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00:00Hello, welcome to Gardener's World. I looked out the window this morning and there was
00:15really quite a hard frost. The whole garden was silvery with all the plants bent and hunched
00:22against the cold. It is a reminder that don't get overexcited and put out all your tender
00:27plants just because we have a bit of sunshine. We can still have some cold weather. That
00:32doesn't mean to say, though, there isn't plenty to do.
00:42On today's show, we head to the Norfolk coast to meet a couple who have created their tropical
00:46paradise adorned with scrap metal washed up on the beach. And we visit a passionate gardener
00:53in Cheshire who has turned his small back garden into a vibrant jungle.
01:15Now these bean sticks are all part of planting out sweet peas. It's that time. I sowed them
01:22in January and February and March to get succession. And I try and put them out as
01:27early as I can without risking damaging them. It's always a fine line. They are much hardier
01:33than you might think. And I like to grow sweet peas in a border, in amongst all the plants.
01:42Now to do that, I grow them up bean sticks. If you have bean sticks that can be eight
01:47foot tall, you get a big wind, they can blow over taking the sweet peas with them. So just
01:53make holes to sink the sticks in. There we go. Right, let's get the sticks. I like the
02:09irregularities you get from these sticks, but of course you can get bamboos very easily
02:13and they are much more regular. And because I've made the holes, these are easy to put in.
02:17Get that in nice and securely. Right, the next stage is to tie them at the top.
02:30That is now a good solid support to take my sweet peas. And of course it works just as
02:43well for clematis or any annual climber that you choose to grow. This is a variety called
02:52Painted Lady. It's one of my favourites. The flowers are bicolour, pink and white. And
03:00this has one of the most wonderful fragrances of any sweet pea you can grow. You can see
03:05that I've grown these in root trainers, which allows that long tap root to grow a little
03:11bit longer than it would in a plug. When you buy sweet peas already growing and you
03:19haven't sown them yourself, you get a pot that is crammed with little sweet pea plants.
03:25So I would suggest you break the pot up into two or three pieces and plant each piece at
03:31the base of the support. Now sweet peas are amongst the greediest and hungriest plants
03:40you will ever grow in your garden. The key to success is a really rich soil that holds
03:46plenty of moisture. If you've got very sandy soil or it's a new garden, a good idea is
03:53to dig out a pit. Put about half full of compost or manure, put soil back in and plant into
04:00that and you'll find that you will get twice as many flowers for twice as long as a result.
04:07Now what you need to do at this point is, if you haven't already, is pinch them out
04:12and that encourages side shoots and they bear the flowers and also a nice strong plant.
04:21Once they start growing strongly, they will need tying in for about the first month or
04:26so and then they will have tendrils that will attach on their own accord. But what is absolutely
04:32essential is to give them a good water. Sweet peas thrive in mild, cool, damp conditions.
04:42If it's too hot and dry, they don't like it at all. So give them a really good weekly
04:48soak. Now the key to growing any annual climber in a border, particularly sweet peas, is to
05:00go with the theme. And obviously here in the Cottage Garden, it is soft, pastel colours.
05:07But last summer, we went to Norfolk to visit a garden that certainly went with its theme
05:13but in a very different way.
05:20The house in the garden is called Sul Namara, which is Gaelic for In Sight of the Sea. The
05:27sea is about five minutes in that direction. We've lived here for nearly 13 years now.
05:35When we moved here, we were kind of inspired by the coast, things that we found on the
05:42beach. We wanted something tropical. We wanted something that incorporated the rust and the
05:50coastline and hopefully that's what we've achieved. When we first moved here, there
05:55was very little in the garden. There was some roses, some shrubs, there were no trees
06:00at all. There was concrete everywhere. Over the years, we ended up with something like
06:0515 skips worth of rubbish out of the garden. So we had pretty much a blank canvas. I didn't
06:12sit down and draw out what you see now, but we did it bit by bit.
06:23I've always been fascinated by rust and decay. And obviously the beaches here, because of
06:29the sea defences, there's lots of things to be found on the beach, particularly after
06:34storms. There's old railway lines. There's the old lighthouse, which was demolished years
06:40and years ago. So there's lots of things to be found on the beach.
06:47We've found an old oil can, which we've planted up. I've found, I think it's a clutch, a clutch
06:53from a car, which just looks decorative and we've put that on the side of the shed.
07:06We're on the north Norfolk coast, so the soil is essentially sand. Very free draining. Tropical
07:11plants do really well. We have 225 varieties of plants in the garden. Quite a lot of them
07:17are exotic. As you come into our garden, the first thing you'll see is the height of the
07:24trees and just this huge expanse of green. And you'll follow the path through to two
07:32borders and walk past a little sunroom that Bill's made. And then you come to the next
07:39section, which is completely different, which is really based on metal.
07:48We've incorporated a lot of the things we've found into the garden. For example, we have
07:53a water feature, which was fortunate that it came off the beach. These came from a farm,
08:01local farm. I think they're some kind of animal feeding trough, but we've planted them up
08:06with Echeveria and Ipumea. And the bamboo at the back here just softens the hard edges
08:12of the metal. So these big bits of metal here, I find them architectural, particularly when
08:17you've got holes like that in them. I think it goes well with the planting, and in this
08:21case you've got formal box hedge planting. It's just the colour and the rust and the
08:26hard angular edges of the steel. I love rust, as you can probably tell.
08:37People get a bit scared about, they hear exotic, they think, oh, you can't grow exotic in Britain.
08:43Well, I think this garden proves the point that you can. We work on the principle that
08:48if it doesn't grow, then we'll try something else.
08:54These are some of my favourite varieties in the garden. These are agaves. We've got a
08:58number of them here in this part of the garden. But my particular favourite is this one. This
09:04is Agave Americana Alba. And Alba botanically refers to the white colouring on this plant.
09:11But, strangely, as you may have gathered, I'm a Scot. Alba and Gaelic is the word for
09:19Scotland. They are a desert plant from places like Mexico. So they're used to hot, sunny
09:25conditions. But what they don't like is getting wet. If the roots get waterlogged, they just
09:30turn to mush. So, in the winter, smaller plants like this will be taken out of the
09:35container and put into a pot, and we overwinter these smaller ones in the greenhouse.
09:45I'd say my favourite plant in the garden is my Indian Bean Tree, which I've waited 13
09:51years to come to full flower. And this year, it's done it, and it's been beautiful.
10:01I walk round my garden every morning before I go to work with a cup of tea, and I just
10:05love every single bit of it. And it's very hard, when you see it all done, to actually
10:12think, we did this. We did this. And I love every bit of it.
10:19I really like that rust theme. And it does show that it doesn't matter what your basic
10:36theme is, whether you use plants or metal or stone or wood, stick with it. Keep it simple.
10:44And interesting that it's so sandy. It's that that defines the plants in the garden.
10:50So it doesn't matter what you want to do with your garden or what theme you choose, you've
10:55got to listen to your soil.
10:57I'm putting in an eye to support a wire, which in turn will support this rose. And
11:18you need really good strong support because roses can be quite heavy. And this is an expanding
11:25bolt, so that goes in there like that. And then as I tighten it, it will open out and
11:30fill the cavity. There we go.
11:40Now the key thing is to get this really tight. And to that end, these are pretty much essential.
11:49They're strainers. And what they give you is some leeway to tighten. Now, before you
11:53use them, open them right out so that gap is full of air. And then as you tighten them,
11:59the wire will stretch. So that hooks on. And what you need to do is take the strain and
12:05then bend it back and just wind it round.
12:10Now just tighten it a little. There we go. And I think that's enough.
12:16So I've got the support in. Now this is an east-facing wall. And at this time of year,
12:23that can be a real problem because you have frost overnight. And then the sun breaks through,
12:29hits an east wall, and essentially burns up these frosted petals. And that's when you
12:36see particularly, for example, a camellia. If it's on an east wall, very often will get
12:41browned by the morning sun after frost. But the rose that I've planted here, Madame Alfred
12:47Carrière, is very happy on an east wall. It's got wonderful white, pale pink blooms
12:54that flower very early. It should flower in May and go on flowering right through the
13:01summer. So the next step is to take this unruly growth, which is only a couple of years old,
13:08and train it so we have a good structure. What I'm looking for is nice, strong growth
13:14from as low down as possible. But the last thing I want it to do is to be upright. Because
13:19the flowering shoots grow best if they're growing vertically. So the more horizontal
13:26the permanent support is, the better the flowering shoots will grow.
13:34Right, that one can go over there like that. I'll just gently tie that in.
13:42One tip is if you want a stem to grow out longer, don't tie down the final six inches,
13:51because plants always grow much more vigorously if they're growing up. Leave it loose, it'll
13:56grow up, and then tie it down, but leave the last bit until you reach the point where you
14:01can see the stem.
14:03I need to take out any of the stems that are not attached. So, for example, this one here,
14:11I'm going to cut it off.
14:14I'm going to cut it off.
14:17I'm going to cut it off.
14:20I'm going to cut it off.
14:23I'm going to cut it off.
14:26I'm going to cut it off.
14:28I'm going to take out any of the stems that are not attached. So, for example, this whole
14:35stem, I can cut like that, and this can go like that.
14:47Right, I'm going to stop there because I think that's the best that I can do for the moment.
14:52But it has taken what was a vigorous sprawl of a rose into something that has the potential
14:58for becoming a good, solid framework, and the flowers are going to be absolutely heavenly.
15:07It's always satisfying when you make what would otherwise be an awkward space or aspect
15:14into something that's a real positive virtue, and it doesn't matter how small your garden
15:19is or how awkward it seems to be initially. There will always be something you can do,
15:25and sometimes it's an opportunity to do something truly remarkable. As we discovered last August
15:32when we went up to Runcorn to visit Derek Ferguson, who has transformed his own garden.
15:39MUSIC
15:47When people tend to come round the garden, hopefully the first thing they say is,
15:50wow, and then they say, oh, it's so jungly, and that is such a compliment because that's
15:55the design, that's the style I go for. And considering it's such a small space,
16:00it's quite difficult to achieve that. It works really well, I think.
16:06Big, exotic plants look good in a small space.
16:11A few years ago, we went on holiday to Norfolk, and I'd heard about a garden in Norwich city centre,
16:17and it was just breathtaking. The size, the scale, plants you just wouldn't dream would grow
16:24in our British climate. Could I possibly do this type of style in my garden?
16:29That gave me the impetus to at least give it a go.
16:35Initially, it was a cottage garden, and so I needed to remove the more cottagey plants
16:40and to introduce more tropical plants. Friends were very grateful because a lot of the plants
16:46which wouldn't have fitted into the style, things like delphiniums and lupins, my friends got.
16:54I want things to look natural. That might sound contradictory, sitting in Runcorn in a tropical garden.
17:01One of my favourite plants is the tetrapanics. It's the most tropical-looking plant.
17:08The nickname is T-Rex, and rightly so. The leaves are palmate and can be a metre in diameter.
17:15When you stand under it, it envelops you. It's totally hardy.
17:22It is deciduous. You'll lose all the leaves in the autumn.
17:26I tend to hang things from it. I've even been known to put tinsel around it at Christmas.
17:35I've got a habit of buying palms. I've got 44.
17:40My favourite genus of palm is tracheocarpus. I've not got them all, but I'm working on it.
17:46I might have to thin them out eventually. Again, friends and family will benefit from that.
17:52The tender bananas I grow are Ensetae. There's a purple one called Morellii.
17:57You can buy it as a plug, and in just a short space of time, it will grow six or eight feet.
18:03But it's totally tender. It won't take a temperature lower than three.
18:07But if you dry it off in October, you cut all the leaves off.
18:11It's a large pseudostem, so it's packed with water.
18:15If you tip it upside down, put it in a shed or an outbuilding for a few weeks so all the water drains out.
18:21And then you can put it in your loft, wrap it in a bit of hessian, and just leave it for six months.
18:26In late March, put it in some compost, give it a bit of water, and away you go again.
18:46One plant I bought recently is a plant called Snekio, Angel Wings.
18:50It's a very touchy-feeling plant. It's purely decorative, but it's a very sensual plant as well.
19:02The Heliopsis is a survivor from my cottage garden. In fact, it's one of the oldest plants in the garden.
19:07I don't plant much yellow, but I think the zestiness and the vibrancy of the yellow just helps it stand out.
19:15In the last few years, I've started growing dahlias. I wouldn't have touched dahlias five years ago.
19:21But now, I can't believe I ever live without them.
19:25My partner's always telling me I plant too much.
19:28But with gardening, I like instant impact.
19:32In some respects, although I do grow some things from seed, I like the fix now.
19:43The water is a major feature in the garden. On the top tier, I used to have a large, fattier japonica.
19:49When I removed it, the crater it created just cried out to be used.
19:56So I got a liner and filled it with water and created a wildlife pond.
20:00You imagine in a jungle effect, there's always a stream running through it and with the big plants around it.
20:06It's just a nice calming effect.
20:13The garden builds to a colour crescendo.
20:16I love tethonia. It starts to flower in July. It just pumps out hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of flowers.
20:22And providing you don't get a heavy frost, it can be flowering at Christmas.
20:27That doesn't often happen, but you can still get a good array of colours.
20:33It's been a challenge, but I love creating the space.
20:37It's nice. It wraps around you, like a blanket of colour and foliage and texture.
20:44And when I come here at the end of a busy day at work, I sit on the large settee in the conservatory.
20:50It's almost like a chaise lounge. I relax out and put my arm over and I glance out into my paradise.
20:58I just find it very peaceful.
21:00Derek is absolutely right about making a small space seem bigger if you put in big plants.
21:20If you put masses of small plants into a small garden, it makes it feel cluttered and somehow less space.
21:27But one or two really big, dramatic plants makes everything seem bigger.
21:31I know it's counterintuitive, but it works.
21:33Now this space here is the most exciting thing in the garden for me at the moment.
21:38Because last year I decided that we should let the grass grow long.
21:42We've planted in snakeshead fritillaries as bulbs.
21:45Leucogym, which is a summer snowflake.
21:48And it's really exciting to take a space that has been the same for year after year and transform it.
21:55And it's absolutely thrilling.
22:19There are many luxuries of having a potting shed.
22:22But the best of all is when it's raining outside and you can come in and it's dry and warm and you can stay here all day.
22:29Now what I'm going to do, now I'm in here, is sow some perennials.
22:34We often sow annual vegetables or flowers and it's a really good way of growing them.
22:40But I guess that not so many people feel like growing perennial plants from seed.
22:46And yet it's really easy to do and it saves you a lot of money.
22:53I'm going to sow two types in particular.
22:55The first is called Garrowland Emmei and it has tall spikes of flower.
23:01And in a hot summer it will flower from June right through to the autumn.
23:07So this is a variety called the Bride, which is the most common that you'll find.
23:14Here are the seeds, which are quite a good size.
23:17If I just try and spread them reasonably evenly.
23:23The better the spacing with seeds, the better they will grow.
23:26And there's absolutely no virtue in over-sowing.
23:35I'm going to press that down.
23:36And the reason I press it down is not to compact the compost, but just to push the seeds so there's good contact.
23:42Now I'm just going to cover the seeds lightly with some vermiculite.
23:46You can sieve over the top, but this will do the job just as well.
23:51The vermiculite, as well as blocking some light, plays quite an important role in stopping them drying up.
24:01Now another perennial, which I love, is Aquilegia.
24:05Aquilegia are absolutely beautiful and you can get them in pure white.
24:09You can get rich, dark burgundy colours and all shades in between.
24:14But the problem is that they do hybridise very, very freely.
24:19So you will find, as time goes on, the colours of your Aquilegias will get more muddy.
24:24So by growing them from seed every year, you re-inject pure colour, if you like.
24:29And this is a good example.
24:31I've got this lovely lime sorbet, which is white flushed with green, which I want for the writing garden.
24:37And then, completely different, ruby port for the jewel garden, which is really intense and dark.
24:43And they'll behave very differently to the gower, because these may take up to ten weeks to germinate.
24:49You then transplant the young seedlings, grow them on, and you could plant them out in autumn,
24:53or pop them up and keep them in a cold frame or a cool greenhouse over winter and plant them out next March.
25:00Because these are very slow to germinate, unless you are meticulous about your watering regime,
25:07there is a risk of the seeds drying out before they germinate.
25:12And then they won't happen at all.
25:14So by covering them, you reduce that risk.
25:17Now these Aquilegias are a slow burn.
25:21However, the gower are a completely different cattle of fish.
25:24I want these to flower this summer.
25:26And to do that, they need as much heat right now as possible.
25:37I'm going to put this on here, because this mat is warm.
25:40If I water them and keep them watered, I would expect to see these appear in about ten days' time.
25:48And you can see next to them, I've got the Spanish flag that I sowed earlier in the year.
25:53They're ready to prick out.
25:55And next to those are some phyllichthrum that I sowed last September.
26:01They're almost ready to prick out.
26:03And it's all part of growing perennials on a grand scale by using seed.
26:09But if I can't persuade you to sow some flowers, here are some other jobs for this weekend.
26:24Daffodils are starting to form the bulb for next year's flowers as soon as this one's fade.
26:32But so that all the energy of the plant can go into forming as good a flower as possible,
26:38snap off the seed heads as you see them.
26:41But leave the stems and the leaves to die back naturally.
26:51The vivid color of the stems of dogwood are one of the highlights of the winter garden.
26:58But now that the new leaves are starting to appear, it's time to cut them back hard.
27:03This will stimulate fresh growth and extra bright color for the bleak midwinter next year.
27:18If, like me, you like to grow melons, now is the time to sow them.
27:23I put two seeds to a three-inch pot and then intend to remove the weaker of the seedlings as they appear.
27:31They do need some heat, so if you haven't got a heated greenhouse, put them on a windowsill above a radiator.
27:37And if you don't grow melons, this procedure applies equally for cucumbers.
27:43This is the magnolia black tulip that I planted a few weeks ago.
27:48And you can see it is in flower.
27:52But they are quite susceptible to frost damage, and there is cold weather forecast for tonight.
27:58So I'm just going to put a bit of heat on it and see how it goes.
28:02It is in flower.
28:04But they are quite susceptible to frost damage, and there is cold weather forecast for tonight.
28:11So I'm just going to put a bit of fleece over the top.
28:13I'm just simply making a little microclimate.
28:21Shrouded, but protected.
28:25Well, that's it for this week.
28:27It's been a funny old day, and I hope the weather's a bit better this weekend, wherever you are.
28:31But I'll be back next week, rain or shine.
28:34And, for Good Friday Easter weekend, we're back to the full one hour.
28:39And that does mean that we start half an hour earlier, at eight o'clock.
28:43So I'll see you then. Bye bye.