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ATGCS02E05
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00:00Sowing the seeds for gardens and outdoor spaces that everyone can love with Alan Titchmarsh's
00:06Gardening Club, brought to you by Green Thumb Lawn Treatment Service.
00:18Welcome back to my gardening club right here in my own garden. As a new gardening season begins,
00:26we'll once again be celebrating the people, plants and places that make UK gardening so
00:33extraordinary. This series will show that gardening really is for everyone, whether
00:39you're caring for plants on a windowsill, growing vegetables in an allotment patch,
00:44or transforming a community space. We'll journey across the length and breadth of the British Isles,
00:50uncovering renowned gardens, inventive designs and creative green spaces of all sizes. And we'll
00:59be sharing even more practical tips, techniques and fresh ideas to help you transform your garden
01:06into a beautiful, rewarding space, whatever its size. Our gardening club family is at the heart of
01:14it all, answering your gardening questions, championing sustainability, shining a spotlight on the
01:21unsung horticultural heroes and sharing their passion for all things green. So grab a cuppa, settle in and
01:31and get ready to grow. Welcome to my gardening club.
01:47Spring has arrived in full force. Just step outside and you can feel it. Gardens everywhere are transforming.
01:55Mine included. There's fresh colour, longer days and that unmistakable sense of change in the air.
02:02Every few days we seem to get new flowers. This beautiful dwarf narcissus called Ice Baby. I'm so thrilled
02:12with it. I planted it around the edge of this tub in September, October. It's only six inches tall in this
02:18glorious, very, very pale sulphur yellow. And with the cooler air cost these flowers last weeks. Nice
02:25baby. Worth recommending. And with that spring change comes the perfect excuse to get outside,
02:32whether it's planting something new, making plans for the monsered or simply pausing to soak in the
02:39beauty of the season. And in today's gardening club we've plenty of inspiration and expert advice to help
02:45you make the most of it. Coming up, Henry aggs back with some upcycling ideas to give your garden a fresh
02:52boost. Claire opens up her house plant diaries once again, proving that styling isn't just for
02:59interiors. It's for your plants too. And Papua Kocha is on a mission to show us simple ways to invite
03:07more wildlife into our green spaces. But first, it's time to continue Camilla's garden tours.
03:13She's been travelling all over, exploring gardens of all shapes and sizes, and meeting the marvellous
03:20people who bring them to life. Today, she's heading to Wales.
03:39In the heart of Carmarthenshire, there is a garden steeped in history and botanic wonder.
03:45Restored in the 1990s, Aberglasny Gardens masterfully blends its rich history and boundary-pushing
03:52horticulture. And I can't wait to learn more.
04:01Deep inside the ruined central rooms of the 16th-century mansion lies a hidden treasure.
04:07This is incredible. And look at the light coming through as well.
04:12I know. I know. It's my favourite place in the garden.
04:15So where are we?
04:16This is what we call the Nymferium. Our original head gardener, Graham Rankin, went to Nymfer in Rome,
04:22saw the ruined garden, fell in love with it. And we had this ruined space within the house,
04:27which we didn't know what to do with. So he came up with the idea of having a Nymferium.
04:32And, I mean, it's great because it's dry and we live in wet Wales. It's warm, you know. So,
04:38you know, it's everybody's favourite place. And it's quite a treasure. Nobody knows it's here until
04:42they come upon it, you know. We've always tried to plant it as a tropical area. But, you know,
04:49sometimes we get 12 degrees, which is quite low.
04:51OK. So we're in the middle of replanting it with a Mediterranean subtropical palette.
04:58And this new planting was designed by our students. Hello. This is Freddie and Anna.
05:05So what are you putting in today, then? So this is a Schefflera or an umbrella tree,
05:09similar to one that you can get as a houseplant. But this one, it's just got a really lovely texture
05:12to it, a really unusual leaf. So we wanted it quite front and centre.
05:15So are you popping him in there? Yeah. Here we go.
05:18Easy as that. In he goes. Pretty much. I prepared a hole.
05:20Nice soil as well. You've got a good bed there for it.
05:23We've replaced quite a lot of the soil fairly recently. So making sure that it's just optimal,
05:28optimal for planting as best we can. Of course, yeah. But the light is so important, isn't it?
05:32A lot of these plants, they want those light levels, don't they?
05:34We do get some direct sun throughout the day, but one of the challenges has been finding these
05:38subtropical and Mediterranean plants, which don't need a full day of sun. But there are some,
05:42and we found some nice ones. You have. I think you've done pretty well.
05:45It's already a good collection. Well, I'll let you get on with it.
05:47Thank you very much.
05:48Thank you very much. And yeah, there's so many more plants to see, just looking around everywhere.
06:01The orchids, this one here. Oh, we have some good orchids, yeah.
06:05Look at this leopardy print one. Yeah.
06:07Oh, isn't that incredible? And you know, it's full of little microclimates,
06:11so we have sunny areas. This is, we're coming into a very shady area now. It gives us the opportunity
06:16to actually plant a diverse palette of plants, really.
06:19Yes, yeah. And what's amazing about a lot of these plants is that they can be grown as houseplants at
06:24home, can't they? Absolutely. You know, everybody knows you can grow Aspidistras, and we all grow the
06:29odd orchid, you know. But you can be adventurous. When I first moved into my flat in London, I had a
06:34Phoenix Roybellinii, which is the indoor variety of a canary palm, you know. And even if it's a palm
06:40or a tree that, you know, in nature would get quite large, if you've got it contained in a pot,
06:44you can keep it in the house. You're quite right, yeah. No, you can.
06:47Something else that's very evident here as well is the use of your vertical spaces, trailing things in
06:53baskets, and you can replicate that in the home or garden, can't you? Absolutely. You know,
06:57everybody's got a shelf that you can grow a trailing plant on, you can put hangers on your wall,
07:01and you can grow orchids and hoyers inside, you know. So, you know, don't be limited,
07:06you know. You just sort of look up and use everything you've got, is this thing?
07:10It really is an incredible surprise, something you wouldn't expect to find here. It's very special.
07:27Gosh, this feels very peaceful, spiritual and monastic, really. And that's why we call it our
07:37Cloister Garden. And I think they were created, basically, to create this parapet walk, which is
07:43one of the oldest existing ones in Europe, as it happens, and just for the ladies of the house to
07:49have somewhere to perambulate. Yes, taking the fresh air. On sunny days, yeah. But I'm guessing it didn't
07:54always look like this. Oh, no, it looked, it was a total ruin. We took about seven feet of soil from
08:01here. Seven feet? All of which was infested. It was like a walled garden of Japanese knotweed. But,
08:07you know, look what we've had instead, you know. So this parapet walk, you know, it's not only do you
08:20see the garden from a wonderful vantage point, but then you get this concept of borrowed landscape.
08:27We live in an area where you get that kind of misty kind of light, you know. So that kind of
08:34three-dimensional landscape is just beautiful, whatever time of day you look at it. And you've
08:39got the formality here, but many different parts of the gardens, aren't there? Oh, there are. And
08:43I'm going to take you somewhere that's going to be quite a surprise and a real treat for you now.
08:47I like a treat.
08:54A glorious fusion of half a dozen yew trees planted in the 18th century provide a spectacular approach
09:01to the house. Now, this is a walk with a difference, isn't it? Well, yes. And it's a feature that's
09:06unique to Aberglasny. It's our yew tunnel, as we call it. I mean, I think it started life as a hedge,
09:11got overgrown, and then somebody just layered it. But, you know, it's a lot of fun. And when you're
09:17inside it, it's amazing, isn't it? It's so much to look at and so much history and age with ancient
09:23trees used. They're our most ancient tree, really, aren't they? They are, yeah. It's breathtaking. It really is.
09:39So, a short walk uphill and we reach this area, which is really open and bright. Yes, top of a mountain.
09:46So, no, this is our alpinum. So, what we've done is created a sort of garden that has raised beds
09:53out of stone, full of little alpine treasures that you can look at really closely and get to the detail.
10:00Like the crocus and the snowdrops. The helibores here are stunning. They really are. Oh, I know.
10:05And I love what you've done here. You've got these, it's almost like a stumpery, but it's more open.
10:10Normally, stumper is a quite dark and damp and fern-led, but this is, it's not that at all, is it?
10:17It's different, isn't it? Yeah. But it's really good for insects. Yes. And, you know, why not?
10:23And the lovely willow, the salix here as well. I know. It's such a good colour, isn't it? Yeah.
10:29And with the light coming through as well. Yeah. But, you know, it's just one little part of this
10:34little standalone garden. And, of course, this standalone garden is just part of the greater tapestry,
10:39that is Aberglasny. I mean, that's the thing about it. It's got all these separate little gardens
10:44that together just form this great garden. They make the whole, which is just so impressive.
10:49In my opinion.
10:59My time at Aberglasny has taught me that no matter how much you think you've seen,
11:04talented horticulturists and the plants they select always find a way to surprise you.
11:09From the crumbling ruins of this once grand estate, which times seem to have left behind,
11:14a vibrant garden has emerged.
11:22Thanks, Camilla. What a fascinating garden. And a great reminder that visiting these bigger green
11:29spaces isn't just about admiring the scenery, but also picking up plenty of ideas and inspiration.
11:36My yew trees may not be quite as old as those that Camilla saw, but yew is such a useful garden
11:43plant for giving you stature and form right the way through the winter. In fact, right the way through
11:48the year. I do love them. Now, for even more inspiration, it's time for Gardening in Five,
11:54where top gardeners from across the country answer our five horticultural questions. In the spotlight today,
12:02it's Catherine Cutler from the Eden Project.
12:04My earliest gardening memory was with my grandma. She had a small walled garden where she grew
12:19vegetables and in that garden she had a row of radishes and I was allowed to take a little
12:24saucer of salad cream and go and pull the radishes and eat them.
12:32My favourite gardening tool, the one that I use most of the time is a Hori Hori,
12:36but the one I have is a really heavy duty one, a bare bones one. And I work at home on a farm as
12:42well as here at Eden and being heavy duty one, this will cope with the stony soil and you can use it for
12:48absolutely anything, digging out pernicious weeds as well as planting.
12:57Well, actually, I've been told a really useful, what I hope is a really useful gardening hack,
13:02and that is to control slugs early in the year. So next February, I'm going to be getting out there
13:07with some eco-friendly slug pellets and seeing if that will control the population for the whole of the
13:11summer ahead. So my favourite plant, that is actually an impossible question. I absolutely love
13:22textual plants and with textual plants, grasses in particular, and I would probably say Miscanthus nepolensis.
13:33Key gardening principles, probably the first one absolutely essential is that we care for our soil.
13:40So the soil is our most valuable resource and that means protecting it, particularly in the winter
13:45months, ensuring it's got a cover crop or what I love to use are mulches. Mulches make a garden look
13:49fantastic, but they keep the moisture in and they protect the soil.
13:58Thanks, Catherine. She's absolutely right, you know, caring for your soil is so important for healthy,
14:05happy plants. Don't just bung them in and expect them to grow. They need a little
14:10encouragement. Now, time for a quick break, but still to come, Henry tackles another one of your DIY
14:16gardening questions. This time, he's turning his attention to upcycling. Claire shares her top
14:23styling tips to help you make the most of your indoor plants. And down in Devon, poppy are cotches,
14:29rolling out the welcome map for wildlife with easy ways to turn your garden into a haven for nature.
14:36You won't want to miss it.
14:38Feeding Alfresco with Allentich Marshes Gardening Club, brought to you by Green Thumb Lawn Treatment Service.
14:49Regular watering with Allentich Marshes Gardening Club, brought to you by Green Thumb Lawn Treatment Service.
14:57Welcome back. You know, sometimes the best way to get out into the garden is to start small,
15:19because even the simplest tasks can have the biggest impact. Do you remember those sweet pea seeds
15:26I sowed a couple of weeks ago in these root trainers? Because I was telling you that they're
15:30quite like a long root run. Push the seeds with this pencil into these root trainers. Here we are,
15:36a couple of weeks on. Beautiful young plants. And it's so much promise, isn't it, for the season to come.
15:44And if you're looking for an easy way to refresh your outdoor space, Henry Ag has you covered. In
15:50today's Ask the Gardener, he's turning old materials into something new with some clever upcycling tricks.
15:57We're back in my garden here in East Sussex and I'm ready to tackle another one of your gardening DIY
16:13questions. Now this question comes from June in Stockport and she's asked what to upcycle in your
16:19outside space. Now this is a fantastic question and something I do a lot of as a gardener. There are many
16:25things you can upcycle in the garden from pallets to old Belfast sinks, but coffee sacks are now a
16:32personal favourite of mine. They are brilliant. You can pick them up from a local independent coffee shop
16:38and they come in very handy around the garden. We can use them in a multitude of different ways
16:43and that's what we're going to explore today. Hanging baskets are a great way to use coffee sacks. So
16:55much like you get quad discs, we're going to replicate that but with a coffee sack.
17:05To do this, we need to measure the diameter of our hanging baskets. So I've got a tape measure here
17:13and I've got some string. So this is the best way to just get a quick measure. I'm just going to dip
17:16this string in like this. So it's about here. I'm probably going to add a little bit more so I can
17:22overlap the coffee sack around the edge of the hanging basket but that's the first step. So we're
17:28going to crack on, we're going to get our coffee sack and essentially we're just going to translate
17:33that marker onto our coffee sack.
17:36So I've made my mark, we just need to cut it with a pair of scissors. Now this doesn't have to be
17:45completely accurate and I'm left-handed so I'm making a little bit of a meal out of this but
17:51there we go.
17:55Perfect! We've got our hanging basket liner ready to go. So essentially
18:03what we want to do is push this into our basket like so and then we're going to get some rope.
18:12Here's some I prepared earlier and we're going to tie it round the ridge
18:17of our hanging basket and create a nice bow.
18:26So here I've got a mixture of mushroom compost and peat-free compost. It's really important if you
18:32plant hanging baskets that you've got good moisture retention. So it's not a big space and we want to
18:38make sure that those plants are getting enough moisture, enough nutrients so that's why it's good
18:42to do a little bit of a mix of your growing medium. So we'll just pop half of it in here or a little base.
18:50Now I'm going to put a mixture of different plants. We're going for a spring flowering display. Some of my
18:56favourite plants we've got the primrose just adding that splash of yellow colour. Iris reticulata,
19:02another one of my personal favourites that just contrasts beautifully. So we're going to put those
19:07together and then we've got another one of my favourites. This is a hyacinth and it just smells
19:13absolutely divine. So we're going to put that right in the centre as a little focal point and to finish it
19:19off we have a little ray of sunshine with these narcissists. A dwarf growing daffodil looks absolutely
19:25stunning and then of course we're going to have a little trailer going over the edge of our hanging
19:33basket. So this is just a variegated ivy. We'll just pop it in here. I'm going to get these all
19:38out of their containers and get this planted up and put into position. And there we have it. A
19:50lovely spring flowering display ready to be hung up. Now I use these for making leaf mould. It's
20:08great because the sack itself ends up breaking down with the leaves. And leaf mould is a fantastic
20:15soil conditioner. I add leaf mould to my potting mix for seed sowing. It's just great as an all-round
20:22additive for your planting. As a leaf mould bin they let air in which helps with the decomposition
20:28process and breaking down those leaves. So it really is a much better approach than using a bin liner
20:34where you're stabbing holes in the bottom. This allows moisture in, allows moisture out and it
20:38also allows air in which is really important for making good quality leaf mould. So I'm going to fill
20:44this up then I'm going to place it somewhere out of direct sunlight and then in about six to nine
20:49months time we'll have some beautiful leaf mould to use as our potting mix.
20:59Now when we're coming into winter we need to think about frost protection
21:02and protecting some of our favourite plants in the garden. Now coffee sacks are absolutely perfect
21:08for it. Now if you have a tree fern or something like that you can actually just put the whole coffee
21:13sack over the top of it. But if you've got sensitive plants like salvia for example where frost gets at
21:19the roots then wrapping a sack like this around the base of the plant and that will keep it nice snug and
21:27protected over winter. So now that's all nice and secured around it I'll just add some compost to it
21:34and that will finish the job nicely.
21:43So we're just tucking it in spreading that compost nice and evenly around the base of the plant
21:50and that should be perfect for the winter months.
21:59Now another way I love to use coffee sacks is if I'm moving plants we all have plants sometimes in
22:04the wrong position and we need to transplant them but sometimes we don't know where we want to put them
22:10in the garden so a good thing to do is to heal them in somewhere. So here's a shrub that I had to dig
22:17out to make space for other planting and what I'm going to do is just take it with as much the root
22:22system intact as possible I've filled this bag with compost I'm going to just make it nice and snug
22:28we're going to just make sure the roots are covered with the soil but then that will be perfect just
22:35sitting somewhere until I'm ready to plant it in its new home. Now June hopefully that's answered your
22:42upcycling question and inspired you to try this out at home.
22:51Thanks Henry sound and useful advice and he's quite right upcycling is a brilliant way to breathe new
22:58life into old materials saving money and adding that unique personal touch to your garden as well as
23:05upcycling there's also repurposing this was a cold frame in my garden that I wasn't using very much it
23:11was in the wrong place and I thought what I need is a propagating frame so I've put a mixture in the
23:18bottom of sharp sand and multi-purpose compost soil warming cables underneath with a thermostat
23:25and that way I can root cuttings and get young plants growing and seedlings raised in there as well
23:31it wasn't doing much out there it's doing echo velocity in here now in spring now from one diy enthusiast
23:37me to another this time not just about the garden about an entire wedding it's time to meet our latest
23:45plant fluencer Emma who set herself quite the challenge for her upcoming nuptials
23:51I'm Emma and this year I'm getting married in my grandparents garden and although I'm really
24:04excited about it there is a lot of work to do I was really really fortunate as a child to spend a lot
24:11of time in this amazing garden picking run of beans with my grandpa sowing seeds and even making potions
24:20out of leaves and flowers we all did it so it feels really special to be getting married here
24:26I was very close to my grandparents and when my grandma died my grandpa continued to do what he
24:31could in the garden despite being paralyzed from the waist down he bought himself a raised planter and
24:37filled it with perennials such as geraniums and salvias and even poked in the odd nasturtium seed as well
24:44he loved a nasturtium we had many happy times in this garden and would often
24:50sit around the fire pits on the patio listening to the birds chatting over a cup of tea or even
24:56a cheeky gin and tonic inspired by these happy times outside I now work as a professional gardener
25:02having retrained a few years ago when my grandpa died at the end of 2023 my boyfriend and I decided
25:09that it just felt right to get married in the garden but since he died it has been quite neglected
25:15so we're working really hard to make it what it once was we're planting lots of flowers fixing the
25:20pond sowing a wildflower meadow don't even ask what's going on here and yes we've even had to
25:26get a digger involved find yourself a boyfriend whose dad works for a plow the hire company
25:32one of my biggest projects is to plant up large pots to go along the aisles so I've been collecting
25:38second-hand pots and freebies from the tip and filling them with annuals that I sowed in
25:43the autumn and also any bargains I can find at plant fairs I'm planting things like calendula
25:50sweet peas and gorgeous frothy amy in the hope that it will be the perfect cottage garden isle
25:57maybe a tad ambitious but I love a challenge so watch this space I'm also going to be using grandpa's
26:03raised planter as a little cut flower garden planting more annuals and wildflowers which
26:08I'll hopefully then cut and pop into jam jars I'll of course be poking in the old nasturtium seed too
26:15so fingers crossed they grow even though it's a lot of work I know that my grandparents would be
26:20thrilled to see us bringing the garden back to life and giving it as much love as they once did
26:26I'm excited for you to follow along with our wedding journey and watch our gardening trials and
26:30tribulations ahead of our big day thanks Emma gosh I'll have to buy a hat we'll be following
26:37a wedding and gardening journey throughout the series our very first gardening club wedding
26:42who knew love could blossom quite so literally mind you most people just book the venue and go
26:49we're invested in it now aren't we time now to put the kettle on but coming up in just a few minutes
26:54claire's back with her houseplant styling essentials see you in a moment soaking up the sunshine
27:01with alan titch marshes gardening club brought to you by green thumb lawn treatment service
27:10digging the weekend with alan titch marshes gardening club brought to you by green thumb lawn treatment
27:17service welcome back to my gardening club and to my own garden now at this time of year many of us
27:30start turning our attention to the great outdoors but we shouldn't forget the greenery we can enjoy
27:35inside too houseplants can bring life to any room but where you place them and how you style them can make
27:43all the difference luckily our houseplant expert claire's on hand to share her favorite styling essentials
27:56if you watch my last houseplant tutorial then you can probably tell that i have now moved house
28:03we opted to move everything ourselves so after carefully wrapping
28:08and packing my 300 plants we arrived at our new house
28:19ready to turn these empty rooms into my houseplant haven
28:26and besides the plants that you might be able to see behind me this space here actually isn't feeling
28:31very planty at the moment so i thought it was a good time to kind of jungle-ify my living room a little bit
28:36and take you through some styling tips
28:42so the first tip is to use big statement plants to kind of give that jungly vibe to the space
28:48and these euphorbias here for example are not only very very spiky but have quite specific hair
28:54requirements and right here they're getting the perfect amount of light they need whilst also being
28:59very protected you're not going to catch yourself on them or anything like that and you'll notice that
29:04they are right by the radiator and this is therefore quite a low humidity spot and there's not a lot
29:10of my plants that would do well here however these ones absolutely love it
29:18i find a really good way to help your space feel really really planty without adding in hundreds of
29:24plants is to put your plants on different levels have some kind of trailing down others climbing up
29:30and placing them in spots where they're going to look really really beautiful but also thrive
29:35and be really happy
29:42using low light plants to fill dark corners is also a really nice way to just add a little bit of
29:47dynamic to your room as you can see this one here's got really vibrant bright green leaves and just
29:52helps to brighten that area a little bit and i've deliberately left this space quite clear because i don't
29:58want to just turn it into a sea of green i think i'll probably break this up with putting some
30:02artwork there or something because it just allows me to appreciate the plants where they are
30:14by placing higher light plants such as this alacasia on the windowsill it not only looks gorgeous but
30:20also helps to bridge the gap between the outdoors and the indoors by having lots of plants around the
30:25window it almost tricks your brain into thinking that you've got a lovely green view outside
30:30i sometimes use vines as well to trail around the window space because i just think it looks lovely
30:40and finally one of the styling tips that i really like to use is creating and making your
30:45own plant decor and for this i'm going to take you through into one of the spaces in my new home that
30:49i have spent days putting together you'll see a lot of the tips that i've already shared in this
30:54space on a much crazier level
31:03so as you can probably see behind me this is the start of my jungle space all coming together and
31:09i am absolutely loving it i'm finding it so much fun but one of the things that i really like to do
31:16is this is making my own plant pots and plant hangers and revamping them to kind of give this kind
31:21of rustic look and put my own spin on things it's also obviously a much cheaper option than buying
31:27plant pots and it's much more sustainable as well you can use absolutely anything you like to do this
31:32but i usually just go for macrame cord or something like this and i like to just stick it down with my
31:38glue gun so i'll just run some glue along the pot stick it down and then keep going it's just a wonderful
31:50way to add a personal touch to your plant collection and make it feel very unique
32:00now obviously it's up to you what you do with it you can just put it on the shelf as is like this or
32:05you can decorate it and add a little bit more personality to it but today i think i'm going to
32:10turn this one into a hanging pot so that i can display my plant up high there are a few different
32:15ways you could do hangers as well but there's two i find the easiest i'm just going to measure
32:21a piece around about that so i'm just going to chop it in half so i've got two pieces of string
32:28and then i'm just going to make a cross on the table again i'm just doing this off i roughly where
32:35the middle looks and then when i'm about happy i'm just going to put a little blob of glue
32:41to just secure those two pieces and then all you do you just pop your pot into the middle
32:48and again just to make sure it's really secure you're just going to glue
32:51these little bits to the side there just to hold it in place
32:55and you're going to do this on every single side
33:09and when that's all stuck down and you're happy with it you just get all of your pieces
33:16and just tie them in a knot and if you're going to be hanging something very heavy you might want
33:21to tie another knot or maybe just put a little bit more glue on there to secure it but i'm pretty
33:26happy with that
33:38over the next few days i settle in more of my 300 house plants and i'm excited to see them with fresh eyes
33:45but one thing i'm often asked is whether there's a plant that i love the most
33:54picking just one favorite house plant is genuinely really really difficult there are so many that i
34:00could talk about but the one that i always come back to because i am unbelievably proud of it is my
34:06anthurium pallidiflorum which has just got the most beautiful velvety leaves i love the white vein as
34:14well it's just perfect and this one is native to the rainforests of ecuador and it's what's known
34:20as an epiphytic plant meaning that it doesn't actually grow out of the ground in its natural
34:24environment it typically grows attached to trees shrubs rocks other things like that so when you're
34:31potting this plant you need to kind of think about that and how you can replicate it so i've grown it
34:36in lots of things like bark perlite kind of a really nice chunky mix that doesn't actually contain
34:43that much soil at all and this plant is very quick to grow in the right conditions i've got a little
34:50one here and i'm hoping by this time next year maybe this one will be at the same stage but the
34:56other thing i'm really excited about with my anthurium pallidiflorum at the moment is potentially
35:01pollinating it because it has started giving me inflorescences which are essentially kind of like
35:06flowers these things here and you do that by collecting the pollen that it produces and i will
35:12show you how i do that i just get some kitchen foil and if you look very very closely in here you can see
35:20some of the pollen that i've collected already and i will just pop my inflorescence into that so i just
35:27brush the pollen into the tin foil and i'll keep doing this pretty much every single day while the plant is
35:35still producing pollen and then to store it i just very carefully fold my tin foil up and then i pop it
35:43into a freezer bag with some little silica gel things to absorb moisture and i will actually store
35:52this in the freezer until my plant is ready to pollinate and i've got a brand new inflorescence just
35:59here that is about to open hopefully in the next few days and when that opens up it will it would
36:04look very wet and essentially producing something called stigmatic fluid and this means that it's
36:10receptive and when that time comes i will grab my pollen put it all over that and then hopefully
36:15fingers crossed the plant will be pollinated i have tried it with this one as well it's too
36:20seem to tell whether or not it's worked but if it has the plant will start to produce lots of berries
36:25that i can then plant and i'll have lots of this plant i think the great thing about this plant is
36:30that it is just a fantastic talking point like when people come over it's a very it's a very unusual
36:35looking plant it's one that people want to know lots about it is just one that honestly i could
36:41not recommend highly enough it is so rewarding to grow beautiful to look at and very very easy to care for
36:48as well some great tips there just goes to show that a little thought and creativity can turn house
37:03plants into real statement pieces in your home and of course they bring all the benefits of greenery
37:09indoors too a healthy atmosphere time now for a quick break but coming up in our final part
37:16poppy are conscious back and she's showing us why welcoming wildlife into our gardens
37:22is something we should all be embracing see you shortly
37:27growing outside with alan titch marsh's gardening club brought to you by green thumb lawn treatment service
37:37watching them blossom
37:39with alan titch marsh's gardening club brought to you by green thumb lawn treatment service
37:50welcome back to the final part of today's gardening club and to a part of gardening that's not just
37:56rewarding for us but there you are it's a pheasant for wildlife too a garden isn't just a place for
38:03plants it's a sanctuary for wildlife from bees buzzing along the blooms to hedgehogs shuffling through
38:09the undergrowth and birds every creature plays its part in creating a healthy thriving ecosystem and
38:17that's something poppy okotcha is truly passionate about she's back with more eco gardening techniques
38:23to help you welcome wildlife into your outdoor space
38:37as temperatures are warming pollinators are waking up but there's not necessarily an abundance of flowers
38:42out this time of year in my garden i try and ensure there's flowers here most of the year round whether
38:48that's primroses and snowdrops and crocuses in early spring or the bluebells and the apple blossom in
38:53later spring i'm now also going to be planting some wild flowers into the meadow area to flower later in the year
39:04i've got wild carrot i've got yarrow and i've got some oxide daisy already in the ground
39:09now wildflowers don't like rich soil but they do need a sunny spot now in the next few months this area
39:15is going to be completely transformed some of it towers even higher than me and it will be humming
39:20with hoverflies and bees there's something incredibly moving about being able to offer
39:25wildlife an oasis in the form of a garden
39:32this time of year can be challenging for birds too with the berries from autumn all finished and low
39:37temperatures meaning that insects may not have emerged yet it can be thin pickings so i like to make
39:42them a bird seed fat brick and this is made using a fat for example coconut oil or lard and a variety
39:48of seeds and grains so in here i've got things like lentils and oats and corn i've got flat seeds
39:54as well there's lots of recipes online you can find recipes in books too i'm very lucky here in
40:00this location in the town we don't actually have squirrels but if you do have squirrels you may want
40:04to put your bird feed in a feeder rather than just out in a bowl springtime is a great time to plant up
40:14a pond it gives the plants time to establish themselves and then flower later in the year
40:18ponds are incredible places for wildlife of course all life needs water and so they encourage all sorts
40:23of creatures into the garden from insects to birds ponds don't have to be big you can have a small pond
40:28like this one and you can even place them on the surface of the ground you have to dig them in
40:32in a container or a barrel as long as there's an entry and exit point life will come in my pond i've
40:38just planted some native water plants so i've got a water forget me not here so this will come up in
40:44really beautiful little blue flowers and it spreads out quite a lot it's a really lovely plant for the
40:49pond now this is marsh marigold it doesn't look like much but it has the most beautiful yellow goblet
40:55flowers and really beautiful circular leaves as well and lastly mint now this is a mint that you can
41:02eat it will spread around the edge of the pond again it has really beautiful flowers later in
41:07the year again it looks very small but it will grow very quickly mint is a very energetic grower
41:16so these plants have arrived in the post without pots so i'm going to plant them up into the pots i've
41:20already got in the pond i'm going to make sure to plant them up to the line that they were planted
41:24up before so covering all of their roots if your plants do arrive in pots or if you buy them in the
41:29garden center you just want to gently lower them into the pond being careful not to disturb the
41:33soil too much and leave them at the correct depth for the type of plant you've got whatever you put
41:38in your pond is up to you but i would really encourage you to grow native pond plants because
41:42they're just so great for wildlife obviously once you've planted them in you don't need to water them
41:46because they're in water
41:54thanks poppy reminding us there that every single part of a garden pond is its own little ecosystem
42:00from the depths and the water lilies to those marginal aquatics and the bog plants and every
42:06form of wildlife seems to use a pond including the birds but what they also like of course is food and
42:13i can't tell you how much it cost me a week in seed but they're worth it seed in this one peanuts in
42:21that one balls of fat in one over there and pheasants below getting what everybody else has left and
42:28dropped on the ground time to go down the garden path courtesy of aid cellars now and today we're meeting
42:34andrew timothy o'brien as he visits one of his favorite green spaces
42:45my name is andrew timothy o'brien i'm a gardener a writer and a garden coach
42:53this is one of my favorite spaces it's the garden of lizzie and nev um they've been building this place
43:01for over 10 years now and i've been helping them out with it for nearly as long when they first came
43:08here it was just a field really with the remnants of a hazelnut plant on it and now they've sort of
43:15extended the garden ever closer towards the back still with a big meadow area and it's this lovely
43:22mix that we keep sort of teetering on the edge of nature taking back over so it's kind of this blend
43:28of formal and informal with these beautiful semi-disciplined hedges of box and of you mostly
43:35although it is kind of mixed and then we have the beds for the vegetables and the ornamentals that are
43:40allowed to run a little bit wild we just sort of gently tweak away at the edges as the nettles
43:46and the brambles sort of start to make their way back in it's a lovely space working outside in nature
43:53for me is a non-negotiable now um i realize it took me a while to discover that i think i'd had a number
44:01of indoor office jobs for years really after i graduated a lot of perfectly nice companies but
44:08it became obvious that i wasn't really flourishing in that sort of office environment and eventually i
44:15realized that more than just being a nice place to have walks at the weekend the outside had some
44:23energy to it that i really needed to incorporate into my everyday working life so being amongst
44:31plants and uh the wildlife and feeling the breeze on my skin and the rain on my head so gardening
44:40seemed like a sensible way to go the natural world inspires me i mean there's plenty of gardeners who are
44:48far better than me who inspire me and i look at the way that they go about the business of horticulture
44:53and think ah i can pick up tips from there and what a lovely relationship they have with their plants
44:58but i think what really gives me that inspiration and gets me out there is just to look at this
45:05unremitting drive that plants have to grow and to clothe the soil that we have with green and life
45:14and energy um and to be a gardener you get to play around with that and you sort of get welcomed into
45:22it it's like you're not needed but nature says yeah okay you can come on we can sort of you know have a
45:29bit of a tussle um you can even tell this plant how you want it to grow for a bit you know sort of clip
45:37it and train it and you're feeling very chuffed with yourself with all of your efforts and you
45:42sort of look up and see what the natural world is doing without any of your help and you think
45:47okay i've got a bit further to go so yeah that's where i get my inspiration from i suppose you'd like
45:53to think that your garden would be your gardening legacy but the truth is gardens don't need linger
45:57for very long uh once you've gone gardens are a relationship between the gardener and the natural
46:03world and you know when the gardener's gone it's time for someone else to move in
46:09so i think my legacy will be quite short-lived um would be that i encouraged people
46:19and helped them feel less scared about getting involved with plants and about the whole business
46:27of gardening so that would be my legacy just a general garden encourager
46:35a lovely way to finish up today's gardening club and once again our team have been all over
46:41bringing plenty of inspiration and expert advice henry shared his upcycling top tips proving that old
46:48materials can have a whole new life in the garden camilla headed to wales in search of color and she
46:55certainly found it claire showed that styling isn't just for wardrobes with her top houseplant styling
47:02tips and poppy offered some brilliant advice on how to welcome wildlife into your green spaces whatever
47:09their size i'll see you next time for more tips tricks and insights from our gardening club till then
47:16whatever the weather enjoy your garden
47:35so
47:46alan titch marsh's gardening club brought to you by green thumb