0:00:05 > 0:00:07'Growing your own fruit and veg
0:00:07 > 0:00:11'and sharing the produce with family and friends
0:00:11 > 0:00:13'is one of life's great luxuries.'
0:00:13 > 0:00:18And over the last 100 years, this has increased greatly.
0:00:18 > 0:00:21People doing more and more of it themselves
0:00:21 > 0:00:24in their own back gardens and allotments.
0:00:24 > 0:00:27But this has come about as a result
0:00:27 > 0:00:32of calamitous global events and huge social change.
0:00:36 > 0:00:39'On my journey through 400 years of garden history,
0:00:39 > 0:00:41'I've discovered the hidden messages
0:00:41 > 0:00:44'that revealed a forbidden 17th-century faith.
0:00:46 > 0:00:49'I've seen how the desire to create an Arcadian dream
0:00:49 > 0:00:52'gave rise to the great landscape gardens of the 18th century.
0:00:55 > 0:00:58'And I've learnt how Victorian technology went hand-in-hand
0:00:58 > 0:01:00'with colonial expansion
0:01:00 > 0:01:04'to enable us to grow new and exotic varieties from around the world.'
0:01:04 > 0:01:06Look how beautiful it is!
0:01:08 > 0:01:10'I'm now moving into the 20th century.
0:01:10 > 0:01:13'This is an age of war, social upheaval
0:01:13 > 0:01:16'and huge technological advancements,
0:01:16 > 0:01:18'all of which transformed our gardens.'
0:01:22 > 0:01:23Brilliant!
0:01:25 > 0:01:28'And I'll be discovering who were the most influential figures
0:01:28 > 0:01:31'in 20th-century gardening.'
0:01:31 > 0:01:33This is a photograph of one of my heroes.
0:01:33 > 0:01:35He's one of the greatest garden designers
0:01:35 > 0:01:37this country has ever produced.
0:01:38 > 0:01:42'And I'll be seeing how technology has enabled modern nurseries
0:01:42 > 0:01:45'to mass-produce plants by the million.'
0:01:46 > 0:01:49Their colour is slowly beginning to emerge.
0:01:49 > 0:01:51- Yeah.- You can just see it appearing here
0:01:51 > 0:01:55and then it's starting to look like a field of flowers.
0:01:57 > 0:02:01'I believe that gardens are every bit as important
0:02:01 > 0:02:03'as the buildings we live and work in.
0:02:04 > 0:02:08'And if we can unearth their secrets and listen to their stories...
0:02:10 > 0:02:14'..we get a unique insight into our history
0:02:14 > 0:02:17'and what makes us the people that we are today.'
0:02:55 > 0:02:58Here, in the middle of London,
0:02:58 > 0:03:02set six storeys up above the River Thames,
0:03:02 > 0:03:05with St Paul's on one side and Tower Bridge on the other
0:03:05 > 0:03:09and the great corporate temples soaring around us,
0:03:09 > 0:03:11is a garden.
0:03:12 > 0:03:14It's a garden that's working hard.
0:03:14 > 0:03:17It's providing relief and a green space
0:03:17 > 0:03:21for the hundreds of employees of the bank behind those glass walls.
0:03:22 > 0:03:25It's for corporate entertainment.
0:03:25 > 0:03:28Practical, cheap, pleasant.
0:03:28 > 0:03:30It's a brand.
0:03:30 > 0:03:32You can see it from all around.
0:03:32 > 0:03:36As the city grows up and up, the gardens have to rise up with them.
0:03:36 > 0:03:39As you look around, there are other little pockets of garden
0:03:39 > 0:03:41showing off what good souls
0:03:41 > 0:03:46and how cultured these corporate dragons are.
0:03:48 > 0:03:50And there's a very human side to it. They're growing vegetables
0:03:50 > 0:03:53which go into the canteen to feed the workers.
0:03:54 > 0:03:58It's doing this as part of a world that couldn't have been imagined
0:03:58 > 0:04:02by the garden-makers 100 years earlier,
0:04:02 > 0:04:04at the beginning of the 20th century.
0:04:06 > 0:04:11'In 1900, Britain was emerging from the Industrial Age.
0:04:11 > 0:04:13'Huge numbers of the population
0:04:13 > 0:04:15'had steadily moved away from the countryside
0:04:15 > 0:04:20'to find work in increasingly overcrowded and polluted cities.
0:04:20 > 0:04:22'All connected by a railway network
0:04:22 > 0:04:25'that could now transport people faster than
0:04:25 > 0:04:28'anyone could have thought possible 100 years earlier.
0:04:30 > 0:04:34'But with this urbanisation came a growing nostalgia
0:04:34 > 0:04:36'for a vanishing rural way of life
0:04:36 > 0:04:39'and a desire to return to nature.
0:04:41 > 0:04:44'And this reaction, against the wholesale industrialisation
0:04:44 > 0:04:48'of the Victorian era, was reflected in a new style of garden,
0:04:48 > 0:04:51'created right at the start of the 20th century
0:04:51 > 0:04:53'here at Hestercombe in Somerset.'
0:04:56 > 0:05:01This is classical Victorian bedding.
0:05:01 > 0:05:05Plants raised in hot houses because they could.
0:05:05 > 0:05:07They had the staff. They had the heating.
0:05:08 > 0:05:12And from here...all you can see is the view.
0:05:13 > 0:05:15Then if you go to the balustrade and look over...
0:05:24 > 0:05:27..you have what is both a beautiful
0:05:27 > 0:05:30and, for its time, radical garden.
0:05:33 > 0:05:37Although to the modern eye, this might seem fairly formal
0:05:37 > 0:05:39in its symmetry and planting,
0:05:39 > 0:05:43in its day, it would have looked startlingly natural
0:05:43 > 0:05:45compared to the contemporary Victorian gardens,
0:05:45 > 0:05:48where nature was controlled with an iron hand.
0:05:48 > 0:05:50The authors of this new style
0:05:50 > 0:05:52were two figures that were a huge influence
0:05:52 > 0:05:54on subsequent 20th-century gardens.
0:05:54 > 0:05:59I've got pictures of Gertrude Jekyll
0:05:59 > 0:06:01and Edwin Lutyens here.
0:06:01 > 0:06:05Now, Lutyens was a rather brilliant architect.
0:06:05 > 0:06:10And Jekyll, the doyenne of British gardening.
0:06:11 > 0:06:15'And together, they were greater than the sum of their parts.
0:06:15 > 0:06:19'They made gardens which dramatically changed
0:06:19 > 0:06:21'the way that we gardened.
0:06:23 > 0:06:26'Both Jekyll and Lutyens were heavily influenced
0:06:26 > 0:06:28'by the Arts & Crafts movement,
0:06:28 > 0:06:32'which reacted to the mechanisation of industry
0:06:32 > 0:06:36'by advocating an aesthetic based on traditional craftsmanship
0:06:36 > 0:06:38'and materials.
0:06:39 > 0:06:43'So, at Hestercombe, we see Lutyens making a garden
0:06:43 > 0:06:46'based upon stone quarried from the estate
0:06:46 > 0:06:49'and hand-finished by local masons.'
0:06:54 > 0:06:57This area seems to me so typical
0:06:57 > 0:07:00of early 20th-century gardening.
0:07:00 > 0:07:04What that means is you've just stepped out and crossed the threshold.
0:07:04 > 0:07:06You've left the 19th century behind.
0:07:06 > 0:07:08You're now in the 20th century.
0:07:08 > 0:07:13And it has a kind of attention to detail using local materials
0:07:13 > 0:07:16that is very typical of Lutyens.
0:07:16 > 0:07:19And these patterns and designs,
0:07:19 > 0:07:23contrasting shapes and forms and colours...
0:07:25 > 0:07:28..sets up the space. It's circular.
0:07:28 > 0:07:32You've got away from the four-square solidity of the house.
0:07:32 > 0:07:34And this is a kind of antechamber.
0:07:34 > 0:07:39OK, we've left one century, we're about to enter the next,
0:07:39 > 0:07:42cleanse yourself, prepare for what's to come.
0:07:46 > 0:07:49A few steps and then... Bang!
0:07:49 > 0:07:52You get a really dramatic new view.
0:07:52 > 0:07:55You can't see this at all from the top terrace.
0:07:55 > 0:08:01And it sums up everything about this new age of gardening.
0:08:01 > 0:08:04It's sensitive to place, it's sensitive to materials.
0:08:04 > 0:08:07Relishing the stone and the structure.
0:08:07 > 0:08:11And yet the planting is fascinating.
0:08:14 > 0:08:17'Gertrude Jekyll was a painter
0:08:17 > 0:08:20'before failing eyesight made her turn to garden design.
0:08:20 > 0:08:24'And she uses Lutyens' framework as an artist would a canvas.
0:08:24 > 0:08:28'Painting a blanket of colour and texture on top,
0:08:28 > 0:08:31'as if nature has been allowed free rein.'
0:08:34 > 0:08:38Jekyll loved colour, but she loved it by restricting her palette.
0:08:38 > 0:08:42So, on this very hot, south-facing side and wall,
0:08:42 > 0:08:46you've got Santolina, you've got the lavenders,
0:08:46 > 0:08:50you've got salvias coming through there.
0:08:50 > 0:08:53The Stachys. These silvery blues,
0:08:53 > 0:08:59glaucous colours...that create the clumps and the shapes.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02Actually, you can feel that. And you've got the oil...
0:09:02 > 0:09:04Oh, that smells fantastic!
0:09:04 > 0:09:06..the oiliness and the resinous.
0:09:06 > 0:09:08She understood all that
0:09:08 > 0:09:10and was able to incorporate it.
0:09:10 > 0:09:15And there behind, Lutyens' wall, with its planting pockets.
0:09:15 > 0:09:17Deliberately put in from day one.
0:09:17 > 0:09:22And he gave her every opportunity to just flow.
0:09:22 > 0:09:23Just go with a colour.
0:09:23 > 0:09:30And that gives their gardens a kind of easy, comfortable assurance
0:09:30 > 0:09:34that is just miles away from the tightly controlled,
0:09:34 > 0:09:38almost masterful intentions
0:09:38 > 0:09:40of the 19th-century garden.
0:09:43 > 0:09:45'Although Jekyll's planting schemes
0:09:45 > 0:09:48'were primarily designed for wealthy clients,
0:09:48 > 0:09:53'she wrote prolifically and reached a much wider public.
0:09:53 > 0:09:54'In particular, the growing middle classes
0:09:54 > 0:09:56'who enthusiastically embraced her style.
0:09:56 > 0:10:01'And 100 years on, she is still influencing gardeners today.
0:10:04 > 0:10:06'Jekyll's original planting plans
0:10:06 > 0:10:11'give us a fascinating insight into the mind at work behind Hestercombe,
0:10:11 > 0:10:16'and serve as an invaluable source for the head gardener, Claire Reid.'
0:10:17 > 0:10:20It's really useful. It is like you have to sort of put...
0:10:20 > 0:10:22You can more easily put yourself into her shoes
0:10:22 > 0:10:24and try and figure out what she was trying to do.
0:10:24 > 0:10:27Lutyens, you know, does the hard landscaping
0:10:27 > 0:10:31and she almost just throws a blanket of flowers over the top.
0:10:31 > 0:10:33But you do see clearly from this
0:10:33 > 0:10:36the way that she saw it as a flow.
0:10:36 > 0:10:39- Mm.- The shapes are very organic.
0:10:39 > 0:10:43Yeah, definitely. Almost like a paintbrush sweep, aren't they?
0:10:43 > 0:10:46Yeah, they are, they are. They create almost a collage.
0:10:46 > 0:10:49And actually, we don't think she ever came here.
0:10:49 > 0:10:51She probably designed this remotely.
0:10:51 > 0:10:55In which case, she may well have just been given this drawing
0:10:55 > 0:10:57- and sort of filled it in.- Yes.
0:10:57 > 0:11:00It's very hard to design like that without seeing something.
0:11:00 > 0:11:04- She never came here to do it, she never came here and saw it?- No.
0:11:04 > 0:11:07That's... That there is the only thing she ever had?
0:11:07 > 0:11:08Yeah, that's right.
0:11:08 > 0:11:11- Interesting, isn't it? - As far as we know, yes.
0:11:11 > 0:11:13And here we are, 110 years later,
0:11:13 > 0:11:16sitting in the garden that you're so carefully preserving.
0:11:16 > 0:11:18- Yes.- To her plan.
0:11:18 > 0:11:21I don't suppose that when Jekyll was doing this,
0:11:21 > 0:11:24there were any concessions to ease of management, were there?
0:11:24 > 0:11:28Absolutely not, no. Labour would have been cheap,
0:11:28 > 0:11:30they could have had what they wanted, I guess.
0:11:30 > 0:11:33And how many gardeners would there have been when she did this?
0:11:33 > 0:11:35Well...here's a photograph.
0:11:35 > 0:11:39This is 1912, and this is the gardens team then.
0:11:39 > 0:11:43- 17 gardeners.- Mm. All men, as well.
0:11:43 > 0:11:46- Yeah. All holding the tools of their trade.- Mm.
0:11:46 > 0:11:48Though the head gardener there,
0:11:48 > 0:11:50he doesn't look like he gets his hands very dirty.
0:11:50 > 0:11:52No, he doesn't. I think he points.
0:11:52 > 0:11:57Now, if that's taken in 1912, I wonder how many of the younger ones
0:11:57 > 0:12:00were still alive five years later, or so.
0:12:00 > 0:12:03- It's a frightening thought, isn't it?- Yeah.
0:12:06 > 0:12:09'The outbreak of World War I in 1914
0:12:09 > 0:12:11'was to have a devastating impact
0:12:11 > 0:12:15'on the grand estates of Edwardian Britain.
0:12:15 > 0:12:17'Many skilled gardeners were killed.
0:12:17 > 0:12:21'And those that did make it home no longer wanted to work in service.
0:12:22 > 0:12:26'The old order of British society had been irreparably shattered.
0:12:29 > 0:12:33'Some of our finest gardens were left to become overgrown and forgotten.
0:12:33 > 0:12:37'And those that did survive now began to embrace new,
0:12:37 > 0:12:38'labour-saving technology.'
0:12:42 > 0:12:44I'm heading off to visit somebody
0:12:44 > 0:12:48who I know is mad about garden machinery and collects it avidly.
0:12:49 > 0:12:53The reason I'm going to see him is to see if the mechanisation
0:12:53 > 0:12:55that came with the war
0:12:55 > 0:12:58had any kind of beneficial dividend in peacetime
0:12:58 > 0:13:01and impacted into the way that we garden.
0:13:04 > 0:13:06DOORBELL
0:13:08 > 0:13:10Hello. Come in.
0:13:11 > 0:13:13Come through.
0:13:13 > 0:13:15'I'm told that Christopher Proudfoot
0:13:15 > 0:13:18'has one of the largest collections of lawnmowers in the country.'
0:13:21 > 0:13:23- How many have you got?- I don't know. I stopped counting at 300.
0:13:23 > 0:13:25That was a long time ago.
0:13:25 > 0:13:30'To get a feel for the way garden machinery changed after the war,
0:13:30 > 0:13:34'Christopher first shows me a pre-war mower, dating from 1910.'
0:13:34 > 0:13:36The ANN Auxiliary 20 inch.
0:13:36 > 0:13:39- Yes.- Chain lawnmower.
0:13:41 > 0:13:43- Can we use it? - Of course we can use it.
0:13:43 > 0:13:45- OK. Where are we going? Down there? - Down there, yep.
0:13:48 > 0:13:52Right, I tell you what, if we're going to mow...
0:13:52 > 0:13:54- Yes.- ..I'm going to take my jacket off.
0:13:54 > 0:13:56That sounds like a very good idea!
0:13:57 > 0:13:59And do you want me to pull, or push?
0:13:59 > 0:14:01Whichever you like. The choice is yours.
0:14:01 > 0:14:04- You're the master, it's your house. You'd better be steering.- OK.
0:14:04 > 0:14:06- And I'll be the boy.- Fine.
0:14:06 > 0:14:11- So, off we go.- Just keep it taut and you'll be fine.- OK.
0:14:13 > 0:14:17'Like its horse-drawn predecessor in the 19th century,
0:14:17 > 0:14:20'this mower is still a two-man job.'
0:14:22 > 0:14:24You'd have either a man in front, or a lad in front,
0:14:24 > 0:14:27or a donkey, or a pony, or whatever you happened to have available.
0:14:27 > 0:14:30- Right, OK.- It's very heavy and it needs a bit of extra assistance.
0:14:30 > 0:14:33I'll be lad, donkey and pony combined.
0:14:39 > 0:14:40What was the instigator
0:14:40 > 0:14:42of the development of mowers from this point?
0:14:42 > 0:14:44Well, the instigator was, I suppose
0:14:44 > 0:14:46the development of the internal-combustion engine,
0:14:46 > 0:14:49plus, of course, WWI, which meant that a lot of people went off to war
0:14:49 > 0:14:52and either didn't come back, or when they did come back,
0:14:52 > 0:14:54they knew all about engines, and mowers got lighter -
0:14:54 > 0:14:56partly because of the use of lighter materials,
0:14:56 > 0:15:00and partly because of things like ball bearings and machine-cut gears.
0:15:00 > 0:15:04And in the '20s, mowers got much, much easier to use for one man.
0:15:04 > 0:15:07This is where most of the motor mowers live.
0:15:07 > 0:15:09Mostly date from the '20s and '30s.
0:15:09 > 0:15:11It's an early two-stroke engine.
0:15:11 > 0:15:13The sort of thing you'd have had on a motorbike.
0:15:13 > 0:15:16Does this have a kick-start, or a handle start?
0:15:16 > 0:15:18This has a handle start.
0:15:20 > 0:15:21Can I do it?
0:15:21 > 0:15:25Um...it's so tricky that it's probably better if I do it.
0:15:25 > 0:15:26- OK, all right.- I'm not...
0:15:26 > 0:15:28ENGINE STARTS Oh! First go!
0:15:28 > 0:15:30No. No, no, you see... No, it always does that.
0:15:30 > 0:15:32Um...so we'll have to try again.
0:15:32 > 0:15:34ENGINE STARTS
0:15:36 > 0:15:38- Ah!- Yeah, that's what you need to do.
0:15:38 > 0:15:40- You manage that...- OK. - ..I'll manage this.
0:15:40 > 0:15:41Because that takes skill
0:15:41 > 0:15:44and this just takes a little bit of coordination.
0:15:44 > 0:15:46- You're doing it the wrong way. - That explains something.
0:15:46 > 0:15:50And there you are. No, that's right. Sorry. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
0:15:50 > 0:15:54'In theory, at least, this is a machine operated by just one person.'
0:15:54 > 0:15:56We'll get there. CHRISTOPHER CHUCKLES
0:15:56 > 0:15:58- It is more difficult than it looks. - Yes.
0:15:58 > 0:16:01But you're indulging me. CHRISTOPHER LAUGHS
0:16:03 > 0:16:04ENGINE SPLUTTERS
0:16:06 > 0:16:08Ah! ENGINE STARTS
0:16:08 > 0:16:10THEY CHEER Brilliant!
0:16:21 > 0:16:23- It really nips along, doesn't it? - It does, yeah.
0:16:29 > 0:16:32'The arrival of motorised lawnmowers after the war
0:16:32 > 0:16:34'not only saved many of the big estates
0:16:34 > 0:16:37'who no longer had the luxury of a large workforce,
0:16:37 > 0:16:40'but it also played a major part in the evolution
0:16:40 > 0:16:43'of the gardens that belonged to the burgeoning middle classes.
0:16:43 > 0:16:47'For the first time, tightly mown, immaculate lawns
0:16:47 > 0:16:50'were a relatively cheap and easy option,
0:16:50 > 0:16:55'and so they soon became a staple feature of every suburban garden.'
0:17:01 > 0:17:04It's clear that the accelerated mechanisation
0:17:04 > 0:17:07that happened as a result of WWI
0:17:07 > 0:17:10did play into peacetime gardens.
0:17:10 > 0:17:12And the effect is still with us now.
0:17:14 > 0:17:17And I'm off to see another garden which I've long known about -
0:17:17 > 0:17:19but never been to before -
0:17:19 > 0:17:23which also had an effect on the way that we garden
0:17:23 > 0:17:25as a result of the First World War.
0:17:25 > 0:17:28But this belonged to an artistic elite.
0:17:29 > 0:17:33And it was the way that they lived and viewed the world
0:17:33 > 0:17:37that was influential, as much as the way they kept their gardens.
0:17:41 > 0:17:43'During the war, Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant,
0:17:43 > 0:17:45'who was a conscientious objector,
0:17:45 > 0:17:48'moved to Charleston Farmhouse in Sussex.
0:17:48 > 0:17:52'They were both artists and members of the Bloomsbury Set,
0:17:52 > 0:17:55'a group of radical artists, writers and intellectuals.'
0:18:06 > 0:18:09This is extraordinary because just this room
0:18:09 > 0:18:11is a distillation
0:18:11 > 0:18:15of everything I know about the Bloomsbury Group.
0:18:15 > 0:18:18I've been brought up with them as a really important part
0:18:18 > 0:18:20of the culture of the 20th century.
0:18:22 > 0:18:27Charleston reflected a new post-war liberalism expressed through art.
0:18:27 > 0:18:29It was the antithesis
0:18:29 > 0:18:31of the restrictions of their Victorian parents
0:18:31 > 0:18:34and the world that they were breaking free from.
0:18:38 > 0:18:41Here are pictures of them. There's Vanessa Bell herself,
0:18:41 > 0:18:46who was married...to Clive Bell.
0:18:49 > 0:18:52And she lived here with her lover,
0:18:52 > 0:18:53here, Duncan Grant.
0:18:53 > 0:18:59Who's pictured with his lover, the economist Maynard Keynes.
0:18:59 > 0:19:02You can see already that it was a complicated household.
0:19:06 > 0:19:11'It's easy now to forget just how influential the Bloomsbury Group was
0:19:11 > 0:19:15'in redefining art, philosophy and even morality
0:19:15 > 0:19:17'in the early 20th century.'
0:19:20 > 0:19:25This is the studio that Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant built.
0:19:25 > 0:19:28And, like the rest of the house, the art spills off
0:19:28 > 0:19:30and covers every surface
0:19:30 > 0:19:34and is reflected in every utensil in the room.
0:19:34 > 0:19:39And, of course, it didn't just spread from the canvas on to the carpets
0:19:39 > 0:19:41and the cushions and the fireplaces -
0:19:41 > 0:19:44it spread outside, into the garden.
0:19:48 > 0:19:53'And this is a garden that many of us would feel at home with today.
0:19:53 > 0:19:54'It has all the looseness
0:19:54 > 0:19:57'and bursts of colour that you'd find at Hestercombe,
0:19:57 > 0:20:00'but has a spontaneity that you'd never find
0:20:00 > 0:20:03'in a garden deigned by Lutyens and Jekyll.
0:20:05 > 0:20:09'The man charged with keeping the essence of Charleston's garden going
0:20:09 > 0:20:11'is Mark Divall.'
0:20:11 > 0:20:15What was the spirit of the place? What is it you're trying to preserve?
0:20:15 > 0:20:17It was a painter's garden.
0:20:17 > 0:20:20They almost treated the garden as they would a canvas.
0:20:20 > 0:20:22So a daub of this.
0:20:22 > 0:20:24The effect was everything.
0:20:24 > 0:20:28A wonderful dither of colour, or a sweet disorder.
0:20:28 > 0:20:30Sometimes it can cross over into disaster.
0:20:30 > 0:20:31Disorder, disaster are quite close.
0:20:31 > 0:20:35It would not have been a typical garden, would it?
0:20:35 > 0:20:38- Middle class, educated people...- Mm.
0:20:38 > 0:20:43..would not have had a slightly chaotic, rambly, cottagey garden.
0:20:43 > 0:20:46No. Things weren't over-cared for.
0:20:46 > 0:20:48They might come back from Lewes
0:20:48 > 0:20:52with something they just saw in the market and plonk it in.
0:20:53 > 0:20:55There was no grand plan.
0:20:55 > 0:20:57So in a way, they were no better gardeners
0:20:57 > 0:20:59than a good amateur gardener.
0:21:08 > 0:21:13What this garden represents, with its dither of plants
0:21:13 > 0:21:17and its slight sense of anarchy, is freedom.
0:21:17 > 0:21:21Freedom from the repression of the working world
0:21:21 > 0:21:23and morality and discipline.
0:21:23 > 0:21:27Freedom to get up in the morning and just be creative.
0:21:29 > 0:21:31And it was through this outpouring
0:21:31 > 0:21:33of artistic expression in the '20s and '30s
0:21:33 > 0:21:38that some of our greatest 20th-century gardens were conceived.
0:21:40 > 0:21:44In amongst the complicated tangle of Bloomsbury love lives,
0:21:44 > 0:21:47Vanessa Bell's sister, Virginia Woolf,
0:21:47 > 0:21:51was the lover of Vita Sackville-West,
0:21:51 > 0:21:55who, in the 1930s, began to make Sissinghurst,
0:21:55 > 0:21:59which is still one of the most famous gardens in the world,
0:21:59 > 0:22:02and a Mecca for any serious garden-lover.
0:22:05 > 0:22:07The poet and author, Vita Sackville-West,
0:22:07 > 0:22:11made Sissinghurst with her husband, Harold Nicolson.
0:22:11 > 0:22:14And between them - he largely designing the layout
0:22:14 > 0:22:17and she being responsible for most of the planting -
0:22:17 > 0:22:20they helped to start a fashion which is still going strong
0:22:20 > 0:22:25for the notion of a garden as a series of enclosed spaces or rooms,
0:22:25 > 0:22:28each with their own colours and themes.
0:22:28 > 0:22:32It took the very best of 17th-century formal garden design
0:22:32 > 0:22:37and added to it the informal abundance and love of plants
0:22:37 > 0:22:39that was evolving in the 20th century.
0:22:39 > 0:22:42However, gardens like Sissinghurst
0:22:42 > 0:22:44were still the domain of the privileged few
0:22:44 > 0:22:47who could afford to indulge their creativity
0:22:47 > 0:22:50by making their own private horticultural paradise.
0:22:52 > 0:22:55But that freedom was short-lived.
0:22:58 > 0:23:00- PRIME MINISTER NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN: - I am speaking to you
0:23:00 > 0:23:03from the Cabinet Room at 10 Downing Street.
0:23:06 > 0:23:09This morning the British Ambassador in Berlin
0:23:09 > 0:23:14handed the German government a final note
0:23:14 > 0:23:20stating that, unless we heard from them by 11 o'clock,
0:23:20 > 0:23:24that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland,
0:23:24 > 0:23:28a state of war would exist between us.
0:23:30 > 0:23:35I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received,
0:23:35 > 0:23:41and that, consequently, this country is at war with Germany.
0:23:45 > 0:23:48'As the Second World War began in September 1939,
0:23:48 > 0:23:54'pleasure gardening was again put on hold for the second time in 25 years.
0:23:54 > 0:23:57'Nevertheless, gardening and our gardens
0:23:57 > 0:24:01'became a key part of the war effort.
0:24:01 > 0:24:04'So I've arranged to come to Cambridge University Library
0:24:04 > 0:24:07'to meet up with Chris Going, who's going to show me
0:24:07 > 0:24:11'how the government set about allocating land for food production.'
0:24:11 > 0:24:13These are the land use maps
0:24:13 > 0:24:18that Professor Stamp put together in the 1930s.
0:24:18 > 0:24:21A series of categories of land use.
0:24:23 > 0:24:27'It was the first detailed land survey since the Domesday Book,
0:24:27 > 0:24:30'and had been done so that the government could know
0:24:30 > 0:24:33'what land could be requisitioned for producing food.'
0:24:33 > 0:24:36This is the dense urban landscape, the red.
0:24:36 > 0:24:41The purple is housing with gardens
0:24:41 > 0:24:43or open space associated with it,
0:24:43 > 0:24:49which was sufficiently big to allow vegetables to be grown.
0:24:49 > 0:24:52So you're looking, effectively, at the suburbs in purple
0:24:52 > 0:24:53and the inner city in red.
0:24:53 > 0:24:58So the...the purple, those gardens had to grow food?
0:24:58 > 0:25:01I would have said they had to grow food.
0:25:01 > 0:25:04Yeah. But presumably, the red was in trouble.
0:25:04 > 0:25:08There was virtually nothing you could do in those areas
0:25:08 > 0:25:12other than put public open spaces,
0:25:12 > 0:25:16like Regent's Park, like Hyde Park, to grow food.
0:25:19 > 0:25:22'At the end of the war, there was an urgent need to rebuild
0:25:22 > 0:25:26'the cities that had been devastated by the Blitz.
0:25:26 > 0:25:28'But there wasn't time to send out teams of cartographers
0:25:28 > 0:25:30'to carefully map them.
0:25:30 > 0:25:33'So they took a shortcut and used aerial photography.'
0:25:34 > 0:25:37The earliest ones are taken in June/July 1945,
0:25:37 > 0:25:39so right at the end of the war.
0:25:39 > 0:25:41And these show the public spaces
0:25:41 > 0:25:45which were actually being used for the growing of food.
0:25:45 > 0:25:49And looking here, there's the Albert Memorial, the Albert Hall
0:25:49 > 0:25:53and an incredible stream, a line of allotments...
0:25:53 > 0:25:55Absolutely.
0:25:55 > 0:25:58- ..running through Kensington Gardens, into Hyde Park.- Yep!
0:26:00 > 0:26:04The public were expected to cultivate their gardens and allotments
0:26:04 > 0:26:08in a campaign that became known as Dig For Victory.
0:26:09 > 0:26:12So London, the big urban centre,
0:26:12 > 0:26:17has reacted to the Blitz and U-boat stockades
0:26:17 > 0:26:20by creating temporary allotments,
0:26:20 > 0:26:21by digging up gardens,
0:26:21 > 0:26:24- by growing whatever they could in cities.- Absolutely.
0:26:24 > 0:26:28These pictures were taken for the repair of these towns
0:26:28 > 0:26:30and for the building of new towns. How did we react?
0:26:30 > 0:26:34Did we build more allotments in case we got bombed again?
0:26:34 > 0:26:36I don't think they did, no.
0:26:36 > 0:26:38I don't think they felt that
0:26:38 > 0:26:41the near future would be like the recent past.
0:26:41 > 0:26:44It was now going to be a time of peace
0:26:44 > 0:26:47and eventually, they hoped, plenty.
0:26:49 > 0:26:52With hindsight, it does seem extraordinary
0:26:52 > 0:26:53that after two world wars,
0:26:53 > 0:26:57both of which had threatened to reduce the country to starvation,
0:26:57 > 0:27:01that allotments, which had been central to survival in both,
0:27:01 > 0:27:05were not a key part of the rebuilding strategy.
0:27:05 > 0:27:08But at the end of the war, there was an overwhelming sense
0:27:08 > 0:27:12that people wanted a fresh start for a new world.
0:27:13 > 0:27:17'So the government spurned the proven practicality of allotments
0:27:17 > 0:27:20'and, instead, turned to an avant-garde,
0:27:20 > 0:27:23'rather esoteric garden designer
0:27:23 > 0:27:26'to help them in this huge rebuilding project.'
0:27:29 > 0:27:32This is a photograph of one of my heroes.
0:27:32 > 0:27:35He's called Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe.
0:27:35 > 0:27:38And he's one of the greatest garden designers
0:27:38 > 0:27:40this country has ever produced.
0:27:41 > 0:27:45'But before seeing his vision for the new towns and cities,
0:27:45 > 0:27:47'I've come to Shute House in Wiltshire.
0:27:47 > 0:27:51'The home of Suzy and John Lewis.
0:27:51 > 0:27:53'The garden was one of Jellicoe's later works
0:27:53 > 0:27:55'and his own personal favourite.
0:27:55 > 0:27:57'And it's a really good illustration
0:27:57 > 0:28:00'of the way that he used abstract ideas
0:28:00 > 0:28:03'as a central part of his carefully manipulated landscapes.'
0:28:03 > 0:28:07I've always felt it must be a double-edged sword, living in
0:28:07 > 0:28:09what is essentially a famous garden.
0:28:09 > 0:28:12Because it's revered by people who've never been here
0:28:12 > 0:28:14and yet you have to live in it, it's your home.
0:28:14 > 0:28:17- Well, that's the point, it is home. - Mm.
0:28:17 > 0:28:22And I think one forgets about all the razzmatazz and just loves it.
0:28:24 > 0:28:27There is always a slight trepidation when you visit a garden
0:28:27 > 0:28:30that you've seen pictures of for half a lifetime.
0:28:30 > 0:28:32You think, "Oh, God, I hope it is good!"
0:28:32 > 0:28:34- I'm sure it is.- The secret here...
0:28:34 > 0:28:36- Yeah?- ..don't look left.- OK.
0:28:36 > 0:28:38Until you get right to the top.
0:28:38 > 0:28:40- Why not?- You'll see.- OK.
0:28:46 > 0:28:50OK, I'm not looking left, I'm not looking left, I'm not looking left.
0:28:50 > 0:28:52- Now.- I am looking left.
0:28:57 > 0:28:59You see, it's very curious
0:28:59 > 0:29:02because there is both that incredible familiarity
0:29:02 > 0:29:05because you've seen lots of pictures, and, at the same time,
0:29:05 > 0:29:10it's different because it's real, and the trees, I can see the height
0:29:10 > 0:29:11and the sound of the water
0:29:11 > 0:29:13and all these things that aren't there.
0:29:16 > 0:29:19'By diverting the source of an old Roman spring,
0:29:19 > 0:29:22'Jellicoe created a series of rills,
0:29:22 > 0:29:25'pools, fountains and cascades,
0:29:25 > 0:29:30'all carefully designed to evoke specific moods and feelings
0:29:30 > 0:29:32'and to tap into our subconscious.
0:29:33 > 0:29:36'And the rill is just part of the larger garden which, at first,
0:29:36 > 0:29:41'may appear to look like other large, established gardens,
0:29:41 > 0:29:47'but, in fact, is all based around our response to water at every level.
0:29:47 > 0:29:51'From the abstract...to the immediate.'
0:29:56 > 0:29:59One of the things that fascinates me about Jellicoe's work
0:29:59 > 0:30:02is this way that he taps into the subconscious.
0:30:04 > 0:30:08And that water, the way it moves, and its sound,
0:30:08 > 0:30:10taps directly into that.
0:30:11 > 0:30:14- Do you feel that in the garden? - Oh, definitely.
0:30:14 > 0:30:17- There is... There is serious magic here.- Mm.
0:30:17 > 0:30:20The copper is bent differently at each level.
0:30:22 > 0:30:27- And it's supposed to sound like...music.- Right.
0:30:27 > 0:30:31And this is combining the magic of water
0:30:31 > 0:30:37and the magic of shape and nature and...life.
0:30:47 > 0:30:50As well as ordering the rill
0:30:50 > 0:30:55so the water flows in a straight line, as Jellicoe wants it,
0:30:55 > 0:31:01he imposed this grid of box hedges,
0:31:01 > 0:31:04partiers, squares, borders.
0:31:04 > 0:31:09There are a thousand gardens with exactly this kind of idea,
0:31:09 > 0:31:12but they don't function as other gardens do.
0:31:12 > 0:31:14They're not rooms.
0:31:14 > 0:31:16You can see over the walls. The hedges are too low.
0:31:16 > 0:31:20They're not borders, because each one is like a little garden.
0:31:20 > 0:31:22And yet they're clearly integrated.
0:31:22 > 0:31:26And, in fact, what Jellicoe seems to be doing
0:31:26 > 0:31:29is imposing a kind of order
0:31:29 > 0:31:33just sufficient to allow the subconscious,
0:31:33 > 0:31:37or disorder, if you like, to have free rein.
0:31:44 > 0:31:48'Jellicoe wrote that he should like everybody to experience life
0:31:48 > 0:31:52'at a much deeper level than that of the visible world.'
0:31:54 > 0:31:59What fascinated him was the way that art could be created
0:31:59 > 0:32:02out of the combination of conscious, practical application
0:32:02 > 0:32:04and the subconscious.
0:32:04 > 0:32:07And you can't control the subconscious.
0:32:07 > 0:32:10It wells up and you make of it what you will and it's very
0:32:10 > 0:32:16important and relevant that this garden is based around the spring
0:32:16 > 0:32:18that is here that has been coming up
0:32:18 > 0:32:21out of the ground since time immemorial,
0:32:21 > 0:32:23which has brought people here since the Romans.
0:32:25 > 0:32:28And he shapes it and he channels it
0:32:28 > 0:32:31and there are references here to history.
0:32:33 > 0:32:37That view before me is deliberately
0:32:37 > 0:32:42reminiscent of William Kent's Rousham, made in the late 1730s.
0:32:42 > 0:32:46Jellicoe knew his garden history, he knew his art and music.
0:32:47 > 0:32:51He's collated it all together here at Shute House
0:32:51 > 0:32:56and that's in rhythm with music, with poetry,
0:32:56 > 0:33:01with painting that's been produced throughout the 20th century
0:33:01 > 0:33:04and gardens traditionally haven't done this.
0:33:04 > 0:33:07This is absolutely a modern idea
0:33:07 > 0:33:11and the result is something absolutely unique.
0:33:32 > 0:33:36I rang Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe up once, just before he died.
0:33:36 > 0:33:40And he was charming and full of life and talking about design
0:33:40 > 0:33:45and he said, "You know, I'm not at all interested in plants!"
0:33:45 > 0:33:50And what he meant by that was that it wasn't plants and botany
0:33:50 > 0:33:52and the cultivation of plants that drove him -
0:33:52 > 0:33:57it was design, landscape, ordering it, shaping it,
0:33:57 > 0:34:01tapping into the subconscious forces within landscape.
0:34:02 > 0:34:07And although I think this is one of the great gardens,
0:34:07 > 0:34:10and I think that he is the 20th century's greatest garden
0:34:10 > 0:34:15designer, it wasn't just gardens that he was interested in.
0:34:15 > 0:34:20It was landscape and how mankind related to landscape,
0:34:20 > 0:34:24be that a small back garden or an entire town.
0:34:39 > 0:34:43Jellicoe's opportunity to create a new urban landscape
0:34:43 > 0:34:44came in the 1950s.
0:34:44 > 0:34:48To address the chronic lack of housing after the Second World War,
0:34:48 > 0:34:52the government set about planning 22 new towns.
0:34:55 > 0:34:59Geoffrey Jellicoe had been involved in rebuilding war damage
0:34:59 > 0:35:04and was offered the chance to design an entire new town,
0:35:04 > 0:35:08and he chose Hemel Hempstead and worked on it for a year,
0:35:08 > 0:35:11and, in fact, he was paid the princely sum of £1,000 for it,
0:35:11 > 0:35:16but his proposal was regarded as too avant garde, and was rejected.
0:35:17 > 0:35:22However, he did subsequently design a water garden that runs
0:35:22 > 0:35:26through the middle of the town, and I can see it there, snaking
0:35:26 > 0:35:29through, and that word - snaking - is very apposite, because he
0:35:29 > 0:35:33transformed the design deliberately to be a snake, so we can see the
0:35:33 > 0:35:38body of the water running through, and then the lake at the far end
0:35:38 > 0:35:43is the head of the snake. And then he famously wrote that if London could
0:35:43 > 0:35:47have the Serpentine, then Hemel Hempstead could have the serpent.
0:35:47 > 0:35:51Now the point about this was not that it was a nice idea that
0:35:51 > 0:35:56people could enjoy, but that it struck deep into the collective
0:35:56 > 0:36:01subconscious, so that municipal landscape, places where people
0:36:01 > 0:36:07lived and worked and played, were being enhanced and enriched, despite
0:36:07 > 0:36:10the fact that they were unaware of it, and that design could do this.
0:36:10 > 0:36:16Not just in gardens, but deliberately as part of working lives.
0:36:23 > 0:36:26To give the illusion of space at the heart of the busy new town,
0:36:26 > 0:36:30Jellicoe makes the water seem more extensive by varying
0:36:30 > 0:36:33the width of the channel and creating vanishing points.
0:36:36 > 0:36:39And like Shute House, the weirs are
0:36:39 > 0:36:42carefully designed to make different sounds.
0:36:46 > 0:36:50The path along the bank deliberately meanders to slow people down,
0:36:50 > 0:36:53to create the time to enjoy the garden.
0:36:53 > 0:36:57I'm meeting up with Dominic Cole, the landscape architect who's
0:36:57 > 0:37:01been given the job of renovating this really significant
0:37:01 > 0:37:02piece of 20th-century design.
0:37:04 > 0:37:08It was like a bursting opportunity to rethink how cities worked.
0:37:08 > 0:37:10Jellicoe, I think, is the master of all the new towns.
0:37:10 > 0:37:14What is stunning here is the structure is all still here,
0:37:14 > 0:37:18the paths, the bridges the water - as intended.
0:37:18 > 0:37:21He wanted to create mood.
0:37:21 > 0:37:23So here was very much about just...
0:37:23 > 0:37:25You might have been to do your weekly shop or whatever,
0:37:25 > 0:37:27but on your way back to the car park
0:37:27 > 0:37:29you could just stop here for a minute
0:37:29 > 0:37:31and just read the paper or whatever
0:37:31 > 0:37:34so it really was about a breathing space
0:37:34 > 0:37:36between busy, bustling high street
0:37:36 > 0:37:40and getting back into your car and carrying on with your everyday life.
0:37:40 > 0:37:45Jellicoe used both his knowledge of the subconscious
0:37:45 > 0:37:47and deliberately included it.
0:37:47 > 0:37:50Do you think it just stops here and is something
0:37:50 > 0:37:54that works on a level of art, or has it genuinely spread through?
0:37:54 > 0:37:57Does it work in the way that he wanted it to work?
0:37:57 > 0:38:00The philosophy blah-blah-blah doesn't sit at all comfortably
0:38:00 > 0:38:05with our everyday understanding of the garden, but if Jellicoe
0:38:05 > 0:38:09was here describing it to you, you would be completely captivated.
0:38:09 > 0:38:14Now, I accept that most people would probably roll their eyes at the
0:38:14 > 0:38:19idea of a municipal garden designed to raid the collective subconscious.
0:38:19 > 0:38:22But this kind of approach was really central to modernist
0:38:22 > 0:38:25thinking in the decades following the war.
0:38:25 > 0:38:27It was a brave new world,
0:38:27 > 0:38:31the age that gave rise to the welfare state, and Utopian ideals.
0:38:35 > 0:38:39So the new town of Hemel Hempstead was built to reflect changing
0:38:39 > 0:38:44lifestyles and aspirations and a quiet revolution that
0:38:44 > 0:38:47was taking place in the country's back gardens.
0:38:50 > 0:38:54- Hello, Roy.- Hello. Monty, I believe. - It is. It is.
0:38:54 > 0:38:55Very nice to see you.
0:38:55 > 0:38:57- Come in.- Thank you.- Mind how you go.
0:38:57 > 0:39:00I've come to see Roy and Pat Humphreys,
0:39:00 > 0:39:03who moved from bombed-out southeast London after the war,
0:39:03 > 0:39:08having applied for a brand-new home and life in Hemel Hempstead.
0:39:08 > 0:39:09Who's this? Is that you?
0:39:11 > 0:39:13Some of the hair's going a bit there, isn't it?
0:39:13 > 0:39:17Now, if you're going to be personal, I can't handle it!
0:39:17 > 0:39:22Would you have had a garden in London if you'd got a house, do you think?
0:39:22 > 0:39:25Very unlikely, very unlikely.
0:39:25 > 0:39:29Me mother, she had a small front garden and a tiddly back garden.
0:39:29 > 0:39:33And half of that was taken up with an air-raid shelter.
0:39:33 > 0:39:35- Really?- Oh, yes.
0:39:35 > 0:39:38Roy and Pat belong to the generation who reached adult life
0:39:38 > 0:39:41just after the war, and job security,
0:39:41 > 0:39:44rising incomes and affordable housing meant
0:39:44 > 0:39:48more people like them could have their own homes and gardens.
0:39:48 > 0:39:50It's my pastime. It keeps me out of mischief.
0:39:50 > 0:39:52Yes, it's beautiful.
0:39:53 > 0:39:55Do you follow garden fashions?
0:39:55 > 0:39:56No.
0:39:58 > 0:40:01I have... I have moments.
0:40:01 > 0:40:04I've had Chrysanth moments,
0:40:04 > 0:40:07I've had Dahlia moments and I enjoy it all.
0:40:07 > 0:40:12Some have been a success and some have been... We won't mention!
0:40:12 > 0:40:13And why do you garden?
0:40:13 > 0:40:18I enjoy it and it's good for me and I like to see the result
0:40:18 > 0:40:22and my good lady, you know - she thoroughly enjoys it.
0:40:22 > 0:40:27At the beginning of the 20th century, less than half of us had a garden.
0:40:27 > 0:40:31Today, that figure has risen to something more like 90%,
0:40:31 > 0:40:34and gardening is the nation's most popular pastime.
0:40:34 > 0:40:39And this dramatic shift is perhaps the single most important development
0:40:39 > 0:40:41in the history of our gardens.
0:40:43 > 0:40:44Now, rising incomes,
0:40:44 > 0:40:48and more leisure time played an important part in this development.
0:40:48 > 0:40:52But there were also key individuals who created the fashions
0:40:52 > 0:40:56and trends that made domestic gardening accessible to all.
0:41:02 > 0:41:05Now, you wouldn't think that this was the entrance to
0:41:05 > 0:41:09one of the 20th century's most profound gardening revolutions.
0:41:12 > 0:41:16This is Blooms of Bressingham, the garden
0:41:16 > 0:41:20and former nursery of a maverick entrepreneur named Alan Bloom,
0:41:20 > 0:41:25who, in the 1960s and '70s, played an important role in inspiring
0:41:25 > 0:41:28the nation to add colour to their back gardens.
0:41:32 > 0:41:38What was revolutionary was that Alan Bloom came out with a spade
0:41:38 > 0:41:41and just dug borders.
0:41:41 > 0:41:44There you can see from the shape of them that they're not particularly
0:41:44 > 0:41:47oval or spherical - they don't actually look designed at all.
0:41:47 > 0:41:50They've just got nice, flowing curves.
0:41:50 > 0:41:53Now, he was growing mainly herbaceous perennials.
0:41:53 > 0:41:55They were easy to grow, they died down in winter,
0:41:55 > 0:41:59you didn't have to look after them and you could have lots of colour.
0:41:59 > 0:42:01Now, if you think about it,
0:42:01 > 0:42:05this is completely at odds with everything that went before.
0:42:05 > 0:42:07Because if this had been before the Second World War -
0:42:07 > 0:42:10where the influence of Sissinghurst, Lutyens, Jekyll -
0:42:10 > 0:42:14they would have taken the house and they would have taken sight lines
0:42:14 > 0:42:18from the windows and from the doors and paths and put in yew hedges
0:42:18 > 0:42:23and maybe walls, if they could afford it, and there would be garden rooms.
0:42:23 > 0:42:24None of this.
0:42:24 > 0:42:29This is just an open space, big beds, packed with plants
0:42:29 > 0:42:32and, of course, this was accessible to everybody.
0:42:32 > 0:42:35You didn't need to have a field to work in.
0:42:35 > 0:42:39if you had a back garden with some grass, you could just cut into it.
0:42:43 > 0:42:47It wasn't just the novel idea of island beds filled with
0:42:47 > 0:42:51herbaceous plants that Alan Bloom was selling.
0:42:51 > 0:42:55He also bred over 170 new varieties of hardy perennials
0:42:55 > 0:42:57and his nurseries sold them
0:42:57 > 0:43:01to gardeners keen to replicate the style of his own garden.
0:43:01 > 0:43:04This became a huge commercial success
0:43:04 > 0:43:08and Blooms of Brassingham became one of the largest nurseries in Britain.
0:43:08 > 0:43:10So this is your vantage point.
0:43:10 > 0:43:13Yes. We can look over the whole of the garden.
0:43:15 > 0:43:19Alan Bloom died in 2005, aged 98.
0:43:19 > 0:43:21His son Adrian took on the family business,
0:43:21 > 0:43:25having built his own garden, Foggy Bottom, just round the corner.
0:43:26 > 0:43:30This was my father's wholesale catalogue that, um...
0:43:30 > 0:43:32We still had a pony in those days,
0:43:32 > 0:43:35which would manage not to tread on plants.
0:43:35 > 0:43:37This was open-ground perennials.
0:43:37 > 0:43:40It was big nursery, so,
0:43:40 > 0:43:43three and six, three and six, four shillings, seven and six,
0:43:43 > 0:43:46about 35p for good plants.
0:43:46 > 0:43:48I shouldn't let you look at wholesale prices, should I?
0:43:48 > 0:43:51No, well, never mind - this is history! This is history.
0:43:51 > 0:43:52It is history.
0:43:52 > 0:43:57What do you think was driving the changes in the way that
0:43:57 > 0:43:59people gardened, not just here,
0:43:59 > 0:44:02but right across the country in the '60s and '70s?
0:44:02 > 0:44:05Well, I think it was certainly the social changes
0:44:05 > 0:44:09and the sort of freedom that was coming with people having cars
0:44:09 > 0:44:12and being able to travel a bit, and the garden centres, you know.
0:44:12 > 0:44:14Gradually, all those things gelled together.
0:44:14 > 0:44:19I remember, early '70s, this thing of being able to go out,
0:44:19 > 0:44:25think... Say I'd like to buy a plant, and within an hour,
0:44:25 > 0:44:26have it back in the garden.
0:44:26 > 0:44:30And don't forget, you know, actually right from the beginning,
0:44:30 > 0:44:32the garden centres could open on a Sunday
0:44:32 > 0:44:36and do trade on a Sunday when it was closed to all other shopping.
0:44:37 > 0:44:41Garden centres and universal car ownership suddenly made
0:44:41 > 0:44:43everything accessible.
0:44:43 > 0:44:47At the same moment that another new feature of modern life - television -
0:44:47 > 0:44:51began to exert a huge influence.
0:44:51 > 0:44:55That's Percy Thrower. Look at the equipment.
0:44:55 > 0:44:58They had 30 people, I think, with that crew,
0:44:58 > 0:45:02- and cables, of course, everywhere. - Fascinating.
0:45:02 > 0:45:05This is a little bit later. This is at Foggy Bottom.
0:45:05 > 0:45:06This is Peter Seabrook.
0:45:08 > 0:45:11Regular television and radio programmes informed
0:45:11 > 0:45:17and inspired ever more people to get out and garden.
0:45:17 > 0:45:21And even the allotment - the saviour of two world wars -
0:45:21 > 0:45:23became a leisure pursuit.
0:45:26 > 0:45:30And so, by the end of a century marked by huge social changes,
0:45:30 > 0:45:34we had truly become a nation of gardeners.
0:45:34 > 0:45:39With the horticultural industry now worth £9 billion to the economy...
0:45:42 > 0:45:47..and plants that were once coveted by our ancestors as exotic treasures
0:45:47 > 0:45:50are now grown by the hundreds of thousands,
0:45:50 > 0:45:52using computerised technologies.
0:45:54 > 0:45:57I've come to Double H nursery in Havant, Hampshire,
0:45:57 > 0:46:02which specialises in growing plants destined for the major supermarkets,
0:46:02 > 0:46:05and it's a world away from any concept of gardening
0:46:05 > 0:46:08that most of us would recognise.
0:46:08 > 0:46:12The nursery manager, Howard Braime, is showing me round.
0:46:15 > 0:46:16So, what stage are we at now?
0:46:16 > 0:46:20We've got cuttings that have come in from Uganda, and the girls
0:46:20 > 0:46:23and boys are sticking them here, five in a pot.
0:46:23 > 0:46:25These people are doing thousands an hour.
0:46:25 > 0:46:28They're trying to do 2,000 pots an hour, yeah.
0:46:28 > 0:46:31OK, well, I've taken thousands of cuttings in my life,
0:46:31 > 0:46:33but I've never done them as quickly as this!
0:46:33 > 0:46:35- So, can I have a go?- Certainly!
0:46:35 > 0:46:37Am I going to ruin your whole production set up?
0:46:37 > 0:46:39No, we'll let you have a go on one
0:46:39 > 0:46:42- or two of them. I'm sure you'll be OK.- And just off we go.
0:46:42 > 0:46:45Yeah, just a centimetre in from the edge of the pot, really.
0:46:47 > 0:46:50I'm not competitive - I'm just going to win!
0:46:53 > 0:46:55Now, come on!
0:46:55 > 0:46:57It's getting the damn things out of your hands.
0:47:01 > 0:47:02Now, as a matter of interest,
0:47:02 > 0:47:04why is the conveyer belt going at this speed?
0:47:04 > 0:47:07We need to stick 30,000 pots a week,
0:47:07 > 0:47:10so it has to go at this speed to get 30,000 done in the five days.
0:47:10 > 0:47:13Now, we've swapped the teams around a bit.
0:47:13 > 0:47:15- Yes, because it must be fairly mind-numbing.- Yeah.
0:47:18 > 0:47:21- That's perfect!- OK!- OK.
0:47:21 > 0:47:24Ha-ha! Now you can do it properly!
0:47:32 > 0:47:35Thousands of uniform chrysanthemums are produced
0:47:35 > 0:47:38here each day, by using the latest computer
0:47:38 > 0:47:42and robot technology for creating an artificial ecosystem.
0:47:43 > 0:47:46It's a vivid illustration of how commercialised
0:47:46 > 0:47:48plant production has become.
0:47:50 > 0:47:53Maybe it'll encourage the amateur gardener to stop being
0:47:53 > 0:47:56- so frightened of taking cuttings! - That's correct. Yes.
0:47:56 > 0:47:58Just take a cutting and stick the damn thing in
0:47:58 > 0:48:01- and it will probably grow. - It will probably root.
0:48:01 > 0:48:02What are these guys doing?
0:48:02 > 0:48:04So, these guys are pinching.
0:48:05 > 0:48:08- 30,000 plants.- Times five. - A week?- A week.
0:48:10 > 0:48:13- Right. 150,000 pinches!- That's right.
0:48:13 > 0:48:15And that's what these guys do.
0:48:19 > 0:48:22That colour is slowly beginning to emerge.
0:48:22 > 0:48:24It comes as they get older now, yes.
0:48:24 > 0:48:26We can just see it appearing here
0:48:26 > 0:48:31and then it's starting to look like a field of flowers.
0:48:38 > 0:48:39Are these now ready to go?
0:48:39 > 0:48:42Yes, these are now having their final quality control.
0:48:42 > 0:48:44So what are you looking for in your quality control?
0:48:44 > 0:48:47We're looking for the right-height plant, so we're looking for a plant
0:48:47 > 0:48:52that's 18-25 centimetres from the top of the pot, and we're looking...
0:48:52 > 0:48:56- That's 18.- Yes. We're looking for any bad leaves to come off.
0:48:56 > 0:48:58We're looking for any pests,
0:48:58 > 0:49:03diseases, and the number of flowers that the customer requires.
0:49:03 > 0:49:06What is the number of flowers the customer requires?
0:49:06 > 0:49:09Typically they're wanting, now, an instant effect -
0:49:09 > 0:49:11a plant that gives instant effect.
0:49:11 > 0:49:15So we're looking for about eight open flowers, at least.
0:49:15 > 0:49:18- Although you and I know, as gardeners...- They're past their best.
0:49:18 > 0:49:21..that what we should really be buying is one with no open flowers
0:49:21 > 0:49:23at all - perhaps one, so you can see the colour.
0:49:23 > 0:49:24That's correct, yes.
0:49:24 > 0:49:27- And then when you get it, you should pinch it off.- Yeah, yeah!
0:49:27 > 0:49:31OK, what do you do with a plant that is
0:49:31 > 0:49:3417½ centimetres or 26 centimetres?
0:49:34 > 0:49:38That would then go to... That would be graded out
0:49:38 > 0:49:41and have to go to a lower-grade customer.
0:49:41 > 0:49:43Right, so anything outside those
0:49:43 > 0:49:46parameters is regarded as second class.
0:49:46 > 0:49:47That's correct, yes.
0:49:49 > 0:49:52So, that's now the finished article.
0:49:52 > 0:49:54How much will that sell for?
0:49:54 > 0:49:57That will sell for £2.50 to £2.99.
0:49:58 > 0:50:00And how much of that is profit?
0:50:00 > 0:50:01About 3p.
0:50:01 > 0:50:03Really?
0:50:03 > 0:50:05Only 3p, yes.
0:50:05 > 0:50:07- That's a tiny margin, isn't it? - It is.
0:50:07 > 0:50:09Which is why we have to produce the numbers we do -
0:50:09 > 0:50:13the 30,000 a week - to make it economic.
0:50:21 > 0:50:25Nurseries can now raise tens of thousands of plants every day
0:50:25 > 0:50:30with minimum labour and to the exact specifications of the buyer,
0:50:30 > 0:50:34ready to be picked up astonishingly cheaply, along with the weekly shop.
0:50:34 > 0:50:37And if that wasn't attractive enough,
0:50:37 > 0:50:40they might even get a bit of added sparkle.
0:50:41 > 0:50:43What's he spraying on that?
0:50:43 > 0:50:46He's spraying a water-based glue on there at the moment
0:50:46 > 0:50:48so that we're going to glitter these plants.
0:50:48 > 0:50:49You...
0:50:51 > 0:50:53You... You put glitter on.
0:50:58 > 0:51:00I have never seen this before.
0:51:06 > 0:51:12Now, you could say that 400 years of plant breeding,
0:51:12 > 0:51:16and collection, of the skills of the nurserymen
0:51:16 > 0:51:19handed down from generation to generation,
0:51:19 > 0:51:23of the technological developments in greenhouses and heating and
0:51:23 > 0:51:28lighting and plant protection come to this -
0:51:28 > 0:51:31a limited choice of plants,
0:51:31 > 0:51:36strictly determined by height, that are a throwaway commodity.
0:51:38 > 0:51:41But it also means
0:51:41 > 0:51:46that millions of people can enjoy flowers,
0:51:46 > 0:51:51can afford them, don't need to have gardening skills to do those things.
0:51:51 > 0:51:53In fact, don't even need to have a garden.
0:51:53 > 0:51:57Everybody has access now to plants.
0:52:01 > 0:52:03And this has never been more important.
0:52:04 > 0:52:09As the population rises and we cram ourselves into crowded towns
0:52:09 > 0:52:13and cities, living out our lives behind glass and metal,
0:52:13 > 0:52:16we have to find room for the natural world somehow -
0:52:16 > 0:52:19whether it be a plant for the windowsill,
0:52:19 > 0:52:24a small back garden, a roof terrace for city bankers, or a public park.
0:52:27 > 0:52:31Over the last 150 years, parks have been an essential
0:52:31 > 0:52:35aspect of urban life, giving people the chance to
0:52:35 > 0:52:40stretch their legs, walk, play and relax in the sunshine.
0:52:40 > 0:52:46And, as we move into the 21st century and more and more people are
0:52:46 > 0:52:52and will be living in cities, parks remain a key aspect of urban life.
0:52:52 > 0:52:57So I've come to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, which is
0:52:57 > 0:53:03by a long way the biggest and most ambitious park made in recent times.
0:53:06 > 0:53:09To get a sense of the scale of the task involved in creating
0:53:09 > 0:53:13this new landscape, I've met the head of parklands, Phil Askew.
0:53:13 > 0:53:17The park itself is about 240 acres in size.
0:53:17 > 0:53:21We planted about 6,000 semi-mature trees in the park.
0:53:21 > 0:53:25We planted the largest sown perennial meadow of its kind
0:53:25 > 0:53:29ever attempted in the world - several hectares.
0:53:29 > 0:53:31The wetland you see down here in the river Lee,
0:53:31 > 0:53:34we grew 300,000 wetland plants to achieve that.
0:53:34 > 0:53:37- So everything we're seeing... - Everything we're seeing...
0:53:37 > 0:53:39..which looks natural has been grown and planted.
0:53:39 > 0:53:40..is grown and planted.
0:53:42 > 0:53:44In the original brief for the park,
0:53:44 > 0:53:47designers were asked to look for inspiration from this
0:53:47 > 0:53:51country's rich gardening history, and I can see the influence
0:53:51 > 0:53:56of Gertrude Jekyll in the planting clumps and drifts of the borders.
0:53:58 > 0:54:03Views open out, referring back to the landscape gardens of the 18th century
0:54:03 > 0:54:06and the designs of William Kent and Capability Brown.
0:54:07 > 0:54:12Looking out at this, I know that it has been artificially created,
0:54:12 > 0:54:13but it looks very natural.
0:54:13 > 0:54:17- Essentially, I am looking on a Brownian landscape.- Yes, it is.
0:54:17 > 0:54:19In many respects, I think what we
0:54:19 > 0:54:22have here is actually a picturesque landscape.
0:54:22 > 0:54:24It's a... It has a direct relationship
0:54:24 > 0:54:27going back through time of the British landscape movement,
0:54:27 > 0:54:30if you like, and the landscape is, in that sense,
0:54:30 > 0:54:32a very British product.
0:54:35 > 0:54:40And in sentiment and ethos, it echoes the great Victorian parks
0:54:40 > 0:54:43that provided open spaces for workers.
0:54:46 > 0:54:50The Victorian park was a place where people could go and walk
0:54:50 > 0:54:53and relax in surroundings that they couldn't get at home
0:54:53 > 0:54:57and that role has pretty much fed through, hasn't it...
0:54:57 > 0:54:59- Yes, it has, absolutely. - ..to the 20th century.
0:54:59 > 0:55:01Are we just doing exactly the same thing here,
0:55:01 > 0:55:03but just with different planting?
0:55:03 > 0:55:08I think, to an extent, we are, and there's no doubt that fantastic,
0:55:08 > 0:55:11good quality, green spaces in cities is really
0:55:11 > 0:55:14important for people's health and wellbeing, but I think what
0:55:14 > 0:55:18we're doing here is also thinking about, well, what is happening
0:55:18 > 0:55:21in the next decade, the next 20, 30, 100 years.
0:55:21 > 0:55:26How does the urban landscape need to respond to what is a changing
0:55:26 > 0:55:29climate, undoubtedly - what is much more intense rainfall events?
0:55:29 > 0:55:33How do we bring biodiversity, lots of birds and animals
0:55:33 > 0:55:36into the centre of the city, where, after all, most people are living?
0:55:36 > 0:55:39My understanding is that, in the next 30 years,
0:55:39 > 0:55:42almost 80% of the world's population will be living in cities.
0:55:42 > 0:55:43So how can we think about that
0:55:43 > 0:55:47and perhaps set out some ideas which will drive other large
0:55:47 > 0:55:50interventions in terms of landscape and public parts, etc?
0:55:55 > 0:55:59The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park doesn't just look back
0:55:59 > 0:56:03to our gardening past for inspiration - the designers
0:56:03 > 0:56:07were also required to respond to the very particular environmental
0:56:07 > 0:56:09challenges that we face today.
0:56:12 > 0:56:16And thus it seems a fitting place to end my journey
0:56:16 > 0:56:19through the last 400 years of our garden history.
0:56:23 > 0:56:27Along the way, I've been struck by how clearly garden design has
0:56:27 > 0:56:30echoed the events and changes in our society -
0:56:30 > 0:56:35whether it be as statements of faith in a time of religious conflict...
0:56:37 > 0:56:42..or the creation of an Arcadian ideal of the British landscape.
0:57:07 > 0:57:13Technology has been a key factor in the evolution of our gardens,
0:57:13 > 0:57:18from the invention of plate glass to protect exotics,
0:57:18 > 0:57:22to the development of the mower that enabled us to maintain urban parks
0:57:22 > 0:57:23and tend our own lawns.
0:57:28 > 0:57:32And as I visited many of this country's historic gardens,
0:57:32 > 0:57:36it was always bought home to me that gardens were made by people
0:57:36 > 0:57:42and they always reflect private whims and private passions.
0:57:56 > 0:57:57And finally, and what is shown
0:57:57 > 0:58:02so clearly here at the Olympic Park, is the way that if you want to make
0:58:02 > 0:58:06a garden that is truly modern and looks into the future, you must draw
0:58:06 > 0:58:11upon the past. And with gardens, as in almost everything in life, if you
0:58:11 > 0:58:16want to know where you're going, you need to know where you've come from.