The Beechgrove Garden 2024 episode 21
Category
🦄
CreativityTranscript
00:00Hello and welcome to Beechgrove Garden.
00:16On the program, pruning and shaping apple trees and holly.
00:22Coming up, Ruth is lifting the crown of our holly.
00:28Brian is shaping his new apple tree collection.
00:33And did our blight-resistant tatties do the job?
00:36Well, Ruth, I thought we'd take the opportunity to have a look at our brand new strawberry
00:43bed, which was planted way back in the springtime.
00:47It's looking quite healthy, isn't it?
00:48I think it's looking really well.
00:49I can see that you've planted four different varieties here to trial them all out in the
00:53first season.
00:54So we've got an early variety over here.
00:56Tell me, how is it done?
00:57Well, it's done quite well.
00:58Allegro, it did exactly what it should do because it started fruiting in June.
01:02And perhaps that was quite surprising considering how slow the season's been.
01:07Yeah, but I think they've done their job.
01:09They are June bearers.
01:10So we've also then here got our mid-season.
01:14And it's a fantastic variety, El Santa.
01:17Incredibly popular, isn't it?
01:18And good flavour.
01:19They certainly are.
01:20These are one of the sort of most commonly found in the supermarkets because of those
01:23giant, juicy, lovely berries.
01:26Really, really tasty.
01:27Very popular with children, especially.
01:28Yeah, so they came slightly after Allegro.
01:31And then moving on, we go to the late one, Malwina.
01:35She's kind of petered out and I thought she would still be producing.
01:38Do you think it could possibly be weather related?
01:40I think it probably is.
01:41I can see that there's a few fruit on there.
01:43But my guess is they just have not had enough sunshine.
01:47So they just haven't built up enough energy to be producing fruit, just with it being
01:50so overcast all the time.
01:52Quite interesting.
01:53And another thing that we were trying to do this year is rather than taking any runners,
01:56we took those off because I think it's quite important in the first year to build up the
02:00plants.
02:01It certainly is.
02:02I mean, I think that, you know, you can get very excited as a gardener to get that first
02:06flush of fruit coming through.
02:08But actually protecting for year two, year three, that's when you're going to see the
02:11really big bumper crop.
02:13So just those little tips, hints and tricks can kind of get you on your way for future
02:17seasons.
02:18Absolutely.
02:19But I mean, look at this one.
02:20This is fantastic.
02:21Absolutely beautiful.
02:23This is the everbearer.
02:24Yeah, everbearer, perpetual, all season.
02:26And I think that tells you a bit about it, because in other words, what it's doing, it's
02:30producing a flush of flowers each month.
02:33What I did when I first planted them, though, I took off the first flush of flowers again
02:37to kind of build up the plant.
02:39And it should be peaking, well, towards the end of August into September.
02:44And if we're lucky, we might get fruit even into November.
02:47Let's hope so.
02:48Let's look for that Indian summer that may just come.
02:51I'm going to leave you to it.
02:53I've got a crown to lift.
02:54So you can eat some of those fruits.
02:55I will, I will.
03:10So I'm here with this beautiful holly, our Ilex aquifolium, and today we're going to
03:14be giving it a crown lift.
03:16Essentially what that means is we're going to take the lower branches out of the canopy
03:20just to raise the crown of the tree up a little bit.
03:24The reason why we're doing this is because it is starting to grow quite low and it's
03:30blocking a lot of the light that's coming into the vegetation below it.
03:34But also, as it's synonymous with holly, we have a lot of these spiky leaves and it's
03:40becoming a bit of a hazard as we're walking past.
03:43Holly's a really interesting plant.
03:45The reason being is that genetically it's able to produce spiky leaves in response to
03:52animals eating and attacking it.
03:55So it would actually grow naturally with these very smooth leaves here, and in response to
04:00animal attack, being eaten, it will start to produce these spiky leaves.
04:06So it can actually switch its genes to do that, which is, I think, pretty cool.
04:10Very underrated plant in the garden.
04:13But let's get to it.
04:14So we're going to need some tools here.
04:17So first things first, gloves.
04:19It is a spiky plant, so we need to just be making sure that we are protecting our hands
04:24as best as possible.
04:26I'm also going to pull my sleeves down just to make sure that it doesn't prickle me.
04:31And to begin with, we're going to use our secateurs.
04:34So what we need to do is just take out a few of these branches here, some of the younger
04:39stems that are going to be in the way, because we do need to protect our eyes.
04:44So I'm just going to go in for some cuts here.
04:52Once we've done that, we can go in with either a pair of loppers, but it really just depends
04:56on the branch that we're looking at.
04:58So with this branch here, I'm going to be using a pruning saw, and that's just because
05:03it'll make the job a lot easier.
05:05It's all just about making it as easy as possible.
05:09So I'm going to go in here.
05:11Now, before I make any of the cuts, what I want to do is just consider how the branch
05:16is shaped, how heavy it's going to be, and I would recommend going in underneath first.
05:23So we're going to cut and we're going to saw underneath.
05:26What that'll do is, instead of just cutting straight from the top, which can feel more
05:31natural, it could actually just tear a heel away from the main stem itself, and that can
05:38just let some disease in, it can damage the tree, and could eventually sort of kill the
05:43tree off.
05:44So just thinking about your practice, taking it slow and steady.
05:48And every time we take a cut, we go back, we look again, and just see what we're doing
05:53just to make sure that we're not going to damage this tree.
05:56You can see a crown lift has been done before.
06:00So this is what we're aiming for.
06:01We're looking to make a cut a little bit away from the stem itself.
06:06We're not going to be wanting to take it right clean against the trunk.
06:10So let's get to it.
06:15So we're going to go about halfway with that cut, and that'll just make the top cut a little
06:21bit easier.
06:23So then we can just go in through the top, and that's just going to take that clean off.
06:32So we're looking for clean, confident strokes.
06:37So once we've made our first cut, what we can then do is just make our way around these
06:41lower branches that are here.
06:43We don't want to take off too much, because it is still actively growing, and we don't
06:47want to damage the plant any more than we have to going through this.
06:51But it's going to take a bit of time, so I'm going to get the garden team to come and give
06:54me a hand with the rest of it, and in the meantime, we're going to head over to Old
06:58Schoon with Brian.
07:10This is another of my favourite times of year, because I get to feed my appetite for topiary.
07:15With this orchard, I wanted to do something special.
07:18When I was doing a wee bit of research on the wall garden here, I found out that the
07:22paths used to be lined with pyramid-trained fruit trees.
07:26Now, I was never going to have the 26 gardeners that used to look after this place, but what
07:30a testament to the past, if I could create an orchard with those pyramid fruit trees again.
07:37So I started off with young trees, the trees that you generally buy from the garden centres,
07:41they're not really suitable for this kind of training.
07:44With those young trees, I'm able to manipulate them right from the word go.
07:48So when I planted this during the wintertime, I gave it a wee snip at the top, and that
07:53then encouraged the side shoots to come out.
07:56As the side branches grew out, I would get some bricks and some string, and I would actually
08:00tie the arms down, just so they were a wee bit above the horizontal.
08:05I didn't want to make them properly horizontal, because as you can see now, the tree's absolutely
08:09laden with apples, and that weight's just bringing them down that wee bit more.
08:15And then I would continue working my way up, I would use a good bamboo cane, just to help
08:20me create that shape, and as you can see, as the tree went up, I would shorten the arms.
08:26Now to help keep the shape, and for all pruning of our pear and apple trees, we want to do
08:32a wee bit of summer pruning, and that's what the perfect time of year is right now to do that.
08:39Here you can see all the new growth that has come in this one year, that's quite a lot.
08:44Now if we reduce that down to about 7 or 10 centimetres, that's about 3 or 4 buds,
08:53and by doing that, we're now exposing the apples to the sunlight.
08:57We are gardening in Scotland after all, we don't get too much of that sunlight, so we
09:01want to make the most of what we have, and now these apples are going to get fully ripened
09:06by that sun that gets in every day.
09:08But we're actually also planning ahead for next year.
09:12The growth that we've left on the plant, the energy is now going to go into these lower
09:16buds, and they're going to create fruiting buds for us next year.
09:20So the work that we do now is actually going to benefit us more next year.
09:35Now one pyramid tree on its own doesn't take up a lot of space, but I know some of you
09:40don't have the biggest gardens and you maybe only have the side of a wall or maybe the
09:44side of a garage to play with, and that's where this comes into its own.
09:49So these are going to be trained as cordons.
09:53As you can see I've put a cane in already, and that's where I'm going to be tying the
09:57young soft growth to so it doesn't get damaged against the horizontal wires which are ultimately
10:02going to come into their own in the years to come.
10:05And the beauty of this is, even in a four metre space, because they're only planted
10:09about 75, 80 centimetres apart, I can get four different varieties in here.
10:15So it's amazing what you can do with only four metres of wall space.
10:20When it comes to training a cordon tree, it's a lot more straightforward than a pyramid.
10:24So I've started off with this one year old tree that I was referring to earlier, and
10:29as you can see I've got it in the ground, and all we need to do at this time of year
10:34is just ensure that it's following our cane.
10:40So getting all this extra growth, and tying it in.
10:52And as you can see from the variety growing next door, it's going to start producing these
10:56side shoots, and this is from where we're going to be getting our apple crop.
11:00We're not going to be wanting this growth to be too long.
11:04This again, this is round about seven to ten centimetres.
11:07If it was any longer I would give it a wee nip, but as it's quite short, I'm just going
11:11to leave it.
11:12But do you know what?
11:13There's so many more shapes that we can play with.
11:18One of the most spectacular styles we can do is a horizontal espalier, and that's where
11:23we're going to take advantage of these wires, and we're going to train it so there's branches
11:28that go along each wire, and when this whole wall's covered, I think it's going to look
11:32amazing.
11:34And the good thing about this, it doesn't just look great during the summer, and productive,
11:38full of apple trees.
11:40When it comes to the winter time, and all the leaves have fallen off, and you just see
11:43the skeleton, what a spectacular shape you're going to have on the side of your wall.
11:48Now we started off with a one-year-old tree again, it's getting a bit more technical,
11:53but I nipped it off just below the bottom wire.
11:56I'm now using these canes, grown at a 45 degree angle, and I'm going to train a couple of
12:02side shoots up them.
12:04The reason we do this is we can get that sap still flowing, but it's not so vigorous that
12:09it takes over, so we can get some nice even growth, and then eventually we'll take them
12:14off and peel them down to that horizontal.
12:18This meanwhile has become the new leader, so I'm going to keep training that up, and
12:22when I get to this wire, and to this height, I'm going to snip it again, and I'll go through
12:27the whole process until the wall is covered.
12:30So the reason I'm telling you all this just now, because it's the perfect time to start
12:34planning for this winter, when you can do this yourself at home.
12:37I tell you what, you should give it a go.
12:39I think it's absolutely great fun, and it's putting my horticultural talents to the limit.
12:55Now Ruth, I think everybody enjoys tatty time, and three weeks ago, Brian and myself were
12:59lifting the tatties in containers.
13:02Now we're lifting the main crops.
13:04We should have planted them the same day as the containers, but the weather was awful.
13:07Surprise, surprise.
13:08So they were planted the next week, round about middle of April, and it's been 18 weeks,
13:13and I'd say 18 to 20 weeks is perfect for lifting main crop.
13:16Yeah, I can see you've got an observation going on here as well, looking into blight-resistant varieties.
13:23Absolutely.
13:24There's definitely some differences going on.
13:26A huge difference, but it's interesting.
13:28So I've picked six varieties that all have some blight resistance, but the ones at the
13:32top there, the three varieties there, are extremely blight-resistant, and the three
13:37here are ones that have slight blight resistance.
13:41So maybe we should start lifting, but you can see the difference with the foliage.
13:45Yeah, absolutely.
13:46I mean, I think with the extremely blight-resistant ones, they are only just starting to show,
13:52whereas with the slight blight-resistant, they've really succumbed, even though they
13:57do have some resistance to them, they're still showing blight in there.
14:02Yeah, so the symptoms that we're looking for, I mean, you can see straight away, there's
14:06sort of brown patches, the foliage starts to go a little bit yellow, and I'd be saying
14:12to people, as soon as you see that, you should actually cut off the shores, because the spores
14:17can go into the soil, and it can stay there, and that's another reason for practicing things
14:22like crop rotation.
14:23Yeah, so the pathogen that causes blight, Phytophthora infestans, it's really, really
14:30damaging.
14:31I mean, it's what caused the Irish potato famine, so it really is a dangerous pathogen.
14:38Interestingly, it is a fungus-like water mold, which is referred to as an oomycete, it's
14:45one of my favourite words.
14:46Fantastic word.
14:47It's a really good word.
14:49And being a water mold, it spreads through water droplets, and that's why, particularly
14:55this year, we're seeing quite a lot of blight, even on those somewhat resistant varieties.
15:01Yeah, I mean, we've had perfect weather conditions for it, and I mean, the good news is the fact
15:06that we can predict it.
15:08I mean, it's really important for people like the farmers, isn't it?
15:12And you're looking for certain conditions.
15:13Yeah, so you can get now, even for amateur gardeners, but also for farmers, you can get
15:19different apps, and what they will essentially do is just check for very specific weather
15:25patterns.
15:26So we're looking for two consecutive days that have a minimum of 10 degrees each, with
15:3290% relative humidity for six hours on each of those days.
15:37Yes.
15:38That's quite a lot to try and remember, which is why we can use apps, and it tells us for
15:42us, and it'll send a bit of an alert out when blight is predicted.
15:48Yes.
15:49Now, look, I've got a fantastic crop here.
15:51You do.
15:52With this variety, Picasso, but this is the one with the slight blight resistance, and
15:57I'd be saying, quite honestly, if you are worried about blight, is that, oh, I can still
16:02see one or two there.
16:03There's a couple in there.
16:06I think if you really want to avoid blight, look for the extremely blight-resistant ones,
16:14and I'd possibly recommend the Sarpomira there.
16:17I mean, we haven't tasted it, but it looks good, doesn't it?
16:19They certainly look the best of the bunch.
16:23And now we're going to have a look at a garden in Persia, where a grassy patch has been transformed
16:28into a wonderful wildlife haven.
16:32Holly Martin-Bates and her husband moved into their new home in 2022.
16:38Their aim with their new garden was to create a habitat that would support an array of wildlife
16:43and wildflowers.
16:45When we first moved here, behind me was just all lawn.
16:50There was a few beds either side, but it was pretty much empty and void of a lot of plants.
16:57I always had a vision of just a sea of plants and color and textures.
17:03So my aim was just to make this space feel like a wilder space.
17:09As a child, growing up with my family, in every garden we've lived in, we've always added a pond.
17:15So I knew that when we moved here, it was really important and it was a kind of a must-have within the garden.
17:22We enjoy being close to water. It's really relaxing, but also for wildlife, it's really important.
17:27It's an important water source for different species and also just an important habitat for species to live in.
17:33So to make a safe pond for wildlife, it needs to have lots of plants within the pond.
17:38Lots of oxygenators and different types of plants, ones that kind of grow out of the pond.
17:43It's important to have sloping edges and sides so that if anything falls in, it can easily climb back out again.
17:51Around the pond, we also have lots of big plants that help create shade and kind of safety from different species.
18:00We've got a really nice purple toadflax here that the bees are loving.
18:04That is close to finishing flowering now, but it's still attracting lots of bees and hoverflies.
18:09And next to it, we've got a viper's boogloss as well, which the pollinators just love.
18:15So in our garden, we've got lots of different native plants that are mixed in,
18:19and a lot of these are self-seeders that will just kind of naturally spread around the garden.
18:24We've got lots of foxgloves that are mostly finished flowering,
18:28but foxgloves are really, really great for different insects.
18:31The bees love when it's flowering, so we've got a lot of them here.
18:34We've got a lot of them here.
18:37We've got lots of foxgloves that are mostly finished flowering,
18:40but foxgloves are really, really great for different insects.
18:43The bees love when it's flowering, but also after it's flowering with the seed heads,
18:48it creates lots of different new habitat for the insects to hide in.
18:52And it's great to watch the birds go amongst the foxgloves buyers and kind of pick out those different insects.
18:58We've got borage as well, which is another native self-seeder,
19:03which is kind of spreading throughout the garden, and bees just love this plant as well.
19:09The red campaign that we've got, again, a native plant, a great self-seeder.
19:14I got the seeds from my dad's garden and kind of brought it into this garden, which is really lovely.
19:20And insects throughout the winter will hibernate in the seed pods,
19:24especially moths, they'll go inside the seed pods once the seeds have fallen out.
19:30So again, just another great habitat.
19:32And you'll see everything's kind of crammed together, but having the plants so close together
19:37and kind of growing intermingled means that for insects, they have more of a habitat.
19:43It'll bring in different types of insects that we just wouldn't have had having just a plain, boring lawn before.
19:50When we first moved to this house, one of the animals I really hoped might eventually turn up were hedgehogs.
20:06So I don't know how they found us, but as we planted up the garden, we noticed, I think it was like a little hedgehog poo,
20:16so we noticed a sign that there had been a hedgehog in the garden.
20:19And so we stuck up a kind of wildlife camera and we then got some footage of a hedgehog in our garden.
20:26So that was really exciting. And we provided some nesting materials, so like dried leaves and straw to help it
20:34and to kind of see if it would settle in the garden.
20:37And then we got footage of it kind of making a nest for hibernation.
20:42And the hedgehog, we had our first hedgehog hibernate over winter with us this past winter.
20:48We've also had footage of two hedgehogs now showing kind of like mating behaviours.
20:55And we have seen a young-looking hedgehog in the garden.
20:59So potentially they've had babies, which is really, really cool.
21:03So we're just wanting to help the hedgehog population because their population is declining quite quickly.
21:09So it's lovely to have them here and hopefully they stay here.
21:14If they wander off at night, they come back.
21:16And they can do that because we've got gaps in the fence so that they can get in and out easily.
21:22And that's really important to have in your garden is to have somewhere that they can get in and out
21:27and have like a wee hedgehog highway so that gardens can be connected for the wildlife to move through.
21:45Well, here I am back in the 8x6 greenhouse.
21:48And you know me, if I can do a little observation, I will.
21:52So this is what I've got with tomatoes.
21:54I've got two varieties of tomato, the well-known Shirley variety in these three pots.
22:00And then this is a new improved Shirley variety called Borna.
22:04And I am told that Borna should maybe ripen a little bit earlier than Shirley.
22:12And a heavier cropper.
22:14Well, it is quite interesting because we have done one little bit of cropping on the 5th of August.
22:21And I have to say Borna was just slightly ahead but only maybe a couple of days.
22:26As for the actual weight or yield, we'll have to wait and see.
22:29And we'll round up on that at the last programme of the series.
22:33Now, what I do want to say is I think it's important at this time of year because it's been incredibly slow
22:39that you want to nip out the tops of the plants.
22:42And I would say that you wouldn't want any more than about six or seven trusses.
22:47Otherwise, the fruit won't ripen.
22:49Now, the other thing is Ruth and myself were talking about tatty blight, potato blight.
22:54And I have to say, sadly, we've got a little bit of tomato blight coming in here.
22:59And it's the same pathogen as the potato blight.
23:03Now, because we've got this blotch here and it's on one of the lower leaves,
23:07the best thing I can do is I just break that off.
23:12And the nice thing is the fact that it's the lower leaves,
23:15if I take one or two of those leaves off, it'll let in a bit more light
23:20and that will help for the fruit to ripen.
23:23Now, I want to move on to the other side of the greenhouse.
23:26And I am just so delighted with this display.
23:29This year, I decided I'm going to go for the really hot colours.
23:34And the gardeners have done a wonderful job here.
23:37Absolutely filled it with colour.
23:39I'll start off with a couple of the climbers.
23:42So this one here is Black-Eyed Susie.
23:45These open blues with the dark centre there.
23:48The Latin name is Thumbergia alata.
23:51But of the two climbers, so that's an annual climber.
23:55And this is another annual climber.
23:57And I really like this one.
23:59This is Nipomia.
24:01Variety is called Jungle Queen.
24:03And you get about 12 blooms on one of the flowering spikes.
24:07And what's interesting is you get such a colour range.
24:10So the first ones open and they start with the red.
24:13You go through to the orange.
24:15As they get older, yellows.
24:17And finally, finish off with the whites.
24:20What else can I recommend?
24:22Well, begonias, the number one bedding plant.
24:24So begonias are great outside.
24:26They're good inside as well.
24:28They don't mind sun.
24:29They don't mind shade.
24:30They don't mind moisture.
24:32And the varieties that I've got here are Starshine Mix.
24:37Then we're going back to some more annuals.
24:40The celosias here.
24:42Fresh-look mix we've got here.
24:44Lovely, lovely feathery plumes.
24:47They really, they almost look a bit artificial.
24:49But they are absolutely gorgeous.
24:52And then in front, we've got Acuphia ignia.
24:55I like the common name.
24:56It's called the cigar plant.
24:58You can see why.
24:59And I looked at these a few weeks ago.
25:01But now lots more blooms are coming.
25:04So as I say, both of those are annuals.
25:06They will be thrown away at the end of the season.
25:08But I have got a couple of different types of pelargoniums.
25:12And they can be treated as perennials.
25:14I'm going to start off with this one.
25:16It's a zonal pelargonium.
25:18Variety is called Trend Red.
25:20And that is a real fiery colour to it.
25:23Almost like an orangey red.
25:25However, this is an ivy-leafed pelargonium.
25:29The variety is Rubens.
25:31And I just love the colour of that.
25:33It's a deep, deep red.
25:35Now, they are perennial.
25:36And you could overwinter them.
25:38But my suggestion is that I think it's a good idea
25:41to think about actually taking a cutting.
25:45And so if I take a stem like this,
25:47and I just cut that underneath the leaf joint.
25:51Now, OK, I have taken it with some flowers.
25:54So I'm going to take the flowers off.
25:57And you could nip out the top.
26:01And then I want to just take off the bottom leaves.
26:05And I would simply put that in some water.
26:08And I reckon within six weeks,
26:10you're going to get some roots and you can pot it on.
26:13But I have to say, great success.
26:15And you know, it makes me feel warm in here.
26:25What do you think of the Holly Carol?
26:27I think it's absolutely brilliant.
26:29I remember lifting the crown a little bit a few years ago.
26:32But I think it's important that you've done it again.
26:34And, I mean, it shows off the plants now.
26:36It certainly does.
26:37And it's exactly what we were looking for,
26:39just letting that light come straight in
26:41and really help to elevate them
26:43and get them to grow a little bit quicker, hopefully.
26:45Yes, and you've also taken it in a little bit at the outside.
26:48And I think, actually, it's more fitting now.
26:51And also, what do you think of the harvest?
26:53It is incredible.
26:55It's my favourite time of the year because of this.
26:57Have you got your eye on anything?
26:59Those blueberries are looking particularly excellent.
27:01That's fine, you can have them.
27:03I think I'm going to go for a fig.
27:05But that's just about it for this week.
27:07Coming up next week, Callum is going to be building a hotbed,
27:10getting ready for when the temperatures drop.
27:12I think that is a great idea,
27:14considering how cold the spring was this year.
27:16Absolutely.
27:18And don't forget, if you want to watch any of the series,
27:20it's all on the iPlayer.
27:22But from the two of us, bye for now.
27:24Goodbye.
27:48.