I'll keep on doing that. But the fruits themselves are a little on the small side.
46:24You know that is about a third of the size that it could be but it'll be edible. So the important
46:30thing is to make sure that I can store these and the next stage in doing that is to get the skins
46:36harder by harvesting them, handling them carefully and then putting them in a sunny place. So let's
46:43cut them. Now when you cut a pumpkin or a squash this is the important area here. You don't want
46:50to damage that because that will stop it storing. So a good idea is always to cut above the T. Can
46:56you see there's two side sections there? So I get the secateurs in and cut like that
47:03and I just take that leaf off. I've kept the T.
47:07All right now this one.
47:15Now that's the largest one I've got here. Remember this is Mousse de Provence.
47:20It's a delicious pumpkin. It's sweet and got good texture and I love them roasted.
47:26This is called Blue Ballet. This is very much a squash rather than the pumpkin but clearly that
47:40is not ripe as such. That should be a much bluer colour rather than green and if I leave it in the
47:45sun it may well ripen up a little bit more. So put that in. We're scraping the barrel here.
48:03I love the way that I'm looking as though I'm going to discover this enormous pumpkin I haven't
48:08noticed at all in the last few weeks. I've been checking these out daily. I know exactly what
48:13pumpkins I've got. I promise you there isn't another one. That's it. Now last time we saw Adam
48:21in his garden he was sowing wildflower seeds. Well now it's time to plant out the seedlings
48:28he's grown and also to see how his wildflower meadow is progressing.
48:37In the spring I visited Hills and Holes National Nature Reserve
48:41to get some inspiration to create my own wildflower meadow.
48:50As you can imagine I've been so desperate to get stuck into this space but what I've done so far
48:56is first of all I've stripped off the turf partly because I think that actually just trying to sow
49:01seed into raked grass trying to make beds can be really difficult. When you sow wildflowers it's
49:08important to get the soil right. So I've added poorer soil that I've saved as we've dug out for
49:14other projects around the garden. This will help reduce the fertility. But another thing that's
49:23important to me is that this feels comfortable that actually it's regional flower. So I've put
49:29a lot of work into the research of what grows well in the sort of hills and holes up there
49:35and then after that I've heard over the years different people say no if you're going to do
49:39wildflower go down the plug route you know and put small plants in and other people telling me
49:44no the purest it's got to be by seed. So guess what I am going to have a go with both. So if you
49:51remember I sowed some seed earlier on in a year and developed the plants and I'm going to get
49:56those in and around those I'm going to work in the seed. So the first thing I'm going to do is get
50:00that Achillea in. When you see things growing in the wild it's as if you have you know one
50:14big group that I call the mother group you know so that's a larger sort of area of one plant and
50:21imagine you've got the kids just running off the two there and one here. I'll take this little group
50:28I don't know put maybe one there and one there.
50:40Don't you worry about them they're quite happy I'm a good couple of meters away from them
50:45and this time next year those bees will be coming out and enjoying the wildflowering.
50:50So all I've got to do now is get these in and then I can sow the seed.
50:58So this is not a bad little tip before you start marking really about a meter square
51:13four grams it is per meter so I've measured that out and that's what it is that's all you
51:20actually need you know. So I think if I sow this onto this square meter before I start doing the
51:26rest of the site it'll give me a really good understanding of how much I need.
51:33I'm sowing a mix of over 20 wildflowers including wild basil, scabious and oregano.
51:45There's not just wildflower in there there's some real native grasses in there as well so
51:49hopefully next spring we'll be out of the ground.
52:00One thing that blew me away up on that hills and holes over there was seeing philopendula growing
52:06on a dry hillside. Looked fantastic but it got me thinking I'd actually planted some on the edge of
52:13the woodland there behind me thinking they would get enough light and this year it's really
52:18struggled so I'm going to move it into my meadow. So I've already put a couple in at the back here
52:24and I'm just going to work them through so let's get this in
52:30and then there is one more thing I want to add tulip sylvestris it's fantastic what tulip comes
52:37to about 25 centimetres you'll come out in the spring the scent is fantastic so what you want
52:42to do get down on your knees and get right in there absolutely beautiful. So I'm hoping you
52:49know we go into next year this comes alive and it'll be me and the bees we'll be very happy.
52:55So
53:10I increasingly love wildflower meadows and that is going to look really good next spring and those
53:16bees from April onwards are going to have an awful lot of wonderful new sources of food.
53:21Now these will be sources of food for the Dom family and I'll leave them on the table
53:27until the weather turns and that could be a week it could be two weeks or more but just
53:32any sunshine they can get is going to be beneficial so if you've got a few even if
53:37it's just one or two it could be on a windowsill on a table outside but do remember that if the
53:43weather turns and it can do at this time of year overnight they will need some protection.
53:48A job I always do in October is sow some sweet peas. There's some debate about whether it's
53:54better to sow them in autumn which will mean you get bigger plants therefore earlier and perhaps
54:00more flowers but you have to store them all over winter or whether to wait till February or even
54:07early March and sow them then. If you don't have any storage space don't have a greenhouse or cold
54:12frames or whatever probably best to wait to spring but if you do have storage space you
54:16best to wait to spring but if you've got somewhere where you can just keep them out of the worst of
54:19the weather then not a bad idea to sow a batch now. Now I've got plastic root trainers I've got
54:26plastic case from this I've got plastic label but I'm reusing them and root trainers do work well
54:34because all legumes have long roots and strong plants with deep roots and lots of top growth
54:42will give you lots of flowers. This year was tricky for sweet peas because the one thing
54:51that they do hate is when it's very hot and dry they like it warm and moist. Okay
55:01a normal potting mix with a bit of goodness fill that in there like that
55:08okay and then I've got a variety called Painted Lady this is one of the oldest sweet peas
55:17and I'm going to sow just one per root trainer. They have a hard outer shell
55:26and in order to germinate that outer shell has to soften. You can nick them you can soak them
55:33you can soak them but in my experience they will germinate perfectly well if you just push them in
55:39and then keep them fairly moist. It should be ready to plant out
55:44in early April. A light sprinkle over the top and then label it.
55:54So I will water that put it in the greenhouse to germinate but once it has germinated
56:02and you have a seedling that's about an inch or so tall it doesn't need to be kept in the greenhouse
56:06as long as it's protected from the worst of the weather this can sit in a sheltered place outside
56:11until next spring. That's one more job ticked off for me now here's some for you for this weekend.
56:17If you have a greenhouse and you use it at all over winter it's really important to give it a good clean now this is partly for hygiene but also the light is failing so if your glass is really clean you get as much as possible reaching your precious plants.
56:48Whether you have a large lawn or just a grass path the best thing you can do for it right now is to give it a good scratching.
57:00Use a wire rake and if your dog will let you work it to and fro getting all the loose moss dead grass
57:08and thatch up this might leave it looking a little threadbare now but it'll be much better as a result next spring.
57:20You can get an earlier crop of broad beans by sowing some now.
57:25Choose a hardy variety like aqua dolce and sow them as you would your main crop
57:29with each bean about six to nine inches apart and in rows.
57:33Cover them over and label them and they should be perfectly hardy
57:37and the whole point is they will get an early start as soon as the weather warms up next spring.
57:48Now you think because there are two tea cakes one for you and two for you because you're not very good at maths.
57:57But the truth is they're for me.
58:03They're really good now.
58:06I've said it many times but it's always true that the best thing you can ever do in a garden
58:12is stop and sit and just take it in and the days are getting shorter and shorter.
58:20So while there's time make the most of it.
58:23And next week is our last program it's on at nine o'clock again
58:28but I'll be here with the dogs and I'll see you then.
58:32Until then, bye-bye.
58:36You don't want tea, you wouldn't like that.