Episode 25 Gardeners' World

BIRDSONG

Hello. Welcome to Gardeners' World.

Last Saturday we had the equinox where, just for one day, you get

exactly the same amount of night and day - 12 hours of dark,

12 hours of light. And I feel it's like a seesaw,

and now it just tips down towards midwinter.

That's not great for some of us

but there are plants that don't seem to mind at all.

For example the canna - this is Canna 'Wyoming' and tithonias -

and they will go on flowering until they get the first frost.

If nothing else, we've got that to cheer us up.

Of course, grasses are also looking fantastic this time of year.

Carol is visiting a garden in Somerset with a superb display.

Rushing sound, lilting movement

animation - they set the whole place alive.

And I shall be potting up bowls for Christmas,

so right in the middle of the winter we can have those flowers indoors.

I'm also visiting a vegetable grower.

He's a vegan and almost self-sufficient so his veg

really have to be good.

I often get asked the right way to prune roses.

I know there are people who feel that

if they get it a bit wrong they'll ruin the plant.

It isn't true, you know.

Roses are tough plants and they can take an awful lot of hacking

and will come back.

However, you do want to get the best from them

and if you prune shrub roses now,

they will look really good next year.

It's dead easy, however you do need a highly specialised piece of kit.

And that's a pair of shears.

You don't really think of shears as being the ideal tool

for pruning roses but for shrub roses they're perfect for the job.

I have got a shrub rose here,

a gallica, but it's finished flowering.

If you aren't certain whether you've got shrub roses or not,

you can tell the difference between many of the shrub roses -

the gallicas, bourbons, albas, centifolias and so on,

and hybrid teas.

This is a hybrid tea and it's got big flowers,

they're still being produced.

In fact those may well go on being produced right into November

and they're all made on the end of new growth.

You've got all these buds at the end of the growth.

So you wouldn't prune a hybrid tea that's still flowering.

But a shrub rose tends to flower just once.

The flowers are a little bit smaller, more petals, the petals

are smaller and softer, the foliage is a bit smaller, it's less robust

in many ways but terribly tough as a shrub and tends to have more stems.

Some of them really grow quite big.

That's another good reason for pruning in autumn

because if they're too big the wind rocks them

and the roots can be damaged.

If I just trim those off now,

that really needs to be the only pruning that will happen.

I can come back to it in spring if I want to

but they respond very well to being treated like a hedge.

You can see the level that I'm cutting back to.

I'm not going mad, I'm not trying to reshape it or cut out old wood.

I'm just trimming it back and would say that about a quarter

of this year's growth is all you need to take off.

Next spring, if there are any dead stems or ones crossing badly,

I can cut those out, but if there aren't, that's it,

that won't get pruned again until next September or October.

I think these grass borders

are looking really good now.

I only planted them last June.

So it's only taken a year to get to this stage,

and I tell you, I've done so little to look after them,

they've done it on their own

and they've done it magnificently.

The thing that I really love about grasses is the way

that they add a textural and sensual element to the garden,

so you peer through them, and you have the sound

and the way that they rustle together.

Really nothing else achieves that in quite the same way.

And of course now is their season.

Overlooking this idyllic scene is this giant Sentinel and aged oak.

It keeps guard over this wonderful meadow.

Rich and diverse, full of the most wondrous grasses.

It twinkles in the morning sun,

and each dew drop is transformed into a miniature rainbow.

And what gives this meadow its wonderful building softness

is this myriad of different grasses.

Each one of them so beautiful in itself,

and together combined to create this glorious scene.

Who could say just how many different species of grass

make up this wonderful Meadow,

each one totally different from the next.

The things like

this lovely crested dog's-tail,

very even and symmetrical,

and then these lovely foxtail grasses.

And this glorious meadow grass that makes these great, wafty waves.

Grasses in their natural habitat,

in meadows and fields look wonderful.

But in our gardens too they bring something extra.

It's not just the lawns we walk about on,

in their own right

they make the most beautiful and ornamental additions to our gardens.

On a sloping site that used to be an old farmyard,

Judy Pearce has planted her garden.

Ornamental grasses used en masse mean that

this is a space that's wonderful

through every single season of the year.

I think these grasses probably are at their very best at the moment.

-Aren't we lucky?

-Especially with the sun on them at this time.

And of course,

they don't mind the very poor soil.

Did you improve this site at all when you got here?

We did absolutely nothing.

Out in the wild it's not improved at all.

I thought, don't let's bother.

Let's plonk them in and hope for the best.

It's obviously paid off, hasn't it?

Yes, I mean these plants are very tough.

They like it dry,

they get it hot, hopefully, some summers.

Certainly facing the right way.

Facing the right way,

-I don't think it would work on a north-facing slope, for example.

-No.

I think they just thrive in the natural elements.

What gave you the inspiration for creating this, Judy?

Well, it was brought on by many visit driving across Spain.

In the middle of Spain, on the plains,

you come across rocks, wonderful grasses.

And amazing flowers.

All looking after themselves, nobody's touching them.

-And I thought, "A-ha, this is what I want."

-Right.

But further down the slope

your grasses have sort of done their own thing, haven't they?

Oh yes, they've colonised well.

For example tenuissima

will prefer it up here,

and the little carex,

-the bronze carex...

-Goes down the hill.

Has actually gone down the hill where it's a bit damper.

It is plant in the right place.

-If it likes it it'll thrive.

-Exactly.

It was the advent of prairie planting

that brought grasses as a group of plants to the attention of us,

the great British gardening public.

But first of all, we were very wary about how to use them.

But surely this is how you ought to use them!

Mixed together with wonderful perennials.

If you're going for miscanthus, choose something like this.

It's light, it's graceful, it's elegant.

Despite its size, it's got great daintiness.

On this slope there are grasses small and grasses great,

none of them bigger than this lovely molinia.

This is probably one called wind games, windspiel,

and you can quite see why.

It dances in the wind, it delights in it.

Light's a vitally important factor too.

Just consider how beautiful they are

when you can see their silhouette against a bright blue sky.

Now if you wanted a short molinia for your garden,

any cultivar of Molinia caerulia would do brilliantly well.

But if you want a bit of drama, go for one of these hybrids.

This is Calamagrostis 'Karl Foerster.'

Karl Foerster was a German nurseryman and plantsman

who cultivated and selected lots of really robust grasses.

In common with miscanthus and molinias,

it'll grow practically anywhere,

as long as it has enough moisture at its feet.

Calamagrostis 'Karl Foerster' epitomises all the qualities

that grasses can bring to your garden.

Rushing sound, lilting movement, animation.

They set the whole place alive.

They remind me so much of the grasses that cover the earth

in fields and meadows everywhere,

and they bring that quality, that element of life and the wild

right into your garden.

If ever you need flowers, it's in the depths of December.

And if we plant bulbs now, we can pretty much guarantee

having colour and fragrance at Christmas time.

Now I've got three different types here, the first are hyacinths.

Now this is one called delft blue.

That lovely, China-ey blue.

I love the fragrance, a fragrance that few other plants can match.

Now this is a prepared hyacinth.

If you're going to buy them, make sure you ask for prepared bulbs,

otherwise they'll take longer to flower.

And it's quite important that you get on with this,

cos they take about 12 weeks to flower.

So actually, that takes us from today right through to Christmas,

so this is something to do as soon as you can.

I like using these bulb pans, sometimes called Alpine pans.

You do need to make sure the drainage is really good,

so some crocks in the bottom

and then a compost mix that has got lots of grit added.

I would say 50% grit, and by the way,

I'm talking about horticultural grit, which you buy in bags.

Normally with bulbs, you plant them deep,

and I'm always saying "Plant them twice their depth."

But in this case, you plant them very shallowly.

In fact, we only want half the bulb below the surface,

so what I'm going to do is just place those on the surface,

and you can fit them about half an inch or so apart

and half an inch away from the edge.

And then I'll just lightly top that up

so the shoulders of the bulb are sticking above the soil.

And then grit on the top.

What the grit does is both keep the compost still

so when you water it it doesn't splash, and also protects the bulb

if it gets too wet, cos it'll drain through the grit and keep it away.

Now, to make that flower by Christmas,

it's got to go to a cool, dark place, and that means really dark.

And then, as you see the growth appearing

and a little bit of colour emerging, bring them out into the light,

into the warmth and they'll grow and flower fast.

So that's the hyacinths.

Next, I've got paper-white daffodils.

This may look like any old daffodil bulb,

but paper-whites really are not like other daffodils

because they carry with them all the sunshine of the Mediterranean,

which is where they come from, and an incredible fragrance.

So you're going to have the freshness of spring flowers

right at the darkest time of year.

This will flower six weeks from now, so it's a little bit early

to have it flowering for Christmas,

so if you do these by the end of October, they'll be fine.

You can either put them in a pan or you can put them in a larger pot,

and I've got a lovely old pot here,

and that will balance the height because daffodils grow quite tall,

so a little bit of drainage in the bottom.

They're Mediterranean, so they like really good drainage again.

And unlike normal daffodils, we don't have to worry about

burying them deep, but we can just push them in and rather than having

their shoulders out of the ground, these will be covered but only just.

Job done. See, this is really easy. This is a really easy job.

Finally, I've got an amaryllis.

Now, amaryllis is a plant that is loud and proud.

Has these fabulous trumpets of flower.

No other plant, certainly in the middle of winter,

gives such a volume of floral joy.

But it likes its roots constricted,

so you could easily grow this whopping great bulb

in a pot about this size, with about an inch around the outside.

If I put that in there, again,

I will sit that so it is appearing out of the top.

I don't want to bury it.

Now, the hyacinths need to go in cool dark

and be brought out as they start to appear.

Paper-whites can go straight onto a window sill.

Keep them moist and they will grow and flower, and just do their thing.

Amaryllis needs some warmth.

If this is going to flower round about Christmas time,

it needs a blast of heat now, so a greenhouse,

a conservatory or an airing cupboard is good.

It doesn't actually need light at this point, but it does need heat.

When it starts to grow, then you can bring it into the light.

So they've all got slightly different regimes, but with any luck

and a little bit of care, they'll all be flowering by Christmas.

Come on.

This way, no, no, we're coming here.

Try not to bump into the hedge, old chap.

Now, I've got more bulbs, but this time very much for sowing outside.

These are Japanese onions,

and I'm going to put them in here next to the leeks.

I've got a strip of ground.

Japanese onions, you sow in autumn,

and you harvest them in early summer.

And that makes them a month or two earlier

than conventional onion sets, which you put in as soon as you can

at the beginning of the year and harvest July-August time.

It just fills the gap between the last of your stored onions

and the first of your harvested ones.

I'm going to add a little bit of compost

because I find it just gives the soil a bit of a boost.

This is not really fertiliser.

It's much more getting all the organisms in the soil

working to maximum effect.

Now this is a variety called Electric Red.

And we put them in the ground just like any other onion set,

which is to bury them so that their tops are sticking out,

and I use my finger, best planting tool there is,

and just pop them in the ground so that you can just see a little bit

of onion sticking out, and as with all vegetables, it is worth

taking trouble to get them equally spaced,

because it makes hoeing so much easier.

Now, like lots of people,

I've been growing vegetables since I was a child,

and over the years, we get quite good at it.

But from time to time,

you come across somebody who really is a cut above everybody else.

A couple of weeks ago, I went to meet a gardener

who was formerly a Michelin starred chef.

And he's absolutely committed to getting the best taste

and nutrition from his crops.

Richard Sandford is a vegan

and feeds himself almost entirely from his organic vegetable plot,

which is about the size of three full-size allotments.

It's therefore vital to him

that he grows his crops as well as possible,

and it's clear to see that whatever he's doing,

he is getting spectacular results.

Now, I mean, looking around, one's struck by how healthy,

vigorous and big everything is.

But then, when you look closer you see it's very precise.

Everything is spaced exactly and accurately.

Perfect example is onions.

The spacing of the onion determines almost totally,

apart from the variety, how big it is.

I want nice big onions to slice and to do in stews and stocks,

so I space them at a distance that is for that end product.

I want nice big onions, I want nice big carrots.

Three inches between carrots.

Why do you want big onions, big carrots,

because the trend is towards baby veg.

With things like carrots,

the nutritional value of carrots is not as great when they're young.

As they mature and they darken in colour and get bigger,

they take on more vitamin D

or beta-carotene or whatever it is you're looking for.

So I would like to try to grow vegetables quickly,

fast, so you get the sweetness,

but also get to a size that is more manageable.

To grow quickly, you've obviously got to have a soil

-that's got suitable nutrients.

-Yes.

-What's your approach to your soil?

-That's most of my life, most of my work.

-That's such a lovely phrase.

For someone to dedicate their life to their soil is a wonderful thing.

Richard's soil is heavy London clay.

He works hard to lighten its structure

with large and regular additions of sand, compost,

manure and leaf mould.

This is excellent, but conventional practice.

However, I was intrigued by the way he makes his own potting compost

by recycling woodchip paths in his garden.

As soon as the seeds start growing in the paths,

we know we've got to take them up and sieve them.

You get three sieves. First of all, you get the big lumps,

which we put back. Then we sieve it

and use the mid-sievings to put on the top

to stop water loss and stuff on the pots.

And the fine sievings,

which is this, it is wonderful stuff, I think.

And that is a big base for our own potting compost.

-So do you make all your own potting compost?

-I would say that we try to.

I have a lot of trimmings

from the garden in general

that I would have to get rid of if I didn't compost them.

And I know what's in it.

By keeping an eye on every detail

of the way that his plants are growing,

Richard is growing some fabulous veg on his plot.

Looking at your tomatoes here, which I've been eyeing greedily,

I have to say, I am incredibly impressed.

They look fantastic.

But these are relatively small pots, and they're only half full of soil.

-Yes.

-Why's that?

-I think they like it like that.

With tomatoes, there is a kind of texture

and sheen that you only get on really good tomatoes.

Part of that is due to what we feed them. They get fed every single day.

-Every day?

-Every single day, with something.

How did you arrive at that decision to feed every day?

Did you start off feeding once a week?

I think about it in the bath at night.

-I think about things like this.

-Right!

Yes, I started off feeding once a week.

I thought that wasn't good enough, so I started feeding them more often, and now we feed them every day.

-So what are you feeding them on?

-I feed them one of three things.

We use comfrey liquid, nettle liquid or wood ash liquid.

And I look and I think "These aren't green enough",

so we give them nettle,

or "the fruits are starting to ripen", so I want more wood ash.

And I adjust it as we're going along.

Richard not only grows high quality,

but also large quantities of vegetables.

So he's more or less self-sufficient.

And he preserves as much as possible by bottling, pickling and drying.

This means that he has a larder

packed with organic produce from the garden

to see him through the winter months.

But at this time of year, there's no shortage of fresh produce.

All these tomatoes look really impressive,

but this pair here are incredible!

So you've got that lovely softness, which is all meat in there.

If you press your thumb in there, it's ripe, it's full of juice,

and yet it's firm.

It's amazing. You know from the feel that the taste will be fantastic.

To be honest,

those are the best tomatoes,

these are the best tomatoes I have ever seen in the UK.

Very kind of you.

Whatever you're doing is very, very right.

I think the really interesting thing

about Richard and his approach to gardening

is not that he's doing anything terribly unusual,

or even terribly different to most of us.

But he's paying great attention to detail.

And the real lesson, I think,

is that vegetables in particular repay constant attention.

A little bit often, rather than a lot seldom, is much more effective.

It's been a mixed year for sweet peas.

They were pretty late to get going

because we had such a cold, early summer.

But they kept flowering right into September. At this rate,

they'll still be flowering in October.

This year, I've done a trial

to see whether it really makes a difference

what time of year you sow your sweet peas.

I took the same variety, Monty Don, and sowed some in pots

in October, some more in pots in March and then some directly in May.

And I've kept a count of all the flowers that have been picked.

The results have been very interesting.

Now, the end ones, which were sown last October,

produced 1,320 flowers.

This middle batch, sown in exactly the same way

but five months later, in March,

produced 1,580 flowers.

So appreciably more.

And the ones that were direct sown

on the same day as the others were planted out,

which was early May,

produced a grand total of 55 flowers.

So hardly any at all.

To make it slightly more complicated,

the autumn-sown ones were way ahead until August.

So as regards getting flowers for early summer,

they definitely were an advantage.

But from early August right through to the end of September,

the spring-sown sweet peas produced many more flowers,

and easily caught up,

and have overtaken over the last three or four pickings.

So I think that you've got to look after autumn-sown ones

and protect them.

The best course of action is, sow your sweet peas in early spring,

February, early March, grow them on nice and strong,

look after them, and then plant them out

in early May and across the summer.

That will give you most flowers for your buck.

Now, I shan't be sowing sweet peas this autumn,

but here are some jobs that you can be doing this weekend.

Green manure is a very useful,

but rather under-used way

of improving soil structure and fertility

and suppressing weeds. I'm using vetches, or tares,

but Hungarian grazing rye is also very good at this time of year.

Just broadcast or sow the seed in drills, rake it over,

and then it will grow over the winter

and next spring can be dug into the ground

and a new crop sown or planted on top of it.

Now, this is only a small job,

but it's one of the most important of the season,

and that is to keep dead-heading.

It's not enough to do it just once a week.

Try and do it every day if you can, even if it's only for a few minutes.

Cut off the spent flower heads, and new ones will form

right up until the first frosts.

By now, grass has had a pretty tough time of it,

and it needs a bit of TLC.

The first thing to do is to scratch away with a wire rake

all the dead thatch and loose growth,

so you can let light and air in.

Then it needs aerating.

If you've got a large area, you can hire a machine to do this.

But if it's relatively small, a fork is the best tool to use.

Simply dig it in as far as you can,

wriggle it about and make holes all over the surface.

This will let the air in, improve drainage

and dramatically improve the quality of the grass.

Now, that's pretty much it for this week.

But before I go,

just to tell you that the British Trust for Ornithology

are doing a survey to see which berries our birds like to eat.

It starts this Sunday,

and if you and your garden want to be part of that, you can,

and of course gardeners should be,

because it's really important that we encourage our birds in

and perhaps plant the right food for them.

You can get all the details by going to our website.

I'll be back here next week, so I hope to see you then. Bye-bye.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd