The Beechgrove Garden 2024 episode 20

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The Beechgrove Garden 2024 episode 20
Transcript
00:00Hello and welcome to Beechgrove Garden.
00:16On the programme this week, planting ponds and caring for citrus.
00:23Coming up, how to look after your oranges.
00:27Kirstie and I wade into pond planting, and we're off to sunny Joppa for the latest for
00:33George's garden.
00:38Well before all that, this is your pet project for this year Callum?
00:41It is Kirstie.
00:42Now regular viewers will know that I challenged myself this year to go cut blooms for the
00:46home for every grown month of the season, for June hopefully right through to November.
00:51Well it looks fabulous and I'm loving this cosmos right now.
00:54This one at the front has lovely ruffled pink flowers, it's called Double Click Cranberry.
00:58Well the one I'm choosing is the white one right beside it, I really think they contrast
01:01each other and that's Fizzy White.
01:03And this one is called Dazzler, but what's important at this time of year is to be deadheading
01:08them so you get more flowers.
01:11Yes.
01:12And that was July's flower, but for August we've got Gladioli, and isn't this evergreen
01:18Gladioli just beautiful?
01:19Really striking and unusual colour.
01:21It is.
01:22Now a wee bit of maintenance with the Gladioli is you'll see the top of this one's a wee
01:25bit floppy and bent over.
01:27Now I'm a show grower, a perfectionist, so you don't need to do this, but if you're the
01:30one to enhance them, what you could do is you get a cane and put it in as close as you
01:35can to the Gladioli and then you're going to tie it in.
01:38You'll see the middle bit, the sort of stem, the spike, is what you tie in.
01:42You don't tie the blooms in, you tie the cane into the flowering spike.
01:46And all you do is you go in between the blooms, we've just put one at the bottom, middle and
01:52the top, and then tie it into the cane and that's going to keep it nice and straight.
01:56Now what you'll do with this as well, you don't want to do it too tight, but you don't
02:00want it loose, is when you go to pick it, you'll cut it off as low as you can at the
02:05bottom to make sure your stem's extra long, and then you leave the cane on it until you
02:11take it home.
02:12And just before you go to put it in your vase or your arrangement is when you cut it off
02:15the cane and that keeps it nice and straight.
02:18Well they make the most wonderful cut flowers and will flower all the way up, but you might
02:22want to just take one of those individual flowers and float that, say, in a bowl of
02:26water in the middle of a table, makes a lovely arrangement.
02:29Another way of using them.
02:30But for September we've got dahlias.
02:32Now I must admit Kirsty, the dahlias on my allotment haven't even bloomed yet, they're
02:36very late this year, we're just pretty much throwing water at them, really trying to help
02:40them come on.
02:41But these ones are looking good aren't they?
02:42Yeah, I love the colours and the different textures and what we've done is a bit of staking
02:46as well because they can fall out, even in the summer we can get quite strong winds.
02:51And if you don't have them supported, a good bit of wind will break half the plant and
02:54you'll lose it.
02:55But another wee bit of tip here is, if you have a pointed bud, that means it's already
03:01flowered, you'll just cut that off and if it's a round bud, you've still got flowers
03:06to come.
03:07But another way what to do, so you get a really long stem and a better flower, is I would
03:11do some disc budding, take off sort of side shoot buds, so all the energy just goes into
03:16producing one flower and then that'll look beautiful in your vase.
03:19Well it looks wonderful Calum and hopefully you'll have flowers all summer long.
03:23I hope so Kirsty, we'll need to come back and have a look later on.
03:25But I believe now we're away to go and get our feet wet.
03:27Yeah, let's go.
03:42Kirsty, we've come into the pond and we've now been here for ages and we thought we need
03:46to give this a good tidy and also refresh some of the planting.
03:49Yeah, that's exactly Calum and there's duckweed that was all over the place in the last week
03:53or so but the gardeners have done a great job clearing it up so we're just helping them.
03:57We're just scooping it up and it can even go in like birds feathers, it's quite an invasive
04:02sort of plant.
04:03And it's really important to get rid of it because it can suffocate the pond and it's
04:06not really nice to look at, is it?
04:08So what we're doing is, what we're taking out, just putting it into a tray at the side
04:11of the pond and then that allows any invertebrates or little beasties to come back into the pond.
04:17Yeah, and I would just leave that there for 24 hours, just let them crawl back into the
04:21water and then we can put that on the compost heap.
04:23Exactly, and ponds are amazing for helping wildlife in your garden.
04:27So what we've got today is a bit of new planting to help refresh the pond.
04:32So firstly, we've got a water mint.
04:35So this is mentha aquatica, so it smells amazing and it's got a lovely purple flower.
04:40And we've got some specialist aquatic compost in there and also we've got the aquatic pots.
04:46And that just allows air movement and water to move in between.
04:49We'll just put this one down here.
04:50Yeah, I think just on the pond margin there.
04:53And then you've got another one here.
04:54Yeah, so this is a white pickerel weed and it's a lovely sort of clump plant, good for
04:59the wildlife.
05:01You can split this in the spring, but you can take some of them out the pots and leave
05:05them in.
05:06But with this one, I'd leave it in because it can get very invasive and take over and
05:10we don't want that.
05:11So what we'll do is we will just get the trowel, brush away some of the stones just to create
05:17a sort of bed for it.
05:20And then I will just put it in and then get a stone to sort of embed it in on the top.
05:24And anchor it in.
05:25Yeah.
05:26Because you just kind of want it just below the surface really.
05:29Yes.
05:30And this one's particularly good late in the season for pollinators.
05:33So you're just going to pop that in.
05:34There we go.
05:35That looks really good.
05:36But it's really important when you're working with the trowel not to go in too deep because
05:39you can burst the liner.
05:41You've got to take the liner into consideration.
05:42Yeah.
05:43Well, the water lilies that are big ones here, they look really lush and happy and they're
05:48flowering away.
05:49But this is a lovely dwarf pygmy water lily.
05:53So it's called Hervola and it's got lovely yellow flowers.
05:57But with a water lily, you want the leaves just to sit just below the, like just on the
06:01water surface.
06:02Yes.
06:03So we're just going to nestle that.
06:04You might want to use a brick or a rock and you can see the leaves just sit on the surface
06:09there.
06:11So it's important that you don't plant it too deep because if you do, there's a chance
06:13the rhizome would just rot away and then you've wasted all that money.
06:16And this is just a small one.
06:18It only gets about 15 centimetres, whereas this is a much larger one.
06:22Yeah.
06:23But from a wet beech grove to a sunny joppa, time to go catch up with George in his garden.
06:37Well, welcome back to the garden in sunny Joppa.
06:39It's a while since you've been here.
06:41Now, look at this.
06:43Isn't this just a wonderful display?
06:44This is salvias.
06:46These are half hardy, we talk about, and need to be propagated as we go into the winter
06:51to ensure we get stuff for planting out next spring.
06:55The one at the front there, this lovely dark red one, is Jemima's gem.
06:59And that is new to me, but it's done extremely well.
07:03Then we've got hotlips, which is this one here, which is a wonderful name.
07:06And it's got the lips with the red and a wee bit of white at the back of it.
07:10And then one here, which I thought was unusual, and that is a blue one, which is called African Skies.
07:16These salvias are sitting here in pots, and I moved them here because I took out a whole
07:23lot of tufted grass that was in here, a little miniature grass which doesn't need much maintenance,
07:29and put the pots in just to fill the blank space, because, you know, I don't like blank spaces.
07:34Now, however, I want to replace that grass with more grass.
07:38So I'm going to be propagating that later on.
07:40But before we go, have you ever tried eating a salvia flower like that?
07:48It's interesting.
07:49When you pop it in your mouth, the first thing you get, the first sensation is sweet nectar.
07:55And then as you chew it, it develops into something which is slightly herby.
08:00One or two of these dotted in the salad will just be the business.
08:05I've come round to the front of the house because that's where the original planting of Fustuca Eschia is.
08:21That's that little spiky grass.
08:23And when you feel it like that, it is indeed quite spiky.
08:27And the thing is that this comes from Spain and France and in the High Alps,
08:32and growing on limestone a lot.
08:34And so it's very resistant to quite a lot of harsh treatment.
08:39Now, all I need to do, if I want to propagate this, is just to take one or two strands.
08:45See these bits there?
08:47That's all I need.
08:48Little bits of grass, growing grass, and a stem underneath.
08:53So there we are.
08:53All we need are one or two bits like that, and I'll now show you what to do with them.
08:57Right, so what we're going to do now is to make cuttings out of these small pieces that we've got here.
09:04And I'll show you that.
09:04And I'm going to insert them into these cells which I've got here.
09:09Now, these are very interesting ones because they are ridged, both on the outside and the inside, like that.
09:15Which means that when the roots come out, they hit the ridges and they go straight down.
09:19So planting out is simple from these because all the roots are downward pointing.
09:24I've filled the cells themselves with, it's a rooting compost which I've made up.
09:30And it's a mixture, 50-50, perlite and my own leaf mould.
09:36So it's a nice, soft, open, well-drained compost.
09:40And that will be something which will encourage the grass to root.
09:42Because there's a lot of nutrients in leaf mould and there are lots of microbes and they help encourage rooting.
09:49All I need to do now is just take up one or maybe even two strands at a time, just like that, there we go, and then nick them off, okay?
10:01So these have been nicked off like that and all you've got, see, there's all you've got, just two pieces of grass like that, with these long bits on them.
10:10And then I will insert them into these cells which I've got here.
10:14So that goes in there, right to the bottom, get it down as far as you possibly can because they tend to root near the surface.
10:22And if you're really worried, what you can do to reduce transpiration from the grass is just give it another haircut, just take the excess foliage off, like that.
10:32So what I'll do is I'll carry on.
10:34And I'll make sure that I fill the whole of this container with these little pieces of grass.
10:40Once they're all in here, what I will do is I will water it and then I'm going to cover it.
10:50So it'll be watered, that's my little watering can there.
10:54And it will sit somewhere which is cool and shaded and I'll just leave it, I won't look at it.
11:00And I reckon in about a month, a month and a half's time, all these bits of grass will have grown.
11:06That is what I'm going to do.
11:09And it will sit somewhere which is cool and shaded and I'll just leave it, I won't look at it.
11:16And I reckon in about a month, a month and a half's time, all these bits of grass will have grown.
11:23That is fingers crossed, of course, because I need these.
11:26That's 32 plants I'll get and they'll be planted over where we saw the salvias earlier on.
11:38So time for a wee rest, but welcome to Bedding Plant Central.
11:51I've got four pots of bedding here.
11:54Now these were pre-selected packs from the garden centres.
11:57Now in the first one here, we've got this white plant in the middle.
12:02And that's an interesting one, that's a Euphorbia, Euphorbia glitz.
12:06And that is surrounded by some Lobelia.
12:09So blue and white and little bits of pink in there as well.
12:12So that's a nice one, that's nice and compact.
12:15Next to that, we've got a purplish Petunia.
12:19And at that side, we've got the white Bacopa.
12:22And that again is a pre-selected pack with a Fuchsia in the middle.
12:27And then beyond that again, we've got this bright scarlet Verbena.
12:33We've got a plant of Lobelia.
12:35And then we've got Helichrysium.
12:37And that Helichrysium that's there, it's a bit of a thug, I have to say.
12:41And it sprawls all over the place.
12:43So what I would do with that, what I do with that is,
12:46I go around and I pinch the tips out of it just to keep it much more compact.
12:51And then if you swing over to this side, what we've got over here is a pot of yellow sunshine.
12:57And that is with Lysimachia, Nomularia folia, and it's the Aurea form, the yellow form.
13:04We've got a yellow Bidens, and we've got a little Petunia as well.
13:07But not just pretty.
13:09We've got productive here as well.
13:11I've got strawberries in a pot, and we've been harvesting from them.
13:15That's one of the ever-bearing varieties.
13:17And then we've got a squash or a pumpkin in a big pot there.
13:21So you've got quite a lot.
13:23Now this is just a small space, really.
13:26This is, what, nine foot by nine feet, somewhere like that, or nine by ten.
13:32And there we have one, two, three, four, five, six pots.
13:37And what a pleasure it is.
13:39But in order to keep them going, you can't ignore them.
13:42You can't disregard them.
13:45You've got to go around, and you've got to water them properly.
13:48Don't think that when you get rain that that's enough to fill a pot.
13:52It's not.
13:53You've got to water them.
13:55The thing you've got to watch is that the soil hasn't contracted.
13:58Don't let them get too dry, because the soil contracts in from the side of the pot,
14:02leaves a gap, and all the water goes down there, runs out the bottom.
14:05You say, oh, job done.
14:06It's not.
14:08You've got to take your finger or a stick and go around when it happens like that
14:12and make sure that you fill in that gap, and then water it.
14:16So watering, feeding occasionally.
14:18You could give them liquid feed every so often,
14:21or you could indeed use a slow-release fertilizer,
14:25and that would do them two or three feeds over the period of the summer.
14:29And that way, they will continue to flower.
14:32So deadheading, feeding, watering,
14:34and then finally pinching back to keep them within bounds,
14:39because if you leave that, hell, it's got an ambition to take over the world.
14:43So just keep an eye on it.
14:46And then the strawberries, just keep picking them and watering them.
14:51♪
15:01Now, this summer hasn't been that warm or sunny,
15:04but it doesn't mean you can't grow citrus at home.
15:07You might have a conservatory or a particularly sunny window or space in your home,
15:11and a citrus tree would be perfect for that.
15:14This one that I've got today and going to be potting into here is a Seville orange.
15:19It's known for having really good flavour.
15:21It's used in perfume.
15:23It has a really high sugar content.
15:25You could use it in marmalade, and it does come from the Mediterranean,
15:28and so that's where it's most famous.
15:30But it's nothing to say that you can't grow one at home.
15:33Now, every couple of years, it's quite important to plant on,
15:37move up your citrus plant into a bigger pot,
15:40but they will be happy for a number of years in a set pot,
15:43so don't worry too much about restricting their growth,
15:46as long as they're happily fed.
15:48So what I've gone for today is a terracotta pot.
15:51I like a terracotta pot because it is porous.
15:54It will allow air and water through.
15:56It might dry out quicker, but it gives that lovely citrus Mediterranean feel,
16:02and all you want to make sure is your terracotta pot has a drainage hole at the bottom,
16:07but you don't have to use terracotta.
16:09You could use plastic or any other sort of metal container.
16:12Now, citrus are acid-loving plants,
16:15so what I've used is a peat-free ericaceous potting mix.
16:18I've then added some horticultural grit into that mix to make it nice and free-draining.
16:25Citrus don't like to sit in waterlogged conditions,
16:28so that free drainage is really important.
16:31You want to be watering them once a week or every 10 days,
16:35or water them and allow them to dry out.
16:38So what we're going to do is put this compost into the base of the pot
16:42and start to fill it up.
16:44We're going to take the citrus tree, just knock it out of its pot gently,
16:48and you can see it's got lots of nice healthy roots all the way around.
16:52We're just going to gently tease them,
16:55and we might need a bit more compost into the bottom of the pot.
16:59And then you want that...
17:01Sometimes citrus trees can be grafted, but this one hasn't been grafted,
17:06but if it has a graft union, you want to make sure that it's sitting above any compost.
17:11So what we're going to do is just fill around that.
17:14So this looks like a good level.
17:16You want to leave maybe about 5cm from the top of the pot,
17:21and that'll just help with watering.
17:23So we'll just put that all the way around it.
17:27And you want to be firming this in as you go.
17:31And you could add some pelleted fertiliser,
17:35or you can just keep liquid-feeding your citrus.
17:38So we'll just add that in.
17:40And citrus plants like to have a lot of aeration around them,
17:44so they are not frost-hardy,
17:46but in the summer you can bring them out to, say, a patio
17:49or an area where you have lots of nice pots displayed
17:52so they get that nice air around them.
17:55Citrus can be quite prone to mealybug.
17:58There are little white bugs that will then weaken the plant,
18:02and you can get biocontrols that can help with that,
18:05but it's really important to observe your plants and always check that they're healthy.
18:09So we're just going to put the last bit of compost around this one,
18:12and then just to have a decorative finish to the top
18:16is to use the horticultural grit.
18:18This will help retain moisture and suppress any weeds on the top.
18:23So just shake that round, and then just gently smooth that out.
18:28So when it comes to pruning citrus trees,
18:30it's important to do this during the active growing season,
18:33so that's any time between March and April all the way to September.
18:37Now when it comes to pruning,
18:39you want to make sure it's got lots of lovely, healthy new growth before you prune it.
18:43If you prune it and it doesn't have many leaves and stems,
18:46and it's not in that happy phase,
18:48it might struggle to come back, as they can be a bit picky when they're pruned.
18:52You want to make sure there's any dead or diseased or crossing branches
18:56and removing them, as that may cause disease to the citrus tree.
19:00And when it comes to feeding, you want to look at your citrus plant
19:03and you want to see lovely, healthy, green, lush leaves.
19:07If the leaves are sort of yellowing and looking chlorotic,
19:10then it can be really hungry.
19:12So what you can get is citrus plant food.
19:15So this is one that you would just put in water and dissolve.
19:18So I've got 2.5 litres of water here and one teaspoon of the citrus plant food,
19:24and then we're going to put that in there and allow that to dissolve.
19:28Then you would feed your citrus,
19:31and you want to be feeding it every 10 to maybe once a week,
19:36depending how quickly it dries out.
19:38And it's important to give it really good water, but then allow it to dry out.
19:43So as you can see, we've got nice fruit, a few of them starting to form,
19:47and in a few months' time, we might be able to harvest our own oranges.
19:51So now it's time to catch up with a garden in Glasgow,
19:54which is filled with scent and colour.
20:01Since his retirement, Irshad Ahmed splits his time
20:04between his grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and his garden.
20:08Proud of his farming heritage,
20:10Irshad has created a pretty and productive garden,
20:13with the front dedicated to bright colours
20:15and the back filled with apples, pears and other produce.
20:21I moved into this place in 1976,
20:27and I started planting some fruit trees,
20:32then planting some flowers.
20:35I was trying to plant things as hardy,
20:39which can come up every year and you will see the flowers.
20:45And this is how I started planting.
20:48And then gradually, on and on and on,
20:52until I retired about three years ago.
20:57Now I'm full-time.
20:59This is my pastime, hobby,
21:02and I enjoy this, and I love it.
21:15So I'm Rabia, and I'm the granddaughter.
21:18One of six.
21:20We used to play here quite a lot.
21:22It's obviously such a big garden, it's so great for kids.
21:25And then as we got older,
21:27took a little bit more interest in his garden and what he was doing.
21:30And yeah, throughout the years,
21:32he's just kind of let us pick up small things.
21:34Never anything too strenuous, never anything big.
21:37He's definitely the one that's in charge, and he does everything.
21:40He does all the digging and all the planting and everything like that.
21:43But he does, from time to time, let us help out,
21:46and that's always quite good.
21:51See last year, Grandad, when we picked them,
21:53and the skin was really sour?
21:55Is that just because they were earlier?
21:57They were early, that's right.
21:59It's OK now.
22:03This is the front of the house.
22:07And mainly there's roses here.
22:10There's a lot of lily flower.
22:15These are sweet peas.
22:18I like sweet peas because I've got memory with them.
22:21First of all, I like them because their scent.
22:24It's a beautiful scent.
22:26And second thing I like, because it's a memory attached for me.
22:31What memory?
22:33I still remember when I got married,
22:36before my marriage, there was a gardener in my village.
22:41He planted all along the sweet peas with the canes,
22:46and they were just going on with very, very sweet smell.
22:51Still, I got the memory.
22:53When I see the smell, I go back.
22:56It reminds you of that?
22:58It reminds me back, you know, this is it.
23:00But I like the scent.
23:02They've got a really strong scent, don't they?
23:04Yeah, that's right, yeah.
23:08When he's in the garden, he definitely doesn't show his age.
23:11You'll find him digging for hours on end,
23:14up a ladder, pruning.
23:16I think on days when the weather's not so great,
23:18you can tell that he's probably quite upset that he can't come out,
23:21and living in Glasgow over winter, that's never great.
23:24But he does still try and come out,
23:26and even just potting about, doing some deadheading,
23:28cleaning the leaves up.
23:30There's always work that he can find to do.
23:33MUSIC
23:39I've got three, four, five types of melon.
23:44As you can see, one of them is a yellow colour,
23:50and the other, I have this stripe one.
23:56There are quite a few of them.
23:59This is how they start.
24:01They start very gradually.
24:03This is how they come.
24:05They come very tiny over here,
24:08and they gradually, then they go.
24:11Because this year, there's no...
24:13I don't see any bees or anything this year.
24:16No much pollination at all.
24:18MUSIC
24:30One or two are ready.
24:32Come on. You want to pick? Come on.
24:35Pick one of this.
24:37Pick one of this.
24:39Good.
24:41Yeah, and one other side.
24:44Pick this one, this one.
24:48There you are. You got two plums just now.
24:51There's quite a few, but they're not ready yet.
24:54Not ready yet, no.
24:57There's five, six, seven.
25:02About 14 still next time, OK?
25:06Yeah.
25:08MUSIC
25:16Being a gardener is nice.
25:18It's beautiful work, being a doctor.
25:21When you garden, when you grow,
25:24when you garden, when you grow something,
25:27you see it's growing.
25:30Nature comes in your mind.
25:32Look, it's coming.
25:34Then they're coming up.
25:36Now it's bud there.
25:38Now there will be flower.
25:40Each plant you can go and see and admire, you know.
25:45It's a beautiful thing.
25:47Lovely. Gardening is a beautiful thing.
25:50MUSIC
26:03Time now for this week's handy hints.
26:05With peat-free compost, it can be hard at times to identify
26:08if the soil's needing water or not,
26:10because the surface level may be dry, but it could be wet underneath.
26:13So what to do is pick up your pot plant.
26:15If it's heavy, come back and check it again tomorrow.
26:18If it's light, it's not needing water.
26:20If it's light, it's needing water right now.
26:25Now, this border is a great example
26:27where flowers have self-seeded and naturalised through it.
26:30We've got angelica, inula, verbascum,
26:33and lots of baby little plants.
26:35Just like this foxglove here, it's got thousands of seeds in it.
26:38But this time of year, if you don't want them to spread
26:41all around your garden, it's the perfect time to cut them
26:44and then not allow them to do that.
26:46And when you're handling this plant, always wear gloves.
26:57Well, this sea holly, Eryngium, is a lovely striking blue,
27:00and you can see the bees really enjoying it.
27:02Yeah, and another way that we could enjoy it is by cutting them,
27:05drying them, and use it as a floral display in the house.
27:07Sounds like a nice idea.
27:09Well, that's all we've got time for this week.
27:11Next week, Carol and Roos here, and they're going to be checking in
27:14on the blight-resistant tattoos that were planted earlier in the year
27:17to see if they really are blight-resistant.
27:19And Brian will be back doing some apple care.
27:21Remember, you can head over to the BBC iPlayer
27:23to see all the programmes for this series so far there.
27:26Well, from the two of us, it's bye for now.
27:28Bye!
27:44.