Episode 13 Gardeners' World

Hello. Welcome to Gardeners' World.

And we're almost at midsummer,

when the whole garden is celebrating its existence in 100 different ways.

But roses always leap to the fore.

There is something about this moment in the season,

when roses just calmly sail through and steal the show.

I'm particularly happy with the climbing roses

we've got here in the dry garden,

because they were all over the shop last year.

And I cut them back hard, and pruned and rearranged.

And you can see this one here, this is Mme Gregoire Staechelin.

Lovely buxom, bosomy pink rose.

Now, I've had this rose for about ten years.

And further along the wall, I've got a couple of roses

that I only planted three, four years ago,

which are really taking off.

This time four years ago, this was a bare wall.

And I planted two roses.

This lovely white one, with a slight flush of pink to its rumpled petals,

is Madame Alfred Carriere.

And then next to it, New Dawn, with almost evergreen leaves.

And what you have is a wall now clad with delight.

And the point is that if you've got a low wall,

if you've got a fence or a trellis,

plant a rose up it.

They will love it and so will you.

This weekend is the Gardeners' World Live Show in Birmingham.

Now, this is a great opportunity to find inspiration

and some fantastic plants.

And Carol is exploring the sights and scents on offer.

Everybody has pulled out all the stops.

Whilst Joe is discovering some of the best of the show gardens.

Overall, I think this garden has got a lot going for it.

This shuttlecock fern,

Matteuccia struthiopteris,

is really loving its position by the pond.

And I'm really loving it, too. It looks fantastic.

But...there's too much of it.

And it's shading out the other plants

that would also be at home here

and would also add to the mix and look good.

And you can see that we've got a few primulas coming through here.

But I did plant about 30 or 40 a couple of years ago.

And hardly any have survived, because they've been overshadowed.

They literally haven't been able to get a look in.

So I want to reduce the number of ferns,

but not lose the effect of these fabulous shuttlecock fronds.

But one of the good things about ferns

is ferns are something that can be moved in the middle of summer.

So I'm going to move some of them now.

Now, you can see what looks like one large fern there, is, in fact,

made out of a number of smaller ones.

So we've got one, two, three, four plants in this space.

Like most ferns, Matteuccia has shallow roots.

And in fact, it spreads by stolons,

which are surface, fleshy roots

that go along and then they'll throw up another plant.

So what I do need to do is get out as big a root ball as I can.

It won't be a deep one,

but I want to make sure that it's reasonably wide.

Now, that's quite tricky because they're crowded.

But the bigger the root ball,

the happier it will be when I transplant it.

That's the sort of thing you're looking for.

Nice bit of soil attached to it.

It's a young plant. So there's not too many demands on it.

And that will transplant well.

Pop that down.

One of the many things that I love about the shuttlecock ferns

is that, as they get mature after two or three years,

they develop quite a little trunk.

They're almost like a tree fern.

And that gives them a really exotic appearance,

as if the fronds weren't exotic enough.

But they've got real character.

That's a nice root ball, too.

You can just see that the trunky bit is starting to grow.

And that will become about six inches tall on a mature one.

Now, the important thing is to plant them before they dry out.

So I will dig some, move them, dig some, move them

until I've finished.

Rather than taking them all out in one go.

Now, I've got some empty ground here

that I want to add the ferns to.

You can't go wrong in shade with ferns.

They will tolerate some sun.

But they love shade.

What I am going to do is add a little bit of compost and leaf mould

to give it a bit of a start in life

and also to ensure that the moisture is retained.

Organic matter will help that.

Just because they're ferns and they grow in all kinds of places,

don't think that they won't benefit from a little bit of good treatment.

And then the important thing...

is not to plant them too deep.

No deeper than the soil line that's there.

And if you are in any doubt,

better to go a little bit too shallow than too deep.

That's perfect.

Now, as far as cutting back fronds goes,

obviously remove any that are damaged and any that are flopping

after a few days, so all you want left are nice upright fronds,

and then give them a good soak.

Obviously, it is important that you water them in really well.

You've got a lot of green fronds to support.

You're putting a huge strain on the roots if you don't water them.

Shuttlecock ferns like damp conditions.

Unlike many ferns, they don't thrive in very dry shade.

Shade is fine but it must be reasonably damp.

Now, this weekend we have Gardener's World live at the NEC in Birmingham.

Carol has been along to see the highlights of this year's show.

How about this for a real show stopper?

It celebrates Birmingham's industrial heritage.

The whole thing is overflowing with cascading flowers

and brilliant colours and exuberant vegetables,

and just over the way is a floral marquee

with more than 100 superb stands.

At this year's show, for the very first time,

they've got a rose festival.

It's timed to coincide with the moment at which roses

reach their very pinnacle.

Everybody has a favourite rose

and here's one that means a lot to me.

This is Rosa "New Dawn" and I can remember it

in our back yard outside Manchester,

climbing up a blackened fence on the way to the coalshed.

It's got perfect buds and gorgeous flowers

when they open up,

and it's got strong growth and really glossy foliage.

If you're going to choose one climbing rose, why not that one?

When Rosa "Ballerina" came on the scene,

it caused an absolute sensation.

It really evokes the '50s and '60s to me,

and people went mad for these flowers.

This was like a wild rose,

like Rosa canina or dog-rose,

but they could have it in their own gardens.

Just look at this gorgeous creature.

This is For Your Eyes Only, it was only released last year.

For years and years, people have been trying to put

this lovely dark centre into a single rose.

It's inherited from a rough, weedy rose from the Middle East,

called Rosa persica, and what a success story it is.

It's got these gorgeous apricot flowers

and I just love the way the colour fades on this.

There's something very romantic, very poetic about it.

Now, at one time, everybody used to grow their roses

in splendid isolation in specially designated rose beds,

but roses are sociable creatures

and this stand really demonstrates what good neighbours they make.

How about it in association with this acer?

This is palmatum, it's got these very fine, fine leaves.

Looks gorgeous in amongst the blooms of the rose

and then on into this catinus, which is just the opposite.

Big, solid, bronzey leaves,

but picking up the colour from that rose,

absolutely lovely.

This year, there are nearly as many stands here

as there are in the Great Pavilion at Chelsea.

Everybody's pulled out all the stops.

This display is a flamboyant floral festival

and almost all the colour on it is provided

by different sorts of bulbs and tubers.

There are ixias, irises, dahlias and alliums.

You can almost feel the heat and hear the music.

There are some plants here that simply stop you in your tracks.

You're gazing across a crowded room,

or in this case, a crowded garden.

And suddenly something takes your eye, it's irresistible.

You can't look away.

In this case, it is this gorgeous dahlia.

It's called Christopher Taylor and I've fallen for him in a big way.

The great thing about this year

is there is something for absolutely everybody,

even if you haven't got a garden!

How about this for an exotic reptilian jungle?

Couldn't you just dive in there?

But this is not T Rex, this is Begonia rex.

It is a really simple house plant to look after and so effective.

It likes moderation in all things, out of direct sun

and just a modicum of water.

Give it an occasional liquid feed

and you, too, could have this lovely display.

We shall be returning to the NEC in Gardeners' World Live,

when Joe has a look at the show gardens.

A year ago, these orchard beds were newly dug and planted.

Well, of course, the plants were tiny,

and there wasn't much to look at -

but a good tip, if you're making a new border,

is to fill it full of annuals an biannuals

around the more permanent planting.

This gives you a really good display in the first and second year,

and these foxgloves are biennials, so they were planted last year -

and that buys you time for your shrubs and herbaceous perennials

to get established, to grow a little bit,

and then they can take over and perform on a more permanent basis.

And if you choose the plants carefully,

it can be subtle, it can be dramatic, it can be colourful,

it can be anything you want it to be.

And if you want biennials in your garden for next year,

now is the time to sow them.

Come on!

There's a tendency to assume

that if you want to grow plants from seed,

you need potting compost and seed trays or plugs,

and, ideally, a greenhouse or porch of some kind to store them in.

It's not the case.

When I was a child,

an awful lot of seeds were grown on outdoor seedbeds.

You do need a patch of ground that has been thoroughly weeded,

and raked as fine as you can.

So, what you need to do is just rake off all stones

and big knobbly bits of soil...

and actually, this has been dug and had some compost added to it.

You do want really nice soil to get the seedlings off.

And the great advantage of raising seedlings in soil

as opposed to potting compost is your own soil life and bacteria

will be very particular,

so that every single plant will be beautifully adapted to YOUR garden.

Now, biennials like foxgloves or wallflowers, sweet williams,

that germinate from late spring to midsummer, grow small plants,

they then overwinter, and the following spring,

they start to grow again and become larger plants with flowers.

These flowers then set seed, the parent plant dies back,

and the whole cycle starts again.

I've prepared the ground.

I just need to make a narrow drill -

and, in fact, I'm going to make two.

There and there.

You want a sunny spot, if you can, because seedlings need sun.

If your soil is very free-draining, or if it's very dry,

it's a good idea to water the ground before you put in seeds.

This soil at Longmeadow is never very dry.

There's always enough moisture in it.

This is wallflower Primrose Bedder.

Lovely pale yellow flowers -

and, of course, with the intensity of scent of all wallflowers.

And, as with all seeds, sow thinly.

Wallflowers tend to be used for mass effect,

so you need to have a good quantity -

and it's so much cheaper to grow those from seed.

Right, we'll cover that over.

That'll give me plenty of Primrose Bedder -

but I also want to sow some more foxgloves.

In fact, what I've got here are white foxgloves,

and if you collect the seed of your own white foxgloves,

they don't always come true, so it's a good idea to sow fresh seed,

that are guaranteed to be white every year.

Foxglove seeds are minute -

but the important thing is, don't bury them too deep.

Remember, these fall to the ground, they practically lie on the surface,

and if they're covered over,

it's only through worm action and falling leaves

and one thing and another,

so you don't need a great big furrow to bury them in.

Just a line, a fingertip line, in the soil.

And if I put them in my hand...

they are absolutely like dust.

A tiny pinch will be enough for a whole row.

OK.

Next, water.

And the beauty of these grown in a seedbed

is they need no pricking out, they don't need potting on...

They might need a bit of thinning,

but other than keeping watered and weed-free,

you need no kit whatsoever.

Now, whatever kind of garden you have

and whatever plants you grow, you can always get inspiration

from visiting flower shows and looking at show gardens

and Joe is at Gardeners' World Live,

picking the best of this year's batch of show gardens.

Now, there are some great design ideas in the show gardens

at Gardeners' World Live this year,

but I know everyone's not going to rush off and redesign their garden

from scratch, so I'm looking for details and ideas

that you can incorporate into an existing garden.

Now, at first glance, this garden, Eat And Shelter,

looks like a classic contemporary outdoor room.

So we've got our standing barbecue, of course.

It's pretty cool, that. And a pizza oven.

What more do you want?

But we have also got some wonderful details

and the garden, as a whole, is really well-designed,

so we've got these rusty structures which give a sense of security

and privacy, which is the intention in a city garden.

At the back here, we've got this larch-planked boundary,

nice and chunky and rustic

and screwed onto a wooden frame at the back.

But on the other boundaries,

we've got something altogether very different, much more detailed.

Now, this is a plastic resin and actually it is very long-lasting.

But what I like about it is it's very dark.

Don't be scared to put black boundaries in your fence.

It shows off the planting nicely.

But also, they've made space for these...

Well, these sort of bug hotels that are also pieces of art.

They are a habitat for loads of insects and overwintering bugs

and they look great.

But of course, a garden is all about the plants

and the plants haven't been forgotten here.

And I like the palette of colours

so we've got things like the yellow verbascum and the orange geum

and the wonderful eremurus at the front there.

And they all look good against the dark backdrops in this garden.

Overall, I think this garden has got a lot going for it.

The Urban Nature garden was awarded a silver merit.

It has two distinct areas,

and my favourite bit is towards the back where wild flower turf

containing about 30 different species has been used

and it shows that you can do something

really valuable for wildlife,

even in the tiniest of spaces.

When designing with plants,

think about how you can bring a scheme together.

Here on the Urban Retreat garden,

purple is nicely woven throughout from the copper beech highlights

in the hedge to the cotinus and the cercis.

The plummy throw to the foxgloves

and herbaceous plants all play their part too.

This garden was awarded a silver merit.

This garden's got some space-saving ideas.

So, we've got a fold-up barbecue, we've got a table

that lifts up into the pergola and leaves a free space

underneath so you can do something

like yoga or whatever you fancy underneath there.

Now, it's called The Green Connection.

It got a silver merit award so the judges really liked it.

Here, we've got a very simple design technique.

We've got a fencing panel placed in the middle of the garden

and it creates a false back to the whole space

and actually what it does is hide the storage unit, but also create

an area for sort of wildlife and for more lush, shady planting too.

So here we've got a log stack and underneath the fence,

there is a little gap left there

so that hedgehogs can get through to the neighbour's garden next door

and there's also a gate in the fence so I can get there too.

Very sociable around here!

Now, I've saved best in show for last and this one,

a gold medal and it's called Health For Life Community Garden.

It's about people coming together and growing, well,

lots of edibles together.

Now, what you can take home from this garden is lots.

It's all about growing in raised beds

and I'm always asked about raised beds. How high should they be?

How wide should they be? What should they be made of?

Well, here, they are made of every single material,

pretty much anything you can get your hands on.

Behind me, we've got this sort of rusty steel,

old bit of steel with a timber frame on the top.

Beans and peas and sweetcorn growing in it

and they're really manageable and easy to get into.

Accessibility is key with raised beds. I like this one.

This is made of corrugated iron.

If you're going to use a metal like this,

make sure you line it with sheets of polystyrene. Really cheap.

Otherwise, the roots of the plants can bake a little bit.

Now, there is one over there

which is pretty much the simplest of them all.

It's only about six inches high.

Raised beds don't need to be that deep.

Second-hand scaffold boards, bit of compost,

and your raised bed is ready to go.

I really like this garden and the eclectic mix of materials

all thrown together, but it shows that you can garden anywhere.

The show continues till Sunday night so if you want details about tickets

and any other aspects of Gardeners' World Live, go to our website

and you can find all the facts you need there

and I shall be there on Sunday, as will Joe, so come and join us.

My grapevine seems to be doing well.

This was planted three years ago, outside the greenhouse,

and it comes through a hole in the brickwork there.

It comes up here,

and then I've trained it to just have two leaders -

one going this side of the glass, and one coming round over the door,

and going along that side.

And from these two stems grow cordons,

growing up about a foot to 18 inches apart.

This particular grape is a variety called Black Hamburg,

delicious, sweet, juicy, dessert grape.

So you want every single piece of fruit to be a treat.

And that means going for quality.

And you have to sacrifice some quantity for that, particularly with

a young vine, and by young, I mean in the first half-dozen years or so.

Now, the first step is to take each cordon

and limit the number of bunches from them.

So, if I take this cordon here, I've got ten bunches coming from it,

and I think the absolute maximum I should be looking for is

half a dozen per cordon.

I've got two on there and I only need one,

so I'm going to take that off.

Seems harsh, but you have to do this.

If you've got doubts about which ones to take off and how many,

and exactly where, you can phase it.

You can probably spread this over a week or two,

thinning out the bunches as they grow, seeing which ones

seem more viable. I could take those off, just looking at it, like that.

And I think I could take this one off.

Now, once you've thinned out the bunches, then,

to really get good grapes, you need to thin out each individual bunch.

And that is slow, laborious and pernickety.

And not really my kind of thing, but it does help, it really does.

And you do need a pair of pointy scissors.

These are hair-cutting scissors,

used to cut my hair on the rare occasions when it happens.

But they work well.

So, if you take a bunch like this, and also take your glasses

so you can see what you're doing,

what I need to do is thin the bunch.

And there's no way around it but just to do it individually,

and ideally every grape will be in an open space.

Get inside the bunch, so you cut off the ones nearest the stem.

The more room each grape has,

the bigger it will grow

and the juicier it will be.

Now, nobody is going to sit and do this all day long,

starting at one end and finish,

unless they have the patience of a saint.

But do this just for five minutes a day for, say, two weeks,

and you'd work your way through and that would really make a difference

to the end product come August, September, October.

Now, I know not everybody grows dessert grapes in a greenhouse

and prunes them with a pair of hair-cutting scissors,

but here are jobs that everybody CAN do this weekend.

Although it is too soon to cut hedges

because there's a real risk of disturbing nesting birds,

it's a good idea to crisp up the vertical faces of gaps

in your hedges.

This adds a sharpness and a freshness to the whole garden.

It's important to remove side shoots from cordon tomatoes.

These grow between the leaves and the main stem,

and they're extra vigorous, reduce ventilation

and take energy away from the rest of the plant.

You can either pinch them out with your fingers, if they're very small,

or cut them with a sharp knife if they've grown a bit larger.

However careful you are, especially if you go away,

sometimes plants seem to dry out completely,

and when you water them, it just bounces off.

It's time to put the whole thing in a bucket of water,

weigh it down, and leave it until there are no more bubbles

appearing on the surface.

Take it out, drain it and then you can water it again as normal.

At last, Nelly has deigned to join Nigel and I.

We set out this morning into the garden,

then she went and disappeared, and she's exhausted now.

And the white garden is at its best at this time of year

because it's fizzing and frothing

with a kind of white electric energy.

And, actually, it looks at its very best by moonlight,

although on Monday, we've got less moonlight than any other time

of the year cos it's the Summer Solstice, the longest day,

which is a good place to end today's programme.

We shan't be here next week,

but I'll see you back here at Longmeadow in a fortnight's time.

Till then, bye-bye.