Episode 29 Gardeners' World

BIRDSONG

Hello. Welcome to Gardeners' World.

Now, we've had a few sharp frosts here at Longmeadow,

and I think it's time to bring pumpkins in.

You want to leave them out to get as much as the autumn sunshine as possible, which ripens them,

but they don't like it too cold.

So, to make sure they store well,

I think it's time to get them out of the cold.

You can see...there's one here that's had a bad time of it.

But I've got a couple here that are good.

Anyway, it'll soon be Halloween, so the timing is right.

Now, this week, Joe is visiting a garden in Central London

that shows how good design and clever lighting

can maximise all the potential of even the smallest space.

Every square inch has been used imaginatively

to bring the indoors outside.

Carol is in Pembrokeshire looking at willows.

Now, these look wonderful in the wild,

but also there are many variations

that can look spectacular in any garden.

The willow family is huge, it's enormous -

there are hundreds of species!

And I shall be lifting the tender plants

that gave me such a good display in containers over summer

and replacing them with winter-flowering plants

and bulbs for next spring.

This is my main pumpkin patch.

Pumpkins are delicious, they store really well,

they taste good and they're fantastic winter food.

So I want to make the most of what I've got.

Now, when you're harvesting them,

it is important to cut them, not yank them.

And, also, to keep a good piece of stem. Now, that REALLY matters.

Because they won't store nearly so well if you cut the stem off.

That's where the rot gets in.

So when you're cutting them off,

make sure you've got a nice length of stem like that.

And the other point is, even though they've got quite a hard skin,

look after them, treat them carefully.

Because they can bruised and, if they bruise, they won't store.

Now, it's not a particularly good harvest,

but there's plenty of potentially delicious food there -

pumpkin soup, pumpkin pie and, my favourite, just roast pumpkin.

Cut them into segments, or pieces, stick them in the oven

with a scattering of thyme and a bit of oil - absolutely delicious!

Now, a few weeks ago, I cut all the leaves off,

and I got an e-mail in response to that

which shows I may have been missing a trick all these years,

because Gallia Arup wrote to me from Zimbabwe and said,

"I'm from Zimbabwe and we cook the foliage

"and eat it as you do spinach.

"And they are scrummy. And have tons of iron."

Perhaps next year, even if there are no fruit,

maybe it's worth growing pumpkins just for the foliage.

And if you want that recipe, you can get it from our website.

Now the thing to do is just find a sunny spot,

so they can have a nice sunbathe.

And the whole point of laying them out

is to get the skins to harden as much as possible.

Because the harder the skin, the longer they'll last.

And even some of the thinner-skinned ones

should last for at least three months.

If we get hard frosts later in the week, they'll have to come in.

But even a couple of days will do good.

There we are. Let's hope we get some sunshine.

Now, I planted these pots up last May

and they're filled with tender plants -

cannas, dahlias, two different types of cosmos, and nasturtiums.

Now these all will be killed by temperatures below about minus five.

So I think it's time to move on.

Not least because I want to use the pots -

I want winter colour and colour for next spring -

and I need to start planting those up now.

However, you can leave dahlias in

until the tops are completely blackened.

That won't kill them.

With dahlias, just cut them back so that they're manageable.

Dahlias have tubers, and it's the tubers they've developed this year

that will feed next year's flowers.

So, I'm going to rootle around... to try and take these out

with the least damage possible.

There we go. Can you see here, the potato-like tubers?

Now that can go into there.

Now the cosmos...

There we go.

The cannas have got fleshy roots.

I want to bring up as much root as possible

because that is storing next year's food.

Come on, you. Come on. There we go.

And it is the roots that we're going to preserve over winter.

These are unimportant, and can be cut back to make life easier.

I'll be storing these tender plants later on.

But I'm going to replant these pots first.

I used a rich compost in the summer, but it will be totally exhausted now,

and must be removed and replaced before I can begin replanting.

First thing I like to do when planting bulbs,

is get large plants in and then I can work round them.

The largest plants here are the wallflowers.

The same ones I planted last week - Blood Red.

I'm putting them right at the edge, so there's an element of spillage.

These, of course, are grown from seed.

And I'll put one in the middle.

Around those, I'm going to put the tulips. I've got two types.

The first is an old favourite, called Flaming Parrot.

Parrot tulips have these wonderful raggedy edges.

It's like this fire-burst of colour.

Absolutely fabulous tulip!

I'm going to put these in. Nice and deep.

And the other one is a new tulip on me, this is Aladdin.

This is always upright and stately. And elegant.

And these will grown up through the planting I am putting on top of it.

I've got here pansies and violas. And you can see the difference.

Winter-flowering pansies are big flowers, floppy petals.

And the violas which you could say are more modest, more muted.

Less powerful. But it's not true, I prefer them.

You get more flowers - they just keep coming back and back.

And they're tougher, they're hardier.

It's practically impossible to stop them flowering in any weather.

We'll put these fairly close to the edge.

There's no way this is pretending to be subtle, sophisticated planting.

There's a time and a place for that.

And here it isn't.

The roots need a chance to establish in the pot.

And for the roots to grow at their very best,

they don't need to support flowers, which is the most demanding thing.

So by taking this crop of flowers off,

you're giving the roots a chance to grow really strongly and well.

And you'll get new flowers within a week or two,

and many, many more flowers over a longer period as a result.

So this is a truly important thing to do.

If you have a large garden,

then even big pots blend into the picture.

And this is particularly true if it's a country garden.

But if you have a small, urban back garden,

then you do need to pay attention to every detail.

And Joe has been to visit a garden in Central London

which is superb example of that.

A small, shady garden can be challenging to design.

But one effective idea is to turn it into an outdoor living area.

In this garden in Notting Hill,

every square inch has been used imaginatively

to bring the indoors outside.

This private urban garden is just eight metres by ten,

and it inventively exploits every design rule

to get the most out of the space,

As well as providing a backdrop to be enjoyed both day...

..and night.

It's designed around three distinct living spaces,

linked by limestone paving, water and planting.

Now in a small urban garden like this,

every plant has to really earn its keep.

And this is a fantastic choice of a small tree,

breaking up the eye-level in the middle of the garden here -

Amelanchier lamarckii.

I've got one in my own garden - a multi-stemmed version too.

A lovely sculptural form all through the winter.

Then it's got very early white spring flowers followed by bronzy foliage.

And then you get fruit, which the birds love later in the year,

and in a week or so, it will covered by flamey orangey-red foliage.

Lots of interest all through the year. A fantastic choice.

You can stay there for many years to come!

In a small garden,

it's a good idea to make the boundaries a real feature.

In this space, the linear fencing makes the garden feel bigger,

and provides an attractive backdrop for the planting.

They've gone for a nice, slick look using slatted cedar timbers

laid horizontally all the way around,

and because the boundaries all have the same finish,

it creates a lovely harmonious, cohesive look to the space.

You don't have to splash out loads of cash,

you can get softwood timber and maybe stain it.

But this cedar... Well, it's classy, and it'll last a lifetime.

To find out how this outdoor room was created,

I caught up with garden's designer, Charlotte Rowe.

This can only be described as a very cool garden.

-It's very cool.

-Wouldn't mind it myself really.

-Nor me.

And you're blurring the indoors and the outdoors. How have you done that?

We were able to work really closely with the architect

and interior designers and the client.

So, for example, we wanted a pale stone out here.

We used limestone a lot.

We were able to make sure that the same stone was used inside and out.

So it's completely seamless right the way through the ground floor.

Then the colour palette used inside - a soft, browny colour -

we were able to bring that out here.

Using it in the pots there, in the furniture here.

But also we were wanting to reflect this wonderful capsule.

The use of the materials on that - the copper and the timber.

And that was reflected in the garden, as well.

The glass balustrade is so effective.

If you'd had something blocking the eye, from indoors to outdoors, it would ruin the effect.

Absolutely. When you come out, you have a through-view to the garden.

Nothing is stopping the view. It's fantastic.

Glass is what we always prefer, because it just looks amazing,

and it isn't difficult to maintain.

It just gives it a completely seamless look.

We like to divide the garden up in urban gardens

because it makes the space look bigger.

So we put the water feature here, and were able to make a journey through -

intersects through the Amelanchier lamarckii,

to the sitting area, and to the dining area.

You don't make a space look bigger

by having narrow beds at the side and a patch of lawn in the middle.

You do it by being more inventive with the space,

and breaking it up a bit and creating a journey.

This outdoor room maximises every inch of space.

But as day falls to night,

garden lighting transforms it into a magical setting.

It's really tempting to put big, bright lights all over the garden,

but it's not good for wildlife

and it's not good for the look of the garden, too.

What we're really looking for is something pretty low-key,

creating ambient light that drifts nicely through the whole space.

Level changes and steps should be lit for practical reasons.

Use energy efficient LEDs

to gently sweep light across the paving surface.

Down-lighters are great for emphasising design details.

And up-lighters are really good for raking across textures of tree trunks and walls.

But remember to subdue the light levels to keep things really moody.

And water lights enhanced the depth of this contemporary pond,

creating a lovely shimmering light that indirectly illuminates the garden.

Using garden lighting takes the idea of an outdoor room to greater heights,

one that you can enjoy both day and night.

I think the really important thing if you've a tiny garden

is to make the places you sit in attractive, so you want to go there.

Anyway, now I must deal with these plants

and get them properly stored.

Now the three basic plants here -

Cosmos atrosanguineus, dahlia and the canna -

all have slightly different ways of seeing them through the winter.

If we take the chocolate cosmos first...it's still in good nick.

There are buds on there, flowers that will go on growing,

so I'm going to put this into an individual pot

so I can keep it flowering outside until the risk of frost is really there.

I want to make the most of it.

It doesn't have to be cut back necessarily.

You're not looking to store its roots in particular,

but it can be kept as an entire plant.

Then, when it's finished flowering, you just cut it back a bit,

and pop the whole pot into a frost-free place.

A cold frame will do the job ideally.

So that's the easiest of the lot. Next up...

is the canna.

You can see, this has got big, fleshy roots,

and you can see there are shoots coming from it.

As the temperatures drop we want to keep it alive, keep it happy,

but suppress its desire to grow.

And the important thing is to keep it moist.

Not let it dry out too much.

Just get a bag. I use old potting compost bags. And pop it in.

And this will keep in the moisture, keep it dark.

Now that can be put anywhere that is frost-free and not too warm.

But, of course, do remember to label it. Really important.

This is where dahlias come in.

Because if you have a dahlia, like this one,

which is Bishop of Llandaff, just cut it back a little bit more,

so we can take that back like that and like that.

All this extra growth, cos we don't need it and it's not going to stay.

That is ready to dry out, but we don't want it to dry out completely.

So the best thing to do is leave it where the soil can start to dry,

the top growth can dry off, so plenty of ventilation.

It's really important to label dahlias.

You'll THINK you'll remember what it is, but you won't.

Not if you're anything remotely like me!

That can sit for a week.

In a week's time,

I'll show you what the next stage of storing dahlias is.

But here are some other things you can do right now, this weekend.

Although the changing colour of trees and their foliage

is one of the glories of the season,

it does bring with it a few problems for pond-owners.

Because leaves in the water will sink, decompose and add nutrients

and that, in turn, will feed weed and algae next season.

So clear them out regularly.

It's one of those jobs it's better to do little and often.

Good for a piece of quiet contemplation.

If you're growing tender bulbs, like Galtonia or Eucomis,

they need lifting or protecting -

as they'll only be hardy to a few degrees of frost.

Dig them up and take them in under cover.

Trim off any loose leaves

and either pot into a very free-draining compost

and put them somewhere dry, like the greenhouse,

or simply let and the bulbs dry out and store them in a cool place.

If you have young salad plants growing,

they do need some protection if they're to last till next spring.

This is where cloches are useful.

Place cloches over the plants, but don't close the ends.

Ventilation is just as important as protection.

Right, that should protect them.

The leaves are started to stream off the trees,

but some trees and shrubs look fantastic with their bare silhouettes

and willows, or at least some of them,

are right there amongst the best of them.

I suppose the way that most of us think about willows

is in the spring, as pussy willows,

adorned with these delightful, fluffy yellow catkins.

But the willow family is huge, it's enormous.

There are hundreds of species,

scattered all over the Northern Hemisphere.

And there are 19 or so that are native to the British Isles.

And some of them are trees.

This is the common willow.

It's Salix cinerea.

And the closer you get, the more you're aware of the magical life

that's happening along these deeply-fissured branches.

All manner of soft mosses and beautiful lichens.

And every so often, here and there along the branches,

are these little colonies of the most exquisite tiny toadstools.

Absolutely magical!

We can't all find a space for something this big,

but the great thing about willow

is that there are so many varieties and forms to choose from.

Here in West Wales, Dave Clark has amassed a diverse collection

of more than 300 different willows.

Which one did you start with?

We started with some of the viminalis, some of the bigger ones,

and a few of the basket willows.

The viminalis are the stronger-growing ones.

And it was used a lot, especially in parts of Wales,

as a framework for coracles.

If you take a piece of willow and wrap it round your fist,

-if it doesn't break, then you can use it.

-Yeah.

So how long have people been making baskets then?

When they were doing Hadrian's Wall, they found a basket when they were excavating there.

So some of these willows may have been brought over by the Romans.

Yes. Almost certainly they were.

You've got willows that grow into bushes,

willows that grow into trees.

You've got willows which rabbits don't like.

Which are those?

Most of the purpureas, you've got, because they're bitter.

They have a high salicin content, which is where aspirin came from.

So the rabbits are going to leave it alone unless they've got a headache!

But I want a willow that's going to be brilliant for wildlife.

-What would you recommend?

-I think Sekka is the best one.

-It only produces a bush.

-Yeah.

All the branches twist and go backwards

and forwards on themselves.

It attracts all the birds because nothing can get at them.

It has nice, bright, shiny leaves right the way up until December.

You've sold it!

-One of the things about willows is how easy it is to make more.

-It is.

And if you look at these little brown spots,

-that's where the roots will come from.

-Right.

So how many cuttings would you take from something like that?

Out of this one, I'd only take two.

The cuttings are about ten inches, but the interesting thing is

that if you planted this in the grass, you'd expect to see

between 18 inches and two foot of growth in the first year.

If you took a rubbish bag outside and put on the grass first

and went round it with a spade and pushed it into the grass,

and then planted that in the middle,

that would put out between seven and nine foot.

Right. That different? Just because of the competition from the grass.

Just because the competition from the grass.

Wouldn't you just love this in your garden?

This is Salix alba 'Yelverton'.

And you achieve this wonderful, glowing orange colour

by cutting it hard back.

Come March, or the beginning of April,

if you cut it down to the ground, up will come these lovely new shoots.

This is just a year's growth.

At first, that new growth is green,

but as autumn changes to winter and temperatures begin to plummet,

it manifests these beautiful orangey-red stems.

Positively sizzling!

In contrast to all those delightful willowy willows,

you come across something like this.

This is Salix magnifica,

with its resplendent thick, solidly-textured leaves.

And these gorgeous dark-red stems.

Some willows are superbly sensual.

If you touch the back of the leaves of this lovely Salix candida,

they're soft and fluffy, covered in down.

And so, too, are the stems. As soft as a deer's new antlers.

And once these leaves have fallen, it reveals these beautiful stems

and these buds swell and become quite round.

They're next year's catkins.

And I suppose that's the thing about willows.

It's not just what they are at the moment,

but what they're going to become

in all those various stages that they all go through.

And the anticipation of those lovely fluffy catkins next spring.

If you want more ideas about willows for your garden, go to our website.

Willows are lovely and they grow fantastically well round here,

but just one word of caution is because they grow so easily from cuttings,

there is a temptation to put them in everywhere

and that's what I did when we first came here to Longmeadow,

especially down by the dam garden.

And they go on growing, they become big trees.

And after about ten years, they're really quite difficult to move.

So, although they're easy to grow,

they're a little more difficult to get rid of,

so choose your site carefully.

Now, IF it was dry, I'd be planting broad beans now,

out in the vegetable garden.

But the chances of it being dry here at Longmeadow in autumn

are pretty remote. At the moment, it's absolutely sodden.

We've got heavy soil, it's a low-lying area and we've had a lot of rain.

The result of that is it could be wet right through till next spring,

which means that I wouldn't be able to get my broad beans out.

It doesn't mean to say that I can't sow broad beans.

They grow very well in pots and then can be planted out as young plants

as late as next March or April. I've collected my own seed.

These are the seeds of Crimson Flowered broad beans.

They're beautiful plants.

These lovely cherry-magenta coloured flowers.

And the beans are good to eat.

You just let the plant get mature and it looks as though it's died.

And then you harvest the brown pods

and inside are the slightly dried-up beans,

which of course is what you want.

You need to dry them a little bit more.

And what I do is simply spread them out in a seed tray

and leave them for one or two weeks.

You know they're ready when,

if you press them with your fingernail, there's no give.

Now these would stay ready to sow for at least a year.

Perfectly good to leave these to sow direct into the ground next spring.

But I want to get ahead.

Use a potting compost rather than a seed mix

because these might well stay in the pot for nearly six months.

So they need a little nutrition. And then just plant one seed per pot.

Push it in like that.

And of course if you can sow them outside, prepare the soil,

sow them about nine inches apart and then let them germinate.

The problem with having them outside is mice love them.

So in many ways, growing them in pots is a lot easier.

Now these will be perfectly happy in the cold frame without any extra heat.

The reason that cold frames work so well

is that they can protect plants from wind, rain

and, to a certain extent, cold

because when you close them down, they're nice and insulated.

But it is really important to open them up

and let the plants harden off from being exposed to the air.

# We're only making plans for Nigel

# We only want what's best for him... #

Now, Nigel has been off the programme.

He's been off games for a few weeks.

And lots and lots of you have written, emailed, tweeted,

all wanting to know where is he and how is he.

He's here and he's fine.

He had a freak accident, leaping for a ball

and he damaged his spine rather badly and that affected his legs.

But, through amazing treatment and recuperation,

he's recovering very well indeed.

We're expecting him to return to complete fitness by next spring.

Which is when he will be back in the garden again, won't you, Nige?

And I'll be back next Friday as normal.

So join me then. Bye bye. Come on, Nigel.

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