Episode 21 Gardeners' World

BIRD TWEETS

Hello, welcome to Gardeners' World.

Now, it's bank holiday weekend, which is

always a good time to get some real gardening done.

But it's also time to get out of the garden and go

and visit places to see what other people are doing.

And I've left Longmeadow

and come to Essex to visit the RHS's garden at Hyde Hall.

The garden is set on a windy hillside among 360 acres

of former farmland.

Like my own garden at Longmeadow, the soil here is heavy clay,

but unlike Longmeadow, this is a very dry place.

In fact, Essex has one of the lowest rainfalls in England.

Despite the challenges that these conditions impose,

the planting style here is varied,

from semiformal rose walks to colourful borders,

as well as their best-known feature - the Dry Garden.

This is the first time I've been to Hyde Hall,

and I made a beeline for these borders.

They're long borders, buttressed by yew,

and within each buttress is a different colour scheme.

And what's great about this is not only can you see

how individual plants work at representing the colour you want,

whether it be a lemon yellow or a pure white or a rich purple,

but also how they work together,

how to build up a palette.

And this kind of combination of inspiration and instruction,

as well as a nice day out, is just perfect when you visit a garden.

Also this week, we're marking the 50th anniversary of

Britain in Bloom by meeting a couple in Dorset

whose extraordinary front garden

never fails to make a big impression on judges and visitors alike.

A couple came and he said, "We come every year to see your garden

"and we've told our friends, and they come.

So I said, "Oh, I think I'll have a collection box!"

And Carol takes a closer look at the insects that live in our beds

and borders, and finds out about the good that they do for our gardens.

This is called the black clock.

It's very common. It's a fantastic predator.

They are great little pest controllers, really.

The gardens at Hyde Hall began in 1955,

when Helen and Dick Robinson bought

what was then a working arable farm...

..and began converting the land closest to the farmhouse

into what became a large and glorious garden.

In 1993, the Robinsons donated Hyde Hall to the RHS.

Now, the Robinsons were compulsive plant collectors,

and this area is known as the Robinson Garden, with a wide,

even eclectic range of plants that reflects their abiding passion.

Another part of Hyde Hall that I have long wanted to see is

the Dry Garden.

Of course, I do have a dry garden at Longmeadow but it's small

and not at all typical of the rest of the garden.

But this is ENORMOUS.

And it's a given - they can't change it.

It's on top of a hill, it's completely exposed,

and a really good example of how you can turn a situation which

might seem to be a problem into a distinct virtue.

'Gardens of this size need a guiding vision,

'and this is provided by the curator, Ian Le Gros,

'who has worked here man and boy.'

-I know that this is a very dry place...

-Yeah.

..but making a dry garden like this wasn't just

a question of bunging in plants that are vaguely suitable, was it?

No, there's a little bit more to it than that.

Ideally, south, south-westerly facing aspect,

-and also we have to make sure that you get the winter wet away.

-Right.

So there's a lot of...

a drainage pipe along the pathways, the rocks,

and underneath is hard core.

And then there's about 400 millimetres of topsoil that

we've mixed with sharp sand and grit to about 50%.

And do you ever water it?

The only time you'll find us watering it is if we replace something,

renewed something, any sort of new plantings.

Then it's watered for about six to eight weeks till it's established

and then, after that, it's pretty well on its own.

The mulching helps, with the stones.

Yeah, I noticed you're mulching with pebbles,

-which keeps it nice and cool underneath.

-It does, yeah.

Almost becomes self-irrigating.

On the bottom of the stones, the moisture builds up

and then it falls back into the soil.

-You have a wide range of plants that are thriving.

-Yeah, we do, we do.

What is your favourite at this time of year?

Not only this time of year, but it's been flowering for absolute ages -

Salvia uliginosa. It has just been flowering like that

for about two to three months already

and will keep going right into the autumn.

Lovely. Lovely, lovely plant.

And what is it you'd say characterises Hyde Hall? What...?

Because every good garden has a special feel,

something that sort of turns the key to its door.

Yeah, for me, it's always been the atmosphere of Hyde Hall.

It sits on this sort of strange clay hillock in what is reportedly

sort of flat Essex.

But it isn't - a lovely, rolling landscape going out.

And it's a garden that can talk to its landscape.

-And some of the views...

-What do you mean by "talk to its landscape"?

It's the way even the Dry Garden goes from quite extensive

level changes in the early part, but in this latter part,

it just gently rolls out, which is significant of the hills you can see

rolling off into the distance there.

And do you think that people coming here are getting that sense of,

-"I'd love to do this, I'm going to have a go."

-I do hope so.

Yeah, you do see loads of people asking the gardeners questions

and hopefully they are sort of inspired enough to go home to try

to reach a level of success and enjoy the journey.

It is not just through its gardens that the RHS offers

encouragement to garden lovers.

It's also involved in projects that bring inspiration closer to home.

This is the 50th anniversary of Britain in Bloom, which the

RHS has been very closely allied to.

And there, you get communities and individuals working together,

from small villages to large cities, even to front gardens.

We went down to Bournemouth to meet Margaret,

whose front garden is a bit special.

My theme for this year is the Red Arrows.

I've chosen it because this year is their 50th display season

and they come every year to Bournemouth.

And so I thought, "Why not?"

I've chosen these colours because, obviously, red white and blue...

The red is for the Arrows. This is representing the plane.

And the white and blue are the stream they throw out in the sky.

And, at the bottom, I tried to make the rings.

My hubby made the flags to make it look more like a plane.

But, obviously, I wear them out watering them,

and he has to replace them!

If you have a theme, it's more fun.

It all started with the Olympic Games. It was such an obvious thing.

Once you've done it once, then people going past say,

"Well, what are you going to do next year?"

The part I suppose I play with Margaret in the garden is...

I do not do flowers. I'm just not into flowers.

They're lovely, but I don't have the patience for that.

But what I do do is what I would call

the mechanical side of gardening.

I made the Red Arrows.

I did start off thinking I'd make an aeroplane

but it was a little bit impractical with the size of garden,

so I came up with the idea that if we just produce a Red Arrow,

a 4ft-long Red Arrow...

I obviously fitted them in the baskets

and then Margaret went off and has filled them up with plants.

I've chosen flowers that are going to last for the season, if I can.

I mean, it's been hard this year because it's very hot,

but New Guineas seem to stand up to the weather

cos we're near the sea and we get the wind.

That is the busy Lizzie family, but these seem to be hardier.

And then petunias. These are surfinias,

they trail and they give a nice show.

And then I like begonias because, also, they last. And I love fuchsias.

The headache is when to order the plants and how many,

cos I always like to have some spares.

But I'm not mean with them - I pack 'em in!

They need de-heading every day.

And this time of year, cos they've now grown, it could take...

don't know, an hour-and-a-half, at least.

Even if I'm going out, I come out the door, Chris says, "Come on!"

And I say, "Well, just a minute!" and I pick it off.

It's a habit, I suppose.

Because when I look at them, I look and think,

"Oh, dear, that's got to come off."

Do I think Margaret's obsessed with gardening? Er, yes!

But she does love the gardening. I mean, she spends hours and hours.

Most people would be bored out of their minds,

but Margaret goes out there and she's picking the deadheads off

and she's out there watering till it's dark.

You know, I yell out the door, "Margaret!" trying to find

where she is, and she's hidden somewhere down the garden.

But she loves it.

I've got a fan club. I know it sounds silly.

There's about six couples that come down here,

and actually, last week, a couple came and he said,

"We come every year to see your garden and we've told our friends,

"and they come."

So I said, "Oh, I think I'll have a collection box!"

When we know the judges are going to come, Margaret's on tenterhooks.

Every morning, we're out in the garden -

"Oh, look, this bit's fallen off! Oh, look, that bit's fallen off!"

And she says, "Oh, it doesn't look very nice.

"This doesn't look so nice!" But it is a tense time for Margaret.

She really gets a bit wound up with the plants.

It's all good fun. I enjoy it.

I've won lots of awards for my garden, but the one I'm most proud of

is the best garden for the whole of the South, Southeast of England.

That's from Poole right the way down past Brighton.

I have had that two years running, and keep your fingers crossed...

There's no such thing as second!

I'm afraid that all that colour and

all that enthusiasm will just have to wait a little longer.

The regional results are in September

and the national judgment made in October.

Whatever colours you have in your garden,

you need green to bind it all together,

to act as the link and, of course, grass and lawns do this

practically better than anything else.

So far, we've had no Nigel on the programme but we can rectify that

because Nigel Downs is part of the team that looks after

the immaculate grass here at Hyde Hall.

-Nigel, hi.

-Hello.

-Nice to see you.

-I have to say, the lawns are superlative.

-Thank you very much.

That's not accidental, is it?

-A lot of work goes into it.

-An awful lot of work goes into it, yes.

Particularly in the autumn and in the spring, where we do the aeration

-and top dressing.

-Do you do it all like this, by hand?

The smaller areas like this, which is a pinch point for people that

walk through the garden,

it tends to get worn out very quickly,

so these areas we would do by hand,

but the bigger areas we would do with a tractor-mounted unit.

This is heavy clay. How do you grow good grass...

-on heavy ground?

-The secret, really, is to provide good drainage.

We go deep as we can.

It's quite important to heave back the fork rather than just push

it in and wiggle it out of the holes

because that tends to break the compaction up.

-Right. Compaction's a big enemy, isn't it?

-It is, yes.

If we don't relieve the compaction regularly every year,

it can destroy the root structure.

A lot of people say, "How do I get rid of moss?"

Moss you'll get if you've got poor drainage or if you

-particularly have a lawn which is in a shady area.

-What's the next stage?

The next stage is, we will spread a top dressing.

Most garden centres will sell lawn top dressing already mixed,

but alternatively, and probably a cheaper option, is to go to

a topsoil supplier, get a sandy topsoil

and perhaps some washed sand and mix the two together.

I think the key to this is, a lot of us know about this

but it's the detail of how thick, for example.

What we try and avoid is to actually smother the grass.

You need to be able to then work this into the holes that you've

already created.

We use this implement here which is called a lute.

And if you hold it flat to the...

and gently work it across.

And you see it start filling up the voids

and filling up the small undulations in the ground.

-Can you buy these easily?

-You can get them.

Most of the big garden centres, if they don't stock them...

So if you go into your garden centre, "Can I have a lute?",

-you're not going to come out like a wandering minstrel?

-No, no.

I'll tell you what, I thought I'd used most tools in the

garden in my time but I've never used a lute before.

So, is that it? Is that going to repair the damage?

We will use this implement, which is a rubber rake, or you could just

use a normal broom. It would do the same job.

Now you can see the grass leaf coming through the actual top dressing.

That's looking nice, isn't it?

I'm often asked, as I'm sure you are,

"What is the secret of the perfect lawn?"

I think the secret, I'd say aeration, aeration, aeration.

Get some air into the soil.

-Brilliant. Thank you very much indeed.

-Thank you.

Now, here's another secret on how best to enjoy good grass.

Take your shoes and socks off.

When you've done that,

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

Here at Hyde Hall's Rose Walk, the long,

arching new growth of ramblers and climbers can wave around in

the wind and get damaged as well as possibly scratching any passers-by.

If you have any of these in your garden, tie them in loosely for now

and use them to create the plant's structure.

Don't be tempted to remove them,

as this is the growth that will provide the best flowers next year.

Sunflower heads can be left over winter in our herbaceous borders,

but others can rot, and this detracts from the display.

So tidy up perennials by removing spent flowers

which are looking particularly tatty.

Cut the stems right back to the base where they join the main plant.

This will promote strong, bushy new growth

which may even produce flowers before winter.

The wisteria here grows in a large pergola,

and now is a good time to cut back this year's new lateral growth.

Reduce it to five or six buds.

This will reduce the weight of the plant and prevent damage

but, most critically, it will encourage the plant to form

new flower buds which will be your display next year.

Hi, Ian. Hi, Christine.

Is that the end of your pruning, or do you have another bash at it?

We'll come again in January or February

-and actually reduce those growths back to about two to three buds.

-Why?

Just to create lots of nice big,

fat buds for nice flowering spurs for May and June.

So better to have fewer fat buds than lots of smaller ones,

or maybe growth that has no buds at all?

A bit like fruit pruning where you're reducing down to

a couple of buds to produce a bigger fruit, maybe,

so you reduce the number of flower buds down to two or three

to have fewer but bigger flower heads.

-Great. I'll let you tidy up.

-Thank you.

-Thanks a lot.

As part of her series looking at wildlife in our gardens

and how to attract it, Carol has been to RHS Wisley

and looked at the long borders to see the interesting

and actually really important forms of wildlife that they contain.

The borders in our gardens offer colour and joy year after year.

They also provide an important habitat.

They offer homes, food and hunting grounds,

or sometimes just a place to rest

for all manner of insects.

But who are the creatures amongst our flowers?

And are they friend or foe?

RHS Wisley has some of the most famous flower borders in the world.

Andrew Salisbury is the senior etymologist here,

and he's been specialising in the insects that visit our

gardens for 16 years.

I love the fact that we're in this garden

because it's very much like a lot of our gardens at home.

Just the variety of plants we grow here provides a wide

range of habitats for insects. There are a few pests

but they make up a tiny proportion of the species that are out there.

The pests are a vital part of the base of the food chain

and you get a greater balance of predators and parasites

and, overall, probably less damage.

-So pests have their place?

-Pests do indeed.

They're important in that chain.

You can divide the garden into three different layers.

The ground level, and in the soil where you get

things like ground beetles and some species of spider.

Then you can move up into the middle layer,

the main greenery layer, where you get herbivores.

Again, you get lots of predators including some different

types of spider.

And eventually you get the top layer, where you get to see

the pretty things -

the bumblebees and the other flying insect visitors in the flowers.

-I suppose those are the insects we're most aware of...

-Yes.

..but not necessarily the only interesting ones.

No, you could start really with the ground layer

and actually I've set some pitfall traps,

and we'll see what we've caught.

If we just lift this out... See how simply that comes out of the ground?

What we see are things that wander around.

Look at all the movement in there. Spider.

The ones you get on the soil surface are ambush predators or hunters,

rather than those which catch insects in a web.

-What else is there?

-There's some woodlice here.

Woodlice often get blamed for damaging plants

but actually they are fantastic detritivores,

which are animals that feed away on decomposing organic matter.

They're wonderful recyclers.

The most obvious things in here are these beetles.

These big ground beetles.

And this one here is one of the few with a common name.

This is called the black clock.

It's very common and it's a fantastic predator in gardens.

They've been shown that they will feed on vine weevil eggs,

larvae, the pupae and even each other.

So they are great little pest controllers, really.

These black beetles, you very seldom see them.

You're not aware of them, are you?

Not really, but one predatory beetle most people are familiar

with are the red and black ladybirds.

Ladybirds are incredibly important predators of greenfly and blackfly.

It's the adult beetles that overwinter.

As soon as it warms up in the spring, they start to emerge,

they mate, they lay eggs.

Those eggs hatch into little alligator-like larvae.

Those larvae are voracious predators.

Before pupating, usually attached to a piece of leaf,

then the adults emerge

and when they first emerge from a pupa, they're always yellow

and it takes them a few days

to gain the red and black colouration we're all used to.

Ladybirds are mainly found in the middle layer, where their prey

also are the aphids.

-So on the stems and leaves of plants?

-Yeah.

And there is an awful lot of other life there which is very

difficult to find.

But fortunately we have something called a suction sampler -

a device which basically sucks the insects off the plants.

-Doesn't hurt them?

-Doesn't hurt them.

It deposits them in a bottle in one piece. They're perfectly alive.

They can be identified and released later.

There we go. So, what can we see?

We have the young stage or nymph of one of our predatory bugs.

These things wander around and they have sucking mouth parts

-and they grab their prey and suck the life out of it.

-Bleugh!

What's that very beautiful, iridescent thing?

There we have a shield bug nymph,

one of about 20 species and most of them are plant feeders.

With these herbivorous insects, are they fussy about what they feed on?

Do they have to be native plants?

Some insects are very fussy, others feed on a wide range.

But there are others which are more or less specific

and feed largely on native plants.

The elephant hawk-moth is an interesting one.

Its host plant, as a caterpillar, are willowherbs

but in gardens they have come to like fuchsias, which is a completely

-non-native plant to the UK.

-Comes from South America.

And the caterpillars thrive on it.

In late summer, early autumn, when fully grown, these caterpillars

will drop down to the ground and find a place to pupate.

They can wander some distance from the host plant

before they go into the soil.

And they spend the winter as a pupa,

emerging as the adult moths in spring.

They will then feed on nectar and pollen from flowers before

they mate and lay their eggs on suitable host plants.

These eggs hatch into the caterpillars

and the life cycle begins again.

Through its development, the hawk-moth actually lives in all

three layers, doesn't it?

Sometimes in the ground, sometimes on the middle layer

but when we notice it most...

It visits flowers and is one of the pollenating insects.

It's this top layer that's so important, isn't it,

-to all sorts of pollinating insects.

-It is.

Just the sheer range of flowers we have up there attracts different things.

The honeybees, the bumblebees, solitary bees, the hoverflies.

And all those beautiful butterflies.

And the greater variety of flowers we have,

the more of these insects we'll see.

A mixed border really is exactly that.

The mixture of plants provides a wide variety of habitats for a huge

range of insects.

Not only is it full of fantastic-looking plants

but it is brimming with insect life.

It's interesting that, until a few years ago, it was generally thought

that native plants were the key to getting insects into your borders.

But research has shown recently it doesn't make much difference.

As Andrew was saying there at Wisley, it's variety that counts.

Lots and lots of different types of plants.

Of course, not just decorative ones too.

Insects love edible plants and we need insects to pollinate them.

So I'm finishing my visit with a look at Hyde Hall's vegetable plots,

and one crop has really caught my eye.

It's under the stewardship of Matthew Oliver.

How many different varieties of pumpkin

and squash have you got here?

We've got about 70 varieties in total,

of pumpkin, squash and the ornamental gourds, as well.

That's really, really impressive.

And, of course, they look fantastic here. What's the regime?

They're grown on mounds that are made of garden compost that we

produce on site.

A nice mounded slope, south-facing, as well,

so they get the heat of the sun all day, which they love.

-That's what they need.

-I like the gourds coming up over the pergola.

They look great, and some of them are edible, some are decorative.

-Do they get the same treatment?

-Yeah.

Grow them pretty much the same way.

The only thing we have to do different with them

is try and train them up and guide them up the posts,

but once they reach the top they're on their own and off they go.

Do you have a favourite variety?

For eating, quite conventional,

I prefer the butternut squash variety.

We grow ones like "Barbara Butternut".

I prefer those for eating.

And "Crown Prince", that's better for eating.

But I do like growing the big ones, just for the challenge.

They're the most impressive ones.

But you're a bloke, you can't resist it, you see? It's a male thing.

I am so impressed with your melons. Look at them.

This has been a fantastic success this year.

The first time we've grown them like this.

Obviously, you're growing them through plastic.

-What's underneath the plastic?

-Same principle as with the pumpkin.

This is garden compost put into a mound,

and covering the mound with the black plastic just keeps that soil

a couple of degrees warmer. It's a challenge to grow these outside.

-It's good. It's really good.

-And they are pretty flavoursome,

I've got to say.

I do believe you, but there's nothing like tasting for yourself

-to be sure, so can I taste one?

-You certainly can.

-There's some ready for picking now.

-What variety is this?

These are "Outdoor Wonder",

which are a galia-type melon.

It's cutting nicely.

This is the first time I've grown them so it is all new to me.

There you go.

Let's just take a piece out and taste.

Mm!

That's really good.

And, more importantly,

it makes me determined to grow melons outdoors next year.

That is wonderful. Thank you very much indeed.

Well, that's it for today.

Of course, the best thing about visiting any garden,

whether it be a magnificent one on a huge scale like RHS Hyde Hall

or just a small garden that happens to be open once a year,

is that you get ideas that you can take home.

And that's exactly what I shall be doing now,

going back to Longmeadow, and I'll see you there next week.

So until then, bye-bye.