Episode 12 Gardeners' World

Come on.

Hello. Welcome to Gardeners' World.

I started this wildlife garden almost exactly a year ago,

and in that time, it's evolved in two ways that please me.

The first is, there's lots of wildlife.

Just the other day I saw a huge grass snake slither into the pond.

There are lots of insects, butterflies, birds, mammals, frogs.

It's working really well on that level.

It's also working well on the level of being a nice place.

Wildlife gardens are great, but if it's your only garden,

you want it to be nice for you, too.

It's got to be somewhere you can sit and enjoy it purely on your terms -

and the two can work really well together, so I'm pleased about that.

And the planting, of course, will go on developing, so these plants here,

which are all planted to be bee-friendly, specifically,

and things like that lovely cherry-coloured thistle,

the Cirsium rivulare, is starting to flower really well.

In fact, I saw a white one at Chelsea, which was really tempting.

I might get one of those.

This week, we look at prehistoric plants

that thrived alongside the dinosaurs.

Things like illicium, the star anise flowers,

have been around on this planet for about 125 million years.

And Adam Frost is in London

with a sneak preview of the Open Garden Squares Weekend.

This is really breathtaking.

I knew there was a garden up here, but I wasn't expecting this.

There's literally a meadow in the sky.

Come on, you've got to stay here. You stay there.

Before I do anything, I'm going to gather up some bees.

Yesterday, I was in the garden

and I heard what sounded like a motorbike rally.

BEES BUZZ

And it was an enormous swarm of bees circling around in the orchard,

and they finally settled in one apple tree.

They're still there this morning,

and what they're looking for is a new home.

So I'm going to gather them up and provide them with a nice new home.

The plan is that I go up to the swarm

with this very handsome bee skep,

knock the branch, they will fall into this as one,

and they will be collected later and taken to their new home.

Simple enough.

The only slight hitch to this plan

is that I have never done this before,

so I will be very much learning on the job.

OK, here goes.

Now, this underneath...

OK.

And they won't fall out, cos they'll cling to the inside.

It provides them with a nice protected hollow space up high,

out of reach of predators, also a little bit warmer.

I think that's working.

I'll leave them there for a little bit, let them quieten down.

I'll make a phone call to say they're ready for collection,

and they'll go to their new home.

While I've got my protective gear on,

I'm going to go and check the hive for honey.

It's a good time, because when they swarm,

there'll be far fewer bees there -

up to half could have left - so, easier to manage.

Also, because there are fewer bees in the hive,

there's going to be a surplus of honey,

so if I take it, I'm not depriving them of any.

Let's lift that off.

I've got the smoker here, which will make life easier.

You can see here...

..a lovely...

clean comb forming,

and that's just formed in the last week or so.

But there - that is the honey.

Go on. There you go.

Look at that. Isn't that fantastic?

Absolutely wonderful.

And the whole thing has just taken a minute or two.

This is the first harvest of honey from these bees,

and it's trickling out of the comb.

It's incredibly sweet.

Very clear, light colour.

Probably most of that has actually come

from the rape in the field next to us.

It just looks so beautiful - it seems a shame to break it up.

It's such a beautiful, beautiful thing.

And, of course, man has been collecting honey

exactly like this since man walked on this earth.

But bees have been around a lot longer.

Bees have been around since dinosaurs were roaming,

as, indeed, were a few of our garden plants.

Robbie Blackhall-Miles is fascinated with these fossil plants,

so we went to his home in North Wales

to learn more about his particular passion.

When I was a little boy,

I grew up in a garden with a monkey puzzle tree in it.

I discovered that this plant had been around

since before the time of the dinosaurs.

That just sparked something in my imagination,

and from that point onwards, in all the dinosaur books I read,

it wasn't the dinosaurs I was looking at,

it was actually the plants behind the dinosaurs.

What I have here is a fossil of the maidenhair tree

and a fossil of some of the wood of a monkey puzzle tree

as they were during the Jurassic period.

In my garden, I have these two plants growing,

looking almost identical.

This little garden of mine took shape just four years ago.

My partner and I went down to buy a hanging basket

and came back with a wollemi pine tree,

one of those plants from the Jurassic era

that was only discovered in 1994.

From there on in, the garden grew around that tree

and we built this collection of fossil plants.

Some of the very earliest flowering plants that we grow

give a great insight into how flowering plants have evolved.

Things like illicium, the star anise flowers,

have been around on this planet for about 125 million years.

Darwin called the evolution of flowering plants

his "abominable mystery", and it's taken up until recently

for scientists to just start to figure out

where flowers originally came from.

Water lilies are one of the first flowering plants to have evolved.

They don't really understand

whether that evolution took place on the land

and the water lily crept back into the water

or whether the evolution took place in the water

and flowering plants crept out onto the land.

This is the kind of hub of it all, where it all happens.

It's a bit like my mini laboratory, where I can really watch

all of those seedlings that I'm producing growing.

Some of the plants really are unique,

things that you can grow in this country,

but you have to have a really strong understanding

of their ecology in order to do so.

One particular group of plants that I'm really, really interested in

is the family that includes protea.

They come from the southern hemisphere,

so, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and South America.

Something like this little Protea aristata here,

the Ladismith sugarbush.

Where it comes from in the wild,

it comes from very nutrient-depleted soils.

When I'm potting these things up,

I just pot them into a mixture of very, very fine composted bark

and some perlite to give it the drainage that it requires,

and I find that that's all they really need to survive.

They don't need all of that heavy fertilisation

that we're so used to giving all of our normal garden plants.

So what I have here is a seedling of a cycad

called Bowenia spectabilis.

Cycads are a group of fossil plants

that are about as endangered as it comes.

Some extinct in the wild,

others only numbering one or two left in the wild.

They're rarer than tigers, rhinos, pandas.

By growing some of the plants that are threatened in the wild

in our own gardens, having got them from cultivation,

we can really go a long way to saving plants like this.

Well, the nearest thing to an old fossil in this garden,

apart from myself, of course, is this.

It's a Ginkgo biloba.

I planted this small sapling last winter,

with the idea it would form a big tree

at the edge of the Jewel Garden.

But it will take time - but it's used to time,

because ginkgos shaded the dinosaurs.

They're one of the most ancient plants that we have on the planet.

Come on, then, matey. Come on.

If the Jewel Garden is starting to limber up

into its more muscular colour display,

the Cottage Garden is just easing into a flow,

with everything drifting and merging into each other.

And who would have thought that purple sprouting broccoli,

which I put in there for decorative effect for the leaves,

as much as for the harvest, would have flowers that work so perfectly?

This wasn't an artful piece of border design.

I forgot to pull them up, they flowered, and they look great.

Sometimes the accidents are better than anything you can plan.

But the cut flower beds

do need a little bit of attention and addition.

First thing to do, of course, is keep on top of the weeds.

They will grow at this time of year,

and because I'm growing them in rows, it's dead easy to do.

Just like weeding a vegetable patch,

run a hoe lightly through them two or three times a week

and they never get too bad.

These are gladioli.

We've got nigella here,

which will look great as a cut flower.

But before I do anything else, I'm going to thin the nigella.

It's very tempting when you're thinning

to leave a bit more in and just think,

"Oh, I'll get more flowers," and it just doesn't work like that.

Think of every little seedling as a potential plant

that's going to be big and robust and strong,

and if you crowd them all into a tiny space,

they can't possibly be like that.

So give each one the best conditions it can have

and you'll get your best return.

Now, I've got various other plants to put in.

I've got...

a tray of Nicotiana "Lime Green", which I've grown from seed.

I've got some gypsophila,

which obviously make a spray of small white flowers.

Really good for flower arranging and for decoration.

And they were a long-rooted cutting,

which is why I've put them into a tall pot.

Now, I've got four cuttings,

and I could either grow them as large plants or break them up.

I think I'm going to put that one in as is.

I'll see if I can break up another pot easily.

If not, I'm going to plant that as a good display, too.

I don't know if you can see.

These are the individual root cuttings there and there,

and I'm going to try breaking that open.

There you go.

So, there we have it -

that is one plant...

which I will pop in there.

In you go.

Top and tail of the row, I'll put this all in as one

so we have one big plant.

There we go.

A whole row of those.

And the next row is going to be Nicotiana "Lime Green".

Really good for cut flowers,

because that lime green colour

always works well with other stronger colours.

And these are easier, because these are plugs,

and it's worth repeating that the reason why I'm growing these in rows

in what was the vegetable garden

is that I'm treating the flowers like a crop.

And it means I can plunder them and harvest them and pick them

without in any way spoiling the borders.

It's not a trade-off between the garden looking good

and the arrangement indoors looking good.

You can have both if you have a little cut flower bed.

There are gardens that we very rarely get a chance to look at

except on a few select occasions -

and next weekend is one of those occasions,

because it's Open Garden Squares Weekend in London,

and this covers rooftop gardens and hidden little corners

of all kinds and sizes.

And Adam Frost went along to have a preview.

London - concrete, chaos, noise.

You may be surprised to hear that, actually,

we're one of the greenest cities in the world -

but quite a lot of those spaces are locked away.

But there is one weekend in June where you get to go and have a nose.

Open Garden Squares spans a weekend

when over 200 London gardens open their gates to the public.

And some, like this, you might easily pass by without noticing.

Wow, this is amazing.

I've literally just come down off this chaotic London street

into this lovely little sort of pocket park.

It's called St Dunstan-in-the-East.

The atmosphere in here is absolutely fantastic.

The church was damaged in the Great Fire of London, rebuilt,

then bombed in the Blitz, then in the '70s, it opened as a garden.

I don't think I've been to anywhere like it, I really haven't.

You know, all the different views.

It's really as if the plants are playing second fiddle,

because the buildings around the outside

capture different periods of time of architecture.

I mean, look at this one. Look at this, look.

Look. The Shard.

And I think the thing that stood out to me straight away

is the size of the trees.

There's zelkovas out there, there's some acers out there.

You know, trachycarpus.

Slightly odd, in my mind, but it's there, you know?

And it's just this little oasis of peace.

My next garden is really out there,

at the top of a London solicitor's office block.

This is really breathtaking.

I knew there was a garden up here, but I wasn't expecting this.

There's literally a meadow in the sky.

And this stuff seems to be so happy up here

that it's spreading itself all over the place.

You look at this space here and we've got things like chives,

you've got geraniums, obviously the sedum works all the way through.

You know, cornflowers. It's stunning.

As well as this rooftop oasis,

there's a kitchen garden created by two employees, Julie and Marta.

Lovely to meet you.

How did it all start? You've got a full veg garden in here.

When the building was designed, this area was put here especially,

but it took about five or six years,

and it's just stemmed from that, really.

One little point, right? How did you get everything up here?

We bribed strong men with beer.

-Did you really?!

-This is very true.

Seriously, I don't say this, ever - I'm proper blown way.

-The meadow, and then coming in...

-Oh, thank you.

-Thank you, thank you!

At Coutts bank on The Strand,

head chef Peter Fiori has worked his wonders in his kitchen garden.

So, this garden goes all the way round this building?

Yeah, so we've got around 450 metres of garden

on the two sides of the path.

With the four gardens, we've got four microclimates.

This side will get the flowers later,

and then we pick no more than two hours before service,

and then we put it on our food for our guests.

You're literally using it, picking, bang, straight to plate and out?

That's the philosophy, yeah.

Along here... We've got lots of varieties of carrots, you know?

-You've got purples.

-My favourite.

-Also sweet cicely.

So we use the stalk for ice cream, as opposed to using pernod,

which dilutes the end product.

-What's that one?

-This is a red frill.

Some people call it potato mustard.

So you get a big hit of potato and it ends in a peppery bite, you know?

It's incredible. You really do. It really happens, doesn't it?

-Wow!

-Potato...mustard, yeah?

-You can tell a story with that one as well.

-That's fantastic.

-Yeah.

-This one?

-Wild rocket. You don't need much of this.

I only recommend, you know, one leaf per eight in a salad,

cos that blows your head off.

-Especially when it's fresh from the ground.

-Ooh-hoo-hoo!

-I mean, incredibly strong.

-He's right.

In here, nasturtium. Obviously, one of the easiest things you can grow.

When they get to this size, we blanche them,

then we stuff them, a bit like vine leaves.

-Yeah.

-And in the flowers, which are milder,

we stuff them sometimes with a little bit

of maybe, like, a fish mousse or something

and pane it, or put it in a tempura batter, deep-fry it.

-Or eat it raw.

-I just like doing that.

-Yeah, lovely, aren't they?

-Lovely.

-Peppery, beautiful.

-Brilliant.

You've really proved, ultimately, you do not need a lot of space.

These are in tiny little boxes,

you've got an irrigation system set through - fantastic.

All the fennels.

-Sichuan pepper.

-Oh, wow!

-I've had a Japanese chef up on here seen this.

-Yeah?

-In tears.

A Michelin-starred chef was emotional

at seeing Sichuan pepper on the roof.

We gave him a couple of cuttings and he's got it in his restaurant.

-Did you really?

-Yeah.

-That's brilliant.

-Look, we've got wasabi.

I think there's only one other firm growing wasabi,

so we pull it out and we grate it to order.

That should be...water, really, shouldn't it?

It should be flowing water, so we give it a lot of water.

But we've managed to grow this.

-It's taken four years. We're really proud of it.

-It's fantastic.

I don't know anywhere else picking their own wasabi,

certainly in London.

This is unbelievable!

In terms of courgettes,

we were told you can't grow courgettes in small boxes,

but we can, and we get lots of courgettes every year.

You've produced something from seed, you've picked it, cut it, served it.

-That fills you with pride.

-This is like music to my ears.

-Honestly.

-And in Central London.

-Yeah!

-Growing figs and growing peaches and things like that.

I mean, I think it's amazing. We're really proud of it.

You know, I got a lot of great tips from Pete,

but I can't leave here without tasting his food.

-Adam.

-Hello, mate.

-Just prepared this for you.

Here are the fruits of our labour - all the produce from the garden.

-Get your chops around that.

-Bless you. Thank you very much, mate.

So we've got chervil, parsley emulsion from the garden, the herbs,

nasturtium, the chive flowers that you've seen.

-Wow!

-Some nice lettuce.

And we cure the hake in a cure for an hour

-with some thyme from the garden as well, so...

-You keep talking.

We've got some lovely tarragon here, as well - some peas, as well.

What you've done up here is truly inspiring.

-You can come back any time, Adam.

-Bless you, mate. Cheers, pal.

-Enjoy your meal.

-Thank you, fella. Thank you very much.

Come on.

Well, it just goes to show

that you can grow good food absolutely anywhere,

and the best food is always fresh and always seasonal.

I've got lots of oranges on my orange plant, which is great,

but this has been in this particular pot for about five years,

and it's a good idea to pot on all citrus plants

every two or three years, so this is overdue - it needs doing.

If this is the biggest pot you've got and it's ready to pot on,

you can always repot it in the same container.

By the way, June is the perfect month to do this.

And when you ease it out,

don't water it for about a week beforehand,

because it will come out much easier if it's dry.

And you might have to ease it a bit round the outside.

Oh, that's come out OK. So, there we are.

I'm going to put that into there for a moment.

And just scrape off some of the soil...

like that, around the outside.

There we go. Can you see how gritty that is?

And all citrus need really good drainage.

Absolutely essential that they don't sit in wet compost.

I don't think I need to trim those roots too much.

Maybe just a little bit while I'm about it.

Because I don't want the roots to go round the side of the pot.

I want them to reach into new compost.

So I'll just trim that off there.

Not too vigorously.

And I'll put that on the ground.

So I've got lots of crocks on the bottom.

And if you've got any doubt at all, put a layer of grit over the crocks

so that the roots will go down and then just reach a dry layer,

just avoid any risk of them sitting in wet material.

That will do more harm than anything else.

That's pretty good.

The best oranges and lemons I've ever seen grown are in Italy,

and I was always asking, "What is the secret of your soil mix?

"What's your compost mix you put into pots?"

Of course, no-one would tell me.

But what I did get from them were the basic ingredients,

which was good, well-rotted manure,

and I would substitute that with garden compost.

A soil base. They use clay, mainly, but I've used my turf stack.

Lots of... They use pumice, but I've used lots of grit.

And then a general purpose compost, which I'd use a bark-based compost.

But it seems to me the key features,

a good amount of garden compost or feed.

The thing to do now is work your new compost round the edge.

Be really careful about packing the soil in.

You need to push it down in so there are no air pockets.

Hopefully...

instead of feeling that it's been into intensive care,

it'll feel like it's been to a spa and had a loving revamp.

Put it up onto feet of some sort.

You can buy these terracotta feet,

and that means, again, it doesn't sit in water.

I know people sometimes get confused about watering citrus of all kinds,

but it's very simple.

Let them dry out completely in between watering.

When you do water them, give them a really good soak

and make sure the water runs straight through the pot.

It should just flow through and then leave them.

And I like to feed them every time I water them,

either a fairly dilute liquid seaweed,

a comfrey feed, or a tomato-based feed.

Other than that, they're quite tough plants.

And, of course, it'll need pruning -

but not when it's covered with fruit.

I have actually got a little plant here.

And you can see it's starting to grow, but to train it and prune it,

what you really want to do with all citrus

is have a fairly open centre.

Cut that off there...

and I think probably take that off there.

I'm just getting a framework that's a little bit more open,

bearing in mind where I cut, you will get side shoots coming.

And they all respond very vigorously to pruning,

so don't feel anxious if you have to make dramatic cuts.

You will get dramatic regrowth.

Now, obviously, this weekend, you are all going to be busy

repotting your citrus plants, but when you're finished,

here are some other things you can be doing.

It's time to mulch strawberries.

The fruit are ripening by the day

and they should be kept off the soil,

which will stop them rotting,

keep slugs and snails away to a certain extent,

and also, importantly, keep them clean

so you can eat them nice and warm direct from the plant.

I like to use straw, which is the traditional method -

and, I think, looks very good.

Even if you're growing lettuce already, don't forget to sow more

to keep a succession going throughout the summer.

You can sow them direct, but they do become prey for slugs and snails,

so I like to sow them in seed trays having soaked the compost first.

Sprinkle the seeds thinly on the surface, cover them lightly,

and put them somewhere protected, but not too hot, to germinate,

and then be pricked out and planted into final position

when they're growing strongly

and able to resist the predations of the greediest slug or snail.

Clematis are greedy and thirsty plants

and respond well to a liquid feed, especially as they start to flower.

You can use liquid seaweed or a basic tomato feed,

but resist the temptation

to make it stronger than the instructions on the label,

as this can do more harm than good.

Well, that will help the clematis maximise its colour.

And, in fact, the colour is maximising daily

here in the Jewel Garden.

Obviously, plants like the Oriental poppies, the alliums, the irises,

have a kind of intensity and bright freshness.

You simply feel the blood coursing through your veins

every time you look at it.

However, that's all the time we've got for today.

Enjoy the colours in your garden, whatever they might be,

and I'll see you back here at Longmeadow next time.

Till then, bye-bye. Come on, Nigel. Come on.

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