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Gardeners' World Season 58 Episode 16
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00:00But also, this show is massive, and I get home each time and I realise that I've missed some.
00:07So I think we need a plan.
00:09OK. I mean, I'm up for a plan, but isn't it quite nice sometimes not to have one?
00:14And then you just see what you encounter, there's so much more spontaneous,
00:19you know, the vibe of the festival, it can be soaked up.
00:23OK, I'm going to step in here just to keep the peace, right?
00:26So we're going to do a little bit of soaking up of the atmosphere.
00:30Yeah.
00:31And lots of marching around making sure we see everything.
00:33You know what I love about you?
00:34Because there's masses.
00:35I love the fact that you're just always diplomatic.
00:38At least we'll miss less if we do it that way, I think.
00:41This is true.
00:44Welcome to Gardener's World from Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival.
00:49Just how big is this festival?
00:52Over 30 acres.
00:53Really?
00:54Yeah.
00:55There are 13 show gardens this year and more than a hundred exhibitors,
00:59you know, nursery men and women who just know everything about plants.
01:03It's going to be fantastic.
01:04And roses!
01:05I knew you were going to forget the roses.
01:07See, not only are you diplomatic, you're also...
01:10Yes, a fanatic.
01:12Yeah.
01:13So, here's a little taste as to what makes this flower show so special and what we're about to enjoy in the next hour.
01:24So, here's a cool place.
01:25Namaste.
01:26Come on!
01:27Oh, beautiful.
01:32Hampton Court Palace, a royal setting for the summer celebration of gardening.
01:34Featuring this season's hottest plants, colours and design held in the majestic Deer Park.
01:41It really feels like a festival, the sun's shining, there's happy faces everywhere, there's ice cream being eaten.
01:49Across the site, gardens are set to impress, giving everything from stylish outdoor vibes to natural havens.
01:57We love the excitement of the show and we're hoping that this little one will grow up to love it too.
02:02I love this show so much, I've been coming for 20 years, there's something here for everybody.
02:11We'll be meeting one of the designers who's added a wild twist to their garden, in the hope of encouraging some very charming guests.
02:21Hedgehogs are classified as vulnerable to extinction, so they really need our help.
02:27So as gardeners, I think there's a lot we can do.
02:30For many, the main stage at this event is the floral marquine, brimming with seasonal blooms, rare specimens and heady scent.
02:41We'll be catching up with a first-time exhibitor and British flower farmer who's showing off her seasonal cut flowers for the very first time.
02:50They just want to please you.
02:52I feel very similar to dahlias as I feel about my spaniel.
02:55And with a backdrop this glamorous, you can expect a few show-stopping surprises and familiar faces on your way.
03:04I think Hampton is the one that you could most closely compare to the sort of, the glastonery of garden festivals.
03:11We'll meet a couple bringing flavour, colour and a bit of fiery heat to this year's festival.
03:20What I like about chillies is that people become really fanatical about them.
03:25Once you get hooked, you just want to keep growing more of it, which works well for us.
03:29It's a show with feel-good energy.
03:34Right, I'm too excited. I can't wait any longer. I'm going to see roses.
03:59And I'll see you later. Enjoy.
04:02What should we do?
04:03Do you fancy some show gardens?
04:05Yeah, come on.
04:05All right.
04:06Come on.
04:12This is a pretty lovely show garden to be standing in, isn't it?
04:15If I had to use one word to describe this, I would say elegant.
04:20I think that's a very good word, actually.
04:22I'd take romantic as well.
04:24This water, on a day like this, you just want to get in it.
04:27And the sound of it's obviously quite a dramatic element of this garden as well.
04:31It is, if you close your eyes.
04:33Yeah.
04:33Sound.
04:34But then every now and then, you get a waft of that track of the spanner.
04:38Yeah, in this hot weather, it's really oozing its fragrance, isn't it?
04:41So ticking all the senses, you know.
04:43Yeah, massively.
04:44I mean, the planting is very exquisite.
04:48But it's like, you know, really minimal palette, limited.
04:50So you've got kind of whites, purples and blues.
04:54And I like the way the shapes are quite striking in the actual plants.
04:57You've got these spires of the veronic astrum and salvia.
04:59And then lots of umbels playing against it.
05:02For me as well, I really love the materials.
05:06I just think they set the tone.
05:08And sometimes when you use light surfaces on a day like this, the light bounces.
05:12Yeah, I agree.
05:13But actually, it's soaking it up.
05:14And that adds to that, as you described.
05:18It's a romantic thing.
05:26Well, I have found a bohemian balcony to rest on.
05:32I love this garden.
05:34I could have this garden.
05:35I feel like I should now be singing to you.
05:38I'd rather you didn't.
05:40I won't, I promise you.
05:42I'm trying to count up the different materials.
05:44You know, everything's sort of reclaimed.
05:46And you feel like, first of all, there's maybe too many.
05:50But actually, in reality, it works.
05:52Why do you think that is?
05:54Ultimately, it's driven by that colour.
05:55You've got that dark cork that's picked up.
05:58But then also, the use of textures really sit well together.
06:01And I love that what this gives is a sort of warmth of history and humanity.
06:06Like, these shutters.
06:08These have had a life, you know.
06:09These are somebody's.
06:10This chair.
06:11Everything in this garden feels like somebody has loved it.
06:14And then it's been built with that love kind of as part of its bones.
06:19Because you could say the same about the planting, couldn't you?
06:21Yes, you definitely could.
06:23It's not got one cohesive style.
06:25Yeah.
06:26You know, someone's gone out and they've gone,
06:28Oh, you know what?
06:28I really like GMs.
06:29I'll get that.
06:29Oh, that's a nice echinacea.
06:30That's a nice Chinese licorice.
06:32That's unusual.
06:33Let's have that.
06:34And then they've shoved it all together.
06:35And somehow it feels like just a person has done this.
06:39Bath on the balcony.
06:40I mean, I hadn't thought of it before.
06:42I suppose it depends what your neighbours are like.
06:45But I'm up for it.
06:48I think at that point, we'll move on, shall we?
06:50I think we should.
07:02What do you think?
07:03This is nice.
07:03This is right up your street.
07:05But I love the wall.
07:07It's called a jally wall.
07:09That idea of you're being wrapped.
07:11It creates this amazing atmosphere in here.
07:14It's like a modern iteration of a walled garden.
07:17This is my kind of planting thing.
07:19I love it.
07:20You know, it's full temperate rainforest, but with, you know, digitalis.
07:24And I love the devil's bit scabious.
07:26It's one of my favourite plants.
07:27But then all the ferns.
07:28I mean, ultimately, this garden's talking about that loss of temperate rainforest.
07:32But seeing it represented in this way, A, yeah, it raises awareness, but it's so modern.
07:37Yeah.
07:38I love the contemporary representation of it with this really blocky, geometric, hard landscaping.
07:43You know, interestingly, when we talk about habitats, the one thing that I love that keeps catching my eye is the little Ketalia patches.
07:50Just a reminder that not all our ground needs to be covered in planting.
07:55With that, the walls are filled with insect habitat because of the holes that keep the temperature down.
08:00That's right.
08:00And that's their design.
08:02Yeah.
08:02But they double up as insect habitat.
08:03So there is provision here, not just for plants.
08:05Yeah.
08:05Can we just sort of stay?
08:07I see why that's tempting.
08:10But no.
08:11Let's go and see some more gardens.
08:12I knew you were going to say that.
08:23Ah, now this is a real treat for me because July at Hampton Court means roses.
08:31And it's so beautiful being surrounded by all this fragrance and colour.
08:36But there's a new rose this year that I've come to take a closer look at.
08:40This is Linda Lee.
08:43Really beautiful.
08:44Shrub rose.
08:46Fairly compact, so it's good in a pot but also would look good towards the front part of the border.
08:52And I love that dark green, really healthy looking foliage.
08:56And the flowers are so beautiful in buds.
08:59Small buds, pale peach.
09:01And then they open, they get a little bit more pink in the colour as well.
09:04And then as they fully open, you've got this nice shaped flower that the stamens are on show.
09:10So really good for pollinators to access in the centre.
09:14It's gorgeous to look at.
09:16And I'm told it smells as good as it looks.
09:20It's light, fruity and perfect.
09:28Always such a joy to see a new rose.
09:31Now over in the Floral Marquis, a British flower grower is making their debut here at Hampton Court.
09:38And we went and visited them a few days ago to see how they were getting on with their preparations for the show.
09:44Dahlia's are my absolute love.
09:52There's just something about them.
09:55It's the way they're so architecturally perfect.
09:59They put on a massive show-stopping display and they're fabulous cut flowers.
10:04I mean, what can you not love about something that opens and is so pretty as this?
10:09I'm Rachel Golding-Barrett and I'm the owner of the Tetbury Flower Company and we are a flower farm and nursery in the South Cotswolds.
10:22We're a relatively new flower farm.
10:25This is only our third commercial season.
10:30We're a specialist in tulips and dahlias.
10:33We are just over an acre and we grow all sorts of complementary flowers so that we can supply British seasonal flowers from March through to the first frost in October.
10:45Ever since I was a child, I've always been growing.
10:50So whether it's a metre squared patch or whether it's a border in a garden.
10:55I got into cut flowers because people started asking me with the dahlias,
10:59can I have some stems for a local church?
11:02Can I have some stems for a party?
11:04And I'd happily cut them.
11:06To be able to go out and cut a bouquet of flowers for your kitchen table,
11:10that sense of beauty and satisfaction is what we're trying to help people with.
11:16Going to Hampton Court is a big challenge for us.
11:21I'm not going to lie, there have been times when I've been thinking,
11:25oh, are we going to pull this off?
11:28But for me, the most important thing is the plants and the flowers look in good condition.
11:32These are our show dahlias that we've produced for Hampton Court.
11:38You can see that some of them are just coming into bud now.
11:41This one here, this is a vanna.
11:43This should be about this big.
11:44So this is just at the start of its flowering journey.
11:49Overall, we estimated that we would need about 120 plants.
11:55And I think we've probably grown about 500 to get those 120.
11:59This is all about being a new exhibitor.
12:05And I'm sure with more experience, we wouldn't be doing it on this scale.
12:10Here on the farm, we grow 55 different types of dahlias.
12:14What I think is so incredible about them is that they do work as a cut flower and in the garden.
12:22This dahlias is Arabian night.
12:25This is a small flowered decorative, very, very dark petal colour.
12:30And the reason we're taking this one to Hampton Court is because it flowers first.
12:34And it's not unusual to see this in flower in June.
12:37It's also got a very long stem length, which is great for a cut flower.
12:41They love the heat.
12:43So they're doing particularly well this year because it's been so hot.
12:48What it does mean is that a few more dahlias will be open than I previously thought a month ago.
12:55This is our Cotswold salmon.
12:56This is the one that we've bred.
12:57Look, there's a little butterfly on there.
13:00The reason why this one's so special to me is because this throws up a lot of stems.
13:06It lasts brilliantly in the vase.
13:08It creates great tubers at the end of the season.
13:11And it's perfect in a border.
13:13So we do grow this as a cut flower.
13:15We do cut it a lot.
13:16From one plant in the season, I'll be cutting 10 stems from this.
13:19I love the fact that they're such triers.
13:24Any plant that's not too precious, flowers its socks off and really, really, really does its best for you.
13:34You can't ask better than that.
13:36It's a bit like a dog.
13:37They just want to please you.
13:43I feel very similar to dahlias as I feel about my spaniel.
13:49It's just so stupid.
13:51I think the thing about going to Hampton Court is it's the most beautiful show I think I've ever been to.
14:05This is our mock-up display.
14:07This is the second time that we've actually mocked up this stand.
14:11Inside here is a stable bucket and some chicken wire.
14:15And around the bucket it is supported by some packing.
14:21So this is a totally foam-free arrangement just using two simple mechanics.
14:28And you can see with the foliage and how it sort of branches and everything.
14:31That then gives you your stability.
14:34Everything that's going on that display has been grown here on the farm.
14:39Either the show plants that we potted up a couple of months ago
14:42or, if we're short, we're going to go and dig them up out of the field.
14:46The fact that we're going to Hampton Court so soon after we've set up
14:50is just testament to how much demand there is for British flowers.
14:55I love growing the flowers.
14:57I love having people here on the farm.
14:59I love seeing people's face when they come to pick up their buckets of flowers.
15:08And I think going to Hampton Court, it's a validation that all the hard work is worth it.
15:15I love growing the flowers, but hopefully it's going to make a difference.
15:17There's some really good ideas on the farm.
15:18Thank you for joining us.
15:19And it's a validation that I've worked with.
15:20And the people have made it very similar to my family.
15:21I think it's sort of a case of the garden, it's the garden, it's the garden, it's the garden.
15:23There's a dusk and the garden, there's a garden on the farm.
15:33Hello. Wow, what a display. I'd love some really good tips for cutting dahlias. So when should we
15:41be doing it and how? What you want to be doing is looking for 40 centimetres down on your cutting
15:46grade dahlias and cutting just above a leaf node and then that will spur the plant to bush out and
15:52before you know it you've got multiple stems coming off one plant. So in terms of when you
15:56cut them, we tend to cut very early in the morning. There is a rule that you shouldn't cut cut flowers
16:01if you can feel the sun on the back of your head. We cut very early at about five o'clock in the
16:05morning but I realise that's not realistic for everybody. So the best advice I can give people
16:09is to cut into water. It's just best not to cut in full sun because it doesn't give them the best
16:14vase life. Well I notice a very nice medal there. Does that mean we're going to see you back again?
16:19Well the RHS is actually moving this show to Badminton next year which is right on our doorstep
16:25so we're less than a mile from where the show site is but yeah I hope we'll be back. Excellent well I'll
16:30look forward to seeing you. I think you've done a fantastic job. Congratulations. Thank you so much.
16:35Even after all these years of creating gardens it still blows my mind the moment you start adding flowers
16:49as how quick in my life to find them. Look in here. Some hover flies and there's bees stopping around.
16:58And on that note there's a young designer who's putting a wild twist onto his pocket garden border
17:04hopefully to attract a very special guest although that guest is vulnerable to extinction.
17:12As much as we think we own them gardens are essentially a shared space with us and wildlife.
17:25I love seeing all the birds. All the insects pollinating and feeding off these flowers here.
17:34Such a hopeful like joyous feeling. It just feels right you know we should be encouraging as much nature as
17:41we can in all parts of our gardens. My name is Henry T Pope and I'm garden designer based in Bristol.
17:51I live with my girlfriend just around the corner from here.
17:58When I do have a garden of my own I'd love for it to be similar to the garden I'm creating for Hampton Court
18:04with deep borders, lots of wildflowers and a water source to help wildlife.
18:11I'm a big fan of all wildlife but the hedgehog's got a special place in my heart so what I've wanted
18:17to do with this design is make a garden which is mainly for hedgehogs. It's heartbreaking to know
18:24that the hedgehog numbers are declining in the UK so I'm really hoping that my garden will help
18:29encourage people to help support them. So you can see here we've got quite deep planting border with
18:35lots of perennials which are popping up through this kind of mass of planting. I've also got some
18:41log piles to attract insects and I've got a wonderful hedgehog house made lovingly for me by one of my
18:47mum's neighbours Chris which is going to be a real feature of the show and I'm really excited to show off.
18:52Seeing hedgehogs in your garden is just such an amazing experience. I think a lot of people go
19:02through life living in the UK in the cities not realising how close they are.
19:10This is my friend Lucy's garden. She volunteers with the BS3 hedgehog project and they try and do as
19:15much as they can to support and educate about hedgehogs. Her garden here is a haven and she gets
19:22hedgehog visitors every evening so hopefully if we're patient and we hang about long enough we
19:27might get to see some later. What makes this garden so good is its relaxed approach to gardening.
19:38Letting your grass grow long as you can see around me is great for wildlife. If you have got a lawn
19:44consider like leaving either some of it or all of it or you could mow the edges which still makes it feel
19:50neat and tidy but it means that the longer grass is providing pretty habitat for hedgehogs to move
19:56freely around but also allows some wild flowers and things to pop up. This is just your bog standard
20:04lawn grass and just being left grow long creates this amazing visual impact. You've got these kind
20:10of swaying around which are beautiful. We've got plums, we've got pears, we've got cherries, got lots of
20:17different varieties of fruit and trees. Not only do they flower but they provide fruit for birds and
20:22insects to eat on which then will also provide more food for hedgehogs. Hedgehogs are omnivores and
20:32they can forage up to a mile each night. Hedging is particularly good because it means they can move
20:38freely between gardens. It also provides cover and shelter for them. If you don't have any hedges in your
20:44garden and you've just got fences something which you can do is you can put a small hole maybe in
20:50the corners of the fences. Obviously it's really good to talk to your neighbours firstly about that.
20:54You only need 13 by 13 centimetres. This means that the hedgehogs will be able to move freely throughout
21:00all the gardens. It's coming out. The hedgehog's just there.
21:12Oh it's getting even closer.
21:29Hedgehogs are classified as vulnerable to extinction so they really need our help. So as gardeners I think
21:35there's a lot we can do. It's really uplifting to be able to see this garden's providing an ecosystem
21:42rich enough to support such life. The more gardens we can have like this that are encouraging wildlife,
21:50the more we can see them thrive in our cities.
21:57Seeing this hedgehog tonight has really inspired me. I'm really excited to get to Hampton Court and start
22:03planting.
22:15Well Henry you've done it. This is a garden that's beautiful full of flowers. I can see that there's
22:19insects absolutely everywhere. How have you made this about the hedgehogs? What about this garden
22:24would appeal to them? Open pollinator friendly plants are always great to create this ecosystem for hedgehogs
22:29but here I've made sure that we've got a fair few shrubs. So I've used Cornus alba cyberica. This is a
22:35deciduous shrub. It means it's going to drop its leaves each year which is micro habitats for insects
22:40also potential nesting materials for hedgehogs but also provides cover. So if you've got some shrubs and
22:46stuff having that kind of canopy for them to hide under is ideal. And then alongside the shrubs I've got a few
22:52plants that have kind of like lateral growth. I've got some of the geraniums. I've got azure rush which is a sister of
22:57Roseanne essentially and like they're just jamsias which offer the vertical height but also that kind
23:02of bushy growth that hedgehogs can like snuffle their way through. And what's the best way to maintain
23:06a garden when you're thinking about hedgehogs? I mean the first thing to do is not use any pesticides
23:10or herbicides especially when it comes to like slug pellets or things like that. So obviously as we
23:14know hedgehogs gardeners best friends eating slugs. We don't want to have any kind of poison in there.
23:19There's also water which is really helpful for any wildlife. This one's just an upturned dustbin lid with some
23:25stones in it and so even just using that all the insects who's in that week the hedgehogs can use
23:28that. There's nothing too deep that hedgehogs can fall in not be able to get out but yeah that's
23:32that's a key part of any wildlife garden. But it's your first ever show garden. Yeah it's been great
23:37I've really enjoyed it and I'm honored to have a silver gilt medal. Well done.
23:39Henry's garden is just one of these pocket planting borders and they are full of ideas that we can
23:58take home and use in our own gardens like this one. It's beautiful it's full of exquisite blues whites and
24:04purple planting but what I really love are these bamboo features. They add verticals to the overall
24:10design. They look lovely but they have a function. These fill up with rain waters that will slowly
24:16seep away and water all the plants in the area so it's a really good water storage solution as well
24:21as looking very very stylish. This garden is filled with a sort of burned umbery orange palette which I
24:38really like but it goes very well with the thing I love which is reclaimed bricks. I have them all
24:43through my own garden. I also do pottery but this is a whole other step there's earthenware clay that's
24:50been formed into faces and ears on the ends of the bricks and then fired. I just think it's really
24:55cool. I love how some of them are looking at each other and some of them are asleep and you know
25:00there's character with reclaimed things but these have actual characters which is rather lovely.
25:05We're used to seeing gravel gardens now they're becoming more and more common but this is a proper
25:22coastal garden and I love a coastal garden it reminds me of home. This has got some lovely shells
25:28actually in the gravel that really brings you to the seaside and brings the seaside to you if you were
25:32to put something like this in your own garden but it's got some lovely coastal flora. There's sea
25:36hollies, there's cornflowers which I know from experience will grow very well right by the sea.
25:42So if you wanted to bring a little bit of holiday to your own home you couldn't go wrong with something
25:46like that. You need to look at that. It's a late flower in Allium called Allium red mohican and it starts
26:05as that beautiful tight drumstick and as it ages it pops at the top and you get that mohican and yeah it
26:13stops you in your tracks and you think yeah I want to take that home but what I would say is slow down
26:17a minute. Don't just run to the counter and buy that. Look at the plants around it. You've got
26:22Rhyngium called Yuccafolium and that's got a smaller head on it but lovely colour tones and then at the
26:27back there you've got an Aggies statue which is called Blackadder and then the grasses coming up through
26:34that scene is perfection so really what's making that Allium star is three other plants so if you're
26:44looking look at the group not just that individual but although yes I go home with a boot full of plants
26:53when I come to this show it's also a wonderful place for me just to catch up with friends and growers
27:02that I have known for years. Now I'm off to see Rob and Rosie Hardy who for me are celebrating something
27:12rather special.
27:16I cannot believe you have been coming to this show creating these beautiful displays for 35 years is
27:24that right? It is and I can't believe it either. I have no idea where that time has gone.
27:30So whose idea was the first one when you had that conversation?
27:35I knew you were going to do that. At that time what was the nursery set up?
27:40This it was at the back of our garden we had a little semi-detached with one of those really long
27:46180 yard long gardens and it was just covered in pots that was it we did our first two Hampton
27:52courts from that back garden. So that was two years in that was 92 1992 yeah second display yeah and that
28:00was the that's the gold medal yeah so that was your first gold medal here yeah what has changed for you
28:07as far as sort of plants how you view this show you know what we plant in our gardens you know I've always
28:12said you've got to plant for the situation that you've got in your garden I've always been that you
28:18know right plant right place do with what you've got and you can make life easy and you can create
28:24wonderful gardens. So one plant that is on there that's going to be the star of the show this year?
28:30I would say it's going to be the Anastodonte El Rayo and it flowers all year round.
28:34Just keeps going. I've had it in flower with snow on top of it so you can keep it
28:39smaller by being mean or you can have it bigger but you have to prune and people hate that
28:44because they have to cut it when it's got flour on it. Yeah let's not leave him out. Oh well he has
28:50something else he enjoys and likes. The one I like is Oanothra what used to be called Gora. Yeah it
28:56likes well-drained soil sunny position and this one is one that Rosie bred so it goes up to about four
29:02feet tall. Rosie Rob more than anything I'm looking forward to the next 35 months. I don't know I'll be
29:11pushing up daisies. You won't you won't you'll still be here doing it you will. It would be nice
29:17I must admit I do love being at the shows and meeting all the people coming through are looking
29:22for plants to put into their gardens. Brilliant.
29:25When you step inside this garden your eye is immediately drawn upwards and it's a very good
29:40reminder that for many of us our fences and walls take up a huge portion of the view up to a third
29:48in some cases. So it's a great idea to use those spaces as part of our planting schemes and that's
29:54what this garden does. Now there is an effect called urban heat islands and that is the idea
30:01that in our urban spaces towns and cities the temperature is a lot higher. That's partly because
30:07there's less wind to cool things down but also when the sun bakes stone and concrete it really warms up
30:14and that heat is retained especially at night time so at night time it can be up to seven degrees warmer
30:20in a city than it would be in a countryside. But if you add plants that effect is really reduced.
30:27Now this green wall is planted in containers and it has to cope with a lot of shade when it's vertical
30:33so things like mulumbeckia, ferns, haconicloas and ivy are all very able to do that. But what I love about
30:41this is there's some really interesting additional species so things like phatsias, aces and lovely
30:48sephoras that will all grow out to be quite big shrubs or even small trees and reach out just like
30:54they're growing on a natural cliff place so in years to come this will look really beautiful.
31:00Irrigation that's going through all the pots and fertilizer every now and again will keep these looking
31:06really healthy. But if you'd like something a little bit simpler that doesn't require so much irrigation
31:11and feeding you can stick with classic climbers. Now these are all trackless bermum so they're evergreen
31:18they have lovely flowers and they're really scented so as well as keeping things cool
31:23and beautiful the garden will smell fantastic as well.
31:39So this little space is an edible forest garden so all the trees go in then you come down layer
31:46you've got currants things like the honey berry and then you've got the herbs go through the edible
31:51flowers and the whole thing's been created by the London National Park City Rangers. Yes I know it sounds
31:58like a football club. In all honesty I don't know a lot about it but they do know a lady that does.
32:10Hello Casey. Hello how are you doing? You enjoying the sunshine? I really am. What is a London National
32:16Park Ranger? It's a group of people that have come together and what it is it's people that want to
32:23green their area yeah they want to do more for the environment yeah in their little part of London.
32:28And totally volunteer driven? Very much volunteer driven. And how many of you is there? Just over
32:34300 of us now. So Katie just give us you know a few different types of projects. For me we've got
32:42Folkestone Road allotment where we have people who are deaf and hard of hearing that are completely
32:47included and then we've got an urban forest garden just for children with special needs. Wow. And
32:55they have actually made some of the little butterflies that you can see. So when you joined how have you
33:01seen it evolve? We've got a more diverse community being involved. Plants they're colourful but they don't
33:08see our colour. So they treat us all equally. We treat them well they treat us better so and that's
33:13what London's all about a melting pot. Everyone getting together and living harmoniously. People
33:18can come if they're a bit isolated they can come and sit on the chair wait for someone to come and
33:23sit next to them and that's where the conversation starts. When this gets broken down does this go to
33:28other places in London? Okay what's happening all the all the Rangers have had the opportunity to put in
33:32a bid for part of the garden. We're going to make sure that everything has a home. Not only a home to
33:37go to but they've got to demonstrate that they can keep it and maintain it so you don't go back
33:42in three months time and there's nothing there. I'm smiling at you because I know now that you're
33:46completely and utterly hooked. I am hooked. I'm hooked. But you're hooked as well. You've been hooked longer than me.
33:52Here in the Floral Marquis the air is absolutely thick with the most incredible fragrances. There's
34:10roses, lilies, jasmines, sweet peas. It's really intoxicating. But I have been pulled here to this
34:17slightly different form of smell. This is the unmistakable fresh amazing mint. One of my favourite
34:26herbs. The ones I particularly am drawn to are the natural forms of mint. So there's this beautiful
34:32Atlas Mountain that's from Morocco. And then this one which I absolutely wouldn't recognise as a mint
34:38unless I knew it was. It's called Habec and this is from the Middle East. But the one that's really
34:42excited me is one I never even knew existed. A British native mint. This is corn mint. It doesn't
34:49quite have the same strong aroma as the others. But it's absolutely beautiful in form and will grow
34:53really well in your garden. Of course mint is one of the best known members of the Lamiace family.
35:00And this year the feature border gardens celebrate all the diversity that plants have to offer.
35:06I could definitely imagine myself sipping something in this eminently drinkable garden because many of
35:17the plants here are from the Lamiace family chosen specifically for their fragrance and flavour.
35:24Aromatic foliage is a hallmark of the Lamiace family and this is Perovskia blue spire. Wonderful
35:42silvery foliage but if you just slightly crush it in your fingers the scent is so powerful. Now those
35:48essential oils produced by the leaves are important because they deter some of the less beneficial
35:55insects, the aphids, mosquitoes and things like that. A little warning saying keep away from me.
36:03The Lamiace family is remarkably diverse encompassing not only aromatic herbs but also striking wild
36:11flowers, flowers, shrubs and even trees. Many of its members are standout performers in garden borders
36:19offering bold form and long lasting interest with strong appeal to pollinators.
36:27Flowers in the Lamiace family tend to be long and tubular and that means they're best suited to
36:33pollinators that have a long tongue so they can reach right to the back to get to the nectar.
36:38And this one's really caught my eye it's called lion's tail and it's a native of South Africa
36:44these wonderful strong orange flowers and this is actually pollinated by hummingbirds but that
36:50hasn't stopped the bees from buzzing around they're very interested. It's not hardy so it's something
36:56that you would have to grow somewhere frost-free maybe put it in a pot and you could have it in
36:59the garden and then move it into a greenhouse over the winter. But the monada is hardy in British
37:05gardens and it's got that sort of similar rather exotic look and the other thing that's caught my eye
37:10are the salvias. This one here is tangerine and pineapple sounds rather delicious.
37:17Plants in the Lamiace family have long been grown for their medicinal properties and this garden is
37:34very much inspired by those medicinal qualities but it's also a really good lesson I think in terms of
37:41design because I love the way that they've built some height here so they're using things like the
37:45agastarchi and then it comes down a layer we've got the salvia caradona so you're blending those soft
37:51mauves with the dark purples and then we're going through into the napetas so it really works in terms
37:57of garden design but also is a nod to the history of the medicinal properties in these plants.
38:04Lamiace is one of the most adaptable and rewarding plant families you can work with.
38:12Many species are drought tolerant and flourish in poor soils making them ideal for sustainable
38:18and low maintenance gardens. Whether you're designing a garden for well-being for biodiversity
38:26perhaps for culinary purposes or just to have a beautiful space the whole Lamiace family offers so
38:32many brilliant options it's not just about the garden looking good it's about it being good for all of us.
38:51One of the things I love most about Hampton Court is the sheer abundance of all the produce here there
38:57are allotment gardens like this there are grow your own displays and there are so many
39:02practical tips from all the passionate growers here. A few weeks ago we caught up with a couple
39:08whose love of chilies took them from a chilly north-facing greenhouse in Aberdeen to now growing
39:14nearly a hundred different kinds in sunny Devon.
39:24Running a chili farm sounds so completely random to most people when we tell them that's what we do.
39:29a little dirt on the leaf. I have to pinch myself every day I come in. When I walk around and I have
39:38all of this to look after I can grow things and experiment do things that I wasn't able to do in
39:44my previous career. I'm glad that we made the move from one extreme end of the UK to the other. Having never
39:53imagined that I would run a chili farm here I am. I'm Jenny and I'm Amrit and we're a husband and wife
40:00team who grow a whole world of chilies down here in South Devon from the mild and fruity to the mind
40:06blowingly hot. What I like about chilies is that people become really fanatical about them. Once you get
40:14hooked you just want to keep growing more of it which works well for us.
40:22Three years ago we took over the site. We've expanded it now so that we've got
40:26eight crop tunnels and two nursery tunnels. Overall there's about 140 different varieties.
40:35Three years ago we were living in the far northwest of Scotland
40:38in Aberdeenshire. I was working in finance and it was in the energy industry.
40:47Our little lean-to greenhouse that was north-facing so it was a challenge but we still managed to grow
40:54lots of padrons. I think we didn't buy any padrons certainly from the supermarket.
41:01This is one that we introduced in our first year of growing at the farm.
41:05Anyone who likes a little chilli that packs a lot of heat for a recipe but doesn't have much
41:11growing space to do it with, this is definitely a good pick. Bichacha. It's such a compact little
41:17plant. This is about as big as it'll get. As you can see it's so prolific with the fruits. They ripen
41:22to orange so when they start turning colour it looks kind of like licks of flames coming up from the plant
41:28and you can just keep picking these fruits off, pop them in the freezer and be using them all year.
41:35My mum sent us a link to the chilli farm which was for sale. She said to me,
41:42don't tell Amrit. So the first thing I did was show Amrit.
41:46And it just started snowballing and here we are.
41:51My passion for growing came from growing up in the Caribbean in Trinidad.
41:55My parents, my grandparents, they're all farmers. But growing chillies and vegetables as a hobby in
42:03Aberdeen is very different from growing it at scale. Initially it was like, oh look at all these
42:08chilli plants I can play with. It's not exactly like that when you're doing it as a business.
42:15Obviously we took on the planting plan so we just ran with it and then it was the second year on.
42:20Then we started really tweaking how we want to do things.
42:24Now that all friends and family know that Amrit has the chilli farm, every time he turns up someone's
42:29got something to give him. From so-and-so, my neighbour, my friend has this plant, here's some seeds.
42:35And it's always wrapped up in it.
42:36It comes home with tiny bits of tissue with seeds in.
42:38Yeah and then half the time I don't remember what it looks like so we have to grow it on
42:43and take pictures and try and understand what the character of the chilli is.
42:46One variety is called a Trinidad Pimento.
42:50So as soon as the word got out that we were growing this chilli a couple of years ago,
42:54I think every trini in the UK was on the email or on the phones to Amrit trying to get hold of it.
42:58We could not get it off the plants quick enough, could we?
43:01Yeah, we couldn't. They can't believe the sheer quantity of chilli plants we grow here.
43:06They're completely amazed by it because some of the plants we grow are better than the ones they grow back home.
43:10Growing chillies in the UK, you have a very short season. You have to start sowing your seeds,
43:19January, February, March, to be able to harvest some of the super hot varieties,
43:23September on to sort of October, November when it gets really cold.
43:29It needs that long protracted summer to get something out of it.
43:33This one is called a Hungarian hot wax. It's a very mild chilli.
43:42These plants are fantastic for growing in the UK because you can use the fruits before they're fully ripe.
43:48The longer you leave them on the plant, the sweeter they'll get.
43:50They'll grow a little bit hotter, but less than half the heat of a jalapeno.
43:55The reason why I love these is because I like the chillies that are quite fleshy,
44:02because I like to stuff them with cream cheese and fried. My idea of heaven.
44:12This is purple tiger, and this is one of the varieties that we'll bring to Hampton Court with us this year.
44:17It's quite unusual in that it's got a variegated leaf,
44:20and the chilli fruits themselves do sometimes have a slight stripe to them.
44:24This one also has purple flowers, which is unusual again in that most chilli flowers are white.
44:29Even though we call this an ornamental chilli, the fruits are absolutely still edible.
44:34They ripen to red and they'll be perfectly tasty when they get to that colour.
44:40So this year we're going to be at Hampton Court.
44:44It feels pretty surreal, to be honest. We've always visited the RHS events, haven't we?
44:50Always kind of blown away by the displays.
44:51Yeah. When I brush shoulders with somebody growing delphiniums or clematis or whatever,
44:56and they've been doing it and they're master growers or they've got a national collection,
45:00you're there next to them. You think, wow.
45:03We absolutely think our chillies deserve to be there in all their rainbow glory.
45:08As soon as they've got fruit on, they just look brilliant, don't they?
45:10Yeah.
45:11They're still a bit unusual in an RHS event, but in a good way.
45:14Amrit, that is a fascinating story.
45:35And you obviously described me perfectly in that film.
45:38And actually, I promise each year that I'm going to buy three chillies at the most.
45:44And like we are now, I ended up surrounding with them.
45:49And I don't know what to do with them to get the best out of them.
45:54Sure. If you're growing a really, really hot chilli, you would make a chilli sauce out of it.
45:58That's the natural thing to do.
45:59If you want to make something that you can then use more on a daily basis and has a more versatile use,
46:04you'd probably grow something like this, Santa Fe Grande.
46:08Yeah, yeah, yep.
46:08And this is a fantastic chilli to pickle.
46:10Yeah.
46:11Because it has a nice thick wall to it.
46:14You can put it into a brine and it just takes naturally to that.
46:17It works really well. And then you can then put that into a sandwich.
46:20So how would you go a little bit further? How would you pickle it?
46:23So it depends what kind of flavour profile you want from the chilli.
46:25If you want something sweeter, you'd let the chilli ripen on the plant a bit more,
46:29let the sugars develop a bit more.
46:31If you wanted something which is a bit more, dare I say, grassy,
46:35that green flavour you get from a green pepper,
46:37you'd pick it at any stage that you particularly wanted.
46:40And then you slice it up, you make up a brine.
46:42And the brine doesn't have to be very complicated.
46:44It can be water, sugar, a bit of aromatics.
46:47Some peppercorns, a bay leaf, a bit of clove.
46:50And how long would that last in a jar?
46:52It could last many, many months.
46:54It never lasts that long.
46:55No, exactly.
46:57So when it comes to something like that, Santa Fe,
46:59what's that final flavour really like?
47:02Well, I've got a jar right here that we can try.
47:05Go on.
47:07I promise I'm not going to blow your head off.
47:08You're not going to stitch me up?
47:09No, no, no.
47:12And I'll try one just to prove that I'm not poisoning you.
47:16Mmm.
47:19That's really good.
47:20Nice crunch.
47:21But sweet.
47:23Yeah.
47:24And then that warm starts to come.
47:26But it's never, it's not blowing your head off.
47:27No.
47:28And you taste the chilli.
47:29And then it stays around.
47:30Yeah.
47:31It's a perfect chilli for, you know,
47:33pickling and doing that sort of thing.
47:34That's awesome.
47:34Yeah.
47:35Thank you, Velak.
47:36Because I'm now going home with some ideas
47:39what I'm going to do with my 14 different chillies.
47:43Brilliant, mate.
47:43Fantastic.
47:51Whenever you come to a plower show,
47:53you'll find nursery stands that grow a bit of everything.
47:56But there are always some that have chosen
47:58to focus on one particular group of plants.
48:02And here, the plant heritage stands
48:04give those specialist growers a place where they can showcase their chosen plant
48:08and we can all find out why they love them so much.
48:11And there's one particular stand that's really caught my eye.
48:18These little rays of sunshine are Santalina,
48:21otherwise known as cotton lavender.
48:26Hi, Jess.
48:27This is looking very beautiful.
48:29Are you pleased with it?
48:30I'm so pleased, yeah.
48:31What is it about Santalina that you love?
48:34Because you're the national collection holder of them, aren't you?
48:36Yeah.
48:36I think it's because it's an easy-growing plant, drought-tolerant,
48:41so people can pop it in a pot, leave it in the courtyard,
48:44and forget about it if they go on holiday, which is great.
48:46Because people generally think of lavender and other plants like that as that kind of a role,
48:52and Santalina may be a little bit overlooked.
48:54Yeah.
48:55Why do you think that is?
48:56A lot of people have made comments the last couple of days that
48:59they always thought it was that really intense yellow,
49:01but they come in different shades from really bright yellow to creams as well.
49:05I love yellow, but I think it's fallen out of favour a little bit in terms of fashion.
49:09I think people will hopefully rethink it.
49:12A lot of people are having trouble with their box hedging at the moment,
49:14and this would be a great alternative to put in, even if it's trimmed really tightly.
49:18If there's no flowers on it at all, it's evergreen, so it's great for the winter.
49:22And when and how do you cut them to keep that neat shape?
49:25Best to give it a really nice trim back early spring.
49:28So once the frost is lifted, give it a nice hard cut back,
49:31so it gets that structure for the year.
49:33And then again, after flowering, just to keep the shape.
49:36How many have you got in your collection?
49:38We've got 17 here today.
49:39Do you have any particular favourite ones?
49:41Lemon fizz always turns people's heads, I think.
49:44For smell-wise, insulari, which is more of a rare one.
49:47But smallness, that's a real tight, compact one.
49:50So a lot of people that don't have a lot of space, that's a great one to put in,
49:54right at the front of the warder.
49:55And I presume they like a sunny, quite dry position.
49:58Intense heat is best, because obviously Mediterranean-based,
50:01and don't have wet feet through the winter.
50:03They'll have loved it here this week, then.
50:04Oh, it's very, very warm.
50:07Well, really well done. This is your first ever display, isn't it?
50:09It is, yeah. My first exhibit at Hampton.
50:11Well, hopefully we'll see you many, many more times.
50:30Hello. Hello.
50:31I guess there's a whole new meaning to the word hot for you now.
50:34Just a bit. I'm still preparing. A little heat.
50:37Actually, they tasted really good.
50:39Good? Yeah.
50:40Well, come and cool down in this very relaxing, green space.
50:47I really like these steel rods.
50:50Well, they give a sort of sense that you're in a pergola, and yet you're not.
50:55It's like an essence of pergola and the verticals.
50:59And actually interesting in these London Plains,
51:01that colouring and that peeling picks up, doesn't it?
51:04It does. On the detail.
51:06And I really like that that creates sort of like an essence of roof here as well,
51:10with these really heavily pruned trees.
51:12Yeah, it makes you feel comfortable.
51:13Yeah, it's a canopy, but it's not, it's like a, it's like a ghost of a pergola with a roof,
51:19you know? I like that.
51:21And you've got this sort of reflective surface where you more or less want to, it can see.
51:25Check if you've got seeds in your teeth.
51:26You're good.
51:30You can see that reflective bit going in there, which is lovely, so yeah.
51:42Well, there we go. This is a wild space. What do you think?
51:46I love it, actually. It feels like end of the day, end of the garden, chill.
51:51I agree. And a celebration of compost, which in a show garden is a rare thing.
51:57I know. Seriously, if I could take one thing home, that compost bed, I think it's a great idea.
52:03And the fact as well is, you know, that's composting, it's a habitat.
52:06But I love the way that the seed heads have been saved and they've
52:10been placed on top and it creates like a feature, doesn't it?
52:12Yeah, I agree with you. And those logs themselves will become useful as fungus.
52:16And you'll have this mycelium-filled, lovely, humus-rich compost to add to those.
52:22Plus all the edges as well with the logs as well. It all ties in quite nicely.
52:26Yeah, it's got, it has got that very sort of connected to the earth feel.
52:31Yeah, definitely.
52:34The symbiotic relationship between wildlife and gardening is captured beautifully in the RSPB
52:41and the RHS Swift garden, designed to raise awareness of the plight of this incredible bird.
52:50This really is a crack in space. It does everything.
52:54Plantings in layers, provides lots of different habitats, which means there's homes and food
53:00for so much in here. If I was going to say to do one thing in my garden, just to encourage more birds,
53:10it would be, don't cut the herbaceous pringles back, leave them for the winter. And I know not everybody's convinced.
53:18So, middle of the winter, it's Sunday morning, I go downstairs, I've got the dog, the cat and the cup of coffee.
53:24I'm looking out of the window and all of a sudden there was this flurry. And for the next 20 minutes,
53:30I watched a flock of finches come in and literally pillage all the tiny little seed heads in the
53:39herbs in the front garden. So there you go. If I was going to say one thing, let's not be quite so tidy.
53:46One famous face supporting the Swifts is none other than comedian and musician, Bill Bailey.
53:54Hello there. Hello Bill, how are you, boy? Adam, very nice to see you. And you, sir. So,
54:01man of many talents, as we know, tell us about Bill the Gardener. Well, the thing is about, for me,
54:06the garden is a bit of a sanctuary, you know, because I'm away a lot, you know, I come home and I just
54:11want something where I can go out and just relax. I love this sort of scenario, which is quite wild. I
54:16like to have a little bit of a wild area in the garden where you attract butterflies and bees.
54:21When did bird watching, being interested in birds come to your life? Well, I think really it started
54:28when I was a kid. My mum and dad and the grandparents and me, the whole Bailey family
54:35of the entourage, we would go out to a bird sanctuary or a bird reserve. And that was a typical day out.
54:42Yeah. And I think my mum, more than anyone, she had this sort of desire for me to foster this love
54:50of nature. And I remember her saying to me, I just want you to love nature. That was a mantra
54:54that she repeated over and again. And it has, it's had this effect on me throughout my entire life.
55:01There's nothing more pleasurable than when you're touring, when you've got a day off,
55:05to just take a pair of bins and just head off them into somewhere, some part of the countryside,
55:11wherever you are, and just take a moment. Yeah. But now you have got that voice,
55:15and you want to use that ultimately to talk about the Swift. Yeah, exactly. And the Swift,
55:21well, it's an iconic bird of the British summer. And it seems extraordinary, doesn't it, that the
55:27numbers have declined so dramatically in the last 30 years, I think nearly something like 70% down
55:33since 1995, which is shocking, really. So I think anything that we can do to encourage the numbers
55:39back up is a good thing. The whole thing I love about Swifts as well is the slightly sort of
55:44generational thing in, you know, if they build a home, they pass it on. Yes. That's beautiful. Yeah,
55:50that's right. Exactly. Like a Swift box or one of these Swift bricks here can provide a home for,
55:56you know, multiple generations of Swifts or other nesting birds. And that is just,
56:00just a simple thing like that can have this, this extra consequence. Well, mate, honestly,
56:06for you to talk about the Swift, I think it's massively helpful for not only the birds,
56:12but us as gardeners. So thank you, my friend. No, you're very welcome.
56:15How are we? Good. Very good. What is sort of going to stay with you from today?
56:30I mean, there's loads. The show gardens are full of ideas, but I really like coming here to actually
56:36to buy plants because it's the height of the flower season, isn't it? So going around all the
56:39stalls out there and choosing some additional flowers, which is kind of new for me because
56:44usually I'm about the fetch. So it's quite nice to embrace this, this floral side. It's very hard to
56:49resist. I know. Because I have to say that I also succumbed. Right. I've just been visiting a wonderful
56:56cut flower grower and I may have come away with a dahlia. What's a dahlia? Exactly.
57:01Between no friends. You can never have enough dahlia, can you? What about you? I think I've had a lovely
57:08conversation about chillies. How? Because I'm definitely the person that starts with two or
57:15three, then goes to another show, comes home with two more, five more, six more, walks to the greenhouse
57:21when all the chillies are becoming ripe and going, why did I buy so many chillies? Have you bought more?
57:26Yeah. Of course he has. He has. Well, unfortunately that's it from us from the RHS Hampton Court
57:35Palace Garden Festival. But the show is open until Sunday and I really recommend that you come along
57:41if you can. And I'm sad to say we won't be here next week because of Wimbledon. But the following
57:49week we will be at the RHS Flower Show at Wentworth Woodhouse. It's a new stunning location for our
57:57last flower show of the season. So hopefully we'll see you there. In the meantime, look after yourselves.
58:02Bye bye. Bye bye.
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