BG 2024 episode 23
The Beechgrove Garden 2024 episode 23
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hello and welcome to Beech Grove Garden.
00:16This week, planning for autumn and spring.
00:22Coming up, Ruth is planting containers for colour later in the year.
00:27I'm planting alliums for next spring.
00:31And Callum reports from the allotment in Leven.
00:38So Lizzie, I am very excited to be back in the veg plot to do the big reveal of the carrots
00:44that you sowed back in spring.
00:46I know, it is rather exciting.
00:48Now we've got this variety here called Resistafly and that has been planted by itself, not covered
00:54with fleece and that is because it's supposed to be more resistant to the dreaded carrot
00:59fly.
01:00Now underneath this fleece we've got another couple of varieties called Yellowstone and
01:08also Nymph.
01:09Now they have been grown in the usual way, they've been covered by the fleece which provides
01:14that barrier so that the carrot fly can't fly in, lay its eggs at the soil and then
01:21ruin your carrot crop.
01:23But let's have a look to see how they've got on.
01:25Let's get harvesting, shall we?
01:28Getting straight in there.
01:33And I'm really quite excited to see whether there has been any sort of damage to them.
01:42Now, if you're looking for the damage, it normally ends up being halfway down the carrot
01:49root and you can see tiny little holes and then little burrow marks that have turned
01:55maybe black or brown.
01:57Now let's see.
02:00I think I can see some telltale signs there, which is a little bit disappointing, I have
02:06to say, but let's harvest them all and see whether they've all been affected or not.
02:13Yeah, the ones I've got over here, so these are the ones that were grown under the fleece.
02:18So far, Yellowstone, these bright yellow carrots that I've pulled up are looking magnificent.
02:25However, there is a tiny little bit of showing here.
02:29So I think even with that fleece, it's difficult to fully protect your crop.
02:34And then I also have Nymph, which, well, looking a little bit small.
02:40I think Nymph needs to be left in the ground for a little bit longer.
02:44In terms of the carrot fly, I can't see any visible signs.
02:50So I'm not sure, but I think we'll have to leave those a little bit longer in the ground.
02:54Yeah, well, the ultimate test will be in the taste, I suppose, which we can do later on.
03:00Absolutely.
03:01So what I'm going to do, if you don't mind, is just leave you to harvest the rest because
03:04I have some containers to plant.
03:06No problem.
03:07Enjoy.
03:15I don't know about you, but at this time of the year, I'm always feeling a little bit restless.
03:21We've just finished our carrot harvest and I'm really conscious that the seasons are
03:25changing and the nights are going to be drawing in.
03:28So what I thought I would do is put together an autumn-winter flowering planter that'll
03:32just greet me at the door when I get home from work in the dark, just to bring a little
03:36bit of joy.
03:38So what I've got here is a container that I have filled the base up with some horticultural
03:44grit just to help with a little bit of frost protection.
03:47I've got my peat-free compost and I've also added some slow-release fertilizer just to
03:53keep my plants fed through the winter months.
03:56So just follow the instructions and add as much as it tells you to based on the size
04:00of your planter.
04:02So what I've got here are some really, really beautiful autumn-winter colours.
04:10I've deliberately picked these beautiful sort of russety oranges and russety reds and
04:16I'm just going to be putting them into my planter right at the front.
04:22So I always recommend planting in odd numbers, just I find that it just looks a little bit
04:28more aesthetically pleasing.
04:29So I'm going to go for five of these chrysanthemums.
04:33The really great thing about chrysanthemums is that they're actually triggered into flowering
04:39at this time of year.
04:40So whilst we don't really enjoy those darker, longer nights, that's actually what causes
04:46these to flower.
04:47So they're fantastic for this time of year just to give you that little bit of brightness.
04:51And I've also got some cyclamens as well.
04:54These are synonymous with winter and perfect to just give that contrast of the white.
05:00What I'd always recommend when you are picking any of your flowers would be try to get ones
05:05that are still in bud.
05:06So whilst these cyclamens are looking really fantastic now, they won't for much longer
05:12until they start producing more flowers, whereas this one here is fantastic to go in and it
05:17will then start flowering in the next week, two weeks, three weeks, and it will just continue
05:22to flower all winter long, as long as we're deadheading.
05:26The other thing with cyclamen is just to make sure that you're planting no deeper than the
05:30depth of your container, just so that it doesn't rot when it gets a little bit too wet.
05:35So I've got that in there now.
05:37The other thing as well is just place them in before you actually plant anything, just
05:42in case you want to move them around and you're not really happy with the look.
05:46I've also got my winter flowering pansies, and I chose these particularly because I thought
05:52that they look a little bit like pumpkins, and because I'm going for that autumn-winter
05:56theme, I thought they would look quite nice just with their little faces greeting me at
06:01the door.
06:02And then finally, what's going in here is this beautiful white heather.
06:08Now the white heather is going to go at the back.
06:11It's going to look fantastic, dancing around in the wind.
06:16So once you've got all your plants in and you're happy with your positioning, you're
06:19happy with how they look, then we can just start filling in around them and then just
06:23firming them in so that they're nice and snug into the container.
06:28Once you're finished doing that, you can then move on to your watering.
06:33So I'll be watering at the end, but when you are doing it, just make sure that you
06:40are not going to water near the leaves or as much as possible.
06:44So for example, just using the rose here, and just try to get underneath the leaves
06:50as much as you possibly can when you're watering them in, just so that it keeps the water drops
06:56off the leaves, which will just help to prevent any diseases building up.
07:00So I'm just going to finish off with this planter and we are over now to Callum at his
07:05allotment in Leven.
07:17You may remember a few weeks ago that we did a lot of work on the plum tree.
07:21We took out the pear tree here, we cut it right down at the base and it's allowing more
07:26light into the plot and it's also improving the plums.
07:29Now as the plums are starting to ripen though, they're getting a few nibbles or so from birds
07:36or other animals, so I'm going to have to protect them.
07:39Now I've never had to protect them on the plot before, this will be the first year,
07:43so I really just wanted to put in a temporary structure.
07:46So I just had two posts left over and two canes at the front.
07:50It's really important that whatever you use is going to be slightly wider and most importantly,
07:56taller than your fruit tree.
08:00Just so that the net stays on, I've got these pots here now.
08:04I've got a smaller one over there on the blueberries and that's because I will in time, I'm going
08:09to put a proper fruit cage here, but nothing's really needed protected now apart from that
08:15one blueberry there, so I've made a smaller one there.
08:17If I was to put a fruit cage on this now and we get snow over the winter, there's a chance
08:21that it'd all be ruined, so that's the job for next year.
08:25So we're just going to put these pots on the top, this is so when we put the net over
08:29it, it's got something to hold onto.
08:35And then, this is the bit I wish I had a wee bit of a hand because this could be a wee
08:40bit tricky.
08:41This is just bird and animal barrier netting and it's really important when you put it
08:46over the top that it's as tight as possible, not too tight that it rips, but you don't
08:51want it too saggy that the birds can get down and then maybe get their foot trapped
08:56or get down to the crops.
09:00If you're maybe wanting to share your crop with the birds or other animals, you could
09:07still put up your supports and then just put a string up with some CDs and then if you
09:12dangle the CDs down, it will reflect for the sunlight, they'll only see some of the crops
09:19so you'll only get some of them eating and it'll protect some of them.
09:23Once you've got the net pulled out as much as possible, it's just a case of getting them
09:27over the supports.
09:45So I've got the front and back sorted, excluding some of the wee bits I will have to go in
09:49and just put a bit more twine in and once we've done that, we will get the sides sorted.
09:55But just to stop this sort of flapping and another entry point for anything to go in,
10:00if you just pull this down as far as you can and then I'm just going to use a sort of cut
10:05up slab that I had lying about, but even if you've got some pots that you just want to
10:08fill with compost, that will weigh it down and then you just lay that down on top and
10:13then that's just another way of keeping it down.
10:17As long as we get some sunlight, we'll get a harvest for this in the next week or two
10:22and then once we harvest it all, during the winter what we'll do is I'll get some unrooted
10:27manure and I'll create a nice mulch around the base of the plant.
10:30I don't want to go too close to it and touch the trunk because then it could start some
10:34rotting, but by adding some manure, that's going to give the plant a feed, it's going
10:39to make the soil more fertile and when the worms start pulling it down and working their
10:44magic then it's really going to improve the soil structure and next year hopefully we'll
10:49get just a good o' crop.
10:58It seemed to have been a really cracking year for sweet corn.
11:01This is only the second time that I've grown it, the first time I've grown it inside and
11:06what really inspired me to try it here on the allotment was our success at Beechgrove
11:10last year.
11:11I thought it was absolutely brilliant.
11:13Now, it's important when you go to plant out your sweet corn, remember, plant it out in
11:18a square, don't plant it out in a line because when it comes to pollinating, there's more
11:23chance of the pollen falling in the right places.
11:27If you just plant it in a line, it would probably be one in a hundred chance.
11:31Now you only get one or two cobs per plant so it's important to make sure that they are
11:37ready.
11:38A few ways of telling this, and this is the really exciting bit when you go to harvest,
11:42this is well worth the wait.
11:45The size of the cob, you know, that looks quite plump, you give it a wee feel there.
11:49Also the tassels at the top will start to fall over and brown, so that's a real indication
11:54to see that your cobs are ready or almost ready.
11:57But another way of doing it, if we start stripping this very carefully back, and you don't want
12:05to totally rip these off because it is important if it's not ready you'll have to put them
12:09back.
12:12Just look at that, look at that lovely yellow there, woohoo, success.
12:20Now you're going to have to sacrifice one of the kernels, so you'll take your nail and
12:25you'll burst a kernel.
12:29There we go, nice.
12:30Now if it's a milky colour, that means they're ready to harvest, if it's watery, they're
12:35not quite ready, but this one's ready to harvest.
12:38So, one hand on the plant, the other one on the cob, then we just lightly pull down and
12:46away for the plant.
12:49Just look at this, it's really important when you go to harvest these, you do it just before
12:56you go to cook them, so you don't want to lift them or pick them on the Saturday and
13:01then eat them on the Sunday, come out just before your barbecue and it'll be even sweeter.
13:07My only regret with these is, is I didn't plant more.
13:19So I'm back here in this pottery garden and the whole point of this garden was to plant
13:23it up with beautiful plants, but they were also plants that you could eat.
13:28So we've got the artichokes over there, the calendula and the tree spinach all looking
13:34really happy.
13:36But what I want to concentrate on just now is a little bit of maintenance to do with
13:41this rosemary.
13:42Now rosemary is an evergreen shrub that you can harvest from pretty much all year round,
13:49but you do want to be clipping it back once a year and this is to stop it from looking
13:56really straggly and unruly.
13:59So you want to keep it nice and compact and nice and bushy.
14:03Now rosemary doesn't like to be cut too far back.
14:09So when you come to trimming it back, you need to make sure that you're only trimming
14:15back all of these new sections of growth and leaving the woodier sections alone.
14:22So I'm going to give those a little bit of a snip just to make it look a little bit more
14:33presentable and keep a really nice shape.
14:37What you also want to be doing is to be giving it a layer of mulch.
14:42Now you can use compost, which is what I'm doing.
14:45You can also use a layer of grit.
14:47Now this is going to protect the rosemary roots from the cold winter frost that we're
14:56probably going to be getting this year.
14:59So adding a good layer right the way around the plant.
15:02Just make sure that you don't go too near the base of the rosemary because you don't
15:08want any moisture to set in there and to create any sort of rot.
15:17That is looking pretty good and should set up nicely for the winter months to come.
15:23Now I've also got some jobs to do in the herb garden.
15:37So the herb garden has had a huge makeover this year and it has been redesigned right
15:42from scratch.
15:43And I'm really happy with how everything is looking and how all the plants are starting
15:49to fill in.
15:50Now one of the things that I definitely wanted to do while I was here was to give these mints
15:56a little bit of a turn.
15:58Now they were planted in a pot and that was to stop them from spreading everywhere and
16:04taking over.
16:06So as you can see there, the rim of the pot has been exposed so that you can take it and
16:11give it a really good twist.
16:15And that just means it will sever the roots that are starting to grow out from the bottom
16:21of the pot.
16:22Another thing that I really want to do is to take off these side stems that are starting
16:28to droop down.
16:29I don't want them to really gain any contact or have any contact with the soil because
16:35I don't want them to start to produce roots and to make new plants.
16:39So all of those are going to come off as well.
16:46So once you've snipped off all of those, what you can actually do is you can air dry them.
16:51So pull back some of the leaves to expose the stalks and bunch them together just like
17:01this and then tie it with an elastic band and hang them up.
17:06And after a few weeks, they will be dried out nicely.
17:10And I've done these in my house with some rosemary, some sage and some bay leaves too.
17:17But now if you don't have room to hang up loads of herbs in your house, what you can
17:23do is you can dry them in the oven and that's really easy and simple to do.
17:28So I've got some rosemary and some thyme here and all I did was put it in the oven on a
17:33sheet of greaseproof paper.
17:36I left it for about four hours on the lowest setting and propped the oven door open just
17:42slightly ajar so that steam could escape.
17:46And what you've got is some lovely dried out herbs that you can put into a jar, an airtight
17:51jar is best, and then you can use them all winter long in your stews and your soups.
17:59Now it's time to visit a garden in Wester Ross on the southern bank of Loch Caron.
18:07Atterdale Gardens have almost everything, wonderful walks, great planting and fabulous
18:12views.
18:13It's been in Joanna Macpherson's family since 1952.
18:19Here we are in the Sunken Garden at Atterdale.
18:22We're on the mainland on the south of Loch Caron, but we've got views all the way out
18:27to the Coolins on Skye.
18:29And the garden has been here probably since Victorian times.
18:33The Sunken Garden is one of the oldest parts of the garden, but it looks completely different
18:37now.
18:38Beyond the Sunken Garden, there's a Japanese garden, which is full of references to Japanese
18:44gardens and you can go on past there, there's a kitchen garden.
18:49There's the old rhododendron dell, which has some magnificent specimens of rhododendrons
18:54which were planted before the First World War.
18:57And then if you wander up the drive, you'll come to the Water Gardens.
19:06So we're standing here at the Water Garden and here it's all meant to be about reflections.
19:12And I'm going to be honest, there is some bits that do have reflections at the moment,
19:17but we have left it like this, all with the algae and duckweed at the moment because we
19:25do have newts and tadpoles and frogs going about here and we would like them to mature
19:33because they are useful for us here in the garden.
19:36They will help us keeping down slugs and snails.
19:40And you'll also find flying about here, dragonflies.
19:45And the water lilies, they have kind of overtaken just now, but quite a lot of them will be
19:50coming out next week.
19:53We did take a lot out last year and they have decided to come back in strength, but they
19:58will be getting used elsewhere on the estate.
20:07So we are standing in the Cut Flowerbed.
20:10Not a lot of people do walk around this area.
20:13So this was an area that was ground that was just left to go to waste, really.
20:20And what was just growing here was weeds, your creeping buttercups, ground elder.
20:27So we decided to try the no-dig, which was laying some cardboard down, then some organic
20:35manure.
20:36And the organic manure we used was sheep manure because it was nice and easy to get because
20:44Frances, the other gardener, is a crofter and she has over 200 sheep.
20:48So it was easy to get manure.
20:50And then on top of that, we put down leaf mold and leaf mold was made by us breaking
20:57up all the fallen leaves, putting them into a grape keep and leaving them for about a
21:02year, year and a half.
21:03And it breaks down to make absolutely gorgeous compost.
21:07And that is what we put on the manure.
21:09And then we left that to set over the winter and then came back in the spring and started
21:15planting up.
21:16Majority of the plants in here are our annuals and we are really happy in the way it has
21:23turned out.
21:30I suppose one of the things I can certainly say that there are no straight lines at Atterdale.
21:35It's very wild and slightly woolly and you can explore lots of different sections.
21:41There's pathways through the wood.
21:44There's a top path you can explore where we've got three wallami pines.
21:49And the general approach is not to have it too pristine and weeded.
21:53And my mother's main obsession was to have enough ground cover that you didn't need to
21:57weed.
21:58That was the dream.
21:59The ideal is to have ground cover so we don't have to think about weeding.
22:05So one of the projects at Beech Grove that I took on this year and last year was also
22:17to plant this border full of nectar-rich flowers that would feed the bees and the butterflies
22:24but also produce seed heads that would feed the birds during the winter months.
22:29Now I've got a couple of jobs to do, maintenance really, in this border.
22:34And one of them is to cut back this lady's mantle.
22:38Now lady's mantle does have a little bit of a bad press probably because it can spread
22:43so prolifically and it's quite invasive.
22:47But one of the ways to stop that from happening is to cut back these spent flower heads.
22:54So that's exactly what I'm going to do.
22:57But you know lady's mantle is a great plant to have for ground cover.
23:02It has these really lovely scallop-shaped leaves that look really beautiful with the
23:08little droplets of water that come on at this time of year.
23:12But also they don't seem to be affected by deer or the rabbits which is probably one
23:18of the reasons why it's looking so great.
23:22But you know in my garden it doesn't really have a chance to spread at all because earlier
23:28on in the season when it does start to flower it produces these lovely beautiful frothy
23:34flowers that are great for fillers in vases and look great with roses or dahlias or anything
23:41even just a vase by themselves.
23:44So once that's all tidied up, put that back in the compost later on.
23:51Also want to add a little bit more colour to this border during the spring months and
23:55one of the ways that I'm going to do this is by planting up some Allium bulbs.
23:59Now I've got two types of bulbs.
24:01I've got some Purple Sensation and I've also got some Gladiator.
24:06Now these bulbs look absolutely fantastic.
24:09They have these beautiful long stems and on top of them they produce these spherical heads
24:16of purple flowers which the bees go crazy for.
24:20This is the head from the Purple Sensation.
24:24This one is from the Gladiator bulb and you can see the difference in the sizes of their
24:30heads that they produce.
24:32One of the reasons why you need to consider this is for planting.
24:37So when you come to planting your Gladiator bulbs you need to make sure that they are
24:43planted probably about 15 to 20 centimetres apart.
24:50You need to dig down to a depth probably of about three to four times the size of their bulb.
24:59And they look absolutely spectacular in May and June time.
25:08So what you want to do is you want to make sure that you're planting the bulb the correct way.
25:13So you're looking for the roots.
25:15They grow down obviously.
25:16Sometimes you get a little tip at the top of the bulb and that bit is going to face up.
25:23So you can cover that back over.
25:27Now if you've got particularly waterlogged soil I wouldn't really suggest planting these.
25:34They like a free draining soil because if they are or get too waterlogged they can rot.
25:42And they are quite an investment.
25:44They will last for years and years to come but they do not like being wet over winter.
25:51So if you do have soil that is a bit soggy I would suggest planting them into a pot and
26:00they'd be quite happy there.
26:02Well that's all we've got time for this week but we've got a carrot harvest here.
26:16Now I've got the one that was supposedly resistant to the carrot fly but you can see quite a
26:22bit of damage on some of those carrots.
26:25So maybe growing them under fleece is quite a good idea.
26:29Yeah probably because the two that I've got, Niff and Yellowstone, both looking not too bad.
26:34There's a little bit of damage but nowhere near as much as the other one.
26:38Well let's give them a taste so Yellowstone first.
26:47It's quite crunchy but it's quite bitter.
26:50Yeah I'm not a fan of that so let's give this other one that was resistant to the carrot fly.
27:00Now that is much sweeter.
27:01You could eat that as a nice raw carrot.
27:04That is lovely.
27:05Definitely.
27:06Well Kirstie and Carol are here next week and they will be talking about something that
27:10we've all noticed this year which is the decline in butterflies and pollinators.
27:15Find out how you can help out in your own garden too and remember the whole series is
27:19available on the iPlayer.
27:21Just search for iPlayer and type in Beechgrove Garden.
27:24But from the two of us it's bye for now.
27:26Bye.
27:27Bye.
27:29Bye.
27:59Bye.