Gardeners' World - Season 58 Episode 3
Gardeners' World - Season 58 Episode 3
Gardeners' World - Season 58 Episode 3
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00:00Hello, welcome to Gardner's World.
00:24These pots have spent the winter undercover.
00:28I put them in the bus shelter in the Paradise Garden, and that is to protect them from rain,
00:33not cold.
00:35Increasingly, I'm growing tulips in pots rather than in borders, particularly with the way
00:40that the climate's changing and our weather is getting wetter and wetter, because tulips
00:45hate sitting in heavy, wet soil, particularly when it's cold.
00:50So by growing them in pots, I can give them the drainage that they need, but even then,
00:57if they sit outside all winter, with the rain coming down, they're bound to get soaked.
01:02But now that the shoots are emerging and there's foliage, it means that they need sunlight,
01:08and so I can put them out where they're going to be, and then they can get maximum light,
01:13a bit of rain won't hurt them, and very soon they should be flowering, and we'll get the
01:20sort of display that I love.
01:24And the bigger pots, which are much too big to lift and move, I've protected from the
01:29squirrels and the rats and the mice and the birds with rose prunings.
01:33So I need to remove those, because once these are out, and the weather warms up a bit, these
01:38will grow fast, and by the middle of April, this should be gloriously alight with colour.
01:46Because it's the cottage garden, they'll all be pastel colours, pinks and pale yellows
01:51and lilacs, but despite the softness of the colour, it sings out on a spring day.
01:58Now, coming up on today's programme.
02:03Nick visits a garden in Essex to discover how matrix planting can be used to best effect.
02:11People think of this style of gardening as being very much kind of late summer and into
02:16autumn interest, but actually what you've created here is truly year round.
02:20Yes, maybe just by looking at it, it looks very complex, but actually when you think
02:25about the different layers, it's actually quite easy to understand.
02:28We meet a grower in Dorset whose love of dahlias has grown and grown.
02:34I bought my first dahlia, and it was a bright pink one, and I was very taken with it.
02:40The next year I had seven dahlias, and then suddenly I had 300, and then it was I think
02:45600, and then 1,000.
02:48Frances heads to a community garden in Bradford, the 2025 UK City of Culture, which provides
02:55a welcome for all the community.
02:57Oh, I love it here.
02:59It's absolutely lovely.
03:00Yeah.
03:01Everybody's so friendly.
03:02Different cultures.
03:03We learn about each other's cultures, like we had a pakora day here.
03:06Yeah.
03:07That was amazing.
03:08It was really nice, wasn't it?
03:09And then we made apple crumble.
03:12Apple crumble.
03:14And I shall be doing some fairly dramatic remedial action on my new lawn.
03:19I suspect that most of you will recognise this, even when it's empty like this, as the
03:48jaw garden.
03:50And it's been the jaw garden for the last, oh, 28 years, but of course it hasn't always
03:57been the jaw garden.
03:58When we came here, there was no garden at all.
04:01This was an open field.
04:03There was a very bad tempered horse down the far end.
04:06It was brambly and tusky, and it took me a full year to clear it.
04:09And then I decided I would make a big circular lawn, and I planted yew hedge all the way
04:14around.
04:16Funnily enough, I knew almost from day one that it wasn't going to work.
04:18I just had this feeling that I was doing the wrong thing.
04:21So I thought, OK, cut my losses, let's do something else.
04:24And we decided to be radically different.
04:27We would make a garden that celebrated our years doing jewellery in the 1980s.
04:33And we'd worked with rock stars and dome stars and royalty, and it was glamorous and it was
04:38fun.
04:39And so we thought, OK, we'll make a garden where the plants are all jewel-like.
04:43And of course that just means choosing your colours.
04:45We had ruby and amethyst and sapphire, in fact we had all the jewel colours.
04:50Now the point of telling you that story is that when you're making a garden, when you're
04:53making a border or even a small bed, even a big pot, it needs to have some kind of theme
05:01or story that you can work with.
05:03It could be colour, it could be texture, it could be a type of plant, it could be grasses
05:07or alpines, it doesn't matter.
05:10Now in this case it's jewel colours.
05:12And it worked well.
05:13It looked great, but it was gradually losing its oomph.
05:18So last year I thought, OK, let's redo it, let's have a revamp.
05:22And we took everything that we could out and then we thought, well, we'll start again.
05:26Dilk had been true to the jewel garden, but rebuild with a freshness.
05:31Now you may notice there are an awful lot of green shoots here.
05:35Those come from Allium, Allium Purple Sensation, and it's the weed of the jewel garden.
05:41But as weeds go, it's a pretty good one to have.
05:44The next step is to bring back the herbaceous plants that we've lifted and stored over winter.
05:50But before I do that, we're going to join Nick on the other side of the country, a very
05:54different garden to Long Meadow.
05:56Different soil, different climate, different approach.
05:59But it also uses a strong theme and the result is magnificent.
06:08When planning any garden, it's always worth spending some time thinking about how your
06:13beds and borders will look all year round, not just at the height of spring and summer.
06:19As the light fades, air cools and plants die back.
06:22This is when structure and form take center stage to retain a sense of drama.
06:30And this garden manages to squeeze every drop of life and excitement from the soil before
06:37the season starts to change and we turn our attention to winter.
06:47It was designed by Stefano Marinaz, who brought his experience of working in Italy and the
06:51Netherlands here to Braintree in Essex.
06:56Now, Stefano, this garden is looking absolutely glorious today, especially with this autumn
07:04backlight.
07:05But actually, when you arrived here, it was a completely blank canvas, right?
07:08Yes, indeed.
07:09When we came here in April time, three years ago, it was only 300 square meters of a bare
07:14lawn.
07:15But instead, we designed a garden where we create plant communities combining grasses,
07:21perennials, shrubs and trees, as well as obviously the bulbs.
07:25So all these layers were all combined and you see in this result.
07:29But they don't, of course, all arrive at once.
07:31You've got successional planting that sort of comes and goes through the year and then
07:34plants that will carry on all the way through the winter.
07:36Yeah.
07:37And that's, I think, that's the beauty of this type of naturalistic planting, where
07:40you have different layers emerging as well as disappearing.
07:43The garden sits beautifully within its own right, but it's against the backdrop of a
07:47very big black barn.
07:49And so how have you got that to work?
07:51Well, as we couldn't compete with the volume of the house, we took inspiration, we look
07:55at the details, so sort of this timber cladding.
07:58And then we drew these lines of the Prunus lucitanica hedging, which is kept clipped
08:03and it runs much more concentrated from the courtyard, comes out and then it feathers
08:08out as you move away from the house.
08:11So it's sort of taking the architecture into the landscape with plants.
08:14Indeed.
08:15I think a lot of people think of this style of gardening as being very much kind of late
08:20summer and into autumn interest.
08:22But actually, what you've created here is truly year round.
08:25Yes.
08:26Maybe just by looking at it, it looks very complex.
08:29But actually, when you think about the different layers, so you have the perennials, you have
08:32the bulbs, you have the shrubs, you actually see each component and it's actually quite
08:36easy to understand.
08:47The garden envelops you with a rich sense of abundance the moment you walk through the
08:52gate.
08:53And this effect is achieved through the use of matrix planting.
08:57The essence of what a matrix planting is, is all about creating a community of plants
09:02that support each other.
09:03So to break that down a bit, the planting here, there's nearly 3000 perennials planted
09:08in here, of which around about half are grasses.
09:11And grasses are absolutely key to a matrix planting.
09:15They provide the ground cover, they provide the support for the perennials which emerge
09:20up through them.
09:21And so looking through this area directly in front of me, there's repeated grasses,
09:25but coming up through them are a succession of different perennials and annuals.
09:29So for example, in front of me here, this is Galenia trifoliata, looks fabulous with
09:34white flowers in summer, it's taken on these gorgeous autumn notes now, and then the seed
09:39heads will last well into winter.
09:42Then looking further back into the garden, you've got fabulous spots of colour, even
09:46in autumn with the asters that repeat all the way through.
09:49And so with that clever combination of grasses as key structure, and then emerging ephemeral
09:54plants, some self-seeders, some bulbs, and some perennials, you set up a fabulous plant
09:59community that has a succession of colour and interest nearly year-round.
10:14Something that's absolutely vital to make matrix plantings work well is to have long
10:19flowering species which you repeat all the way through the planting.
10:24And there are great examples here, in fact, an old friend and a new friend.
10:29Down here, the old friend is Tilbagia violacea, now it's a plant that comes from South Africa
10:34and you can probably recognise it, it's an Allium relative, sometimes called Society
10:38Garlic.
10:39But what's brilliant about it is it manages to flower from June all the way to November,
10:44non-stop.
10:45Beautiful thing.
10:46Now, the new friend back here is a plant known as Mountain Mint, and it comes from the US,
10:52but it's very closely related to our mints, in fact it's in the Lamiaceae family.
10:58And the leaves are absolutely packed with this minty essential oil which smells absolutely
11:04delicious.
11:05But here, in a matrix setting, it's the perfect plant.
11:08It manages to hold itself up brilliantly, it flowers over an incredibly long season
11:13and is absolutely loved by pollinators.
11:16And then going into winter, as it drops its leaves, these seed heads take on lovely burnished
11:20tones and they will last all the way through winter.
11:29And the garden is packed with plants that perform long after the flowers have faded.
11:37One of the things that gives this garden such great seasonality and longevity is the choice
11:47of perennials that have looked fabulous in summer, but produce amazing seed heads that
11:52will last all the way through winter until spring.
11:55Things like this Flomis just here, it's really good for bird food as well, this Asclepias
11:59down here with these wonderful conical heads, you've got this Limonium with this sort of
12:04sea foam quality which will roll all the way through winter.
12:07And then finally, this Orangium.
12:10It's in flower now, but it will slowly take on kind of burnished brown and beige tones,
12:15and it looks absolutely fabulous carrying hoarfrost.
12:23The repetition within the garden creates a rhythm as you move through the space.
12:30Even when species change, Stefano has carefully selected similar forms.
12:38I know that you've really sort of punctuated the space with a series of different multi-stemmed
12:43trees.
12:44Why do you use them in that way?
12:45They provide a bit of privacy, they filter the light, and they create a lovely double
12:49shade underneath which you can sit.
12:52The species that you've selected, things like the Circe, Siloquestrum, or the Colorateria
12:57over here, are really plants that have great seasonality, they do many things, but they
13:02have fabulous autumn color.
13:04How important was that in your choices?
13:05Yeah, they have definitely strong colors and they start the season with the flowering and
13:09they continue into autumn with the strong autumn colors, but also in winter when they're
13:14completely bare without the leaves and the seed pods, they still have the sort of sculptural
13:19qualities that are beautiful to have dotted within the garden.
13:25Well, I have to say, it's been such a pleasure to spend time in this garden today.
13:34The matrix that you've built has kind of set up this incredible ecology that's sort of
13:39equally balances pollinators, people, and plants, and I think as a whole it's a fabulous
13:44garden that all of us and everything wants to be in.
13:48Well, thank you Nick for that.
13:50We do look forward to see how the garden develops throughout the years.
14:09I really do like the matrix approach and I'm going to use that to a certain extent
14:24in the jaw garden, but in a different way, or at least with different plants.
14:27I'm going to start with these.
14:29This is a Rebecchia, Rebecchia laciniata herbstone.
14:34It's a really dramatic, strong vertical plant with wonderful bright yellow daisy flowers
14:41that will flower from July right through till October.
14:44Now all these came from two or three clumps that had developed in the jaw garden.
14:50I lifted them, divided them, so we've got 40 plants, each of which will cost us about
14:55a tenner in a garden centre.
14:58So I'm going to lift these and we can start replanting.
15:04Because they were only put in a few months ago, they come out very easily.
15:21Now you can see here that alliums are growing up in amongst the roots of the Rebecchia.
15:27Now I can live with an allium popping up, but if this were bindweed or ground elder
15:33or couch grass, it would be crazy to replant this and say, oh, it's only a little bit.
15:40What you need to do in that case is to wash the roots, wash all the soil off, and then
15:45you can see the allium roots because they will look different.
16:14I'm placing these in groups of three.
16:18And generally, odd numbers always looks more natural.
16:22I know that on my soil in this garden, these Rebecchias will grow two metres tall.
16:30And it is important when you're constructing a border or a garden to really take into account
16:35the soil, the aspect, the exposure to wind, nothing stunts growth more than a cold wind.
16:42The better you know your garden, the more likely it is to succeed.
16:46So for example, what plants do well in your ground?
16:49Don't try and waste time and energy growing things that don't want to be there.
17:02Now I like to place everything before I plant anything.
17:07But if you've lifted them from the garden and are transplanting them on a day like today,
17:12which is quite dry, the roots will dry up.
17:14So I need to get them in the ground.
17:18And I'll give them a good soak when I've planted everything.
17:26Now if I plant it here in the front, it blocks the view through.
17:31As a rule, it's a good idea to put your taller plants near the middle or the back of a border.
17:38But not religiously.
17:41For example, the delphinium grows as tall as the rebecchia.
17:45But the flowers are tall rather than the plant itself.
17:48And I cut them back after flowering in July.
17:52So I get a good display in the front, it's dramatic, it's near the border, I can look
17:56through it to what else is going on, then cut them back hard and then all is revealed.
18:01Whereas the rebecchia, I take a while to grow, they don't start flowering until July.
18:04So they're going to fill this space, not have anything other than foliage to look at, and
18:09then be in flower from July through to October.
18:13And obviously, if you have structural planting, like this hornbeam, anything behind it that
18:20isn't taller is lost.
18:21You won't see it.
18:22So mix your heights, think them through, got to think of colour too.
18:27The colour of these is a good strong egg yolk yellow.
18:31And yellow works really well as the opposite to purple.
18:35It makes purple look more purple and purple makes yellow look more yellow.
18:39Orange is the opposite to blue.
18:41So by using opposites, you intensify colour.
18:45And then finally, and perhaps most importantly of all, you're thinking about rhythm.
18:50I don't plant symmetrically here in the jaw garden.
18:53We have the same plants roughly in each of the eight beds, but not in the same place.
18:59So you're picking up colour, you're picking up height and movement and even fragrance
19:03sometimes.
19:04And that gives it a kind of dynamism.
19:06That's what makes a border come alive.
19:10So having the chance to redo the jaw garden like this, I think is wonderful.
19:13I'm going to make the most of it and really enjoy it.
19:17Now, one of the plants that we definitely use here in the jaw garden a lot are dahlias.
19:21And we grow quite a lot, but nothing like as many as the grower that we went to visit
19:28last summer down near Lime Regis.
19:33There must be a dahlia for everybody, I would have thought.
19:40There are so many different colours, so many different shapes, so many sizes.
19:44Whether you want great tall dahlias to put in a vase in your house or you want little
19:48bedding dahlias, there really is something for everything.
19:53I'm Anna May and I live in Dorset and I grow lots of dahlias.
20:00I bought my first dahlia at the Horticultural Society locally and it was a bright pink one
20:06and I was very taken with it.
20:08The next year I had seven dahlias and then suddenly I had 300 and then it was I think
20:14600 and then 1,000.
20:16So as you can see, I was very taken with that first dahlia.
20:24The garden was full, so I asked my husband if we couldn't just dig a little patch in
20:28one of the fields and the little patch got bigger and bigger and so I went from the little
20:34corner of the garden to a few years later having seven great long rows of dahlias.
20:43A lot of people come and visit, they come to choose their dahlias, whether it's for
20:47weddings or parties and so I do like it to look nice when they're here.
20:51So I've decided that rows in colour order works best and this year I think we've got
20:56the order right, but sometimes you get a real surprise.
21:00So this is my pink and white row and here we've got a rosemary's dawn plant and yet
21:06here we have a little quarter of it, maybe less than a quarter, reminding me that actually
21:11it should be rosemary's blush.
21:14It's sort of winking at me and going, you've actually got no control, I will do what I want.
21:19Dahlias will grow in most situations, but there's a few things you do probably want
21:29to bear in mind.
21:31When you first pot up your tuber, you'll give it a bit of water just to get it going, but
21:35don't give it too much water.
21:38Keep it somewhere that's bright, it needs light to get going.
21:42Make sure there are no slugs or snails anywhere in your greenhouse, your polytunnel, near
21:47your windowsill, wherever you're growing them.
21:50You've just got to keep an eye out because as soon as those little green shoots appear
21:55that you will be so excited about, so will the slugs and they will be after them.
22:04Some of the dahlias do get very, very big, so this one is perfect if you want to put
22:08it in a pot or at the front of a border.
22:11This little one is Small World, charming, look at these little tiny flowers, absolutely
22:17sweet.
22:18And look at all the buds, you're going to get 50, 60 flowers of this easily in the season,
22:24so it's fantastic value, they are just so generous, they're the best.
22:31The deadheading is very important to encourage lots of flowers all through the season, and
22:36I like to cut the stem quite low, really very low actually.
22:42My instinct would say cut here because this one is on its way, but I'm not going to do
22:46that because then I will get the next stems growing from here, which won't be very long
22:50and I'd like longer ones.
22:52So what I'm going to do is I'm going to go all the way down here and cut here, even though
22:58it means I've sacrificed this and these two, which seems a shame, but it means I will get
23:05much better stems growing in the future, instead of one short one from there.
23:11It's painful because you know what you're losing, but you've got to do it, it's worth it.
23:25So this is sort of my experimental bed, this is where I will plant seeds, complete unknown
23:31quantities every year, so they could be seeds that I've saved, or I've been given from other
23:36people's dahlias, or I've bought from somewhere, and I planted all of these in April, so they're
23:42doing really well, and you get surprises, it's very exciting.
23:46So this one, it's that sort of corally peachy colour, which I absolutely love, and it's
23:52got this extra double layer of petals, I mean it's extraordinary, I don't think I've seen
23:57anything like this.
24:02So as well as growing dahlias in the field and in the experiment beds, I grow them in
24:09the borders in the garden, and this is totally tangerine, which is a gorgeous anemone, I
24:14mean just look at the shape of that, isn't that just amazing, absolutely lovely, and
24:19this one, you can see here, there's a little bit too much going on on this stem, and rather
24:25than having, what, I mean I think about seven or eight slightly weedy looking flowers, I
24:30would rather disbud here, take these little buds off, take these little buds off, I think
24:37I'm going to take all of that off in fact, I might take all of that off, and then you
24:43see this stem has now just got three buds to focus on, so it will be a better stem and
24:51it will have better flowers.
24:54These are my thumbnails, every week I probably disbud 10,000 little tiny buds off the dahlias,
25:01and I can't get the colour of the sap out from under my nails, and so I will probably
25:05look like this till Christmas.
25:11You want to pick the dahlia at just about the right time to get the most out of it,
25:16because I think you'll get a good four to five days in the vase if you look after a
25:21dahlia, and so we'll pick it when it's about two thirds open, so I will either pick first
25:28thing in the morning or in the evening, and then I'll leave them in buckets of cold water
25:33in a cool dark place to condition, because then they can get fully hydrated and then
25:38you really will get the best out of them.
25:42Aren't they just beautiful, and to think that these all come from something that looks like
25:49a grubby little potato, I mean they're just exquisite.
25:59All plants have people that love them dearly, but some plants seem to attract a sort of
26:15extra depth of passion and interest, not to say sometimes obsession, and I think dahlias
26:21are one of them. Now I love dahlias, and I've got quite a few, but at this time of year
26:26it's time to get out the ones that you've stored, or if you're buying dahlias, now's
26:32the time to do certain things, because it's too early to plant them, the risk of frost
26:35is too great, but what you can do, and what we do, is pot them up, and they will grow,
26:41and as soon as the last frost has gone you can plant them out and you will get flowering
26:45dahlias two, three, sometimes even four weeks earlier than those that are already in the
26:50ground.
26:52This is one that's called Verone's Obsidian, also sold as Honker Black, and the reason
26:57why they're called that is because they're such a dark burgundy that they look black,
27:01with quite thin petals and a bright egg yolk yellow centre, they're really dramatic. And
27:08you can see, a really good set of tubers, check them to see that there are no damaged
27:15tubers, when you buy them, or if you're in store, make sure there are none rotten, and
27:19they should feel plump and firm, I mean that is really good, I'm very happy with that,
27:24masses of tubers. Now at this stage, get a pot, obviously old pots, recycled, put a little
27:35bit of compost in the bottom, doesn't need too much, it's not going to be in the pot
27:41for terribly long, place the tubers in it like that, you don't need a great big pot,
27:48just an inch or so around the outside is plenty, and do it so that the top is just a bit below
27:54the surface, and then pack compost around it. And don't use old compost, it needs to
28:02be fresh, peat-free compost. Doesn't matter if the tubers are near the top, whereas when
28:09you're planting them outside you want them to be deeper than that. Label it. I will put
28:15this either in a corner of the greenhouse, or a cold frame is fine, anywhere that's frost-free
28:22and light, and a windowsill obviously would do the job, let it grow, and then as soon
28:27as the frosts have passed outside, I'm going to have these flowering a good few weeks earlier
28:32than those already in the ground. Now, still to come on today's programme. Frances visits
28:39a community garden in Bradford specialising in bringing people together. It is really
28:45important that we have things like this where people can come in, spend time learning about
28:49gardening and they can also spend time learning about cooking and about health and nutrition.
28:54Some of it is about the companionship and the working together. And we visit a gardener
28:59who has squeezed 35 trees into his back garden. I do have a bit of an obsession, I've probably
29:08got a few too many for a garden this size. We've had to bring in a one-in or a one-out
29:13policy. He sometimes sneaks trees in without me noticing, or he thinks I don't notice, but I always do.
29:38That'll do. I'm preparing this piece of ground to sow broad beans. Now, broad beans are one
29:43of the very few seeds that will germinate when the temperatures are quite low. If you're
29:49not sure which vegetables to sow early in the year or if the ground is wet and cold,
29:54broad beans are a good bet. There are many, many different varieties and if you're sowing
29:59earlier then aquadulce will certainly be a good bet. I've also got a red bean which is
30:05very decorative and you pick it, but I love the crimson flower ones. So I'm going to stick
30:10with the crimson flowers for the moment and I'll sow these later for succession. So prepare
30:15the ground, getting a nice tilt. I've added quite a lot of compost already, I did that
30:20about a month ago, just as a mulch, didn't dig it in. So I use a board for my spacing,
30:29a straight scaffolding plank and that's a good width for a double row. A double row
30:41always works best for me and in principle, each seed, therefore each plant, wants to
30:47be placed about six to nine inches apart. What I'll do is I'll place them and just push
30:55them into the ground. There's something very meditative about systematically and rhythmically
31:19sowing vegetables outside with the soil. Where they're going to grow, a robin singing
31:26and blackbirds, is incredibly, for me, incredibly healing. It's restorative. It creates a sort
31:34of foundation of, I suppose, happiness. Well, you know, joy, simply from sowing broad beans.
32:01For the second row, you do need to leave room to get in there and harvest them. So
32:06what I do is flip one, two and then three and that's going to be a very dirty board
32:14if I do that. So I'm going to slide it over like that. So I've got that much space between
32:18them. And actually, one way of using that space, which would otherwise be wasted, is
32:22you can sow a line of radish down in between or maybe plant some lettuce if you've got
32:27some little lettuce plants that have been growing on. Because those you can harvest
32:31before you need to get in there and walk all over it to pick the beans. So I'll put another
32:36row in here. And of course, as part of the rotation of vegetables, the first plant to
32:41go in a freshly composted plot are legumes. That includes beans of all kinds and peas.
32:49And they fix nitrogen from the earth. So they're adding goodness to the soil. And they should
32:54be followed by brassicas. And that, of course, includes all types of cabbage and kale and
33:01Brussels sprouts. And they really like nitrogen. And then after that, you follow the brassicas
33:07with the carrot family. That's parsnip, celery, parsley, carrots, which don't like fresh compost
33:15or manure. The crucial thing is try to avoid growing the same thing on the same piece of
33:21ground, certainly for more than two years, and ideally, not in successive years, because
33:27you're avoiding a buildup of any kind of disease. Keep moving things on.
33:31I've said how important growing vegetables is to me, provoking a sense of well-being.
33:46And Francis went to visit a project in Bradford, this year's UK City of Culture, where they
33:53are promoting that healing and well-being through the raising and growing of superb
34:01vegetables.
34:12Tucked away in a public park near Bradford city centre is Wibsey Community Garden. Established
34:19in 2013. In 2017, it was revamped and run as a new charity. A team of volunteers ensures
34:29the 2.6 acre site is able to keep up a supply of delicious produce for the local community.
34:36And the huge amount of fresh fruit and veg grown here is in constant demand.
34:44First impressions, there are two things I notice here immediately. Number one, it is
34:48absolutely full of growing. There are three polytunnels, there's an orchard soft fruit
34:54area, there's an apiary, and there are so many raised beds all crammed with vegetables
34:59and salads. But the second thing that I notice is that the atmosphere here is so warm and
35:05so welcoming.
35:10Much of the produce grown is sold on site, but today they are preparing an order from
35:15a local grocery store. An extra challenge for Dan Thistlewood, who's in charge of the
35:20panoply of fruits and veg grown here.
35:24Hi Dan.
35:25Morning.
35:27You're picking for the order, are you?
35:30I am, I am. I've got two kilos of salad to pick this morning.
35:33Excellent. I mean, I can give you a hand. I haven't got snips, so I'll just do it nice
35:36and slowly.
35:37No, you're fine, you're fine.
35:38And you're in charge of growing all the produce here?
35:40Yes, this year, yeah. Yeah, we've got three polytunnels and about 150 beds that, yeah,
35:45we need to keep on a good rotation, but we've got all sorts of different fruits and veggies
35:49going on at any given time.
35:50And how do you guarantee there's always something growing?
35:53So, my main method is to over-sow. At any given time, I've got five or six beds of salad
35:58in the ground. I've got three or four module trays of various seedlings on the go. I've
36:04got salad in the ground that is just freshly picked, so this is only, I think, the second
36:07week we're picking this one.
36:08So, how do you pick your varieties? Is it sort of like the pious yield or the most dependable
36:15ones?
36:16We are very much a make-do-amend kind of site. I inherited a fridge full of seeds, so I'm
36:21basically going with what's there. I'm not particularly worried about sow dates or best
36:25before years. The majority of these seeds were well out of date when we planted them,
36:28and they're making some beautiful crops.
36:29And obviously, part of your job is growing veg, but a big part of your job is kind of
36:33looking after the people who come here as well, isn't it?
36:35Yes, yeah. I mean, we have people from about three or four years old up to about 83, 84
36:39years old. We've got all different walks of life. We've got all different cultures, all
36:42different religions. We've got a lot of people that I think otherwise wouldn't even talk
36:47to each other on the street. They come in here and we all work as one big happy family
36:50really.
36:53This is a garden that actively welcomes anybody and everybody, which means you never know
36:59exactly who you'll find on any given day. Behind one of the polytunnels, volunteers
37:05Shaheen, Derek and Carol are preparing beds for the next crop.
37:11How long have you been coming here?
37:13I've been coming here for about one and a half years.
37:16Right, and you enjoy it, presumably?
37:18Oh, I love it here. It's absolutely lovely. Everybody's so friendly. You know, it's so
37:23socialising as well, really, because you're making friends when you're here. And you're
37:27learning lots of things, because whatever I learn from here, I go home and I do it in
37:31the garden.
37:32Bradford's obviously a really diverse city, but do you think that having everyone in the
37:37garden like this in one place helps to build the community a bit?
37:40It does.
37:41Definitely, don't it?
37:42Yeah, it does.
37:43Meet different people, don't you?
37:44Yeah.
37:45Different cultures.
37:46Different cultures.
37:47We learn about each other's cultures, like we had a pakora day here.
37:50That was amazing.
37:51That was really nice, wasn't it?
37:52And then we made apple crumble.
37:53Apple crumble! Yeah, that's two together. It shows that you can do it. It can happen.
37:58Yes.
37:59And you can live together in harmony.
38:00I must have been missed out on the apple crumble, you know.
38:01You missed out on the apple crumble? Nobody saved you any?
38:02Nobody told me.
38:03Well, I hope you had some of the ginger cake that's floating around today.
38:04I will be, I will be.
38:05Good, because that's delicious.
38:06One person with no time for the delights of ginger cake is manager Jen White.
38:07Jen, how are you?
38:08I'm fine, thank you.
38:09How are you?
38:10I'm fine, thank you.
38:11How are you?
38:12I'm fine, thank you.
38:13How are you?
38:14I'm fine, thank you.
38:15How are you?
38:17One person with no time for the delights of ginger cake is manager Jen White.
38:21Busy in the kitchen, making sure today's order is ready on time.
38:28So, tell me about this place. You're clearly producing lots and lots of vegetables.
38:33We do. Tuesdays are a hectic morning.
38:35And how many people from the community kind of come and use this space?
38:39We're actually really popular and there's hundreds of people.
38:42We've got 40 active volunteers who come every week and contribute the time.
38:46We're in the middle of Bradford. It's quite shocking to think that because it's a little oasis.
38:50But within Bradford there is a high level of poverty and people do struggle to find healthy foods for themselves and their families.
38:57So it is really important that we have things like this where people can come in, spend time learning about gardening
39:02and they can also spend time learning about cooking and about health and nutrition.
39:06Some of it is about the companionship and the working together.
39:13Outside, volunteers Brian, Daz and Rebecca are planning for the longer term.
39:19Operating a fairly unusual looking piece of equipment used for sieving soil and compost.
39:30As you can see the thinner stuff is falling through the finer mesh.
39:34The bigger stuff that we don't want in with the normal soil is going through at the bottom.
39:39And that's the difference in the two.
39:42Oh yes, look at them. Yeah, that's brilliant.
39:46It's quite a contraption this. It's so much quicker and so much easier than the classic sieve where you're doing it by hand.
39:53When I came here that's what they were doing.
39:56So found the cycle wheels in one of the sheds down there. We knew we had the mesh.
40:00These are some old greenhouse parts.
40:02Oh yes, yes. And cost what to make?
40:06Cologne. A couple of cups of coffee.
40:09A lot of coffee. I'd say that's a bargain.
40:12So when did you first start coming here?
40:15I started just over a year and a bit ago.
40:19I had three heart attacks. I was in hospital for 11 days.
40:25Came out, tidied a lot of the things out of my garden shed and various other things.
40:30Thinking, well, you know, this is, got to be careful now.
40:34Looked for somebody to give it to because I had all sorts of spades, shovels, you name it.
40:39Found this place, rang them up.
40:41I did literally. A couple of days later I came up, had a look.
40:44I explained to them that I couldn't be walking up and down the sites.
40:47I can't dig. I couldn't do anything like that.
40:49But certainly helping them out, you know, repairing things, yes, I could do that.
40:54Daz is a grafter, you know, he's the type.
40:56So between us, I could say, right, I need to do this.
41:00Daz would be there with me.
41:02So this place has changed your life, really, then?
41:04Oh, completely.
41:05It's like another world.
41:07Yeah.
41:08You just escape reality and just come here and it's just like it's, you know,
41:12it is like utopia in here in a lot of ways.
41:14It's just nothing out there can bother you, you're just here at peace.
41:18Lovely.
41:19Yeah.
41:20Just get on with it.
41:23We get so used nowadays to hearing people say that gardening is good for you,
41:26it's good for your mental health, it's good for your physical health.
41:29But you come to a garden like this and you speak to the people here
41:33and they actually use the words, this garden has changed my life.
41:37And suddenly it brings home how we shouldn't take that for granted.
41:41It's so important.
41:43It can really change the way that we are and bring hope to people.
41:47We should never underestimate the power that a garden can have.
42:18I think France's point is a really good one,
42:21because we know now that there are lots of community projects
42:25and they're all doing good work,
42:27but for the individuals involved, they're the only project.
42:31And their transformative effect is really profound.
42:35And that's what's to be celebrated.
42:38Now, this is the Long Walk.
42:41Now, this is the Long Walk.
42:44This is a long strip between the busyness of the cottage garden
42:49and the intensity of the jewel garden.
42:51It's a breathing space.
42:53But for the last ten years, we've had box cones with alchemilla mollus
42:58running either side of the path that went all the way down.
43:01But then box blight devastated the cones.
43:04And last year we dug them all up, put in drainage
43:07and made what we wanted to be, a lawn.
43:10The idea was my grandchildren could come here and run up and down
43:14and ride their bikes and kick a ball and generally muck about and play.
43:18But you can see part of it hasn't endured well over winter.
43:22Compaction, shade and too much water has really caused problem.
43:28So I've got a machine here that will help out.
43:31It's an aerator, and you can hire it,
43:34and it will take out plugs of soil,
43:37and spread those plugs on the ground.
43:39That will let oxygen in and also loosen the soil.
43:43So let's get this machine going.
44:08You can see it's pretty dramatic and very effective.
44:12It's pulling up lumps of soil.
44:15They look like goose droppings.
44:18But these little plugs of soil that it's taking out,
44:22if you can crumble them between your fingers,
44:26all you need to do is brush over the whole thing or use a wire rake,
44:30and that will even them out and break them up
44:32and they'll go back down into the holes.
44:34If, like these, you squeeze them between your fingers
44:37and they just mould, a bit like plasticine,
44:40then you need to let them dry out.
44:42Leave them on the surface, daylight today, maybe in just a few hours.
44:45But now is the best time of year to do this.
44:48And if you can't get a machine,
44:50this is only the second time in my life I've used one of these machines,
44:53just get a fork and work it in.
44:55But that is hard work,
44:57and you do need to really go as deep as you possibly can.
45:00Either way, just remember the three tenets of really good grass.
45:04Sunshine, water and drainage.
45:08And probably drainage is the most important of the lot.
45:12Now I can top dress the lawn using a seed mix,
45:16but I am going to wait until the overnight temperatures warm up a little bit
45:20and then the seeds will germinate.
45:23We're going now across to the other side of the country
45:26We're going now across to the other side of the country
45:29to join Nick Phillips and his family in their garden near Cambridge.
45:33And I know that grass is not very high up on Nick's gardening priorities.
45:45I have to say, having a garden where we can just get outside,
45:48enjoy the fresh air, enjoy the wildlife,
45:51has been really, really vital for us as a family.
45:55We're very, very lucky to have this space.
45:59My name's Nick. Welcome to our garden in Cambridgeshire.
46:03I live here with my wife Hannah and our baby Max, who's five months old.
46:11We moved here about three years ago.
46:14The entire area was covered in weed suppressant membrane and about a foot of gravel.
46:20I started peeling back some of the membrane
46:23and it was like a bit of an archaeological dig.
46:25You could see there was a garden here before.
46:32This is the drought resilient part of our garden
46:35and we've got really, really difficult conditions.
46:39We're in Cambridgeshire, which is one of the driest parts of the country
46:43and it gets absolutely baked.
46:45But also, to add to the challenge, we're on really heavy, deep clay
46:50and that gets super wet and waterlogged during the winter.
46:54We had to choose plants that were really robust and resilient to all those different conditions.
46:59One of my absolute favourites, though, has to be the Olympic Mullane,
47:02which is behind me, which is such a majestic plant.
47:05It starts one year relatively low to the ground
47:08and then the next year it sends up this huge flower spike.
47:11It flowers for many months. It's just going over now.
47:15But even when it's finished flowering, it's hugely architectural.
47:19It looks great all through winter
47:21and is a really, really good food plant for lots of different wildlife.
47:24So, yeah, I really love that plant.
47:30So, I do have a bit of an obsession and that is trees
47:34and I absolutely love planting trees.
47:37I've probably got a few too many for a garden this size.
47:40I've got about 30 or 35 different trees.
47:44I've lost count, to be honest.
47:46I've got pomegranate.
47:48I've got spindle tree.
47:50I've got Persian ironwood.
47:53A dawn redwood.
47:55Cherry tree.
47:57A persimmon tree.
47:59A small tree called Salix magnifica, which has amazing, beautiful leaves.
48:03I've got wedding cake tree.
48:06Gosh, the list. I've got many more.
48:09I just don't remember what else I've got now.
48:12Oh, yeah, I've got a few at the back.
48:17We've had to bring in a one-in or a one-out policy.
48:21He sometimes sneaks trees in without me noticing
48:25or he thinks I don't notice, but I always do.
48:30Probably not my finest moment, but when I sneaked in some extra trees
48:33when my wife was on her hen do.
48:35I was coming back from my hen party
48:39and then as I arrived back, I saw Nick sneaking around the corner
48:43carrying a large pot which contained the crabapple tree.
48:47So, yeah, always managing to just squeeze another one in there if at all possible.
48:55Our garden is about 40 metres long by 15 metres wide.
48:59From a tree point of view, that might seem not particularly big.
49:03So we really had to think about lots of different techniques
49:07we can use to try and bring trees into the garden.
49:11So this is what's known as a pillar apple tree or column apple tree.
49:16And basically what that means is it grows vertically up,
49:19doesn't get very big and all the fruit are just around the main trunk.
49:23So this will only grow maximum about another metre
49:26and this is as wide as it's going to get.
49:28You don't get as many apples on them, obviously,
49:31but you can grow a wide variety of different types in a very, very small area.
49:41One of my methods to get more trees into the garden is to buy dwarf cultivars.
49:46So these are trees which don't get very big at their adult height
49:50and we've got two here.
49:51We've got ginkgo and we've also got a katsura tree called glow ball.
49:57And both of these, the normal species, could get bigger than 30 metres, huge,
50:01far too big for this garden.
50:03But these will barely get bigger than they are now.
50:06So you can have them in your borders, you can have them on your patio,
50:10you can incorporate them anywhere.
50:12The thing I love about the ginkgo, firstly, it's called troll,
50:15which I think is a really, really cool name.
50:17But also when Max is a bit older,
50:19I want to be able to tell him about how this tree was around in the dinosaurs' time.
50:23If you're planning to get a dwarf cultivar tree like these,
50:27because they're smaller, they often have smaller roots,
50:30which means you do need to really keep on top of things like watering.
50:33And they love nothing better than a good annual mulch every spring,
50:37which helps really keep the moisture in and gives them some nutrients as well.
50:42This is another technique you can use to get more trees into your garden.
50:48So these are Himalayan birch, and I absolutely love these trees.
50:54They have the most amazing trunks.
50:56And what I've done here is I've planted three trees really close together.
51:01And that does mean that they will actually compete with each other
51:04in terms of the size of the trunk.
51:06So I've planted three trees really close together.
51:08And that does mean that they will actually compete with each other,
51:11which might sound a bit strange,
51:13but the great thing about that is it restricts the height of all three.
51:17So you can have a fantastic tree species in a small space.
51:21And it also looks like a multi-stem tree, which is quite expensive.
51:25So it's not only cheap, but it's also a great way to get more trees into your garden.
51:30Just behind me here is an example of a really good, impactful tree for a small space.
51:35It's probably my favourite tree in the world,
51:38certainly my favourite tree in the garden.
51:40It's called a paperbark maple.
51:42And this one's only a youngster, so it's only about two and a half years old.
51:47Paperbark maples have so many seasons of interest.
51:50So you've got fantastic autumn colour when the leaves come out in the spring,
51:56they're really, really vibrant.
51:58And it has this, one of the best things about it is this peeling bark,
52:02which is this really unique feature.
52:04And it just looks stunning, even in the winter.
52:08What we're really hoping is the garden will evolve over time.
52:12And one of the things which is so important is shade,
52:15and something to keep you cool.
52:17And trees are just brilliant for that,
52:19because they not only provide shade,
52:21but they actually cool the air around you by evaporating water off their leaves.
52:25So it's one of the best things you can include in your garden
52:28if you really want to create somewhere that you can enjoy all year round.
52:33Nick's done an amazing job on the garden.
52:36It's just been really wonderful to see how the garden has changed,
52:40and to see it come to life, really, in such a short space of time.
52:44I'm really hoping that we leave a bit of a legacy in this garden.
52:48I mean, trees are a bit like keepers of time.
52:50They'll be seeing things in over centuries.
52:53And so I'm just really excited by the huge number of trees we've got in this garden,
52:57and we'll leave, effectively, a little mini forest garden.
53:01I'm super passionate about including trees in the garden,
53:04and I would encourage everybody to do so.
53:07I think Nick is completely correct in saying that every garden can be unique.
53:12And I think, you know, trees can be unique.
53:15Trees can be unique, and I think the best thing about the garden is that
53:18you can have a garden that is unique, and you can have it that's unique.
53:22And I think that's what will keep us all going,
53:25and that's what keeps us all going.
53:27And I think that's what we're trying to do.
53:29And that's what we're doing here.
53:31I think Nick is completely correct in saying that every garden can have at least one tree.
53:39The only thing I would say is just find out the mature size of the tree that you're planting.
53:46And if when it's mature, which might be in 100 years time, it's too big for the garden,
53:51then think twice.
53:52So for example, this is a wild cherry, a gin.
53:56And if I had my time again, I would never plant this because they cost a big shade,
54:00they suck up all the moisture, they drop branches.
54:04But there are lots of smaller trees, there are wonderful aces and crab apples and hawthorns
54:09and so many, and of course you can prune and shape.
54:12So don't be put off planting trees, just bear in mind that some of them grow very big indeed.
54:18Now, here are your jobs for the weekend.
54:37If you're growing tomatoes this year and you sowed the seed earlier, they should now be
54:40ready to prick out.
54:42When they have a true leaf, it's time to give each seedling its own individual growing unit.
54:48Give it by a leaf, never by the stem because if the leaf breaks, at least that can be replaced.
54:54Take as much root per plant as you possibly can and then carefully put them into an individual
55:00pot or plug.
55:02And then water them, put them somewhere warm and sunny so they can grow on in the coming
55:08weeks into nice sturdy young plants.
55:19Hydrangea paniculatus, like the limelight, produce their flowers on new growth.
55:26This means they can be pruned as hard as you like at this time of year and they will still
55:31flower.
55:33I prune back to a framework, removing any damaged, old or crossing branches while I'm
55:39about it.
55:40And this will provoke the new shoots that will carry their flowers in the summer.
55:45Lacecaps and mop heads produce their flowers on previous year's growth, so shouldn't be
55:50pruned so hard.
55:51And if you're not sure which is which, best not to prune at all.
56:03If like me you've been storing your pelargoniums over winter to protect them, now is the time
56:08to take them out, look them over and cut them back.
56:11And don't be frightened to do this hard because that will produce lots of new shoots that
56:16will carry a really good display.
56:18If they already have fresh shoots, these can be kept for cuttings.
56:23Pop them in a jar of water, very often they'll root in that and then can be potted on.
56:28Or can be potted on into a very free-draining compost and then they can root.
56:49In a way, what I'm doing now is an extension of the revamp of the jewel garden because
56:54having cleared the grass borders and cut them back, it's a little bit early to be adding
56:59any new grasses or dividing any that we've got.
57:02And I've taken out quite a lot of Iris sibirica from the jewel garden.
57:05Now Iris sibirica has got grass-like foliage and wonderful sapphire blue flowers.
57:11And Iris sibirica loves this garden because it likes fundamentally damp conditions, whereas
57:17the bearded irises we really struggle with.
57:21But they only flower for ten days, two weeks, in May and very early June and then that's
57:26it and you have a lot of foliage.
57:28The foliage looks great in here, but not so good in the jewel garden.
57:33They need to be fairly near the front because the grasses grow very big and they'll crowd
57:38them out otherwise.
57:42Now look at this, look at that.
57:46That, for the uninitiated, is bindweed.
57:50This is one of the worst weeds you can have in the garden because every tiny little bit
57:56of root, and it's very brittle, you can just snap it easily in your fingers, makes a new
58:01plant and it gets in amongst the roots of other plants and can become like a great mass
58:07of spaghetti.
58:08What we tend to do is put these on the bonfire and burn them.
58:11But we have got bindweed in here, so now also if I come across it, a really good time to
58:16dig it out there.
58:18Well that's it, all we've got time for today.
58:21But before we go, just to remind you that on Sunday, one o'clock in the morning, the
58:26clocks go forward so we get another hour of glorious evening sunshine in Worcester Garden.
58:33And I will see you back here at Longmeadow next Friday at eight o'clock.
58:39So until then, bye bye.