Episode 20 Gardeners' World

Hello and welcome to Gardeners' World.

By August, any pot, however rich the compost mix, will be

feeling pretty exhausted if it's had to produce a really vibrant display.

Obviously you want that display to keep

going on for as long as possible.

So now is the time to start feeding all your containers.

I'm giving these some comfrey that is home-made,

but a general purpose tomato-feed would do the job,

liquid seaweed,

anything that isn't too high in nitrogen or got plenty of potash

will keep the flower buds producing right on for the whole of August

and well into September.

This week, Carol returns to our first-time gardeners, Dan and

Dominique, to show them how to keep their borders looking their best.

And how to propagate favourite plants.

It is thrilling, propagation,

because you really get to know your plants much more intimately

and it is lovely to see things that you've helped to create.

And Rachel visits Coleton Fishacre in South Devon,

where they've created a microclimate

and can grow a fantastic array of exotic plants.

-You're showing off here. You've got that!

-A bird of paradise.

Yes, that's amazing! Very jealous.

And I shall be doing some hedge cutting, and harvesting

the ingredients from the garden to make a delicious ratatouille.

It sometimes worries me that I give the impression that gardening

is just about jobs and work.

Whereas in fact the pleasure you get as a result of that work is

far more important.

And if ever there was a moment when you can just revel, it is August.

The garden reaches a kind of state of ecstasy

and the best thing to do is just go along with it.

That's partly due to the year we've just had.

It's fantastic for all the plants like the cannas and the dahlias

and the nasturtiums, that love warm weather.

And just to walk round every morning looking for the new flowers and new

colours, accepting them in, realising that they are transitory

so therefore we really need to make the most of it, is to me

the greatest fun in all gardening.

I just noticed, talking of cannas, that this is australis.

It has worked its way up through this weeping pear.

So you have canna, weeping pear, and the clematis,

all growing together.

There you have a combination which I couldn't possibly have planned.

It's pure luck. And that's fabulous.

All I have to do in the garden is relish it.

On the other hand, it is worth starting to plan

and think about next summer, now.

The reason why it's good to plan for next year now is

because the garden has reached its fullness. It can't get any better.

But if we want to recreate this next year, weather willing, then

we really need to start to notice what is working and what isn't.

So, for example, I am really happy with the way,

here in the dual garden,

the buddleia, the zinnia and the calendula are all combining.

They are intensifying each other's existing richness.

So you need to notice as well, what is not working.

And there is a good example here.

This is a gladioli, which was bought and planted as a Plum Tart.

Now, Plum Tart should be lovely, burgundy, plum-coloured flowers.

But that's not Plum Tart. I suspect I've been delivered the wrong corms.

However, whatever the reason, it is

not working as it is, and I need to think about moving it.

Now, the great garden writer and plantswoman, Vita Sackville-West,

who of course made Sissinghurst,

came up with this tip for finding the right home for plants next year.

You cut a stem, in which case I'm going to go right down

the bottom, and then you take the flower to where it might be at home.

Just keep trying lots of different places. That's no good.

You can see, for example,

that that colour combination just doesn't work at all.

Come, Nige.

Here in the cottage garden, the colour scheme is very different.

It is very random and eclectic,

but there are a lot of soft pastels, as well as richer colours.

You see, I think that is working much better.

I've got a bit of string.

As long as that holds for the rest of the day, that is plenty.

And immediately, that looks much more at home to me.

Going round the garden, just making delicate adjustments by cutting

flowers and moving them

to a potential new home is a very good way of planning for next year.

But of course another great way is to get out, go and visit other

gardens, get inspirations and ideas from what other people are doing.

And there are thousands open at this time of year.

The RHS, for example, as well as their main gardens,

have over 140 partner gardens.

And Rachel went to one of them.

Coleton Fishacre in Devon, where they created a microclimate which

has enabled them to grow an extraordinary range of plants.

When Rupert and Lady Dorothy D'Oyly Carte

were exploring the South Devon coast in their yacht in the 1920s

they came across a cove with an unspoilt valley,

fed by a stream with a blissfully warm climate and unparalleled views.

And they knew that they'd found the perfect spot

to build a holiday home and create a brand-new garden.

This is Coleton Fishacre.

Rupert D'Oyly Carte was the son of the theatre impresario

behind the famed Gilbert and Sullivan operas,

who also built and ran the Savoy Theatre, and iconic Savoy Hotel.

He and his wife wanted to find somewhere

to enjoy a slower pace of life.

This is the wall of the old quarry from which they took the stone

to build the house, but it's now just this amazing backdrop for all

these azure blue agapanthus.

But this is just a tantalising glimpse of what is to come.

Whilst the house was being built,

the D'Oyly Cartes set about creating their dream garden.

Because we are so close to the sea here,

they knew they would have to provide some sort of protection

from those salt-laden sea winds.

So they planted a shelter belt,

these trees along here, the pines, the home oaks,

and by doing so, created a microclimate

which was perfect for growing the tender and exotic plants they loved.

Senior gardener Martin Pepper has the enviable task

of working in perhaps one of the most idyllic settings

I have ever seen.

I do love the way you've got the house there,

just sort of really nestling in all that greenery.

How important, do you think, was making a garden

to the D'Oyly Cartes,

when they arrived and saw this plot of land?

They were both keen gardeners.

They kept plant records, and with some of their records

we know what plants they liked.

The phrase we latched onto,

they were quite dynamic and experimental in their planting,

so we feel we can follow that, to a certain extent.

Lady Dorothy liked pastel colours.

And so we planted this up with a mixture

of hardy and half-hardy annuals.

And I think Lady Dorothy would have liked it very well.

This dahlia is the one which has immediately caught my eye.

That's Dahlia merckii and it's very graceful.

It does really complement the borders.

And also lots of salvias in these parts.

We do like to go with salvias. They last well into the end of season.

This will still be giving good colour at the start of November.

And I have to say, these soft pastels, these are exactly

my type of colours, I feel very at home here.

But what about Rupert? Did he share his wife's taste?

He liked hot and jazzy colours.

-Something completely different!

-Something completely different.

Wow! You are quite right.

I mean, this is hot, hot, hot! Amazing!

It's interesting this area was made to suit Rupert.

To my eye, it is quite a masculine style of planting.

You've got a lot of repetition, and big blocks of the same plant as well.

I think Rupert would have liked this,

he tried to go for, as you say, the hot colours.

They contrast so well against this bluey-grey stone.

You've obviously got quite a lot of tender plants.

The cannas, dahlias, alstrolomerias, and so on.

How do you manage them in this garden?

We are very lucky, we just leave them in the ground for the winter.

I am very jealous.

In fact, we have been known to lift the cannas, divide them

and put them back in the autumn,

whereas normally you would be bringing them out in May.

We have tree ferns at the bottom of the garden and I see on

Gardeners' World, you're carefully wrapping them up for the winter.

-Yes.

-I think, thank goodness we do not have to do that!

In fact, we do get the odd seedling of tree ferns coming

-up in the garden, it is that mild.

-They're that happy.

-Yes.

There are also some cacti down there.

-Do you leave these out all year? Surely not.

-Yes, we do.

You have to remember,

in the desert the night temperatures can fall quite a lot.

We don't get too hard a frost here

-so I think that has a lot to do with it.

-That magic of the South West.

Speaking of which, you are showing off here, you have got that.

Yes, rather pleased with that, that's a bird of paradise,

-Strelitzia.

-Yes.

-That is amazing.

-You do know, it is plastic!

By designing a garden, from the outset, to offer protection to a huge

range of plants, there are some absolute treasures here,

like this Tigridia, which is a member of the iris family.

It comes from Mexico.

And I have loved seeing a completely different palette of plants to

those I grow in my own garden.

But the only danger with seeing gardens like this

when you are on holiday, is you may not want to leave.

Of course, you can

create a microclimate simply by planting a hedge in your garden.

If you know your garden well,

and know where the winds blow or the cold corner or even

the particular sunny spot, you can

plant your hedges accordingly and create an area where plants

would otherwise not thrive, and they will do very well for you.

But, if you have got hedges, you must maintain them

and now is the best time to trim the hedges.

You want to leave it until well into July

so that nesting birds can finish raising their broods,

and sometimes they can raise as many as three in a mild year.

So don't be too soon for that.

When you are cutting hedges in summer, the idea is to trim them.

You are not trying to dramatically reshape them.

You can see that a trim hedge tightens everything up,

it sharpens it.

It is sort of like ironing a shirt, which you might say is rich,

coming from me!

But apparently, other people iron shirts and it looks smart.

By cutting them back at this time,

it keeps it crisp right through into winter.

But the important thing is, just cut off the new growth.

If you cut too hard, the hedge can look very bare

and it doesn't regrow before next year.

When you prune in winter, you can cut back as hard as you like,

right into old wood. That will shape it.

The new growth will come from the point where you cut.

So essentially, you trim in the summer and cut in winter.

One of the things that I have done in several places

here at Longmeadow is to cut windows.

The point of it is to see through something that adds to the

garden, it's a borrowed view.

So, the first thing to do is to recover the cleanness of the view

and the outline by trimming it up.

I would say, always, always wear goggles when you hedge cut.

If you're surrounded by buildings, roads or whatever,

what you can do is cut an alcove to put a seat in.

Or cut back to a fence and put a mirror in.

It is important if you are cutting something fairly precise to keep

standing back and having a look.

I can see I have got a wonky line there, I need to straighten it up.

The point is,

you are putting your attention onto making

the hedge into something interesting and beautiful,

rather than just seeing it as a backdrop for other plants.

That's better. Now we have got a good view.

If you have got a window in a hedge, one of the secrets is keep it small.

Don't be tempted to have a great panoramic view, cos

if you want that then don't have a hedge there in the first place.

A glimpse is enticing.

Throughout this year, Carol has been visiting Dan

and Dom, to help them create a beautiful garden.

She has been back to see them, not just to help them develop it

and maintain it so it keeps looking good,

but also show them how they can carry that forward into next year.

Dan and Dom have been enjoying their new garden to the full.

They have created a place to relax, to grow food, entertain

and have somewhere safe for their daughter to play.

Their hard work has really paid off.

But looking to the future, to maintain their successful

start, there is always going to be work to do.

Oh, I love these tours because everything has come on

-so brilliantly. It looks wonderful.

-It is looking great.

-What are you most pleased with?

-It's tricky, there are quite a few.

The sweet peas, I love, they just smell heavenly. They are great.

The Cosmos has gone mad. It just keeps growing.

Look at your Rudbeckia just coming out.

I mean, look at the prospects in store, these Asters.

And this, do you remember when we brought that from the garden centre?

It was little and it has been in flower ever since.

It is a perennial wallflower, Erysium 'Bowles's Mauve',

so it does really do what it says on the packet.

It keeps on going.

You get to the stage where you think, "What am I going to do?"

Yes, they are all slowly migrating up.

It would be a good idea to take these out, I think. Just go for it.

But at the same time, you can make some cuttings

and make some new plants.

Take it right down as far as you can, material for your compost heap.

-OK, right.

-Do that with a few of them and that will expose some

of the shoots that are going to make the very best cuttings material.

Ideally, you always want a shoot that is not going to flower.

That one there?

That looks perfect.

Just use this plastic bag to help them

retain as much moisture as possible.

A bit of drainage and then this, it is

any sort of multipurpose compost but preferably with lots of loam in it.

This looks like it has actually got some grit in it already.

Yes, that means everything is going to drain through really well.

Then the cutting. If you just strip the bottom leaves off.

We are going to nip that bud out,

and even if it didn't have a bud there, I would still nip

the top off, cos that will eventually make it branch out.

Just neaten that up and then push it in.

Up to the hilt.

That looks the best one.

Now, last stage is to put some grit on the top.

It is to keep weeds out and it is to stop these rotting.

It wants one really good drenching now.

I think it is rather wonderful to have the prospect of all

those new plans to fill your garden with next year.

But meanwhile, there are a few problems that need dealing with

-and there is no time like the present.

-Weeds.

Yes, quite apart from aesthetics, the reason for getting

rid of weeds is because they compete for resources.

It is a great idea to stay on top of them, get rid of them

when you can. There are two sorts of weeds, basically.

Annual weeds - if it is something that you can easily scrag out

and it seeds furiously, very quickly,

it is almost certain to be an annual. But then, there are

perennial weeds and they are the real baddies. Dandelions, docks.

-Got those.

-You've got them!

With them, you really have to make sure you remove all the root.

If you just look in a little patch like this,

you have got bittercress down here that has already seeded.

-So that is an annual?

-That is an annual, yes.

-This is an annual, very handsome one.

-Yes, it is cute.

This is a willowherb.

Here's a good example of a perennial weed, this is a creeping

buttercup and it has already started to do what it says.

So you want to get that out, get the crown of the plant out with

a little fork or something.

-Oh, yeah!

-Yeah!

-That is a goodly amount, isn't it?

-Getting there, aren't we?

Now all we need to do is put this on the compost.

-Have you got a compost heap?

-We have.

It's down the side of the shed.

What is it doing there?!

We thought it would be a good idea because it is on concrete.

The compost has got to be sitting on the earth

because there is going to be all this interaction with microbes,

just moving backwards and forwards, worms too, all that activity.

You're really going to have to move it. Single-handed!

What do you think, a little to the left? No, it's fine!

-We are in danger of using it there as well, which is quite good.

-Yes.

I think all the stuff that was in it before can go in.

That's great because it is always good to turn your compost heap.

I think the thing is, when people have tiny gardens and they have

just got grass, it often turns into a sludgy mess.

So it is a great idea if you're in that situation,

to include lots of newspaper screwed up, pieces of cardboard,

to introduce more oxygen and get the grass to rot down.

I kind of feel there must be a load more

stuff that we are currently not adding.

-It gets the chicken stuff and it gets...

-The grass clippings.

Any kind of vegetable waste and any kitchen waste,

as long as it is on the vegetable side, all good stuff.

-All grist to the mill.

-So you're doing more weeding.

I will go and sort out the compost. I know what I would rather be doing.

-Me too, come on.

-Yes, me too!

The summer garden is looking really good but next time,

I am taking Dom and Dan to visit a garden that celebrates autumn

in spectacular fashion.

For inspiration, to get some autumn interest into their own garden.

Normally, by August, we would have cut all the box

hedges in the garden and they would be looking trim and neat.

But for the first time in 20 years, we have left them uncut

and that is because the box blight has spread.

With the humid, hot weather that we have had over the last

couple of months, it is ideal conditions for the fungus.

So it is looking bad.

However, if you have got box blight,

the first thing is not to cut the hedges,

because that leaves wounds and it weakens the plant,

gives an entry point for the fungus and the plant can't resist.

It also encourages a flush of new growth

and it is new, fresh growth that is most liable to be hit by the blight.

So leave it. It will look shaggy, but leave it uncut.

This, by the way, is not a cure for box blight, it is

just one way of combating it.

That is all pretty depressing,

but here are some positive jobs that you can get on with this weekend.

If, like me, you took lavender and rosemary cuttings earlier in

the summer, they should have rooted and it is time to pot them on.

Lift them out of the pot and carefully break them

apart without damaging the roots.

Pot each one into a very free-draining compost,

and you don't need too big a pot.

Water them, then put them somewhere sheltered where

they can stay all winter, ready to plant out next spring.

It is a good idea to take the tops out of any tomato cordons

that have reached six foot tall.

This will divert the plant's energies into growing

and ripening existing fruit before the end of summer.

It is time to sow salad crops for autumn and winter.

If you don't have a greenhouse, sow them direct outside,

keep them thinned and water them well.

If you do have a greenhouse, sow them in a seed tray.

Grow them on under cover, prick them out so they are ready to be planted

individually when the greenhouse has been emptied of tomatoes.

What really matters is that you do this soon

so the plants have a chance to grow strongly before the light fades

and the weather gets colder.

Once you get to August, there is

a tendency to have masses of lettuce and then it can all bolt

and you suddenly find you don't have any at all.

The secret is just to have a constant supply, some you sow,

some that are seedlings, some that are ready to be harvested

so there is a gentle overlap, a relay sequence, rather than a glut.

As well as sowing some,

I have got some seedlings here that were sown about four weeks ago.

You can still buy them, this is a salad bowl type.

I am planting these about nine inches apart,

they are cut and come again variety.

If it is a mild winter, in fact, they can stay in all winter

and they will regrow again next spring.

The irony of watering in the rain, but it is really

important to keep lettuce watered at this time of year.

If they get dry, they never recover.

So even if it is raining, once you have planted them, water them.

Right, they've had a good start in life

and they should be ready to harvest in about two to three weeks' time.

But I have got a good selection of vegetables that are perfect

right now.

It has been a really good year for courgettes.

I have got two types in here.

I have got a green one, called 'Black Beauty'.

And a yellow or golden one, called 'Gold Rush'.

To be honest, they taste pretty similar to me. But they look lovely.

If you want to keep courgettes going, keep cutting them.

That will provoke new flowers and therefore new fruits.

Leave them to develop. At this time of year,

they will very quickly close down and you won't get any more.

Courgettes, the first ingredient.

The tomatoes have grown well this year

and they have been ripening steadily for about the last month.

We have been eating them for the last three weeks.

These are both Italian, beefsteak, ribbed tomatoes, lovely

when eaten raw and very good when cooked.

We have got 'Gardener's Delight', familiar cherry tomato.

Again, great raw, but I like to cook them too.

It's nice and juicy. Very tasty.

And genuinely nicer than any tomato I have ever bought.

A few chillies, some garlic, now for some beans.

This is a purple bean, called 'Blauhilde'. It looks lovely.

It cooks green, which is a pity, because it would be nice

if it kept the colour.

But it will be great as a final ingredient for ratatouille.

You can have all sorts of things in it, but I like to have beans

in it, definitely tomatoes, courgettes, a bit of garlic.

Well, that is a really colourful taste of summer.

That's it for this week.

We're not on next week, because there are athletics.

In four months' time we have got a special

programme from RHS Hyde Hall in Essex.

So I will see you then. Bye-bye.