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The Beechgrove Garden 2024 episode 24
Transcript
00:00Hello and welcome to Beechgrove Garden.
00:16Coming up, dealing with dahlias and where have all the pollinators gone?
00:21On the programme, what to do with dahlias right now?
00:25It's something a lot of us have noticed.
00:27Is there really a shortage of pollinators this year?
00:31And a garden that feels tropical in Dunbar?
00:37Well Kirsty, this is one of your projects, I remember you planting it out and what we've
00:41got is a mixture of pumpkins, melons, winter squashes, so shall we start on this side with
00:47the pumpkins?
00:48Yeah and I think the extra protection in here has been really good for them, so what we've
00:52got is casperita, a lovely white ornamental pumpkin.
00:55That's lovely isn't it, quite small but a beautiful shape.
00:59A nice decorative one you can put on your table and things at Halloween.
01:02Then we've got black futsu and it's a nice edible one and it's that lovely dark rich
01:07green colour.
01:09And then you've got all the colours because right at the end we've got gold speck, really
01:13bright and again a similar shape isn't it to the white one?
01:16Like casperita but sort of orange and small again, ornamental.
01:19Now you're talking about the protection and obviously that means we're getting quite a
01:24lot of heat, so let's talk a little bit about your hugelbed, it's not done so well.
01:29So the hugelbed was like layers of branches, grass clippings, bit of leaf mould, any sort
01:34of like spare garden material that we had lying around.
01:37We layered it up and then we planted the pumpkins into it but it's not had that hot a summer,
01:42so I would say if you're really wanting good melons and pumpkins in Scotland, try in a
01:46polytunnel.
01:47Bit of protection definitely.
01:49So on this side I'm going to say successes and maybe failures because in all the years
01:55in Beechgrove and I'm going a long way back now, over 40 years, melons haven't done particularly
02:01well because they really do need the hot temperatures and you've got a couple of varieties here.
02:05And I would completely agree, this one's got a nice sort of leaf to it, it's called sugar
02:09baby but we've only had one tiny little fruit, there's some flowers forming on it at the
02:14moment but nothing significant.
02:16Okay we've a little fruit there though.
02:18Yeah so this one is a rich sweetness and it's two tiny little melons, another heirloom kind
02:24of variety but not the kind of staggering melon that you're looking for.
02:29I mean if you're wanting to encourage the size of the fruits I suppose what you've got
02:32to do is once you get a couple of fruits setting you must make sure you pick up off the other
02:36flowers.
02:37Yeah.
02:38But let's go for the huge success, this winter squash and you planted it there.
02:45And it's travelled all the way down to this end of the polytunnel and is now maybe trying
02:48to get out the door and we've got one down there and then two giant squashes here.
02:55So what's the variety?
02:56So this is one called shark's fin melon but it's actually a fake melon, it's more a winter squash.
03:02So shall we pick one and have a look at it because I bet that weighs something.
03:05What we've done is put a bit of straw underneath them, this one's sitting on a brick but you
03:09want something underneath them so they're not going to rot.
03:11So you could use a pot as well couldn't you?
03:14Yeah a pot would work perfectly so I'm just going to cut that off of the neck.
03:17Is that some weight?
03:19Pretty heavy.
03:20And it's been nice, my goodness, okay well.
03:23We've got three of them almost.
03:25Do we need an axe or something to open this?
03:27I hope that's a nice sharp knife.
03:29Gosh.
03:30You know squashes are lovely aren't they in soups?
03:34Should be lovely in a soup or roasted.
03:36I quite like them on pizzas actually.
03:38Shall I watch or don't?
03:39Can I pull it out?
03:40You managed to get it now?
03:42Wow so look.
03:44Beautiful white flesh.
03:46Well I leave you to cut that up because I want to have a look at the dahlias.
03:49It's fantastic, it's enormous.
03:50You might have to hold on to that.
03:52Feed us for a week.
04:01And here they are, what a show of dahlia flowers.
04:05This is our trials beds or our observation beds and so what I'm doing is I'm actually
04:10looking at the different groups of dahlias.
04:14There's 15 in total, we've got 10 here and I'm not going to be able to look at all of them.
04:18Before I describe that I want to sort of tell you a little bit about what's going on here.
04:22So I've got two of the same variety and that front row, what we did earlier on is that
04:29we did disbudding of the crown bud and let the side shoots grow.
04:34So in other words you get more flowers, smaller flowers and they're great for cup flowers.
04:39In this row we were growing these more for show so you do the opposite, you keep the
04:44crown bud and you disbud the rest.
04:47I have to say now we're just letting them flower so there's not a lot of difference now.
04:52The other thing to look out for with dahlias, number one pest at this time of year are earwigs
04:57and I can see a little bit of damage and I think it is earwigs on some of the foliage there.
05:03So what you need to do is set some traps.
05:06It's so easy, all you need is a bamboo cane, a little pot, I've filled it with straw.
05:11You could use newspaper, shredded paper.
05:15Earwigs are nocturnal so in other words they are active at night time and they need somewhere
05:19to hide during the day.
05:21So first thing in the morning, check the trap, knock out the straw, if you find any earwigs
05:27you need to dispose of them.
05:29So now as I was saying there are different groups here and I'm going to look at one or
05:34two of the flowers and I want to start off with group one and it is your typical single
05:39flower.
05:41This is Bishop's Children so have a look at this row here, you get a range of colours
05:46but I think they're fantastic because you've got this lovely dark foliage so it's a real
05:50contrast and the great thing about single flowers is that they attract the pollinators
05:56so for me that is a good one to grow.
06:00Here's another single but it's not called single.
06:03This is a bit unusual so this one falls into group 12, it's a star or an orchid flower.
06:09Honka, Fragile is a variety, it's very different, oh look and a pollinator is already settling
06:16on that so again attracted by the single flowers and what you get there is eight petals or
06:23eight florets and sometimes a little touch of perfume.
06:28If you want dahlias that sometimes can grow to the size of dinner plates then you have
06:33to look at these ones, this is the decorative group.
06:37This one is Red Labyrinth, have a look at those varieties and you can get massive ones
06:43and then finally I think this has to be one of my favourites, it's the semi-cactus type
06:50so the petals are a little bit tighter, rather unusual but look at the colour of that and
06:56that one is called Acapulco.
07:00So now from dahlias I'm going to actually go to a garden in Dunbar and four years ago
07:06it was just paving and it's been absolutely transformed, now it has lush textures of all
07:13kinds of plants.
07:19When Jenny Elias and Lindsay Horner moved from Bristol they had a clear plan for their
07:24new garden, it had to feel bigger than it actually was, it had to feel tropical and
07:29it had to be accessible.
07:32We moved in 2020 and when we moved in this garden was completely concrete slabs and they
07:40were quite uneven as well and the pear tree and that was it.
07:44I'm a wheelchair user and one of my pet peeves as a disabled person is that most disabled
07:53stuff looks really ugly so that was a big thing when we were thinking about the landscaping
07:59that we wanted to have paths that would be reliable so they wouldn't suddenly be uneven
08:07in wet weather or have to be replaced often so we did end up going with concrete and how
08:15we got around that looking a bit more attractive was we were quite particular in picking out
08:23a pink colour concrete.
08:32When it was the concrete slabs it felt like a very narrow long garden so one of the things
08:40that I was thinking about was how to make it feel a bit wider and I came across the
08:45idea that if you take a traditional British garden layout where you normally have lawn
08:54in the middle and beds at the sides and you turn it 45 degrees to an angle then it creates
09:02the illusion of being wider so we've gone for plants that look tropical.
09:10And mostly quite a tight colour palette of sort of orange to corally peachy colour in
09:19the flowers so it's quite a warm colour palette and things that have big leaves.
09:39It was quite important I think to look around Dunbar specifically because while you get
09:44the maps that tell you what region you are we have a microclimate we're by the sea which
09:50again affects the climate so I think we're a little bit warmer than maybe the map would
09:55say our south facing garden is a little sun trap so I think it was just really important
10:02to go okay here's what the map says but actually the reality of what we can see is okay quarter
10:07lines are good right so that helped us.
10:10But I think I was initially because we'd moved up from the south of England for us the noticeable
10:17thing was the change of temperature so I think initially I was concentrating too much on
10:22the hardiness and there are actually quite a lot of plants which look tropical that you
10:27can grow here and what we learnt was to look more at things like how they cope with the
10:33wind because we can get quite strong winds.
10:45Obviously we've got a lovely tropical display here right now but this is the summer and
10:51we also have to think about Scottish winters which are quite harsh and we need to be overwintering
10:57some of these plants so in terms of overwintering there are a couple of plants here that we
11:02can think of.
11:04The first is the Gunnera now this Gunnera has lovely large leaves so all you have to
11:10do is chop the leaf off you know towards the end of the season not now and turn it upside
11:16down and it creates like an umbrella you just put it over the main central part of the plant
11:21and that just protects it for the winter so that's happy that's been sorted.
11:26The other plant we need to think about for the winter is the Ethiopian banana.
11:31So the Ethiopian banana is not root hardy so the other bananas in the garden they will
11:35die back you can leave them in the roots will survive a Scottish winter but this banana
11:41won't so this banana has to come in has to go into the house so what I tend to do with
11:46this banana particularly because it's small it hasn't grown particularly well this year
11:50is I will dig it up I'll put it in a large plant pot and I'll just use it as a houseplant.
12:02The one I'm most impressed by is what people call the T-Rex but that's actually quite easy
12:09like it's one that definitely looks tropical but it doesn't need any faff does it the leaves
12:17do die back here we get it we keep the trunk if you're somewhere where there's very hard
12:24frost you probably lose a trunk but it is it's root hardy so so you would have it coming
12:31back each year so if you came here in the spring it would be pretty like sparse and
12:41then in a couple of months you've got this huge leaf growth very fast growth which means
12:46they're hungry so that's another issue but it also means that in just a couple of years
12:51you can get this great look.
13:03Well we're back in the garden for wildlife and I'm delighted that we also have back
13:07James Sylvie now you are a specialist in species and habitats from RSPB in Scotland so James one
13:16of the things that we've noticed in the garden this year myself the gardeners is lack of
13:22pollinators don't think I've seen a ladybird haven't seen many wasps so are we making this
13:28up or is it true that there are less pollinators? Yeah we're seeing this across the country it
13:33seems to be a really bad year for butterflies hoverflies bumblebees anecdotally people are
13:38reporting it across across the whole country and really that's down to the cold windy spring that
13:44we had you know spring is meant to kick-start the season and this year it just didn't happen.
13:47It was very very wet as well wasn't it so do you think that has an effect? Absolutely yeah that
13:52cold and wet and windy weather just really pushed things back. Okay so you know I'm sure you're
13:58still gonna say to us in this garden here to encourage the pollinators it's all about the
14:02plants so things like the buddleia? Buddleia is absolutely fantastic I mean what we need to be
14:07thinking about is extending that season as much as possible there's still pollinators out on the
14:11wing we've seen butterflies and bumblebees today. I've seen the odd butterfly on the buddleia bush.
14:15Yeah there definitely has been one and so it's about catering for them right the way through
14:20until to be honest October November time. Okay so things like the lunaria I think you recommended
14:27that for us in this garden? Yeah it's a fantastic pollinator plant so the flowers are great for
14:32bees and also for hoverflies and the seed heads themselves are the food plant for orange-tip
14:38butterfly caterpillars. Okay so you said extending the season so ivies as well are great aren't they
14:42because they're a late source? Yeah it's one of the last major nectar sources for our pollinators
14:47so absolutely fantastic for things like overwintering butterflies like peacocks and red
14:52admirals. So you're talking about butterflies so have you got any facts and figures about the
14:58numbers this year? Well most the number crunching happens a little bit later in the autumn but
15:02butterfly conservation did say in July that through their big butterfly count they were reporting the
15:07lowest numbers of butterflies for 14 years. Wow that's incredible so although we are sort of
15:12speaking about pollinating insects is that a knock-on effect to things like the bird population?
15:17Yeah we're seeing a bit of that as well it seems to have been a bad year for blue tits and great
15:22tits and species of bird that are specialist caterpillar feeders so if our moths are doing
15:26badly then their predators are going to be doing badly as well. Okay well back to birds as well
15:31though things like the hips there that's quite important isn't it for some bird species? Yeah
15:35great winter food for thrushes so your blackbirds and then later in the winter field fairs and red
15:41wings as well are going to be feeding on them. Now what else can we be doing in the garden because
15:44obviously we hope that this is going to come in a cycle and it's going to recover so what should
15:49we be doing in the garden just now or not doing? Yeah well tidying up so we want places where the
15:55gardener's friends the lacewings and the ladybirds can hide away for the winter and so leaving a bit
15:59of leaf litter a little bit messy patches that's great for them. And you know we could be building
16:04things like the bug hotels? Yeah lots of nooks and crannies in places like that and the log pile
16:09that you've got are just absolutely fantastic for overwintering insects. So we've got to hope this
16:14winter it's not going to be too cold and not too wet. Fingers crossed for next year. So now we're
16:20going to go right across the Firth of Clyde over to Aaron where a scheme is encouraging residents
16:27to get involved in a number of community gardens around the island. We met director of the Pioneer
16:34Project Simon Roskill at one of those gardens. So we're here in Claddagh which is just outside
16:41one of the main villages on Arran. So Claddagh is a historic village right next to Broddick Castle.
16:47The aim of the Pioneer Project is to contribute towards Arran being a self-sufficient and
16:52sustainable island with the support of community members and basically empowering local community
16:58members on Arran to grow their own food and no matter which part of Arran they live in that they
17:02have access to a space where they can learn the skills that you need to grow. There's been amazing
17:07enthusiasm from local people to grow food and to have the space to grow food and so year on year
17:14we build on our skill and our experience and so that we can have a productive garden.
17:22Two years ago we tried sweet potatoes so this is actually the third year, the third generation.
17:28I'm going to try digging this one up because I can feel some underneath. They grow as vines which
17:34is why we've planted, tried planting them under the tomatoes this year as a ground cover but they're
17:41quite close to the tomatoes and I think maybe that has meant they haven't had enough goodness
17:46to produce a lot but this was an experiment for this year. So and the way I can tell that
17:53they're kind of ready to dig up is that these are starting to go yellow. I've got a
18:00my trowel but sometimes hands are easier but oh that's a good one because then they don't get
18:05damaged so I'll pull that out of the way they sometimes self-root but yep I can feel them here
18:12they're kind of odd shapes they're not quite like the ones you get in the shop so they have a
18:16slightly crisper kind of a crisper texture and a paler colour. Great that's it that's the potatoes
18:25I don't know how much is there we'll weigh them later on
18:29um yeah sweet potatoes on iron who'd have thought it.
18:40So I'm just putting down sheep's wool which we use as a weed suppressant it's a mulch that we
18:46use it's an alternative to using woven black plastic which we prefer to use because if you
18:53use plastic it just ends up going in the ground and you're ending up having to tear ribbons of
18:58plastic out of the ground whereas with sheep's wool it's actually going to become compost as well
19:04over several years. We also have a lot of sheep on Arran and we have a lot of sheep farmers
19:11who don't necessarily have a great market for their wool. Wool is very undervalued at the moment
19:16so it's something that we're trying to create value around for the farmers as well and yeah we
19:22use it around fruit trees and soft fruit just as a natural weed suppressant so it's actually working
19:28as a slug deterrent as well and slugs don't actually like the texture of it when it's really
19:33dry and then also we can put a layer of a wood chip on top of that as you'll see on the path over
19:38there. So there's many benefits to using sheep's wool certainly over plastic mulches and
19:45and other synthetic mulches it's just a great natural mulch that we use.
19:53What I get out of coming here it's quite a peaceful place even when it's midgey
20:00you there's a sense of satisfaction in seeing things grow some of the brassicas that are
20:05growing I put in as little plants and it's just very rewarding to see them all now developing
20:11cabbages or growing huge and now we can eat what we've grown. It shows what can be done on an
20:17island and there's now a series of community gardens around the island with everybody
20:22trying to grow bits of food and I think it's also inspiring people to make more of their own gardens.
20:28As well as increasing the access to fresh produce which is obviously one of the great
20:33benefits of community gardening that people can come and have access to an outdoor space.
20:42So this is a grapevine that we planted in 2021 it was just a really short stump
20:49which we planted and it's now growing the full length of the polypore and it's
20:55now growing the full length of the polytunnel. This is polo muscat is the variety which is done
21:00really well and so we've had to prune this a lot over winter to restrict the growth the energy is
21:08focused into the bunches that we want and also we've had to prune bunches of grapes as well so
21:14that the energy is focused into the bunches that remain and we get a really nice sweet
21:18grapes. It's an example of something that we can grow indoors on Arran and that's done really well.
21:25It's really a chance for people to get outdoors connect with the food that they're growing and
21:33be involved with that but also just spending the time outdoors is really
21:38good for mental health and for mental well-being.
21:40So as you've been hearing pollinators are in decline but what can we do
21:54in our gardens at this late point in the season to have colour in your garden but
21:58also help the pollinators. So today I've got a selection of four different herbaceous perennials
22:04they're hardy they're going to come back year after year bulk up and have beautiful colourful
22:09flowers too. So this is one called Sangusorba Pinkbrushes it has lovely pendulous pink flowers
22:16tiny small flowers on the end but bees will love to come and visit that lots of pollen and nectar
22:21has a nice red stem it gets quite tall it's nice and airy and you can use it even in floral
22:27arrangements. So what we're going to do is put it in a planting hole the almost like the depth of
22:32the pot just slightly bigger and we're going to nudge that out of the pot it's a wee bit root
22:38bound so we're just going to tease out the roots slightly and we've got good soil here but if you
22:43don't have good soil make sure you add some compost organic matter manure leaf mold anything that will
22:50improve your soil. So we're just going to back fill that soil around this one and then I'm going to
22:56show you my next one. So this one is Leucanthumella serrotiniana so that's quite a mouthful but it's
23:03an autumn flowering oxide daisy it's one of the last sort of perennials to come out a big tall
23:08white daisy wonderful flat landing pad and the bees will be able to land on that flat landing pad
23:15and really enjoy it. It also turns with the sun so a bit like a sunflower and is really refreshing
23:21late in the season. So then the next one I've got is Actaea simplex black beauty and it has this
23:28lovely purple sort of lacy foliage but at this time of year it will then throw out this big
23:35white spikes that are like white bottle brushes and the butterflies and bees particularly love
23:40these nectar-rich flowers and they'll be all over it and it's a wonderful flower to have in your
23:46garden. So we're just going to take that one out and again just tease out the roots. Now being
23:51herbaceous perennials you don't want to cut these down to about January February every year and you
23:56want to leave those over winter stems for any invertebrates to hide in. So we'll just pop that
24:01in and then back fill and when it comes to cutting them back you might use shears you might use a
24:07herbaceous sickle and if you've got a huge border you might even use a sort of strimmer to cut those
24:12last stems down in the winter. So my last one is an Aster now Asters are known for that late
24:18season colour and this one is particularly beautiful a lovely lavender flower nice landing
24:23pad great for pollinators it has a lovely branching habit it will flower from summer all
24:28the way into late summer and this plant actually is an award-winning plant so it has an AGM so
24:34that's award of garden merit from the Royal Horticultural Society and that has been given
24:40that award because it doesn't get any horrible powdery mildew and it's just a star performer in
24:45the garden. So I'm going to tease out the roots and then place that into the planting hole
24:50back fill the soil around it and then that'll bulk up from years to come and now you've now
24:55got a late season perennial border that will provide lots of colour and interest
25:00at this time of the year but also benefit your pollinators.
25:10And now it's time for some handy hints and I just like to take another look at this strawberry
25:14variety called Flamenco now you can see it says all season another name is Ever Bearer or
25:20Perpetual and what that means it produces flushes of flowers right through the season and if we're
25:26lucky we may get fruit right into November but it does depend on the weather but at the moment here
25:32we are in September and I'd say this is the peak of fruiting and look at the size of those fruits
25:37absolutely amazing and the taste is really good. So one of my favourite late flowering bulbs at
25:43this time of year is Noreen Bowdenii it's going to have lovely spikes of pink flowers that come
25:49this is just a young one so it's got some young leaves on at the moment it likes to go in a nice
25:53free draining position in full sun so against a wall or a nice sheltered position and it'll flower
25:59year on year and bulk up as it grows.
26:03Well that's almost it for this week Carol. It is but before we go I thought we'd have a look at the
26:07results of the tatty harvesting the tatties in containers and George and myself were planting
26:13these way back on program two so it was sort of early April and we had successional planting
26:19with two varieties so varieties were ratty which I think you rather like. Yeah I think
26:24this is a really tasty. Yeah I think this is a really tasty. Yeah I think this is a really tasty.
26:28Yeah I think this is a really tasty. Yeah and then we've got international kidney and I have to say when we did the taste test Brian and myself we probably preferred that and the name also for that is Jersey Royal but you can't call it Jersey Royal unless you grow it in Jersey.
26:43Yeah. Two types of bags we had a green and the beige and quite honestly the harvesting with that was
26:48no different at all and the idea was that you harvest that's the first harvest here with those
26:55four. So these ones here? Yeah and then two weeks later this harvest and two weeks later this harvest.
27:01Now the reason I've kept it is just to show everybody but the whole idea is you know if you
27:05had a family of four that first picking I reckon would keep you going for two weeks. Well Callum
27:11and George will be back in the garden next week. George will be planting ground cover and Callum
27:16will be planting up his hotbed. And don't forget if you want to watch this program or any of the
27:21series so far it's all on the iPlayer. But from the two of us just now goodbye. Bye.
27:51you