Gardeners World 2024 Episode 25
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hello, welcome to Gardener's World.
00:24This is always a mark of the season, is when I take up the sweet peas that have been actually
00:29really good this year. We've got a lot of flowers, a lot of fragrance and a lot of pleasure.
00:36But the time has come and you can see that the seed pods are forming and if you wanted
00:39to keep the seed, then just leave everything here until the seeds get really dry and start
00:44to open and then gather them up and so they've ripened properly. But I want to clear this
00:50and that just means cutting them down and taking them to the compost heap. And as I
00:53cut, I noticed that in here is a really healthy tomato plant. Look at that. Growing out of
01:00the compost couldn't be healthier if I'd lavished all the love and horticultural skill and wizardry
01:06known to man. Right, let's take this down.
01:20All these three wigworms are a variety called Matucana, chosen because as well as looking
01:25great and making a wonderful cut flower, has fabulous fragrance. And fragrance is the key
01:30thing in this part of the garden. So now the sweet peas are gone, I've got to think what
01:34I'm going to replace them with to keep fragrance going throughout the winter months. Obviously
01:38much more tricky than in the summer. Far fewer plants have winter fragrance, but there are
01:44some. I haven't yet decided what I'm going to put there, but that will come in the next
01:48few weeks. Now, coming up on today's programme. Sue visits a grower who is raising plants
01:57specifically to create stunning dried flower displays. This really is a plant picker's
02:03paradise. I always need to have a good range of kind of the showstoppers, the pizzazz flowers
02:08that are all the glitz and the glamour of the colour. And looking at this, it's like
02:13a whole garden in a frame. We meet a gardener who has returned to his family home and transformed
02:21the garden based upon his love for the surrounding landscape. You see the abundance in there
02:28and the changes throughout the seasons. Spending a lot of time outside, I think you sort of
02:34absorb what's out in nature and you can interpret it in your own garden, but in your own way.
02:41Jo visits a couple who discovered that their garden had far more to it than they had ever
02:47expected when they moved into their new home. We sort of battled our way through this impenetrable
02:54undergrowth and then realised we were in a walled garden. And being sort of quite innocent
03:00about these things, we thought, well, we can restore that. Take about 10 years, 25 years later.
03:06And I'll be planting some strawberry plants in my strawberry patch.
03:36I don't need an apple.
03:48Earlier this spring, I made these four beds specifically for cut flowers. As it happens,
03:55they can look quite good too. I think these dahlias look fantastic. I'm very happy with them.
03:59And they have looked great for months and months. So those will keep going until the first frost.
04:04But now we've got an empty bed here, I want to start preparing for next year, which is why I've got these seeds.
04:09Now these are hardy annuals, which means that they're tough. So we've got nigella, we've got syrinthi,
04:16I've got cornflowers. All these are plants that will look great both in a border and in a vase.
04:24But by sowing them here, it means they're dedicated for the house. And if they look good, then that's a benefit.
04:30Right, I'm going to start with a nigella. This is mistical, lovely pale blue.
04:36And with hardy annuals, nothing could be simpler. Simply make a little groove like that.
04:44And I've added some sieve compost to the soil. This has been producing cut flowers all summer.
04:53So therefore it has taken nutrients from the soil. So you do need to give something back.
05:05And just the same as sowing vegetables, there's no virtue in sowing too thick.
05:10What we want are nice strong plants that will give us a succession of flowers with strong stems.
05:17And by sowing them now, they should start flowering at least three or four weeks earlier than those that I sow next spring.
05:30I'm going to continue the blue thing with some cornflowers. Now this is blue boy, and it's got a lovely sort of mauvey cast to it.
05:52And then just very simply run my fingers either side of the drill.
06:00Which will force the soil back over it and cover them up. And it's as easy as that.
06:09Water these. Having watered them, don't let them dry out.
06:15They should germinate quite quickly. And once they get a few inches tall, they won't do much.
06:20But underneath, they'll have a good root system. And that will give us an early start next spring.
06:28And keep them weed-free. That is important, so they're not competing for nutrients or moisture.
06:34Now, cut flowers actually give a really good return on space. You don't need a big bed.
06:40You can grow them in a container. You can grow them in a window box.
06:43And it is extraordinary how many flowers they will give you for your home.
06:47And this July, Sue went to visit a grower actually not so far from here, in Herefordshire, who's growing cut flowers on quite a big scale.
06:55And what she does with them is fascinating.
07:04There's nothing lovelier than a garden full of flowers. And I like to think of creative ideas for them.
07:11Putting them in vases and filling my house full of colour and scent.
07:16Making posies and even using some for culinary delights.
07:26Today, I'm excited to meet a fellow enthusiast.
07:30Leila Robinson has a garden full of cut flowers in every shape, size and hue.
07:36Ten years ago, she decided she could be creative with them.
07:40And she started drying them for flower arrangements with a distinctly modern twist.
07:45This really is a plant picker's paradise. Do these plants need any special growing conditions?
07:56I mean, my growing conditions aren't ideal here, but generally all of these flowers are sun lovers.
08:01And they like a good bit of sun and some nice soil to live in. And then they'll be happy.
08:05And there's a huge range here. So how do you decide what you need to grow?
08:11Well, I have to grow all of the different textures that I would use in a design.
08:16For a background, I might want more neutral colours.
08:19And then I have my fillers that are the fluffy things that give it more body.
08:24I always need to have a good range of kind of the showstoppers, the pizzazz flowers that are all the glitz and the glamour of the colour.
08:30Well, you've certainly got a lot to choose from, haven't you?
08:33Certainly have.
08:34You have.
08:41Straw flowers. Now, these feel dry already before you even start.
08:46They make a lovely clunky noise, don't they? Are they easy to grow?
08:50They are fairly easy to grow, yes.
08:52I tend to sow mine on the windowsill in February when it's really cold to get enough growing season ahead of me.
08:58And the other thing that can really be helpful is after a few weeks of planting them out, if you pinch out the growing tips,
09:03it'll encourage those side branches and long stems that are really great for picking later on.
09:08Are there different picking times for different plants?
09:11Well, there is. And for these, if you want an open flower, then you pick it when you can see the centre, like this one.
09:18Or you can pick it just as the centre is starting to show and it will continue to open up as you dry it.
09:24But, you know, as I said, it's quite nice to have some buds too.
09:27And they keep their colour beautifully.
09:29So definitely one for the starter grower.
09:31Yes, I definitely think if you've got a few of these, you can pretty much make anything look fabulous.
09:36Wow.
09:38This is a delightful plant combination.
09:45How would you use these in your displays?
09:47So these Pocastatus and these paper daisies here, they're great for the show-stopping flowers where you can have them en masse
09:56and you can really make them a focal point of design.
09:58But they also produce a brilliant way of pulling a design together at the end.
10:02And you might just want a little pink sort of splash of colour or a wiggle, a streak,
10:06and it will just make that design come together and be completed.
10:09And how would you know when to pick these?
10:12If you pick them too soon, they would be floppy.
10:14This stem here would just literally go floppy and it wouldn't dry properly at all.
10:18Whereas if you wait till they open, and you can see these little flowers have opened a lot more,
10:22that is so much more rigid now.
10:24That is at the perfect point to pick and it will dry pretty much like it looks on the plant.
10:29I can see you're growing Thalaspi and you're probably growing them for the seed heads, am I right?
10:34You're totally right, and this is a really wonderful type of cress.
10:38And it's got these beautiful little textural seed pods that form as the flowers die off.
10:43And yeah, it's an absolutely brilliant filler plant or a background plant for a design.
10:47And when's the best time to harvest seed heads?
10:50Well with these, once these little flowers have all turned into seeds,
10:53and while it's still green, that's the moment that you'll pick them.
10:57And you do that with poppies and nigella seed heads as well, don't you?
11:00Yes, so a lot of things, you pick them as soon as they form their seed head,
11:04but not when they've completely dried on the plant.
11:06You do the drying in the drying room and that way they retain their colour.
11:10Lovely.
11:17As well as using garden favourites like Echinops and Larkspur,
11:21and different grasses like bunny tails,
11:23Leila likes to throw in the unexpected.
11:27This grass, millet, gives movement to an arrangement.
11:31But what I really love is how she includes plants for free.
11:35Hedgerow plants that appear at the edges of her garden, like buttercups.
11:43Once picked, there's quite a bit of preparation to do before the flowers can be arranged.
11:48And this is where all the magic happens.
11:52Everything here is sort of heads down. Why is that?
11:57Well, it's basically so that these heads dry with a nice straight stem
12:03so that they're easy to work with afterwards.
12:05How can you tell when they're absolutely dry?
12:07Well, the very same thing as I'm doing here.
12:09You can see that that's still quite bendy.
12:11And so when it's completely dry, that will be really nice and rigid.
12:14So that's the beauty of hanging them like this,
12:16as they dry beautifully straight for working with later.
12:18It's really important to get all of that moisture out so that you can store it
12:22and it won't go mouldy when it's in storage.
12:24How do you maintain their colour, you know, once you've dried them?
12:29Once they're absolutely bone dry, the best idea for the longest life
12:32is to put them in somewhere that's quite dark,
12:34because that way the sun doesn't bleach the colour away.
12:37Can I have a go at creating an artistic piece?
12:40Absolutely. Shall we go and have a look?
12:42Yes.
12:43And you can make some choices.
12:46We're making a panel constructed of willow and chicken wire.
12:50Let the fun begin.
12:54So the first thing that we'd start off with that I'd recommend
12:57is sticking with neutral colours.
13:00Grasses are great for this.
13:02And you want the long stems to go at the back of your design
13:05so that you can then layer on top of them.
13:07Right, I see. So this is a lovely wheat grass.
13:10And you thread it through and weave it through.
13:13And I suppose you need a bit of a cluster of them.
13:15Well, yeah, I think it's quite nice to try and emulate
13:18how you would find these things growing in nature,
13:20so they might be in a cluster.
13:22So this is thespy, isn't it, that we saw earlier on?
13:25Yes.
13:26This is rather beautiful, isn't it, and rather sort of ethereal.
13:34These buttercups are being a bit naughty.
13:36Well, they actually are naughty.
13:38They're quite characterful little creatures.
13:41But they are so lovely.
13:43You have to have them, I think.
13:45Going to get a little bun-tailed in here
13:47because I absolutely love them.
13:49You need the tactile as well as the crispy.
13:52So these last flowers that we're putting in,
13:54these are our sparkle flowers that are going to make our designs...
13:57In my case, it's going to make it really pop
13:59because I've got blue against all these bright colours.
14:01But you've got that lovely dahlia, which is going to...
14:03Yes, it's going to give a nice sort of centrepiece.
14:05And it's got a yellow centre, so it's going to tie in with the colours.
14:09Gardening is a lot of hard work,
14:11from nurturing the seeds to growing the plants.
14:14And looking at this, it's like having a whole garden in a frame.
14:18Thank you, Leila.
14:20It's been an absolute pleasure to spend the day with you today doing this.
14:24It's been really great fun.
15:01I suppose the great thing about dried flowers
15:03is you have all the beauty of the growing fresh flower
15:07and then it carries on into another life,
15:10which is almost like a library of summer.
15:13It's something I've never really got engaged with,
15:15but seeing that certainly does make me want to try.
15:18Now, I'm planting camassias in here,
15:20and I have to say, it's making me puffed
15:22because the ground is still really hard.
15:24It's been raining here at Longmeadow for the last two days really heavily,
15:27the first heavy rain we've had for weeks and weeks,
15:30and I thought the ground would be softened.
15:33The top inches, but down below, it's really dry.
15:38And this is always one of the problems of planting bulbs in September
15:42because it's by far the best time to do it.
15:44Get some in the ground, the roots can start growing, it's ideal.
15:48But the ground is often so hard.
15:50However, I'm giving it a go.
15:54And this is camassia corsicae.
15:57It's one of my favourites.
15:59It's got a pale blue colour and these bright yellow stamens.
16:02And it flowers a little bit later than some of the earlier camassias,
16:06and they're wonderful.
16:08And the thing about camassias is they like damp ground.
16:11They're one of the few bulbs that doesn't need really good drainage.
16:14There is one problem with them,
16:16and that is that their foliage is very powerful,
16:20and in a border, it's quite slow to die back.
16:23So nowadays, I only plant them in grass
16:25because they're too dominant in a border.
16:27But in grass, they look great.
16:30OK.
16:39Like most bulbs, it has a pointy end and a flatter end.
16:43The flatter end is where the roots come from,
16:46and the pointy end is where the flower comes from.
16:49It's a pointy end up.
16:53Camassias, like all bulbs,
16:57should be planted at twice their own depth.
17:00At this time of year, that's tricky.
17:02So as long as it's got some decent soil over the top,
17:05it should be OK.
17:13This is probably good for some aspect of my body,
17:16although it's quite hard work.
17:21Now, earlier this summer, we went to Worksworth in Derbyshire
17:25to visit a garden that had been in the same family
17:29for over three generations.
17:31But its current owner went back six years ago
17:34and took over the garden that his father had made,
17:37exactly as he'd wanted it,
17:39and transformed it to make it his own.
17:48I think what we're trying to create is a type of immersive feel.
17:52You can get quite close to the plants
17:54and you have to sort of shift them out of the way a little bit
17:57as you walk through.
17:58I think that gives you a sense of being inside the planting.
18:01That's what I really like about it.
18:03It's like having that communing with nature experience.
18:08My name's Scott Thompson.
18:10I live in this house together with my partner Becky,
18:13our two children, and my mum.
18:17Do you like that tree over there?
18:19Absolutely lovely, that is.
18:21Gives a bit of colour.
18:23This house and garden has been in my family for 88 years.
18:29I think the thing about the garden being in my family
18:32for three generations is it gives you a sense of permanence
18:37throughout the whole thing.
18:39We live in the Derbyshire Dales
18:42and one of my favourite hobbies over the last 15 years
18:46is to be able to get out appreciating nature.
18:49You see the abundance in there
18:52and the changes throughout the seasons.
18:54And what I've wanted to do is to try and recreate
18:58some of those changes and some of that abundance
19:01in this garden here.
19:05The basis of the garden, I suppose, is it's set on a hillside.
19:11The garden wraps around the house and kind of envelops it.
19:17When I moved back to the garden six years ago,
19:21my dad had left a really good structural set of bones to the garden
19:26and what I wanted to be able to do was to soften a lot of the edges,
19:31making it more of a whole
19:33and give it a sense of a more naturalistic type planting.
19:38My dad had his vegetable patch here,
19:41but what we've wanted to do is to try and create
19:45a more unified space with the rest of the garden.
19:49I think the Achillea ptarmigan creates the airiness.
19:53It doesn't require any looking after
19:56and it runs around wherever it wants,
20:00teaming up with lots of other plants,
20:03that make their way here on their own
20:06and I think it's that sense of slight randomness
20:10that gives it that wonderful looseness.
20:13It's very poor soil down the far side of the path,
20:17so the aryngium was one of the plants
20:20that would happily grow in those types of conditions.
20:24It's aryngium giganteum and then we've also got
20:27a lot of other plants that are growing here
20:30aryngium giganteum and then we've also got
20:33aryngium borgatii, which is this lovely blue one there.
20:37The phylliptrum is an absolutely stunning plant.
20:40As you can see, it's got super strong stems
20:43which will last all the way through to next March or April.
20:48Flower heads on the top, which waft around in the breeze.
20:52You can see through it to the wider landscape.
20:57It also looks after itself.
20:59I'm a great fan of plants that look after themselves.
21:02The less work I tend to have to do, the happier I am.
21:11Leaf texture and colour is probably more important to me
21:15than flower colour.
21:17I like things that are going to do more work
21:20because I think a lot of flowering plants are quite ephemeral,
21:24and are tending to concentrate on plants
21:27that offer year-round interest.
21:33What we've got here is the heart of the garden.
21:36We've got a site which acts as a bit of an amphitheatre.
21:40We've got a very aged wall which runs across the back
21:43and it provides a backdrop for the planting
21:46which we've got running down in front of it.
21:48What we've needed is some planting that's going to be able
21:51to cope with the steepness.
21:53We've got some indigenous ferns which run across that bank.
21:57What I've tried to create is a selection of textures
22:01with all the different greens and different leaf shapes and sizes.
22:06The ferns essentially kind of erupt out of one small space.
22:11That's probably echoed there by the hydrangea and the fatsia
22:17which is doing a similar thing but with a different shaped leaf.
22:22I just planted in whatever subsoil was there.
22:25It was just some very thin, sandy subsoil
22:29which had kind of come down from the upper garden
22:32over a period of perhaps 100 years.
22:35So we've got some geranium running along that bankside there
22:38and of course the roots from the geranium,
22:42they're providing some anchorage for the soil which is on the slope.
22:47I think the Acers give good splashes of colour
22:50against the green background.
22:52They'll get quite a lot of protection from the wind.
22:55They like quite a bit of humidity in the area
22:58and I think that's provided by the amphitheatre setting
23:01and the other green plants that are growing around it.
23:11The garden rises up into quite a steep slope near the top
23:14which used to be a bit more of a fruit orchard
23:17but that's an area that I really wanted to particularly develop myself.
23:23What we've tried to do is raise the tree canopy from the bottom upwards
23:28and improve the bulk in the mid-range by putting more shrubs in.
23:35We've got the red of the berberis
23:37and that provides some nice bulk for most of the year.
23:40Then we've got the viburnum in the background there
23:43which is providing some contrasting shape
23:46in the fact that it's more upright than the berberis.
23:50And we've also got the honeysuckle running up through the hawthorn
23:56which, if you look here, is decoed with the clematis
24:01running over the top of the Escalonia.
24:03Spending a lot of time outside, I think you sort of absorb
24:07what's out in nature and you can interpret it in your own garden
24:11but in your own way.
24:17I don't suppose I do stand still. I just love doing stuff.
24:21So I perhaps don't sit and enjoy this garden as much as I could do
24:26but then I think, well, that's maybe something for later years.
24:30I can feel me wanting to get up and move around now.
24:42BIRDS CHIRP
24:52I like the way that Scott has possessed the garden and made it his own
24:57even though he was brought up there
24:59and his father lived there and his grandfather.
25:02It's that sense of place that gives a magic
25:06and then the planting makes it personal and idiosyncratic
25:09and all gardens evolve. They all change all the time.
25:13And, of course, here in the Cottage Garden,
25:15we've been making changes this year, dramatic changes for us,
25:18taking out hedges, taking out trees, changing the planting.
25:22And it's really interesting to see how that's working out
25:25because it will be slow and it won't always come exactly as I imagine it.
25:29But what is happening now is that the roses I planted last winter
25:33to extend the flowering season are coming through
25:37and when last year all the roses would have been finished,
25:40the cosmos is still going.
25:42And I'm particularly happy with the way that a particular dahlia,
25:47Rothsay reveler, which we'd never grown here in the Cottage Garden before,
25:51we always had it in the orchard beds,
25:53has really worked well with the various cosmos.
25:56And it seems to be very happy.
25:58And maybe sometimes it's just a question of moving a plant,
26:01finding really where it wants to be.
26:03And that can be transformative.
26:06Now, still to come on today's programme.
26:09Joe visits a walled garden
26:11that has been painstakingly restored over 25 years.
26:16It's now full of surprises.
26:19What are these?
26:20They look like a sort of part of a rocket or something to me.
26:23They are organ piles from the local church
26:25and we've used a collection of stained glass windows.
26:27Of course you do. Of course.
26:31And we visit the garden of the food critic Leila Kazim,
26:34whose urban garden is compact but full of a wide range of produce.
26:40This is my sunny border
26:42and I've got about 15 edibles growing in here.
26:45I just love that it's absolutely crammed
26:48and there's something tasty growing in every single little patch of space.
26:53What are you doing?
26:56But first, we're going to visit one of your gardens
26:58that belongs to Astrid and Frankie Drummond.
27:03Hi, my name is Astrid
27:05and I helped my mummy make a video about my garden.
27:09Have you got the top of my head?
27:11Yep, I've got the top of my head.
27:13I've got the top of my head.
27:15I've got the top of my head.
27:17I've got the top of my head.
27:19I've got the top of my head.
27:21Yep, I've got the top of my head and the compost bin and everything.
27:25Let's just go because it's started.
27:28Hello, my name's Frankie.
27:30Welcome to my garden.
27:32We live in Sheffield.
27:34We've lived here for over three years
27:36and in that time we've done lots of different things with the garden.
27:39So let me show you around.
27:44When we arrived in our house three years ago
27:46there was a factory next door
27:49which has now been knocked down
27:51and replaced by new houses
27:53and we persuaded the builders to keep the fences half height
27:57so that there's a bit more of a communal feeling.
28:00We had a strip of grass and a bit of paving
28:03when we first got here
28:05and we've turned it into a bit more of a mixture.
28:08So over here we've got a trampoline
28:10and then around it I've created a bed
28:12full of different perennials, annuals.
28:15We painted the fence as well to give it a bit more colour
28:18and we've got vegetables growing throughout the garden.
28:22And over here we built a little hut for the children.
28:28So you can go towards the broccoli.
28:31Yeah, that's good.
28:34So this hut that my partner made
28:37that comes from an old gate
28:40and we repurposed the old gate panels.
28:43The children love it
28:45and it gives it a little bit of extra shade in the summer as well.
28:52So my top garden tip for home gardens
28:55would probably be use your old fence panels.
28:58We had a storm and lots of them came down
29:01and some of them were broken
29:03and not really usable again as a fence panel.
29:06So what we decided to do
29:08was create different things around the garden.
29:11The first thing we made about two years ago
29:13was this compost bin.
29:15We chose a triangle shape to fit
29:17in this space that we've got
29:19that wasn't being used in the garden.
29:21We basically just cut down the main fence posts
29:23to create a triangle shape.
29:25We created another triangle the same size
29:27to build the lid.
29:29And then the panels we just sort of
29:31cut to size and put on top like that.
29:37Thank you for visiting my garden.
29:39Goodbye.
29:41Bye bye.
30:04I love the trampoline
30:06but instead of just being in grass
30:08to bounce with flowers all around you
30:10is a beautiful thing.
30:12Now this is a strawberry.
30:14It's a variety called Florence.
30:16And I've never grown them before
30:18and one of the great things about planting
30:20new strawberries is it gives you a chance
30:22to try out new varieties.
30:24They all have different qualities.
30:26Some are early, some are later,
30:28some are great for jam,
30:30some don't store at all but have delicious flavour.
30:32Now Florence is a late variety
30:36and that means that it will fruit
30:38in July and August
30:40rather than June and July.
30:42And they are renowned
30:44for being particularly tasty.
30:46And I'm planting them here
30:48whereas I've got the rest of my strawberries
30:50at the other end of this bed
30:52because it's really important for strawberries
30:54to keep moving them to fresh ground
30:56so they don't accumulate viruses.
31:06It's important to give strawberries
31:08enough room.
31:10So don't plant them any closer than a foot apart
31:12and 18 inches is better
31:14if you've got the space.
31:16And each of these plants
31:18is going to need about
31:20a square foot to grow
31:22because for the fruits
31:24to ripen properly
31:26and not rot in any way
31:28they do need sunshine and air.
31:31Right, these now
31:33need very little attention.
31:35They'll die back
31:37but they'll grow back next spring.
31:39I want to water them if it's very dry,
31:41keep them weed free,
31:43and then I'll have to mulch them
31:45but I'll do that next spring.
31:47And strawberries are easy to grow
31:49so if you've never grown them before,
31:51give them a go.
31:53And if you have grown them,
31:55try different varieties.
31:57Explore the full possibilities
31:59that you just cannot possibly achieve
32:01when you buy them.
32:03Now, last year,
32:05Joe went to visit a couple
32:07who bought a house
32:09knowing there was a garden attached
32:11but not really knowing what was in it.
32:13But when they discovered
32:15actually what was there,
32:17they were astonished.
32:23In 1998,
32:25Kay and Patrick McHugh bought this house.
32:27Now, along with the stresses and excitement
32:29of moving home,
32:31there was one element they hadn't quite factored in
32:33and that was going to become
32:35a huge part of their lives
32:37for the next 25 years.
32:49So what was the surprise when you turned up?
32:51Well, it certainly was a surprise
32:53because we were coming here
32:55to look at a house
32:57which was all covered in ivy and very derelict
32:59but then the tenant
33:01who was using the land
33:03said, oh, come outside,
33:05I've got basically a bit of a surprise for you
33:07which was this amazing wall.
33:09So we sort of battled our way through
33:11this impenetrable undergrowth
33:13and then realised
33:15we were in a walled garden.
33:17So what was in here?
33:19Trees and shrubs and just...
33:21Yeah, this area was mainly, the kitchen garden
33:23and ramblers, really, and small young trees
33:25that are self-seeded everywhere.
33:27And being sort of quite innocent about these things
33:29we thought, well, we can restore that.
33:31Take about 10 years.
33:3325 years later.
33:37Well, it's a large garden, better have a look around.
33:39We'll catch up with you later, Patrick.
33:41Leave you to it.
33:49So where did it all start?
33:51Well, when we finally managed to clear
33:53this garden, because we're organic
33:55to keep it cleared
33:57we just covered it all in agricultural
33:59grade black plastic.
34:01All of it? All of it.
34:03So, which was quite an interesting sight.
34:05Yeah. And then the first actual
34:07cultivation was the vegetables
34:09and at that time I'd found out about
34:11raised beds, so we put in
34:1356 raised beds.
34:1556? Okay.
34:17Because it's quite a big area, you see.
34:19They're beautifully laid out, though.
34:21Well, that's Patrick.
34:23The architectural thing.
34:25So he designed this lovely geometric pattern.
34:27It's in quarters
34:29for crop rotation.
34:31And you've got the ideal
34:33width of a raised bed, which I think
34:35is about 4 feet. 4 feet, exactly.
34:37I'm not exactly moving into metric.
34:391.2 metres. Exactly.
34:41And also the brick paths between them
34:43so easily accessible, so they function well.
34:45So you end up with quite a lot of beds.
34:47Which is good.
34:49But the sweet corn, look at that.
34:51Do you eat all this stuff?
34:53We eat a surprisingly large amount.
34:55And people often say, you know, are you self-sufficient?
34:57But being self-sufficient
34:59is quite a difficult thing to be.
35:01And so I just tell people
35:03who are visiting the garden that we just eat
35:05really well.
35:07So this is a brassica quarter.
35:17It's probably the hardest
35:19part of the vegetable garden
35:21to deal with all of the different
35:23pests that can attack them.
35:25The netting that's on there
35:27at the moment is purely
35:29to keep off the pigeons.
35:31We can see them. They're lurking around at the moment.
35:33I can see one over there on top of an arch.
35:35They know we're here.
35:37It's very sculptural actually.
35:39It's like an art installation piece at the same time.
35:41Well, thank you very much.
35:47So I guess you have a team of gardeners helping you out.
35:49I wish.
35:51No, I don't have a team of gardeners.
35:53I am the gardener.
35:55It's a case of prioritising
35:57what needs doing because
35:59it's got to fit around
36:01other things as well because I'm still working.
36:03You're still working as well.
36:05This is not a full-time job.
36:07Well, it kind of is,
36:09but you have to add it to the other work that you do.
36:11These borders.
36:13This is absolutely beautiful, isn't it?
36:15I call it a mixed border.
36:17It works really well.
36:19It's a lovely edge to the whole
36:21wall garden as well.
36:23Covered in bees.
36:25That's the thing. You're drawing them in
36:27and then hopefully they'll
36:29fly into the rest of the garden
36:31and help your fruit and help your vegetables.
36:33Lots of pollinating going on.
36:39As well as Kay's superhuman gardening effort,
36:41the garden is full of reclaimed
36:43and recycled treasures
36:45built by Patrick.
36:47So Patrick, you're an architect
36:49but obviously very handy too
36:51because you make a lot of the stuff in the garden here.
36:53Yeah, I mean, I'm an architect
36:55by day and weekends
36:57and evenings church gardens takes over
36:59and becomes my hobby.
37:01And another full-time job.
37:03What are these? They look like a sort of
37:05part of a rocket or something to me.
37:07They are organ pipes from the local church.
37:09They were taking out their original organ
37:11and replacing it, so we got the pipes
37:13and we've used some of them in the house
37:15and a lot of what was left we've used
37:17in the garden as trying to
37:19introduce an unusual feature, let's say.
37:21And what about the
37:23polytunnel?
37:25The polytunnel is reworked from
37:27the original frame, so we've
37:29recladded polycarbonate
37:31and we've used a collection of stained glass windows
37:33on the front and rear.
37:35Of course you do!
37:37We gathered them over years and years
37:39and they were stored in a shed. We had them for ages and ages
37:41and we just thought, well, this will be absolutely fantastic.
37:43So why are you so into the recycling?
37:45I just hate
37:47stuff being thrown away.
37:49I mean, I work in the building game and
37:51I love a lot of wasted materials and that.
37:53So wherever I can, I try and recover things
37:55and make use of them if I can
37:57here or somewhere else.
37:59You certainly have done here.
38:01So what have we got here then?
38:03Rainwater harvesting system.
38:05Yes, this is our
38:07basic water harvesting system.
38:09We've got four recycled
38:11orange juice containers,
38:13so we can take
38:156,000 litres in total, all collected
38:17off the roofs of the buildings
38:19and it's all connected up to some taps
38:21around the garden.
38:23Fantastic!
38:25It must be nice being married to
38:27an engineer architect type.
38:29That's not a proposal by the way.
38:33This is a garden filled with the
38:35unusual and the unexpected.
38:37You really get a sense
38:39of Patrick and Kay's personalities
38:41as you walk around
38:43and right in the heart is one
38:45final special spot.
38:47I like it up here.
38:49It's like a vantage point across
38:51the whole garden, isn't it?
38:53Moroccan theme with the tiles
38:55surrounded with a vineyard.
38:57Well, we always wanted
38:59some vines in the garden.
39:01The idea here was to design this with a series
39:03of raised terraces and to plant
39:05vines all around that would give you a sense of
39:07enclosure and a lovely place for them to grow.
39:09And they look really healthy.
39:11They're obviously loving it.
39:13So from a gardening perspective,
39:15what are your plans for the future here?
39:17Are you done?
39:19We're planting an edible forest garden
39:21which I started in 2020.
39:23And there's all sorts
39:25of unusual food
39:27and herb plants in there.
39:29But they're allowed to grow
39:31in the same way you would
39:33look at a woodland.
39:35So a polyculture of everything.
39:37Another project.
39:39There's always got to be another project.
39:41Well, it's just fantastic to see
39:43the garden and to meet you.
39:45Thank you so much.
39:47Music plays
40:11I love the way that
40:13Kay and Patrick were so relaxed
40:15about what is an
40:17extraordinary garden.
40:19The scale of it and the scope
40:21and the ambition
40:23is outside most people's comprehension
40:25let alone execution.
40:27It really is a fantastic story.
40:29I'm just adding
40:31a little bit of leaf mold
40:33to this pot of
40:35cyclamen. This is cyclamen
40:37persicum
40:39which is
40:41one of the most popular bedding plants.
40:43They give a really good
40:45splash of colour at this time of year.
40:47And they will go on flowering
40:49well into autumn and even Christmas time.
40:51The one thing is they're not
40:53fully hardy. But just because
40:55they are slightly tender
40:57don't be tempted to give them too much heat
40:59if you bring them indoors at all.
41:01They will flower longest
41:03if they're kept reasonably cool.
41:05There are two other types of cyclamen
41:07that grow really well
41:09in almost any garden
41:11at different times of year.
41:13And at this time of year
41:15cyclamen heterifolium
41:17is starting to flower and will continue
41:19to flower for the next couple of months.
41:21They're called heterifolium because
41:23when they've got leaves, which we've got
41:25on these ones here, you can see
41:27that they have a distinct resemblance to ivy
41:29and of course ivy is
41:31heterohelix and that's an ivy leaf
41:33we've got there. And immediately you can see
41:35why they're called ivy leaf
41:37cyclamen. Now these
41:39will have started flowering
41:41in your garden a few weeks ago
41:43and go on flowering for another couple of months.
41:45The other
41:47type are cyclamen
41:49coum. The cyclamen coum
41:51don't start flowering until Christmas time
41:53and then will flower in
41:55very early spring and in late winter.
41:57Now what I do have
41:59here are some of the
42:01tubers. Now is the time to plant them.
42:03The main thing is they are easily
42:05out-competed by cyclamen
42:07and heterifolium. The two
42:09do not sit well together.
42:11Cyclamen heterifolium, the one
42:13that's flowering now, will always
42:15take over because these spread
42:17really well by seed and the
42:19seed is transported by
42:21ants. The seeds are coated
42:23with a sort of sweet sticky
42:25substance that ants love
42:27and ants disperse the
42:29seed and you find them popping up
42:31all over the garden. So keep them separate.
42:33Have your autumn flowering ones in one
42:35place and your spring flowering ones
42:37the coum in another. And they
42:39grow very well in shade. They're wonderful
42:41for growing underneath shrubs.
42:43Now as it happens, I want to
42:45plant these out because I
42:47think cyclamen look best en masse.
42:49So I'm going to take these
42:51and plant them to bulk
42:53out ones that I already have.
43:05.
43:19You can see I've got
43:21a few cyclamen heterifolium
43:23appearing from around
43:25this tree. This is a
43:27vestigiate hornbeam that I planted I think about
43:29seven years ago. And there are plenty more
43:31little seedlings coming up through.
43:33When you're planting cyclamen,
43:35either coum or heterifolium,
43:37you'll see that this
43:39is in a lot of compost. But if I
43:41take that away, you can see
43:43the tuber.
43:47Now this should be buried.
43:49Sometimes you see tubers on the
43:51top of the soil and that might
43:53make you think that you should plant them like that.
43:55You shouldn't. Bury them
43:57and if they rise up and do appear on the top
43:59you either need to mulch them heavily
44:01and replant them.
44:03So we'll just pop that in like that.
44:05There we go.
44:13And of course this has got
44:15foliage, which the others
44:17haven't, although the other foliage is just
44:19beginning to appear.
44:21And within a week or two we'll be there.
44:23I'll put the rest of these
44:25round the back and that pink and
44:27white will mix in.
44:29While I'm doing that, we're going
44:31to go to the garden of
44:33Leila Kazim, the
44:35renowned food writer and critic.
44:37And we went there earlier this summer
44:39to see what edible
44:41plants she is growing
44:43in her West London back garden.
44:53The amount of
44:55food I grow in this garden
44:57isn't a huge amount
44:59but just the
45:01fact that I can grow
45:03some things that we can
45:05eat is
45:07an incredible feeling that does not
45:09fade.
45:11It's only 5m by 7m
45:13but if I have learned anything over the years
45:15it's that even if you only have a
45:17small amount of outside space
45:19don't be put off by growing
45:21stuff because this space is small
45:23and I grow quite a lot.
45:25I'm Leila Kazim
45:27and this is my
45:29little patch of
45:31paradise in South West London.
45:39When my husband Matt and I moved in 13
45:41years ago, don't think there was a single
45:43plant in the whole garden.
45:45What we did was we filled the pond
45:47we laid some
45:49wildflower turf
45:51over that and then we started to
45:53introduce borders
45:55and then all these years later we have
45:57this absolutely beautiful space.
46:01This is my
46:03sunny border and I've got about
46:0515 edibles growing in here
46:07a mixture of annuals and perennials
46:09and I just love
46:11that it's absolutely crammed
46:13and there's something tasty growing
46:15in every single little patch of space.
46:19Being
46:21half Turkish Cypriot
46:23I have a real affinity
46:25for figs
46:27and I grow one here in a pot
46:29and it's pretty old
46:31and for years I didn't
46:33really get any ripe fruit
46:35and then actually I picked up a great tip
46:37which was
46:39bagging the fruit and that's about
46:41putting a plastic bag around
46:43each developing fruit which acts as
46:45a little greenhouse
46:47and so the figs actually
46:49ripen within a sort of reasonable
46:51time and I've already eaten
46:53a ripe fig this year
46:55because water does
46:57collect in the bags
46:59through condensation and probably
47:01rain, just empty it out
47:03occasionally
47:05and put it back on
47:07and then I'll reuse the same
47:09bags each year.
47:11South America
47:15I'm very lucky that I get to travel quite a lot
47:17and I like to be influenced
47:19by my travels and to see if I can bring
47:21a little bit of a country I visited back into
47:23the garden and one part of the world that does
47:25this a lot is South America.
47:33Of course South America is known
47:35for its sweet potatoes where
47:37the plant is originally from
47:39there's a huge variety
47:41and this year I thought
47:43I'm going to see if I can grow sweet potatoes at home
47:45and so they are currently in the border
47:47and you know what, they're actually doing okay.
47:53So here I've got the sweet potatoes
47:55and also New Zealand
47:57yam.
47:59The New Zealand yam and the sweet potatoes
48:01are actually planted in a
48:03mound of earth and I do that because
48:05it makes the harvesting much easier
48:07rather than having to dig down
48:09and I also cover the earth with black plastic
48:11which I reuse each year
48:13and that keeps the soil warm
48:15which both these tubers want
48:17and then I use upturned plastic
48:19bottles with the bottoms cut off
48:21which directs the water
48:23straight to the roots and the tubers.
48:27From the looks of the top growth
48:29I might actually get something come November
48:31and that's about the time when I'll harvest
48:33but before then I won't really know
48:35so hopefully
48:37it will be a good surprise come autumn.
48:43If you've ever
48:45been put off by the fact that you
48:47don't have access to loads of space
48:49I would advise you to go
48:51with pots, it's a great place to start.
48:55The two I'm most proud
48:57of this year and which I think are doing
48:59particularly well is
49:01the corn and also the
49:03beans. I've got
49:05four or five pots of beans
49:07dwarf beans
49:09one of the things I love about growing
49:11veg in pots is that it's
49:13easier to protect them
49:15from pests and I do this
49:17a number of ways, one of them being
49:19putting a strip of copper tape
49:21around the rim of the
49:23pot because slugs and snails don't like to cross
49:25copper and I also
49:27use cloches over
49:29the young plants in the form of
49:31recycled plastic bottles or
49:33clear plastic bags.
49:35If I'm lucky
49:37enough to harvest some corn this year
49:39and some beans and it's looking promising
49:41it's just going
49:43to be an incredible feeling because how amazing
49:45to hold a corn cob in your hand
49:47and think I've
49:49grown this and then for it to
49:51make part of a delicious meal
49:53it's kind of magic.
50:01The raspberries
50:03are year in, year out
50:05the most productive and
50:07reliable crop in the entire
50:09garden. It's only
50:11about seven canes
50:13and it bestows upon
50:15me kilograms of
50:17raspberries a year. Last year I got
50:19four kilograms and
50:21if I had one tip to any gardener
50:23with a little bit of outside space
50:25it would be to grow raspberries
50:27because they're so easy
50:29and if they're happy they'll do so well.
50:31To make them happy
50:33give them a spot that isn't
50:35too sunny and because
50:37mine are right next to the kitchen window
50:39I also don't have a problem with birds
50:41they're like the perfect crop.
50:49The smell
50:51of a bowl of freshly picked
50:53raspberries first thing in the morning
50:55is one of my favourite
50:57garden experiences by far.
51:01I think I might just have one now.
51:13Even though this is a
51:15kind of not huge garden
51:17I really wanted
51:19a wildflower meadow and I like
51:21to refer to this meadow as my
51:23postage stamp meadow because it is
51:25a small meadow.
51:27The great thing about the meadow
51:29is that the flowers in it varies
51:31throughout the year and it starts with
51:33a wash of crocuses in early
51:35spring which is great for the
51:37pollinators that are out and about early in
51:39the year and then the flowers
51:41kind of change throughout the season.
51:43We've got things like
51:45oxide daisies, meadow
51:47buttercups, common
51:49knapweed. I love
51:51when the taller flowers
51:53like the wild carrots
51:55are backlit by the sun.
51:57I've created a space
51:59that welcomes
52:01in so much nature
52:03that makes me feel great. It's like
52:05we're sharing and both enjoying
52:07the garden.
52:09The meadow
52:11is also one of the
52:13favourite dozing spots of the
52:15local fox. It has
52:17flattened some flowers but
52:19I don't mind him being there.
52:23We have
52:25done so much with this small space
52:27and it's completely
52:29unrecognisable to how it was
52:31when we first moved in 13 years ago.
52:33It went from
52:35a barren
52:37landscape of just
52:39paving to
52:41something now that is lush and green
52:43and full of wildlife.
52:45And it is honestly
52:47one of my favourite places to be
52:49in the whole world
52:51because that's true.
53:05Layla
53:07is so right.
53:11It doesn't matter what
53:13you grow, where you grow it,
53:15how you grow it. The
53:17thrill and magic of
53:19sowing a seed, raising the plant
53:21and looking after it to
53:23maturity and ripeness and then
53:25harvesting and eating
53:27never wears off. In fact in my
53:29experience it just gets better and better.
53:31Now this is a tray
53:33of dwarf beans which I
53:35should have planted out at least a week ago.
53:37The reason I didn't was
53:39because this bed had the
53:41sweet corn in it and we were still harvesting
53:43and eating them until a couple of days ago
53:45and I have to say they were really good this year.
53:47Absolutely delicious.
53:49Having cleared the sweet corn
53:51I've added some compost just to
53:53refresh the soil.
53:55Now I sowed them in a seed tray
53:57rather than in plugs and then you just
53:59cut them up like brownies and plant
54:01out squares of root.
54:05And if I take out
54:07a wodge
54:09like that. There we go
54:11like a piece of cake.
54:13I can then break that down
54:15into individual plants.
54:19And in fact
54:21I'm tempted to plant them as doubles.
54:23So I'm going to plant two together
54:25side by side.
54:31And then again one in the middle.
54:35These beans
54:37are pretty late in the season.
54:39They are going to give us a harvest
54:41well into October
54:43and maybe into November.
54:45But that's fine because
54:47they are tender
54:49and will respond to temperature
54:51rather than light. So they'll go on growing perfectly
54:53happily as the days get shorter.
54:55But the minute the frost comes, that's it.
54:57Game over.
55:01Anyway, I am going to plant out the rest.
55:03So while I'm doing that, here are your jobs
55:05for the weekend.
55:13If you take cuttings now
55:15from Verbena bernariensis
55:17they will act as an insurance
55:19policy against a harsh winter
55:21killing the parent plants.
55:23Choose side shoots
55:25without a flower head.
55:27Remove most of the foliage
55:29and then cut them down
55:31to below a node
55:33i.e. a pair of leaves.
55:35Mix up a very free-draining
55:37gritty compost.
55:39We're going to do that
55:41in which you can insert
55:43the cuttings.
55:45These then can be put somewhere warm
55:47in which they will root over the coming
55:49few weeks.
55:57Although most buddleias
55:59have finished their flowering,
56:01if you cut back the spent flower
56:03heads now, there's a fighting chance
56:05they may well produce some more
56:07flowers, albeit a bit smaller,
56:09over the coming few weeks.
56:11And with all deadheading, don't just take the flower heads off
56:13but follow the stem back
56:15to a pair of leaves and cut there.
56:23If, like me, you took sage
56:25cuttings a few weeks ago, but any
56:27woody herb would work the same way,
56:29they should have rooted by now.
56:31Carefully take the rooted cuttings
56:33out of the pot and individually
56:35give them their own container
56:37with a free-draining compost mix.
56:39These can be put somewhere protected
56:41a cold frame will be fine
56:43to develop a good root system
56:45ready to plant out next spring.
57:07This is something
57:09which I do with some regret
57:11because it really marks the end of summer
57:13for me. The borders here on
57:15the mound have finished
57:17most of their display
57:19and in order to get next spring
57:21display looking at its best, I need
57:23to create room
57:25because I want to put more bulbs in
57:27and also some biannuals. I want to put
57:29many more forget-me-nots so I get that
57:31blue mist out of which
57:33the yellow tulips and the yellow daffodils
57:35can grow and to do that
57:37I need to cut back
57:39things like
57:41the nepeta, like the hardy
57:43geraniums that have finished their flowering
57:45are now flopping and hiding the soil.
57:51But on the whole
57:53the mound has been one of the success stories
57:55here in the garden.
57:57We extended the beds
57:59earlier in spring and they've looked really good.
58:01They've done well right up until
58:03a few weeks ago. The pears
58:05are fruiting well and I'll be harvesting those
58:07in a week or so and up the top
58:09around the summer house
58:11the exotic planting has
58:13loved this summer. It may have seemed a bit grey
58:15and damp and cool to us but not to them.
58:17Bananas,
58:19the cannas, the gingers
58:21are growing well, they're
58:23flowering and I kept them out last winter
58:25and I shall keep them out this winter too.
58:27But that's it for today.
58:29I'll see you back here at Longmeadow
58:31at nine o'clock
58:33next week. So until then
58:35bye bye.
58:57music
58:59music
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