Episode 1 Gardeners' World

Hello, welcome back to a new series of Gardeners' World.

We will be with you now for the rest of the gardening year.

But at this point in the season, as winter comes to an end,

the garden is changing almost by the hour.

New things are appearing every moment. For example, look at this.

This hellebore was completely closed just earlier this morning

and now it has opened up, this incredible, slatey plum colour.

And what I love about this time of year is that you come out

and greet old friends and are just drawn into the garden.

And as usual, I am joined by Carol, Joe and Rachel.

Carol will be spending some of her time in her own garden in Devon.

And this year, she will also be out and about, looking

for relatives of our garden plants growing in their natural habitat.

Just look at this, it's absolutely magical!

Joe is starting out this year with a series of design masterclasses

to help us all make the most of our gardens, whatever size or shape they are.

Now, we all want to have as much winter colour as we can get in our gardens.

This week, Rachel gets some ideas from a Hampshire garden that is

filled with colour and fabulous fragrance right through the winter.

Well, it's been a winter of extremes.

We have had drought in the South East,

intense rain in the North West,

but in the middle of the country, it's been pretty normal.

We have had some snow and ice,

but on the whole, we have been able

to get out on most days and do some work.

One of the biggest jobs we have done is to cut down the coppice.

Now, this is part of the coppice that is left,

made up of hazels that have been growing uncut

for the last seven or eight years, with these multi-stems.

But, for the whole of that side and half of this side,

we have cleared it right down to the ground.

It has flooded light in,

and you can apply the technique to any corner of the garden.

All the flowers beneath respond by growing really well,

and then the shade gradually builds up,

then you can cut it back again whenever you like.

So you are controlling the light and as a result,

you get a really beautiful balance of trees, shrubs and flowers.

One of the additional benefits of taking the coppice down

is that it should let a lot more light into the Jewel Garden.

And although it is fairly empty now, we know from last year

that by June, July and on into late summer,

this will be packed with colour.

And one of the benefits will be that the shrubs

that we planted last year will be much bigger.

However, just because they are going to get bigger

doesn't mean they don't need pruning.

And buddleia does much better

if it's pruned really hard in early spring.

Now, this is Buddleia davidii.

Butterfly bush.

Wonderful, rich, purple flowers,

but those flowers are carried on new growth.

So the answer is to remove most of last year's growth.

You can see that, down the stem,

there are all these new buds growing along the length of it.

And it would be completely safe to cut down to the very bottom.

Because this is in the middle of a border and we have hedges around

and there will be other plants hiding the bottom,

I am going to cut a bit higher up.

We'll take a cut there.

Then the smaller bits, we can cut right off.

Now, all the vigour of the plant is going into the new shoots,

the ones which are going to carry the flowers.

This is also the perfect time of year to prune clematis.

I know people get confused by clematis pruning.

There's one little rhyme that helps make it easier.

That is, if it flowers before June, don't prune.

But the later flowering clematis, like this one here,

produces its flowers on a new growth.

Now, I could, like buddleia, prune this right at the base.

Again, because it is in the middle of a border,

I want to leave about a foot or two,

so all the flowers appear above the plants that grow around them.

The one principle of all pruning is, cut to something.

Don't just hack away indiscriminately,

go back to a bud or a leaf or a node.

So I can get in there and just cut.

Obviously, if you are inheriting a garden

or you are not sure

when it flowers or what type of flower it is, don't prune at all.

Just watch it, make a note of when it flowers

and then next spring, you will know

whether to give it a really good hack or to leave well alone.

The most flower-filled part of the garden at this time of year

is the Spring Garden.

At the beginning of the year,

the snowdrops and hellebores gradually appear.

Then their place is taken by the early spring bulbs and perennials.

Following on from them is a froth of cow parsley and tulips,

under the developing canopy of foliage.

One of the key spring garden plants in the first few months of the year

is this, winter flowering honeysuckle.

At first glance, it looks rather scruffy.

It's got twiggy branches and tiny flowers.

But what flowers they are!

Hardly anything smells better

than Lonicera fragrantissima.

Now, I need to get

more fragrance into Longmeadow,

and I will be working on that over the year.

But winter fragrance is especially treasured.

And Rachel has been to a garden in Hampshire which is packed

with winter scented plants.

If you think gardens can be dreary places between October

and March, well, think again.

Here at the Sir Harold Hillier Winter Garden,

there is an incredible range of breathtakingly colourful

winter flowering plants that will brighten up

even the gloomiest winter day.

Many winter flowering shrubs give us

that early injection of zingy colour,

but what these delicate little blooms lack in size,

they most certainly make up for in scent.

But which one is best for which situation?

This Hamamelis "Aphrodite" is looking spectacular at the moment,

it's like a firecracker!

Actually, it's a really good plant all the way through the year.

You get new growth produced,

new stems in the spring, then they ripen

and gradually produce buds, then in the autumn,

fantastic foliage colours, a really good autumnal display.

In the winter, well, slowly the buds burst and you've got

these fantastic, shaggy flowers that look almost otherworldly.

This particular shrub has been flowering now

for nearly two months, which is extraordinary.

And the fragrance is... Oh, well,

it's citrusy, but almost with a bit of spice in it, too.

I just think, the most fantastic plant.

Plant a hamamelis where you will enjoy it the most,

either near the house so you can enjoy its fiery blooms,

or next to a path so you catch its heady scent as you walk past.

Many winter flowering shrubs have small blooms,

because anything bigger would be battered by the weather.

Instead, they have an intense perfume

to lure pollinating insects, like hibernating bumblebees,

who on a warm day will leave the nest to forage for food.

Well, here is a shrub you are likely to see

plenty of bees buzzing around.

Wintersweet, Chimonanthus praecox. This one is called "Maruyama".

It's got that really unusual sort of fresh, almost lemony colour flowers.

It comes from China and actually, it's very much threatened over there

because of deforestation,

so all the more reason to grow it in your garden here.

Now, it gets pretty big

and it's not a thing of great beauty in the summer.

So a good suggestion would be to grow it as a wall shrub.

And in fact, I've grown it with Clematis viticella through it,

so you get that second season of interest.

But actually, here in the middle of winter, when you get

a day like this, and it's this fragrant, that's all that matters.

But not all scented winter flowerers bloom on bare stems.

Evergreen shrubs that come from the forests of China

and South-East Asia make useful ground cover in the garden.

The evergreen Sarcococca hookeriana will tolerate dry shade,

and its tiny flowers, which really aren't

much to look at, pump out a rich, vanilla scent.

But the Daphnes are renowned for having the sweetest

and most intense fragrance.

Many are evergreen, and in a sheltered spot in winter,

Daphne bholua "Jacqueline Postill"

will infuse the entire garden with its delicious perfume.

Now, it needs a bit of shelter, really, to thrive, and also,

it doesn't like being pruned, so choose your spot carefully first,

to make sure it's got room to breathe

and then let it do its thing.

All these cheerful winter flowering shrubs can tolerate light shade,

and will flower on the frostiest of days.

Although, some like a bit of shelter, with their knockout scent,

they definitely deserve a place in the garden.

Obviously, winter scented plants are at their very best right now.

And we should enjoy them for that.

But there's an awful lot to do in the garden in March,

which won't show any kind of harvest for months.

And certainly, that's true of soft fruit,

and if you want to grow some soft fruit, now is the time to plant it.

The ones I particularly want to grow more of are raspberries.

A fresh raspberry, you just go out into the garden

and pull it off that white cone, put it in your mouth,

and it has that wonderful bursting fruity sensation. Heaven!

I've already put up a structure to support

more summer fruiting raspberries.

It's a fairly sturdy affair. Good, strong posts.

A cross tie beam, to stop them moving inwards.

And I've put wires along here.

You do need something spaced regularly

up the height of the structure, to support the cane.

They're very floppy, and quite heavy,

and if they blow around, you can damage them.

Now, raspberries like good drainage, plenty of moisture,

they take a little bit of shade, and they don't mind coolness.

They're just little brown sticks. And that's fine.

What we're after, is a nice, strong central stem

with a root system. You see, there's a good one.

You notice the roots are very shallow,

they grow almost horizontal.

And planting them is easy enough. I'm just scraping away the soil,

planting it slightly below the surface and firming it in.

Eventually, that'll produce five or six stems,

so it'll spread out, so I need to allow enough room for the next one.

And the closest you can reasonably do is about 18 inches.

Now, this is a variety called Glen Moy,

one of the earlier summer fruiting varieties. It's very reliable.

Absolutely delicious, and highly recommended.

And what I'm doing is, I am adding Glen Moy and Glen Ample,

and Glen Ample follows on from Glen Moy, a few weeks later.

And so that staggers the production.

There's always a saying at this time of the year, you're planting,

your hands are filthy, and you have to get your knife out

of your pocket, so your pocket becomes full of dirt.

And as well as summer fruiting raspberries,

I shall also be planting autumn fruiting varieties

in exactly the same way.

A really important part of planting raspberries in particular, is mulch.

Almost anything will do, as long as it's not mushroom compost,

which is too alkaline.

And the real virtue, apart from feeding them,

is it keeps the roots cool.

It stops them being baked by the sun.

And because they're hard to weed, it keeps weeds down

and keeps moisture in, so it's just doing a lot of good work.

The main thing is not to be intimidated by growing raspberries.

Give it a go. Remember that they're just a bramble, really.

And in fact, in Elizabethan times,

raspberries were collected from the wild

and people carefully cultivated blackberries in their gardens.

And this year, Carol is going to be going out into the countryside,

looking for plants growing in their natural environment, so that then

we can take from watching them, how best to grow them in our gardens.

Ever since I was a tiny little girl, I've been fascinated

by wildflowers, and the older I get

and the more into my gardening I become,

the more I realise just how much I can learn from them.

This week, I'm in Essex, rummaging through Hatfield Forest,

an ancient mediaeval hunting forest, just outside Bishops Stortford.

I'm on the hunt for one of the most iconic flowers

of the season, the hellebore.

At this bleak, barren time of year, you would expect them all

to be hiding, waiting for the spring to arrive.

But even now, some of these beautiful wild flowers

are beginning to disport themselves,

and just look at this! It's absolutely magical!

This is Helleborus foetidus.

It's one of our only two native hellebores.

And these lovely, leaden leaves, make this beautiful base

for these big sprigs of bright, lime green flowers.

And each of these bell-shaped flowers is just rings of scarlet.

And there they are! Just doing their thing and getting on with it,

and saying, this is our time of year.

Their stunning shapes and exotic colours, their hardiness

and early flowering, have made hybrids of Helleborus orientalis

a popular choice in our gardens.

Helped along by growers like Lorna Jones,

who has bred her own remarkable hellebore collection.

It's so clear, Lorna, looking around,

that this is an absolute obsession, isn't it?

Yes, well, I've always been a keen gardener,

and when I got my first garden at 18, I got my first two hellebore plants.

Gradually, over the years, I started hybridising.

It's obviously a very slow thing,

and it can take me three generations to really get any results.

And that can be a decade.

And although a plant might be an improvement on the parent,

it might very well not be, so it's a case of selecting

those few plants that come through that are better.

So, what is it you're looking for in the hellebore?

The shape of a flower,

being really perfect, I like the nice, round flower shape.

The actual stature of a plant,

so whether it's upright or in the case of this one,

where it is sort of hanging over slightly, that's something...

It's got dodgy deportment, this, hasn't it?

It's got a tendency to go like that. Individual flowers, Lorna.

Are really beautiful, yes.

For me, a hellebore has to have a slightly pendulous head,

I mean, that's what it's all about, with the sun

-coming through those sepals.

-Yes, certainly,

the sun brings out the dark colours very nicely.

So I always recommend they're planted,

if you have a heavy clay soil, to plant them

where at least some sun will get to them during the day,

because it does really set off the reds and slate blues.

I think they need moisture, that's the thing.

If they're in the sun, they need to be in a moist position.

If you have sandy soil, then it's not going to be good in full sun.

The great majority of your plants are forms of Helleborus hybridus.

But we've got nothing like this in the wild, have we?

There are two types that grow in Britain.

Foetidus and viridis,

which is now more correctly called occidentalis.

I've been crossing hybrid plants with the species plants to get

something that's hopefully small but very vigorous,

-and this is an example of one of the plants I've produced.

-So pretty!

-It's got that very, very wildy look about it.

-It has.

And it's got very pretty little flowers, when you look into them,

-the purple and green.

-And it's very nice stature, altogether.

-Yes.

It really is pretty.

Lorna has been harvesting the pollen from a colony of occidentalis

that she found growing not far from where she lives.

And she's shared their secret location with me.

This plant has sort of seeded itself

all over this piece of scrubby woodlands.

And did you ever see a plant that was

so perfectly in tune with its situation.

Of course, the two have evolved together.

In the summer, this whole place will be full of nettles

and you won't be able to see this little hellebore.

And that's part of this evolution.

Then, it needs the shade.

Right now, it appreciates all this light

and insects can come in and pollinate it.

If we look closely at the sort of soil

and situation that our wild flowers grow in,

and try and emulate those conditions

when we're growing their cultivated cousins in our own gardens,

then we should be able to grow them successfully and give them

just what they need to thrive.

Now, this year, Carol will also be dealing

with your horticultural headaches.

So if you've got anything that you're struggling with,

be it from propagation to planting, contact her via our website.

Now, this is done.

Not a lot to see for it, but next year the taste should be fantastic.

I see this as an investment in delicious food.

Now, let's go and look at something a little bit more dramatic.

Winter is a really good time to take stock of the structure

of the garden and see the bones clearly and, from that,

to make decisions about changes to the design and the layout.

And this winter, we've made one really big change.

We've dug a big hole for a pond.

Now this still is the damp garden.

Over winter, all the plants were taken out and potted up

so they can come back in again. And then the pond was dug,

creating different levels so we can have marginal plants,

a nice deep bit in the middle for water lilies,

all the shelves at different heights will take different planting.

It feels like an exciting prospect

and we'll be filming this right across the year

as gradually it takes shape and becomes fully itself.

But the next step is to put in a liner.

That's certainly a two-man job.

Now the person I'll get to come and help me will be Joe,

but I need to be fairly quick because, although I want his muscle

and perhaps his advice while he's here, Joe is a garden designer

and this year, he's doing a garden for Chelsea.

Over the next five weeks,

he's going to be looking at five different aspects of garden design.

Great garden design is about combining aesthetics

with practical solutions.

In this series, I'm going to work through the key design elements

that you'll find in any successful garden.

All these elements are there to be controlled and manipulated,

The trick to making your garden a success is to make everything work together.

So how do you do that?

Personalise your space, have a vision

and be true to it at every stage.

Over the next few weeks, I'll be taking a close look

at six different gardens of all shapes and sizes

that illustrate beautifully all the elements of good garden design.

This week, we're starting with boundaries.

I'm beginning with boundaries because they define the garden setting

and the space you have to work within.

The smaller the garden gets, the more important the boundaries are,

because the ratio of boundary to garden space increases

and in a town or city setting, your boundaries can provide seclusion

and privacy from the neighbouring buildings.

Now here, there's some oversized hedges at the back,

but I really like the way it relates to the house, the same height

of the building, so they become living pieces of architecture.

There's a big block of Portuguese laurel at the back there

and over here, we've got holly and it just subtly breaks it up.

We've got a contrast with the way the light plays on the texture

of the evergreen foliage.

You may want to let plenty of sun into the garden

so, low or high, the perfect hedge height will be the balance

you chose between light and privacy.

Green boundaries are wonderful for melting away

the edges of your garden.

So if you have hard edges, like walls and fences,

grow evergreens against them to create a softer, more soothing space.

If you need an instant and economic boundary,

I think fences can be great.

Open wood structures keep the garden lighter in feel and reduce costs.

If you get on with your neighbours, they can work in urban and rural settings.

Trellising is also a great choice for a slightly more open boundary

that can be softened with planting.

Trellising can be customised to look really stylish,

especially in a contemporary setting.

Now, you may have or have inherited some ugly boundaries

in your garden, but don't feel you've got to live with them forever.

There's loads of ways of cosmetically treating them

to visually enhance the garden.

Something like this. This is heather screening.

It comes in rolls, it's really lightweight and pretty economic too.

You can get them in heather like this or willow or bamboo.

So think about how it works with the style of your garden.

In design terms,

I like the way that it harmonises the boundaries in general.

It's a dark backdrop to the planting in front,

so it really sets off the green, say, of that akebia quinata.

But also it's a good textural material too,

adding even more interest.

If you've got great boundaries like this, they're adding value.

Don't cover them up, leave them exposed.

But maybe not entirely exposed, because here there's some ivy

which is breaking it up, softening it a little bit.

But also the areas of brick that you can see

add a lovely rhythm to the garden

and stop the whole garden feeling too static.

If you're lucky enough to have a beautiful view from your garden,

you could just use a mound like this as a boundary,

which would still define the edge of the garden but allow you

to borrow from the landscape beyond.

Whether you inherit them or create them yourself, making the most

of your boundaries will go a long way towards creating a great garden.

Make your boundary choices with the bigger picture in mind

and you'll be one step closer

to creating your own beautifully designed garden.

Once you've defined your space and set the tone for the garden,

you need to start thinking about how you're going to use it.

We're going to look at that next time when we explore garden layouts.

This is the Hungarian grazing rye that I sowed

after we lifted the potatoes in August.

It's served a number of purposes.

Partly to keep weeds down, because it's filling the space,

partly because it will fertilize the plot as the green of the top growth

and the extensive roots rot down,

but mainly because it improves the soil structure.

This is a very heavy, claggy end of the garden.

I've found in the past that Hungarian grazing rye

opens the soil out.

Now, the idea is just to bury it.

Don't try and tidy it up too much, but you can see the roots of this.

There's a lot of root that comes off the plant

and it's that that's doing the work. A lot more is left in the ground.

There is some magic in working the soil.

It's been a long winter. It's been cold, it's been wet,

and to get out with the sun shining and just turn that soil over...

and smell it.

It's alive. It makes me feel more alive.

Right, I'll leave that for at least three weeks

and then, some time in April,

That will be ready to rake over and sow seeds into.

Now that's done, here's some other jobs to get on with this weekend.

This is a busy time of year for seed sowing,

but some seeds need sowing more urgently than others.

Chillies and peppers come top of that list

because they're slow to germinate and develop as seedlings.

Fill a seed tray with a general purpose peat-free compost

and scatter the seeds thinly over it.

Then cover them with a light layer of compost.

Give them a soak and then put them in a warm place.

If, like me, you stored

some summer flowering bulbs in the dry,

now is the time to wake them up.

The best way to do that is to take them out and give them a soak.

This won't produce a dramatic reaction, but will trigger growth.

Then, in a month or two's time, they'll be ready to plant outside.

Well, that's it for today.

We've had a perfect day today, really beautiful.

But don't forget that at this time of year,

the weather can change in an instant to practically anything.

So be a bit cautious with your tender plants still.

But whatever the weather's like, I'll be back here next week

and look forward to seeing you then. Bye-bye.

Come on, lad.

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