Gardeners World 2025 episode 10
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🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hello, welcome to gardener's world. Here in the cottage garden there's still a lovely
00:24blue froth from the forget-me-nots. They just create this mist you get by the river early
00:30in the morning. It just seems to float in and amongst all the other plants. Now forget-me-nots
00:37are a biennial which means that they set seed in the spring and early summer of one year,
00:43produce young plants, go dormant over winter and then flower the next year. And after they've
00:49flowered and produced seed, the parent plant dies back. And I've also got another biennial,
00:54a foxglove, just to fill the gaps. Foxgloves are perfect because of course they rise up
01:00and come through the underlayer and compete with the roses. So I'm going to pop this in the gap
01:07and you can buy these now. This is a native foxglove, Digitalis atropoperium, which means
01:12it has purple pink flowers and will move the garden on from this early spring phase of tulips
01:19and blossom and forget-me-nots into early summer where the roses will be at their best.
01:26Now coming up on today's programme. Carol continues to inspire us to create seasonal
01:33planting combinations in borders and pots. Surely late spring has to be just about everybody's
01:41favourite time in the garden. How can you resist it? We meet a man whose garden became a lifeline
01:48when he was most in need. Early in 2018 I experienced my first major mental health
01:55crisis. The garden became sort of sanctuary and school. I'm crying but it was actually brilliant.
02:04Ashley Edwards travels to Holker Hall in Cumbria to compare gardening techniques on a much grander
02:10scale than he's used to in the city. Oh my goodness, look at the size of that. That is a beast of a tree.
02:17Absolutely. It's incredible. I need to touch it. You can feel the energy. And we visit the Alpine
02:24Garden Society as they prepare their colourful containers for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
02:31So our display at Chelsea this year is going to be centred around troughs and containers. No matter
02:37what sort of space people have got, we want to be able to show these are the plants for you.
02:41I'm digging up bulbs that I had planted last November, specifically for cut flowers.
03:12This bed was filled over winter with a mixture of tulips and daffodils and I used these cut
03:20flowers for the house but they're over now so it's time for a change. I would recommend if you're
03:26growing bulbs of cut flowers, buy new bulbs every year and then the old ones can be recycled. I will
03:33pot them up today using old potting compost and leave them to slowly die back and then when they
03:40have I can store them and plant them out wherever I want them in autumn. Having freed up the space
03:47I now want to use it to raise another crop of cut flowers and I'm going to do it from seed.
03:52If you're sowing seed it is worth going to some trouble to weed properly so you don't have to
03:59weed amongst tiny little seedlings. Now what do you think Robin? Oh look there's a worm.
04:04There you go there's a lovely worm for your little ones. Oh you ate it? I suppose you need it.
04:16Fearless.
04:23I've decided to fill this bed with cosmos. There are two reasons for that. One, I love cosmos.
04:28They make fabulous cut flowers and it means I don't have to raid the borders and two, and perhaps
04:34this is the most pertinent, they thrive in poor soil. They love good drainage and they will flower
04:40much better in poor soil than in rich soil where you'll get bigger plants but no more flowers.
04:46Now draw a drill down either side and I'm going to start with double click cranberries. It's got
04:55a mass of petals and a raspberry colour. Now these will flower a bit late in the season
05:03but they will go on the flowering into November. They're affected by cold not light.
05:16I've got a packet of mixed cosmos and I'm going to broadcast these so that they can grow in
05:23different colours but within the same strip. And I've got sonata cosmos mixed. Sonata cosmos
05:31have shorter stems and often can be quite good as cut flowers as a result.
05:41And just rake over it lightly to cover the seed and there we go.
05:54The seeds need to be moist to germinate so if it's very hot and dry you'll have to water them
05:58every day. Otherwise weekly will be fine and cosmos are tough. They're adapted to dry conditions.
06:06You should start to see the seedlings in about two weeks time and they will be ready to flower
06:11round about end of July, middle of August depending on the weather and go on flowering
06:16long into autumn giving us a supply of plants to pick and display inside the house.
06:24Now a few weeks ago we went down to Carol's garden to see the very best of her early spring plants.
06:30Well now it's time to return and be inspired by her selection of the very best late spring flowers.
06:44Surely late spring has to be just about everybody's favourite time in the garden.
06:50How can you resist it? Everything is just bursting forth, wonderful foliage
06:57and every day new flowers open. There are so many treats to be had.
07:12This plant is adored by the bees but also by me. It's a dead nettle. Its name is Lamium
07:19ovale. I love its stature. I love the individual flowers. They're in whorls around the stems and
07:27when you examine just one flower it's almost like an orchid with these lovely sort of speckled lower
07:35petals and the bees land on those into the centre, extract the nectar, get covered in pollen,
07:43pollinate it at the same time and thus we have loads and loads of them all over the garden
07:51because it self-seeds beautifully.
07:58For years I wanted to grow perennial honesty from seed. I tried several times but eventually I was
08:05successful and I have to say at this time of year it's one of the best plants. It's full of these
08:12beautiful white blossoms. Eventually it will make seed pods, these rather gorgeous elliptical
08:20seed pods and what a lot you get for your money. Beautiful flowers now
08:26followed by gorgeous seed pods later on.
08:32At the beginning of spring I planted a container with daffodils, gold lace primulas and anemones.
08:43This time in my container I've really gone big. I want it to be spectacular and what's more,
08:50I want it to last for ages. All the plants I'm putting in here are perennial so they'll go on
08:56right the way through late spring, summer, autumn and what's more they'll pop up again next year.
09:04All the plants love really sharp drainage so I've added masses of grit to what is really
09:10very good compost. I love this combination, this Ascabius butterfly blue beauty and I'm
09:17accompanying it with a catmint and a pita. To complete the picture I want to use this little
09:24Mexican daisy. It's irrigarum carvincianus and it's such a versatile plant. You can use it
09:33in walls, at the top of walls, anywhere where it's really sunny and well-drained but I think it's
09:40going to be utterly perfect here. Now all these things are going to grow and fill in beautifully
09:47and with a bit of luck this is going to drape itself over the top of a copper pot as well
09:53and it will flower continuously and within weeks all these plants will meld together and they'll
10:01all start to flower and really burgeon and give food and drink to all sorts of beneficial insects.
10:10So
10:26well this garden I call the brick garden simply because all the paths here are made of bricks.
10:33Every so often you come around a corner and you look at a bed and you think
10:37oh something's taken over here and that's exactly what had happened in this corner. Geranium nodosum
10:45and cricosmia, they're both beautiful plants in their own right but they're real thugs sometimes
10:52and that's what had happened here. So I've taken them out, I've dug the whole thing over and
10:58introduced masses and masses of my very best compost and now I'm ready to plant. I've chosen
11:06plants of course that are going to love living here and this is the fun bit actually placing the
11:11plants. Now when you're doing a new planting like this it's great to have brand new plants
11:21but it's also lovely to use things from all over the garden and I wanted specifically to use this
11:28lovely iris. It's Iris pseudocorus variegatus, a variegated form of our own native yellow flag
11:35and aren't those straight leaves with these big cream variegations just so splendid and I think
11:42it's going to go so well with the plants I'm putting in from elsewhere. Now if you were planting a
11:48Germanic iris you'd have to make sure those rhizomes were exposed and facing the sun but here
11:54it doesn't matter how deep they go, in fact this is an iris that lives in water as well
12:00but it's going to adore this heavy clay soil of mine. Now I'm going to start with the first of my
12:08new plants. This is a Euphorbia spurge, it's Euphorbia amygdaloides purpurea so it's a purple
12:16leaf version of our native wood spurge and in nature this is just the sort of place where it
12:22grows, dappled shade, decent humusy soil underneath from all those trees above so it's perfect
12:34and for a bright splash of colour this big yellow daisy, Tyronicum harpercrew, is hard to beat.
12:42Look at this, this is my Piasta roesis danse, it's Hosta Francis Williams, it used to be called
12:56Aurea marginata for obvious reasons, all these leaves are sort of edged with brilliant golden
13:03yellow. Now loads of people think that you can't grow hostas in sun but although this is a sort of
13:11half sun half shade place it'll do absolutely fine. The only hostas that you shouldn't grow
13:18in really full sun are the golden-leaved ones because they'll just scorch.
13:30Could you possibly have a better grand finale to late spring than this beautiful shrub,
13:38it's Hexacorda the bride, it's just burgeoning with these glorious blossoms and if you look
13:46carefully at each one it's got a green centre and to me that's just heart-melting, white flowers
13:53with green middles. It's a member of the rose family, it's incredibly easy to grow and it's
13:59very very beautiful and of course when you come back it will have lost all these petals, they'll
14:07all have fallen to the floor but elsewhere in the garden everything's going to start bursting
14:14into flower.
14:29Good boy.
14:39Well as Carol said we will be joining her in a few weeks time when the early summer plants are
14:48really coming into their own but for the moment I'm just loving this late spring, this is my
14:53favourite time of year, no question about it and when the hawthorn blossom comes out
14:59then you know that summer is inevitably going to come and of course there is that saying
15:05ne'er cast a clout till the may is out and a clout being clothing,
15:09may being the hawthorn blossom, so for me it's shirtsleeves from now on.
15:18So
15:30now these are the grass borders but they're not only grass, lots of other things in here although
15:36I love the way that the grasses now are really adopting that lovely fresh green
15:42and at the moment there are a few alliums, we've got the shuttlecock ferns,
15:46I let cow parsley come in, the Irish sabirica are starting to flower and then there are things like
15:53this which is the ferula communis, the giant fennel which actually I need to prop.
15:58Unlike a normal fennel it's monocarpic which means that once it's set seed it dies.
16:07It can take quite a few years before it will flower and set seed so it's not an annual
16:12and grow almost as fast as anything else you can plant, this will grow inches in a day
16:17which means it tends to be a bit floppy.
16:22I have to say this is the first bit of staking I've done this year.
16:27There we go and I want to add some sunflowers but not annual sunflowers which I grow in the
16:34jewel garden but perennial ones, helianthus.
16:39This is helianthus miss mellish which was cleared as part of the clear out of the jewel garden.
16:49That can go there. I do love the way that the grass borders at this time of year
16:55are all these shades and textures of green, all the different vertical lines and the shapes of
17:02the leaves, some are glossy and some are matte and some look a bit wrinkled. All that is at its
17:08best at this time of year before flowers come in and spoil the whole picture by looking beautiful.
17:14Very upsetting.
17:26Now this soil is as dry as it ever is here at Longmeadow and normally it's like this in
17:31September. Now sometimes getting plants out of bags can be tricky and you can see that
17:42the bag has shaded the growth so it's very etiolated.
17:53There we go, let's go like that.
17:57This particular helianthus will grow in this garden two meters tall so by the time it's
18:02flowering it'll be matching everything else around it and then will spread steadily.
18:12Now this is mental health awareness week and last summer we went to Oxfordshire to visit
18:19and last summer we went to Oxfordshire to visit Elliot Neap,
18:23who found that his garden proved to be a source of great solace and healing.
18:40Welcome to my garden in sunny South Oxfordshire.
18:43This is a traditional English garden divided into various rooms. We have a cottage garden
18:48at the front, a kitchen garden to the side and we have a rather romantic flower garden to the rear.
18:56The whole garden is a triangular third of an acre plot. It's on the north side of a hill,
19:00it's very dry, it's quite challenging but I wouldn't be anywhere else.
19:07My name's Elliot, I'm a fairly new gardener, just about six or seven years experience now.
19:13But I've learned a hell of a lot in that time. Before that I was an international wildlife
19:21photographer, traveled all the way around the world. In the Arctic I traveled there mostly for
19:26polar bears and we went to Antarctica for the penguins. In India where I actually met my partner
19:31Jack, I was there photographing tigers. We moved here in 2014. The garden was very overgrown,
19:41just walls of ivy and privet everywhere, lots and lots of brambles that needed digging out
19:46and it was a real sort of real endeavor just to sort of take the garden
19:51back to bare bones and to start again.
19:59We're standing in the cottage garden right now. We've added a yew topiary and then in between
20:04we've planted alchemilla mollis, salvia caradonna, lots of hardy geraniums. It was a very very dry
20:10garden, we had to mulch heavily year upon year just to build up the moisture retention in the
20:15soil, but it was so effective we can actually plant things like astrantia that require a bit
20:20more moisture around the roots.
20:22Early in 2018 I experienced my first major mental health crisis.
20:42You know there are certainly worse places to be sort of holed up and the garden became
20:48sort of sanctuary and school at the same time. And then the winter of 21 and 22 I was
20:58almost catatonic with a depressive state.
21:05Jack saved me. She got me the help I needed. It turned out that I was bipolar.
21:12With the new medication it was like someone had thrown the light switch in a stadium.
21:25I'm crying but it was actually brilliant.
21:28You know the garden does nurture you and I think this has all just happened at just the right time
21:37because now I've got my camera out again, it's dusted off, I'm taking photos of the garden and
21:42plants and I've got my passion for gardening and I've got my passion for gardening and I've got my
21:51I'm taking photos of the garden and plants and I've got my passion for photography back as well.
22:02We're now in the kitchen garden. It's just six raised beds
22:06made of scaffold boards and fence posts. There's no rotation, it's all no dig.
22:11All I do is make my own compost and I spread the compost on all the beds in November
22:17and that's it for nutrition for the year.
22:21There's very, very few weeds in here and one of the benefits of the mesh covers,
22:26it keeps all those annual weeds that are blown in, keeps them out and a really good part of
22:32no dig is that you're not constantly churning the soil up and bringing old weed seeds to the surface.
22:38I'm going to pot on one of my hostas that I've made from a division from one of those down there,
22:43it's a blue halcyon. The question I get asked most probably about the whole garden is how I
22:47keep the hostas looking so good and there's a few things that I do every year. When you see the
22:52shoots just nosing through, I tip the pot on its side and I look at the drainage hole underneath
22:58because that's where I'm going to put the seedlings. I'm going to put the seedlings in the
23:03I tip the pot on its side, I look at the drainage hole underneath because that's where the slugs
23:08and snails will overwinter. They're really, really cunning and the crop that you put in there,
23:13they're normally hiding in there. Once I've checked for slugs, it's a sprinkling of just
23:19basic fish blood and bone meal and then a fresh dress of good quality bark-based compost.
23:25It's weekly waterings, rain or shine. The other thing I do is once we reach sort of June, you'll
23:33see the flower spikes start to come out. It's a really exhausting process producing a flower for
23:37a plant and once they're pollinated, the plant's job is fundamentally over and it can start shutting
23:41down for autumn. So you'll see the leaves going yellow and they'll lose their shape
23:46but if you cut the flower stems out, the leaves stay fresher for longer.
23:55So now we are in the flower garden and this followed straight after
24:11the no-dig kitchen garden. I thought well, if you can do no-dig with vegetables, why can't you do
24:18no-dig with ornamentals? And all I did was literally chop a hole in the turf, a sprinkle
24:24of mycorrhizal fungi, put the plant straight in and then around the plant was cardboard to kill
24:32off the grass and exclude daylight and then a mulch of compost and that went over all the garden.
24:39Six months later, the cardboard had completely rotted away, the grass was dead and the garden
24:45was absolutely boomy. Before this was a flower garden, it was just lawn and you would be lucky
24:55to see a single bee. The vast majority of plants here are single, open or multi-headed or tubular
25:02flowers, great for pollinators and I mean it's alive with bees right now, everything's just buzzing.
25:10So the first plants to go in were all the herbaceous perennials. I'd grown a lot of the
25:19roses from cuttings, they went in next and then we added trees towards the background as a sort
25:26of a next phase. Now I think this border is about six meters deep and along the back we've put
25:33really towering herbaceous perennials like giant scabies and eupatorium and valerians
25:39and then in between we've put a lot of ornamental cherries and two birch trees
25:47and also two weeping pear trees. I imagine it's going to get quite crowded in a few years but
25:53it just means we have something going on almost all year round.
25:57It's a wonder that you can turn a piece of grass into something so joyous in such a short period
26:07of time. In those dark times, being able to just come out here, get your hands in the ground,
26:18feel the sun on your back and just, you know, just look at something that you've grown from seed or
26:25smell a rose. Watch the bees, it's a real tonic.
26:34It's a real tonic.
26:40I am just level and positive and
26:53and I'm happy.
27:05I don't think anyone could fail to be moved by Elliot's story and it will be familiar to many
27:19people, myself included, and there is something about the garden and nature that you have to be
27:27truthful to and is truthful back to you and that's a kind of mysterious but very powerful healing
27:33force and his hostas look pretty good and if you remember I am doing a kind of informal trial here
27:42with hostas because I get so many people telling me that their hostas are devastated by slugs and
27:48it turns out that nearly always they're being grown in pots and my theory is that when you
27:55grow hostas in a pot they get stressed and a stressed plant is more likely to be attacked
28:00than one that isn't stressed so there are a number of things to do to avoid stress. First of all is
28:05have a big enough pot. If a hosta's roots are constrained, they're not getting enough food or
28:10enough water, then that's going to cause stress even if you can't see it above ground. Number two,
28:17give them a rich compost. I mix lots of garden compost in with mine and I've mulched these
28:23with another inch or two of garden compost so there's plenty of food and then water them.
28:31Now Elliot says he waters once a week. I water every day if it's hot and dry and at least every two or three days
28:39whatever the weather and they should grow healthy and happy and not be attacked by slugs but we'll see.
28:48Watch this space.
29:01All winter this greenhouse supplies us with our fresh greens but I've cleared the decks now because
29:18I want to start planting out tomatoes and I've got some here, this is Gardener's Delight, which are
29:24destined to be grown outside but I won't put them out yet because it was almost a frost last night,
29:29there was a frost the night before and it's that variation in temperature between very cold at night
29:33and really quite warm during the day that tomatoes don't like. However, I've got other varieties here
29:40which do much better in my experience with as much heat as possible. This is Costiolutto
29:45Fiorentino, fantastic, heavily ribbed beefsteak tomato, one of my favourite tomatoes of all.
29:52I've also got another variety here called Black Crim, again delicious but all needing heat.
30:00Now the technique for these is very simple, you dig a hole, make it a nice deep hole
30:10so it's deep enough to bury to the height of the first leaf. Now that matters because it's
30:17going to anchor it steady in the soil and tomatoes grow roots from the stem if they're underground
30:25so you get more roots, they'll feed better, they'll anchor better, everything benefits. So we take the
30:31string, what I like to do is just make a knot, it's a very very simple knot like that, push it down so
30:38it's taut, take your tomato, stick it on top and then just backfill, firm it
30:49and as it grows you just twist it around and that holds it and then just keep going.
31:06Now you'll see that I'm planting these quite close together, slight stress will give you
31:13more tomatoes and slightly less plant and essentially that's what you want.
31:19So being slightly closer together than you might expect is a good thing.
31:27Firm that in well, really firming it in.
31:35Because I've been growing salad crops all winter a lot of nutrients have been taken out of the soil
31:40so dug it over and added quite a lot of garden compost and after I finish planting I will
31:47water these in really well and then water them regularly. If it's not too hot it could be as
31:53little as once a week but in hot weather it might be every two or three days.
32:08I don't know what you think you're doing there.
32:17So
32:31now since last autumn the jewel garden has been through big changes. The main thing is to return
32:39the jewel garden to its original freshness. We haven't really touched it for about 10-15 years,
32:45it just did its thing. It was pretty spectacular but wasn't really going anywhere and I've got
32:50lots to add in here. Now what I have here are some lupins and this is a variety called Masterpiece
32:57and I love the intense purple and it's just flushed with a kind of rusty bronze colour.
33:04Now lupins are not rare but I've never grown them in the jewel garden before but lupins come in a
33:10whole range of colours and I think they'll do very well here. They come from the west coast of
33:15America on the grassy plains where it gets hot but not blisteringly hot and they're very adaptable
33:23but they do need about half a day of sunshine. I'll just take this out of the pot. Obviously
33:35buying plants big like this is a little bit more expensive but it does give you that instant hit
33:41of colour and they're not difficult to grow from seed. If you sow now you could plant them out next
33:47spring but having these spires of flower are absolutely fantastic. Now I will give these a
33:54good soak but they will grow about twice this size and keep producing spikes of flower for another
34:00three to four weeks so they're a really good link between the early spring flowers and then
34:07those of summer as we move into June. Now Hulker Hall is in the Lake District in Cumbria and it's
34:15one of our grand gardens and Ashley Edwards went up there to pay his first visit.
34:23I've been a head gardener for over six years now and in that time I've spent most of it in the City
34:28of London but I love to visit other gardens and improve my knowledge. I've travelled five hours
34:35north to be here at beautiful Hulker Hall. The climate is definitely different to what I'm used
34:40to down in South London. I'm going to meet the gardening team and see how they look after the
34:45plants. I'm going to meet the gardeners. I'm going to meet the gardeners. I'm going to meet the
34:50gardeners. I'm going to meet the gardening team and see how they look after this garden
34:53in this beautiful landscape.
35:08First impression of this garden is what a grand place. I love the clipped topiary hedge there.
35:14It's a very organic shape and it opens up into this formal area. You've got clipped domes and
35:19all different shapes. I mean look at this, this incredible pear. How old and gnarly is that? It's
35:24covered in moss. I mean that's taken generations to get it like this. It makes me excited to see
35:29what else the gardeners have done here. Head gardener Matthew Murgatroyd understands exactly
35:40what it takes to get a garden of this scale ready for its busiest season ahead and we are adding a
35:46new specimen to the ancient 25 acre arboretum. Matthew, what are we planting today? So we've
35:53got a silver birch. All right let's get it in then. Exciting. How long you been here Matthew?
35:59I've been here about two and a half years now. I did a decade at Highgrove. Decade. Absolutely
36:05loved it. Learned so much but it was just such an opportunity to come here and bring back all
36:12that learning to a new garden which is just full of such heritage. Although we're surrounded by
36:19these magnificent plantings, we're still planting new, we're still changing, we're still seeing what
36:24works and what doesn't work and tweaking things. This is the exciting bit. There we go. That is not bad
36:30at all. Look at that. Almost perfect height. Somebody would think this is our job eh? Yeah. Okay, nice.
36:42So,
36:48actually no visit to Holka is going to be complete without paying homage
36:52and respect to the Holka Great Lime. Oh my goodness. Look at the size of that. That is a
36:58beast of a tree. It's 400 years old. Well we're talking about legacy. I mean this is a real legacy.
37:03Whoever planted this has left a long, long legacy. Absolutely. It's incredible. I need to touch it.
37:09You can feel the energy. The responsibility for you to look after this. It's an absolute veteran
37:16and at night, on a stormy night, this is the tree I worry about and is it going to change forever.
37:22Amazing. I'm so glad I came to see this. It's stunning. The width of it. Incredible.
37:30The grounds are beautiful but for me the true measure of any great garden is what you'll find
37:35behind the scenes. The engine rooms of the gardens. I've got serious compost envy right
37:41now. Look at this leaf pile. This is great isn't it? This is the leaf that we harvested this year.
37:46Okay. And then last year's is here and it's going out into the garden. Yep. So we've nearly used it
37:51all actually. Amazing. And then the system that I used at Highgrove I bought over here and we
37:58turn our green waste every two weeks, keep it hot very quick and then nine weeks time,
38:0412 weeks time it's ready to go. The compost is used across the garden and is a vital ingredient
38:14when a team are developing new areas. Nice. Look at this. Great. Black gold.
38:21Up. There you go. One more. Lovely. Thank you. Cheers. Right. I'll take this over for Jacob.
38:33Jacob. Hi. Would you like this? Yeah. Just here please. Yeah. So this is exciting. A brand new
38:38border. Yes. The concept going forward is for mixed herbaceous and shrub plantings with a
38:46focus on scent really, as well as autumn colour and autumn scent with the toffee apple tree at
38:52the end. Wow. Look at this. So what's really interesting here is that Will and Chloe have
39:01planted in big swathes. We have a border like this. You can't just put one single plant in.
39:06You have to have blocks and drifts of plants going throughout. Jacob told me that the theme
39:12of this border was scent. And you can see some amazing actae over there. They have this lovely
39:17dark leaf, which will contrast with the white flower. And to me, this smells like bubblegum.
39:22It can be a bit sickly sweet, but that's going to pack a punch.
39:27As you walk along the border, it changes conditions. So you can see here is very open.
39:32This will be a very sunny border. But then you have this dawn redwood at the back, which will
39:36create dry shade. And that can be really tricky. But one plant that doesn't care about dry shade
39:43is epimedium. I mean, look at this, this beautiful dainty flowers that will do really well in this
39:49place. And that's going to add some real interest. As well as creating new displays, managing existing
39:57beds and borders is a constant challenge. And today, Matthew's team are creating plant structures
40:03to support the fast emerging herbaceous perennials.
40:07Hey, Chloe. Hi, Asher. How's it going? I've brought some more pea sticks. Oh, lovely stuff. I'm hoping
40:12you're going to show me how to do that. I've used pea sticks before, but I've never weaved them.
40:15Okay, yeah. If you try and get some really nice branching ones. Yeah, okay. That will make a
40:20really nice support. This one is probably good, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, that'll be good. All right,
40:24let's get a couple of these. All right, what do I do first? Okay, so this hazel is a little bit
40:30stiffer because of the drier weather we've had. So potentially a really good trick is slightly
40:34bend it before you put it in. Okay. So like if you grab some and like almost like gently
40:40sort of manipulate the wood and that will allow for easier twisting. Okay, is there anything you
40:46could do to keep it more supple then? Yeah, absolutely. So you can soak it before you use it
40:51or you could use it slightly sooner after composting it. All right, let's stick this one in.
40:55Yeah, so pop a couple on the ground. Yeah, okay. And I think four or five. Yeah.
41:02Yeah. If you can make it look like a bit more, I think, sculptural, it kind of like
41:07it's a bit more pleasing to the eye. And then when the flock starts growing through it,
41:11it's kind of really nice.
41:18From the clip hedges and formal gardens to the ancient trees in the arboretum,
41:23Holker Hall is a vast space to manage and a world away from the gardens I'm used to in London.
41:29Something that really strikes me from my visit today is the generations that have shaped this
41:34garden and continue to. The gardeners here, they're not just thinking seasons ahead,
41:39they're actually thinking hundreds of years ahead with tree planting and border changes.
41:44And that's the most exciting thing about being a gardener. It's not static, it's constantly evolving.
41:52So
42:09I have been to Holker Hall a couple of times, but not for a while. So obviously,
42:13having seen that, I need to go back because there are exciting things happening there.
42:22So
42:37these are all salvias that were in the jewel garden and we lifted them. To be honest,
42:41we didn't lift them because we're revamping the jewel garden, but because salvias do not overwinter
42:46happily in this garden. So they've been kept in a greenhouse and you can see this is Amistad,
42:50the most famous of them all. It's already flowering because it's been in the greenhouse,
42:54although it's been hardened off for about 10 days. So what I'm going to do is place them in
42:59the middle of the beds and if they look okay to me, then I'll go around and plant them.
43:05Look at that. Up above, we've got at least 20 buzzards circling in the thermal.
43:12I know they're cultivating the fields all around us and buzzards often will eat beetles and worms
43:18as much as anything else. So it could just be that, but I've never seen that before. How
43:22extraordinary. It's like seagulls. So let's start with Amistad.
43:33If I pop that, I think, down here. Salvias love sun, heat and good drainage. This will grow up
43:41tall and the great thing about the jewel garden is that it's big. It grows up, so smaller plants
43:47have to go to the edge. You need big, robust stuff in the middle and Amistad is big and robust.
43:56So this is Garonitica, which is blue and it used to do really well in this garden.
44:02It's been a little bit more hesitant recently, so hopefully that will come back. If I put that in
44:08there. These three are Salvia curviflora, which is only marginally acceptable in the jewel garden
44:22because some people would say it's pink. I would say it's magenta and magenta
44:26is one of those colours that sets off all the colours around it.
44:31It's not nearly as big as Amistad or Garonitica, so I'm putting these nearer the front.
44:40So
45:00now normally I'd recommend cutting these back, but because this is a jewel garden
45:05it has to rise up above the plants around it. So I've learnt over the years it doesn't matter
45:11the plant is bare for the first one or even two feet. What really matters is what's going on
45:16up here. I've got about three more I'm going to plant, but while I am planting we're going
45:22to go to Pershaw and join the Alpine Garden Society as they prepare for Chelsea.
45:29Okay. Straight down the barrel. Okay. Oh my goodness, we have to get a real close-up.
45:52We've got a lot of octogenarians and upwards,
45:55but it's got to be an average age of 70s I would think. Unfortunately it's about 65.
46:02I'm one of the youngest. We used to be classed as the young ones. We do have a bit of an ageing
46:11population and we need to make it a bit more exciting. And that needs a lot of younger
46:17inspiration. Hold on, I'll sit on my car keys. I'm Rob Amos. I am president of the Alpine Garden
46:25Society. Traditionally alpines are defined as plants that will grow above the tree line
46:32in mountains and certainly the Society is interested in those plants, but you know as
46:38far as we're concerned an alpine is any sort of small hardy plant that will happily survive
46:43in a British winter. Yeah, we're not fussy when it comes to alpines in the Society,
46:48whether it's big and blousy or small and sophisticated. You can use them for structure,
46:53you can use them to create habitat, you can use them for ground cover,
46:57you can use them as a centrepiece. Alpines are just the perfect garden plant.
47:06This time of year you can see the pulsatillas, which are a particular favourite of mine,
47:11either in flower or just with those really nice seed heads. We've still got some primulas in flower
47:17which anyone can grow. There's still a few narcissus dotted around. There's also some
47:22saxes still in flower. And then in the alpine house of course we've got our luiseas now really
47:27coming to the fore as well. Certain aspects of this garden are a little bit traditional.
47:36The tufa bed, the... I can't remember what it's called.
47:43With the rocks on the side. Crevice! So yeah, so with the tufa bed, with the crevice beds,
47:52they're well established. And there's certainly excellent habitats for alpines, but they're sort of
47:59last century's alpine garden. And what I want to achieve is a more sort of contemporary focus
48:07on things like gardening for wildlife, providing habitats for pollinators, that sort of thing.
48:12And again alpines are excellent for that because you can have alpines in flower all year round.
48:18So yes, I'd like to sort of see the AGS really making the case for alpines in the modern garden.
48:24We're very lucky at the Society to have a group of volunteers who will come in
48:28regularly to keep on top of the garden.
48:33This garden was possibly in danger of being lost. It was fairly run down. So I thought
48:40if we could get a group of volunteers together, we could perhaps at least keep the tide back,
48:46if nothing else. And to my surprise, when I asked everybody, we had about 12 people come forward
48:55to come and help as volunteers. They just keep on coming back. It's lovely.
49:02I particularly enjoy just getting my hands dirty, doing the practical stuff.
49:07But the camaraderie, the friendship, we all come together once a month and
49:11you know, we talk to one another about the plants and the plants and the trees and
49:15about the plants, about the garden. I'm trying to get rid of these dreadful mascaras.
49:20Yeah, we've had those for a while. They're lovely when they're out. You've got this sea of blue.
49:26We're thinking now very much, well, you know, how do alpines fit in the 21st century? And it's also
49:32about how we can use alpines to engage different audiences. If we aren't able to recruit new
49:41younger members, then like a lot of clubs and groups, things are going to fold. So I think
49:47we've got to adapt, really. Obviously, having a new younger president like Rob is fantastic for
49:52the society. He's keen. He knows his stuff. He's had a love of alpines for many, many years. And
50:00I think he's going to be a breath of fresh air. I'm not sure my views differ significantly
50:09from sort of the more traditional alpine garden. I suppose I'm more about taking alpines beyond the
50:15garden, really showing people this is such a fascinating group of plants, that's something
50:20you should be really interested in. Even if you haven't got a huge garden, there's going to be
50:24something you can grow. So our display at Chelsea this year is going to be centred around a collection
50:33of troughs and containers. So what Anne's doing, I think, is offering an opportunity for the general
50:42public to see the fun in growing alpines, you know, and how anyone could create a little garden.
50:49People just think they're hard to do until they actually see something like this put together.
50:56And then they think, oh, I can do that for the fun bit. A little bench. Yeah, sorted.
51:10We've done larger display gardens in the past, but as I say, we're really about now showing
51:15people how to do something different. No matter what sort of space they've got,
51:19we want to be able to show them we're the society for them. These are the plants for you.
51:25So,
51:39well, I look forward to seeing the display at Chelsea, which is next week,
51:43very soon. These are agapanthus. I'm just taking out spent flower stalks, which are very spiky and
51:50sharp. And you can see the white on them is because these have been stored over winter
51:55in a dark shed and they just haven't had enough light. They love bright sunshine and well-drained
52:02soil. If you can give them that, they'll grow anywhere. Now, if you look in there,
52:06you can see that these fleshy rhizomes are very congested. So it's time to take them out the pot
52:12and re-pot them. Now is the best time to do it. Agapanthus flower best if their roots are
52:17constrained, but not so constrained that they can't take up any nutrients at all. So it's a
52:23fine balance. But I'm going to see if I can take this out. And I warn you, it's tricky and it
52:27doesn't always work. First of all, just take it and see if they'll tip out. I think the chances
52:32are almost nil. Oh, I don't know actually. That sounded good. Let's try it. Yes, fantastic. Right,
52:53there we go. Now, if I lift that up, you can see it's root bound. So it needs a bit more
53:00space. So I'm going to divide that up and re-pot them. And this is where this comes in. This is
53:06the best tool for dividing an agapanthus, an old saw. If I just go halfway down like that, off we go.
53:22So what we're going to reveal
53:25is the inside, which is the soil worked in amongst the roots. But the feeding roots have got very
53:32little, if anything, to feed off. So I'll put that in the bottom. Mix up a really gritty mix
53:42of potting compost. So you can see I've added lots of grit.
53:46Now, if I put that in like that, perfect. Just break these roots. By breaking them, I will stimulate them to grow new roots.
54:06There we go, down in there.
54:17I will water that in. The plant has rejuvenated and therefore, over the foreseeable future,
54:22will give me more flowers. But only do this, I would say, every three or four years should be
54:27necessary. Right, I'm going to pot up that and I'm going to divide this one. And while I'm doing that,
54:32here are your jobs for the weekend.
54:44If you're growing potatoes, it's a good idea to earth them up. This means drawing up the soil
54:50to cover any emerging foliage and thus protecting it from late frost. At the same time, it will
54:56protect any emerging tubers from being exposed to light, which will turn them green and therefore
55:02inedible. Most tulips have finished flowering by now and are busy setting seed. But it's a good
55:17idea to snap the seed heads off, but leaving the stem, so that all the energy can go into producing
55:24new bulbs and therefore increasing the chances of them re-flowering next year.
55:37The secret of growing lettuce in summer is to keep a constant supply without having a glut.
55:45Way to do that is to sow little and often. Now, you can sow direct, but I like to sow the seed
55:52thinly on a seed tray, cover them over with vermiculite or more compost, and then soak them
55:59in a tray. And then after they've germinated, I can prick out the seedlings and plant them out when I'm ready.
56:22The spring garden unfolds in stages. It starts with the snowdrops around about Christmas time,
56:30January, and then you get daffodils and the hellebores and pulmonary and the big fritillaries.
56:36And now it's reached its final stage, where it is dominated by a lovely white froth of cow parsley.
56:44Now, it's a weed. The seeds are brought in every year by the flooding. It's a biennial,
56:51flowers, and looks wonderful. And to be honest, it's one of my favourite plants in the world.
56:57I couldn't possibly grow a garden plant that is as lovely as this, especially en masse.
57:03So it's a welcome weed in the garden. I'm backed by the primrose-coloured roses, Rosa cantabrigiensis,
57:12Rosa hugonis, that I planted 30 years ago. The whole thing for me is a few days of absolute heaven.
57:26Now that's it for today. I shan't be here next week, because I, like so many of us, will be at Chelsea
57:34for the Royal Horticultural Society's flower show, where I will be unveiling my first Chelsea
57:42garden, the dog garden. And I thought I'd just give you a little glimpse of how we've been getting on
57:48in the making of the garden. Your first ever Chelsea garden. No pressure there, then. I once said I
57:55would never, ever do a Chelsea garden. It's a huge amount of pressure. And the man who is bringing
58:00it all to life is Jamie Butterworth. He knows what he's doing, doesn't he? I sincerely hope so.
58:06One of us needs to. I have learned a lot about Chelsea gardens doing this, because however much
58:12you think you know, you cannot imagine the level of detail you have to go into. And it's just
58:17deepened my respect for anybody who does this. And our coverage of Chelsea begins on Sunday evening
58:25for a preview of the show on BBC One. And I will be covering it every evening on BBC Two.
58:32I'm back here at Longmeadow, no doubt exhausted, in two weeks' time. So I'll see you then. Bye-bye.
58:54Bye-bye.