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Oy. | 0:00:14 | 0:00:15 | |
That's a tall one. Hello. Welcome to Gardeners' World. | 0:00:16 | 0:00:20 | |
I'm actually cutting back the foxgloves. | 0:00:20 | 0:00:23 | |
Foxgloves are biannuals, they've done their stuff, | 0:00:23 | 0:00:26 | |
so, in theory, that's it, they're over, | 0:00:26 | 0:00:29 | |
and the seeds will create new plants | 0:00:29 | 0:00:32 | |
that will germinate this autumn and either flower next year, or, if | 0:00:32 | 0:00:37 | |
it's a slow year, even the year after that. | 0:00:37 | 0:00:39 | |
But they can behave as perennials, short-lived ones. | 0:00:39 | 0:00:42 | |
So if you cut them back, if you see signs of growth at the base, | 0:00:42 | 0:00:46 | |
there is a chance that they will flower again next spring. | 0:00:46 | 0:00:50 | |
And so it's a good idea at this time of year to create spaces, | 0:00:50 | 0:00:54 | |
take stock, cut back where necessary, | 0:00:54 | 0:00:56 | |
and then start to look around. | 0:00:56 | 0:00:58 | |
Look at other gardens, look at pictures. | 0:00:58 | 0:01:01 | |
Make lists, then plants can be bought, | 0:01:01 | 0:01:03 | |
planted in winter, and next year this area should be full of colour | 0:01:03 | 0:01:08 | |
that will sustain right through into autumn. | 0:01:08 | 0:01:11 | |
Come on, Nelly. | 0:01:14 | 0:01:16 | |
This week, Frances Tophill continues her vegetable trials | 0:01:20 | 0:01:25 | |
at RHS Rosemoor - and the news is mixed. | 0:01:25 | 0:01:29 | |
Now, you may want to sit down, because | 0:01:30 | 0:01:33 | |
I'm afraid I have some bad news. | 0:01:33 | 0:01:35 | |
All of our tomatoes have got blight. | 0:01:35 | 0:01:37 | |
And we join Alan Power, at Hestercombe, | 0:01:39 | 0:01:41 | |
that great Edwardian garden in Somerset, | 0:01:41 | 0:01:45 | |
to discover the missing plant | 0:01:45 | 0:01:48 | |
that finally completes the restoration jigsaw. | 0:01:48 | 0:01:52 | |
It's just a real privilege, really. | 0:01:52 | 0:01:54 | |
It's why you choose to work in a historic garden. | 0:01:54 | 0:01:56 | |
The planting, the history is all such a big part of it. | 0:01:56 | 0:02:00 | |
And I shall be harvesting late summer veg, | 0:02:06 | 0:02:09 | |
and also preparing the vegetable garden for next spring and summer. | 0:02:09 | 0:02:14 | |
And after last summer's disaster with my grapes, | 0:02:14 | 0:02:17 | |
what with wasps and blackbirds, | 0:02:17 | 0:02:19 | |
this year I have taken steps to foil them. | 0:02:19 | 0:02:23 | |
Haven't we, Nige? Yeah. | 0:02:23 | 0:02:24 | |
It is time to prune the summer fruiting raspberries. | 0:02:38 | 0:02:42 | |
Of course, raspberries come in two types. | 0:02:42 | 0:02:44 | |
You have the summer fruiting and autumn fruiting, | 0:02:44 | 0:02:46 | |
and the big difference is that summer fruiting ones, | 0:02:46 | 0:02:48 | |
which are here, produce their fruit on last year's canes, | 0:02:48 | 0:02:54 | |
whereas autumn fruiting ones, which are in the next row over there, | 0:02:54 | 0:02:59 | |
produce their fruit on this year's canes. | 0:02:59 | 0:03:01 | |
And the net effect of that in terms of pruning means that you | 0:03:01 | 0:03:05 | |
have to carefully prune out the old canes from summer | 0:03:05 | 0:03:08 | |
and leave the new ones. | 0:03:08 | 0:03:10 | |
And here, for example, is a new cane. | 0:03:10 | 0:03:12 | |
It hasn't borne any fruit this year but will next year, | 0:03:12 | 0:03:15 | |
whereas autumn fruiting ones, you can simply cut the whole lot | 0:03:15 | 0:03:18 | |
flush with the ground round about Christmas time | 0:03:18 | 0:03:21 | |
and let it start all over again. | 0:03:21 | 0:03:23 | |
Now, I like pruning raspberries, | 0:03:23 | 0:03:25 | |
because there is an element of skill involved. | 0:03:25 | 0:03:27 | |
And when you're done, you take this rather sad, | 0:03:27 | 0:03:30 | |
tangled mess and it looks really good. | 0:03:30 | 0:03:33 | |
First thing to do is to cut off | 0:03:33 | 0:03:37 | |
all the ties that held last year's canes. | 0:03:37 | 0:03:41 | |
And you can see in the tangle of growth, | 0:03:41 | 0:03:44 | |
there are wires in there supporting it. | 0:03:44 | 0:03:47 | |
So if we cut those free... | 0:03:47 | 0:03:49 | |
There we go. Come on... | 0:03:49 | 0:03:52 | |
Of course the sad truth is, I realise I need glasses for this. | 0:03:54 | 0:03:59 | |
This is the first time I have needed glasses to prune raspberries, | 0:03:59 | 0:04:03 | |
and I don't know if that's a sad thing or | 0:04:03 | 0:04:05 | |
a joyous new experience, but it's reality. | 0:04:05 | 0:04:08 | |
Well, that's last year's canes cut free. | 0:04:23 | 0:04:28 | |
So now I need to remove them and they all need to go | 0:04:28 | 0:04:32 | |
and come off at ground level. | 0:04:32 | 0:04:33 | |
And if you're not quite sure which is last year's cane | 0:04:33 | 0:04:36 | |
and which is this one, | 0:04:36 | 0:04:38 | |
the best guide, particularly at this time of year, is colour. | 0:04:38 | 0:04:40 | |
This is one of last year's canes, and you can see it's brown, | 0:04:40 | 0:04:45 | |
and they will all be this distinct brown colour, | 0:04:45 | 0:04:49 | |
whereas the new canes, like this one, are still green. | 0:04:49 | 0:04:53 | |
And if you do the job this month, or certainly over the next four weeks, | 0:04:54 | 0:04:59 | |
that's the best and easiest way to differentiate between the shoots. | 0:04:59 | 0:05:03 | |
If you leave it into October or November, they all look a bit | 0:05:03 | 0:05:06 | |
brown and it can be a little bit confusing. | 0:05:06 | 0:05:09 | |
So it is a job to do, I think, before the end of September. | 0:05:09 | 0:05:12 | |
So, I'm going to remove all these. | 0:05:12 | 0:05:14 | |
That can come out there. | 0:05:19 | 0:05:21 | |
That's an old one. | 0:05:25 | 0:05:26 | |
Now, what you're left with is everything that | 0:05:36 | 0:05:39 | |
could potentially bear fruit next year. | 0:05:39 | 0:05:42 | |
But at this point you want to be selective, | 0:05:42 | 0:05:44 | |
because you don't want more than four or five canes per plant. | 0:05:44 | 0:05:48 | |
You want lots of energy, so you want to, A, | 0:05:48 | 0:05:51 | |
select the best plants and, B, | 0:05:51 | 0:05:52 | |
remove any that are inappropriate or tangled or broken. | 0:05:52 | 0:05:56 | |
The first thing to do is take any of the outside edge, | 0:05:56 | 0:05:59 | |
so those can come off, and those along there, and there. | 0:05:59 | 0:06:04 | |
And if I just go round this side here and thin these off - | 0:06:05 | 0:06:11 | |
so that can come off there, and that - | 0:06:11 | 0:06:14 | |
what you're left with are potential candidates. | 0:06:14 | 0:06:16 | |
Let's start tying those in. | 0:06:16 | 0:06:18 | |
And the system I use is to weave a long piece of twine, | 0:06:18 | 0:06:24 | |
so what you do, is you go around like that. | 0:06:24 | 0:06:26 | |
Around, over and then on. | 0:06:29 | 0:06:31 | |
Now, the next one, that is going to go over, | 0:06:31 | 0:06:33 | |
so this one's coming on this side. | 0:06:33 | 0:06:35 | |
I'm making sure that these are spaced out fairly evenly. | 0:06:35 | 0:06:39 | |
And now I'll just tie the bottom layer in, | 0:06:39 | 0:06:41 | |
so it is really fixed and firm. | 0:06:41 | 0:06:45 | |
That's a beginning. And it gives you an idea of what they will | 0:06:49 | 0:06:53 | |
look like when I've finished. | 0:06:53 | 0:06:55 | |
So just a simple, single row of clear leaved spaced canes, | 0:06:55 | 0:07:01 | |
not more than five or six per plant. And that's it. | 0:07:01 | 0:07:04 | |
They are then set up till next summer. | 0:07:04 | 0:07:07 | |
You don't have to do anything else at all to them | 0:07:07 | 0:07:10 | |
except from giving them mulch next spring. | 0:07:10 | 0:07:13 | |
Raspberries are something that always take me back to my childhood, | 0:07:13 | 0:07:17 | |
because one of my jobs as a small child was to go and pick a | 0:07:17 | 0:07:20 | |
bowl of raspberries from the fruit cage, and I know that | 0:07:20 | 0:07:23 | |
that fruit cage had been there since the garden was made in the 1880s. | 0:07:23 | 0:07:28 | |
And so probably my grandfather, who was brought up there, | 0:07:28 | 0:07:32 | |
picked the same fruit, from the same canes. | 0:07:32 | 0:07:35 | |
And a garden that is contemporary with that | 0:07:35 | 0:07:37 | |
is Hestercombe in Somerset. It is one of my favourite gardens. | 0:07:37 | 0:07:40 | |
The garden has been beautifully restored. | 0:07:40 | 0:07:43 | |
But there was one plant that, tantalisingly, | 0:07:43 | 0:07:47 | |
they couldn't find anywhere, | 0:07:47 | 0:07:49 | |
and Alan Power has been down to find out more | 0:07:49 | 0:07:53 | |
about this elusive Gladioli. | 0:07:53 | 0:07:55 | |
Hestercombe House is one of the best places in the country to | 0:07:59 | 0:08:02 | |
see the great teamwork between | 0:08:02 | 0:08:04 | |
garden designer Edwin Lutyens and plantswoman Gertrude Jekyll. | 0:08:04 | 0:08:08 | |
Her clever use of colour and texture here | 0:08:08 | 0:08:10 | |
shows exactly why she became so celebrated. | 0:08:10 | 0:08:13 | |
The Edwardian garden was laid out in 1905 to Lutyen's design. | 0:08:16 | 0:08:20 | |
He give Jekyll the drawings and an idea of the soil and location, | 0:08:20 | 0:08:24 | |
and she came up with the planting plan. | 0:08:24 | 0:08:26 | |
And thanks to Jekyll's planting list, | 0:08:28 | 0:08:30 | |
which is still here at Hestercombe, | 0:08:30 | 0:08:32 | |
the garden team have been able to pretty accurately recreate | 0:08:32 | 0:08:35 | |
the original design. | 0:08:35 | 0:08:37 | |
But, frustratingly, there has always been one plant missing. | 0:08:37 | 0:08:40 | |
I'm meeting the head gardener, Claire Greenslade. | 0:08:43 | 0:08:46 | |
So, Claire, all of these plants, these are plants that Jekyll planned | 0:08:48 | 0:08:52 | |
and recommended for the beds and borders at Hestercombe? | 0:08:52 | 0:08:55 | |
Yeah, we're lucky enough to have found all the original | 0:08:55 | 0:08:57 | |
planting plans, because we think Jekyll did it all remotely, | 0:08:57 | 0:09:00 | |
so we don't think she ever actually visited here. | 0:09:00 | 0:09:02 | |
Did you have to do a lot of research | 0:09:02 | 0:09:04 | |
to try and discover what Jekyll used here? | 0:09:04 | 0:09:06 | |
We are really lucky in that the Portman family that lived here | 0:09:06 | 0:09:10 | |
had a great photo collection that they have given to us. | 0:09:10 | 0:09:14 | |
-It's so useful, isn't it? -It's great. | 0:09:14 | 0:09:16 | |
So, quite often I am with the archivist | 0:09:16 | 0:09:18 | |
with a magnifying glass going, "What do you think that is? | 0:09:18 | 0:09:20 | |
Do you think that's blocks or do you think that's Dianthus?" | 0:09:20 | 0:09:23 | |
And it pops into your head at night, thinking, | 0:09:23 | 0:09:25 | |
-"Actually, it could be..." -Yeah! -"..X, Y or Z, couldn't it?" | 0:09:25 | 0:09:27 | |
It's always the way, isn't it? It is always the middle of the night. | 0:09:27 | 0:09:30 | |
Did you face many other challenges as you were, so to speak, | 0:09:30 | 0:09:33 | |
plant hunting for the beds here? | 0:09:33 | 0:09:35 | |
Yeah, we had these two difficulties in that there are two types | 0:09:35 | 0:09:39 | |
of Gladioli like that Gertrude Jekyll had mentioned in her plans, | 0:09:39 | 0:09:43 | |
brenchleyensis and chaldzyi, | 0:09:43 | 0:09:46 | |
that just as far as we were concerned just simply didn't exist, | 0:09:46 | 0:09:49 | |
we couldn't find them anywhere. | 0:09:49 | 0:09:51 | |
We presumed they had just got out of cultivation for whatever reason, | 0:09:51 | 0:09:54 | |
maybe weren't good propagators or just weren't fashionable, | 0:09:54 | 0:09:58 | |
-and so we spent a lot of time trying to grow alternatives. -Yeah. | 0:09:58 | 0:10:03 | |
So we would look at a black-and-white photo and | 0:10:03 | 0:10:06 | |
a written description and then we'd grow as many, you know, | 0:10:06 | 0:10:09 | |
red Gladiolis with a white throat as we could and try and compare them. | 0:10:09 | 0:10:13 | |
Wow. In essence, you're painting a picture from the past and | 0:10:13 | 0:10:16 | |
you're adding colour to it. | 0:10:16 | 0:10:18 | |
-Yeah. -And how close are you to getting your treasured Gladioli | 0:10:18 | 0:10:23 | |
back into the garden again? | 0:10:23 | 0:10:25 | |
Well, quite recently we have discovered that | 0:10:25 | 0:10:27 | |
brenchleyensis still survives. | 0:10:27 | 0:10:29 | |
-Really? -Yeah. -And when was that discovered? | 0:10:29 | 0:10:31 | |
A few years ago, | 0:10:31 | 0:10:33 | |
a Jekyll expert, Michael Tooley, | 0:10:33 | 0:10:35 | |
was visiting the Isle of Man and giving a talk | 0:10:35 | 0:10:38 | |
there about Jekyll, and he mentioned Gladioli brenchleyensis. | 0:10:38 | 0:10:41 | |
And after his talks, someone in the audience came up to him and said, | 0:10:41 | 0:10:45 | |
"Well, I think I've got that in my garden. | 0:10:45 | 0:10:47 | |
How exciting. He must have nearly | 0:10:47 | 0:10:48 | |
fallen off his stool when he heard that. | 0:10:48 | 0:10:50 | |
So he went and had a look and got experts to verify that | 0:10:50 | 0:10:53 | |
it was the correct one, and we have managed to work with some | 0:10:53 | 0:10:56 | |
Gladioli growers and the National Trust Plant Conservation Centre | 0:10:56 | 0:11:00 | |
to try and get this corm going again | 0:11:00 | 0:11:03 | |
so that we can actually have a stack of them. | 0:11:03 | 0:11:06 | |
That is amazing, isn't it? | 0:11:06 | 0:11:07 | |
And that's not a process that happens overnight, is it? | 0:11:07 | 0:11:10 | |
No, it takes ages, because Gladiolis will produce cormlets, | 0:11:10 | 0:11:14 | |
like tiny little corms, and to get one of those to | 0:11:14 | 0:11:16 | |
a flowering stage will take five or six years. | 0:11:16 | 0:11:19 | |
We have our first ten corms that we have reproduced, and they are | 0:11:19 | 0:11:23 | |
in pots and they are safe in the greenhouse. | 0:11:23 | 0:11:25 | |
So, I need 800, we've got ten. | 0:11:25 | 0:11:27 | |
-So, you have ten. -Yeah! It's a start. We'll get there. | 0:11:27 | 0:11:30 | |
It's going to be a slow process but it's quite nice to be | 0:11:30 | 0:11:34 | |
conserving something that might have otherwise just, you know, | 0:11:34 | 0:11:37 | |
if that guy's house had been sold and someone didn't like Gladiolis | 0:11:37 | 0:11:40 | |
and they had dug them out and got rid of them... | 0:11:40 | 0:11:42 | |
It is quite a moment in history, | 0:11:42 | 0:11:44 | |
completing Jekyll's colours in your garden. | 0:11:44 | 0:11:47 | |
Yeah, and hopefully conserving this plant | 0:11:47 | 0:11:49 | |
that might otherwise have been lost. | 0:11:49 | 0:11:52 | |
So can we go and have a look at it? | 0:11:52 | 0:11:53 | |
-Yeah, sure, they're up in the greenhouse. -Brilliant, thanks. | 0:11:53 | 0:11:56 | |
Wow, how exciting. | 0:12:06 | 0:12:08 | |
These were planted round about the beginning of May. | 0:12:08 | 0:12:11 | |
I've just got them in a really loose compost, because I was | 0:12:11 | 0:12:14 | |
terrified of them rotting or getting eaten by mice. | 0:12:14 | 0:12:18 | |
How special, it is a really, really significant moment. | 0:12:18 | 0:12:22 | |
You are, presumably, quite anxious now | 0:12:22 | 0:12:24 | |
that all of this work that's gone in, | 0:12:24 | 0:12:26 | |
that these flowers are going to come out | 0:12:26 | 0:12:28 | |
and they're going to be exactly what you want. | 0:12:28 | 0:12:30 | |
Imagine if they came out yellow! | 0:12:30 | 0:12:32 | |
I can just see a hint of red, so we are going in the right direction. | 0:12:32 | 0:12:37 | |
How on earth are you going to get from these ten to the 800 you need? | 0:12:37 | 0:12:40 | |
-It is a long way to go, isn't it? -It is, isn't it? | 0:12:40 | 0:12:43 | |
We don't really have enough room or enough staff to carry out | 0:12:43 | 0:12:47 | |
that kind of mass scale propagation. | 0:12:47 | 0:12:49 | |
So, we would love to start projects with our members and things | 0:12:49 | 0:12:53 | |
like that and get them growing them | 0:12:53 | 0:12:55 | |
and make sure we don't lose the species again. | 0:12:55 | 0:12:57 | |
You must be delighted, excited and a nervous wreck all at the same time. | 0:12:57 | 0:13:01 | |
Yeah. Desperate to share it, desperate for it to flower. | 0:13:01 | 0:13:04 | |
It's just a real privilege, really. | 0:13:04 | 0:13:06 | |
It's kind of like why you choose to work in a historic garden as well, | 0:13:06 | 0:13:09 | |
it's... The planting, the history, is all such a big part of it. | 0:13:09 | 0:13:13 | |
This is your stamp on Hestercombe, | 0:13:13 | 0:13:15 | |
-isn't it? Getting this plant back. -I guess so, yeah. | 0:13:15 | 0:13:18 | |
In history, it will be mentioned in a diary and in an archive - | 0:13:18 | 0:13:23 | |
"Oh, yeah, Claire did that." | 0:13:23 | 0:13:24 | |
-It is something to be proud of, isn't it? -It is, yeah, it really is. | 0:13:24 | 0:13:28 | |
A few days after I visited Hestercombe, | 0:13:33 | 0:13:35 | |
Jekyll's lost brenchleyensis bloomed | 0:13:35 | 0:13:37 | |
in the garden for the first time in decades. | 0:13:37 | 0:13:39 | |
What a beauty. | 0:13:39 | 0:13:41 | |
Well, I don't need much of an excuse to go back to Hestercombe, | 0:13:54 | 0:13:57 | |
but I would love to see that Gladioli like growing in the garden. | 0:13:57 | 0:14:00 | |
Now, one thing I didn't see | 0:14:00 | 0:14:02 | |
on my last trip to Hestercombe was any veg. | 0:14:02 | 0:14:04 | |
And veg is something that I always feel every garden should have | 0:14:04 | 0:14:09 | |
something of, if it possibly can. | 0:14:09 | 0:14:12 | |
In fact, I have enlarged the vegetable garden | 0:14:12 | 0:14:14 | |
here at Longmeadow this spring, and it has done well. | 0:14:14 | 0:14:16 | |
The cabbages have been good - | 0:14:16 | 0:14:19 | |
they are looking a bit ravaged now, but that is to be expected. | 0:14:19 | 0:14:22 | |
These are summer cabbage, and the pigeons and | 0:14:22 | 0:14:25 | |
the slugs have had a good feast of them just as have we. | 0:14:25 | 0:14:28 | |
So, I will take this here before the nasties can get it. | 0:14:28 | 0:14:32 | |
That's still really good. | 0:14:34 | 0:14:36 | |
Next to it I've got growing Savoys, which of course are winter cabbage, | 0:14:36 | 0:14:41 | |
and these won't get harvested till the New Year | 0:14:41 | 0:14:44 | |
or even into next spring. | 0:14:44 | 0:14:46 | |
And that's true also of the purple sprouting broccoli that I've got | 0:14:46 | 0:14:50 | |
and you can see that I've under-planted it | 0:14:50 | 0:14:52 | |
with two types of lettuce. | 0:14:52 | 0:14:53 | |
I've got green and red oakleaf lettuce | 0:14:53 | 0:14:56 | |
which will grow perfectly well alongside | 0:14:56 | 0:14:59 | |
the purple sprouting broccoli, and then as autumn comes and it goes, | 0:14:59 | 0:15:03 | |
the broccoli can take over the whole space. | 0:15:03 | 0:15:05 | |
Again, that won't be harvested until next April, even. | 0:15:05 | 0:15:08 | |
In this part of the garden, the old vegetable garden, | 0:15:08 | 0:15:11 | |
I suppose you could call it, things have been going fine. | 0:15:11 | 0:15:14 | |
One of my favourite brassicas is this, this is cavolo nero. | 0:15:14 | 0:15:18 | |
You can eat it in summer, winter, spring and autumn, | 0:15:18 | 0:15:21 | |
and it'll grow quite happily for about 10 months, | 0:15:21 | 0:15:24 | |
and you just pick the leaves as they develop, and it will grow on up, | 0:15:24 | 0:15:28 | |
and by the end of the season it's right up here. | 0:15:28 | 0:15:31 | |
Its great characteristic is that you can cook it for as long as you like | 0:15:31 | 0:15:35 | |
and it doesn't spoil. | 0:15:35 | 0:15:37 | |
It's fabulous as a vegetable in its own right, | 0:15:37 | 0:15:39 | |
it's great in soups, in stews, it makes a wonderful pasta sauce. | 0:15:39 | 0:15:43 | |
It really is fantastic to eat, and on top of that, | 0:15:43 | 0:15:45 | |
if that wasn't reason enough to grow it, it's really good for you too. | 0:15:45 | 0:15:50 | |
Now, I grow vegetables because I like the taste, | 0:15:50 | 0:15:52 | |
and I don't try and experiment too much outside things | 0:15:52 | 0:15:57 | |
that I know myself and my family are going to enjoy, | 0:15:57 | 0:16:01 | |
but Frances Tophill has been part of some experiments and trials | 0:16:01 | 0:16:05 | |
that the RHS have been doing at Harlow Carr in Yorkshire | 0:16:05 | 0:16:08 | |
and Rosemoor in Devon, | 0:16:08 | 0:16:10 | |
comparing the two different locations with same varieties. | 0:16:10 | 0:16:14 | |
We join her in Devon, as she looks at this year's corn on the cob. | 0:16:14 | 0:16:19 | |
Well, the cucumbers, beans, sweetcorn and tomatoes | 0:16:29 | 0:16:32 | |
have been growing all summer long | 0:16:32 | 0:16:34 | |
and these sweetcorn look pretty impressive. | 0:16:34 | 0:16:36 | |
The small ones, that were tiny before, Mirai Picnic, | 0:16:36 | 0:16:39 | |
have now overtaken the others, but all of the sweetcorn | 0:16:39 | 0:16:42 | |
are showing signs that some of the crops are ready to be harvested. | 0:16:42 | 0:16:45 | |
You can tell initially from this brown rather than white hair | 0:16:45 | 0:16:49 | |
coming out of the top, but really, to make absolutely sure, | 0:16:49 | 0:16:52 | |
if we peel back to reveal some of the corns | 0:16:52 | 0:16:57 | |
and just squeeze that... | 0:16:57 | 0:17:00 | |
If it comes out clear, then you know it's not quite ready, | 0:17:01 | 0:17:04 | |
and if it comes out a milky colour, then you know it is ready, | 0:17:04 | 0:17:07 | |
and that one's actually still a little bit clear | 0:17:07 | 0:17:09 | |
so I'm not going to harvest it just yet. | 0:17:09 | 0:17:11 | |
But... | 0:17:11 | 0:17:14 | |
when we do find some that are... | 0:17:14 | 0:17:16 | |
That one looks good. | 0:17:21 | 0:17:22 | |
It's much more yellow. | 0:17:29 | 0:17:31 | |
Yeah, that one's good. | 0:17:32 | 0:17:36 | |
Now to pick these, take it with all the leaves still on, | 0:17:36 | 0:17:40 | |
the sheaf, and just twist. | 0:17:40 | 0:17:42 | |
This comes off easy-peasy... | 0:17:42 | 0:17:44 | |
..into the basket. | 0:17:48 | 0:17:51 | |
Hopefully one of many, that is. | 0:17:51 | 0:17:54 | |
There's not much to do at this time of year with the sweetcorn, | 0:17:54 | 0:17:56 | |
but remember that they are shallow-rooted | 0:17:56 | 0:17:58 | |
so they'll need lots of water and take extra care when you're hoeing. | 0:17:58 | 0:18:03 | |
Up in Yorkshire, at RHS Harlow Carr, they're mirroring our trials. | 0:18:07 | 0:18:11 | |
They are keeping a record of all of their veg, | 0:18:11 | 0:18:13 | |
and they're going to bring the results down in a month's time | 0:18:13 | 0:18:17 | |
with some crops so we can compare them for yield and for taste. | 0:18:17 | 0:18:20 | |
Although we are harvesting, | 0:18:22 | 0:18:23 | |
our cucumber plants still need a bit of attention. | 0:18:23 | 0:18:26 | |
Remove any dead leaves and any rotting fruit to prevent | 0:18:26 | 0:18:29 | |
the build-up of diseases. | 0:18:29 | 0:18:31 | |
Keep watering and feeding regularly with a high potash feed, | 0:18:31 | 0:18:34 | |
and most importantly, keep harvesting. | 0:18:34 | 0:18:37 | |
If you pick the bigger fruits, | 0:18:37 | 0:18:38 | |
it gives the small ones a chance to grow. | 0:18:38 | 0:18:41 | |
These climbing French beans are romping away. | 0:18:45 | 0:18:47 | |
This one is violet-podded, and although it looks very vigorous, | 0:18:47 | 0:18:51 | |
and there are some flowers, | 0:18:51 | 0:18:52 | |
I can hardly see any pods at all. | 0:18:52 | 0:18:56 | |
A few here, | 0:18:56 | 0:18:58 | |
but certainly much too small to harvest so I'll leave them for now. | 0:18:58 | 0:19:03 | |
The Cobra, on the other hand, which is this one, | 0:19:05 | 0:19:08 | |
an old garden favourite, a very popular variety, has loads of pods. | 0:19:08 | 0:19:13 | |
The only thing you really have to do is to keep picking and picking | 0:19:13 | 0:19:16 | |
because the more you pick, the more beans will grow. | 0:19:16 | 0:19:19 | |
Up at Harlow Carr in Yorkshire, | 0:19:28 | 0:19:31 | |
they are very much the same as us down here in Devon. | 0:19:31 | 0:19:33 | |
We've all been harvesting for about two weeks and, as here, | 0:19:33 | 0:19:37 | |
the violet-podded are a bit behind the other two varieties, | 0:19:37 | 0:19:40 | |
so funnily enough, beans don't seem to mind the North or South divide. | 0:19:40 | 0:19:45 | |
Interesting. | 0:19:45 | 0:19:47 | |
All through the harvest, we're going to be keeping track | 0:19:47 | 0:19:51 | |
and recording meticulously everything we pick, | 0:19:51 | 0:19:54 | |
so we are weighing the beans and the tomatoes | 0:19:54 | 0:19:56 | |
and counting the cucumbers and the sweetcorns. | 0:19:56 | 0:20:00 | |
Now, you may want to sit down because I'm afraid I have | 0:20:02 | 0:20:05 | |
some bad news. | 0:20:05 | 0:20:07 | |
All of our tomatoes have got blight! The dreaded blight! | 0:20:07 | 0:20:11 | |
This is an airborne pathogen which affects the leaves and the stems | 0:20:11 | 0:20:15 | |
and you can see it instantly when you get it because you'll see | 0:20:15 | 0:20:18 | |
these leaves begin to go and the stems will turn brown. | 0:20:18 | 0:20:22 | |
In bad cases, you'll see like this, | 0:20:22 | 0:20:24 | |
the fruits will also turn brown or black. | 0:20:24 | 0:20:28 | |
Now, once these leaves have died, the spores will be released | 0:20:28 | 0:20:31 | |
and then they'll blow across to your neighbours' gardens | 0:20:31 | 0:20:34 | |
and neighbouring allotments, so these have to go. | 0:20:34 | 0:20:36 | |
Which means I won't be able to harvest them for tasting | 0:20:36 | 0:20:40 | |
later on in the season, | 0:20:40 | 0:20:41 | |
so instead, I'm going to taste them all now | 0:20:41 | 0:20:44 | |
and just hope that Harlow Carr's haven't got blight. | 0:20:44 | 0:20:48 | |
If you haven't got blight, now is the time to keep regularly watering. | 0:20:48 | 0:20:52 | |
Irregular watering can cause the fruits to split as they swell | 0:20:52 | 0:20:56 | |
and then contract. | 0:20:56 | 0:20:57 | |
You don't have to worry when you're eating things that have got blight - | 0:20:57 | 0:21:01 | |
it doesn't affect humans, it just affects the plants, | 0:21:01 | 0:21:03 | |
so they're perfectly safe. | 0:21:03 | 0:21:05 | |
I'll harvest all of these and then get rid of what's left. | 0:21:05 | 0:21:07 | |
So... | 0:21:07 | 0:21:09 | |
Tumbling Tom Yellow. | 0:21:09 | 0:21:11 | |
It's quite sharp, very flavoursome. | 0:21:16 | 0:21:19 | |
This is Hundreds and Thousands, very small. | 0:21:19 | 0:21:22 | |
Much sweeter. And finally this is Tumbler. | 0:21:26 | 0:21:29 | |
Interesting, really different texture, much softer texture, | 0:21:34 | 0:21:37 | |
but I think actually the best one is probably the Hundreds and Thousands. | 0:21:37 | 0:21:41 | |
Even though it's small, it's really, really flavoursome. | 0:21:41 | 0:21:44 | |
Hopefully you've been growing along with us, and we'd love to know | 0:21:44 | 0:21:47 | |
how you've been getting on, | 0:21:47 | 0:21:49 | |
so please put any pictures you can on our Facebook page. | 0:21:49 | 0:21:52 | |
Blight is a real problem for outdoor tomatoes, | 0:22:00 | 0:22:03 | |
that's why I don't grow them outside here at Longmeadow. | 0:22:03 | 0:22:05 | |
I did last year, and sure enough they got blight. | 0:22:05 | 0:22:08 | |
This year, in the greenhouse, not a touch of it. | 0:22:08 | 0:22:11 | |
The glass is usually protection enough to stop the spores | 0:22:11 | 0:22:15 | |
getting on to the plants. | 0:22:15 | 0:22:16 | |
Certainly no problems with the beetroot. | 0:22:16 | 0:22:18 | |
Sorry, Nige, didn't mean to bash you on the nose. Sorry, old chap. | 0:22:18 | 0:22:22 | |
I like beetroot in lots of different ways, | 0:22:22 | 0:22:26 | |
but not just for eating as a veg. | 0:22:26 | 0:22:31 | |
They make fantastic juicing, | 0:22:31 | 0:22:32 | |
and if you get a larger one like that, | 0:22:32 | 0:22:35 | |
or even a bit woody later on in the season, don't ditch them - | 0:22:35 | 0:22:38 | |
they're still really good for juicing. | 0:22:38 | 0:22:40 | |
Fennel has had a mixed time of it in the last week or two. | 0:22:46 | 0:22:50 | |
It was really dry and it didn't get watered, and it's bolted. | 0:22:50 | 0:22:54 | |
Now, what you're looking for is one like that. | 0:22:54 | 0:22:58 | |
That is a nice head, | 0:22:58 | 0:23:01 | |
you can see it's good fleshy overlapping leaves. | 0:23:01 | 0:23:03 | |
That will be delicious, | 0:23:03 | 0:23:05 | |
either eaten raw as part of a salad | 0:23:05 | 0:23:08 | |
or cooked - lightly poached in a little bit of white wine | 0:23:08 | 0:23:11 | |
is absolutely lovely. | 0:23:11 | 0:23:12 | |
But when they get like that, there's no way back. | 0:23:12 | 0:23:17 | |
That isn't going to ever develop a nice base that you want to eat | 0:23:17 | 0:23:23 | |
and so really the thing to do is to cut your losses, | 0:23:23 | 0:23:26 | |
accept that it hasn't worked - and these very often do bolt | 0:23:26 | 0:23:29 | |
if they're too dry, too cold, too hot, or too wet - | 0:23:29 | 0:23:33 | |
and use the ground for something else. | 0:23:33 | 0:23:36 | |
Growing fennel may not be something that you indulge in, | 0:23:36 | 0:23:39 | |
but you've got a bank holiday weekend coming up, so extra time | 0:23:39 | 0:23:43 | |
to do extra jobs in the garden, and here are some of them. | 0:23:43 | 0:23:47 | |
If you've got a spare patch of ground in your veg plot, | 0:23:50 | 0:23:53 | |
fill it with the seeds of a fast-growing salad crop | 0:23:53 | 0:23:56 | |
which you can harvest in autumn. | 0:23:56 | 0:24:00 | |
I'm sowing rocket, | 0:24:00 | 0:24:01 | |
where I've pulled up fennel that have bolted. | 0:24:01 | 0:24:04 | |
I'm broadcasting it so I don't need to worry about sowing it in rows. | 0:24:04 | 0:24:08 | |
Rake the seeds in, and make sure they don't dry out, | 0:24:08 | 0:24:12 | |
so water them at least once a week. | 0:24:12 | 0:24:14 | |
Now is the time to prepare strawberries for next year. | 0:24:20 | 0:24:23 | |
Clear away any mulch that you put down... | 0:24:24 | 0:24:27 | |
..weed them and then cut away all this year's foliage. | 0:24:29 | 0:24:33 | |
This will let light and air in | 0:24:33 | 0:24:35 | |
so that new foliage can grow before winter. | 0:24:35 | 0:24:38 | |
If you've taken cuttings in midsummer, | 0:24:40 | 0:24:43 | |
as I did with these penstemons in July, | 0:24:43 | 0:24:46 | |
now is the time to pot them on. | 0:24:46 | 0:24:49 | |
Carefully separate the cuttings, | 0:24:49 | 0:24:51 | |
making sure you get plenty of root on each plant. | 0:24:51 | 0:24:54 | |
Pot them up individually with a good free-draining compost... | 0:24:54 | 0:24:59 | |
..water them well, | 0:25:00 | 0:25:02 | |
and put them somewhere protected where they can spend the winter. | 0:25:02 | 0:25:05 | |
Come on... | 0:25:14 | 0:25:16 | |
It was this time last year when my grapes that I had grown | 0:25:20 | 0:25:24 | |
so carefully, and was so proud of, | 0:25:24 | 0:25:28 | |
were brutally ravished by, first of all, blackbirds, | 0:25:28 | 0:25:32 | |
and then, when they had taken all they could eat, | 0:25:32 | 0:25:37 | |
by a swarm of hungry wasps. | 0:25:37 | 0:25:40 | |
Hardly a single grape was left. | 0:25:40 | 0:25:41 | |
This year, so far, I've kept both at bay | 0:25:41 | 0:25:46 | |
by virtue of partly this screen, and inside... | 0:25:46 | 0:25:50 | |
If you were a wasp, you would come in here, | 0:25:53 | 0:25:57 | |
have a look at this | 0:25:57 | 0:25:58 | |
and stop dead in your tracks and back away gingerly, | 0:25:58 | 0:26:03 | |
because to a wasp, | 0:26:03 | 0:26:04 | |
this looks exactly like a colossal, great wasps' nest. | 0:26:04 | 0:26:09 | |
Probably inhabited by colossal, great wasps, | 0:26:09 | 0:26:12 | |
certainly bigger and fiercer and nastier than you, | 0:26:12 | 0:26:15 | |
which means you stay away, | 0:26:15 | 0:26:17 | |
you're on someone else's territory. | 0:26:17 | 0:26:19 | |
So far, it's worked, but it may be that the wasp season | 0:26:19 | 0:26:23 | |
hasn't really kicked in. | 0:26:23 | 0:26:25 | |
That's the theory. You just hang it up and it keeps wasps away. | 0:26:25 | 0:26:29 | |
Now, you can see that the grapes have not yet been touched | 0:26:29 | 0:26:33 | |
by birds or wasps. They are ripening really nicely. | 0:26:33 | 0:26:36 | |
And in terms of thinning, the other day I was sent this. | 0:26:36 | 0:26:41 | |
I wasn't quite sure if it was for clipping nasal hair | 0:26:41 | 0:26:45 | |
or thinning grapes, but I'm assuming it's the latter. | 0:26:45 | 0:26:48 | |
You get in there like that and you just cut off a grape or two, | 0:26:48 | 0:26:55 | |
giving the others that are left the chance to swell. | 0:26:55 | 0:26:58 | |
We want them to be big and juicy, not small and juicy, | 0:26:58 | 0:27:02 | |
and I think they're going to be ready to eat very soon indeed. | 0:27:02 | 0:27:05 | |
What ARE beginning to be ready to eat are these chillies. | 0:27:05 | 0:27:08 | |
It's a good idea as chillies ripen to harvest them. | 0:27:08 | 0:27:13 | |
Just cut them off with a decent stem, | 0:27:13 | 0:27:17 | |
and when they're ready like that, | 0:27:17 | 0:27:19 | |
they're delicious eaten fresh rather than dried. | 0:27:19 | 0:27:22 | |
They're fruity as well as hot. | 0:27:22 | 0:27:24 | |
And you only get the best flavour when they fully ripen. | 0:27:24 | 0:27:28 | |
Tomatoes are doing fine, these are a big beefsteak variety. | 0:27:28 | 0:27:31 | |
You can see that I can clip these, | 0:27:31 | 0:27:35 | |
there's one at the back there that's a whopper. | 0:27:35 | 0:27:38 | |
These are a variety called Brandywine, | 0:27:40 | 0:27:43 | |
and the smaller but deeply fruited one | 0:27:43 | 0:27:47 | |
is Costoluto Fiorentino. | 0:27:47 | 0:27:50 | |
Really, really good, delicious beefsteak tomatoes, both of them. | 0:27:50 | 0:27:54 | |
And good flavour this year, much better than last year. | 0:27:54 | 0:27:58 | |
At the moment, peppers, grapes, tomatoes, | 0:27:58 | 0:28:01 | |
untouched by the hideous hordes of either wasp or blackbird. | 0:28:01 | 0:28:06 | |
Well, it's this time of the programme when we say goodbye. | 0:28:25 | 0:28:28 | |
That's it for today. | 0:28:28 | 0:28:30 | |
But I'll be back here at Longmeadow for a whole hour next week. | 0:28:30 | 0:28:36 | |
So join me then. Bye-bye. | 0:28:36 | 0:28:39 |