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GreatBritish1
  • 6/20/2025
Gardeners World 2025 episode 14
Transcript
00:00I'm on my way to spend the day in what I've been told is a very magical garden and I've never been
00:20there before so I'm as much in the dark as you are there's no doubt that today's program is
00:24going to be a very special gardeners well and here it is what a beautiful spot
00:54the gardener who lives here has told me just to come in and find her and I can't wait to explore
01:01coming up on today's program
01:23Carol will be sharing more tips and inspiration to guarantee color in your beds and containers
01:31all summer long you'll get this wonderful growth on all these flowers from June July August September
01:41right the way through absolutely beautiful we're invited to an Aladdin's cave in Watford
01:49the garden is full of antiquities me being the oldest one full of little bits and pieces which
01:58all means something or other on the journey of putting this garden together and Adam continues
02:06his journey up and down the country meeting gardeners who really are battling the elements
02:10to create innovative gardens a few months ago the water was this high isn't that incredible that sort of
02:20demonstration of the power of plant
02:23good boy I'm told this is a very dog friendly garden so I can let him off
02:50this reel that's collecting spring water through the garden it's just so beautiful so minimalist with
02:58this single iris pseudochorus we're obviously likes the reel as well this gray stone also against the gray of
03:07the building is so beautifully balanced and leads you into this planting which looks like it's going to
03:13be incredible I love the textures you have the shrubs but also so many different kinds of leaves things
03:25like pack and the cloa's the veronicastrum actually before it's flowered is giving lovely textures then there
03:32are flowers to sangusorba which is one of my favorite flowers and the acid yellow of the euphorbia up there
03:38really draws your eye up the hill and to the landscape beyond which is where I want to explore via these
03:43very impressive stacks oh I think there's Allison
03:48damson farm is the creation of Allison Jenkins and gardening is in her bones a stunning two acre small
04:06holding and edible garden set in a glorious valley on the edge of Bath and the Cotswold Hills I guess I'm
04:13trying to create a space here that feels welcoming and nourishing because I think there's so many
04:20opportunities for learning in the garden and I'm really curious about how we garden now in an era of
04:27environmental crisis whilst also meeting our own needs for growing food and creating beautiful spaces
04:36but without compromising the needs of other creatures and everybody else we share the space with
04:42I'm thrilled to be having Frances here I think we have a similar ethos and we're both interested in
04:50growing food and we both garden on the wild side of things so I sort of knew I wouldn't have to worry
04:57about the scruffy edges because I knew that she would kind of get that I'm looking forward to spending the
05:03day with Allison doing what us gardeners love best being outside sharing ideas and getting our hands
05:09in the soil hi Allison oh thank you thank you this must be Rua this is Rua who's this Twiggy Twiggy hello
05:25Twiggy so are you are you planting planters is that yes so I quite like to experiment with
05:31edibles in planters just to kind of see how it's possible to grow food in a small space I like
05:38experimenting I was just about to ask if you're an experimental gardener or if you still do the
05:43research first so you know and then do it no well a bit of both but I I am also inclined to just think
05:50oh we'll just see what happens you know because I think sometimes unexpected things happen you can plan
05:56and sometimes things happen that you don't plan and they're sometimes better yeah I agree with that
06:02so I've got some Magretti here as well lovely good to go so I I also just like to kind of scatter things
06:09you know sometimes I'll plant things out a bit like a you know a bit like you plant a herbaceous border
06:14really so and also with it being a planter I think we can afford to just put things in quite tightly yep
06:20guessing you don't want straight lines no no Agretti is a tender annual succulent with a distinct fresh
06:30flavor it can be tricky to sow from seed but once established can be harvested all summer long basil
06:37will grow quickly to fill a space and happily thrive until the first frost cinnamon basil so that has
06:43really lovely um purple flowers so sometimes so it's nice to just grow as an ornamental as well
06:50and it's nice to have lots of them so that you can pick away at them as well true and I guess here
06:56you've got some nice big planters so you can get quite a lot of stuff in yeah absolutely if you've got
07:01the depth of soil then I think you can afford to um squish things in yeah this is the bull's blood oh
07:08the beetroot yes yeah that might be nice closer to the front I guess yep so they're just a really
07:15nice dark purple I'm always thinking of um kind of making interesting salads really you know all
07:21the different edible flowers and different kinds of leaves you can put in a salad so I've got five
07:28different lettuces here okay do you have a theme as well I kind of would quite like some green let's
07:35do some green ones these are elf ears okay funky name I love growing lettuce I've got some nasturtium
07:45seed here so I thought we could just direct sow yeah some of those and so this is blue pepe which
07:51isn't a climbing one but it might work around the base of this and maybe also some just along the
07:57edges and that stuff on the edge flop over yeah yeah I love nasturtiums they're so useful for slug
08:05repellent you can eat the leaves you can eat the seeds you can eat the flowers yeah they're great in
08:10salads and they're beautiful I just think they're so cheerful yeah well this certainly is full yeah I
08:19think it's looking really really nice and I hope it all grows so that you can I'm sure we won't see any
08:24compost I'm sure it will yeah we'll give it a good water and yeah it's good to go good that's one job
08:32done lovely thank you
09:02now it's time to return to Carol's beautiful garden and see what additions she's making to bring
09:20even more flowers to the early summer this year I've been looking to my garden for inspiration for new
09:36plantings in the spring first thing it was all about optimism and then came the anticipation of what was to
09:45come and now in early summer it's arrived
09:50one of the prettiest parts of my garden at this time of year in early summer is this it's Alice's garden
10:08Alice is my youngest daughter and it's full of all sorts of plants that I adore but I suppose one that
10:15really stands out in a quiet dainty kind of way is Gelenia trifoliata it's vaguely related to roses but
10:25it's got these tiny white flowers that just sort of dance in the breeze later on all its foliage will
10:32turn to lovely rusty autumnal shades too and it looks perfect with this Pimpinella a very simple humble
10:41member of the APAC family it's like a sort of pink cow parsley except it's much daintier initially I
10:50planted a couple in here but now it sells seeds all over the place
10:53well the Pimpinella is a really dainty little plant but there are lots of its relatives in these beds
11:10which are much much bolder and the main one amongst them is the Estrantia well they say the Estrantia
11:17there are loads of different ones here but the one that runs right the way through all the beds is Estrantia
11:24Roma it's true pink Estrantia Roma is a sterile hybrid which simply means that it can't set seed if you
11:33like later on in the summer you can cut it right down to the base and with a bit of luck you'll get further
11:40flaring in September right the way into October on the other hand lots of the Estrantias in here are
11:47absolutely fertile and they'll drop their seeds and the consequence of that is we get all sorts of new
11:54Estrantias popping up here and there
11:57in late spring got planted up this large container with perennials a rigor and cap mint and scabious
12:09they settled in happily and all I've had to do is keep it well watered and take off dead petals from
12:17the scabious leaving behind decorative seed heads
12:21well for my early summer pot I'm not going to put a whole load of plants together I want to use
12:35several containers with just one plant and repeat it as a little theme and the plant I've chosen is this
12:42rogercia it's called bronze peacock I think rogercia is such handsome plants with these great big palmate
12:51leaves often very bronzy and then later in the autumn going the most gorgeous colors and they've got
12:58a very shiny texture to the leaves as well and as if that wasn't enough they've got these tall spires of
13:05flower so I'm going to keep it really simple I'm going to put three rogercias into three
13:11terracotta pots starting with this one
13:35now because these rogercias are in pots I'm really going to have to keep an eye on them going to
13:41water them regularly and every so often I might give them a bit of liquid feed an organic seaweed feed
13:48the great thing about growing anything in the pot like this is you can move it wherever you like up
13:54and down the path or if you can see a hole somewhere where something's died back or not done too well
14:00you can just plonk the whole pot in there but the real reason I've chosen rogercia is because I've got
14:06it planted in these beds and I really think it'll help take you on a little journey right the way through
14:13beds and borders along the path and out again
14:20well now that I've sorted out my pots I'm getting down to the real nitty-gritty these are two little
14:37borders they're edge with bricks they're slightly raised and they've been used for all manner of
14:41things I'm plenty of all sorts of wonderful new things in here this is one of a new breed of
14:48clematis they've been specially bred to be used on patios in pots and containers or like this to create a
14:56bit of height in the middle of a herbaceous border this one is called bridgewater they flower and flower
15:02for ages and ages if you just look along these stems on every leaf axle there are buds just waiting to
15:10come on so once these terminal flowers are over they will come out and prolong the flowering season
15:16right the way through into the autumn so much has been written and said about how to treat clematis
15:23and all the different groups they belong to and it can get a bit complicated but with this no problem
15:29whatsoever on Valentine's Day sometime early in the year you just chop the whole thing down
15:36to just a few inches from the ground and then you'll get this wonderful growth and all these flowers from
15:43June July August September right the way through absolutely beautiful
15:50I wanted to use white foxgloves to kind of link these two beds together over here I've already
16:01planted digitalis purpuria alba the white version of our native foxglove but this is a brand new foxglove
16:09this one's called digitalis lucas white and you can see the bells are slightly smaller it's more branching
16:17in habit but it's a sterile hybrid and it's that that gives it its perennial nature
16:24no seed no reason to stop flowering at all so it'll just carry on and on
16:30so this is the final act al camilla mollis it's sometimes called ladies mantle
16:37when I first came here I knew very little about gardening I know a little bit more now
16:44but I desperately wanted this plant and I couldn't find it but I searched and searched eventually found it put it in
16:51so this is the final act al camilla mollis it's sometimes called ladies mantle
16:57when I first came here I knew very little about gardening I know a little bit more now
17:04I know a little bit more now but I desperately wanted this plant and I couldn't find it
17:10but I searched and searched eventually found it put it in and now it's all over my garden
17:15just a bit of organic matter in the soil dig it in well put your plant in water it
17:20furiously and then leave it alone and it'll just repay you with years and years of service
17:34isn't it just glorious it's ebullient everything's just bursting into bloom everywhere you look flowers are opening
17:42and look at this cornice just have a look at that
17:47the wedding cake tree cornice controversa very garter
17:51its foliage is fabulous and all these heads of flowers pale green and white
17:58the whole thing is just wonderful and if that wasn't enough
18:03through it is growing this Paul's Himalayan musk
18:06this beautiful pink rose just beginning to open its flowers and a real taste of what's to come
18:17well
18:27hello
18:32come on then
18:38Oh, come on then.
18:47I think it's fair to say, Carol, that you know a lot more than most of us about gardening
18:51and the garden is looking absolutely beautiful.
18:54Come over here.
19:08Like me, Alison is really keen on growing veg and produce.
19:13But she has a really interesting way of approaching it and it makes for a beautiful veg garden.
19:18But I really want to explore the different ways that she manages to get succession through the year.
19:24Come on then.
19:38Everybody has crops each year that don't work so well.
19:58And this kohlrabi is one of them.
19:59It's been munched by pigeons.
20:01So I'm just going to remove all the kohlrabi and any plants that aren't wanted,
20:06being careful not to weed out things like wild rocket, coriander.
20:12There's a little ochre here, which is a perennial root vegetable and some calendula.
20:16So everything else will go, especially fat hen, which tend to seed themselves everywhere.
20:26It can be really disheartening to have a failed crop when you're growing veg,
20:30especially if you haven't thought about succession.
20:34Succession is when you're almost constantly sowing seeds throughout the spring and summer,
20:41so that when something goes over, you've harvested it or it hasn't worked very well.
20:46You have something ready to replace it with.
20:49So the basic way of thinking about succession sowing is all your long crops.
20:53So things like tomatoes, cucumbers, chilies, aubergines, they need to be sown early in the spring
21:00because they need a whole season to develop.
21:02And then brassicas, which do need a whole season to develop,
21:05but are often hardy through the winter, can be sown for a longer period.
21:09But then your short crops, so coriander, lettuce, radishes can be sown all the way through the year.
21:15And if you keep doing them, you're always going to have something to plant out
21:19and hopefully something to eat as well.
21:33Now I've got rid of everything that Alison wanted me to get rid of and I have a nearly blank canvas.
21:38And all I'm going to do is get some seeds.
21:40So there's red-veined sorrel, there's some viola with edible flowers and some fennel.
21:46I'll mix them up and then just scatter some through this space.
22:08Just a couple of chard in here because they'll get quite big, take up a lot of space and provide food for months and months.
22:19It's such a good vegetable to grow.
22:21And that is this space, hopefully transformed.
22:38Isn't this meadow incredible and especially being down in amongst it,
23:08which I wouldn't normally dare to do, but it's lovely being here.
23:12And this meadow is actually on clay soil, which is not what you would expect to be successful.
23:17But what Alison has done is sown lots of yellow rattle.
23:20This takes nutrients from perennial grasses, which weakens them and then gives space for other plants to grow.
23:26You can see behind me there's no yellow rattle in there and that's what this would have been.
23:30It's about 12 years old, it takes time to establish.
23:34But now when I look around there are so many different species.
23:37There's clovers, there's vetches.
23:40We've got oxeye daisy, but it's not taking over, which they do have a tendency to do.
23:44There's sorrel, there's plantain.
23:46There's so much going on here.
23:48But what is really special is that there are also orchids.
23:52There's the common spotted orchid and there's quite a few of those.
23:55But Alison says this year for the, I think only second time, there's a pyramidal orchid and there's a few of them.
24:02And it just shows that although we know that meadow habitat is really, really important for lots and lots of fungi, invertebrates, insects, and I can hear bees around me everywhere.
24:12It's also a really important place where we can conserve some rare plant species too.
24:17And it's so magical that they have arrived here.
24:42That's a bit quieter than a strimmer.
24:45Shall I pick up what you've cut?
24:48That would be amazing.
24:49Yes, please.
24:50And is it just the nettles that we're picking up?
24:52Yes.
24:53Okay.
24:54How often do you have to do this?
25:02Well, we tend to do it.
25:04I like to use the nettles as a compost activator.
25:08Right.
25:09So when we're ready to make the compost, it's quite good to have fresh nettle leaves because they contain lots of iron and other nutrients and of course lots of nitrogen.
25:21So how do you do that as an activator?
25:24We just layer it in.
25:25Okay.
25:26So just in with your normal green waste compost.
25:28Yes.
25:29Yeah.
25:30I might just kind of rate some of these towards you now.
25:34Make sure you don't compost nettles that have gone to seed as you'll have them growing everywhere.
25:39Nettles are just, I mean, they're so brilliant in every way.
25:42I love drinking it as teas, you know, especially in the early spring when all that fresh new growth has come through as well.
25:49It's so good.
25:50And it's so delicious in soup and things as well. I love it as a plant.
25:53Yeah.
25:54You can always taste how nutritious it is.
25:56And they're also really fantastically beneficial for all kinds of wildlife as well.
26:00A lot of our common butterflies lay their eggs on nettle. So yeah, I definitely don't scythe all of them. I would leave patches in places as well for the wildlife. Amazing.
26:15There are so many uses for this valuable and versatile plant.
26:26I'm going to make some fermented nettle juice as a plant food from the nettles that Alison was scything from the field.
26:33It's very simple.
26:34You just want to crush up the nettles as much as you can to bruise them and rip them.
26:39And then mix them with an equal weight of brown sugar.
26:45We'll really then work the two together so that you're breaking the nettles even more but allowing the sugar to get to every part of it.
26:53Because that sugar is going to be extracting the liquid from the nettles, sparking the fermentation.
27:01And it's that liquid that's going to be the plant food in the end.
27:04So the more broken the better.
27:07Now that that is all mixed up, just put this mix into a sterile jar.
27:14And really, really, really firm it down so you're removing as much air as you can from the mix.
27:21So that you're not introducing bacteria and fungus.
27:24And then just to finish off that air seal, I'm going to pour a bit more sugar on and that will form a cap on the top.
27:30Weigh the whole thing down with a stone.
27:34Leave an air gap at the top so that there's room for the gases to escape.
27:38And then put a breathable cover on top.
27:41So you don't want insects landing in it, but you do want the air to be able to escape.
27:44So just some kitchen towel with rubber bands to hold it on.
27:48Then leave that somewhere cool and dark for five to seven days.
27:53Strain off the liquid that forms and that's your plant food.
27:56And it needs really diluting.
27:57So one in five hundred or for delicate plants, one in a thousand.
28:02It lasts a long time.
28:03This is one that's busy fermenting.
28:06It's about five days old.
28:08And you can see the liquid there already forming like thick tar.
28:14And the lovely thing is, it doesn't smell bad at all.
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28:52It's absolutely packed with colour. It's so beautiful. There's sweet williams here.
28:58The woad is just going over to seed. Vipers, bugloss, fennel. There's some
29:02annuals like poppies. It's just a massive riot of colour and looking
29:07absolutely perfect right now. But if you want to plan something like this for
29:12next year, now is the time to be thinking about sowing those seeds.
29:22I've got a multi-purpose compost here with some horticultural sand mixed in to
29:34improve the drainage. By now you've probably finished sowing any annual flower
29:40seeds but now is the time to think about sowing biennials and perennials. Now the
29:44difference obviously is the annuals you'll sow them, they'll grow, they'll flower and
29:48they'll grow to seed all in one season whereas biennials will grow a little bit
29:54now and then they'll actually flower next year and perennials will start growing
29:58now and then flower hopefully for many many years to come. And I am going to sow
30:03some woad seed. This is a seed that Alison actually collected from the garden here.
30:08And it is a biennial or a short-lived perennial. It's Isotis tinctoria and the word tinctoria
30:17gives a clue that it's actually a dye plant. This one is traditionally used as a blue dye.
30:23It's also quite a large plant with a huge yellow inflorescence which is incredibly good for
30:29wildlife so it's a really useful plant in the garden. These are quite big seeds and normally
30:33with big seeds I would put them in a module or a pot but biennials and even more so perennials
30:39can take quite a long time to germinate and so it sometimes saves you space if you put
30:45them into a tray. And I'm just going to place them in rows quite well spaced because of their
30:50size and that means I can see when they come up in a sort of grid that they're the right
30:55thing. Anything that comes up not in a line is probably a rogue seed or even a weed. And I'll just
31:02cover these lightly with a little bit of compost because these seeds don't need sunlight to
31:08germinate. Burn it down so that there's good contact with the soil. Stick in a label, give
31:16it a good water and then I'll leave this outside to grow because it's fully hardy. This time of
31:22year it's warm enough. And now we're off to Watford to visit a garden that is positively jammed full of treasures.
31:34What do you need a lot of water? There's so many flowers. Hi everyone and welcome to my lovely garden. I hope you're going to love it as much as I love it.
31:49I love it. It's made up of maybe ten different little rooms. My crystal room, my blue and white china room. Here we have the birdcage corner with at least ten bird cages. They're all so beautiful and different in all their own ways.
32:07I'm Susie or Susette, whichever. I've lived here in the house for 58 years. When we moved in, there was a lawn and vegetables and shrubs everywhere. It was just so boring.
32:24And we used to spend every weekend mowing the lawn. Why waste so much time? I said to Vic, the first thing we do is the garden. He said, no, no, no, we've got so much here. I didn't know. The garden comes first.
32:39The garden is full of antiquities. Me being the oldest one. Full of little bits and pieces which all mean something or other on the journey of putting this garden together.
32:56The last corner of my garden is my chimney pot. My chimney pot corner. I rather like them.
33:07When you think of all the years they've been on roofs and now they're adorning my garden. I love it.
33:15I was an interior designer and my customers, they used to clear their rooms and they would say, Susie, it's going in the skip. Do you want it?
33:28I say, does a bird fly? So of course they land back here.
33:34Definitely not a junkyard. No way. No, a gem yard. Totally. I like that expression.
33:44Bird cages really are my obsession. I have to say that.
33:49So I'm going to find a new area for this pretty little one, which I think I'm going to hang up here. How about that? I hope it fits in. Yeah.
34:01I always leave them open for anything to fly away. Because I am a free bird myself. And I need to know that I can fly whenever, whenever I want to.
34:15They're so pretty to put plants in. I mean, I could, I could put this in here for instance.
34:21The petunia, which goes rather well with the purple. And it's all surrounded by a hibiscus at the back.
34:29It's covered with the wisteria, which goes all over there. This is my restful corner. I've cleared this space of all the laurel and the philadelphus.
34:42It came out here. You didn't, you just saw greenery. And I decided to clear the whole lot and give it a calmer feeling.
34:52I've got an Acer coming out here and some lovely ferns coming through gently. They'll be better next year.
34:59The favourite plants in this area alone are the begonias and the heucheras. The heucheras are lovely because of their contrasting colour.
35:07And these just go on and on. I bought over a hundred of them at the beginning of the season.
35:13And they've seen me right the way through. So that's well worth buying. Don't buy one, buy ten.
35:24Oh, the work in this garden really never stops. I'm always deadheading, which gives me more flowers in the long run.
35:35Mind you, I have no nails because of it. And I know I should wear gloves, but I like to fill my plants.
35:42But it's my passion for a start. And it's my sheer joy. I mean, how lovely to work with flowers all day and every day, which I do. I love the garden.
35:55Oh, hoover. My garden gets hoovered more than my house. I can assure you of that one. If I know somebody's coming, that hoover comes out.
36:09And the garden looks a hundred percent cleaner and nicer.
36:15I think I'm getting maybe just too many articles.
36:22This is another little corner called my blue and white charity china.
36:27Every one of these pieces come from the charity shop and everybody saves them for me, which is lovely.
36:34And top my lovely petunia, which goes on through the summer and it's a compliment to each other, which is lovely.
36:40And sometimes I fill them up with these little succulents, just put them into water and they will, they will take.
36:49Yeah.
36:53Can you hear that frog?
36:58You hear it?
37:02Proper gardeners would say, she ain't no gardener.
37:07But I don't really care.
37:10This is one of the easiest plants to take a cutting from, the levetera tree.
37:15Sometimes they call it levetera, but I call it levetera.
37:20You literally split it off a joint and plunge it into good damp earth.
37:31Give it a good water and leave it. You'll have a tree next year.
37:34I mean, the garden, as much for me, I want to show it off to everybody else.
37:45Maybe that's a little bit big headed of me because I think that everything looks so beautiful.
37:50Of course, I love gardening. Yes, it's part and parcel of my life. I'd be lost without it.
37:55Don't move me to a flat when I'm too old. I'd have to have a garden.
38:02What makes our gardens so special is how personal they are to us and I love that Suzette turned what would have been a garden like everybody else's into something completely uniquely hers.
38:24Are you making some of your beautiful supports, Alison?
38:38Yes, I'm just putting something in for the dahlias just because when they grow up, they're going to start getting a little bit floppy.
38:44Fair enough. But they're absolutely stunning all around the garden. I love it. It gives so much character to the space.
38:51Thank you. It's quite addictive once you start working with the willow and the hazel.
38:56I've never done it much. I've always intended to and then found other things to do and ended up just stringing things.
39:00But could you show me how you do them? Yes, of course.
39:03So if you grab with just two willow sticks, what you're doing is you're going in at 45 degrees.
39:10Because that way, when it's finished, you've got an open centre.
39:14OK.
39:15And then hold them in the middle point and then just ease them round.
39:20Sometimes it's helpful to put your hand through and grab the end.
39:27Is that right?
39:28Yeah. And then you'd come in and put the next two outside.
39:31Yes, that's right.
39:32OK.
39:33Exactly. You can get quite creative with it.
39:35I suppose it's like anything once you've got the technique of the basics.
39:38You can start to kind of riff off that and do it a bit more with flair.
39:42Yeah.
39:43I'm not going to attempt flair today.
39:45I'm just going to attempt the very, very basics.
39:52Looking good.
39:53Oh, thank you.
39:54You see how strong they are once you've twisted them.
39:57It makes a huge difference, doesn't it?
39:59Yeah, it really does.
40:01Well, I think I've sort of got the hang of this.
40:03If it's helpful, I can carry on doing this.
40:05That'd be great. Yeah.
40:06OK. Thank you.
40:07No worries.
40:08New skills.
40:09Good.
40:10Told you it's addictive, I warn you.
40:12It might look like I'm doing this really prematurely because this dahlia is very, very small.
40:32But actually getting stakes in the ground now, before the flowers get tall, is a really good way of doing it.
40:39Because if I waited for this stem to get tall, the wind to blow and it to flop over, and then I tried to pick it up, it would never quite look right.
40:47So by doing this now, it's going to make the world of difference to how this border grows.
40:55And of course, dahlias are late summer flowers.
40:59They're filled with quite big flowers, which makes them more prone to falling over because the weight of them can collapse the stems.
41:08So it's the ideal candidate for some staking now.
41:18The thing I like about this method as well is that, although this is using willow that's bought especially for weaving, you could use other things.
41:26Gardening can be quite expensive. So if you had some maybe hazel branches that you'd coppiced, spare pea sticks, something like that, or you just had any old branches that have come off in winter storms,
41:37you can save them and reuse them and create something that may not be quite as neat as this, but would certainly be a lot more bespoke and wild looking.
41:46And I really like that.
41:56You're a little baby.
41:58I'm sorry.
41:59You're a young girl who's not alone.
42:01I just can't stand it because I've never been sure.
42:03I don't even know more about the Ganzi of theions.
42:06I don't think I'm a bad enough.
42:08I don't even know even if you've had any other things you could use.
42:10I don't know even if you've had any other температуres, but I'm a good enough温度.
42:14You can't be quite as good as I'm doing.
42:17You can't be a good enough.
42:19You can't be a good enough.
42:20You can't be a little enough.
42:22Now you can't be a good enough.
42:24I'm not really thinking about it.
42:25MUSIC CONTINUES
42:55is a rather magnificent but unintentional dry garden.
43:00So all these beautiful plants are self-seeded,
43:04as well as lots of other things.
43:05These are just sages.
43:07And this incredible Digitalis Parviflora milk chocolate,
43:12it's called, with beautiful sort of orangey flowers
43:15has just popped up everywhere here
43:17and given Alison the idea of turning it
43:19into a much more planned-out dry garden.
43:23This is a lovely euphorbia called Euphorbia sagueriana.
43:28And it's very small now,
43:30but it gets about 80 centimetres height and spread
43:33when it's fully grown.
43:34But it keeps this lovely, delicate foliage.
43:37It's really beautiful, and it should go very nicely
43:40against things like the blue flower of the sages
43:44that have self-seeded, these lovely yellow bracts.
43:45But also, the form of it sort of echoes
43:49the shape of the Digitalis.
43:52And there are other euphorbias here as well.
43:54There's large ones down here,
43:55but also different kinds throughout the higher garden as well.
44:00But dry gardens in general,
44:03they're one of my favourite kinds of gardens.
44:05And as you can see when I dig down into this,
44:08it's really sand and gravel that I'm planting in.
44:11No soil at all.
44:14And, of course, lots of plants
44:15wouldn't love that kind of position.
44:19But then many, many plants
44:21really do like to have dry roots.
44:24So particularly if you're living in a wetter area,
44:27you might want to introduce some gravel and sand
44:29and just plant straight into that
44:31rather than trying to grow plants like
44:33Mediterranean herbs, for example,
44:35that would really be unhappy in a waterlogged soil.
44:38It could be one way of doing it
44:40or you can just go with what your garden naturally does
44:42and exploit the kinds of plants
44:45that would thrive in your conditions.
44:47There are two schools of thought.
44:48But here, this was just a nice, usable place for the family
44:51and has now become a self-designated dry garden.
44:58There we go.
44:59Even though these are drought-tolerant plants,
45:26they'll still need a really good watering in
45:28just to get them to establish well.
45:30And then they should be happy
45:31to be left here in this sunny, free-draining spot.
45:37Now, obviously, not all gardens
45:39have this kind of very dry position
45:42and Adam recently went to visit one
45:44that was quite the opposite.
45:46We're always talking about the weather.
45:54This year, it's been a hot, dry spring.
45:57Some of us like it.
45:58Some of us don't.
45:59And some of our gods have suffered.
46:03And it's quite easy to forget that other extreme.
46:06Cold, wet, winters, a lot more flooded.
46:10Well, today, I'm off to meet a lady
46:12who's dealing with just that.
46:14Wendy Bundy moved here with a late husband in 2006.
46:23This two-acre garden had bags of potential.
46:26And nearly 20 years on,
46:28it's become something really special.
46:31What makes it all the more impressive
46:33is where this garden sits,
46:36right on the banks of the River Derwent.
46:39So, during the winter months,
46:41it's vulnerable to flooding.
46:44You look very busy.
46:48Yes, I'm trying to get rid of all this Himalayan balsam,
46:51which is dominating in this border, as you can see.
46:54It comes in every year.
46:55It floats in on the flood.
46:57Very easy to get out,
46:58but you have to keep doing it very gently.
47:02So, paint me a picture.
47:03I mean, this floods nearly every year.
47:04We've been here nearly 20 years,
47:07and we've had one winter when it hasn't flooded.
47:09Yeah.
47:09Some winters, it comes up for a week and goes down,
47:12and then it comes up again in the spring.
47:15Sometimes, it's much, much longer.
47:17The winter and spring of 23 to 24,
47:20this lot was all underwater from October to the beginning of March.
47:24Wow.
47:25So, four and a half months.
47:27Everything in here survived that.
47:29We're at the bottom end of the river,
47:31so it comes up very slowly,
47:32but you can't get cross with it because it's the flood.
47:36You've got a great attitude to just, you know,
47:38what will work will work,
47:39and I'm not going to worry about the other stuff.
47:41Well, you can't,
47:42and I've learnt over the years what will go, what won't go.
47:44So, everything that survives is tough,
47:47and so it's common,
47:48because common things in gardens
47:50are the toughest that have survived.
47:52And whilst everybody said,
47:53oh, we can't plant roses where it floods,
47:56well, you darn well can, actually, as you can see.
47:58Yeah.
47:59The 40 years of experience I've had in the village,
48:01I'm sure it's got worse.
48:02Yeah.
48:02And it's got worse in the sense of there is more water.
48:05Yeah.
48:06It lasts longer.
48:08So, when the water eventually goes away,
48:10you're left with a mess.
48:13Yes.
48:13But silt that does you some good.
48:15Yes.
48:15And I'm looking forward to finding out a little bit more,
48:18but we've pulled some of this out.
48:20Yeah.
48:20What do you do with it?
48:21Put it in the compost.
48:22Yeah.
48:23It's interesting,
48:23because a lot of people would then panic, wouldn't they?
48:25But I'm assuming it's not in flower,
48:27there's no seed.
48:28It rots down beautifully.
48:29Well, I'll get rid of this for you.
48:31Thank you very much.
48:34This Himalayan balsam can be an absolute thug,
48:37but Wendy's got quite a laid-back approach.
48:40She's trying to keep on top of it.
48:42She knows she's never going to get rid of it.
48:44And when it comes to the composting,
48:46it's not in flower.
48:47You know, it's not seeding, so that makes sense.
48:50But for me, if it rocks up in my garden,
48:53it probably would make me very nervous.
48:55And I wouldn't just put it in the green bin.
48:57In reality, what I do is I check with the local authority,
49:00because you're going to find that some of them
49:02are going to take slightly different approaches
49:05as to how to deal with it.
49:06Wendy's practical.
49:14She's not chasing a dream.
49:16And that word common, tough, hard-working plants,
49:20I think sometimes we can be a little bit snobby.
49:23But look at that.
49:25They are exactly that.
49:26You know, plants that you'll see maybe around a car park
49:29at the supermarket, but it works on so many levels.
49:32But first of all, if you look at the trees,
49:34things like the plum cherry, the hazels,
49:36and then you've got the salis.
49:37It's so good, hard-working stock.
49:39We come down to the shrubs, cornice, dogwoods,
49:43spireas, lovely white flower,
49:45and then you've got the berberus.
49:47But they work as really good forms for the herbaceous planting.
49:51Things like the alcamilla,
49:52and then the geraniums,
49:54and this lyosomachia,
49:56which loves those damper conditions.
49:59But one more thing
50:00that for me
50:01has become a bit of a fascination
50:04is the annuals,
50:06the biennials,
50:07and the short-lived perennials.
50:09Whatever your conditions,
50:10yeah, other plants might suffer,
50:12but anything seed-based hits the ground,
50:14it stays there.
50:16We could have dry,
50:17we could have wet,
50:18but you can pretty much guarantee
50:20they'll come up the following year.
50:23And that's exactly what's going on here.
50:25You've got the poppies popping up,
50:26and then you've got the marigolds.
50:28And you can see
50:28bits and pieces
50:30doing that around Wendy's garden.
50:32So think about it.
50:34A few months ago,
50:36the water was this high.
50:39Isn't that incredible,
50:40that sort of demonstration
50:41of the power of plants?
50:43As tough as some plants can be,
50:49Wendy's really embraced
50:50the changes that come
50:52with more extreme weather.
50:54And being on the edge
50:55of a floodplain
50:56means it's not if the garden will flood,
50:59but when.
51:02So, Wendy,
51:03the river sort of wraps
51:04all the way round?
51:05Yes, it goes round
51:05in a great big curve,
51:07and there was a mill there
51:08at one stage.
51:09Wow.
51:10But actually looking at it,
51:11you know,
51:11your view,
51:12quite incredible,
51:13is you see the irises coming up,
51:14and then that's followed by
51:15Meadowsweet.
51:16Meadowsweet,
51:17and the reedy-type grasses.
51:19Absolutely.
51:20I mean,
51:20they're like moving,
51:21aren't they,
51:21and dancing.
51:22Yes,
51:22they are.
51:23They're very beautiful.
51:31Your pond obviously
51:32gets a natural feel
51:33once a year.
51:33Absolutely.
51:35On a positive look,
51:36your hostess
51:37seems to absolutely love it.
51:38They've come off
51:39and go from strength to strength.
51:41And I suppose
51:41they're getting that dose
51:42of silt.
51:43Other people mulch
51:45with bark,
51:46but in reality,
51:46you couldn't.
51:47No,
51:48because bark floats.
51:49Floats exactly.
51:49And it finishes
51:50up all over the lawn.
51:54Fruit trees
51:55don't really like
51:56sitting in wet soil,
51:57so here,
51:58they've been planted
51:59on slightly raised mounds
52:00to keep some of their roots
52:02out of the water.
52:04They seem to be thriving,
52:05and it's not just
52:07apples and pears.
52:08Look at my apricots.
52:10Oh, wow.
52:11Yeah,
52:12in North Yorkshire.
52:13Yeah.
52:14You loved that then,
52:16didn't you?
52:16Absolutely.
52:17North Yorkshire,
52:18apricots.
52:19There we go.
52:21Yeah.
52:21It's brilliant though,
52:22absolutely.
52:23Yeah?
52:23Yeah.
52:23I'm smiling,
52:39Wendy,
52:39because I'm thinking
52:40floodplain asparagus
52:42wouldn't be the first thing
52:44that jumped to mind.
52:44No, absolutely.
52:45And it only survives
52:46because we are prepared
52:48to build up this bed
52:49on top of the raised bed
52:50already.
52:51So you've got raised beds
52:52on raised beds?
52:53It's the only way
52:54to do the asparagus.
52:55And what sort of mix
52:56did you put in there then?
52:56A real mixture
52:57of compost,
52:59gravel and sand,
53:00real sharp sand.
53:01Yeah.
53:02And then more compost.
53:03I'll take my hat off to you.
53:04You seem to have really
53:05stuck at it,
53:06grown what you can,
53:08taken gambles,
53:09experimented,
53:10which ultimately
53:11is what gardening's
53:12all about.
53:14Yes, but it's a hobby,
53:14isn't it?
53:15And you have to do
53:16what you can with the hobby.
53:17And I enjoy achieving
53:19what you can achieve
53:19and then actually also
53:21seeing what you can't achieve.
53:22Yeah.
53:22And also understanding
53:23that one year will be good
53:25and the next year
53:25it'll be rubbish,
53:26but you mustn't think
53:27you've actually had
53:28a poor year
53:29and it's never going
53:30to be good.
53:30Yeah.
53:31But it'll come back
53:31again extraordinarily.
53:32Yeah.
53:41I'm going to take you back
53:4320 years
53:44to when you moved in here.
53:45Yeah.
53:46Would you do it all again?
53:48Probably.
53:49If I've had the health
53:50and strength of the day
53:50as I did have 20 years ago,
53:52I probably would.
53:53I knew this is exactly
53:54what you were going to say.
53:55Honestly, I, seriously,
53:56you is great.
53:58Absolutely brilliant.
53:58I love the way
53:59you've just got your head
53:59around the conditions
54:00and you just ploughed on.
54:02Yes, absolutely.
54:03Oh, somebody else
54:04does the ploughing
54:05these days.
54:05Yeah.
54:11Yeah.
54:41This year,
54:55roses seem to have
54:55done really, really well.
54:56I think we've had
54:57lots of quite warm
54:59and dry weather.
55:01They flowered early,
55:02but that means
55:03that they are now
55:04in need of a little bit
55:05of deadheading
55:06if you want to keep them going.
55:07This one is a repeat flower,
55:09so cutting off
55:10the deadheads
55:10will keep new blooms going.
55:12You can see there's lots
55:13of buds forming
55:14for more flowers
55:15and when I deadhead them,
55:18I don't just take
55:19the top off,
55:20I cut it right down
55:21to where that meets
55:22a new joint
55:24so that it's also doing
55:25a little bit of pruning
55:26at the same time
55:27and that just keeps it
55:29in good health.
55:31But there,
55:31getting rid of the deadheads
55:32just means
55:33you're maximising the flowers
55:34without the unsightly old blooms
55:37at the same time.
55:38But if your rose forms hips
55:40then once these
55:42later flowers are finished
55:43leave them on
55:43because then you'll have
55:44something to feed the birds
55:45through the autumn.
55:47There.
55:49Of course,
55:50this is the time of year
55:51when we can really
55:52enjoy our gardens.
55:55But there's always
55:56more jobs to do.
55:56As soft fruit
56:12like these taberies
56:13start to ripen,
56:14it's time to protect them
56:15from hungry birds.
56:18Drape a temporary netting
56:19over the plant,
56:20making sure it's pulled
56:21tight and secured firmly.
56:22check it regularly
56:27to ensure no wildlife
56:28has got trapped inside.
56:37To protect young plants
56:38from suffering in the heat,
56:40it's important to keep
56:41your greenhouse cool
56:41as the weather warms up.
56:44Open all the doors
56:45and windows
56:46to allow air to flow through
56:48and pollinating insects
56:49to come in and out.
56:54It's a good idea
56:55to close it all again
56:56at night
56:56in case the temperatures drop.
57:07While self-seeding plants
57:08like borage,
57:09alchemilla
57:10and this valerian
57:11make beautiful additions
57:13to the garden,
57:14they can sometimes
57:14become a bit too dominant.
57:18To keep them in check,
57:21remove most of the seed heads
57:23leaving just a few behind
57:24for the seeds to ripen
57:25and spread naturally.
57:27There you go.
57:46A cup of nettle tea.
57:47Mmm, yes please.
57:51Cheers.
57:52Cheers.
57:53Very good.
57:57You can still taste
57:57that iron.
57:58Mmm, it does.
57:59It tastes really good,
58:00doesn't it?
58:01Well, thank you very much
58:02for having me today
58:03and sharing this with me
58:05and Rua,
58:06who's making himself
58:07very at home.
58:08Well, Swiggy's loved
58:09having you here
58:10and yeah,
58:11well hopefully
58:12you'll come back.
58:12That would be lovely.
58:13Thank you very much.
58:14Yeah, I'll do that.
58:16Well, next week,
58:17Monty and Ned
58:18will be back at Longmeadow
58:19and until then,
58:20see you.
58:21Oh, my God.