Episode 18 Gardeners' World

Nigel!

-MONTY WHISTLES

-Nigel!

Good boy.

What's up here?

Good boy.

Hello! Welcome to Gardener's World.

Traditionally August is rather a flat time in the garden.

People go away on holiday, and they feel they're not missing a lot.

But I love August.

Not least because here in the Jewel Garden, the colours really

stoke up and you get those intense reds and oranges and purples,

all working together.

And they can take the light and the heat of these days.

As well as enjoying what the garden has to offer,

I shall also be working in the pond,

sorting it out and trying to get it as healthy as possible

for the rest of summer and hopefully cooling off a bit.

Carol is at Glebe Cottage with advice on how to deal with

some of the pests that have been a particular problem this summer.

I've got this wonderful collection of plants together that will

withstand attack from slugs and snails and their rasping radulas.

Joe visits a garden in North Wales

where you might expect there to be heavy rainfall.

But in this particular case they discovered that they had much more water than they bargained for.

But have made a virtue of it.

Is this being fed?

-This is being fed from the springs at the top there.

-Oh, right!

That's a natural spring? You sure that's not solar powered?

-No, not solar powered.

-It's gorgeous!

And now's the time that I should be cutting the meadow grass on the cricket pitch.

And on top of that, I'll be taking new plants from old for my strawberries.

The pond is only four-months-old

but it's already got a nice settled feel.

Things are starting to happen.

The purple loosestrife is looking great,

the ligularias are doing better than ever.

They absolutely love it.

You can see in the pond itself, you have the water forget-me-nots,

the primulas. So, all in all,

I would say I am 99% satisfied with the pond

and everything we've done here.

The 1% that isn't quite working out

is the algal growth on the surface.

That's because water has lots of nutrients and in July

and August when you've got higher sunshine and more of it,

inevitably you get growth.

All this algae is taking up a lot of the oxygen in the water.

The oxygen that is needed for, not just plants,

but also animal life too, and bacterial life.

We got silkweed, which is this sort of frothy, gunky,

frankly unpleasant stuff.

As well as that, we have this here.

Duckweed.

That can spread to form a complete mat over the water

so you need to scoop that out or at least keep a really tight eye on it.

This silk weed is wrapping itself around the waterlilies.

It's a bit like goose grass in a border in the way that

it gets in there and it weighs down on other plants.

Now that job's, done I can get on and put the oxygenators in.

They're going to release oxygen

which is going to improve the habitat,

both for plants and for insects and animals

and they are going to consume nutrients

which will compete directly with the algae.

So they should help keep the water clear.

I've got three different oxygenators here.

This one is goldfish weed,

which comes from southern Africa.

And I've got two other natives, I've got hornwort.

And then the spiked milfoil.

You can very often buy them, like the goldfish weed here,

in clumps with a little bit of lead wrapping them together.

The lead means that they sink to the bottom.

Where this touches the bottom, it will root

but it's also got aerial roots

so if it doesn't get into mud of any kind, it'll still survive.

The reason I brought the bucket of water is because it's a good idea to wash them.

That gets rid of any risk of introducing either

bits of weed or animals that you don't want in your own pond.

The planting of them couldn't be easier.

I'm going to get back in to plant some but, I tell you,

all you have to do is this...

Job done. Chuck it in the water.

As I've got my waders on, I'm just going to get in to spread them around.

I like the hornwort because it's a native.

I'm thinking of one plant or group per two feet.

You don't have to be too accurate about this. Spread them about.

You can buy these from either a specialist aquatic centre

or a large garden centre should have its own aquatic department.

Woah, I nearly went then!

Right, I think that will make a real difference

and we should get some much clearer water as a result.

Now, the water in this garden is an event, a happening.

It either comes in on the flood

or else we make a pond and celebrate it.

But Joe's been to visit a garden in North Wales

where the water is absolutely an elemental part of the garden.

Nestled between mountains and sea,

Conwy is one of the wettest regions of Britain.

But here lives a gardener who not only has the local weather

to contend with, he also lives in an area known locally as

The Field Of The Seven Springs. You getting the idea?

When Dafydd Lloyd-Borland moved into his house

on a unique water-riven site

he realised this mountainside location could be

a great gardening opportunity.

The river comes from the top of the field over here

and then comes down into our garden

and through into the neighbouring properties over here.

When you took over this plot, you knew the river was there?

When we took over the plot we heard water, as we can today,

but we couldn't see it. It was like a bit of a discovery.

We had to creep through the brambles and remove a tree from the top there

and eventually we found the stream that you can see here today.

You thought, "Brilliant, I've got my own water and irrigation!"

I thought it was a really great gardening opportunity

that we've got all of this water. We could use it for planting.

We've got about 20 springs in the garden which just appear.

As we've been gardening, they just appear and we've had to

divert them and put them into places of the garden where it's a bit drier.

You're controlling the springs? So you are moving them around the garden? Away from the lawn areas?

Away from the lawn areas and all the areas we want to keep dry, yes.

-How do you divert a spring?

-Just dig a big hole.

Line it and put some stones in and then put a flexible tube in.

You're actually creating an underground irrigation system all the way through here.

-Underneath, yes.

-OK!

We're using some planting as well, we've been putting a lot of

-willow trees and things like that to try and suck the water up as well.

-Yes.

You have a huge array of plants really,

considering the diverse conditions that you've got here.

Some of them are really dry.

-Phlomis, lavender, you've got a big eucalyptus tree over there.

-Yes.

That likes to grow in a desert, it likes bushfires on it and yet...

-Have you diverted streams around it?

-Well, it is quite dry there.

We do well here because the lavender is at the top of the bank

-so they like the arid conditions up there.

-Yes, and phormiums as well.

-Fantastic, isn't it?

-Where does it get really wet then?

Well, you can see here, we've got a slight problem here.

SQUELCHING Oh, oh, I can hear it!

-Yes, you can hear it underfoot here.

-Oh!

-This is one of our new springs now.

-This is for 2012!

This is the 2012 spring. You can see the water's coming through here.

We'll probably leave it for a month or so and see if it sorts itself out but if not,

we'll have to dig a trench across here,

try and work out where the water stops,

and then put a drain down...

-Divert it down towards these phormiums.

-Towards those, yes.

Then where?

Then we've got another drain at the bottom of this bed

which will take it around the side.

It's a lot of work, does it not wind you up after a while?

-Do you not think, can I not just have a normal garden?

-I could swap gardens.

Yes, so you can garden rather than do underground plumbing.

Yes, it's like civil engineering, isn't it?

But it's a thing we've got used to and I find that if we ignore it

it causes more problems so we just get on with it and pop them in.

-Pop them in, get on with it, move on.

-That's right, yes.

Even though the springs are a continuing challenge,

some of the planting is phenomenal.

Only a keen gardener who knows this site intimately could pull this off.

What about this? Is this some... Is this being fed?

This is being fed from the springs at the top there.

-You can actually see...

-Oh, right, that's just a natural spring?

-That's a natural spring.

-Again!

That just started working this morning, actually.

-You sure that's not solar powered?

-No! Not at all, no!

-It's gorgeous.

-Don't tell me that's a natural spring.

-No, that's a pump, yes.

Got me there, Joe!

Here we have much wetter planting.

The ligularias and the ragged robin. Did you plant that in?

Planted that last year, it loves it there.

That is doing really nicely.

Oh, it's a great array of plants. It's a lovely pond, though.

Yes, it fills up and goes out the far corner down the garden.

It just carries on over there and down and away

-and it's become somebody else's problem.

-That's right.

We call this bit of ground the cricket pitch

because a long time ago we used to play cricket on here occasionally.

The chestnut tree behind me was where the stumps were

so that's how long ago a ball was last bowled.

But we have evolved a pattern of treating the grass

of letting it grow and enjoying all that that entails.

In spring there are crocus, narcissi, fritillaries,

and in early summer they're followed by clovers, buttercups and grasses.

All in all, this is nothing fancy,

but it looks wonderful and the insects love it.

But, when it starts to look a bit tired

we cut it right back and let it revert to lawn.

And to get the timing right, we let the seeds form

so the seeds of the wildflowers, for example the clovers here,

are now being shed and that means if I cut it,

the seeds will remain and it will all come back next year.

This is not strictly speaking a wildflower meadow,

apart from anything else, soil like this is too rich.

If you want to keep the flowers growing strongly

in amongst grass, you need to stop the grass taking over.

Therefore, cut it, clear it all away,

but by timing the cutting right, you can really enjoy what the grass has,

plant some bulbs and flowers in spring before it grows too long

and then remove the grass so it doesn't dominate too much.

That way you can roll it on year-on-year.

I can now take the grass to the compost heap.

I'll add it by degrees because if you put it in one big wodge,

it's actually quite slow to compost

but it's really good for mixing with other things.

If I left the grass clippings ungathered

they would gradually feed nutrients back into the soil

as they rotted down and this would result in lush grass growth

at the expense of the wildflowers which thrive in a poorer soil.

Now, all of us, whatever our soil is like,

have been plagued by slugs and snails this year.

I've never known a year like it!

And there are lots and lots of different opinions and methods

of getting rid of them, but none of them seem to work completely.

However, Carol has been looking at plants that do resist

slug and snail attack more than others.

It's been one of the wettest late springs and early summers

that any of us can possibly remember.

And because it's been so wet,

every gardener has had a problem with slugs

and loads of you have written in to us.

This letter's typical, from Amanda Livingstone.

"I have the most horrendous snail and slug problem.

"It seems they all live in my garden.

"I can't grow certain crops because of this problem.

"As fast as I remove them they reproduce

"and multiply exponentially."

I'll tell you what, they do exactly the same thing here.

Come and have a look at some of the damage they've caused me.

I suppose this plant, hosta, is the classic plant

that people mention when they're talking about slug damage.

And it's because it's got these soft, fleshy,

no doubt scrumptious, leaves that slugs just adore.

This beautiful Japanese woodland Kirengeshoma palmata

has the same big entire soft leaves as a hosta.

It had! Now they've been reduced to this lace curtain effect.

All that's been left behind is the veins that support

the surface of the leaf.

They are obviously unpalatable and not to the slugs' taste at all.

Anyway, why go for those

when you have all that lovely soft leaf surface to munch on?

But down here is something which seems to be totally impervious.

It is the Helleborus hydridus.

And it's got these big tough strong robust leaves

and the surface of them is extremely hard, impenetrable.

The slugs obviously don't find it to their taste!

Hellebores are in the family of Ranunculaceae - the buttercup family.

And most of the families seem to be impervious to slug damage.

You very seldom see slug holes on Aquilegias, Aconites - all manner of plants.

And there are other families that slugs very seldom seem to attack.

If you're planting a new bed or just trying to replace plants

that have been badly damaged by slugs and snails it's commonsense

really to take a look around your and other people's gardens

to see which plants are going to be impervious to slug attack

and are going to give you the best possible show for the longest time.

Gardeners love roses but slugs don't - never touch them.

Astilbes too are members of the rose family.

The leaves are quite hard and shiny but I suspect that Astilbes

and lots of other herbaceous members of the rose family have

sort of a medicinal quality to them, the aroma of their roots

and possibly it permeates the whole plant - leaves, stems and flowers.

So Astilbes aren't on the menu.

Geraniums are another big group of plants that they leave alone.

I think the best idea is to put together a selection of plants

that slugs and snails just don't like.

I've got this wonderful collection of plants together

and I'm going to use them to plant this new little bed.

But also that they will withstand attack from slugs and snails

and their rasping radulas!

They're going to leave these plants alone and allow us to enjoy them.

This lovely Agastache is called 'Blackadder'.

It's a very very aromatic plant. It's got a slightly minty almost...

It's indescribable this perfume but it really is strong.

And that puts slugs off.

This is Knautia.

You don't really think of this as being a hairy plant but when

you examine the stems and finger them it really is quite bristly.

And those pom-pom flowers are a total delight

followed by seedheads and again very long flowering.

And I'll emphasise the dark red crimson with these sedums.

Although it's got succulent leaves,

you really don't get any damage at all on Sedums.

Possibly when they are just coming through in the spring but once

that hard surface has been made, once it's there,

slugs leave them alone.

And the Penstemon I want to include is this one,

called Penstemon heterophyllus 'Heavenly Blue'.

And it has the most beautifully coloured flowers.

Penstemon are in the Scrophulariaceae family.

The same family as foxgloves,

none of those groups of plants ever get eaten by slugs.

It's the longest of the mallow family - lovely Sidalceas

called 'Elsie Heugh'.

Hopefully, I've given you a few clues about the kind of plants

you can choose, not only to make a really long display that

goes on giving you joy and beauty for ages but also one that

will last because it doesn't get consumed by slugs and snails.

It's no hardship because there is such a lots of beautiful plants

from which to choose.

I think it's fair to say that our strawberry harvest this year

has been mixed.

The plants are really healthy, they are growing well,

they've produced lots and lots of fruit.

The downside was the fruit tended to ripen unevenly.

You'd see this lovely luscious red berry,

lift it up and white underneath because there wasn't enough

light or heat and also they rotted rather a lot

and even at their best, the taste was a little insipid and watery.

That's entirely down to the weather, nothing you can do about that.

But these have done their stuff.

I need to plan the next year and thereafter.

The key to growing strawberries is not to keep growing them

on the same plot year after year.

They reach their peak after three years

and thereafter they accumulate viruses so you should ditch

your plants after three years which means replacing them.

The easiest way to do that is by taking runners.

You can see that a really healthy plant like that,

which is one-year-old, is now pushing out runners.

Look at that. If you see, this long stem coming through,

twining there.

And you've got a new plantlet developing about two or three feet

from the plant and another one there.

And potentially another.

So, you could get three or four new plants and it's dead easy to do.

You can either pin that down onto the ground, that will work well.

Nothing wrong with that at all.

But then I would have to dig it up to move it.

What I prefer to do is prepare a gritty compost and gritty because

the roots will have an easier run and they'll not stay in this for very long.

Like that.

And then get the runner,

and always take the runner closest to the plant,

that will have most vigour.

And just put it on top of the surface of the compost

and pin it down.

And where it touches the soil, it really wants to produce roots.

You don't have to add anything to it or do anything clever.

And I would just scrape that and put it in.

It's important it remains connected to the parent,

it's an umbilical cord because it hasn't got any roots of its own yet.

Leave it for about three to four weeks

and if you see nice growth you can cut it separate from the parent

take it away and you've got next year's first-year plant.

And just to stress,

you don't grow strawberries on the same plot year after year.

But I'm making it sound complicated.

You put them in the ground, they grow,

you protect them from the birds, they produce fruit.

It's not that difficult.

We also grow alpine strawberries, wild strawberries

that are native and they can become a bit of a weed so by

running them underneath a hedge they are contained but they look good.

Also, the tiny little fruit are delicious like little

strawberry jewels that you can add to a bowl of yoghurt, say.

But to pick a decent bowlful really does take a long time.

However, there is a variety that's specially been bred

from wild strawberries called Four Seasons - Quattro Stagioni.

And I sowed them 18 months ago and I've got really good sized plants,

practically a hedge of them.

And masses of fruit.

They taste good, they are big enough to make picking relatively easy

but still small and sweet and delicious.

And, like the wild strawberry,

they go on producing all summer right into autumn.

They spread by seed, root extension and also a few runners.

There is a possibility they could become invasive

but I will watch and see.

Now, if you don't grow strawberries and don't want to grow them,

here are some other things you can be getting on with this weekend.

Collecting your own seed is doubly satisfying.

Not only does it preserve your favourite plant from the garden

but can also save you an awful lot of money.

Cut the seed heads off and put them into a paper bag or envelope

where they can be stored in a cool dark place for weeks or even months.

If you have flowers that you think are particularly special,

it's worth marking them for future collection

but bear in mind not all plants come true from seed.

People can get obsessed with compost. And I should know.

However, there is only real one secret

and that is to turn it regularly -

ideally, once a month.

And this will let air in to feed the bacteria.

And you can guarantee all your waste material will turn into good garden compost.

As the summer fruiting raspberries come to the end of their season,

the autumn fruiting ones start to produce fruit.

And it's important to support the canes

so you can reach the fruit and pick them easily.

This doesn't have to be anything elaborate, just as long as it lasts

into autumn and then it can be dismantled and the canes cut down.

Now that the birds have left their nests it's the perfect moment

to give your hedge trim.

It doesn't matter what kind of hedge it is, it's important to give it

a slight batter which is to say the bottom should be wider than the top.

Otherwise, the top growth will shade out the bottom

and you get gaps in the base of the hedge.

Cut the sides first and then trim the top to whatever height you want.

And that should keep it looking neat for the rest of the summer.

Another thing to do regularly at this time of year

if you have a pond is to top it up

because it's surprising much you lose through evaporation

and adding water moves it on, stops it being stagnant and adds oxygen.

So generally, a really important good thing to do.

And we have this enormous rainwater tank which for years

we didn't know what to do with but it's proved ideal for filling

the pond initially and keeping it topped up.

And it does mean that if we get a very wet period, at least we know

we've got water to do it, even if we're followed by a drought.

So, I want to connect this up to the pond.

I am one of these people who can tangle up a hosepipe that has

been perfectly sorted out.

It still knots up. And I have to join three to make this happen.

Now I've lost the end! Where is it? Oh!

Somewhere in there is an end. Or should be.

You'd think, there are only two ends to a hosepipe!

And one end is attached up there.

Blowed if I know where the other one has gone.

Ta-dah! We put that into the pond like that...

And now I connect up at that end, run down here and see if

the water comes out.

It's not much of a flow but there's hardly any fall and it's enough.

I can leave that on all night until it fills up and overflows

gently and all the hostas and boggy plants will love that.

And the pond will be refreshed, that's the key thing.

We get new water in and oxygen and that will help keep the weed at bay.

Talking of which, now that it's settled

after sploshing around it is clearer, isn't it?

That's not bad.

And that's all we've got time for.

But I will be back next Friday so I'll see you then. Bye-bye.

Subtitles by Caite Petts and Craig Dunn for Red Bee Media