The Beechgrove Garden 2024 episode 22
Category
🦄
CreativityTranscript
00:00Hello and welcome to Beechgrove Garden.
00:16On the programme, planting for 2025 and a hotbed for winter growing.
00:21Coming up, Lizzie's getting bulbs in the ground for spring colour.
00:28I'm talking a load of horse manure that's going into the hotbed that I'm building.
00:34And on the allotment in Dundee.
00:39Now it's time to check in on the rhubarb that George replanted here in the very first episode of the series.
00:45That's right, Lizzie. Where the rhubarb was over by the hedge, it wasn't really thriving.
00:49It was quite a poor harvest we were getting from it.
00:52And that could be because the hedge was blocking the light levels over there.
00:56And also rhubarb is a really hungry plant, so we maybe weren't feeding it enough
00:59or there could not be enough organic matter in the actual soil.
01:02Yeah, because normally they are quite robust plants and really easy to grow.
01:06So they obviously weren't very happy.
01:08That's right. And you know, if you give your rhubarb the right space, the right conditions,
01:12they'll last there for 10 years easy.
01:14But because we just lifted this this year, or if you've planted a crown in year one,
01:18I know it's difficult, but it's really important not to take a harvest from it.
01:22Because if you don't take the harvest, let the plant build up, build up the crown as well,
01:27you'll get stalks for years and years to come.
01:29Yeah, and this is the crown, isn't it?
01:31This is where all your lovely rhubarb is going to come from.
01:35But you know, in the next couple of years, what you need to be doing is when you're harvesting them,
01:40only take about a third of the stalks off.
01:44You wouldn't really be harvesting roundabout now because it is too late.
01:48It's sort of past that.
01:49Yeah, it would be May, June time that you would be doing your rhubarb harvest.
01:54Now we will, probably in about six weeks time, it will take or so months to six weeks for this to die back.
01:59We'll then clear the area, get rid of all the dead stalks and the foliage,
02:04and then we'll give this bit, just round the crown a bit of mulch.
02:07But it's important not to cover the crown.
02:10We'll just go round the sides of it and that's really going to give it a good feed.
02:14But I don't set out, Lizzie, to go out and mulch my rhubarb.
02:18If I'm, say, filling up a pot with some compost for winter bedding and I've got a wee bit of compost left,
02:23that's what I'll use to mulch my rhubarb and then that'll really help it for next year.
02:27Yeah, because the rhubarb plant doesn't actually, it's really hardy,
02:31so it does like that period during the winter of that seven to nine weeks of that frosty,
02:38lovely cold weather to help it burst into life in the spring.
02:42But we'll come back next year and we'll hopefully get a stew for this.
02:44I tell you what, I cannae wait already, it should be good.
02:46Rhubarb tart.
02:47Oh, you make me hungry, stopper.
02:50But it's time now to go to Dundee to catch up with FF Papagianni.
03:04Hello and welcome back to my allotment here in Dundee.
03:07It's been a very challenging growing season for me, maybe for everyone.
03:12I think it's fair to say at this point for everyone.
03:14But there has been one really exciting development here on the plot
03:18and that is this greenhouse.
03:21And I'm really excited because when we have growing seasons like the one we've had this year,
03:26it really highlights how important it is to be able to grow things undercover.
03:29And this is all made from things that we found, so reclaimed materials.
03:34It's all old windows, old wood, as you can probably see.
03:39But it's worked wonders for the plants, they really like growing in here.
03:42So if you want to join me for a look inside and see what's growing.
03:56So inside the greenhouse, as you can see, it's quite jungly, which I love.
04:01And something that I wasn't expecting when we were making the greenhouse
04:04is how much the height of it would be a benefit.
04:07And I'm used to my other little greenhouse,
04:09so when the tomatoes reach the top or when the corn reaches the top,
04:13they get kind of smushed at an angle.
04:15But here they've just been allowed to go as tall as they like
04:18and they've taken advantage of that.
04:20So the corn is now reaching for the top, which is great.
04:24And the tomatoes as well.
04:26They were planted a little bit later,
04:28but they've really enjoyed being able to go as tall as they like.
04:33And there is something very exciting here near the entryway that I want to show you.
04:40So this is Capsicum flexosum.
04:42And it doesn't look like much now because it's still quite small,
04:46but it's getting established.
04:48But it is the only fully hardy chili that is available.
04:53And I grew this from seed and it was a bit of a horticultural challenge
04:58because the germination took a really long time.
05:01I was almost close to giving up on it.
05:03But finally, I got a couple of plants and now they've been planted in the greenhouse
05:08and they're looking quite healthy, although small.
05:10And the exciting thing about this is in Scotland, when we grow chilies,
05:14we have them for quite a short season and then the cold kills them off.
05:18But this one will be able to live in this greenhouse year round
05:22and hopefully produce chilies really early
05:25and give us what we want of the chili growing season.
05:29And my long term goal, dream, if you will,
05:34is to breed this chili with one of the more conventional chilies to make it bigger.
05:40Because this is a wild type of chili, the chilies are quite small.
05:43So I would like to breed it with a different type of chili to make big fruits
05:47that we can grow outside in Scotland year round.
06:00So to commemorate the building of the greenhouse,
06:03because I'm cheesy like that, I've got two roses
06:07and I'll be planting them at the two corners of the greenhouse.
06:12And then hopefully next summer, when that's looking lush and full again,
06:16I'll also have my two roses at the front.
06:18And I've gone for Sceptered Isle, which is a nice kind of soft pink
06:24and Lichfield Angel, which is beautiful, soft apricot again.
06:30So the two of them should look really nice in these two corners.
06:33So I'm going to plant Lichfield Angel just here
06:37to align with the corner of the greenhouse.
06:40And this is not the time of year that you would be normally buying roses
06:45because bare root season starts in the autumn time and kind of runs through the winter.
06:51But because as we reach the end of summer, roses start to look a little bit tired.
06:56There are bargains to be had.
06:57So you can get roses for much cheaper than you would get them earlier in the summer
07:03or even bare root season.
07:05And as the season's kind of gone on, I've been thinking about
07:10the allotment and the role that it plays in my life.
07:12And I've had a hard summer emotionally, but also weather-wise.
07:19And so I felt a little bit guilty for neglecting the allotment,
07:22which I think a lot of people have felt this summer.
07:25But actually, something that I've discovered is that once the allotment is established,
07:32it kind of, it does a lot of the growing by itself.
07:36So I can come up here and enjoy the space in the garden
07:39and enjoy the peace that it gives me and the calm for my mental health,
07:44but also be harvesting beautiful flowers and vegetables.
07:48So when you're planting a rose,
07:51I'm actually going to plant it to the depth that it is in this pot
07:55because you want the crown of the rose to be a little bit under the level of the soil.
08:00So I'm just going to test that out here in the hole that I've made and see what it looks like.
08:04So that looks about right to me.
08:07Oh, something that you want to do when you're first planting a rose.
08:10This is a tip I got from a Rosarian.
08:12This is a great opportunity to give yourself a little bit of a break.
08:16This is a great opportunity to get nutrients under the rose,
08:19which you don't normally get the chance to do after it's planted.
08:24So I'm going to put some compost in the base of the hole
08:28to give the rose a boost when it's first getting established.
08:33So I'll do that.
08:39This is just multi-purpose compost,
08:42but you can also put things like chicken manure pellets in there,
08:46blood, fish and bone if that doesn't gross you out.
08:52So it's kind of level with the soil and I'm going to cover it up and that's it done.
08:58I'm going to give this a really good water to help it get established
09:02and then hopefully next summer we'll have beautiful soft pink and apricot roses
09:07blooming in front of my lovely new greenhouse.
09:12Aren't these Brussels sprouts looking absolutely cracking?
09:25The variety here is Crispus and you can just see they're just starting to form right now
09:30and we'll harvest these from late November right through to Christmas,
09:33maybe even into the new year.
09:35But a wee bit of maintenance between now and then is,
09:38you want to keep the net on, it'll keep the pigeons out
09:40and it'll help with the cabbage white butterflies.
09:43If you see any foliage starting to turn yellow, it's nothing to worry about.
09:48All you do is, as you go in, you just break it off
09:50and then just dispose of it how you feel appropriate.
09:54They might start to get a wee bit top heavy and they'll blow over,
09:57especially if we get a good gust of wind.
09:59But as long as it's not broken off from the bottom,
10:01just pick it up, get a cane in and tie them in.
10:04Now it's a wee bit late for planting Brussels sprouts
10:08but there is other winter veg that you can be planting out right now
10:11and I've got a great way to do it.
10:30We'll come into the polytunnel and we're going to create something called a hotbed.
10:33And what a hotbed is, is using natural materials to break down and generate heat.
10:37And there's a couple of benefits by creating a hotbed.
10:40One, this is going to create so much heat
10:42that you're not going to need to lay cables or electric heaters in here
10:45so it's going to save you quite a bit of money.
10:48And also it prolongs the growing season.
10:50So what we're using is, is just some pallet collars to create a raised bed.
10:54Now it's better to have a taller bed than a wider bed
10:57because the smaller the surface area, the more heat you're going to get for this.
11:02And we're using some horse manure in there.
11:04The reason you use horse manure is because this is going to be full of some hay
11:08and grass clippings, so full of nitrogen.
11:11It will generate the most heat and it will do it quite fast as well.
11:14If you've been out cutting the lawns, shove some of the grass clippings on here as well.
11:19So we've already got some manure in here, so we'll add some more out.
11:26With every barrel load that you add in, what you want to do is,
11:30is just gently tap it down.
11:33That's going to put more manure in here, so we're going to get more heat from it.
11:37But you don't want to totally tramp it down, because if you totally trample it down,
11:41well, you need some air in there to help with the process.
11:47Also, after every load, add some water in.
11:53Better to do it in stages.
11:56And we'll keep adding manure until it gets right to the top of the pallet.
12:00Because right to the brim.
12:02And then what we'll do, we've got some recycled membrane that we're lying about.
12:05We'll just lay that on the top.
12:07If you've got some compost bags, just use them as well.
12:10Weigh it down.
12:11That's going to take heat for the sun and also trap in the heat that the manure's creating.
12:16We'll leave this for three weeks.
12:18In that three weeks, it will sink as it's generating the heat.
12:22So we'll need to add in another layer or two of manure.
12:25And also add in our growing medium.
12:28It's going to be 50% topsoil and 50% compost.
12:31And we'll actually sow and plant directly into that.
12:34And the winter veg we're going to plant in here is going to be some cabbage,
12:38spring onions, radish, turnip and some lettuce.
12:42We're not just going to plant and sow directly into the hotbed.
12:44We're going to do the same crops either side of it as well.
12:47Because the whole tunnel will benefit from the heat from the hotbed.
12:50But we'll also, just to do a wee comparison, plant the same stuff outside as well.
12:55And come harvest time, we'll just compare each area.
12:59I expect to get about two months of heat from the hotbed.
13:02So it's really going to prolong the season.
13:04But over the next few weeks, it's really important before planting,
13:08keep the polytunnel door open for ventilation.
13:10And also don't put any seedlings in here.
13:12Because they will just shrivel up and die with the amount of heat and stuff that's created.
13:16But while I finish off here,
13:18it's time for you to go visit a lovely garden in the southwest of Scotland.
13:22When this garden just north of Dumfries was taken over,
13:25there was a lot of hard graft to be done.
13:26But the new owner was well qualified to turn this into a beautiful plot.
13:31Colin Crosby knew exactly what he was taking on.
13:34As the former head gardener at the late Queen Mother's Royal Lodge in Windsor,
13:38and curator at the Royal Horticultural Society's flagship garden at Wisley.
13:45When we moved in, the garden was rather overgrown in places.
13:49We had to remove brambles.
13:51We had lots of pernicious weeds, nettles, ground elder.
13:57We had convolvias, you name it.
13:59The things that people have at home.
14:01But through clearing the gardening, starting from scratch, we've created it.
14:05One of the biggest problems that we have is this is all glacial moraine.
14:10And I really can't get a spade into the ground.
14:13I've almost got to plant using a pickaxe or a mattock,
14:16because the ground is so wet.
14:18And I can't get a spade into the ground.
14:20I've almost got to plant using a pickaxe or a mattock,
14:23because the ground is so stony.
14:30We're at my wildflower meadow here, and it's a wonderful area of the garden.
14:36It's not low maintenance.
14:37There's work that needs to be done.
14:39But I was keen, rather than cutting a fine lawn,
14:42to try and see how I could create a meadow.
14:45The first year I had the meadow,
14:47And yellow rattle is wonderful.
14:49It's semi-parasitic.
14:51It feeds on the root system of the grass.
14:53It reduces the vigour, and it allows other wildflowers to come in
14:58and to colonise the meadow.
15:00Now the meadow's only coming to about two foot high, 18 inches.
15:05The vigour's disappearing from it, and it's getting the yellow rattle in.
15:09But I do have to start cutting the meadow.
15:11So in the next few days, I will cut the meadow.
15:14I've already been harvesting the seed of the yellow rattle.
15:18And the yellow rattle is this little plant down here.
15:22In early summer, it has yellow flowers.
15:25But this time of year, these are the seed heads.
15:27And in the seed heads, when you tap them, they rattle.
15:30But it's important to gather the seeds.
15:33You can see some of the seeds coming out in my hand.
15:36Some have already spread in the meadow.
15:38And once I've got all the grass cut and removed,
15:42I come back with these seeds, and I start spreading them through
15:47so that a yellow rattle can start to grow and be ready for next year.
16:04Now summer colour in the garden is very important.
16:07And this is a mixed shrub and perennial bed.
16:10I have a lovely fuchsia form, a fuchsia magellanica, which is flowering there.
16:15And in front of me, the diorama, the angel's fishing rods,
16:18which just brings dark colour into the garden.
16:21And it also brings movement.
16:23And of course, behind me, there's actually the colours of the foliage and everything.
16:28And summer colour is not just about flowers.
16:31It's about flowers, and it's about the lovely foliage and colours,
16:34which you can see bring it all together.
16:37And you have a perfect mix within your garden.
16:43One of my favourite groups of plants are roscoia.
16:46I first discovered them when I was about 16 years old.
16:50I thought they were orchids.
16:52And it was then explained to me that they were members of the hardy ginger family.
16:57There's a whole range of different colours.
16:59These ones here are roscoia purpurea.
17:02They're late summer flowering.
17:04And I've had fun crossing the whites, the reds and the purples.
17:08And you can see the range of colours in this planting here in front of us.
17:12And what's more, they're so easy to grow in the garden.
17:27Now, here we are in my polytunnel.
17:29It's where I do all my propagating of plants for the garden.
17:33Here's a pot full of roscoia seedlings.
17:36These were sown this spring.
17:38And in two years' time, I'll be planting these plants in my garden at the other side.
17:45It's so exciting, and it's so fulfilling, growing and propagating your own plants.
17:50I actually think it's one of the best parts of gardening.
17:54Now, I hope people who visit our garden under Scotland's Garden Scheme,
17:59they'll be inspired to garden at home.
18:01They may just enjoy the colour and the space that's here.
18:05But more importantly, we know gardening and visiting other people's gardens
18:10is good for our health and our mental well-being as well.
18:14And that is so important.
18:16So, I hope you'll come and visit us.
18:18A few years ago, George was in this part of the garden in the Dry Riverbed,
18:23and he had this vision of creating a wonderful stream
18:27where he could just sit and relax and just enjoy the beautiful colours of the water.
18:32And I think that's a great idea.
18:34And I think that's a great idea.
18:36And I think that's a great idea.
18:38And I think that's a great idea.
18:40And I think that's a great idea.
18:42And I think that's a great idea.
18:44He had this vision of creating a wonderful stream-like effect,
18:49but using plants to represent the river running through it.
18:53And he planted up some blue gentian
18:56and also some purple iris to represent the water.
19:00Now, today we are going to be adding to that effect
19:03by planting some muscari, some grape hyacinth,
19:08which will add to the water
19:10because they are a lovely bluey-purple colour when they flower.
19:14And also some cyclamen.
19:16Now, the cyclamen grow from these combs
19:19and they produce little eyes
19:22where the shoots and the flowers start to come out of.
19:26And you can see it quite clearly here
19:28on this comb that I'm going to plant.
19:32You can see all the lovely little new shoots
19:34and there's a flower stem that is starting to appear as well.
19:40Now, planting cyclamen are a great way
19:43of adding colour to your gardens
19:46when all your garden is starting to die back in autumn.
19:49Now, these cyclamen heterifolium,
19:53they are going to flower from about September
19:56all the way through to November.
19:59They are great for planting underneath trees.
20:03They love dry shade.
20:06So they are perfect for planting underneath shrubs
20:11and probably quite problematic areas in your garden
20:15where things just won't grow.
20:17So one thing to definitely remember
20:19when you're planting cyclamen
20:20is that they don't like to be planted too deep.
20:23You can see on this pot,
20:25they've been planted almost on the surface of the soil.
20:29So if you plant them too deeply,
20:31it's going to affect the flowering,
20:32which is not what you want.
20:34Now, they are going to be running down
20:37the side of our riverbed,
20:39but in the middle to represent the water,
20:42we're going to use some of these bulbs.
20:45These don't need to be planted very deeply at all.
20:49We're going to plant them in groups of ones,
20:52threes and fives,
20:54and hopefully that is going to make things
20:56look a little bit more natural.
20:58Plant them in a swathe like going down
21:01to just make it look really beautiful.
21:06Now, if I was at home,
21:08probably what I would be doing
21:10is would be raking back all of this gravel.
21:13And then what I would do
21:14is I would take a handful of the bulbs
21:17and just throw them and scatter them about
21:21and plant them where they land.
21:23That's also a really lovely way
21:25of creating a natural effect,
21:28which is what we really want.
21:29But, you know, come springtime,
21:34once the cyclamen have all finished flowering,
21:38these will start to pop up,
21:40probably in about March.
21:44And that's when you'll have
21:48that beautiful blue stream flowing down this bed.
21:54Now it's time to visit a garden in town.
21:57Now it's time to visit a garden in Keith in Moray,
22:00which has been 30 years in the making.
22:04Alison Gelling moved to this cottage from Birmingham
22:07and once the house had been renovated,
22:09her attention turned to the garden,
22:10which hadn't been tended for some time.
22:14So the garden split up really
22:16into a few different areas.
22:18I've got a wildflower patch,
22:20which I really enjoy.
22:22It's very different to what it was.
22:24I've got another cottage garden type
22:27area around the side of the house.
22:29It's a little bit exposed sometimes,
22:31a bit open to the elements.
22:35I've got another area where my greenhouse is
22:37and a few pots.
22:39And this is a newer area here.
22:41It's probably my favourite place in the garden.
22:43It's just full of colour and life.
22:46A lovely place to be in.
22:48This is one of my favourite flowers
22:50in the garden this year.
22:51This is an ornamental carrot
22:54called Purple Kisses.
22:57I started off growing, by mistake,
23:01carrot flowers when I left the carrots
23:03in the ground one year.
23:05And when I saw what beautiful flowers they were,
23:07I looked into this different varieties.
23:11And I thought,
23:12well, I'm going to plant a carrot this year.
23:13So I'm going to plant a carrot this year.
23:16Different varieties.
23:18The pollinators love them.
23:20They make really nice cut flowers for a vase.
23:23And also, if you like drying flowers,
23:25you can dry them.
23:27And they make the most beautiful
23:29bird's nest shaped flower heads.
23:32They start off in a white flower
23:35and they gradually grow from pale pink
23:38to a darker purple.
23:40And they make a lovely statement flower
23:42in the garden.
23:45So this is a new border.
23:55Cottage garden style planting.
23:58Grew the majority of flowers in here from seed,
24:02including this straw flower.
24:04This variety is called Silvery Rose.
24:07It's lovely petals feel like paper.
24:10They make lovely cut flowers.
24:12And also, they're probably most famous
24:15for drying.
24:16If you want to dry them,
24:17if you cut them,
24:18just as they're about to open in the center
24:21and hang them somewhere cool and dry,
24:24and they'll just about last forever.
24:37One of the plants I really enjoy using
24:39in the garden are these Sempervivums
24:41or house leeks.
24:42You can do lots of creative planting with them.
24:46I use some tin cans or a kitchen scale.
24:50They're very easy to propagate.
24:52You can just pull a piece off
24:54and stick it in the soil
24:56and it grows quite readily.
24:58And they also produce these lovely flowers.
25:01When the flower is finished,
25:03the parent plant will die,
25:06but you'll get lots of babies,
25:08lots of little shoots coming off
25:09that you can replant.
25:11It's just a good way to be creative in the garden
25:14and have a bit of fun.
25:24I think the important thing
25:26is to enjoy what you're doing.
25:28Just enjoy the garden.
25:30I don't strive to grow the biggest cabbages
25:33or the best flowers,
25:34but just enjoy what you're doing
25:36and the rest will follow.
25:41Time now for some handy hints.
25:43Now, if you are looking for some texture
25:45to add to your Christmas wreaths,
25:47then drying some Echinops
25:49is a perfect thing to do right now.
25:51Don't wait until they are in full bloom like this,
25:54because what happens when you dry these,
25:57all of the flower heads will fall to the floor
26:00and you won't have that lovely sphere
26:04that you're looking for.
26:05So, if you're looking for a nice,
26:06beautiful, beautiful,
26:08and you won't have that lovely sphere shape.
26:12Strip off all of the leaves.
26:16Hang them upside down by an elastic band
26:19so they don't drop to the floor
26:20and keep them in a dark, well-ventilated area.
26:26If you're wanting to get an absolutely massive pumpkin
26:28to carve at Halloween,
26:30or you just want to leave one pumpkin per plant,
26:32so leave the biggest one on right now
26:34and just break off the wee ones.
26:38So, that's almost all for this week,
26:52but before we go, we thought we'd come and check out
26:54Kirsty's hot border.
26:55I know, it's looking fabulous.
26:56She planted it two years ago
26:58and it's really starting to fill up.
26:59The bergamot and the crocosmy are looking fab.
27:02I want to go down here and pick out this scabies.
27:04It's a nice maroon colour
27:06and that was a whole sort of theme with this border,
27:08wasn't it?
27:08To have your yellows, reds, oranges.
27:10Yeah, and it's like fireworks going off.
27:12It looks great.
27:14Ruth and I are here next week
27:15and we will be pulling up this season's carrots
27:18and also planting for autumn colour.
27:20And the usual reminder,
27:21if you want to watch us all over again,
27:22head over to the BBC iPlayer.
27:24But from the two of us,
27:25it's bye for now.
27:26Bye.
27:27Bye.
27:57Bye.