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Gardeners World 2025 episode 7
Transcript
00:00Hello, welcome to Gardener's World. We've had a little bit of an accident and a big gust of wind
00:23has brought down this climbing rose from the apple tree and in the process has broken it.
00:32This is a climbing rose, a very vigorous one called Souvenir de Malmaison and it's very prone to black spot.
00:41It's a lovely rose, beautiful, but it's not at all healthy compared to the other roses here
00:45and I'm not sure it's going to survive the kind of twisting and tying in need.
00:51So, what I've decided to do is cut it right back and the new growth, with more light around it, more air will be healthier.
01:01So, this has given me an opportunity to do a bit of radical pruning.
01:05Let's take that off.
01:07Right, I'm going to reduce this down.
01:09There you go.
01:11What's extraordinary is how roses develop these incredibly strong stems.
01:16I mean, that's a walking stick.
01:17Now, can you see here, we've got a good new chute, so that's where I'm going to take it to.
01:32Okay, I think that will be fine now.
01:34I can re-establish the rose and actually tie it in to the reduced framework that I've got now of the tree.
01:40But we must push on, because we've got lots on, on today's programme.
01:48We catch up with Sue in her garden, as she gets stuck into some seasonal experiments.
01:55I'm taking a different approach to growing my tomatoes this year.
01:58Normally I grow cordons, so I've decided to try some bush varieties.
02:01We meet a gardener who has become completely immersed in the fascinating world of compost.
02:12At least 59% of the life on earth is actually in our soils.
02:17It's the most biodiverse ecosystem on the planet.
02:22Francis celebrates the glory of wisteria in all its forms.
02:27One writer said, they need no nicety of management and are impatient of the knife.
02:34Which is a nice way of saying, they're tough as old boots and they grow like mad.
02:38And we visit a garden that is packed with colourful combinations.
02:43There's one where a plant has fallen over.
02:46And it's a Hesperus, and I think the purple and the red are fantastic.
02:50So I didn't stand it up, because I think it looks so beautiful.
02:52There's one where a plant has fallen over.
03:22There's one on the mound is soft yellow and soft blue.
03:26So the Daffodil Avalon, absolutely ideal.
03:30The forget-me-nots, which have come out in the last week, perfect.
03:33But I need more of them.
03:35The tulips I've got here in pots, I've got Ivory Floridale.
03:39And this year I've grown, for the first time, a double tulip called Verona.
03:44It's a very, very pale yellow.
03:46But when you look into it, there are depths of yellow.
03:49However, you can see, you can't help but see.
03:52This, which I think is request, has somehow got into the mix.
03:59But that will be removed.
04:01But what I want to do is add some blue.
04:03So, this is a vinca.
04:07It's vinca minor, a periwinkle.
04:10And this is a variety called Hawaii.
04:14And vinca is a classic ground cover plant.
04:18It'll grow well in shade.
04:19It doesn't mind dry conditions.
04:21And this can get quite shady.
04:22So I'm going to put it high up on the bank.
04:25So it will spill down and other plants can grow through it.
04:28That's perfect.
04:34I put two on that side.
04:35So I want to make sure I've got two on this side.
04:41Ned, of course, is adding to the yellow and blue colour theme.
04:45Because he's brought out today a perfectly colour-coordinated toy.
04:51I'd like to think that he has different coloured toys for different parts of the garden.
04:55Not true, is it?
04:56Now, what I've got here is Brunnera macrophylla.
05:01And the difference between the forget-me-nots that we've got running along the bottom here
05:05and so many in the cottage garden is that they are biennials.
05:10So you sow the seed in late spring, early summer.
05:14The plants germinate and develop and then flower the following spring
05:17and then die having set seed.
05:19Brunnera is a perennial, best planted in small groups.
05:22And these long stems, these tiny flowers, work wonderfully well when intermingled around daffodils.
05:31And if you want more plants with Brunnera, it's very simple.
05:34You just divide them.
05:35The one thing these don't want is to be in fulsome.
05:41So they must have at least half the day in shade.
05:46Right.
05:47All I've got to do now is just make a hole, stick them in the ground.
05:50I've deliberately put this vincar in amongst a patch of weed.
06:01Now, the real problem at the moment is lesser celandine.
06:04The flowers are lovely, the little bright yellow flowers,
06:08and the foliage dies back to nothing by about the end of May.
06:12So they're not that intrusive, but they spread, and they can carpet a whole area like this.
06:21So celandine has little tubers, and they're very brittle.
06:26And whenever you dig or anything disturbs the soil, they break,
06:30and each one will produce a new plant.
06:32So the more you try and dig them out, the more likely you are to actually spread it,
06:36unless you can get rid of all of it in an area.
06:39Right, the vincar.
06:45Nice plant.
06:47Good roots.
06:54You can see that these borders are very much work in progress,
06:58but then the whole of Longmeadow is work in progress,
07:01and that means changing and adding and assessing.
07:03And I think all of us at this time of year are making the most of the lovely blossom
07:07and the flowers that are emerging, but also planning and buying plants
07:12and setting ourselves up for the year to come.
07:15And down in Sue's garden, that is no different.
07:18And last month, we went along to pay her a visit.
07:20It's a lovely day, and the garden is greening up at a ferocious pace,
07:38and it's made me feel it's time for a bit of spring cleaning of my seeds.
07:42I don't know whether you're the same, but I've kept a lot of old seed that's out of date,
07:47and it's cluttering up my seed store.
07:50So I've got poppies, I've got cosmos, I've got zinnia,
07:53and I've got this one here, which is five and a half feet,
07:57which means it can't be any younger than 1984.
08:00It probably won't come up, but that's half the fun of experimentation.
08:03I'm going to mix them all up.
08:06I'm not going to sew them in rows.
08:08I'm going to broadcast them.
08:10I've kept a list of what they are,
08:12so I can see what's a success and what's a failure.
08:15And this is a really exciting thing to do.
08:19And, you know, who knows if I will be lucky with my 1984 status,
08:24and it'll be a miracle.
08:26But nothing ventured, nothing gained.
08:28So, a spoonful at a time.
08:43And then I'm putting them into a mixture of soil and garden compost.
08:49And I'm just going to sort of thinly scatter them over.
08:53This box will act like a nursery bed,
08:56so instead of having to sow them in lots of individual containers,
08:59I've got them here.
09:00But it doesn't mean to say they've got to stay here.
09:02I can move them on once I've identified them
09:05and plant them in different places in the garden
09:07where I've got spaces during the summer.
09:10And ideally, some of the seeds would need
09:12slightly different growing conditions from others,
09:14but they've got to take their chances.
09:17And I'm sprinkling all the seeds,
09:19and I'm going to just pressure them in a bit with my foot
09:23just to make sure they've got good contact with the soil.
09:26And then I'm going to water them in.
09:28So, who knows what's going to happen?
09:31Bets are on.
09:33Will it be the 40-year-old status,
09:35or will it be the brand-new cosmos that germinates?
09:38I'm taking a different approach to growing my tomatoes this year.
09:50Normally, I grow cordons, which you train up,
09:53and they can grow up to about six foot,
09:54and you've got to tie them in,
09:56and you've got to pinch out the side shoots.
09:58And that's, to be honest, it's a bit of a faff.
10:00So I've decided to try some bush varieties.
10:03These are tumbling tom.
10:04I decided to go to the most form-proof cherry tomato I could find.
10:10As a bush variety, tumbling tom don't need pinching out,
10:13and they're only going to grow to 30 centimetres,
10:15so that's an ideal table height,
10:18so I can reach really easily and harvest really easily.
10:21But when I sowed them, only four came up,
10:23so I planted some more seedlings,
10:25but I was a bit lazy,
10:26and I just chucked them in with the spare spaces with the sweet peas.
10:29And now they've got two true leaves,
10:31it means they're ready for potting on.
10:34And I want to just separate them without really touching roots.
10:38I'm going to do that, because that's what people say to do,
10:40to break them up,
10:42but I think they also need a little bit of a pull.
10:44So pull them by the tops if you can.
10:48If you've got lots of lovely fingers, you hold it by the leaves,
10:50but I do it like this, and they always survive.
10:54So I'm going to pot on this plant,
10:55so using a big dibber,
10:58getting right to the bottom of the pot,
11:00and popping it in as low as it can go,
11:03but I don't want to cover the top two leaves.
11:06With bush tomatoes, they crop almost all together.
11:10You can get a glut, or if they haven't ripened enough,
11:14you'll get all your tomatoes green at the end of the season.
11:17But I love green tomatoes,
11:18and to me, you can never have a glut of tomatoes,
11:21because you can never have enough tomatoes.
11:22This is my play area.
11:35And at the moment, I'm playing with the colour pink.
11:40And I've got the Pitten Sporum, Banno Bay.
11:43I've got a Sambucus nigra black lace,
11:47and I've got the Heucheras black pearl.
11:50And also these absolutely beautiful hellebores.
11:54And what I want to bring in here
11:56is a different sort of flower head form.
11:59And last year, I started growing grasses,
12:02and I don't know what's taken me so long.
12:04They're great.
12:05And I grew Pennisetum redhead,
12:07and it wasn't quite the colour that I expected.
12:10And this year, I bought Pennisetum carly rose,
12:12which is supposed to be a silver pink.
12:15But I don't trust it,
12:16so I'm putting it in the pot to see how it develops.
12:19If it looks good here,
12:21I will keep it here.
12:23And if it doesn't look quite the colour that I expected,
12:26I will move it elsewhere in the garden.
12:28And that's the joy of having an area just to play with.
12:31You can get it wrong if it's in pots.
12:33You haven't invested all that digging time.
12:35I'm growing some more trained apple trees.
12:43And this one is George Cave.
12:45Now, George Cave came from a small town, Dovercourt,
12:49which is in Essex,
12:50which is also where my great-grandfather came from,
12:53and he was a market grower.
12:54Now, I've had many happy holidays down at the beach there,
12:58and I wanted to bring a bit of Dovercourt back into the garden,
13:00so when I saw it, I snapped it up.
13:02But unfortunately, talking of snapping,
13:04the top of it has snapped,
13:06and there's now some damage and disease
13:08getting down the main stem,
13:10so I'm going to have to take some quite drastic action
13:12to try and halt it spreading.
13:14I'm going to have to make a cut here,
13:16which is not ideal.
13:20The beauty of training fruit
13:22is you can have it exactly the height you want,
13:24whether it's step-over waist height
13:26or, for me, at my hand height,
13:28so it makes harvesting and pruning easier.
13:30And also, I want to be able to see the view behind.
13:33Now, pruning this isn't ideal because it's too low,
13:37but with a little bit more judicious pruning
13:40later on in the season,
13:41I should get it to the height that I want.
13:44Last year, I grew agistash alabaster,
13:57and I grew it in this border,
13:58and it got completely bullied out by the hydrangea Annabelle.
14:01So I dug it up and I overwintered it in the greenhouse,
14:04and I'm going to put it in my wild white border
14:07on this side, which is a bit more sunny.
14:10Agistash likes full sun,
14:11and it can grow up to 90 centimetres,
14:13and the seed heads look really good all winter,
14:16so it's a real good all-year-round plant.
14:19In order not to disturb the daffodils
14:21and the breeze of grasses,
14:23I was pre-prepared,
14:25and I made the hole,
14:26and I marked it with a similar-sized pot,
14:28so I shouldn't have to dig any more.
14:30I'm going to put a tiny bit of soil in the bottom
14:32just to give it a little bit of a boost.
14:35Just sprinkle that in the bottom,
14:37and then I'm going to pop it in.
14:39There's a lovely root system.
14:41I'll just pop it in the hole.
14:43It worked, which is great.
14:46I found that putting a pot in
14:48where you want something definite
14:50is a really easy way of planting later on.
14:53Everything stays happy around it.
14:56Agistash aren't fully hardy,
14:58and normally I can't be bothered with plants
15:00that need digging up and putting in the greenhouse,
15:02but it's so beautiful, it's worth it.
15:05But next year, I'm not going to dig it up.
15:07It hopefully will survive if I really mulch it well
15:11and protect it from the winter frosts,
15:13and if it does, it's going to self-seed,
15:16and hopefully I'm going to have the plants
15:17all the way along this border,
15:19and it's going to look beautiful.
15:20Good boy.
15:41Come on, then.
15:42Whee-hoo!
15:50I love Sue's optimism
15:52with her 40-year-old seed packet.
15:565 1⁄2p, too. Fantastic.
15:59Now, here in the cottage garden,
16:00we've undergone big changes in the last few years,
16:03and now the tulips
16:05and the blue froth of the forget-me-nots
16:07are coming into their own.
16:09And the colour scheme here is pastels.
16:13Pale, soft, and obviously that means a lot of pinks,
16:17and all the shades of pinks.
16:19I experiment with tulips a lot.
16:21I'm also always after
16:23the perfect apricot tulip,
16:26and they're really difficult to find.
16:28But pinks are in abundance,
16:31whether it be the frilliness of the parrot cabana
16:34or one of my favourites,
16:36which is tulip mistress,
16:38which is just coming into flower now.
16:40Obviously, I want to keep the pastel colours going
16:43long after the tulips are finished,
16:45which will be about another two or three weeks' time.
16:47And I'm planting out now some sweet peas.
16:50And this is a new one on me.
16:51This is a variety called Senator.
16:55The colours of Senator are a white background,
16:58flushed with a sort of pink,
17:00just touched with chocolate.
17:02And it's an old variety from the 1890s,
17:04a grandiflora.
17:05Now, what I do,
17:07I plant the whole thing out as a group,
17:09so one pot to each support.
17:11So I need four pots for supports like this.
17:16And I always put them on the inside of the support,
17:23which means I can water into the middle
17:25and all the roots can have access.
17:26Now, what sweet peas absolutely hate
17:29is being too dry.
17:31So you can see there's lots of mulch.
17:34These beds are very rich.
17:35They were vegetable borders for 20 years,
17:38and I put in masses of goodness.
17:41So when you're planting,
17:43just make a hole
17:44and take the whole pot out as one.
17:47Don't try and break the plants up.
17:49And just pop them in.
17:52Like that.
17:54If you haven't grown sweet peas before,
17:56these are climbers,
17:57so they need some support
17:59to attach themselves to.
18:01I use these wigwams,
18:03but I've used chicken wire before now.
18:05That works perfectly well.
18:06Just something
18:07that you can initially tie them to,
18:10and then once they get to June,
18:13the tendrils will support themselves.
18:15But you do need to tie them in
18:17maybe weekly for the first four weeks.
18:24There we go.
18:25That's one more.
18:31Right, all I need to do now,
18:32and this is really important,
18:33is to water them in.
18:43Now, this area of the garden
19:02may not be as glamorous
19:04or as pretty as the cottage garden,
19:06but it's every bit as important
19:08because this is where we make our compost.
19:10And it's a very simple system.
19:11We have a bay
19:12where we just chuck everything
19:14that can be composted,
19:15and when it's full,
19:16we mow it.
19:18We spread it out on the ground here.
19:19You can see there's no grass.
19:20And we've got an old mower,
19:21and we just run it through the mower.
19:22And then it goes into here.
19:23When this is full,
19:24it gets turned into this bay.
19:26When this is full,
19:27it gets turned into here.
19:28And by now, you can see,
19:29it's beginning to get compost-like.
19:31If when you take a shovelful
19:33or a handful of compost
19:34and there are these little red worms
19:36that are called brandlings,
19:37then you know that the compost
19:39is being made well.
19:40You're doing the right thing.
19:42And then this is its final resting place.
19:44And we only use compost from this last bay.
19:47We use it for two things.
19:49One is on anything edible,
19:51and two as part of our potting mix.
19:54And for those two purposes,
19:56it's absolutely essential.
19:58But not everybody has the space,
20:02and not everybody has the time to do this.
20:05However, there are other ways of going about it,
20:08and we went to Sussex to learn about some of them.
20:17Soil is the coolest thing
20:19that exists on the planet for me.
20:21We owe ultimately our existence
20:22to the fact that there is six inches of soil.
20:25And often when we think of biodiversity,
20:26we think of birds, bees, and butterflies,
20:28but actually it's the microscopic stuff.
20:30At least 59% of the life on Earth
20:33is actually in our soils.
20:35It's the most biodiverse ecosystem on the planet.
20:41So I took a deep dive into soil science
20:43and became a soil nerd and compost enthusiast
20:46to the point where composting is all I do now.
20:50Compost Michael is something I'm often called
20:52or stopped in the street and told,
20:54you're the composting guy, aren't you?
20:57So I'm Michael Kennard.
20:59I run a social enterprise called Compost Club.
21:00So I go about collecting food waste
21:02from mostly residents and businesses.
21:05And what I do is take all that food waste
21:06with tree surgeons' waste wood chips
21:08and turn it into what I call a living compost.
21:12I came into this as a grower,
21:13and what I realised was that the healthier your soil is,
21:17the healthier your plants are going to be,
21:18and ultimately the healthier we're going to be
21:20as people for eating that food.
21:25We come out for domestic households every three weeks.
21:29We take away the full bucket, leaving them a clean one.
21:32Every spring, members get some compost back,
21:35which is a really lovely exchange.
21:36So there's that whole kind of another closed loop, essentially.
21:39The first stage of making compost for us
21:45is using Bokashi bran.
21:47It originates in Japan.
21:48It means to ferment organic matter,
21:50and it works anaerobically,
21:52so it's an outlier in terms of compost.
21:53You normally need oxygen.
21:55We give it to our members.
21:56So they layer that into their food waste bucket
21:58with the food waste in a lasagna style.
22:00So it's all the way through the bucket,
22:02pre-digesting it and adding like a kind of,
22:05it's like adding rocket fuel into the system.
22:07So the next stage in our composting
22:09is to utilise what we call in-vessel hot composting.
22:12So we're using a compost tumbler,
22:14and it's the kind that's small enough
22:15that you could have at home in your back garden.
22:18It works really efficiently
22:19by creating the right conditions
22:20for compost to happen sort of three to four weeks.
22:23You could be emptying these.
22:24So we're taking a 50-50 mix of wood chips
22:27and our fermented food waste,
22:29and that goes into the tumbler like this.
22:33What you're left with at the end of a good maturation phase
22:56of at least around 12 weeks
22:58is a compost that's really abundant,
22:59really diverse in life.
23:02There'll be things, indications it's really good
23:04without a microscope, like a really sweet smell,
23:06and also visible fungi, which is a really good sign.
23:11So it's just got everything that plants need.
23:14So you have this super amazing,
23:15super natural nutrient-cycling plant fertiliser.
23:21So the best way to look at your soil
23:24would be to get a microscope
23:25and actually look at the life in there,
23:27and you can see, you know, who's here
23:29and in what quantities.
23:31And you'll see a clear difference
23:33in any compost that you're making
23:34to anything commercially that you buy.
23:37A well-made living compost,
23:39you'll have a whole plethora of microorganisms
23:41dancing across the slide.
23:43There's a microbe here called a protozoa,
23:46which is eating things like bacteria and fungi,
23:48pooping out plant-available nutrients,
23:50and there's loads of that going on.
23:52So there's all these rich colours, humus, basically.
23:55So it's just all manner of life,
23:57which is going to lead to all manner of life.
23:59Through most of my life,
24:05I'd suffered with quite extreme social anxiety.
24:08I was very, very shy.
24:10And actually through doing this work,
24:13people often say,
24:13you can't shut me up now.
24:15I'm speaking for the microbes,
24:18and I've got a lot to say for them
24:20because they can't say it themselves.
24:23One of my main focuses now
24:24is actually on empowering and enabling other people
24:27to make really good compost.
24:28So one of the things I've done
24:30is come here to the Brighton Grub Hub
24:31where they're producing organic food
24:33for local food banks,
24:34and we've set up some composting bays
24:36and a hot composting tumbler as well
24:38for them to use
24:39and produce their own compost
24:40to enrich the soil here.
24:44Hey, Becca, how's it going?
24:46Hey, Michael.
24:46This one's looking really good.
24:48Yeah, we've just turned this one last week
24:50and it's ready to mature.
24:52It's looking fantastic.
24:54That initial breakdown's really, really good.
24:56From this point onwards,
24:58you don't need to turn it too much now
24:59if you can introduce these compost chimneys.
25:02So just use a good solid stick,
25:05create this little pathway
25:06all the way down to the bottom
25:07with a bit of force,
25:09wiggle it around, open it up,
25:10and you create this little,
25:11as I say, a little chimney,
25:12a little pathway for air.
25:14So you're allowing your aerobic microbes to flourish.
25:17You don't need to turn it so much.
25:18You can increase your fungal biomass as well.
25:21So just creating a much more efficient
25:22and better quality compost
25:24for you guys to use here.
25:25Brilliant. Thanks for your advice.
25:27No worries.
25:32Living compost is really important for plants
25:34because it introduces all the life
25:36that they've evolved alongside.
25:38So plants will start to interact
25:40with all of this life
25:41from the moment the seed germinates
25:43and, in fact, before
25:44if you coat it onto the seed.
25:46And all this interaction
25:47is what I call plant intelligence.
25:48Here I've got a little growing trial
25:52that I've been doing.
25:53So we're using a premium
25:54peat-free organic compost
25:55and we're using some of our living compost.
25:58I put three radish seeds in each one
26:00and what we saw was
26:01pretty rapid germination in this one.
26:04This one was a little bit slower
26:05and all three have germinated successfully here
26:08and sadly in this one we've only got one.
26:09So when we were potting on our vegetables
26:13the ones that had the biology
26:15grew so much quicker
26:17and more so below ground in their root zone
26:20than they did above.
26:21If you can see yourself as a microbe farmer
26:25growing soil
26:27you'll have naturally abundant and healthy plants.
26:31A really effective way of using your compost
26:38and actually making it go quite far
26:40in terms of biology
26:41would be to create a soil drench.
26:43You can use a compost tea bag
26:45you can use an old pair of tights.
26:47Basically you want to put a handful of compost
26:49into water
26:50it releases a lot of the microbes
26:53into a water solution
26:54which you can just water onto the soil
26:56you're just adding these microbes in.
26:58It also works as a foliar spray
27:00so if that goes onto the plants
27:01it's actually really beneficial as well.
27:05Soil regeneration just makes me feel great.
27:08A friend of mine
27:08he says that I've found joyful service.
27:11You know we're not apart from nature
27:13we're a part of it
27:14and so it's mine to do
27:16it's my joyful service.
27:28Well Michael is spot on
27:42in the importance of compost in the soil
27:46but it's interesting
27:47because the system that we've got here
27:50is very labour intensive
27:51it's undoubtedly hard work
27:53and there is a way
27:54to make good compost
27:56which takes almost no work at all
27:59and that's to make a slow heap
28:01and essentially a slow heap
28:03is just a pile of organic matter
28:05that you leave
28:06to slowly make itself into compost.
28:10So if you've got room
28:11where you can just pile things up
28:13out the way
28:14it's really useful
28:15but it does take at least 18 months.
28:19The second thing about a slow heap
28:21is that all those things
28:22that will break down more slowly
28:24can go on the slow heap.
28:26I'm thinking of hellebore leaves
28:27for example.
28:28We've put a lot of Lysimachia in here.
28:31The one thing we don't
28:32are really bad weeds
28:33like bindweed
28:35couch grass or ground elder
28:37and we burn those on the bonfire
28:38and then we put the ash
28:40on the compost heap.
28:42Now the interior of this
28:43hasn't been touched
28:44for a couple of years
28:45so I should find
28:48nice compost
28:49down in the middle
28:50underneath
28:51the bits and pieces
28:53that are going to take a while
28:54to rot down.
28:56So let's have a look.
28:57It would be embarrassing
28:58if I don't.
29:08Now
29:08what I'm going to do
29:10is put this sieve
29:12over the barrow
29:13so that anything
29:14that hasn't rotted
29:15can be sieved out.
29:16This is a homemade sieve.
29:18Nothing fancy about this at all.
29:20Simply a very broad mesh
29:23and then some chicken wire
29:25over the top of that
29:26which is much finer.
29:26And so by sieving it now
29:47it will all be
29:48consistent size and shape.
29:50all right we're now
29:54in the heart of it.
29:56This
29:57has just been
29:58left to pile up
29:59but you can see that
30:01that
30:03is beautiful stuff.
30:08And this will be
30:09as full of life
30:10if you looked under
30:12the microscope
30:12as any other way
30:14instead of making compost.
30:15It has all the same qualities.
30:24Now with a slow heat
30:25you don't have to worry
30:26about the mixture
30:27of carbon to nitrogen
30:29brown and green.
30:30you just chuck
30:31that thing on.
30:35Right.
30:40There we are.
30:42Very nice compost.
30:44It's just beautiful.
30:46And I'll add this
30:47to our potting compost
30:48so that the young seedlings
30:50get a good start
30:51and it's going to add life to it.
30:53That's the key.
30:53It's not so much nutrition
30:54it's life
30:55and that incredibly
30:57complex relationship
30:58between a plant
31:00and its roots
31:01and the soil
31:02and increasingly
31:02we're discovering
31:03us as human beings too
31:04particularly when it comes
31:06to consuming vegetables.
31:08Right.
31:09I will take this
31:10to the potting shed
31:11and we are now
31:12going to visit
31:13one of your gardens
31:14or in fact
31:14more particularly
31:15one of your front gardens.
31:21Hi I'm Molly
31:23I'm from
31:23South East London
31:24and this is our front garden.
31:26I'm just about to move
31:27out of my family home
31:28of 24 years
31:29but before I move
31:30I wanted to highlight
31:31my mum's amazing
31:32front garden transformation
31:33and some of the inspiration
31:35behind it.
31:36In my family
31:37there are many generations
31:38of gardeners
31:39beginning with my
31:40great-great-grandfather
31:42who opened a nursery
31:43in 1906.
31:47So the space here
31:48used to look
31:48completely different.
31:49We had the flower beds
31:50around the wall
31:51and just grass in the middle
31:53and then back in May
31:54we decided to
31:55get rid of the grass
31:56and build two flower beds
31:58in the middle.
32:00One of the main reasons
32:01behind this decision
32:02is that in our back garden
32:03we have lots of large oak trees
32:04which means it's very shady.
32:06Whereas our front garden
32:07gets full sun
32:08throughout the day
32:09providing the perfect conditions
32:10to grow a wide range of flowers
32:12and attract more pollinators.
32:14The other reason
32:18is that about a year ago
32:19I started creating artwork
32:21from imprinting flowers
32:22into clay
32:23and casting them
32:24to create a spoke
32:25plaster artwork.
32:27My mum's love of gardening
32:28and my parents' supportiveness
32:29has provided me
32:30with lots of material
32:31to work with.
32:34We have grown most of it
32:36from seeds
32:36like the status,
32:38scabias,
32:39zinnias,
32:39cosmos
32:40which make great cuttings
32:42for imprinting.
32:43It just shows
32:44what you can do
32:45in a small space.
33:03Well thank you Molly.
33:05It's always good
33:06to see a front garden
33:07that is growing things.
33:10And by the way
33:10if you've got a garden
33:12front or back
33:13that you think
33:15is especially interesting
33:16or has got a story to tell
33:18then please do contact us.
33:19We'd love to hear from you
33:21as ever.
33:22So go to our website
33:22and you get all the details
33:23on how to do that.
33:25Now I've added in
33:26the sieved compost
33:27from the slow heap
33:28to the potting mix.
33:30And you can see
33:31I've probably added only
33:33a fifth
33:34in total volume.
33:37Now although we call this
33:38potting compost
33:38so actually today
33:39I'm going to use it
33:39as seed compost
33:40because I'm going to sow
33:41some cucurbits
33:43which is a fancy name
33:45really for the family
33:46of pumpkins,
33:48squashes,
33:49cucumbers,
33:50courgettes
33:51and gourds.
33:52Now I've got
33:53three types.
33:54We've got wolf and butternut.
33:56We've got crown prince
33:58which I grew last year.
34:00It's a really delicious squash.
34:01And we ate our last crown prince
34:03just a few weeks ago
34:04so that's stored
34:05through the winter
34:05very well.
34:06I've also got another one here
34:07rouge d'etampes.
34:09Conventional big orange pumpkin
34:12which I know
34:13will delight my grandchildren.
34:15It may not be the best to eat
34:16but it's a joy to look at.
34:19Now for pumpkins
34:20I use a big pot
34:21and I keep them in that.
34:24My nice compost mix there.
34:27I'm going to start with this.
34:29So this is rouge d'etampes.
34:30Now you always sow them on edge.
34:36Just slide them like a blade
34:38into the compost
34:40and the bigger the seed
34:41the deeper you need to plant it.
34:43Don't plant it on the surface.
34:45And the reason why you put it on edge
34:47is so that if it's wet and cold
34:50it doesn't rot.
34:52Now I'm going to put two in there
34:53but I'm only going to grow one plant.
34:56So whichever is the strongest
34:57of the two I'll leave
34:59and the other one
34:59I will take out.
35:01And I may discard it
35:02I may put it on.
35:03We'll see.
35:04But it is always worth putting two.
35:07I will cover that over lightly.
35:11And then this is the critical bit.
35:14This must have warmth to germinate.
35:17It needs 20 degrees.
35:19So either put it on a heated mat
35:21or on a windowsill above a radiator.
35:25Now if you've got courgettes
35:27and I've got two types here
35:29I've got Romanesco
35:31and I've got Black Beauty
35:32but the procedure of sowing them
35:34is exactly the same.
35:36Courgette seeds look very similar
35:37to pumpkins.
35:40You sow them in the same way
35:41two per pot.
35:45Put that back in there.
35:46Because courgettes have a running harvest
35:51from the first one you harvest
35:53which could be as early as June
35:54to the last
35:55which could be as late as
35:57well October
35:58if you manage it well.
36:00Now I reckon two plants
36:02is absolutely plenty
36:04for a normal household.
36:06And like the squashes
36:07they need heat
36:08in order to germinate.
36:11So
36:11at this time of year
36:13some kind of extra heat
36:15is necessary.
36:19Moving away from food
36:20I guess
36:21one of the highlights
36:22of many people's gardens
36:23at this time of year
36:24is the wisteria
36:25is starting to flower.
36:26And last May
36:27Francis went down to Surrey
36:29to a garden
36:31that had a fabulous collection
36:33of wisteria
36:34in full blue.
36:41Once spring starts to spring
36:43some plants go big
36:45in a whirl of colour
36:47like rhodes
36:48and azaleas.
36:52But some unfurl
36:54with a gentle grace
36:55one flower at a time
36:57and then create a bang.
37:00Like wisteria.
37:01Wisteria
37:03can flower from May
37:09to July
37:09depending on species
37:11with colours
37:13from white
37:13to pink
37:15to deep purple
37:17and they're set
37:19on strings of racemes.
37:23These make incredible features
37:25in the garden
37:26and because they live
37:27for 20, 50
37:29or even
37:30for hundreds
37:31of years
37:32they can be real companions
37:33for life
37:34not just for one season.
37:38Wisterias
37:38are strong
37:39woody climbers
37:41originally found
37:43twining up trees
37:44across Asia
37:45and the Americas.
37:47They arrived in Europe
37:49in the late 1700s
37:50and horticulturists
37:52soon realised
37:53these plants
37:54didn't need
37:55cosseting.
37:57One writer said
37:58they need
37:59no nicety of management
38:00and are impatient
38:02of the knife
38:02which is a nice way
38:04of saying
38:04they're tough as old boots
38:05and they grow like mad.
38:08The wisterias here
38:09are rather special.
38:12Some are over
38:14100 years old
38:15and they're part
38:16of the National Collection
38:17for Plant Heritage
38:18in Surrey.
38:20There's 28 different cultivars
38:23showing their range
38:24and breadth.
38:28There are four main species
38:30of wisteria.
38:31There's the Brachybotrys
38:32like this
38:32and the Sinensis
38:34and they both flower
38:35fairly early.
38:36Then there are
38:36the later flowering ones
38:37which are Frutescens
38:38and Floribunda.
38:41It's so rare
38:41to see them together
38:42and it really allows you
38:43to appreciate
38:44how different
38:46and varied they are.
38:50This beauty here
38:55is Wisteria Brachybotrys
38:57okiyama
38:58and it was only planted
39:00nine years ago
39:00so you can see
39:01how vigorous
39:02and how quickly
39:03it will take
39:04a wall over
39:06but it's so gorgeous.
39:07Now the Brachybotrys
39:09wisteria have
39:09shorter racemes
39:11of flowers
39:11but slightly larger
39:12flowers individually
39:14than other wisteria
39:15and they're very scented
39:17so standing here
39:18there's a really rich
39:19and complex aroma
39:20coming off these
39:20which is bringing in
39:22all of these bees.
39:23This is covered
39:24in bees
39:25but it's the combination
39:27of the leaves
39:28and the flowers
39:28that set Wisteria apart
39:30and it's what makes
39:31them unique.
39:34Leaves can range
39:36from rusty red
39:37to almost silver
39:39setting off
39:40the flower colours
39:41and Floribunda
39:43wisteria
39:44can have racemes
39:45that reach
39:45a metre long
39:47and though all
39:48wisteria twine up
39:49trees or pergolars
39:51different species
39:53do it slightly differently.
39:56This is a Wisteria
39:57Sinensis
39:58and it's a lovely
39:58white one
39:59called the Bride.
40:01Now the Sinensis
40:02from China
40:02twist anti-clockwise
40:04as they grow up
40:06so you can see
40:07that twining happening
40:08whereas the Floribundas
40:10and the hybrids
40:11over there
40:11twist clockwise
40:13instead.
40:17Wisteria
40:17are part of
40:18the pea family
40:19and their flowers
40:21also have
40:22a clever twist.
40:26These inflorescences
40:27have a really
40:28beautiful way
40:29of letting
40:29all the pollinating
40:30insects know
40:31when the flower
40:32has been pollinated.
40:33So you can see
40:34these are
40:35unpollinated flowers
40:36they're facing
40:37the right way
40:37whereas these two
40:39have been pollinated
40:40and they are
40:41beginning to turn.
40:43Now eventually
40:43they'll turn
40:44about 180 degrees
40:45so essentially
40:46their back
40:47is to the
40:47approaching bee
40:48and it's just
40:49a way of saying
40:50no we've shut up shop
40:51we're all done
40:52go and find
40:53another flower.
40:55As tough
40:56woody climbers
40:57Wisteria
40:58really can
41:00go big.
41:02Look at that
41:03now we're used to
41:03seeing them
41:04on trellises and walls
41:05but that
41:05is a
41:06Floribunda
41:06climbing right
41:07up a huge
41:09conifer
41:09which of course
41:10is exactly
41:11what it would
41:11do in the wild
41:12but I bet
41:13that one's been
41:13there for quite
41:14a long time.
41:18But keeping
41:19Wisteria
41:20and those lovely
41:21flowers closer
41:22to eye level
41:22is just
41:24about pruning.
41:27Basically
41:27in the summer
41:28it's about
41:29cutting back
41:29this long
41:30whippy growth
41:31and in the winter
41:31it's about
41:32cutting the spurs
41:33back to just
41:34a couple of buds
41:35from the main stems
41:36and that way
41:38everything stays neat
41:39because look
41:39how old this is
41:40this is a really
41:41old Wisteria
41:42and yet
41:42it doesn't need
41:43to get sprawling
41:44and huge
41:45if you prune it right.
41:47And Wisteria
41:48don't even need
41:48a pergola
41:49or a wall
41:50to bring a fountain
41:51of colour.
41:54These really are
41:55so tough
41:55that you can prune
41:56them as hard
41:56as you like
41:57so this one
41:58has been turned
41:59into a standard form
42:00all you need
42:00is a very very
42:01chunky stake
42:02to hold the weight
42:02of it
42:03and then a hard
42:04prune
42:04will turn this
42:05into a tree
42:06like structure
42:06that would fit
42:07even in a really
42:08modest sized garden.
42:12This is a hybrid
42:13called Wisteria
42:14Crossvalderae
42:15Burford
42:16and flowers early
42:18with these
42:19delicate blooms.
42:22Wisteria
42:22will be happier
42:23as a standard
42:24than squashed
42:25into a pot
42:26and they can take
42:27a while to flower
42:28but pruning
42:29encourages them
42:30to bloom.
42:33For me
42:33having a Wisteria
42:35is simply
42:36a must.
42:39As plants go
42:40I don't think
42:40they come
42:41much better
42:41than this.
42:43This is a resilient
42:44plant
42:44it's a beautiful
42:45plant
42:46and it's a plant
42:47that you can
42:48grow old with.
42:48grow old with.
42:50The question that I'm most often asked about Wisteria is people will buy Wisteria and it doesn't flower.
43:12Why isn't my Wisteria flowering?
43:15Well the chances are it's not flowering because it's been growing from seed and they take at least seven years and sometimes twice that time before they start to flower.
43:23So you can buy a perfectly healthy plant but it's just not ready to flower yet whereas if they're grafted they will flower much sooner.
43:30So if you're not sure you're going to buy a Wisteria and buy it in flower and then you know that it's going to flower next year.
43:37But this is what I've come in for. This is a dahlia.
43:46Now the reason it's been in the greenhouse is because I have forced it and made it grow quicker to provide material for cuttings because dahlia cuttings work really well.
43:58This is a dahlia called Honka Black. Very nice dahlia indeed.
44:02Now I've prepared the material for it which is you can see 50% perlite and 50% compost because it is important that you have really sharp drainage.
44:13And if in doubt just go heavy on the perlite and light on the compost.
44:17Now in order to take dahlia cuttings you want to go right down to where the shoot grows from the tuber.
44:24So you need a knife not secateurs and if need be go below the soil level.
44:31So I'm going to get in there and I'm going to cut like that.
44:36And what I'm taking is a basal cutting. I want that base where it connected to the tuber because that's where the roots will come from.
44:45That's one. And one more. And we're in business.
44:54Right. Having taken your cuttings and you need to work fairly quickly because they're effectively dying.
45:02Cut off any excess foliage. And I will use a dibber but a pencil does perfectly well.
45:12Into the corner like that. Put that in there. So we're going right down in.
45:21Water the compost. Spray it. And then make sure it stays moist.
45:31A polythene bag over the top. Having watered it will do the trick.
45:34And normally they will all come good. That makes four new plants which we can pot on. Grow on.
45:40And will go out into the garden and flower round about September time.
45:45The whole point of growing any of these plants is not as individual specimens.
45:50At least not here at Longmoreland. It's their role within the bigger picture.
45:54Whether it's on the mound or in the Cottage Garden or the Jewel Garden or wherever.
45:58And putting together plants I think is one of the most satisfying parts of gardening.
46:03And we went down to Bristol to visit a gardener who has learnt to love all kinds of combinations of plants.
46:10Inspired by a holiday in Kent.
46:15I start off every morning, even raining or whatever, with a walk round the garden and a cup of tea.
46:28The light and the noise is just fantastic early in the morning.
46:32But I just want to see what's popped up overnight.
46:35It's just a wonderful way to start the day.
46:38I'm Carl Suki and I am an obsessed gardener.
46:42Although Sally, my wife, says she's very lucky that at least my obsession is something that other people could enjoy as well.
46:49This is Beth's poppy and it's important you come and look at her in the morning because she's very delicate as you can see.
47:00And if we get a strong wind or rain, by lunchtime all the petals can be gone.
47:06And it is this ethereal air that she gives up.
47:11They almost float in the sky because the stems are so tall and slender you almost don't see them.
47:17I just find it a very beautiful thing.
47:23I've always dabbled in gardening, various degrees of success, but it was the visit to Great Dixter in 2019 that really changed my gardening life and possibly my life as well.
47:38We went to Kent on holiday and I fell in love with Great Dixter and I remember there was a little poster in one of the sheds that said you could go for a week there and work with Fergus, the head gardener, which was just fantastic.
47:52I talk about organised chaos and it's almost, well I find when I garden like he's done, you're sort of barely in control.
48:06And it's a bit like skiing, like the faster you go and the nearer the edge, the more exhilarating it is and I quite like that.
48:13Obviously the colour, which everybody gets excited about, he puts oranges next to pinks and various other things.
48:20But also he grows loads of cow parsley, which I know some people think is a weed and using stuff that you're not supposed to use in gardens.
48:28And it's a little anarchic, which I'm quite fond of a bit of anarchy in a small way.
48:35One of the first things I did was widen the border. I don't know how wide that border is, three, four metres.
48:47But if the border isn't wide enough, then you can't put in enough plants to get this layering effect.
48:54And it's that that I love because it allows you to try combinations, not only the colour, but it's all the different textures of the leaves and the actual shape of the plants.
49:06And that's what really gives me a buzz.
49:12I almost like to be just one step away from nature, if that's possible.
49:17And a way I want to replicate that on steroids within my own garden.
49:23If you look, I've got lots of nigella all over the garden. That's a self-setter and that pops up just there next to the poppy.
49:30It looks absolutely beautiful.
49:32But self-setters are really exciting because you never know what you're going to get.
49:36It's like, you know, Christmas morning every day when you go out, you just don't know what you're going to get.
49:41And I love it.
49:46When I look at plants, I tend to not look at them as individuals.
49:50I try to think of them as combinations.
49:53And if I see something, I think, what will that look good with?
49:56And it's the combinations that excite me.
49:58And the best ones are the ones that just happen by chance, by complete serendipity.
50:03And I think, jeepers, that looks fantastic.
50:06And there's one where a plant has fallen over and it's a Hesperus.
50:10And I think the purple and the red are fantastic.
50:12So I didn't stand it up because I think it looks so beautiful.
50:15I'm really pleased with this on two counts.
50:27A, because it just looks beautiful and the structure it adds to the garden is fantastic.
50:32Although, if we're honest, it's supposed to be a giant fennel.
50:35It's a rather short giant fennel.
50:37You would expect another three, four feet in a really good specimen.
50:41But I'm also pleased because I've waited five years for it to flower.
50:45I was given the seeds in 2019.
50:48And while it's still a wonderful plant and it merits being in the garden without the flowers,
50:52because you get all this wonderful froth.
50:54And early in the year, it'll come out.
50:56It starts frothing in February, March when there's nothing else.
50:59And you combine this with tulips and it looks stunning.
51:02Also, I'm going to be really happy because I'll have my own seed bank now.
51:05I can collect my own.
51:06And whether I have to wait five years for the next one to flower, I don't know.
51:16One of the things I wanted to try and achieve was succession gardening.
51:20This is where the garden looks good for ten months of the year.
51:25I think you're allowed two months off.
51:27You have your main framework of your border.
51:30There are shrubs and various long live perennials that are hardworking,
51:35give you your framework.
51:36And within that, there are little areas called planting pockets.
51:39At the moment, they've got the ladybird poppies in, but they will stop flowering by,
51:45I don't know, middle of July, it depends.
51:48And then I rip them all out.
51:49And then they'll be replaced with dahlias, cosmos, zinnia, cannas.
51:56Because I try lots of stuff and some stuff doesn't come through, so I don't actually know exactly what it's going to look like.
52:03The garden is constantly evolving all the time.
52:10And to do that, I need more beds.
52:14So I do, when Sally Ann goes to see her mother, I do nick a bit of lawn when she's not looking and turn into a bed.
52:21Like this bed there, I think it's been enlarged three times on visits to her mum.
52:27Although I have done a small cutting garden for her.
52:31And one of Sally Ann's friends did describe me as the perfect husband,
52:34because I made this cutting garden for my wife.
52:36So I'll take that one.
52:54Come on.
53:06These beds here were made last year specifically for cut flowers.
53:16I sowed wool flowers in this bed last week, and they're just beginning to germinate.
53:22So that's good news.
53:23The hardy annuals I sowed last autumn, they'll be in flower very soon.
53:26And there's a first peak of the dahlias that I left out over winter in this bed.
53:32So unless we get a hard frost, they should be fine.
53:36And this bed, I put bulbs in.
53:39These are bulbs I hadn't grown before.
53:41And it's a very good way of trialing plants.
53:44Grow them in a bed.
53:45You can use them for cut flowers.
53:46And then if you like them, next year you can order more and put them in your borders or in pots.
53:51The daffodil avalanche, they were really good.
53:55You've got a tall stem.
53:57There's really good fragrance.
53:58This tulip, which is called spring break.
54:00I'm not mad about the colours.
54:02Although I'm quite liking pretty princess.
54:05It's a little bit short for cut flowers, but I like the colours.
54:09And then I've got strong gold, which I thought might work on the mound, but that yellow is too bright.
54:14So I've learned something.
54:15And the important thing now is to make sure I don't waste them and cut them.
54:19When you're cutting cut flowers, just give yourself as much stem as possible.
54:26A good tulip for cut flowers wants to have a nice, strong, straight stem, which this does have.
54:32I just think the colours are a little bit too lipstick-y for me.
54:39A little bit too bright, but each to their own.
54:41I'm going to cut all these tulips while they're still looking good.
54:47And while I'm doing this, here are your jobs for the weekend.
55:02It's a little early to sow any runner or French beans direct into the soil.
55:07But if you sow them into pots now, they will develop into plants that you can put into the ground when the weather warms up.
55:14I sow two beans to a pot, water them well, and keep them somewhere warm where they can germinate and grow on.
55:22Most daffodils are finished flowering by now.
55:32So snap off the seed heads so that all the energy goes into the bulb for next year's flowering.
55:38But don't cut them back any more than that.
55:41And certainly no need to tie them up or tidy them in any way, but allow them to die back gradually.
55:52If you have been sheltering tender plants like these cannas and gingers, it's time to bring them outside and harden them off.
56:02Put them somewhere sheltered but exposed to the sun and rain.
56:07Go through them and remove any dead material and check that they're okay.
56:11Give them a drink.
56:13And then in at least a week's time, and maybe two, you can plant them wherever you want them.
56:22I'm bringing out the citrus, which has spent all winter in the big greenhouse.
56:43Now there hasn't been heated, but they have been fleeced when it got really cold.
56:48And they've come through not too bad, but always when you keep citrus indoors, by spring they are the worst for wear.
56:56They don't like it.
56:57So if you've got citrus that are indoors, if the risk of frost is diminishing, then bring them out.
57:03But if you're used to having frost right up to the middle of May, wait.
57:09Now when you bring them outside, water them, give them a really good soak, and you can give them a feed.
57:15You can either give them a liquid seaweed, you could take off the top inch or so of the compost and replace it with garden compost.
57:21But don't prune them yet.
57:23Of course, the paradise garden should have fruit in it.
57:27We've got the crab apples, which at the moment are absolutely glorious with their blossom.
57:32This is a variety called Everest, quite early this year too.
57:36Normally this blossoms in May at the same time as the tulips are at their best.
57:41But as you can see, the tulips are just beginning.
57:44So it's a funny year, but that's always the way and part of the fun of gardening.
57:49You can never predict exactly what's going to happen.
57:52And that's it for this week.
57:54And the next few weeks are going to be a little bit different because Joe and Rachel will be with you in a private garden in Hampshire.
58:01Joe and I have come to the edge of the North Wessex Downs to visit a garden called Mulvillies.
58:08In just 14 years, this garden has been transformed from a hodgepodge of fields and football peaches into one of the UK's most exciting and beautiful gardens.
58:18And I've been lucky enough to go there and I can tell you, it's an absolutely wonderful garden.
58:23The week after that, we shall be at the RHS Malvern Spring Festival.
58:30And then in three weeks time, I'll see you back here at Long Niddle.
58:34And the garden will have completely changed by then.
58:37So, see you in three weeks time. Bye bye.
58:53That's all.
59:00To see you soon.
59:04Bye bye.
59:06Bye bye.
59:08Bye bye.
59:09Bye bye.
59:14Boo bye.