Gardeners World 2024 Episode 28
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🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hello, or welcome to Gardner's World.
00:21As you can see, I'm digging up an aeonium.
00:25In fact, I'm going to dig up all the aeoniums that I've put here in the jaw garden.
00:29This is only the second year that I've planted them out in here, and they've done really
00:33well.
00:34And this goes against a lot of things you might think about succulents, because it's
00:37been a pretty wet year, and they don't particularly like it wet.
00:41It hasn't been very sunny or warm, and you think of succulents being plants that like
00:45it in sunshine.
00:47But the key to aeoniums is not so much what happens to them in summer, but what happens
00:51to them in winter.
00:52They're not hardy.
00:53And now we're in October, we might well get the odd bit of frost.
00:57So I'm not going to risk it.
00:58I'm digging them up, and I'm going to take them in, I will pot them up, and keep them
01:03indoors over winter.
01:05But this is something I'm doing less and less of.
01:09By and large, I'm trying to keep plants in the ground, because there was a time not so
01:16very long ago, in the beginning of October, you might expect frost.
01:20And now increasingly, it's warmer, but it's wetter.
01:24And that's posing a whole new range of problems in how we manage our winter gardens.
01:29Everything is changing all the time, and we're all having to learn to adapt and react accordingly.
01:39I do love the way they've grown in here.
01:41And of course, the aeoniums have been used for bedding for years.
01:44But bedding goes in, and bedding comes out.
01:48Right, there we go with that one.
01:51Now, coming up on today's programme.
01:54Rachel is looking at the extraordinary ways that plants communicate with their pollinators.
02:01Different colours tell the pollinator whether that flower has been visited or not.
02:05So it goes from yellow to pink after pollination.
02:07It means the pollinators don't waste time.
02:09There's no nectar in there, and they don't need pollinating.
02:12It's coding, basically.
02:13Very clear instructions.
02:15Yeah.
02:16We visit a nursery in Devon, whose owners are besotted with succulents.
02:22I definitely call it an obsession, verging on addiction when it comes to succulents.
02:26When I met Tom, I just got into it.
02:28And then it escalated.
02:29Yeah, it escalated very, very quickly.
02:32Arit explores a garden in West Sussex, where three very different design styles have been
02:38skilfully combined into one.
02:42Coming out of the expanse of the lawn, the path is beginning to really constrict me again,
02:47which is lovely because I'm up close and personal to all of these wonderful plants.
02:52And again, it's the third zone of the garden that feels completely different.
02:58And I should be making a bulb lasagna.
03:43October's a really good month to move plants around.
03:47And when you do so, you may not want to just take a plant from A to B.
03:51You may want to split it to build up more plants.
03:54And now is the time to do that.
03:56Now, what I've dug up from the cottage garden is a hardy geranium.
04:01However, it's a little bit big for the position I've put it in.
04:04It's very vigorous.
04:05You can see there's an awful lot of growth.
04:07I mean, if I put this on here, that is a substantial plant.
04:12So I want to move some further back into the border.
04:14I also would love to have more in the orchard beds.
04:19And rather than go and buy new plants, I'm going to lift about half the ones I've got and divide them.
04:24So first thing to do is to cut off all the top growth.
04:27Once you lift it out, the roots will be broken.
04:30They'll be traumatised.
04:32They don't want to have to go to a lot of work supporting a large amount of foliage.
04:38Right, now we've cleared the decks a bit.
04:41So, if we're lucky, we might be able to tease this apart.
04:45Maybe we have to cut it, but first thing to do is to lose any loose soil so you can get at the roots.
04:53Right, this is where I'm going to cut it.
04:55Now, see that went in quite easily because essentially it hasn't got a woody core.
05:04Now, can you see from there, one, two, three plants, at least, as many back there.
05:11I could break that up into at least half a dozen sections.
05:15So now it pulls apart really easily.
05:17Look, here we go.
05:19All these are new plants.
05:22There we go.
05:23And I'm just pulling them apart gently.
05:25I'm not breaking them.
05:27The advantages of this are twofold.
05:30The first, obviously, is these plants are for free.
05:33So, very quickly, you're building up the second advantage, which is quantity.
05:38So, I'm going to get probably 20 plants from this one.
05:47Pot them all up just with that potting mix, which in this case has got quite a lot of grit in it.
05:53And so, if we just take one of these, I'm going to trim the roots a little bit to fit.
05:59They'll be fine.
06:02Don't be tempted to pot up too big a plant.
06:05Much better to keep them small, grow them on so you have small, healthy plants,
06:10and they will quickly bulk up in the ground.
06:15Now, you may not have a plant in your garden that you know you want to dig up and split.
06:20However, if you go to garden centres at this time of year,
06:23they quite often have largish plants that can be broken up.
06:28So, for example, this heuchera.
06:29If you buy the largest plant of the type you want and that you can afford,
06:34take it home, take it out the pot and divide it up.
06:38Now, in this case, it's a good idea to have an old saw to divide up plants that are a bit more woody.
06:45So, just cut down through the middle like that.
06:51There we go.
06:57So, in this case, I've just made two plants.
07:00I'm actually going to put this back in this pot because I want to plant both these heucheras
07:04into the spring garden along with a pulmonary I've got, which I want to break up,
07:08and a few other plants.
07:10But while I'm dividing these, we're going to join Rachel again for the second of her visits
07:16to see the ways that plants and pollinators interact.
07:21Prepare to be amazed.
07:27Flowers.
07:28We relish their colours, pack our borders with them and delight in each exuberant season.
07:35We also know flowers are really here to pull in pollinators and thrive.
07:46What we're learning, thanks to science, is that beautiful flowers like this lithrum
07:52is drawing in the pollinators and then encouraging them to stay,
07:56just going from one flower to the neighbouring ones, pollinating as they go.
08:06And to attract those pollinators, flowers provide rewards,
08:11primarily nectar for fuel and pollen to feed their young.
08:17Professor Jane Memmott is a pollination expert at Bristol University.
08:24Perhaps if you think about it as a supermarket or your favourite deli,
08:27all of those wares laid out, what they wanted for the customers or the pollinators
08:31to come back again and again to pollinate those flowers.
08:34So yeah, you're looking for brand loyalty almost.
08:37Yes, well it certainly seems to be working here.
08:39I'd come back here, wouldn't you, even though it's gorgeous.
08:41It really is.
08:45To keep their pollinator customers fed and loyal,
08:48some flowers have worked out ways to show when individual blooms have been pollinated
08:55and their nectar stores are empty.
08:59I've always been intrigued by this sort of flower in different colours.
09:03So what's going on there?
09:05The different colours tell the pollinator whether that flower has been visited or not.
09:09So it goes from yellow to pink after pollination.
09:12It means the pollinators don't waste time.
09:14There's no nectar in there and they don't need pollinating.
09:17It's coding, basically.
09:18Very clear instructions.
09:19Yeah, absolutely.
09:25When forget-me-nots have been pollinated, their scent has changed from yellow to white.
09:32But some flowers get very technical and electrical in how they interact with their pollinators.
09:41Now, as a child, this was a favourite trick.
09:46Rubbing a balloon on your jumper and then either getting it to stick to the wall
09:52or to a friend's hair, just making it stand on end.
09:57There we go.
09:58And it works because of electrostatic energy.
10:02And plants have that too.
10:05Professor Daniel Robert is a sensory ecologist, also from Bristol University,
10:11and led the research team on this supercharged discovery.
10:18Daniel, tell me a bit about the electrostatic charge and how that works in this context.
10:23Well, plants, having their roots in the soil full of electrons, will tend to be negative.
10:29So the bees, on the other hand, are positively charged.
10:32As they fly, they rub against the air and they become positively charged.
10:37So why is that important?
10:39Well, people noticed a while ago that pollen literally jumps from flowers to bees.
10:45And we came up with the idea, OK, maybe there is an electrostatic charge going on there.
10:50So we know that pollen are negatively charged because they are on the plant
10:53and they will whiz towards the bee and stick to it, which is what the plant wants.
10:58Sounds incredibly clever to me.
11:00Nature has its ways.
11:05Daniel's theory proved to be right.
11:08Pollen does jump onto a positively charged bee because of an electrostatic charge.
11:15But that charge also helps to tell bees if a flower has been visited recently.
11:21When the bee approaches the plant, it comes with that positive charge.
11:25The flower will react.
11:27And when the bee visits and then leaves, that plant will be left with a more positive charge.
11:34Amazingly, bees can sense those charges using tiny hairs on their bodies.
11:40And that helps them work out both the shape of the flower and the shape of the bee.
11:46The advantage of that is that the next bee coming in will be able to detect that
11:51and see that, oh, they're not all equal, this one has been visited.
11:54It's like a picture from the past and telling, maybe that there is not as much nectar,
12:00so maybe I'll come back a bit later.
12:02Incredibly clever. It's almost as if the plant is speaking.
12:05It's interacting with the bee.
12:07It's like a picture from the past.
12:09It's like a picture from the past.
12:11It's like a picture from the past.
12:13It's almost as if the plant is speaking. It's interacting with the bee.
12:16I think this is a case of communication between species as far away as a flower and a bee.
12:22So clever.
12:27What's even better is that Daniel has a machine engineered to show that change in electrostatic charge.
12:34It's wired directly into the stem of a flower and it makes a high-pitched whine.
12:43And as the charge gets more positive, the pitch gets higher.
12:49I'm charging this rod to approximately the charge of a bee.
12:53And if we approach it to the flower, there will be a change in the frequency that we hear now.
12:59And that's a mark that the plant is charging up.
13:02So why don't you have a go?
13:05Yes, love to.
13:07Just hold it close to the flower.
13:14That tone sort of sweeps lower and higher as I get closer.
13:19That's extraordinary.
13:21That's the change in the electric field around the flower.
13:24Absolutely amazing.
13:26What I'd love to do is see a bee do that as well.
13:29But how long have you got?
13:31Oh!
13:33No. Nearly.
13:37It's a fairly big ask.
13:40Having experimented on our flower, we've made it positive.
13:44And bees will avoid it until the charge fades.
13:47We're in Yeo Valley Organic Garden in Somerset, as Daniel tests only on organic flowers.
13:54And there's acres of blooms here to choose from.
14:02Come on, bees.
14:04But the sound will change if a bee gets even fairly close to our flower.
14:11OK, there's one there. Come on. Just come round the front.
14:17Oh, goodness, look!
14:19Yes!
14:21That's incredible.
14:27But flowers don't just use electrostatics to send messages.
14:31Daniel discovered more.
14:34We've observed that for some plants, like petunias,
14:38when bees are flying by,
14:41that petunia reacts by emitting more scent, more chemicals,
14:46so that it's as if they know the pollinators are there
14:50and they want to advertise themselves even more,
14:53which is quite amazing, I thought.
14:56That is extraordinary, that they can sense the...
14:59I mean, the whole thing is just mind-boggling, actually.
15:02Unbelievable.
15:07For Daniel and his team, this is just the beginning.
15:10There are so many more flowers to test
15:13and definitely so much more to discover.
15:19It's only quite recent that we've seen so many bees
15:24It's only quite recently that science is beginning to explore
15:29the complexity of the relationship between plants and pollinators,
15:34and I feel just incredibly privileged to have seen and heard for myself
15:40just some of the mystery that exists between flowers and pollinators,
15:45and I am totally in awe of their brilliance.
15:54BIRDS CHIRP
16:14What strikes me, watching that,
16:19is not just how incredible that is and how extraordinary,
16:23but also how little we know.
16:26What else is there to be discovered?
16:28Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful.
16:32Well, here in the spring garden, I've added in a pulmonary.
16:37This is pulmonary moonlight, which I've divided.
16:39I've got the heucheras here to plant out,
16:42and I've also got three small purple heucheras.
16:46These are plants, by the way, that like the light shade of spring.
16:49Now, if you can't find a large plant to divide,
16:54a really good way to bulk up and get the quantity as well as quality
16:58is to buy lots of small plants.
17:01When you buy a plant that size, it's going to grow away quickly,
17:04and it's going to be cheap.
17:06A lot of what you pay for in a plant is time.
17:10People have to water plants, pot them on, feed them.
17:14So if you buy it small and you manage it,
17:17that's going to be a lot cheaper than buying a bigger one.
17:20So I'll just pop these in the ground as a group.
17:25By planting these together,
17:27I'm getting an immediate impact from small plants,
17:30but also planning for the future, because these will grow together
17:33to make a clump, which you can divide up and start to spread out.
17:38And this is just one of the ways that you can create quantity,
17:43which is the other side of quality.
17:46You need both in a border to really create the best possible effect.
17:53Right, while I am adding more quality and more quantity
17:56here in the Spring Garden,
17:58we're going to go to Branscombe in North Devon,
18:01where Tom Adkin and Julia Consolandi
18:05found that their shared love of succulents
18:08led them to open a nursery specialising particularly in succulents.
18:19I definitely call it an obsession,
18:21verging on addiction when it comes to succulents.
18:24You end up loving them so much.
18:26You know, I'd keep them all if I could. I wouldn't sell any.
18:31I'm Julia. I'm Tom.
18:33And this is Piccolo Plants Nursery,
18:35where we're a bit mad about succulents.
18:38We've got over 200 varieties,
18:41going from Sedums to Ioniums, Echeverias.
18:45And everything in between, really. Yeah.
18:48Working in gardens, when I was a gardener before this,
18:51there'd be a lot more normal plants there,
18:53but the succulents would be a bit different.
18:55So, we're going to go to Branscombe,
18:58There'd be a lot more normal plants there,
19:00but the succulents to me always had a bit more of an interest.
19:03There was different foliage, different flowers.
19:05They were a different way of growing them entirely.
19:07And it was the variety that I think hooked me initially.
19:11When I met Tom, I just started doing it a bit as well.
19:15And then I just got into it.
19:17And then it escalated. Yeah, it escalated very, very quickly.
19:23One of the main types of plants we grow here at the nursery
19:26are the hardier types.
19:27They're the kind that can generally be left outdoors
19:29all year round with sufficient drainage.
19:33We have also tender, also known as non-hardy succulents.
19:37They can be kept inside all year round
19:40or outside for the summer if you have a garden.
19:46Succulents work by storing a lot of their nutrients
19:49and water that they need within the leaves
19:51to survive long periods of drought
19:53that we don't normally have in the UK.
19:57If in doubt, don't water it.
19:59You will not kill it from forgetting about it.
20:02But if you overwater it or fuss it too much...
20:05Yeah. ..you'll be more likely to kill it.
20:07It's easier to kill them with too much love and neglect.
20:11Yeah.
20:16With succulents, you can play around with the amount of water,
20:20with the position, so in full sun, full shade, partial sun,
20:24and that will bring out different colours in the plants
20:27and it's a way of the plant to cope with the condition.
20:30So we have eoniums that will turn very red in the sun.
20:35Echeverias that can bring out pink colours.
20:39This is one of my absolute favourite plants in this bed.
20:43Some would say that it looks like a cabbage.
20:45I personally think it looks a lot like coral.
20:49Another really funny one.
20:54This is a Delosperma, also known as pickle plant.
20:58The leaves do look like little pickles.
21:01They are covered in these really fine hairs
21:04and then it has these really tiny little daisy-look-like flowers
21:09and it just spreads and covers everything
21:13and it's just quite amusing to look at it, I think.
21:19Succulents are very easy to propagate.
21:23I wouldn't cut it too close to the rosette
21:26because the leaves are very fragile and they will just come off.
21:30So I would go a bit lower.
21:32Now you need to leave this for a couple of days
21:35so that it can callus over.
21:37This is one I cut a couple of days ago
21:41and as you can see, it's already callus over,
21:45which means the wound is healed and is ready to be potted on.
21:49Use a gritty soil for your plant
21:54and just stick it inside the pot.
21:58Just press a bit and leave it.
22:01After a week, try and pull it out gently.
22:06If you feel resistant, it means that it started putting down roots
22:10and you can water it for the first time.
22:12If it doesn't and it comes out, put it back in and leave it another week
22:18and then repeat until it roots.
22:26We've got this hardy gabion area that we've planted out.
22:30Drought tolerant, you don't have to water them.
22:32The only maintenance we do on this is a bit of weeding
22:35or adding new plants in as we see fit.
22:38They generally want very well-drained soil
22:41so on this gabion area that we've got here,
22:44we've got a cubic metre in these cages of stone
22:48and then we've got landscaping fabric about 8-9 inches below here
22:53filled with a probably 60% grit mix of compost.
22:57We leave these plants out all year round.
22:59We don't fuss them at all.
23:01We don't give them any special winter care
23:03as long as they have that well-drained spot.
23:06I've got this empty area of the gabions that I want to plant up today.
23:10I'm going to be putting in various ones
23:12for different levels of height and shape.
23:15This one's Crassula saricalis.
23:18We're going to give it a little bit more space within the flowerbed
23:21and this time of year it is covered in these gorgeous flowers.
23:24Its common name is the bonsai crassula
23:27and it will make a small bonsai tree within this space,
23:30a real centrepiece for our border.
23:32This Sempervivum I'm going to use.
23:34It's got lots of extra babies around the sides of the plant
23:37which will fill out this gap nicely.
23:39It's got a nice bit of colour change through the year
23:41as well as slightly furry tips.
23:43Sempervivum are monocarpic
23:46so once they've flowered they will die back
23:50but the other babies at that point will be taking over.
23:55This is Sedum coral reef.
23:57It's got a lovely orange colour at the moment
23:59and we're hoping to use it to cover this area of the gabions here
24:02and trail down because it's quite a quick grower.
24:06All looking good.
24:08The best thing about these is we don't even have to water them in.
24:16One thing we like to do with succulent multi-planters
24:19is either reuse a broken pot so you've got the recycling side of it
24:22or we can cut a section out
24:24and with that we can do a fantastic display
24:26where you've got the top planted
24:28usually with more height spilling over
24:30and then through the damaged bit of the pot
24:32you'll have succulents all bursting out
24:34and once they've grown in there
24:36you don't see any of the broken bits of the pots
24:38you just see loads of colour.
24:44There's always new weird ones to find, new hybrids.
24:48There's so many different species and variations in amongst that
24:53that if you had the space and the time to do it
24:55there probably isn't a limit as to how many you could collect.
24:59Having these polytunnels as an office
25:02is just about as good as it can get in my opinion.
25:21For whether you just have one succulent on a windowsill
25:24or a polytunnel full
25:26or a polytunnel full
25:28I think just the really important piece of advice there is very simple.
25:31If in doubt, don't water.
25:33You'll do no harm by not watering
25:35and you certainly can do harm by over-watering.
25:41I think most of us found September in our gardens disappointing.
25:46September can be such a lovely month
25:48with this softening of the light
25:50and the colours of summer are still there
25:52but they're fading
25:54and it's a slow, rather delicate, beautiful process.
25:57Well, that certainly didn't happen here at Longman.
25:59We had pretty bad weather
26:01and the garden was just sort of slumped in a way
26:03except for the grass borders.
26:05And this is where grasses come in and work so well
26:08because you have all these metallic colours developing
26:11as we go into and through October.
26:14Even into November.
26:16Golds and silvers and brasses and bronzes and coppers
26:19touch with purple
26:21and for themselves, it doesn't matter how windy or rainy it is
26:24they can take it and I love them for that.
26:30Now, still to come on today's programme.
26:33Arit meets two garden designers
26:36who have blended three distinct styles
26:39into one unified whole.
26:42We love Mediterranean gardens.
26:44We love English country gardens, I guess
26:46and we love Japanese gardens.
26:48So those three different elements
26:50put that into a garden but in a way that is coherent.
26:53And we meet a self-confessed butterfly obsessive
26:55who has packed his garden
26:57with a whole host of plants
26:59to attract as many as possible.
27:03This is a rather lovely plant.
27:05It's a sweet rocket.
27:07This one actually provides nectar for the adult butterflies
27:09in the spring
27:11and then the leaves will provide
27:13caterpillar food source
27:15and the seed pods will be eaten by the orange-tipped caterpillar.
27:18Got three butterflies going on there in one plant.
27:27But first, we're going to visit one of your gardens.
27:33I'm Maisie Bartlett and I've had this allotment
27:35probably now for about nine years, I think.
27:39I was bullied into it by a friend of mine, Annie
27:41who is very wise and knows everything.
27:43At the time, I thought that she was
27:45just put me through some sort of hideous trauma
27:48because it was really hard work.
27:50However, with the passage of time
27:52I've understood that once again
27:56she's given me a winner.
27:58This is a really important part of my life here.
28:02So these are, I'm going to say echinorps
28:04but I'm sure it's not said like that
28:06but that's the name that I know it by.
28:08It's another bee plant.
28:10Bees absolutely love it.
28:12I just love balls and that's it.
28:14I love anything that's a globe, anything that's round.
28:16It's totally delightful to me to look at.
28:18It just soothes my eye.
28:23I'm prone to depression and anxiety
28:25as well as extreme joy
28:27which both of which I experience here
28:29and quite often I find that
28:31you can come up here feeling quite sort of nihilistic
28:33and you can leave feeling in a totally different place.
28:37I just, I'm constantly absorbing
28:39shapes and colours all the time.
28:43So that adds to my creative life, I guess.
28:45It's quite often I've just sat up here
28:47and painted and drawn
28:49and that's just such a
28:51it's such a wonderful thing to do.
28:53Now I'm going to take you back to
28:55the rowan tree I think.
28:57Rowan tree is a symbolised protection.
29:01So I only found that out
29:03after I was looking into it not being cut down.
29:05I was trying to find reasons to not take it out.
29:07It's sent up all these really delightful
29:09like ha ha,
29:11some joy and wonder here.
29:13I really love it and I love the
29:15the vigour of it and the life of it.
29:17And look at that, it's now decided to go
29:19it's going to give some shade over the water spot.
29:23I was ill last year and people
29:25would come and collect me
29:27and sit me on the bench
29:29and water for me which was just an act of true humanity.
29:33So that was wonderful
29:35and definitely, definitely was hugely
29:37contributory to me getting better I would say.
29:39It just makes me smile
29:41you know, it makes me happy.
30:05Well thanks for sharing your allotment Maisie
30:07and I think you're not alone in finding
30:09that allotments which for many years
30:11and for most of us were places to grow
30:13vegetables if you either didn't have enough space
30:15or no garden at all.
30:17Increasingly people are
30:19like you, finding them places where
30:21they can connect with the natural world
30:23in all its various forms
30:25and so much the better for that.
30:27I'm preparing a pot
30:29for display next spring
30:31and this is what we call a bulb lasagne.
30:33In other words, layers of bulbs.
30:35The idea is to have
30:37a succession of displays in one pot
30:39that overlap
30:41and how they overlap and how much
30:43they overlap will depend as much as anything
30:45else on the season and the weather.
30:47I've got some
30:49narcissi, arctic bells
30:51and this is one of my favourite daffodils.
30:53It's got this rather curious bell
30:55shape rather than trumpet shaped
30:57flower which flowers very early.
30:59Last year
31:01my arctic bells were flowering
31:03by the middle of February
31:05and they go on flowering until the end of March
31:07so you've got six weeks of this lovely
31:09delicate but surprisingly tough
31:11little flower.
31:13I've got a great hyacinth, muscari
31:15and this is one called ocean
31:17magic which is a pale icy
31:19blue.
31:21Now the third one is a crocus
31:23it's called romance. I've chosen it because
31:25it has a pale primrose colour
31:27element to its petals but also
31:29a brighter yellow centre
31:31so hopefully those three will work
31:33well together and work well
31:35on their own. Right, I've got a shallow
31:37pot, I've got a crock in the bottom
31:39to stop the compost falling out.
31:41To start with you do need
31:43a really gritty compost
31:45and that is important
31:47so whatever peat free compost
31:49you use, add plenty
31:51of horticultural grit. It must
31:53have really good drainage.
31:55The lowest layer of your
31:57lasagna should be the biggest
31:59bulbs so we'll start
32:01with arctic bells
32:03and plant them
32:05more closely than you would
32:07if you were planting them outside.
32:09In a container the secret is to pack
32:11them. Get in as
32:13many as you can, as long as they're not touching
32:15you want them
32:17to really fill
32:19the space.
32:21There we go.
32:23Cover them up.
32:29Ready
32:31for the next layer.
32:33I'm planting the muscari
32:35because one of the great advantages
32:37of doing a lasagna with small bulbs is
32:39that they're relatively cheap for
32:41each bulb so you can get a lot in.
32:43And although I love
32:45the deep rich colours you get
32:47in muscari, these
32:49very pale blue ones I think
32:51are special.
32:53Don't worry
32:55that you're going to somehow block
32:57the bulbs underneath
32:59coming through. You won't.
33:01They will find a way.
33:03Right, one more
33:05there.
33:07Good. Now we'll
33:09cover those.
33:17And last
33:19but not least, the crocus.
33:21And I always
33:23say with bulbs you should plant them at least
33:25twice their depth and that's certainly
33:27true outside and it's
33:29a good idea in a pot if you've got
33:31the space but don't worry if you haven't.
33:33As long as they're covered
33:35they will flower.
33:37Of course it's worth pointing
33:39out, always plant
33:41pointy side up.
33:43Now these little crocus
33:45will definitely flower
33:47first. There we go.
33:49And cover these.
33:55And I'm going to
33:57top it off with
33:59a layer of pure grit.
34:03It keeps the
34:05petals clean. If you've got these outside
34:07if it rains you can get a splash back
34:09from the compost
34:11whereas if you've got grit
34:13on the surface that doesn't happen.
34:15So there we are. That now can go
34:17somewhere cool, so don't
34:19bring them indoors, don't put them in a greenhouse.
34:21Water them now and then you don't
34:23need to water them again until you start
34:25to see the shoots appear which will be early
34:27February, maybe even late January.
34:29Put them outside where they get as much
34:31sun as possible and enjoy them
34:33from the middle of February right to the end of
34:35March.
34:37Now,
34:39early this summer Arit went to visit
34:41a garden near Horsham in Sussex.
34:43It had been inspired by a number
34:45of different styles and created
34:47by not one but two
34:49garden designers.
34:53Music
34:55Music
34:57Music
34:59Music
35:01Every garden has its challenges.
35:03Maybe lots of shade,
35:05heavy soil or
35:07a tricky terrain.
35:09And this
35:11garden has all of those
35:13things and yet it is an
35:15incredible, beautiful space where
35:17the plants are the main players
35:19and there is minimal hard landscaping
35:21and there are so many
35:23great design tips that can be used in
35:25any garden.
35:27Music
35:29Music
35:31It's helped that Debbie and
35:33Ian run a garden design business
35:35together from the house
35:37so they understood the issues
35:39and the atmospheres they wanted
35:41to create.
35:43Music
35:45Music
35:47The garden is looking
35:49splendid but where would
35:51you start with a garden like this?
35:53We had quite a challenging
35:55design issue to resolve here because it actually
35:57slopes in two directions. It slopes from the
35:59house down to the bottom of the garden
36:01in the west and it also slopes
36:03from the north side of the garden
36:05down to the south so we had two slopes
36:07to try and resolve.
36:09We love Mediterranean gardens, we love
36:11English country gardens I guess and we love
36:13Japanese gardens so those three different elements
36:15and how could we put that into
36:17a garden in a way that is coherent.
36:19So here we've got the sunny area, you've got the
36:21plants that love that, that ticks the
36:23Mediterranean box if you like
36:25and as we move down the garden then we're
36:27moving towards a shadier area so we've actually
36:29got this transition of an English country
36:31garden and then at the bottom where it's
36:33quite shady we can use the Japanese
36:35type plants and give you a different character.
36:37You can tell that this garden
36:39is all about celebrating
36:41plants and is that part
36:43of the approach that you have with the design?
36:45We love plants and we especially love roses.
36:47We knew right at the beginning
36:49that this was going to be a plant
36:51person's garden and I think we
36:53envisaged it as an entirely planted
36:55space out of which we then
36:57carved the spaces so that
36:59we've got an oval lawn in here
37:01and the path snakes down through
37:03the plants so I think
37:05it's like a little private universe
37:07that we've created here, its own
37:09little character, its own little atmosphere.
37:11That oval lawn
37:13is designed to be low
37:15maintenance.
37:17We call it a 10 minute lawn.
37:19By the time you've thought about mowing it
37:21and then walking down to the shed to get the mower
37:23walking back up to mow the lawn and putting the mower back
37:25in the shed takes 10 minutes.
37:35Within the main areas of this
37:37garden there are other hidden
37:39spaces and stroll focal
37:41points.
37:45I really love
37:47this part of the garden. It's
37:49absolutely gorgeous, densely
37:51planted which is what I really enjoy.
37:53I've got a fragrance pumping at me
37:55from the roses so Vanessa Bell
37:57and Emily Bronsey here
37:59and there's a steeper tenuisomer
38:01Alchemilla mollis. It's really
38:03immersive. It's coming off of the
38:05patio so it's almost like it's a
38:07garden within a garden.
38:09But what's really clever
38:11and what is a design must
38:13is to bring the plant
38:15as close to the house as possible
38:17so that when you're inside
38:19your garden is with you
38:21as a permanent view.
38:23I think it's done beautifully here
38:25and something to be celebrated.
38:31To tempt you deeper into the garden
38:33it's clever design
38:35that leads you on.
38:39The hard
38:41landscape materials in this garden
38:43are very minimal and what's been chosen
38:45are very soft and mellow
38:47like the silver timber on the garage
38:49and the local stone on the patio
38:51which is really lovely.
38:53But Debbie and Ian spoke about the level
38:55change issues that they had in the garden
38:57so I like how they've created these
38:59kind of very gentle steps that lead
39:01you onto this gravel path
39:03and they've deliberately curved it
39:05because that creates a meander into the space
39:07and as I've come down into the garden
39:09the atmosphere of the space
39:11has really changed
39:13and even the microclimate and the plants
39:15but it makes you really want to go on
39:17and explore even more.
39:23It leads to the country garden
39:25the ten minute lawn and the planting
39:27which is lifted by the natural
39:29tilt of the terrain.
39:33One of the other things that they've done
39:35is celebrate the slope here
39:37by accentuating it in this border.
39:39Now of course what that means
39:41is that when you plant into it
39:43that all of the plants that would normally be
39:45maybe this high, now can be this high
39:47really add into the immersion
39:49in the garden. I love how the cardoons
39:51are towering over me.
39:57The open green of the lawn
39:59sets that planting off beautifully
40:01and creates a gentle breathing space.
40:07And then
40:09comes the shade.
40:13Coming out of the expanse of the lawn
40:15the path is beginning to really constrict me
40:17again which is lovely because I'm
40:19up close and personal to all of these
40:21wonderful plants and I can see
40:23that Debbie and Ian have taken advantage
40:25of this shady area of the garden
40:27bringing in the Japanese influence that they like
40:29things like the lovely Hakuna Kloa grass
40:31and again
40:33it's the third zone of the garden
40:35that feels completely different.
40:43The planting here is lush.
40:45This hydrangea
40:47has lots of space to flourish.
40:49There's texture
40:51in different leaf shapes
40:53the gentle sound of water
40:55and an amazing atmosphere.
40:59Music
41:13It's so beautifully
41:15tranquil.
41:21This garden is about the size
41:23of a tennis court and yet
41:25by hiding the fences and boundaries
41:27with plants it feels much bigger
41:29and borrows the landscape
41:31and the trees beyond.
41:33But it still creates
41:35the private universe
41:37that the owners really wanted.
41:43I'm really glad
41:45that Debbie and Ian took the time out
41:47to design a garden for themselves
41:49so that they can experience what it's like
41:51to be in this wonderful tranquil space.
41:57Music
42:09I like the idea
42:11of a ten minute lawn.
42:13There's no question about it that every garden
42:15however small
42:17needs somewhere that is a breathing space
42:19where there's not too much going on
42:21it's not too busy
42:23and the eyes can just let go.
42:27Right, I have got here
42:29our winter salads
42:31grown for fresh salad
42:33every single day
42:35between the end of October
42:37and into April.
42:39Now the only way I can really guarantee that
42:41is in a greenhouse but
42:43you can do it on any scale.
42:45You can do it on a very small greenhouse, you can do it in a container
42:47but it does
42:49mean a bit of forward planning so these
42:51were sown in August
42:53pricked out into plugs
42:55and now we're ready to plant out.
42:57We've got winter spinach
42:59we've got a red mustard
43:01rocket
43:03and corn salad or land's lettuce
43:05and the protection of the greenhouse
43:07keeps from going over winter.
43:09Now I'm going to start with rocket
43:17Let's put that like that
43:19I use a board
43:21and I plant these out in rows
43:23and rocket is one of those plants
43:25that if you give it a chance
43:27will grow quite big with a mass of leaves
43:29and will cut it three, four, even five times
43:31during the course of the winter months.
43:35This rocket
43:37is not the same rocket that you get
43:39in supermarkets or restaurants
43:41which is a perennial rocket
43:43this is very much an annual
43:45and very quickly goes to seed if it gets too warm.
43:47I've added lots of compost
43:49and it's worth pointing out
43:51that if you're going to grow anything
43:53over the winter months
43:55you want maximum light
43:57and after a summer of using a greenhouse
43:59the important thing to do
44:01is clean the glass
44:03and that means the light levels
44:05can be as good as possible
44:07and you'll be surprised how influential that is
44:09it's really important.
44:11As I say
44:13we want big plants
44:15so I'm spacing them out
44:17quite widely
44:19and of course you get a different range of flavours
44:21in winter
44:23rocket and mustard are mustardy
44:25the spinach is a winter variety
44:27a little bit coarser
44:29than a spring spinach
44:31and corn salad has a lovely
44:33buttery light taste.
44:35It is important
44:37to keep these watered
44:39because of course they're inside
44:41and therefore not going to get any rain at all
44:43and in about 3-4 weeks time
44:45as our harvest outside in the vegetable garden
44:47becomes thinner
44:49we will have access
44:51to fresh salad leaves
44:53right through the darkest days of winter
44:55and I have to say
44:57that's one of the great treats of my life
44:59I love it.
45:01So I'm going to go ahead
45:03and say that's one of the great treats of my life
45:05I love it.
45:07We're off now to Dorset
45:09which is always good news
45:11because it's such a beautiful county
45:13and to Poole
45:15where Paul James Allen lives
45:17and where he has created a garden
45:19to attract as much as possible
45:21of one of his great passions
45:23which are butterflies.
45:29When I was younger
45:31I developed a bit of an obsession with butterflies
45:33and the reason for that was
45:35I was taken to a butterfly house in Dorset
45:37and they gave me some caterpillars
45:39to take away and rear up
45:41which I thought were fabulous
45:43because I was into the creepy crawly side
45:45more than the flattery side
45:47but when they hatched out the chrysalis
45:49I was amazed
45:51and from that period onwards
45:53I was just hooked.
45:55So the aim of this garden was
45:57to make it very butterfly friendly
45:59and for butterflies as well
46:01I hadn't had the chance to grow before
46:03because I had some more space.
46:05So to date we've had 17 different butterfly species
46:07but a smallish garden isn't a bad feat
46:09to be honest.
46:15When you're planting for butterflies
46:17you're looking at a simple sort of flower shape
46:19Buddleias obviously
46:21the smaller dense panicles of flowers
46:23are really good
46:25and things like Verbena benariensis
46:27are quite familiar with Buddleias
46:29and to be fair they get quite a bad rap
46:31people see them at the side of railway tracks
46:33and think I don't want that in my garden
46:35you have to remember this is a huge and diverse group of plants
46:37and many of the varieties
46:39are very suitable for butterflies
46:41so you don't have to grow the monsters in your garden
46:43to get the butterflies in.
46:45This is a very good one
46:47this is called Salmon Spheres
46:49which is a lovely cross Buddleia
46:51crossed with Buddleia crisper and Buddleia globosa
46:53and gives you a really lovely peachy
46:55colour flower here
46:57very unusual colour spectrum on that one
46:59and this is actually perpetual flowering
47:01because it's sterile
47:03it will keep flowering so long as there's warmth
47:05it will keep going
47:07and this can flower even in the dead of winter
47:09if you've got warm days
47:11so a great one to put into your garden.
47:13A popular misconception
47:15is that if you've got a garden
47:17that isn't sunny
47:19you can't attract the butterflies in
47:21but you really can
47:23either in full shade or dappled shade
47:25and we get a lot of butterflies into those areas.
47:29This is a rather lovely plant
47:31this is Sweet Rocket
47:33a couple of different colours that it comes in
47:35this is quite well known
47:37it's got amazing, quite heavy evening fragrance
47:39so a lovely one to grow in your garden anyway
47:41but this one actually provides nectar for the
47:43adult butterflies in the spring
47:45April, May and June
47:47sometimes into July
47:49and then the leaves will provide
47:51a caterpillar food plant source
47:53with the small and green vein whites
47:55and the seed pods
47:57let those grow as well
47:59you'll have some seed around but also some of these will be eaten
48:01by the orange tick caterpillar
48:03so you've got three butterflies going on there in one plant.
48:09Another thing to remember if you're planting for butterflies
48:11if you can
48:13please try and accommodate some of their larval food plants
48:15it's getting far more difficult
48:17for butterflies to actually breed
48:19in the wild these days
48:21because of habitat loss
48:23and if you live in an inner city
48:25it's really important you actually bring in some of these caterpillar food plants in
48:27there's a few key ones you can really go for here
48:29and attract butterflies almost immediately
48:31one of them is Buckthorn
48:33easy and cheap to buy
48:35not particularly interesting
48:37but if you mix it up into a mixed hedge
48:39if you've got a hedge already
48:41it will provide you a nice splash of green
48:43but the most important thing is it attracts a Brimstone butterfly
48:45which is the bright yellow butterfly you see in the spring
48:47they can actually sense that Buckthorn plant
48:49from about five miles away
48:51so if you've got that in your garden
48:53they will move into your garden and actually start a colony
48:55a lot of butterflies are getting a bad rap
48:57because people think they eat your plants
48:59and eat your crops
49:01there's only two species of butterflies which do that
49:03and they are the Cabbage Whites
49:05well known, Large White and the Small White
49:07but you have to remember that they're also becoming
49:09quite scarce too, worryingly
49:11so what we want to do is still encourage them in
49:13but plant something different
49:15so here we've gone for Nasturtium
49:17I've gone for an unusual variety which is called Phoenix
49:19which has got these lovely
49:21flame type flowers
49:23and you've got to remember with Nasturtiums
49:25they have a huge burst of growth
49:27so they easily sustain a colony of caterpillars
49:29and keep some off your cabbages
49:31and as you can see here, they've already started having a go
49:33and actually
49:35I've just spotted there's a little colony of
49:37Large White Caterpillars on there right now
49:39so let's have a look at that
49:45so the interesting thing here in the back garden
49:47where it's really shady, we've got an oak tree
49:49which is covered in ivy actually
49:51and I know it's the bane of most people's lives
49:53but it's serving a really important purpose
49:55we've got several different species
49:57of butterfly in the UK which hibernate
49:59and use the ivy
50:01as shelter for the winter
50:03so they'll tuck themselves away in the leaves
50:05and they'll be protected for the worst of the weather
50:07and ivy is actually
50:09double whammy because it does provide
50:11a larval food plant for the holly blue
50:13so maybe give ivy a chance
50:15in your garden
50:19I've spent most of my life
50:21concentrating on the butterfly side but
50:23beyond that I'm also a little bit
50:25of a plant nut so
50:27I actually planted a lot of
50:29these plants here specifically for me
50:31so there's one plant that
50:33I've got a bit obsessive over
50:35I have to admit it's like
50:37quite unhealthy
50:39but it's the abutilon
50:41most writings on abutilon tell you to grow them
50:43in full sun
50:45something I thought for many many years
50:47but trust me, if you've got a shady
50:49garden I absolutely love it
50:51and I've found the ones in the shade here
50:53are doing way better than the ones in the sunshine
50:57so I grow 50 different sorts
50:59of abutilon in this garden
51:01this one is an unusual variety
51:03it's called Klein Schonheit
51:05beautiful vibrant orangey red there
51:07people usually associate abutilons
51:09with a yellow and a red bell shaped flower
51:11they come in so many different forms
51:13and so many different colours
51:15a real rainbow of colours there
51:17with abutilons what I recommend you do
51:19is feed them with a really high nitrogen feed
51:21the first year you plant them
51:23that will give you the boulter growth to give you that height you want
51:25and then the following year
51:27feed with a high potash
51:29and that will give you your high yield of flowers
51:34I think my love for butterflies
51:36is basically
51:38a broad love for nature
51:40and the fact that
51:42we all need to do our bit in our gardens
51:44to have as much of a natural environment
51:46as we possibly can as we're losing so much
51:48wildlife across the world actually
51:50so the more we can do in a home garden
51:52the better really and it brings us joy
51:54to see that our hard work
51:56is paying off and bringing these
51:58wonderful creatures in
52:03music
52:22Paul is so right
52:24about the importance of our gardens
52:26for encouraging
52:28and conserving nature
52:30there is a statistic that
52:32our gardens now, the total area
52:34of UK gardens, are greater
52:36than the total area of British
52:38nature reserves
52:40gardens are our biggest resource
52:42for encouraging
52:44and conserving nature in all
52:46its forms
52:48these pumpkins
52:50are ready for harvesting
52:52and at this time of year
52:54it's a trade off between encouraging
52:56them to grow and to ripen
52:58while still growing attached
53:00to the vine
53:02or to cut your losses, harvest them
53:04and then bring them in and
53:06ripen them indoors because all squashes
53:08but particularly pumpkins
53:10love heat
53:12however, now we're into October
53:14the heat is diminishing fast
53:16so it's time now to harvest them
53:18and then take them somewhere
53:20where they can ripen a little bit more
53:22and when you do harvest them, you don't want to damage the stem at all
53:24and to avoid that
53:26don't cut the stem, but cut
53:28either side
53:30of the attachment
53:32so what you end up with
53:34is a T shape, like that
53:36and that will protect the stem because if you damage
53:38the stem, then they won't store
53:40nearly so well
53:42so I'm going to take that one, and I've got another one here
53:44and don't hold them by the stem
53:46either
53:48and these by the way are Turks Turban
53:50really decorative
53:52but they make great eating too
53:54so we'll put that in there
53:56like that
53:58and you notice, I'm not just chucking them in
54:00gently put them in
54:02because you don't want to damage them
54:04now having said that
54:06this one here
54:08it's been nibbled
54:10which is not going to help its preservation
54:12however
54:14we'll keep it for the moment
54:16right, that goes in there
54:18now
54:20these two rows are a squash called
54:22Crown Prince
54:24Crown Prince is a really good eater
54:26if you like to eat squash
54:28or pumpkin, then this is the one
54:30that I would recommend most highly
54:32so we'll just cut this
54:34like that
54:36and like that
54:38and there we are, you see it's got this beautiful
54:40glaucus colour
54:42not quite grey and not quite blue
54:44and the flesh inside
54:46is as orange as
54:48these other squashes there
54:50handle it carefully
54:53now I'm going to pick the rest
54:55but while I'm doing that
54:57here are your jobs for the weekend
55:08any salad crops
55:10or seedlings that you have growing outside
55:12can have their lives lengthened
55:14by closhing
55:16if you've got closhes, give them a good wash
55:18as they may have got dirty over summer
55:20rinse them over the plants
55:22leaving the ends open so they're still
55:24well ventilated
55:26and this will protect them from any cold nights
55:32now is a good time
55:34to take stock of your house plants
55:36whatever they may be
55:38check them over for any damaged, diseased
55:40or dead leaves and remove them
55:42if any are very dry, give them a soak
55:44either in a sink or a bucket of water
55:46and then drain them thoroughly
55:48rinse them as needed
55:50and be prepared to keep misting them
55:52and finally, move any succulents
55:54or cacti to the brightest
55:56windowsill that you have
56:04it's a good idea to tackle the perennial weeds
56:06in your borders now
56:08whilst you can still see where they are
56:10dig out as much root as you possibly can
56:12I'm removing comfrey
56:14which can go onto the compost heap
56:16but don't add invasive weeds
56:18like creeping buttercup
56:20bindweed or coochgrass
56:22and instead put them
56:24in a garden waste bin
56:46now
56:48I've got these two here
56:50they are not going to really ripen
56:52this is a classic case
56:54where I should have cut these off
56:56when they were smaller
56:58because all they've done is
57:00I've got two pumpkins
57:02that are not really going to be edible
57:04and they've taken energy away from these
57:06so do as I say, not as I do
57:08and worth checking pumpkins
57:10and taking off any
57:12that are not of a reasonable size
57:14round about the end of August
57:16I'll put them out anyway
57:18and of course
57:20a turk's turban
57:22and these are ready to eat now
57:24so what we're doing
57:26is by putting them in a greenhouse
57:28and letting them get as much sun as possible
57:30and that will ripen the skins
57:32and the harder the skin, the better they store
57:34and these are pretty hard
57:36they're not bad at all
57:38but this one
57:40which is the biggest
57:42the skin is the softest
57:44I can almost push that in
57:46with my finger
57:48so this really needs to ripen
57:50so I'll put that there like that
57:52and of course that will make a fantastic Halloween pumpkin
57:54I think slugs will have eaten that
57:56which is a very good reason
57:58not to let pumpkins sit on the ground
58:00and that means that's not going to keep so well
58:02so that's the first one that we'll eat
58:04but that won't be for a few weeks yet
58:06and that's it for today
58:08I will be back here
58:10at Long Meadow
58:12next Friday at 8 o'clock
58:14so until then
58:16bye bye