Gardeners World 2024 Episode 30
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hello, I am just planting up the rest of this herb garden and finishing it off with some
00:16thymes. It's a very autumnal garden as well today here at Powderham Castle. You can really
00:23feel the seasons shifting and three weeks ago I started this. It's a lovely feeling
00:27to be finishing it. The rest of the garden is all straight lines but this is sort of
00:33a spiral arrangement of thymes which is a very traditional way of planting up a herb
00:37garden. I've got about three of each. This one here is Creeping Red and it just gives
00:44different colours through the year as they flower and different flavours as you're harvesting
00:48it so this should be really beautiful, really low to the ground and full of evergreen leaves
00:54of different colours. There's variegated ones and green ones and it will look really beautiful.
01:00Now there is lots to come on today's programme. Rachel is discovering the ingenious ways in
01:06which flowers attract a host of pollinating insects. So we've got this flower here and
01:13oh my gosh, okay so we've actually got the bee visiting and you can see that this is
01:20exactly what the flower designed it to pick up that pollen. We meet an expert who uncovers
01:25the mysteries of a universe hidden beneath our feet. When I talk about the power of soil
01:30you would not believe the life in this teaspoon. Thousands of species. Carol is busy collecting
01:38seeds to make even more plants for free. All around the garden seed heads have been swelling
01:46and ripening and I've been keeping a really, really careful eye on them.
01:55And I will be throwing some seeds ready for next year and possibly dodging some showers I think.
02:16If like me you're a person who slightly struggles going into autumn because it's
02:34dark and all that stuff then I highly recommend planting bulbs. It is my favourite thing to do
02:39because it always feels like you're burying something very magical which you forget all
02:45about and then in the spring they come up and there is nothing better than that hopeful first
02:50sight of a bulb growing through the soil. So here where there's a few gaps I'm going to put some big
02:57clumps of tulips and I've got some Dutch iris as well and I'm going to really cram these in.
03:03Now for me, especially in a garden like this, I plant tulips that I want to come back each year
03:15and this one is called ballerina and ballerina will come back quite reliably year after year
03:20but also it's really highly scented which is very unusual for a tulip. You can always tell a tulip
03:26bulb because it has got a shiny brown covering and the flat bit is the root plate and the
03:33spiky bit at the top is where the shoots will come so if you're doing them individually I'd
03:36suggest planting them the right way up. About three times the depth of the bulb is generally
03:40a good rule but I am just gonna pull them in, spread them out a bit. That's a nice natural
03:50looking clump and they'll be beautiful. Another favorite bulb is Dutch iris. Now Dutch iris have
04:09quite tall stems and really beautiful bright flowers and I'm just going to put a mix of
04:14different colors in. A really spectacular bulb and they're used a lot in cut flowers and I'm
04:22sort of planting them in the same method that you would for cut flowers. Really cram them in,
04:27again about three times the depth of the bulb. These will flower about May or probably June time
04:34depending on where you are and they last for ages in a vase. There we go. For the front edge I am
04:58using the tulip Praistens Shogun and it's got lovely little orange flowers on multiple flowers
05:04also fragrant and it will naturalize, it will form little clumps and it will be very very happy in the
05:12front of a border as long as it's not too wet. That's the one thing I don't like is to sit in
05:16water. Because they will bulk up a little bit more I'm going to spread them a little bit more thinly.
05:26So again pointy side at the top, flat side at the bottom and I will place these. These tulips
05:36will flower a lot earlier than the irises so about March or April time and that gives a
05:41fantastic succession of color here in the border but also it provides really valuable nectar to
05:47all the visiting insects that will visit this garden in the spring. Now this year Rachel has
05:52been completely immersing herself in the whole world of pollinators. It's been a fascinating few
06:03months discovering some of the amazing adaptations plants have made to pull in pollinating insects.
06:11That's incredible. Like finding some flower petals are hotter than their leaves to help
06:19warm up cold-blooded insects. The temperature acts both as a reward, somewhere warm to sit,
06:27the nectar gets warmer like having a nice hot cup of tea on a cold day. And learning that some
06:33flowers keep pollinators loyal by showing when individual blooms have run out of nectar. It goes
06:41from yellow to pink after pollination. It means the pollinators don't waste time, there's no nectar
06:46in it and they don't need pollinating. It's coding basically. Very clear instructions. Yeah absolutely.
06:51And discovering that flowers like this rose have tiny cells on their petals to help pollinators
07:00clamber around them. That conical shaped cell is actually about the same size as an insect foot so
07:08it's almost like a climbing wall on flowers. That is extraordinary. But as gardeners we know that
07:19all those precious pollinating insects lured in so cleverly by the flowers really need our help
07:27these days. As a vital part of our planet and our food chain their numbers are in rapid decline.
07:38But there is hope. Research has shown that our gardens already provide a vital source of food
07:47and nesting sites for all sorts of wildlife. So we gardeners are already making a positive
07:54difference. And having seen and heard so many more insects in my own garden when I started
08:01really planting to attract pollinators I know how much joy that can bring.
08:12Helen Bostock is a pollinator expert for the RHS
08:16so she knows about insects and what they need to thrive in our gardens.
08:22So when we talk about pollinators who exactly are we referring to? We've got bees, we've got butterflies,
08:29we've maybe got hoverflies. But what people might be surprised to learn is that we've got over 1,500
08:34species of pollinating insect in the UK and that's a huge diversity. You've got to include
08:40the solitary bees, the wasps, you've got beetles, you've got plant bugs, you've got the night-time
08:47So it's really huge. Shall we have a little wander around and see what we come across?
08:59Research has found there's at least half a dozen species of bumblebee
09:04and more than a dozen solitary bees in the Averagetown garden for starters.
09:08And in these lovely borders there'll very likely be more.
09:13But all pollinators need pollen and nectar to feed themselves and their young.
09:18And crucially these insects vary enormously in size and have different length tongues.
09:28How important is it to grow a real diversity of different plants in order to
09:32encourage lots of types of pollination?
09:36How important is it to grow a real diversity of different plants in order to
09:41encourage lots of types of pollinator?
09:43Yeah, so that's the real nub of it. That if you want to attract that diversity of pollinating insects
09:50you need to have a really big range of flowers. So what's great here about this border is that
09:55we've got things like this salvia just in front of us that has this sort of long tubular with
10:00these sort of lips at the front so it needs a slightly longer tongued bee or other insect that
10:05can get in there. Right next to it we've got this sedum or hylotelephium which has a much,
10:11much flasher, more open accessible platform. I mean the whole flower head is like a table of
10:17goodies for the insects. I mean it's absolutely covered in honeybees today but you can see a few
10:22bumblebees on there as well. And what about the daisy shapes like the Helenium?
10:27Members of the daisy family have got not just a single flower but actually it's a
10:32pack full of multiple flowers in a single head. So that's a huge delivery system of pollen and
10:38nectar. Some might attract the smaller solitary bees, some might be more attractive to flies.
10:44Go and have a look actually, you know, be curious about what it is that's visiting your flowers.
10:50What this shows really is that this area is about the size of a small garden
10:54So look how many different types of plants and flower shapes you can get into here.
10:58You don't need a big space, little square of this in any garden and you're going to have
11:03this sort of range of insects to attract. Really inspiring.
11:11As flowers come in such a range of shape and depth it's really useful to investigate
11:17exactly where the nectar is in each one because looks can be deceptive.
11:24Can we have a look at this dahlia then and just see close up?
11:28Let's just carefully pick this one off.
11:32So we've got this flower here and oh my gosh, okay, so we've actually got the bee visiting
11:38and you can see that this is exactly what the flower designed it to be, which is to encourage
11:45that bee to get right its whole face right into the heart of the plant to pick up that pollen.
11:51So yeah, that's a real demonstration.
11:55So if I just get in there and brutally pull this poor old flower apart, there we go.
12:02So actually now we're seeing the hidden depths of the flower and if you see this sort of red
12:07section, actually at the base of that is where the plant has its nectaries and those nectaries,
12:13they're the area in the flower that produces this sugar-rich nectar, but of course that's several
12:20millimetres long and so it's going to be only insects with that longer tongue that can get to
12:26it. So actually we can already tell that from what's visiting the vast majority of the insects
12:32on here are bumblebees and although you have both long and short tongue bumblebees, they're the ones
12:38that are going to be able to actually get into that. It is astonishing isn't it, how closely
12:43they're dependent on one another to ensure that pollination. I find the whole thing mind-blowing.
12:50In contrast, the open-shaped flower of this geranium is very shallow. It's why it's popular
12:59with smaller pollinators like hoverflies. But looking closely at this garden, there are some
13:06special visitors. Look there, a carderbee? Yes, that's the common carder. So it is another type
13:16of bumblebee, a little bit smaller, that all ginger body. You haven't got the stripes that
13:22you've got in some of the other bumblebees, but what's lovely about the common carder is
13:27that word carder actually comes from the sort of carding of wool. Yes, pulling it. And it refers
13:33with these bees to where they prefer to nest. So if you've got a patch of lawn and can leave a
13:39little bit of grass to grow long, the base of that long grass has this straw-like material in
13:45and that's perfect for common carder bees. The females make this sort of little pocket
13:50of a nest at the base of long grass. So just leave that through the summer,
13:54that patch, so that they've got opportunity.
14:00As all of these pollinators need homes and breeding grounds, putting up solitary bee houses
14:06and bee boxes, leaving long grass and big logs with old beetle holes will all be very welcomed.
14:15And with flowers for as much of the year as possible, they'll be even happier.
14:23Most of the bees surrounding me, and there are plenty of them, are going to spend their
14:29short lifespans probably in the close vicinity of this garden. And if the garden provides
14:37everything that they need in terms of forage and shelter, then why would they go anywhere else?
14:42And that's how I feel in my own garden, a real connection with the bees that I know I've planted
14:49for, so that they keep coming. And they bring me complete and utter joy.
15:12Go on then, on your bed. Good boy.
15:31Right, now this bed is empty and ready to be put away for the winter. But before that happens,
15:38I wanted to talk about weeds. And essentially a weed is just any plant that's in the wrong place
15:45that you don't want. So here are a few. What we've got in this bed is lots of seedlings
15:50and young plants. Lots of them are thistles. So if I just dig a couple up, now they are quite easy to
15:58get out. They look quite different, but they both have this very, very deep taproot. Now that's a
16:04really important part of the anatomy of these weeds. The taproot allows them to take quickly
16:12into the ground, get nutrients that they need and hold on. Often with deep taprooted plants,
16:18they will bring up nutrients from deeper in the soil and make them available at the surface. So
16:22this will colonize waste ground and improve the soil for other plants. These are annual weeds,
16:30so not a huge problem. You could just hoe them and leave them on the surface
16:34where they will break down and go to feed the soil. But there are plants with very deep taproots
16:39that can be more problematic and they are perennial, which means they come back year after
16:45year. So if you don't get rid of them one year, you'll have the same plant coming back and you
16:50need to get rid of the entire plant, including it's very, very deep taproot. And this
17:00is a dock. You can see the size of this taproot and it's not a particularly old plant.
17:06So eventually this root would go through the topsoil into the subsoil and bring nutrients
17:12up from there. This is particularly good at bringing up things like phosphate and potassium.
17:17The problem with perennial weeds like this is that even if you hoe them, it doesn't kill them.
17:22You really need to remove this whole root to get rid of the problem. And I wouldn't put it
17:27on the compost heap. I would put it on the ground because it will just continue to grow if you try
17:32and compost this. On the pathway, if you drop perennial weeds, they tend not to grow back
17:36because you've got compacted ground, not nice soil. They'll bake in the sun and you'll walk
17:40on them. So they actually act as a really good alternative to wood chip. Right. But not all weeds
17:46have deep taproots. Some of them have other kinds. This is a very common weed. This is spurge,
17:54an annual. This one is actually a euphorbia. So it's our native euphorbia, which is a kind
18:01of ornamental plant that we often grow in shady areas in gardens. But the key identifying feature
18:06with spurge is if you snap this stem, you can see immediately white latex sap comes up.
18:15This sap, if you get it on your skin and then the sun comes out, which
18:19seems unlikely at this point, maybe will happen, can really cause blistering. I had it once on
18:25my ear and it lasted for months when I was weeding around euphorbia. So be really careful of that.
18:34Just here, there is a stinging nettle,
18:38which I'm going to dig out with my bare hands.
18:41I don't actually mind getting stung. It helps build histamines. That's good for allergies.
18:46This is a perennial stinging nettle, Urtica doica is the Latin name for it.
18:52And this is a young seedling because it hasn't yet formed very strong yellow roots. But when
18:56it gets bigger or older, a mat of surface roots will form. And traditionally, they would have
19:02been used in making cordage, so ropes. They're a really functional plant, really delicious,
19:08really full of nutrient. They're really good in nettle soup. Usually you stop picking them
19:12at about May time, let them go to seed. The seeds are also edible and they're really,
19:18really good food plant for a lot of butterfly species, caterpillars. So in terms of ecological
19:23function, they're a really, really, really good plant. In terms of growing in the middle of your
19:28veg bed, they're not necessarily what you want because they will probably spread quite quickly
19:32and outcompete a lot of the vegetables. Unless, of course, they're not.
19:39It's this you're going to eat. Again, I wouldn't compost it,
19:42I would put it on the pathway and let it dry out.
19:49Over here, there's another nettle called a red dead nettle, although it's completely
19:54unrelated to stinging nettle. And this is a lamium. People tend to love this because
19:59it's really, really good for wildlife, famously fantastic for pollinators. So calling it a weed
20:04is a bit of a stretch, actually, because it's really encouraged. Now, you can identify this
20:10because of its pink flowers, which are sort of like pea flowers. It does look a little bit like
20:16nettle leaves, but these are much downier and softer. It's really, really a lovely plant,
20:21actually, but I feel a bit bad digging it up. It's not wanted here, though.
20:26And the last weed that I know Jeanette's having real problems with in this garden at the moment
20:31is oxalis. And there are two forms here. There's a large leafed oxalis. This one has pink flowers.
20:40There's also a much smaller one here, which has got yellow flowers, but they do the same thing
20:44and they form a mat on the floor. This one has at the base a little mass of bulbils,
20:53which will keep growing. So if you don't get all of that out, they'll come back again and again.
20:58Now, Jeanette has all sorts of different ways that she
21:01coped with different weeds and preps her beds ready for the winter.
21:23Hello. Hi. You're putting cardboard down. I remember you used to, but you said you
21:30were going to stop. I know. Well, the first time I used cardboard, it worked really well for a
21:36year, but there were lots of docks that I covered up and believed that the cardboard would actually
21:40get rid of them forever. And after a couple of seasons, the docks started coming back through.
21:46Right, I see. But that was only one layer of cardboard. Okay. This is four. But you've cleared
21:51But you've cleared docks from this area anyway, haven't you? I have, but it's not to say that
21:55they're never going to come back. So this is sort of a different function now, really,
21:59rather than mulching with cardboard to get rid of weeds, you're mulching with cardboard to
22:04keep all the goodness in the soil that you've already now been working on for years. And
22:08protect the soil over winter. Yeah, that makes sense. I suppose you need the soil to be as
22:12healthy as it can be because you're a community market garden. That's absolutely right. We need
22:17to make sure that we can get as much crop as possible out of our soil. And so by looking
22:22after it and doing this, we just get the benefit from it. Sage green growing has been going for
22:26five years now. And we've relied on funding and the goodwill of our volunteers and their hard work.
22:33But we want to be more sustainable and be able to look after ourselves and the veg we grow is
22:38going to help us do that. Is this the way you were growing your green manures this year? Yes.
22:43I trialed white clover underneath courgettes, just on this one bed. And there was a market
22:52difference in the courgettes and what we harvested as well, in comparison to the other rows behind.
22:59But just this row was the best performing? This was the best. The plants were huge,
23:03head and shoulders above what we got behind. Really? Yeah. But you're no dig here. So is
23:09that partly why you're covering it rather than digging it into the ground? I'm just going to let
23:14nature take its course. The worms are going to have a great winter and it's going to be absolutely
23:21perfect here for the spring. Lovely. Talking about winter, it's a bit nippy, isn't it? Should I go
23:26and light the fire? Oh, good plan. Okay. Good timing as well. I'll let you crack on.
23:43I know it's the plants that we gardeners all love, but without the soil, they simply wouldn't grow.
23:48To investigate soil health on a microscopic scale, we visited Eddie Bailey in his garden in Wiltshire.
24:12Soil is the most diverse and abundant ecosystem on the planet and it supports every living organism.
24:24There is more life in the soil than there is in the tropical rainforests
24:30or in the Great Barrier Reefs of Australia. The most incredible, powerful material on this planet.
24:38Oh, that is beautiful.
24:45I've been gardening organically for over 30 years. I grow the normal range of vegetables and flowers.
24:54But for the first 20 of those years, I was digging and rotavating and the germination rates
24:59were slowly diminishing. The health of the plants was diminishing. So as a geologist
25:07and soil specialist, I got down on my hands and knees with my magnifying glass and looked a little
25:11bit more closely at the soil to work out what was going wrong. And it was the digging. So I stopped.
25:27The soil microorganisms have evolved over billions of years.
25:31They practically invented plants and they jumped on board inside and outside of those plants and
25:37they've been growing plants healthily for 410 million years. So my job as a gardener
25:42is to create the environment that allows them to do what they do best.
25:51Talk about the power of soil. You would not believe the life in this teaspoon.
26:01That teaspoon of soil. Well, that's what we're looking at here under the microscope.
26:11All these tiny dots jiggling about. That's all the bacteriums. Thousands of species.
26:20So I describe the diversity of life in a healthy soil as the soil Serengeti. You have
26:27the herbivores. In the soil, these would represent the bacteria. And the bacteria
26:35are like the bottom of the food chain. They're like the zebra and the wildebeest that everybody
26:40else eats. The protozoans are like the leopards. Protozoans are very tiny single-celled
26:50organisms that like nothing better than to chow down on the bacteria.
26:56Go up another level. The lions in the soil, those guys would be represented by the nematodes.
27:03The nematodes, they are munching through some 10,000 bacteriums every hour.
27:09There is just so much life going on in that tiny teaspoon of soil.
27:15So growing healthy vegetables and fruit and resilient flowers. I mean, it starts here.
27:23This is where the magic happens. This is the compost station because a good quality homemade
27:29compost has got to have all the microorganisms in it. If it hasn't got microorganisms in it,
27:35then to me, it's just organic matter. And wood chip, for me, is one of the most important
27:41And wood chip, for me, is one of the most important ingredients.
27:47Wood chip adds carbon, but also wood chip adds structure. So to balance the wood chip,
27:55I add meadow hay. It might look brown, but it's actually green.
28:01All that's happened is I've just dried it out, but that's full of nitrogen.
28:06Other greens include normal garden shreddings,
28:17lawn clippings,
28:22and the contents of your compost caddy.
28:25Now, this is ultimately what you want to end up with.
28:30This is absolutely brimming with life. This feels light. It feels cool.
28:41It feels very moist.
28:45Oh, and that smells divine.
28:48If you don't have an allotment or even a garden and you're growing out of window boxes
28:54or indoor house plants, you can still get the biology working for you.
28:58Just need a few simple ingredients. This is a base soil.
29:04You've got to get the soil ready for your compost.
29:08You've got to get the soil ready for your compost.
29:10you can still get the biology working for you, you just need a few simple ingredients.
29:17This is a basic shop-bought compost, I can assure you there's very limited biology in it,
29:24so we need to introduce that biology. So I've just made up a little posy here of
29:31compost caddy materials. I've got my tea bags, I've got some grass clippings,
29:38a few little wood chippings, all the food that the biology wants to start.
29:43I'm now going to add my secret ingredients, biologically rich compost. Now if you haven't
29:51got biologically rich compost, just go to any garden that's got a little bit of soil with
29:58worms in it and I guarantee it'll have microorganisms in it. And then tuck your
30:02posy into the end of your window box, keep it moist and after a few days you can take
30:08that posy out and spread that biology across the rest of your window box.
30:16Really couldn't be any simpler. You don't need to know what they're doing, just that they are
30:22doing it and you just create the habitat. So you don't dig the soil, you don't turn their house
30:29upside down, you don't put chemicals down, but it is a habitat and it needs feeding. It needs
30:35feeding with just a good quality homemade compost and really important, it needs water.
30:44So I've put about a kilo of really good biologically rich compost into a mesh bag
30:52and I'm going to give it a really good stir. So I'm extracting the microorganisms
30:59off the organic matter and this can go back on the compost heap.
31:10The health of your soil could not be more important.
31:15For the health of your plants and for the health of us. We've been damaging the soil
31:20for centuries. We didn't know how important the biology was until we looked down a microscope.
31:30Whether you're growing fruit, flowers, vegetables,
31:35it doesn't matter. The common denominator is a healthy soil.
31:50So
32:11compost is absolutely one of the most important parts of the garden and if you really know how
32:16to make it, it can change the way that you grow. So it's so useful to hear that. Right what I'm
32:21doing now is making a lovely cup of very autumnal tea with rose hips and a little bit of the last
32:27of the mint, making the use of the fire that Jeanette put on. Roses are the same family as
32:34things like apples and pears but they're really really tasty and they're very good for you. Rose
32:40hips particularly are full of vitamin C so very healthy, very good for fighting off things like
32:47coughs and colds, boosting a bit of your immunity. Rose hips contain seeds that are covered in tiny
32:56hairs which are a real irritant. They used to make itching powder from it. That's why I'm not really
33:02cutting too far in, just a little bit to expose some of that flesh and allow it to let out its
33:08goodness into the tea. Still to come on today's programme. Carol concludes her mission to create
33:25plants for free as she explores the borders in search of seeds. Can you actually see those three
33:32seeds in there all in a line and all protected by this lovely dry silvery coat? Aren't they gorgeous?
33:41Isn't nature wonderful?
34:02When I was picking my rose hips I noticed something very interesting about this rose that I wasn't expecting
34:15and it's something that happens all of the time especially when you inherit a rose. You may not
34:19notice but actually it stopped being the rose it was supposed to be and it started to be
34:24the root stock and that's what's happened here. If you look down here you'll see there's about
34:28three branches of a cultivated rose in amongst all of this growth. What's happened here is that
34:37the root stock, Rosa canina, dog rose, has actually taken over. You can really identify the original
34:44cultivated rose here by looking at the stem. You can see it's absolutely covered in thorns and also
34:51the leaves are quite dull with quite heavy veining on them. Now that differs a lot from the
34:58root stock rose which has got quite smooth green stems when it's young and vigorous and then the
35:03older stems they're a bit thicker and browner and has much smaller neater leaves almost with less
35:10clear veining. So all this will need to be cut right back down to the ground to let the true rose
35:17show itself and get more vigour but it's still early autumn and with so much growth still
35:23happening on the plant that would probably shock the rose too much. Instead that is much better
35:28done when it is fully dormant. Instead what I'm going to do now is just remove the whippy growth
35:36along here because this will catch the wind especially as the autumn progresses and winter
35:41storms hit and that will cause these stems to rock and cause something called wind rock. That's when
35:46the roots just under the surface of the soil break and snap as the whole plant moves and it's
35:51very very damaging to roses. Take off anything like this that has a lot of potential to catch
35:57the wind and take it back to a bud. It's always best practice even if you are planning on removing
36:04the rest of the plant later even if it's just in a couple of months because just in case
36:09something happened, I got too busy, I forgot to come back, you would still then have a healthy
36:13plant. And in fact with roses generally I always say look more than you cut. Really go all around
36:23the rose, look for crossing stems, look for disease, work out exactly where you're going to
36:28make your cuts before you do it so you spend more time looking than you actually do cutting.
36:40So that's really reduced now but I'm not going to waste any of this because
36:48although it may not be the rose that's desired here it's still a lovely one.
37:09All right now with what is left over from my prunings I am going to take some hardwood
37:20cuttings. Now this can be done all the way through the winter and the idea is that the
37:25wood has gone hard because it's had a whole season to develop and it's a really really
37:31easy way of taking cuttings of all sorts of shrubby materials. You could do it with hazels
37:35or with elders as well.
37:47So I'm actually using garden soil for this rather than compost and that's because often if you were
37:52taking hardwood cuttings you'd actually put them in a trench so dig a little trench in the garden,
37:56stick the cuttings in and just leave it for the winter but there's no room here to do that because
38:00all the ground is needed for vegetables. Now when a stem is hard like these they take a bit longer
38:06to produce roots but that's okay because it means that once they've got their roots on
38:12they've been in the pot for a while, they're nice and strong and they should establish pretty
38:18quickly. So all you're doing is you're looking for nice thick healthy disease-free stems with no
38:26damage on them and the key to doing this is clean secateurs and then a straight cut just below a
38:34node or a leaf joint at the bottom because that's where all the hormone is that goes on to change
38:40the cells from stem cells into root cells and then just above a node at the top with a slanted cut
38:48and that will hopefully then be your growing tip. Now the reason that I always do a straight cut at
38:54the bottom and a slanted cut at the top is I always know what the bottom is and what the top
38:59is then because if I put it in upside down it won't grow. Now I'm just going to take that off
39:05and turn it into a dibber, make a hole along the side where the pot will warm up and then push this
39:12in so you have at least two nodes under the soil and two nodes above the soil. With that slanted
39:20cut on top it's going to stop water from sitting on the top of the cutting and that can get fungus
39:24in and begin to rot. And you might wonder why I'm doing this with a rose that I wanted to remove
39:31from the border but the reality is even though it's not the perfect rose for the border it's an
39:37absolutely lovely rose. It's one of our native roses Rosa canina and it's really good for wildlife.
39:45Rose hips will stay on all through the winter and give the bird something to eat but also they're
39:49host to all sorts of other creatures like the rose gall wasp and you'll see their little galls
39:54of very very spiky pink balls along the stems but also bees in the summer will love the flowers.
40:02There it can stay outside that's really important so that it slowly puts on root growth rather than
40:09too quickly then it will be strong by the time they're ready and that will be at the end of
40:15winter maybe but actually with something like this I would probably leave it for a whole year.
40:19As long as you keep them well watered they should put on really good growth so that by this time
40:23next year I'll have really strong plants that I've got for absolutely nothing because I'm using
40:28garden soil reusing pots and this is just waste material that would have gone on the compost
40:32anyway so it's always worth giving things a go even if you won't have a hundred percent
40:38success with them but I see no reason why these won't all grow into lovely strong plants.
41:08Oh gosh it's just starting to rain so this is a nice indoor job ironically because actually
41:15it involves wetting hydrangeas to dry them because although it's about drying them
41:22they really require a lot of water for that process and that is because these flower heads
41:28which look so magnificent at this time of year are not flower heads really but actually
41:33bracts so all of these what look like petals are more closely related to leaves and that means that
41:40they have the ability like leaves to open their pores and directly soak up water and if you soak
41:47them and allow them to be filled with moisture it means they will dry better holding their colour and
41:52holding their structure. You can dry them without but they tend to go a very washed out pale colour
41:58and drying them is lovely because if you get it right they'll last for months and months in a
42:02vase and make a real statement. So these have been in here overnight completely submerged so
42:09all I need to do is add them to a vase of water the whole process with hydrangea flowers requires water
42:24Now normally when you are drying flowers you would hang them upside down like that
42:29and that's because they'll keep their form as they're drying so that when you then turn them
42:34back they look correct because these aren't flowers they're bracts these need water throughout
42:39the whole process in order for them to retain their structure
42:48So just stick them in the vase with a freshly cut base and they will keep absorbing moisture
42:57Top up the water all the time until you start to feel those bracts going crispy
43:03and see that they're completely dry once they are completely dry they will then last
43:07for months certainly up until Christmas and they make a really lovely Christmas display
43:20Now this year Carol has been encouraging us all to grow plants for free and autumn is one of the
43:25most exciting seasons for that because it's when you collect the seeds for next year's plants
43:40This year I've been sharing with you the way I've always gardened as long as I can remember
43:48by propagating plants for free. Back in the spring I started by sowing seeds
43:56it's incredible to think that something so tiny something so insignificant
44:02is actually so powerful and can produce a plethora of wonderful plants
44:13and the seed I sowed didn't disappoint. Cosmos, ammy and scented sweet peas. By early summer
44:21seedlings moved on to bigger homes and we delved into free plants from division. But taking
44:28cuttings couldn't be simpler. Fuchsias, catmint are one of my real favourites. Just look at these
44:36pelargoniums. Now my neighbour Molly was kind enough to lend me her plants and I took some
44:42cuttings early on and now they've turned into really substantial little plants. Look at this
44:49Not only is it flowering but look at that root system!
44:52So they're ready to pot on, grow on and then take even more cuttings from them
45:04Some of the wonderful plants that I've grown for free this year have ended up in this bed. Way back
45:11it was nothing but bare earth but now look at it. It's really given me interest right the way
45:18through the seasons but I think it looks great with this wonderful backdrop of root back here
45:25glowing in the sunshine. Now not everybody's lucky enough to have a garden and with that in mind
45:32earlier on I planted a great big pot full of annuals. It's made me smile every time I've walked past it
45:39Today it's all about harvest. I'm not talking about my peas, beans and carrots. No, all around the garden
45:55seed heads have been swelling and ripening and I've been keeping a really really careful eye on them
46:09Just look at this. It's the perfect day for collecting seeds. It's dry, it's sunny. Just look
46:17at this Ami. This is Ami Visnaga, isn't it spectacular? The point at which you collect your
46:24seed is exactly the point at which mother nature would be distributing it. So it's ripe, ready.
46:31If I leave this any longer it'll start dropping its seeds all over the place. So you want to
46:38collect them when they're absolutely dry and perfect. There's masses of it.
46:46When you do go and collect your seed you really need to be prepared and I am prepared. Look I've
46:53got my paper bag already. It's a special paper bag too. It's got my granddaughter's picture of a cat
47:02but on the other side it's also got the name. I've already written it Ami Visnaga. So I'm going
47:10to tip these into here. It's really important to use paper, old paper bags, envelopes, anything
47:18like that. Don't use plastic because that makes your seed sweat. The trouble is with a plant like
47:24this you get greedy. So plenty in there, loads and loads but what else is there in here?
47:36It's really vital to collect your seed when it's ready and I've been collecting seed for months
47:42and months because some things flower early and of course as soon as a plant has finished flowering
47:49it wants to make seed. I want more of this, this lovely Scabiosa. It's called Ochroluca,
47:56smothered in flowers and already lots of it has set seed but because it didn't start flowering
48:03until late I don't know that this seed is really quite ready yet. If you take your thumb and run
48:11it across the surface the seed should fall off if it's ripe and I'm afraid they're not. I'll just
48:18have to wait for this but there's a few things over there which I think are going to be just ready.
48:29It seems a shame to cut some seed pods off because they're so beautiful in their own right.
48:36Now this is a kind of honesty but this is an honesty with a difference. It's perennial,
48:41it's called Lunaria Radiviva which simply means it carries on growing and it'll come
48:47up year after year after year and all I'm going to do, sorry plant, is just snip a few of these off.
48:59Look at that, can you actually see those three seeds in there all in a line and all protected
49:06by this lovely dry silvery coat? Aren't they gorgeous? Isn't nature wonderful?
49:15Look at these, oh aren't they scrumptious? This is one of my favourite Campanulas of all time,
49:24it's Campanula Latifolia, a giant bellflower. Just look how tall it was and it was smothered in these
49:31big blue bells earlier on but now all these seed heads are completely
49:37dried out and crispy, they're almost sort of crunchy.
49:44With most seed pods, the seed would come out at the top, just think of a poppy, all the seed will
49:50come out of the top of the seed pod but with Campanulas it doesn't. It's got this really
49:56crafty mechanism so it opens up all these little apertures right the way around the
50:01back of the seed pod and with a bit of luck, look at that, I'll tell you what,
50:08just from that one seed pod I bet you there's at least 100 seeds there, absolutely splendid.
50:17Once you start, you can't stop but I suppose I've got to draw the line
50:23somewhere. The robin agrees, listen to him. Do you think that's enough? Yeah.
50:31Now there's a little bit of dross and debris in there so all I'm going to do is winnow it.
50:41So you just blow gently and any bits of old seed pod just come off and fly away
50:47and you're left with a pure seed which is what you want.
50:52There it goes, only about 200 more different kinds to go but I'm longing to do this honestly.
50:59So I'm just going to detach this one. Now it looks sort of brown, you can see the seeds inside
51:10but if you just very very carefully, oh can you see them on one side and then on the other side
51:23two more seeds, in fact three because I've left one in the middle. A lot of this seed will be
51:28stored until next year and there are three sort of conditions. The first two are imperative,
51:34it wants to be cool and it wants to be dry. The third one is optional, it should be in the dark
51:40if you can manage that. When do you sow your seed? That's another question, another quandary,
51:46well it's not really. If you're sowing something like the cosmos which is half hardy, it's a bit
51:52tender, you've got to store it and then sow it next spring. But on the other hand, this is a
51:59hardy perennial, this Lunaria, so too is the Campanula, so what you could do is store most of it
52:06but try sowing a bit now. You'll probably get twice as many plants as you bargained for
52:12but there's always somebody who'd love those plants.
52:20We started with sowing seed and today we've been collecting it and we'll be sowing that seed again.
52:27It just reminds you of the whole cycle of nature of which we're all part and it's not just plants
52:34for free, it's the way forward for any gardener who cares about the future of the planet
52:42and it's also so exciting, so thrilling, so wonderful to acknowledge nature and to try and emulate it.
52:56Getting an early sowing in is something I'm trying here with something I've never
53:13done before, so in that same vein of experimentation I am going to grow some peas now.
53:20It's not something completely new, people do do this, you just have to make sure that you use the
53:23right varieties and this one is called Meteor, it's hardy so it should be absolutely fine with
53:29an autumn sowing. The key is stopping it from growing too much, you want to really slow grow
53:35through the winter and then they should be flowering about a month early next year, then you
53:41do your spring sowing as well and you have a bit of a succession. This is a very classic method of
53:47growing them in a piece of old guttering, you're basically creating a preset row that when it's
53:52all fully rooted can just slide out and go straight into the ground, so I'm just filling it
53:57with a peat-free compost, I haven't put holes in it because it's open at the end, so the water
54:01should drain through right, so I'll just throw the peas along as they'll be spaced in the bed,
54:06about five to ten centimetres apart and a couple of inches deep in the compost,
54:13a couple of inches deep in the compost and these will need to go somewhere that is not too frosty
54:21but not too hot, so here they're probably okay because it's unheated but you wouldn't want to
54:25put them in a heated greenhouse, a cold frame would be fine but bring them out into the open
54:30air wherever you can because they like the cold, it will slow them down and stop them from
54:34getting too leggy too quickly. There we go, that's that done and I'm also going to sow some
54:42sweet peas which is something that people do all the time, it's very commonly done,
54:45an autumn sowing and then again a spring sowing. Now we have quite unpredictable weather nowadays
54:52so you might find that one or the other fails but having done both you'll hopefully still get
54:58something. I'm using some newspaper but I've just rolled up and firmed, I've wetted it so that it
55:06holds its shape and some toilet rolls and they'll disintegrate so you can plant them in their little
55:12pots and it's just a nice way of recycling rather than buying new plastic. These I will just put
55:20probably two in each pot. I'd leave these ones outside for the winter, they like it cold and
55:29the cold winter with the rain will soften the hard seed case because sometimes you need to soak sweet
55:35peas to get them to germinate. This compost is actually really moist so I don't need to water
55:39them now but I'll just keep them fairly moist until they've germinated. It's so lovely in the autumn
55:51to feel that you're doing something for spring, the whole winter to get through but there's a
55:55little bit of hope here. Speaking of hope, the weather has cleared up so I'm going to brave the
55:59outdoors. Come on Roo.
56:19There we go, right, shall we go? Go on then.
56:22There's nothing quite like having a little bonfire at this time of year when it's cold and
56:26a little bit drizzly, especially on the allotment, there's something so lovely about it. I've got
56:32this squash which has a really tough skin so it'll go straight into the embers as it is but if you
56:35had a potato or some peppers you could wrap them in foil and do exactly the same thing.
56:43So once that's cooked that'll give me plenty of nutrition
56:47for a busy weekend ahead in the garden.
57:06Most onion sets are planted in the spring but there are some varieties
57:10that can overwinter and give you an earlier crop next year.
57:14These can be planted directly outdoors if your soil is fairly free draining.
57:18Plant 15 to 20 centimetres apart and just under the surface.
57:24Firm the soil well around them and water if dry.
57:33If you haven't turned your compost for a while now is a good time to do it.
57:38Chop up any large pieces of material to help it break down faster.
57:43Then turn it all over in the container. This will give it oxygen and help the bacteria and worms
57:50to speed up decomposition. By next spring you should have a clean smelling rich compost.
58:02Cucumbers grown inside will be coming to an end now.
58:07Harvest any remaining fruits and then untie the vines from their supports.
58:12These can be reused again next year.
58:15Pull the entire plant and roots out from the soil. The whole lot can be added to your compost.
58:30Well I have a new log on the fire and the squash looks nearly ready.
58:35So I reckon I'm all set for the evening.
58:38But that's all there's time for today.
58:40Monty is back next week at Longmeadow at 8pm but until then goodbye.
59:07you