Episode 22 Gardeners' World


Episode 22

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Transcript


LineFromTo

Oy.

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That's a tall one. Hello. Welcome to Gardeners' World.

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I'm actually cutting back the foxgloves.

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Foxgloves are biannuals, they've done their stuff,

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so, in theory, that's it, they're over,

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and the seeds will create new plants

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that will germinate this autumn and either flower next year, or, if

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it's a slow year, even the year after that.

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But they can behave as perennials, short-lived ones.

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So if you cut them back, if you see signs of growth at the base,

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there is a chance that they will flower again next spring.

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And so it's a good idea at this time of year to create spaces,

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take stock, cut back where necessary,

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and then start to look around.

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Look at other gardens, look at pictures.

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Make lists, then plants can be bought,

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planted in winter, and next year this area should be full of colour

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that will sustain right through into autumn.

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Come on, Nelly.

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This week, Frances Tophill continues her vegetable trials

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at RHS Rosemoor - and the news is mixed.

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Now, you may want to sit down, because

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I'm afraid I have some bad news.

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All of our tomatoes have got blight.

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And we join Alan Power, at Hestercombe,

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that great Edwardian garden in Somerset,

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to discover the missing plant

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that finally completes the restoration jigsaw.

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It's just a real privilege, really.

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It's why you choose to work in a historic garden.

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The planting, the history is all such a big part of it.

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And I shall be harvesting late summer veg,

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and also preparing the vegetable garden for next spring and summer.

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And after last summer's disaster with my grapes,

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what with wasps and blackbirds,

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this year I have taken steps to foil them.

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Haven't we, Nige? Yeah.

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It is time to prune the summer fruiting raspberries.

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Of course, raspberries come in two types.

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You have the summer fruiting and autumn fruiting,

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and the big difference is that summer fruiting ones,

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which are here, produce their fruit on last year's canes,

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whereas autumn fruiting ones, which are in the next row over there,

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produce their fruit on this year's canes.

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And the net effect of that in terms of pruning means that you

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have to carefully prune out the old canes from summer

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and leave the new ones.

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And here, for example, is a new cane.

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It hasn't borne any fruit this year but will next year,

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whereas autumn fruiting ones, you can simply cut the whole lot

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flush with the ground round about Christmas time

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and let it start all over again.

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Now, I like pruning raspberries,

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because there is an element of skill involved.

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And when you're done, you take this rather sad,

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tangled mess and it looks really good.

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First thing to do is to cut off

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all the ties that held last year's canes.

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And you can see in the tangle of growth,

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there are wires in there supporting it.

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So if we cut those free...

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There we go. Come on...

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Of course the sad truth is, I realise I need glasses for this.

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This is the first time I have needed glasses to prune raspberries,

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and I don't know if that's a sad thing or

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a joyous new experience, but it's reality.

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Well, that's last year's canes cut free.

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So now I need to remove them and they all need to go

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and come off at ground level.

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And if you're not quite sure which is last year's cane

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and which is this one,

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the best guide, particularly at this time of year, is colour.

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This is one of last year's canes, and you can see it's brown,

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and they will all be this distinct brown colour,

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whereas the new canes, like this one, are still green.

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And if you do the job this month, or certainly over the next four weeks,

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that's the best and easiest way to differentiate between the shoots.

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If you leave it into October or November, they all look a bit

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brown and it can be a little bit confusing.

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So it is a job to do, I think, before the end of September.

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So, I'm going to remove all these.

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That can come out there.

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That's an old one.

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Now, what you're left with is everything that

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could potentially bear fruit next year.

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But at this point you want to be selective,

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because you don't want more than four or five canes per plant.

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You want lots of energy, so you want to, A,

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select the best plants and, B,

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remove any that are inappropriate or tangled or broken.

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The first thing to do is take any of the outside edge,

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so those can come off, and those along there, and there.

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And if I just go round this side here and thin these off -

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so that can come off there, and that -

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what you're left with are potential candidates.

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Let's start tying those in.

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And the system I use is to weave a long piece of twine,

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so what you do, is you go around like that.

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Around, over and then on.

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Now, the next one, that is going to go over,

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so this one's coming on this side.

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I'm making sure that these are spaced out fairly evenly.

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And now I'll just tie the bottom layer in,

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so it is really fixed and firm.

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That's a beginning. And it gives you an idea of what they will

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look like when I've finished.

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So just a simple, single row of clear leaved spaced canes,

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not more than five or six per plant. And that's it.

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They are then set up till next summer.

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You don't have to do anything else at all to them

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except from giving them mulch next spring.

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Raspberries are something that always take me back to my childhood,

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because one of my jobs as a small child was to go and pick a

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bowl of raspberries from the fruit cage, and I know that

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that fruit cage had been there since the garden was made in the 1880s.

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And so probably my grandfather, who was brought up there,

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picked the same fruit, from the same canes.

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And a garden that is contemporary with that

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is Hestercombe in Somerset. It is one of my favourite gardens.

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The garden has been beautifully restored.

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But there was one plant that, tantalisingly,

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they couldn't find anywhere,

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and Alan Power has been down to find out more

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about this elusive Gladioli.

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Hestercombe House is one of the best places in the country to

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see the great teamwork between

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garden designer Edwin Lutyens and plantswoman Gertrude Jekyll.

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Her clever use of colour and texture here

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shows exactly why she became so celebrated.

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The Edwardian garden was laid out in 1905 to Lutyen's design.

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He give Jekyll the drawings and an idea of the soil and location,

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and she came up with the planting plan.

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And thanks to Jekyll's planting list,

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which is still here at Hestercombe,

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the garden team have been able to pretty accurately recreate

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the original design.

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But, frustratingly, there has always been one plant missing.

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I'm meeting the head gardener, Claire Greenslade.

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So, Claire, all of these plants, these are plants that Jekyll planned

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and recommended for the beds and borders at Hestercombe?

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Yeah, we're lucky enough to have found all the original

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planting plans, because we think Jekyll did it all remotely,

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so we don't think she ever actually visited here.

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Did you have to do a lot of research

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to try and discover what Jekyll used here?

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We are really lucky in that the Portman family that lived here

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had a great photo collection that they have given to us.

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-It's so useful, isn't it?

-It's great.

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So, quite often I am with the archivist

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with a magnifying glass going, "What do you think that is?

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Do you think that's blocks or do you think that's Dianthus?"

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And it pops into your head at night, thinking,

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-"Actually, it could be..."

-Yeah!

-"..X, Y or Z, couldn't it?"

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It's always the way, isn't it? It is always the middle of the night.

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Did you face many other challenges as you were, so to speak,

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plant hunting for the beds here?

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Yeah, we had these two difficulties in that there are two types

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of Gladioli like that Gertrude Jekyll had mentioned in her plans,

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brenchleyensis and chaldzyi,

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that just as far as we were concerned just simply didn't exist,

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we couldn't find them anywhere.

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We presumed they had just got out of cultivation for whatever reason,

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maybe weren't good propagators or just weren't fashionable,

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-and so we spent a lot of time trying to grow alternatives.

-Yeah.

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So we would look at a black-and-white photo and

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a written description and then we'd grow as many, you know,

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red Gladiolis with a white throat as we could and try and compare them.

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Wow. In essence, you're painting a picture from the past and

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you're adding colour to it.

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-Yeah.

-And how close are you to getting your treasured Gladioli

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back into the garden again?

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Well, quite recently we have discovered that

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brenchleyensis still survives.

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-Really?

-Yeah.

-And when was that discovered?

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A few years ago,

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a Jekyll expert, Michael Tooley,

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was visiting the Isle of Man and giving a talk

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there about Jekyll, and he mentioned Gladioli brenchleyensis.

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And after his talks, someone in the audience came up to him and said,

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"Well, I think I've got that in my garden.

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How exciting. He must have nearly

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fallen off his stool when he heard that.

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So he went and had a look and got experts to verify that

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it was the correct one, and we have managed to work with some

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Gladioli growers and the National Trust Plant Conservation Centre

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to try and get this corm going again

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so that we can actually have a stack of them.

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That is amazing, isn't it?

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And that's not a process that happens overnight, is it?

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No, it takes ages, because Gladiolis will produce cormlets,

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like tiny little corms, and to get one of those to

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a flowering stage will take five or six years.

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We have our first ten corms that we have reproduced, and they are

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in pots and they are safe in the greenhouse.

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So, I need 800, we've got ten.

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-So, you have ten.

-Yeah! It's a start. We'll get there.

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It's going to be a slow process but it's quite nice to be

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conserving something that might have otherwise just, you know,

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if that guy's house had been sold and someone didn't like Gladiolis

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and they had dug them out and got rid of them...

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It is quite a moment in history,

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completing Jekyll's colours in your garden.

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Yeah, and hopefully conserving this plant

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that might otherwise have been lost.

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So can we go and have a look at it?

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-Yeah, sure, they're up in the greenhouse.

-Brilliant, thanks.

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Wow, how exciting.

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These were planted round about the beginning of May.

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I've just got them in a really loose compost, because I was

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terrified of them rotting or getting eaten by mice.

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How special, it is a really, really significant moment.

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You are, presumably, quite anxious now

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that all of this work that's gone in,

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that these flowers are going to come out

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and they're going to be exactly what you want.

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Imagine if they came out yellow!

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I can just see a hint of red, so we are going in the right direction.

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How on earth are you going to get from these ten to the 800 you need?

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-It is a long way to go, isn't it?

-It is, isn't it?

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We don't really have enough room or enough staff to carry out

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that kind of mass scale propagation.

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So, we would love to start projects with our members and things

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like that and get them growing them

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and make sure we don't lose the species again.

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You must be delighted, excited and a nervous wreck all at the same time.

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Yeah. Desperate to share it, desperate for it to flower.

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It's just a real privilege, really.

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It's kind of like why you choose to work in a historic garden as well,

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it's... The planting, the history, is all such a big part of it.

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This is your stamp on Hestercombe,

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-isn't it? Getting this plant back.

-I guess so, yeah.

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In history, it will be mentioned in a diary and in an archive -

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"Oh, yeah, Claire did that."

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-It is something to be proud of, isn't it?

-It is, yeah, it really is.

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A few days after I visited Hestercombe,

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Jekyll's lost brenchleyensis bloomed

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in the garden for the first time in decades.

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What a beauty.

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Well, I don't need much of an excuse to go back to Hestercombe,

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but I would love to see that Gladioli like growing in the garden.

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Now, one thing I didn't see

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on my last trip to Hestercombe was any veg.

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And veg is something that I always feel every garden should have

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something of, if it possibly can.

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In fact, I have enlarged the vegetable garden

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here at Longmeadow this spring, and it has done well.

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The cabbages have been good -

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they are looking a bit ravaged now, but that is to be expected.

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These are summer cabbage, and the pigeons and

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the slugs have had a good feast of them just as have we.

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So, I will take this here before the nasties can get it.

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That's still really good.

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Next to it I've got growing Savoys, which of course are winter cabbage,

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and these won't get harvested till the New Year

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or even into next spring.

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And that's true also of the purple sprouting broccoli that I've got

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and you can see that I've under-planted it

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with two types of lettuce.

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I've got green and red oakleaf lettuce

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which will grow perfectly well alongside

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the purple sprouting broccoli, and then as autumn comes and it goes,

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the broccoli can take over the whole space.

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Again, that won't be harvested until next April, even.

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In this part of the garden, the old vegetable garden,

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I suppose you could call it, things have been going fine.

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One of my favourite brassicas is this, this is cavolo nero.

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You can eat it in summer, winter, spring and autumn,

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and it'll grow quite happily for about 10 months,

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and you just pick the leaves as they develop, and it will grow on up,

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and by the end of the season it's right up here.

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Its great characteristic is that you can cook it for as long as you like

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and it doesn't spoil.

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It's fabulous as a vegetable in its own right,

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it's great in soups, in stews, it makes a wonderful pasta sauce.

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It really is fantastic to eat, and on top of that,

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if that wasn't reason enough to grow it, it's really good for you too.

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Now, I grow vegetables because I like the taste,

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and I don't try and experiment too much outside things

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that I know myself and my family are going to enjoy,

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but Frances Tophill has been part of some experiments and trials

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that the RHS have been doing at Harlow Carr in Yorkshire

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and Rosemoor in Devon,

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comparing the two different locations with same varieties.

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We join her in Devon, as she looks at this year's corn on the cob.

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Well, the cucumbers, beans, sweetcorn and tomatoes

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have been growing all summer long

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and these sweetcorn look pretty impressive.

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The small ones, that were tiny before, Mirai Picnic,

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have now overtaken the others, but all of the sweetcorn

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are showing signs that some of the crops are ready to be harvested.

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You can tell initially from this brown rather than white hair

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coming out of the top, but really, to make absolutely sure,

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if we peel back to reveal some of the corns

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and just squeeze that...

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If it comes out clear, then you know it's not quite ready,

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and if it comes out a milky colour, then you know it is ready,

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and that one's actually still a little bit clear

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so I'm not going to harvest it just yet.

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But...

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when we do find some that are...

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That one looks good.

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It's much more yellow.

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Yeah, that one's good.

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Now to pick these, take it with all the leaves still on,

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the sheaf, and just twist.

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This comes off easy-peasy...

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..into the basket.

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Hopefully one of many, that is.

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There's not much to do at this time of year with the sweetcorn,

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but remember that they are shallow-rooted

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so they'll need lots of water and take extra care when you're hoeing.

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Up in Yorkshire, at RHS Harlow Carr, they're mirroring our trials.

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They are keeping a record of all of their veg,

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and they're going to bring the results down in a month's time

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with some crops so we can compare them for yield and for taste.

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Although we are harvesting,

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our cucumber plants still need a bit of attention.

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Remove any dead leaves and any rotting fruit to prevent

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the build-up of diseases.

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Keep watering and feeding regularly with a high potash feed,

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and most importantly, keep harvesting.

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If you pick the bigger fruits,

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it gives the small ones a chance to grow.

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These climbing French beans are romping away.

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This one is violet-podded, and although it looks very vigorous,

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and there are some flowers,

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I can hardly see any pods at all.

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A few here,

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but certainly much too small to harvest so I'll leave them for now.

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The Cobra, on the other hand, which is this one,

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an old garden favourite, a very popular variety, has loads of pods.

0:19:080:19:13

The only thing you really have to do is to keep picking and picking

0:19:130:19:16

because the more you pick, the more beans will grow.

0:19:160:19:19

Up at Harlow Carr in Yorkshire,

0:19:280:19:31

they are very much the same as us down here in Devon.

0:19:310:19:33

We've all been harvesting for about two weeks and, as here,

0:19:330:19:37

the violet-podded are a bit behind the other two varieties,

0:19:370:19:40

so funnily enough, beans don't seem to mind the North or South divide.

0:19:400:19:45

Interesting.

0:19:450:19:47

All through the harvest, we're going to be keeping track

0:19:470:19:51

and recording meticulously everything we pick,

0:19:510:19:54

so we are weighing the beans and the tomatoes

0:19:540:19:56

and counting the cucumbers and the sweetcorns.

0:19:560:20:00

Now, you may want to sit down because I'm afraid I have

0:20:020:20:05

some bad news.

0:20:050:20:07

All of our tomatoes have got blight! The dreaded blight!

0:20:070:20:11

This is an airborne pathogen which affects the leaves and the stems

0:20:110:20:15

and you can see it instantly when you get it because you'll see

0:20:150:20:18

these leaves begin to go and the stems will turn brown.

0:20:180:20:22

In bad cases, you'll see like this,

0:20:220:20:24

the fruits will also turn brown or black.

0:20:240:20:28

Now, once these leaves have died, the spores will be released

0:20:280:20:31

and then they'll blow across to your neighbours' gardens

0:20:310:20:34

and neighbouring allotments, so these have to go.

0:20:340:20:36

Which means I won't be able to harvest them for tasting

0:20:360:20:40

later on in the season,

0:20:400:20:41

so instead, I'm going to taste them all now

0:20:410:20:44

and just hope that Harlow Carr's haven't got blight.

0:20:440:20:48

If you haven't got blight, now is the time to keep regularly watering.

0:20:480:20:52

Irregular watering can cause the fruits to split as they swell

0:20:520:20:56

and then contract.

0:20:560:20:57

You don't have to worry when you're eating things that have got blight -

0:20:570:21:01

it doesn't affect humans, it just affects the plants,

0:21:010:21:03

so they're perfectly safe.

0:21:030:21:05

I'll harvest all of these and then get rid of what's left.

0:21:050:21:07

So...

0:21:070:21:09

Tumbling Tom Yellow.

0:21:090:21:11

It's quite sharp, very flavoursome.

0:21:160:21:19

This is Hundreds and Thousands, very small.

0:21:190:21:22

Much sweeter. And finally this is Tumbler.

0:21:260:21:29

Interesting, really different texture, much softer texture,

0:21:340:21:37

but I think actually the best one is probably the Hundreds and Thousands.

0:21:370:21:41

Even though it's small, it's really, really flavoursome.

0:21:410:21:44

Hopefully you've been growing along with us, and we'd love to know

0:21:440:21:47

how you've been getting on,

0:21:470:21:49

so please put any pictures you can on our Facebook page.

0:21:490:21:52

Blight is a real problem for outdoor tomatoes,

0:22:000:22:03

that's why I don't grow them outside here at Longmeadow.

0:22:030:22:05

I did last year, and sure enough they got blight.

0:22:050:22:08

This year, in the greenhouse, not a touch of it.

0:22:080:22:11

The glass is usually protection enough to stop the spores

0:22:110:22:15

getting on to the plants.

0:22:150:22:16

Certainly no problems with the beetroot.

0:22:160:22:18

Sorry, Nige, didn't mean to bash you on the nose. Sorry, old chap.

0:22:180:22:22

I like beetroot in lots of different ways,

0:22:220:22:26

but not just for eating as a veg.

0:22:260:22:31

They make fantastic juicing,

0:22:310:22:32

and if you get a larger one like that,

0:22:320:22:35

or even a bit woody later on in the season, don't ditch them -

0:22:350:22:38

they're still really good for juicing.

0:22:380:22:40

Fennel has had a mixed time of it in the last week or two.

0:22:460:22:50

It was really dry and it didn't get watered, and it's bolted.

0:22:500:22:54

Now, what you're looking for is one like that.

0:22:540:22:58

That is a nice head,

0:22:580:23:01

you can see it's good fleshy overlapping leaves.

0:23:010:23:03

That will be delicious,

0:23:030:23:05

either eaten raw as part of a salad

0:23:050:23:08

or cooked - lightly poached in a little bit of white wine

0:23:080:23:11

is absolutely lovely.

0:23:110:23:12

But when they get like that, there's no way back.

0:23:120:23:17

That isn't going to ever develop a nice base that you want to eat

0:23:170:23:23

and so really the thing to do is to cut your losses,

0:23:230:23:26

accept that it hasn't worked - and these very often do bolt

0:23:260:23:29

if they're too dry, too cold, too hot, or too wet -

0:23:290:23:33

and use the ground for something else.

0:23:330:23:36

Growing fennel may not be something that you indulge in,

0:23:360:23:39

but you've got a bank holiday weekend coming up, so extra time

0:23:390:23:43

to do extra jobs in the garden, and here are some of them.

0:23:430:23:47

If you've got a spare patch of ground in your veg plot,

0:23:500:23:53

fill it with the seeds of a fast-growing salad crop

0:23:530:23:56

which you can harvest in autumn.

0:23:560:24:00

I'm sowing rocket,

0:24:000:24:01

where I've pulled up fennel that have bolted.

0:24:010:24:04

I'm broadcasting it so I don't need to worry about sowing it in rows.

0:24:040:24:08

Rake the seeds in, and make sure they don't dry out,

0:24:080:24:12

so water them at least once a week.

0:24:120:24:14

Now is the time to prepare strawberries for next year.

0:24:200:24:23

Clear away any mulch that you put down...

0:24:240:24:27

..weed them and then cut away all this year's foliage.

0:24:290:24:33

This will let light and air in

0:24:330:24:35

so that new foliage can grow before winter.

0:24:350:24:38

If you've taken cuttings in midsummer,

0:24:400:24:43

as I did with these penstemons in July,

0:24:430:24:46

now is the time to pot them on.

0:24:460:24:49

Carefully separate the cuttings,

0:24:490:24:51

making sure you get plenty of root on each plant.

0:24:510:24:54

Pot them up individually with a good free-draining compost...

0:24:540:24:59

..water them well,

0:25:000:25:02

and put them somewhere protected where they can spend the winter.

0:25:020:25:05

Come on...

0:25:140:25:16

It was this time last year when my grapes that I had grown

0:25:200:25:24

so carefully, and was so proud of,

0:25:240:25:28

were brutally ravished by, first of all, blackbirds,

0:25:280:25:32

and then, when they had taken all they could eat,

0:25:320:25:37

by a swarm of hungry wasps.

0:25:370:25:40

Hardly a single grape was left.

0:25:400:25:41

This year, so far, I've kept both at bay

0:25:410:25:46

by virtue of partly this screen, and inside...

0:25:460:25:50

If you were a wasp, you would come in here,

0:25:530:25:57

have a look at this

0:25:570:25:58

and stop dead in your tracks and back away gingerly,

0:25:580:26:03

because to a wasp,

0:26:030:26:04

this looks exactly like a colossal, great wasps' nest.

0:26:040:26:09

Probably inhabited by colossal, great wasps,

0:26:090:26:12

certainly bigger and fiercer and nastier than you,

0:26:120:26:15

which means you stay away,

0:26:150:26:17

you're on someone else's territory.

0:26:170:26:19

So far, it's worked, but it may be that the wasp season

0:26:190:26:23

hasn't really kicked in.

0:26:230:26:25

That's the theory. You just hang it up and it keeps wasps away.

0:26:250:26:29

Now, you can see that the grapes have not yet been touched

0:26:290:26:33

by birds or wasps. They are ripening really nicely.

0:26:330:26:36

And in terms of thinning, the other day I was sent this.

0:26:360:26:41

I wasn't quite sure if it was for clipping nasal hair

0:26:410:26:45

or thinning grapes, but I'm assuming it's the latter.

0:26:450:26:48

You get in there like that and you just cut off a grape or two,

0:26:480:26:55

giving the others that are left the chance to swell.

0:26:550:26:58

We want them to be big and juicy, not small and juicy,

0:26:580:27:02

and I think they're going to be ready to eat very soon indeed.

0:27:020:27:05

What ARE beginning to be ready to eat are these chillies.

0:27:050:27:08

It's a good idea as chillies ripen to harvest them.

0:27:080:27:13

Just cut them off with a decent stem,

0:27:130:27:17

and when they're ready like that,

0:27:170:27:19

they're delicious eaten fresh rather than dried.

0:27:190:27:22

They're fruity as well as hot.

0:27:220:27:24

And you only get the best flavour when they fully ripen.

0:27:240:27:28

Tomatoes are doing fine, these are a big beefsteak variety.

0:27:280:27:31

You can see that I can clip these,

0:27:310:27:35

there's one at the back there that's a whopper.

0:27:350:27:38

These are a variety called Brandywine,

0:27:400:27:43

and the smaller but deeply fruited one

0:27:430:27:47

is Costoluto Fiorentino.

0:27:470:27:50

Really, really good, delicious beefsteak tomatoes, both of them.

0:27:500:27:54

And good flavour this year, much better than last year.

0:27:540:27:58

At the moment, peppers, grapes, tomatoes,

0:27:580:28:01

untouched by the hideous hordes of either wasp or blackbird.

0:28:010:28:06

Well, it's this time of the programme when we say goodbye.

0:28:250:28:28

That's it for today.

0:28:280:28:30

But I'll be back here at Longmeadow for a whole hour next week.

0:28:300:28:36

So join me then. Bye-bye.

0:28:360:28:39

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