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Gardeners World 2025 Episode 4 (S58E4)
# Bill Duncalf
#David Leighton
#Gardeners World - Season 58
#Geoff Hamilton
#Percy Thrower
#Peter Seabrook
# Bill Duncalf
#David Leighton
#Gardeners World - Season 58
#Geoff Hamilton
#Percy Thrower
#Peter Seabrook
Kategorie
📺
TVTranskript
00:00Hello and welcome to Gardener's World. Now, in this workshop, I make the hurdles that I use all the time in the garden.
00:26I'm going to be sowing some grass today. So what the hurdles will do in this case is act as a barrier.
00:31And then later on in the year, as plants grow, they act as supports.
00:36And I make them usually in the winter simply from square chestnut fencing posts, sometimes ash, that I can split and shape.
00:49And I use it because it doesn't rot very easily when it's wet.
00:54So it means that the bits that stick in the ground will last for years and years.
00:59I've got some hurdles that I made 10, 15 years ago.
01:05The first thing to do is make all the elements before assembling any of it, which is a bit like planting a border.
01:14And knowing that I've made them and that I've spent these hours in this shed quietly, usually with Ned, gives the kind of satisfaction that nothing you can buy ever reaches.
01:29It's one of those things that I regard as part of my gardening life. And I love it for that variety.
01:44Coming up on today's programme, Adam is in the Lake District, enjoying dramatic splashes of colour.
01:55The atmosphere is incredible. It just sort of tastes of spring.
02:01In all honesty, I wish I could just bottle it, put it in the car and take it home.
02:07We visit Bedminster in Bristol, where a community of urban gardeners are sharing their gardens and gardening knowledge with one another.
02:15Being part of the project has just been a really good community experience.
02:19You know, we've got to know a lot more people, we've seen a lot more gardens.
02:23Every garden you go in, you get ideas. Everybody's got different ways of doing things.
02:28Breka visits a garden near her own in Derbyshire to help inform her which crops are likely to thrive best in her own garden this coming year.
02:40Asparagus?
02:41Yes.
02:42We're in summer.
02:43Yes.
02:44It's a spring crop.
02:45No.
02:46It's not here.
02:47So it always comes out at this time of year up here.
02:50So it is a summer salad kind of vegetable for us.
02:54So I need to learn to be patient with my crops.
02:57Yes.
02:58And we share one man's lifelong delight in delphiniums.
03:03I've been growing them for over 50 years and I still don't know why I like growing them.
03:08It's just a way of life.
03:10It's now been recognised as a national collection just recently.
03:15And so my job now is to keep these oldies going.
03:19This is the long walk and you may have seen me last week where I aerated it.
03:34It got very compacted and critically very shady and if grass is to be successful it does need light and it needs good drainage.
03:55Well drainage is poor and when it all grows up in summer it's in shade for almost all the day.
04:02So I aerated it last week, brushed it over.
04:05I brushed some sand in but I want to add a little bit more and then I'm going to reseed it or at least top dress it with grass seed that is specially adapted to survive shade.
04:16So first thing to do is spread a bit more sand.
04:20There you go.
04:21And this is sharp sand which comes from a builder's merchant.
04:25There's nothing fancy or horticultural about it.
04:30It's not a bad idea if you've got very heavy soil and you're starting a lawn from scratch or you're turfing to add a little bit of sand like this.
04:43And it will improve drainage.
04:52Having thrown the sand, next thing to do is to brush it in.
04:56This is the besom.
04:57They're incredibly good for this type of thing.
04:59The beauty of it is you don't push, you just flick.
05:04It's very light to use and very effective.
05:07And this is getting rid of the worst of the stones and the lumps and it's pushing the sand into the holes that the aerator made.
05:18This is now ready for sowing.
05:20Now whatever type of seed it is, throw it like that.
05:30Not too thick.
05:32It is really important that you choose the right seed for what you want.
05:37There's so much information online, you can put that in and a mix will come up.
05:41The final thing to do is to rake it in.
05:53Two other things that I need to do.
05:59The first is to keep it moist until you need to mow it.
06:03I would expect this to germinate all in four, five days, certainly no more than a week.
06:09And be ready for mowing in about three weeks.
06:12And the second thing to do, having done that, is keep feet off it.
06:17Dog feet, children's feet.
06:19And that's what the hurdles are for.
06:25So Ned, this is against you.
06:32Right, that'll keep you out.
06:35This will never be a show lawn.
06:37Conditions aren't right for that.
06:38But hopefully by doing this, I will create the green, calm space that I want.
06:44And also a lawn that's good enough for the grandchildren to run around and play.
06:48Now last spring, Adam went to visit a garden which I'm sure has lots of green, calm spaces.
06:55But it's also full of zinging colour.
07:10What's not to love?
07:12A day out in the Lake District, surrounded by spring colour.
07:17Also, look at that.
07:19It's Lake Windermere.
07:21And rain or shine, I think this is going to be a lovely day.
07:26Whole Herd is a 10-acre garden managed entirely by 120 volunteers from the Lakeland Horticultural Society.
07:41And it's their work and dedication that keeps this garden looking great all year round.
07:49Right now, the garden is a riot of colour.
07:53It actually stops you in your tracks.
07:56The rhododendrons, azaleas are a feast for the eyes.
08:02The atmosphere is incredible.
08:04It just sort of tastes of spring.
08:07In all honesty, I wish I could just bottle it, put it in the car and take it home.
08:13This is a garden that really sits well in its landscape.
08:23I also like the fact that the shrubs are not being used just for their colours.
08:29Its shapes and forms.
08:31You only have to look here.
08:32That's a pyris.
08:34And that bright flame that you can see is the new foliage.
08:38But I think that connects to the Acer.
08:41And then there's a little white flower on it, which again connects your eye back to this rhododendron.
08:47All that sort of stuff is going on all the way round this garden.
08:52It's cracking.
08:56But every now and then you come across a specimen that you're not expecting to see.
09:02And this is definitely one of those.
09:04It comes from Japan.
09:05But also you can see the bees really busy coming in and out.
09:09If I go quiet, just listen.
09:13Just absolutely incredible.
09:16So this is called Encyanthus Campanulatus.
09:21Stunning.
09:22This is Deutzia Rosa Campanulata.
09:31And I think it's an underused shrub.
09:33You can buy them different varieties from metre up to 2, 2.5.
09:38Sun, semi-shady conditions, most soils.
09:41But look at the habit.
09:43Beautiful sort of arching habit.
09:45And it will take a decent pruning.
09:47So even if you've got a small garden, superb shrub for you.
09:52The volunteers here are custodians of a mighty six national collections like hydrangeas and ferns that have their moment later in the year.
10:05But right now perhaps the most difficult to grow are the beautiful majestic Himalayan poppies.
10:18I'm smiling because up there I can see the colour blue.
10:23And that's just what I'm looking for.
10:25Volunteer Pat Murphy has been nurturing their 80 varieties here for the last 15 years.
10:37Hello Pat.
10:38Hello.
10:39The famous Mechonoptis.
10:41They're sort of classically a plant that people worry about growing aren't they?
10:46They do, yes.
10:47Yeah.
10:48Because there's over sort of what, 80 odd species?
10:51There's actually 90 been identified now.
10:53Wow.
10:54All from the Himalayas, many high up in the Himalayas, which we can't actually grow in this country.
11:00But we can grow the big blues because they come from lower down in the Himalayas.
11:05I live in a dry part of the country on limestone.
11:10I struggle to grow these.
11:12So let's go right back to the beginning.
11:14Soil conditions.
11:15What have you got here?
11:16We have got a really good loam here.
11:20It's slightly acid, but they will grow neutral to acid soil.
11:24Yeah.
11:25It needs to be moist.
11:26It needs to be well drained.
11:28Yeah.
11:29And it needs to have a lot of nutrients in it.
11:31So we feed the plants and every year I put lots of leaf mold down.
11:37This one used to be called Lingham Calliform.
11:41Yeah.
11:42And the Mechanopsis group have now renamed it Michael Wickenden.
11:46Right.
11:47There are lots and lots of colors in this, especially in younger flowers there.
11:51They're seriously sort of magical.
11:54They are absolutely magical, yes.
11:56Yeah.
11:57Wow.
12:01I mean, the obvious color when we think Mechanopsis is the blue, but got right from the white through
12:08to deep purple.
12:10We have.
12:11Yes.
12:12That looks good.
12:13This is Moite.
12:14It's a really good, strong Mechanopsis.
12:17I know the flowers, you know, the star in a sense, but the foliage and the stem and the
12:23hairs and the little colorings, when you start looking closely.
12:26Yes.
12:27The detail is incredible, isn't it?
12:28Yes.
12:33I feel like I'm in a Mechanopsis sweet shop.
12:37And actually, what's that little dark one up there?
12:40That is Edrum.
12:41The flowers start off clump colored and then gradually change to a lighter color as seen in the flower behind.
12:48There's such variety that they're always interesting.
12:53Do you know, it's got me to the point I might move.
12:56Okay.
12:57Well, you should come to the Lake District of Scotland.
12:59I will.
13:00The Trust, who took over the rundown grounds in the 1970s, have worked to create a garden with a quintessential Lakeland feel.
13:15I'm chair of what we call the garden committee.
13:18Yeah.
13:19And it's Alison Sanford's job to manage the volunteers who make the magic happen.
13:27It's a little bit mind blowing that this whole place is run by volunteers.
13:32How does that work?
13:33Well, it works by most of the people working in teams.
13:37Yeah.
13:38And then we have committees that will oversee and facilitate the teams.
13:42Each of the beds has a bed holder, the team leader.
13:46Yeah.
13:47And that person is responsible for looking after that bed.
13:50And the volunteers come in and help that particular person.
13:54The team who are working on a bed can decide what they want, any changes they want to make to the bed.
14:00As long as they're in keeping with the theme.
14:03Over a hundred people.
14:04That's huge resources of other skills.
14:07Yes.
14:08So it's not just the gardening skills that we have.
14:10We have a wide range.
14:11One of our team is able to do stonewalling for us.
14:14Other teams are electricians.
14:16Yeah.
14:17And then we have a team who set up all the water irrigation.
14:20It feels a happy place to be.
14:23It is a nice place to be.
14:25I just love being here and it doesn't always have to be busy.
14:29And it's really nice sometimes just to find a quiet bit, my bit, up on the fell side and go and have a quiet time there before going on with some more work.
14:40Nicola and Sarah work on the alpine bed.
14:48You both look very busy, eh?
14:51Yes, we are.
14:53So the rock garden is your domain.
14:55Did you know much about alpines before you started up?
14:57No.
14:58No.
14:59But that's brilliant, isn't it?
15:00Yeah.
15:01We're both getting lots of learning for free and enjoying being up on the fell.
15:06Yeah.
15:07I do love that sense of, you know, coming together and it seems that not only the visitors enjoy this garden, but locally it's really, it's important to people.
15:16Just look where it is.
15:17I know.
15:18Look at what you can see.
15:19It's amazing.
15:28The last time I came to this garden, it was about five years ago, but I didn't come at this time of year.
15:35So to go and explore the garden, enjoy that colour, but also that freshness that spring brings.
15:43It's invigorating and it feeds the soul.
16:05Now, obviously, mechanopsis are just staggeringly beautiful, but I love the way they need such specific conditions in order to grow.
16:12I've got snake's head fritillaries growing in the spring garden.
16:16They just love the fact that we have a corner of the garden that is flooded, so therefore they get a soaking in winter.
16:22And that's the key to growing them.
16:24Here in the copse, they're wooden enemies.
16:28This coppice woodland is ideal for them, whereas they wouldn't grow if they were anywhere else.
16:34And I've got some dog-toothed violets, the erifronium.
16:37Again, there is that particular magic of the combination of a beautiful flower that doesn't last for terribly long
16:45and needs exactly a certain set of conditions in order to thrive.
16:50As the bulbs are bursting out all around us, the tulips just beginning, the daffodils still going, the muscari,
17:12there's a tendency to think of bulbs as something that happens in spring, but there are good summer bulbs too.
17:19And one of my favourites, and one of the best of them all, are lilies.
17:23And now is the time to get them into pots or into the ground.
17:26You can do it any time between late February and the end of April.
17:31I grow lilies in pots for two reasons.
17:34One, because our soil is on the heavy side, and lilies like a light soil.
17:39And also, they have wonderful scent.
17:41And, of course, if you grow them in pots, you can move them around so that they are near where you want them,
17:47when they are flowering and their fragrance is at their best,
17:49and then you can move them away when they are not doing anything.
17:52Now, these have been in this pot for about four or five years, and they need revamping.
17:58If you keep them in a pot, they are going to use up the nutrients in the compost.
18:02So it's a good idea, if you've got them in pots, to repot them every couple of years, maybe every three years certainly,
18:08and check the bulbs and replace ones that are looking a little bit less than perfect.
18:14So I'm going to tip these out.
18:23Come on, here you come.
18:25This is Lilium regali, the regal lily, and I think the best lily you can grow.
18:32It has this seductive fragrance.
18:34The first thing I want to see is, are they firm? Is there any rot?
18:38And the answer is no, not really on that one.
18:40That's a nice big one.
18:42As a rule, the bigger a bulb, as long as it's healthy, the better the flowers will be.
18:49See, these are small bulbs that will have been made from the parents.
18:55But what I want is the best possible display.
18:58So I don't want any of these small ones.
19:00These are good, nice and big and strong.
19:03And I put them into a smaller pot, add some of my base compost in there,
19:10and then the magic ingredient, I think, for lilies, is leaf mould.
19:14It's not such a good feed, but it's wonderful for soil structure.
19:19And lilies love the looseness of it.
19:21And we'll put three bulbs in there, and I'm going to put two of these and add a new one.
19:26And I've got a new one here, so I sort of refresh the whole thing.
19:32And I love the way that bulbs come in sawdust, and that's so they don't go mouldy.
19:40So we'll pop that in, and like all bulbs, you want to put them in, I mean, ideally twice their own depth.
19:45I'm going to pop that in there.
19:50I'm going to have another biggie.
19:53That's really good.
19:56Now I'll cover these over with a little bit of this, a little bit of this.
20:04Now when you're planting out into the garden, lilies like cool, shaded roots and sun for the flowers.
20:11This can now be put to one side.
20:15As soon as the shoots appear, they need light.
20:17And the important thing is, is they don't need to be on display.
20:20And this can grow on for the next month or two.
20:23And then they'll go in a terracotta pot that had tulips in them.
20:26And I've got a pot here, which is actually a bit on the big side.
20:30If this was full of tulips, as soon as the tulips were finished flowering,
20:35we could take them out, put them into a plastic pot.
20:38This then goes into here with compost underneath it and round the edge
20:43and maybe some grit over the top, so you can't see the plastic pot at all.
20:47And when they finish flowering, you can lift it out and you can use the pot for something else.
20:52Right, I'm going to move this out the way.
20:54Go on, then.
20:55This is the wildlife garden.
20:59And it's one of those things that's quite tricky to get dead right for you, the gardener,
21:14but surprisingly easy to get right for wildlife.
21:28The key thing is cover.
21:31Now, cover can range from trees.
21:34We've got hawthorn, we've got a field maple, we've got an oak.
21:37The hawthorn, for example, makes a brilliant small garden tree.
21:42It's got fabulous blossom, which is great for insects.
21:46And then, of course, in autumn, the berries the birds love too.
21:49So on every level, it works fantastically well.
21:52In a woodland planting like this, ground cover is really important.
21:55Now, ground cover, it can be tricky in a border because they tend to be thugs.
22:00But in this situation, you sometimes need a thug to combat other thugs.
22:06So, for example, we let the ivy roam.
22:09You've got the arum lily.
22:11Even less than celandine, which in other parts of the garden is actually quite an irritating weed,
22:15is welcome in here.
22:18So you've got cover.
22:20The second thing that's absolutely essential to encourage wildlife
22:23is to have as many flowering plants for as long as possible.
22:27So at this time of year, when there isn't much flowering,
22:30we've got the kaltha looking really good.
22:32I've got pulmonary at my feet.
22:34We've got hellebores.
22:36Just make sure there's a good diversity and the insects will come.
22:40And that's why I've got some plants here.
22:43Last winter, we dug this up because it had been getting very weedy.
22:46Now, weeds are not necessarily a bad thing.
22:48It's a good idea to have a stand of nettles, for example,
22:51because they're great food for the caterpillars.
22:54But they've become dominant, so we've dug it through,
22:56and now I want to start replanting.
22:59I've got a tray of geranium fern, which I've dug up from the jewel garden.
23:03And they're ideal for this type of gardening because they're tough.
23:07They make great ground cover.
23:09They flower fairly early.
23:11They'll grow in shade.
23:12You can cut them back really hard, and it won't harm them,
23:15and they'll come back.
23:16Or you can let them grow and spore wherever you want.
23:19This has got very shallow roots.
23:21So, really, I just need to pull a scrape in the soil and pack around it.
23:26One of the easiest plants you could possibly have.
23:30Right, I'll work this along here.
23:32Of course, Longmeadow is set in the middle of the countryside,
23:40but most people garden in towns and cities.
23:44And in Bedminster, in Bristol, there are people doing wonderful things
23:48for wildlife in their gardens and sharing it with others,
23:51as every year they have their secret gardens trail.
24:06Bedminster is a lovely community,
24:08but the neighbourhood is defined by lots of flo-snit,
24:12terraced, red-brick houses.
24:14So there isn't a lot of green space,
24:16there aren't many street trees,
24:18and the gardens are really small.
24:19We set up the Bedminster Secret Gardens Open Trail
24:24to try and make the neighbourhood greener
24:27and more pleasant for everybody.
24:30So the Secret Gardens Trail started in 2009,
24:34when a few of us got together and decided to open our gardens
24:38for the public.
24:39There were just nine of us that opened that first year.
24:42We've now got nearly 30 gardens.
24:45It's amazing when you go through a gate sometimes
24:48and have no idea what's on the other side of it,
24:51and we can really be blown away by what people have done in a small garden.
24:55I don't think you're ever going to get away from the sounds of the city,
25:06but there's something that happens in your brain that cuts that away
25:09when you're surrounded by the greenery and the flowers and so on.
25:11I'm Sarah.
25:18And I'm Mo.
25:20We've lived here for, I think, about 38 years.
25:24A long time.
25:25Yeah.
25:26The main aim of the garden is to encourage as much wildlife as possible.
25:36We get a fantastic range of birds coming into the garden.
25:40In a small garden, I would say one of the most important things,
25:43if you're trying to encourage birds, is create cover.
25:47And one of the first things that you can do in these terraced back gardens
25:51is put in climbers along all your boundaries.
25:54One of the very first things we did was plant that ivy,
26:00and if you look at the size of the trunk,
26:03you can realise why maybe people choose not to plant ivy.
26:07But clearly it's a habitat for insects, it's cover for birds.
26:11It's cover, but it's also a food source.
26:14They need feeding a variety of food
26:16so that you're attracting a different sort of birds.
26:18And water, even in the winter, you need to make sure they're able to access water.
26:21So we installed a really nice pond last year.
26:25We have had sparrowhawks in the garden
26:28because the sparrow population is massive,
26:31so they do love occasionally to come in
26:34and you'll perch on this branch here and sort of...
26:37Eat a sparrow.
26:43Being part of the project has just been a really good community experience.
26:47You know, we've got to know a lot more people,
26:49we've seen a lot more gardens.
26:50Every garden you go in, you get ideas.
26:52Everybody's got different ways of doing things.
26:54When people come into your garden,
26:57it makes us realise how incredibly lucky we are.
26:59I'm always thinking I'd really like a much bigger garden.
27:03And then you meet people who are stuck in flats
27:05and haven't even got a little balcony.
27:07And they're really enjoying coming around and seeing these outside spaces,
27:10and I just realise how ridiculously lucky we are.
27:12Yeah, that's true.
27:18I think there's a bit of nosiness in each of us,
27:21and that's one of the great things about secret gardens,
27:24is you get to peek behind the gates and see what's going on on the other side of the wall.
27:27And it's just extraordinary what people do, even when they're constrained with the tiniest of spaces.
27:33This is a very small urban garden surrounded by houses by a child's nursery.
27:46It's quite nice to get some privacy.
27:48I'm Mark Pyak, and this is my Jurassic themed miniature tropical garden.
27:56Jurassic themed is about prehistoric plants.
27:59I'm a big fan of dinosaurs. I work in Bristol Museum.
28:02And a lot of the plants that I've got in this garden are living fossils.
28:06So they used to be dinosaur food, horse tails and things like that.
28:10But it's tropical, which means I've got some giant plants in here.
28:13Big banana plants, tree ferns, gunnera and things like that.
28:20The rule is really just break all the rules.
28:23Choose the biggest plants and just let them go mental.
28:26They grow really fast.
28:28The trick that I've found is to give them big pots.
28:31I bought some massive pots.
28:32They didn't actually fit through the door when they arrived,
28:34so I had to turn them on their side.
28:36But they're out here now and the plants are loving it.
28:41This is my tree fern.
28:42I've had it about 11 years now.
28:44And in that time, it's developed at least a foot of trunk.
28:47And you can see it's grown to fill the entire width of the garden.
28:51Here it's a microclimate, so I don't have to wrap it up.
28:54It's just fine all year round.
28:56My banana plants, I do have to wrap them up because the stems can rot down a bit.
29:00But no, he's fine.
29:02I've been really fascinated about Japanese culture and the way that they prune and develop bonsai.
29:11And obviously in such a small garden, it's quite convenient to be able to grow mini trees.
29:15A really small urban garden has its limitations in terms of light.
29:21The sun will go over the houses and get blocked up.
29:23You might have a lot of damp and dark spaces.
29:26What's really important is to choose plants that will thrive in those spaces.
29:30Having said that, when you get used to your garden, there'll be a sunny spot somewhere.
29:34And I managed to group all the cacti in the little sunspot and the cacti are doing well.
29:41I've always thought that I've run out of space, but it's amazing once you start looking at the walls,
29:46there's always more space to fill.
29:48I think one day I might like to move house to get a bigger garden,
29:51but it terrifies me the logistics of that now.
29:55This year as part of Blooming Bedminster, 285 people came in on a single day.
30:01And that was quite a challenge.
30:04My name's Matthew Simmons and my garden is a small city garden that's really about the size of a yard,
30:19but it's quite sunken because our house is on a hill, so you actually step down into our garden.
30:28People often think about colour in a garden as, you know, the pinks and the yellows and the reds
30:33and actually the most wide and diverse colour is green and it's such a relaxing colour
30:38and you can get so many different shapes and textures of plants.
30:42When people come into the garden, they're quite surprised that they've come off the street behind an unassuming brick wall
30:48and they walk into this absolute kind of open-air plant terranium really.
30:54And they talk about certain things particularly, they always mention the bleached hornbeam trees that we have
30:59because they're a really distinctive feature and they form a fantastic green screen from the houses opposite.
31:06They also talk about the bamboo.
31:07So this is the black bamboo and often people see bamboo and they think,
31:17oh goodness, you can't grow that in a small garden, it'll take over.
31:20So it's really important to get the clump forming, not one that will spread.
31:25Although it has lots of lovely green leaves, to make sure you see these beautiful stems,
31:30then I just strip off all of the side shoots from below.
31:35Somebody once came into the garden and said, oh, you've poodled your bamboo.
31:39And I wondered what they meant, but they meant just making sure you expose the stems.
31:44So we will say to people, poodle your bamboo.
31:49My husband will often say to me, you can't get any more plants into the garden
31:53and I always think I know exactly where I can get another plant in the garden.
31:57So there's always space for one more plant.
32:06One of the best things about Seagull Gardens is that it's a real sense of community
32:10and it's wonderful that people can see real gardens that they can relate to,
32:15that are small and they can take ideas away and be inspired
32:20and lead them to hopefully transform their gardens and maybe open theirs in future.
32:27What I love about that is the combination of real intimacy, this sense of your own world behind a locked door.
32:46And then you couple that with a generosity of sharing it with other people
32:50and the sense of community that that engenders.
32:53And from those two things comes real magic.
32:55I think we can definitely say we're in spring now, so it's a good time to take stop of your house plants as well as the rest of the garden.
33:16I tend to use this greenhouse to store house plants that need light, like the cacti and the aeoniums and the echeveras.
33:27And one of the ones that come halfway between that are the streptocarpus.
33:32They have these wonderful flowers, rich purples and blues and touches of white.
33:37At this time of year, whatever your house plants are, it is worth getting them out, having a look, cutting off any dead or mouldy or spotted leaves, checking the compost.
33:51I mean, if that means taking the plant out, don't worry about that.
33:54It shouldn't be wet.
33:56If we take that out, this is a plant that is pretty ancient.
34:01If I divide this up, I can make a new plant just by splitting it with my fingers and that I could divide again if I wanted to.
34:14And now I've got these plants.
34:16Now I can cut back the larger foliage.
34:21Cut that back.
34:23Tidy that up.
34:25That's one.
34:26And then this one, which is looking a bit manky.
34:30Cut that off.
34:34I've mixed up a mixture which is leaf mould, perlite and coir.
34:39So not very rich, but nice, loose, free-draining.
34:44And I can pop this in like that.
34:47Now this is in a small pot, but it is important with streptocarpus, if you want them to flower well, not to put them in too big a pot.
34:53And I think that was one of the problems of this.
34:55Whereas if I take this section, which is quite substantial, and put it back into this pot in the middle,
35:02which is what you might normally do with many plants to give a chance for the roots to grow out,
35:07all that will happen is I will get a lot more foliage and not very many flowers.
35:12Whereas if I put into a pot this size, that's much more the relationship of pot size to soil.
35:17And you can see the white bits of perlite.
35:21And grip would do the job as well.
35:23It is important to have a free-draining compost.
35:26Like so many of our house plants, the quickest way to kill them, or certainly make them feel unhappy, is to overwater them.
35:34Particularly to have them sitting in damp compost.
35:37There are very few that like that.
35:42Far better to water more often, and also keep the air humid.
35:47And we might top dress that with a bit of grit, but that's much more likely to flower.
35:52And once you start to see new growth, feed it once a week with a high potash feed.
35:58And if you're not sure, just look for either a tomato feed or a seaweed-based feed.
36:05A liquid seaweed is ideal.
36:07Do that once a week, a week mix, not too much.
36:10That will be enough water, it'll be enough feed, and if it's very dry, mist the air every day.
36:16And they should flower.
36:18And as I said, I've had these for years and years.
36:28I always admired the vegetables that Recco was growing in her North London allotment.
36:36Because not only were they fascinating and very diverse, but they looked really delicious.
36:42So it is extremely interesting to see how she's adapting to her new situation,
36:48now that she's moved from London to the Peak District.
36:51Since moving to the beautiful rolling hills of the Peak District, I have been grappling with the challenges of my new garden.
37:03At 650 feet above sea level and on the north-facing hillside,
37:08it is a very different undertaking to my old, sunny London allotment.
37:15Don't get me wrong, I do love my garden and all the quirkiness it has to give me.
37:19But I want to maximise its potential and find out a little bit more about this area and how to grow at such high altitude.
37:28And I've come to meet a fellow gardener who has been doing just that in this beautiful part of the country.
37:37Like me, Melanie Moore is passionate about growing her own food.
37:42And I'm hoping she will share some of her experience with me on how to be as productive as possible
37:46in what can be harsh elements in the Peak District.
37:51Hello, Melanie.
37:52Hi, Raka.
37:53Love your garden.
37:54It's beautiful.
37:55And it's such a beautiful day as well.
37:57I've got something for you.
37:59These are my pea beans.
38:01Oh, wow, thank you.
38:02And I think they'll do very well here because those are safe from this climate.
38:06Oh, thank you so much.
38:08Let them dry off on the plants and then you can save them for winter's shoes.
38:12Fantastic.
38:13That's really exciting.
38:15There you go.
38:19Right.
38:20Off we go.
38:22Ebby.
38:23What is this?
38:25Your kale?
38:26It is.
38:27The bountiest part of our kitchen garden.
38:30Russian kale is my absolute favourite.
38:33Curly kale, red kale, caverlo nero.
38:37Do all brassicas do well here?
38:39Yeah.
38:40They all work superbly.
38:42So at this altitude with our rainfall.
38:44Yeah.
38:45Very long season.
38:46Tastes brilliant.
38:47But I've noticed something.
38:48Yes.
38:49What is this?
38:50So these are somewhat unconventional.
38:51Yeah.
38:52So these are like...
38:53That looks like a jam to me.
38:54That looks like some kind of butter.
38:56Yeah, well, it was a curd.
38:57A curd.
38:58It was, yes.
38:59So we are in a never-ending war with slugs and snails
39:01and I think the whole of Britain has that in common.
39:03Oh, yes.
39:04Over the years, we have been able to produce so many jams, cordials,
39:09thin niggers, and we can't often get through them all.
39:13So if the cordial gets to a point where we haven't consumed it thick enough,
39:16after about a year, it is going to ferment.
39:19OK.
39:20And it becomes its own alcoholic substance.
39:23Right.
39:24So basically, you're giving the slugs a little bar.
39:26Is that right?
39:27I am indeed.
39:28I'm giving them a little hit of sugar.
39:29Yeah.
39:30And then a little bit of alcohol.
39:31Yeah.
39:32They're not then chomping on my greenery.
39:33No.
39:34That's for us and a peaceful passing is for them.
39:37That's a great little tip.
39:38I think I might nip that.
39:40Yeah, give it a go.
39:41Give it a go.
39:42I love the way that you have a potager kind of a garden.
39:45So you've got your flowers, but you also have your vegetables within.
39:49Yeah.
39:50But you are only growing what you can eat.
39:52Is that right?
39:53Yeah.
39:54Yes.
39:55We've overdone it in the past.
39:56Yeah.
39:57And we're a family of four.
39:58And I'm trying to get the garden to work for me, not for me to have to work for the garden
40:02all the time.
40:03Yeah.
40:04It's a nice thing, I think, that you can grow just a small amount, but feed everybody with
40:08that small amount.
40:09And it is incredible how much comes off the earth from very small spaces.
40:14I will tend to go for the bigger leaves.
40:18And obviously it steams down really well, as we all know.
40:22But yeah, it's not long before you've got a real big saucepan full.
40:29You have some beautiful calendula here.
40:32Yeah.
40:33Just brings us so much joy.
40:34All that colour.
40:35But you also have them as a pest deterrent because you have no black fly on these beans.
40:40I know.
40:41Absolutely none.
40:42This is also part and parcel of the whole picture.
40:44Okay.
40:45Is that we can go ahead and eat these too.
40:46So let's do a variety, actually, of orange and yellows.
40:48Okay.
40:49Beautiful.
40:50Is that enough?
40:51Perfect.
40:52Lovely.
40:53Let's go.
41:00Asparagus.
41:01Yes.
41:02We're in summer.
41:03Yes.
41:04Is that a green crop?
41:05No.
41:06No.
41:07Not here.
41:08So it always comes out at this time of year up here.
41:11So it is a summer salad kind of vegetable for us.
41:14So I need to learn to be patient with my crops.
41:18Yes.
41:19I think that's probably a fair comment.
41:20Yeah.
41:21Oh, okay.
41:22I love the range of plants in Melanie's veg garden.
41:25And the unusual ones like the variegated horseradish.
41:29But there is one group of plants that has really caught my attention.
41:34You have so much soft fruit in your garden.
41:37It's amazing.
41:38Yeah.
41:39I mean, it's no problem growing at this altitude and in our climate.
41:42The blackcurrants, the gooseberries, raspberries.
41:45So really, that's the secret to this place that soft fruit does very well.
41:50And I might need to consider that.
41:51I think you should.
41:52But my eyes are going on to that soft fruit over there.
41:55What have we got here?
41:56So this, to me, is the gem of the soft fruit world.
42:00So this is a Japanese wine berry.
42:02Right.
42:03Normally, it's about four weeks, at least, of continual harvest.
42:08It's such a sweet, delightful fruit.
42:11It contains itself very, very well.
42:13So if you keep it fresh, it holds itself.
42:16It doesn't juice easily.
42:18Okay.
42:19It's brilliant putting a cake, but you also can freeze it and it stays very, very whole.
42:23But it's just an absolute dream.
42:26We hardly touch it.
42:27And it's the gift that keeps on giving.
42:29It gives a really beautiful plant.
42:32Would you like a cutting that you can take away?
42:34Oh, I'd love one, but I'd like to try one if I can.
42:37Go ahead.
42:38Can I?
42:39Yes, anything that's red.
42:40Oh, it actually comes away like a raspberry.
42:42Yep.
42:43Lovely.
42:46Mmm.
42:47That tastes really good.
42:48Talking about which, shall we go and enjoy some of the fruits of our labour?
42:52Oh, yes, please.
42:54Oh, yeah.
43:12Smells good.
43:13Oh, yeah.
43:14Lovely taste of summer.
43:15Oh, you can actually taste the blackcurrant.
43:18Mmm.
43:19That's delicious.
43:20It's good because it's kind of a sweet dressing, isn't it?
43:23But all these different flavours, it works really well together.
43:26Yeah.
43:27The borage.
43:28I can taste the mint.
43:29Yep.
43:30And the borage, that's lovely.
43:31But you know what, Melanie?
43:32I've really enjoyed myself here today.
43:34Good.
43:35Good.
43:36It's been inspiring.
43:38Seasons are different in different places, and I have to get used to that.
43:44Right, let's tuck in.
43:45Let's give this another go.
43:46Yeah.
43:47I certainly don't share the same elevation as Wrecker, but probably the same sort of climate.
44:08It's very wet here, and it can take a long time to warm up in spring, but by and large,
44:14soft fruit does very well for us.
44:16The only thing that's suffered in recent years because of our wet winters are the summer fruiting
44:21raspberries that hate sitting in wet ground.
44:24So they're not so good, but the autumn ones seem to be fine.
44:27Blackcurrants have done very well, gooseberries, and the redcurrants, which I love, and we've
44:33had for years and moved around in different parts of the garden.
44:36We haven't had any for the last couple of years.
44:38The plants just got very old.
44:40They're about 30 years old.
44:41So I've got some new ones, and I'll plant them up in this space.
44:45But the beauty of redcurrants, and that applies to whitecurrants and gooseberries, those three,
44:50they will grow in a wide range of soils and also from full sun to almost full shade.
44:57So there's really no garden that can't grow those plants.
45:01This is a variety called Rovada.
45:03Nice young plant, and I've chosen it because it's very prolific.
45:08Lots and lots of lovely red fruits that hang in what are called strigs, produced quite late,
45:15July, August-ish.
45:17So we'll pop that in like that.
45:27Once you've planted, it is worth taking trouble to prune it to establish a good shape.
45:34What you try and establish was a framework of minimum of three, and it could be up to about half a dozen branches, like a goblet.
45:41And you prune it every year to open up the middle.
45:44That lets light and air in, light so they can ripen, and also openness.
45:49Because the biggest enemy of redcurrants and gooseberries are sawfly.
45:54And sawfly lay their eggs always down in the middle of the plant.
45:58They hatch out, and the tiny little caterpillars eat it from the inside out.
46:02So if you get lots of air in there, they won't lay their eggs.
46:05I've got a couple more to plant, but they are self-pollinating, so you don't need more than one in order to produce fruit.
46:20And they're very happy in a pot.
46:22They're very happy in a border.
46:24The truth is they're very happy, easy plants to grow.
46:28Now most of us have a garden where we try and have a range of plants.
46:33But from time to time you come across gardeners who channel all their experience and their energy and their expertise
46:41into a passion for just one type of plant.
46:45And Colin Parton from Leeds certainly fits that bill.
46:50I was at a local flower show and there was a stand of delphiniums.
47:05They were absolutely fantastic and caught my eye.
47:08Mud in particular, conspicuous.
47:10And that's what started it all.
47:13And it's just evolved from there.
47:16I had one of those light bulb moments.
47:18I woke up one morning and one thought stuck in my mind.
47:22A garden with lots of delphiniums.
47:24I think of about 106 different cultivars growing about roughly 1,000 plants.
47:35And that's probably producing 4,000 to 5,000 flower spikes.
47:41Raymond Lister is a slightly later flowering one but forms a beautiful spike.
47:47And then we're on to Blue Dawn, which is another one I like.
47:51It's a later flowering one and it just has this tinge of pink running through it.
47:55I've been growing them for over 50 years and I still don't know why I like growing them.
47:59As you can see, this is a long tapering spike.
48:05Typical delphinium.
48:07I like the ones with the big florets.
48:09Some on delphiniums are doubles.
48:11And these growths here, these are the laterals that flower once the main spike is running up to seed.
48:19I'm going to look a right plonk.
48:21I grow delphiniums and don't really know why I like growing them.
48:24But I just do.
48:26A lot of these delphinium elatum cultivars are on the endangered list,
48:32which means they're sort of really not readily available to the general public.
48:37So unless people grow and propagate the older cultivars, they'll be lost forever.
48:43It's now been recognised as a national collection just recently.
48:48And so my job now is to keep these oldies going.
48:53I think Walton Gemstones on the list.
48:58Darling Sue.
49:00Pandora is another one.
49:03Oh, and Clifford Pink.
49:05I like Clifford Pink because it reminds me of my dad.
49:08My dad was called Clifford, so it's one I like is Clifford Pink, yeah.
49:16You can be pottering about busy doing nothing all day long.
49:19Sounds like one was, doesn't it?
49:21Yeah.
49:24I like Gillian Dallas.
49:26You know, these big sort of florets and nice shaped spikes.
49:30That's a favourite of mine.
49:31I like them all, to be honest.
49:33There isn't any I dislike, so...
49:35Any delphinium is welcome in this garden.
49:38Whether it's tall, short, fat or thin, they're all welcome here.
49:42The only way to cultivate any delphinium to keep it true to type is to take basal cuttings which appear in the spring, usually March to April.
49:54And you have to carefully scrape down to the crown of the plant and carefully remove with a sharp knife the cutting, even with a tiny slither of the crown attached to it.
50:06The next stage is to insert these into my expensive propagation operators, which consists of two plastic cups.
50:15I tend to put about an inch of sharp grit sand in the bottom of the cups and then about an inch of tap water.
50:24To about there.
50:27I place my cutting directly into there.
50:30And in three to four weeks, you will see tiny roots appearing on the bottom of this cutting.
50:36And then you're ready for the next stage, which is potting into these small pots.
50:42Once you see lots of basal growth appearing, the next stage is to remove the old cutting material.
50:49And I use a pair of scissors and just snip through the old cutting, pull the cane, and that is your new plant.
51:00Unlike, say, chrysanthemums or dahlias, you know, the cutting actually makes your plant.
51:06With the delphinium, it's the new growth that comes from the old cutting.
51:10And there you have your new delphinium.
51:15Why I like delphiniums?
51:17I've no idea.
51:19I'm going to have that on my tombstone.
51:22Why does he like delphiniums?
51:25Or why did he like delphiniums?
51:30Another one like purple velvet.
51:32And it has that nice texture to the floret, which most of them don't have.
51:40Some of the old cultivars are susceptible to mildew, and especially the purples, they seem to suffer it more than the blues.
51:51If you give them more space between each plant, that's going to help airflow, and that would help with mildew.
51:58This is Blue Nile, and Blue Nile usually does well for me.
52:05And as you can see, it's probably got up six foot six this year.
52:09It's a bit unusual, is Olive Poppleton, and it's got like a honey-coloured eye.
52:14If anybody out there's got Lady Eleanor Porthos, Margaret Farrand, or Duchess of Portland, please get in touch.
52:25It would.
52:26I might then realise why I like growing delphiniums.
52:31Once the new growth comes on your delphiniums, and they get to about ten inches of foot high, this is the time to thin them.
52:45So you're thinning down to four or five shoots per plant, and as soon as they're thinned, I like to insert three canes forming a triangle round each plant.
52:58But as soon as I've inserted the canes, I try and get the first tie on as it's crucial, because if you miss tying them, you know, they're prone to blowing over and snapping.
53:08Now, some people, they'll finish tying at the base of the flower, they don't like to see the string and that, but I find this is a point where most delphs break.
53:19So I like to tie even higher up into the bloom.
53:23I'd be lost without my delphiniums.
53:26It's just a way of life.
53:29I've grown them for that many years, and I'm still getting that much enjoyment out of them.
53:34I'll grow them until I pop my clogs.
53:39They're head and shoulders, literally above everything else.
53:42Well, I love a delphinium, but I don't quite love them that much.
53:55I think that's absolutely fantastic.
54:00And, Colin, you say you don't know what it is about delphiniums or why you like them.
54:16By the time you get to your level of delphinium obsession, it sort of doesn't matter.
54:22It's just fabulous that you and they exist in the same place at the same time.
54:30Now, going from the extreme beauty and passion for delphiniums to a much more humdrum task.
54:38This is a hydrangea.
54:39Last week I pruned the paniculata hydrangeas, and those flower on new growth.
54:44And if you prune those hard, the new growth will carry the flowers.
54:49This is a lacecap, mop head hydrangea, and these produce their flowers on old growth.
54:56So if you prune this really hard, you'll get plenty of growth, but it won't carry any flowers.
55:00So the best thing to do is leave the flower heads on over winter.
55:05Wait till the worst of the frost is over, because they do form a little bit of protection.
55:11And then just trim them back to a nice healthy pair of buds at the end of each shoot.
55:18And no bare wood after that at all.
55:22And if you've got any really old branches, you can go right down in and cut the bottom.
55:27But don't cut back more than a third of the plant at any one time.
55:32So if you want to completely renew it, do it over three years.
55:35But in this case, I'm happy to have quite a bushy big plant.
55:40Right, this is a job for me.
55:43Here are some jobs for you.
55:57If you have sweet pea seedlings, it's a little early to plant them out in most areas.
56:03But it's worth checking through them and reducing any straggly specimens by about half.
56:09And this will encourage bushy side shoots, which in turn will hold more flowers.
56:14So just cut them back just above the side shoot and then leave them to grow for another few weeks before planting them out.
56:21Now is a good time to sow a first batch of carrots.
56:36Make sure the ground is free of stones and also use a plot that hasn't been recently manured.
56:42Rake it to a fine tilth and sow the carrots in rows, so you know where they are, putting the seed in as thinly as you can.
56:52Then cover the rows over and wait for them to germinate, which should take about ten days to two weeks.
56:59And carrots are best sown successionally, so some now, some in May, and even some as late as June for an autumn harvest.
57:06If you have any hardy ferns, now is the time to cut them back.
57:16If you've got tender ferns like tree ferns, leave those for at least another month, as we could easily get more frosts.
57:23Take the fronds right back down to the ground, and this will expose the knuckle of new growth that is very soon going to unfurl into really fresh green growth.
57:35And the old spent material can be gathered up and taken to the compost heap.
57:52At this time of year, and at this time of day, I often come out here because the light is so lovely.
57:58And if you're going to sit in the garden in the evening, and particularly as these evenings are getting longer, make sure that you allow the light in.
58:08And if you're going to sit in the garden in the middle of the day in the summer, you're going to need shade.
58:11And although you can't control your neighbour's buildings or trees, you can control your garden to manage and manipulate and channel the light.
58:21Well, that's it for today.
58:23Next week you'll be with Adam, and he will be in his garden eight o'clock next Friday.
58:29And I will be back here at Longmeadow in a couple of weeks' time, which of course is Easter.
58:34It's a big weekend for the garden then.
58:36And I'll tell you a little bit about the dog garden that I'm doing for Chelsea, with Ned's help.
58:41Till then, bye-bye.
58:44Go on then.
58:45Goodbye.
59:11Bye.
59:12Bye.
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