0:00:00 > 0:00:04Now, most of us have taken a bit of a battering over the last few weeks.
0:00:04 > 0:00:06It's been very wet almost everywhere.
0:00:06 > 0:00:08It's been pretty windy in a lot of places, too,
0:00:08 > 0:00:13and our gardens are beginning to look a bit wrecked.
0:00:13 > 0:00:16The last few months we've been holding on to summer,
0:00:16 > 0:00:19we've been talking about it fading away.
0:00:19 > 0:00:21Well, it's gone. It's over.
0:00:21 > 0:00:25And actually, that's a good thing, because this is a new beginning.
0:00:25 > 0:00:28Now is the time to start planting and acting for next year.
0:00:32 > 0:00:35This week, Joe is finding out why recycling
0:00:35 > 0:00:40is at the heart of designers Wayne and Geraldine Hemingway's garden.
0:00:40 > 0:00:58Well, I was expecting a designer garden,
0:00:58 > 0:01:00It will be quite hard to leave it.
0:01:01 > 0:01:04And Carol visits Coughton Court to explore
0:01:04 > 0:01:08the history of the most romantic plant to be found in any garden.
0:01:09 > 0:01:13Who could afford to be without an old rose or two?
0:01:13 > 0:01:17Not only will it bring you glamour and wonderful fragrance,
0:01:17 > 0:01:21but it'll be a living piece of history right there in your garden.
0:01:40 > 0:01:41There you go.
0:01:41 > 0:01:46Now, the cottage garden is slowly coming into being.
0:01:46 > 0:01:49Used to be all vegetables in here, and over the last year or so
0:01:49 > 0:02:07we've gradually introduced more and more flowers,
0:02:07 > 0:02:09We've got an empty bed now,
0:02:09 > 0:02:13and a great chance to start introducing some flowers.
0:02:13 > 0:02:16And the bones of any flower border are shrubs.
0:02:16 > 0:02:19This is a really good time to be planting shrubs of any kind,
0:02:19 > 0:02:20and particularly roses.
0:02:23 > 0:02:26Now, I want to plant three groups in this border,
0:02:26 > 0:02:28and I'm introducing a new colour, which is yellow.
0:02:28 > 0:02:31Do you know, I've never planted a yellow rose in my life?
0:02:31 > 0:02:35What I'm planting here is a rose called The Pilgrim.
0:02:35 > 0:02:40It's a modern rose, introduced just in 1991,
0:02:40 > 0:02:42and has the most beautiful,
0:02:42 > 0:02:46soft, ruffled, primrose-yellow flower
0:02:46 > 0:02:49with a slight flush of pink at the base.
0:02:49 > 0:02:53And a really distinctive fragrance of myrrh.
0:02:53 > 0:02:57What I like to do with roses is dig a really substantial hole
0:02:57 > 0:02:59and put them all in the same hole,
0:02:59 > 0:03:17so what you end up with is one whopping shrub.
0:03:17 > 0:03:20But there's no need to add compost or manure directly
0:03:20 > 0:03:21to the planting-hole.
0:03:23 > 0:03:27Now, if I loosen the bottom so that the roots can work their way down...
0:03:29 > 0:03:34What I will add is some mycorrhizal powder.
0:03:34 > 0:03:36And it's very easy to buy - every garden centre sells it.
0:03:36 > 0:03:39Sprinkle it on, just as I am here.
0:03:39 > 0:03:44The fungus acts as a conduit between the soil and the roots.
0:03:44 > 0:03:47Plants will build that conduit in time themselves,
0:03:47 > 0:03:51but by supplying it from the outset, they take nutrition quicker.
0:03:51 > 0:03:53So, they establish more quickly and strongly,
0:03:53 > 0:03:56and therefore you get a healthier plant.
0:03:57 > 0:03:59Now, obviously,
0:03:59 > 0:04:05planting three roses where one eventually would do is extravagant.
0:04:05 > 0:04:08A shrub rose like this will cost you
0:04:08 > 0:04:27somewhere between ten and twenty quid, and, you know, that adds up.
0:04:28 > 0:04:29What watering does,
0:04:29 > 0:04:32as well as providing moisture for the plants,
0:04:32 > 0:04:34it's just as important
0:04:34 > 0:04:37that it pushes the soil in and around the roots.
0:04:40 > 0:04:42Mulch is important for two reasons -
0:04:42 > 0:04:46one, because it will feed them, to a degree,
0:04:46 > 0:04:48and two, because it will keep moisture in.
0:04:48 > 0:04:51And then they can be mulched again, if need be, in spring.
0:04:56 > 0:04:57There you go.
0:04:57 > 0:04:59Planted.
0:04:59 > 0:05:03Now, this is a new rose, introduced 20 years ago,
0:05:03 > 0:05:05and it's new to me, new to this garden.
0:05:05 > 0:05:10But Carol has been looking at the history of old roses.
0:05:10 > 0:05:11And their beauty, too.
0:05:36 > 0:05:38The Persians, the Medes,
0:05:38 > 0:05:41the Egyptians, the Romans, the Greeks.
0:05:41 > 0:05:46They didn't just admire it in the wild, they wanted it closer to home.
0:05:46 > 0:05:48They brought it into their gardens.
0:05:48 > 0:05:50It wasn't just part of their culture,
0:05:50 > 0:05:52but their horticulture, too.
0:05:54 > 0:05:57Almost certainly, the rose that Romans grew
0:05:57 > 0:06:02in their villa gardens was a form of Rosa gallica.
0:06:02 > 0:06:04Now, this is Rosa complicata,
0:06:04 > 0:06:07and it has gallica as one of its parents.
0:06:07 > 0:06:11And it gives us a real idea of the sort of roses you would have
0:06:11 > 0:06:14seen if you'd walked into one of those gardens.
0:06:19 > 0:06:20There's a fresco from Pompeii
0:06:20 > 0:06:24which clearly shows a rose tied to a cane.
0:06:24 > 0:06:26But it seems to have extra petals,
0:06:26 > 0:06:47a sure sign that not only were they cultivating roses,
0:06:54 > 0:06:58Gallica roses would have been grown by all those ancient civilisations
0:06:58 > 0:07:03across the region, but eventually they made their way to England.
0:07:03 > 0:07:07This is one of the first of those gallica roses on record.
0:07:07 > 0:07:10This is rosa Rosa mundi.
0:07:10 > 0:07:14It's documented as being around from Tudor times
0:07:14 > 0:07:18but it probably dates back to centuries before that.
0:07:18 > 0:07:22It's said to have been named after the fair Rosamund,
0:07:22 > 0:07:24the mistress of Henry II.
0:07:24 > 0:07:27They lived in the 12th century.
0:07:27 > 0:07:31Sadly, she was put to death by Henry's jealous wife.
0:07:38 > 0:07:57But this rose remains, as a tribute to her beauty.
0:08:07 > 0:08:10here's one story that rosa Rosa mundi
0:08:10 > 0:08:15may have been brought back from the Holy Land during the crusades.
0:08:15 > 0:08:18Many roses were cultivated in that area.
0:08:18 > 0:08:24And it wasn't just gallicas, it was roses like this beautiful damask.
0:08:24 > 0:08:27This is a rose called Ispahan.
0:08:27 > 0:08:30It's named after an ancient Persian city.
0:08:30 > 0:08:33These roses were particularly valued for their scent,
0:08:33 > 0:08:36their delightful perfume.
0:08:36 > 0:08:38In fact, attar of roses
0:08:38 > 0:08:41was distilled from these wonderful flowers,
0:08:41 > 0:08:44and conserves and confections were made from it too.
0:08:44 > 0:08:46Things like Turkish delight.
0:08:46 > 0:09:07You can just imagine the taste and smell of those things.
0:09:07 > 0:09:11Their flowering only lasts for a few short weeks.
0:09:16 > 0:09:21The hunt was on to try and ensure that roses flowered all summer long.
0:09:23 > 0:09:26We tend to think of all our ancient civilisations growing roses,
0:09:26 > 0:09:30but of course, roses is a hugely widespread genus.
0:09:32 > 0:09:35The Chinese have been growing roses, cultivating them,
0:09:35 > 0:09:38treasuring them for hundreds of years.
0:09:38 > 0:09:43And it was a serendipitous meeting between East and West
0:09:43 > 0:09:47that really played a huge role in the development of the rose.
0:09:48 > 0:09:53In the middle of the Indian Ocean lies the Isle de Bourbon.
0:09:53 > 0:09:56It was here that French traders
0:09:56 > 0:10:19and Chinese traders brought their wares, including their roses.
0:10:19 > 0:10:25More imports from China flooded in, including yellow roses.
0:10:29 > 0:10:30The stage was now set
0:10:30 > 0:10:35for the kaleidoscopic range of roses which grace our gardens today.
0:10:48 > 0:10:54It's been a mild autumn, but even the courgettes are coming to an end
0:10:54 > 0:10:56and time to clear them away.
0:10:56 > 0:11:01In fact, it has been a really, really good year for courgettes.
0:11:01 > 0:11:06And that applies to pretty much all fruiting plants.
0:11:28 > 0:11:31which was very late, everything caught up.
0:11:34 > 0:11:39I think this year has been a really good example of how you need
0:11:39 > 0:11:43to both respond to what the weather is actually doing,
0:11:43 > 0:11:45rather than doing everything by the book,
0:11:45 > 0:11:48and also spreading things a little bit,
0:11:48 > 0:11:51so if you sow all your lettuce seeds in one go
0:11:51 > 0:11:53or all of your peas at one point
0:11:53 > 0:11:56and then you get a really cold snap, you are going to lose them,
0:11:56 > 0:11:58or they will not do very well, so look at succession.
0:11:58 > 0:12:03Divide seeds up into two or three lots and split them up
0:12:03 > 0:12:07and the chances are, if one lot fails, another will succeed.
0:12:17 > 0:12:39Most of us move house at some time or other in our lives,
0:12:46 > 0:12:49The first thing that attracted us to this house was the garden.
0:12:51 > 0:12:55We moved here in August 16th of 1985,
0:12:55 > 0:13:00which now makes it 28 years that we have been here.
0:13:00 > 0:13:02We absolutely loved it.
0:13:02 > 0:13:07The first thing we did do was the garden and not the house,
0:13:07 > 0:13:09just got stuck in with it, really.
0:13:10 > 0:13:12We always loved gardening,
0:13:12 > 0:13:15even when we were extremely young.
0:13:15 > 0:13:20I do like roses, and I also like clematis in particular.
0:13:20 > 0:13:22I like most plants, to be quite truthful.
0:13:22 > 0:13:25Every time something is in flower, that is my favourite plant.
0:13:25 > 0:13:27That's how gardening is, really.
0:13:48 > 0:13:52It will be quite hard to leave it, but we have got to be sensible.
0:13:52 > 0:13:57It will be nice to be a bit more relaxed with a smaller garden.
0:13:59 > 0:14:01We'll be taking plants with us,
0:14:01 > 0:14:03we had to leave all the plants in the borders
0:14:03 > 0:14:07because that is part of the sale, but we have so many plants potted up
0:14:07 > 0:14:11already that there is quite a number coming with us.
0:14:13 > 0:14:18I decided I would divide two or three of the perennial plants.
0:14:18 > 0:14:22I can take a section with me
0:14:22 > 0:14:27and also, it will rejuvenate the plant which we put back in place.
0:14:27 > 0:14:32This one here is Aruncus aethusifolius. Strange name.
0:14:32 > 0:14:36It's a dwarf Aruncus, really nice plant. One that I want to have.
0:15:04 > 0:15:06This is the one that is going to Cheshire.
0:15:06 > 0:15:09It doesn't look much at the moment, but it will soon take.
0:15:21 > 0:15:24At one time, we had hundreds of begonias in the garden.
0:15:24 > 0:15:28For the new garden, we will want more permanent plants,
0:15:28 > 0:15:31but however, I do like this particular begonia.
0:15:31 > 0:15:35It's Royal Renaissance Flamboyant.
0:15:35 > 0:15:38I will dig them up, dry them off in the greenhouse
0:15:38 > 0:15:40and then we'll take a few tubers with us.
0:16:07 > 0:16:12It is secluded and in the summertime, it is just really nice.
0:16:12 > 0:16:15Rudi, the cat that we had before, he is buried up in that garden,
0:16:15 > 0:16:17that was his favourite place.
0:16:17 > 0:16:19He was a big, brown Burmese, a beautiful cat,
0:16:19 > 0:16:21so I just like being there.
0:16:21 > 0:16:22I usually say "Hello, Rudi"
0:16:22 > 0:16:24every morning to him when I pass.
0:16:26 > 0:16:30I came across a peony called "My Pal Rudi"
0:16:30 > 0:16:31and because the cat was called Rudi,
0:16:31 > 0:16:34I bought the peony and it is really nice as well.
0:16:34 > 0:16:38It's a big, blousy bloom, but it is beautiful, perfumed as well,
0:16:38 > 0:16:39which is nice.
0:16:44 > 0:16:47That is one plant that has to come out of the border.
0:16:47 > 0:16:50I am sure the new owners will understand we had to take that one.
0:16:54 > 0:16:58It's looking a sorry state, but I'm sure it will come away nicely.
0:17:33 > 0:17:38Whoever buys that house is getting a beautiful garden as well.
0:17:38 > 0:17:40I've got it here, Nige!
0:17:53 > 0:17:57This is my asparagus bed, and it is not happy.
0:17:57 > 0:18:00I planted this in the spring of 2011.
0:18:00 > 0:18:04By now, I would expect the ferns to be all six foot tall
0:18:04 > 0:18:07and really thick and strong.
0:18:07 > 0:18:29They're not. This is as good as they have been since I planted them.
0:18:29 > 0:18:31I think that is as much as anything else
0:18:31 > 0:18:34to do with the weather over the past few years.
0:18:34 > 0:18:38If you remember we had that miserable, cold, wet summer of 2011,
0:18:38 > 0:18:41that was the first one after planting.
0:18:41 > 0:18:462012 wasn't a lot better, and then a very cold spring this year,
0:18:46 > 0:18:48just as the asparagus was expected to get going.
0:18:48 > 0:18:51It just hasn't established properly. In a way, that is good news,
0:18:51 > 0:18:54because it means there is nothing wrong with the crop,
0:18:54 > 0:18:58nothing wrong with the way I am growing it, it is just bad luck.
0:18:58 > 0:19:00For the first few years of any asparagus,
0:19:00 > 0:19:02you don't harvest it at all.
0:19:02 > 0:19:04You let the roots establish.
0:19:04 > 0:19:09And part of that process is letting them die back in autumn,
0:19:09 > 0:19:12because that feeds into the roots, and then cutting them back
0:19:12 > 0:19:14and mulching them heavily.
0:19:38 > 0:19:41is one of life's great, great delights.
0:19:45 > 0:19:48Now, not everybody grows asparagus
0:19:48 > 0:19:51but here are some jobs that you can all be doing this weekend.
0:19:57 > 0:20:01I suspect that we've all got too many packets of seed
0:20:01 > 0:20:04that are either past their sell-by date
0:20:04 > 0:20:07or have been half-used for more than a year.
0:20:08 > 0:20:13It's a good time to go through your seeds and ruthlessly sort them out.
0:20:13 > 0:20:17Any that are more than a year past their sell-by date
0:20:17 > 0:20:18should be discarded.
0:20:18 > 0:20:21And if you have far too many of one type,
0:20:21 > 0:20:23you know what not to order next year.
0:20:28 > 0:20:47Artichokes are hearty, as long as they don't get wet and cold.
0:20:49 > 0:20:53The leaves are streaming off the trees by the day.
0:20:53 > 0:20:56But it's important not to waste a single one.
0:20:56 > 0:21:00Rake them up. If you can chop them by mowing them, so much the better,
0:21:00 > 0:21:03and store them in a loose, open-sided container.
0:21:05 > 0:21:08Make sure they're damp and then leave them for a year,
0:21:08 > 0:21:12and they will turn into lovely leaf mould,
0:21:12 > 0:21:15which is a superb addition to potting compost,
0:21:15 > 0:21:16as well as a useful mulch.
0:21:21 > 0:21:25Wayne and Gerardine Hemingway are famous for the range
0:21:25 > 0:21:28and the distinctiveness of their designs,
0:21:28 > 0:21:31running from shoes to public housing projects,
0:21:31 > 0:21:34and this summer, Joe went to visit them at home
0:21:34 > 0:21:37to see how they applied their skills to their own garden.
0:21:57 > 0:22:01and his wife, Gerardine. Their leafy Sussex garden is dedicated
0:22:01 > 0:22:03to bringing the indoors out.
0:22:04 > 0:22:07You really live out here, don't you? It's an extension to the house,
0:22:07 > 0:22:10so there's a series of different, what I call "rooms" outdoors,
0:22:10 > 0:22:11from the circular lawn here
0:22:11 > 0:22:13to all the different elements in the garden.
0:22:13 > 0:22:15It's just so many different places you can go.
0:22:15 > 0:22:17She actually has to keep building and designing,
0:22:17 > 0:22:19so we've probably reached the extent
0:22:19 > 0:22:22of any planning permission we could get for this house,
0:22:22 > 0:22:24so the next stage is these outdoor rooms, isn't it?
0:22:24 > 0:22:26Did you draw it and is it part of a master plan,
0:22:26 > 0:22:29or has it grown more organically than that?
0:22:29 > 0:22:30A bit of the two, really.
0:22:30 > 0:22:33The basic for the circular lawn that we're stood in now
0:22:33 > 0:22:35was master plan and then it was a case of
0:22:35 > 0:22:36everything else sort of evolved.
0:22:36 > 0:22:38Can we go and have a look at the garden?
0:22:38 > 0:22:41Yep, we'll go and have a look at the first installation.
0:22:43 > 0:22:45This is our outdoor tepee.
0:22:45 > 0:22:47When we first built it, it's quite architectural.
0:22:47 > 0:23:09It's made out of recycled telegraph poles.
0:23:09 > 0:23:12It's got a lovely, jungly feel in here, I have to say.
0:23:12 > 0:23:14The wisterias are beautiful.
0:23:14 > 0:23:18I think we've got about 12 varieties of wisteria in the jungle walk
0:23:18 > 0:23:23and the evergreen, jasmine and clematis. It smells good.
0:23:23 > 0:23:25I can smell the wisteria. The scent gets contained.
0:23:25 > 0:23:27Just the right time of year, isn't it?
0:23:27 > 0:23:30Because you're looking out onto quite a manicured lawn, as well.
0:23:30 > 0:23:32This is sort of a reinvention
0:23:32 > 0:23:34of a classic pergola structure in a way,
0:23:34 > 0:23:38which had roses and wisteria, but it would have been much more formal,
0:23:38 > 0:23:40whereas it's just a bit looser, isn't it?
0:23:40 > 0:23:43I think because gardening is not my full-time job,
0:23:43 > 0:23:46it's a hobby, so it has to fit in with the time that you've got
0:23:46 > 0:23:50so if you try to be too pristine about things, it takes too long.
0:23:50 > 0:23:53But it also gives a lovely, relaxed style to the garden, as well.
0:23:53 > 0:23:55Some gardens are quite formal
0:23:55 > 0:24:16and you're not those sort of people, I guess.
0:24:16 > 0:24:18He wasn't going to sell it,
0:24:18 > 0:24:20he was just going to get rid of it, so we thought we'd take the lot.
0:24:20 > 0:24:22You've got a huge hedge of it there.
0:24:22 > 0:24:24You're got a massive hedge of it here.
0:24:24 > 0:24:27Gera harvests it every year for poles for your...
0:24:27 > 0:24:30Staking up the veg in the veg patch. Things like that.
0:24:30 > 0:24:34The chicken hutch through there, the chicken pen, it was the Wendy house
0:24:34 > 0:24:37the kids had when they were young, and that was built by Gera's dad.
0:24:37 > 0:24:38And he had a similar philosophy.
0:24:38 > 0:24:41Free-range kids, that was a term you've always used.
0:24:41 > 0:24:44Yeah, we were both lucky enough to be free-range kids.
0:24:44 > 0:24:49We both lived in working class areas but with access to outdoor space.
0:24:49 > 0:24:52So I'm getting a sense that some areas are more yours,
0:24:52 > 0:24:54and some areas are more yours
0:24:54 > 0:24:57in the garden, as far as ownership is concerned.
0:24:57 > 0:24:58Yeah. Say that's right?
0:24:58 > 0:25:02Yeah, I mean, Gerardine spends a lot of time doing the detail
0:25:02 > 0:25:04and knows about plants and loves plants
0:25:04 > 0:25:07and I like doing things that men like to do
0:25:07 > 0:25:26to prove we still are men. Hang on, what are you talking about?
0:25:26 > 0:25:29Flowers... The creative side of things.
0:25:29 > 0:25:30The planting and things like that.
0:25:30 > 0:25:33And the order. And you've got a vegetable garden.
0:25:33 > 0:25:35And the vegetable garden, as well.
0:25:38 > 0:25:40Oh, this is beautifully kept.
0:25:40 > 0:25:43Do you get any help with this or do you do it all yourself?
0:25:43 > 0:25:45No, I do it all myself, actually.
0:25:45 > 0:25:48The only help I get is when I need more compost bringing round.
0:25:48 > 0:25:50Wayne will go and fill the barrow with compost for me
0:25:50 > 0:25:51and bring it around.
0:25:51 > 0:25:54I absolutely love my compost heaps.
0:25:54 > 0:25:58Come and look at the compost. Proud of his compost heap.
0:25:58 > 0:25:59Beautiful stuff.
0:25:59 > 0:26:03I like digging into this and we've got three big piles
0:26:03 > 0:26:05which are over three years.
0:26:05 > 0:26:08The bottom of that's going to be five years old because...
0:26:08 > 0:26:13Five years old? So what we do is, we have three different piles.
0:26:13 > 0:26:14Lovely stuff. Lovely.
0:26:14 > 0:26:17We get somebody in once a year to turn it.
0:26:17 > 0:26:36Everything's sort of got that designer touch
0:26:36 > 0:26:39but it's also about the practicalities, isn't it?
0:26:39 > 0:26:41As a designer, you can actually live what you do
0:26:41 > 0:26:44in your work as well and you can bring all that together.
0:26:44 > 0:26:46You get things right.
0:26:46 > 0:26:51We don't design outside of our life and our knowledge base.
0:26:51 > 0:26:54When we're doing housing and when we're doing landscape,
0:26:54 > 0:26:57this is the perfect place to experiment, really.
0:26:57 > 0:26:58MUSIC PLAYS
0:27:03 > 0:27:04MUSIC STOPS
0:27:04 > 0:27:07There are times, at this time of year,
0:27:07 > 0:27:11when it's too wet, too dark or just too miserable
0:27:11 > 0:27:13to do anything outside,
0:27:13 > 0:27:18so this is when all those inside jobs can be tackled.
0:27:18 > 0:27:20One of the least glamorous,
0:27:20 > 0:27:23but actually really useful, is cleaning labels.
0:27:24 > 0:27:45We get through hundreds, if not thousands of labels every year.
0:27:45 > 0:27:47and it's not hard work at all,
0:27:47 > 0:27:52the writing of this supposedly indelible marker comes off.
0:27:54 > 0:27:57Hey, presto, you've got a new label.
0:27:57 > 0:28:02There are scores and scores more to be done, and it will take ages.
0:28:05 > 0:28:11But we shall be back next week for our last programme of this year.
0:28:11 > 0:28:13So I'll see you then. Bye-bye.