Episode 20 Gardeners' World

Hello, welcome to Gardeners' World.

Now, this is a time of year that traditionally is

regarded as quite difficult horticulturally.

It's a kind of in-between stage.

Summer has begun to fade

but autumn hasn't yet warmed up into its rich colours.

I don't think this is true at all.

I like this time of year

because there is a kind of ripeness and fullness

and if it is not always accompanied by every flower that you want,

there is still a sense of the season still holding treasures to come.

And I like that.

This week, Joe visits a walled garden in Northumberland

that has been brought back to life by the former MP, Chris Mullin.

I used to sit in the select committee, which I chaired,

doodling plans.

THEY LAUGH

You can say that now!

I can say it now, I couldn't admit that before.

And Alan Power visits a new place in Stratford-upon-Avon

where a team have been transforming the garden of Shakespeare's home.

It's been over six years since work started

and I can tell you the excitement and the upheaval

that surrounds preparations for its reopening

really wouldn't go amiss in one of his great plays.

And, of course, this time of year, it's holidays

and that's great for us,

but not so good for our gardens whilst we're away

so I'll be looking at ways of making sure that when

you come back, your garden is looking as good as it possibly can.

The vegetable garden is coming on well

but the new one has a real vigour and that comes from fresh soil.

And the courgettes, they loved it!

Really good courgette year, I've never seen them so healthy

and, of course, a mass of fruits.

And everybody can get a glut of courgettes

but the secret is to eat them small

rather than becoming great marrows.

A, you can use up the amount of fruits much easier

and B, they're much nicer to eat.

The squashes and the pumpkins have not had such a good time.

That doesn't bode well.

We should be, by now, starting to get some decent-sized fruits

so they can grow and ripen and they hated June and July.

It really didn't do them any good

and I don't think there's enough time left to do well.

However, this bed, which has celery and celeriac, is doing fine.

We've got a green celery who's self-blanching,

which means that you don't have to earth it up to block out the light.

So you never get that perfect white stems and stalks

but you do get delicious celery taste.

I'm looking for a knife because I'm going to cut one...

and taste it.

Now, it's not quite ready,

I'd normally leave it for another few weeks,

but there's no reason why we can't give it a go.

Cut it off and you can see these very green stems.

And they're not fully blanched and the way they blanch is

the other plants around it block out the light

and that will make them sweeter. But if I just taste one...

This is the first celery taste of the year.

I read somewhere that you use more energy eating celery

than it gives you back, but it's lovely.

Slightly bitter,

but that's because it hasn't blanched enough.

But really good.

And, of course, distinctive taste,

nothing else replicates that exactly.

Although celeriac, which we've got growing here -

and it looks like celery but we don't eat the tops -

what you eat is the base there.

But we want to grow into the size of about a tennis ball.

You can get them much bigger,

you can buy them from the shops melon-sized

but tennis ball-sized is good, they're hardy,

down to about minus five.

So we tend to harvest these between October and Christmas

but the key to them at this time of year is to keep them watered.

Don't let them dry out.

Celery or celeriac will start to bolt.

And the celery,

which I'm finding hard to chew and talk at the same time,

will go to seed.

So give them a really good soak, at least once a week.

Another plant that is related to celery and celeriac

but is a lot less common is this.

This is skirret and I planted this in spring as a kind of experiment.

You see these white umbellifer flowers, they look fantastic

and I'd love to have them in the writing garden.

And skirret is a perennial so it will flower every year

and then die back and it's the roots that we harvest

and these are succulent and very sweet.

And whilst not many people eat them today,

back in Elizabethan times,

they were very common because sweetness

was really prized in anything, be it parsnips, skirret

or honey because sugar was expensive and hard to get.

Now, talking about Elizabethan times,

it is the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth

and the garden at his home, the only house he ever owned,

in Stratford-upon-Avon is being restored.

Alan Power went along to see how they were getting on.

It's been over six years since work started rebuilding

Shakespeare's garden here at his home in Stratford-upon-Avon

and I can tell you the excitement and the upheaval that surrounds

preparations for its reopening really wouldn't go amiss

in one of his great plays.

Shakespeare was 33 years of age when he returned from London

in 1597 as a successful playwright.

He bought New Place for his family for the huge sum of £120.

At the time, it was the largest house in Stratford

and a fitting symbol for his wealth and status.

The house itself was here on Chapel Street

and the reason there's a big empty space where the building used to be

is that 150 years after Shakespeare died,

it was demolished by the then owner.

The Reverend Francis Gastrell, who lived here,

was apparently so sick of Shakespeare enthusiasts

knocking on the door, wanting to have a look around

that he simply knocked the place down.

Over the years, several attempts have been made to recreate

the garden as it might have been in Shakespeare's time.

Some mulberry trees are said to have come from cuttings

planted by Shakespeare himself.

There's an Elizabethan-style knot garden

and the Edwardians planted yew hedges and an herbaceous border

to evoke the Bard's presence.

Shakespeare wrote some of his most famous plays

during the 19 years that he lived here,

including Hamlet, Macbeth and King Lear.

Now, although the documentary evidence for how the garden looked

at the time is quite vague, there are plenty of clues and hints

to Shakespeare's interest and passion for nature

throughout his works.

"I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,

"Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,

"Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,

"With sweet musk roses and with eglantine."

Wow, so the knot garden looks amazing, Glyn.

Is this the kind of thing that Shakespeare would've seen

and would've had in his garden at the time?

We know Shakespeare was gardening here because it says so in

-the deeds.

-Yeah.

-But quite what that garden looked like,

-we're not sure.

-OK.

-He would have certainly had orchards here,

he would've been able to walk all the way down to the river,

he would've been growing fruit, he would've been...

There would've been pigs here, there would've been cattle,

-we know he was brewing beer here.

-Yeah.

He was gardening here. With him living in London,

-he would've wanted a grand house here in Stratford...

-Yeah.

-..with a garden.

-A space to really enjoy his home.

-Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

-And with such a deep level of history here,

Glyn, why did you choose these particular plants for this space?

We've gone for a range of plants that would've historically been

-used in knot gardens.

-OK.

-But we're also introducing a range of modern plants.

-Right.

One of the main contemporary plants we've had to go for

is this Euonymus, the Japanese Euonymus.

-I was just going to ask about that.

-Yeah, as you know, Alan,

-the country's been ravaged by the old box blight...

-Yeah.

..and this is a really good replacement.

-It's a bit of a grower, though, isn't it?

-It is, yes.

-You spotted that.

-Yeah.

It's a really strong form and the effect you're getting from it

-is perfect for the knot garden.

-Yeah.

-Right plant, right place.

-Yeah.

So, Glyn, what about within the knot themselves?

We've got a lot of herbs. We've got fantastic lavender,

angustifoliums which you've got to smell when you walk by,

-haven't you?

-I know, it's fantastic.

-We've got thymes...

-Yep.

-..we've got oregano,

we've got santolinas, we've got wormwoods,

-the artemisias.

-Yeah.

And then within the beds that are still to be planted,

we're going to be growing edible flowers.

I think it's great working with herbs and looking right back

into history and seeing actually functional plants that we used

for cooking, put them together and arrange them in gardens like this...

-Indeed.

-..and suddenly your herb garden became a pleasure area.

Yeah. And, of course, people hadn't been travelling that much then

so this was the range of plants that they had at their disposal

and what better way to use them in a garden?

'The biggest change is at the front of the site where the footprint of

'the original house has been incorporated into

'an ultra-modern streamlined design.

'There's been a frenzy of activity here as plants arrived

'from all corners of the world.'

Glyn, there's a real contemporary feel to this space, isn't there?

You just have to cast your eye along this bed at the plants

that literally, as we're here,

are just getting their roots into the soil.

From the lobelias, the heucheras,

the lazuli in the distance,

-very different style of planting...

-Yeah.

-..very informally arranged.

Why is this space so different to the others?

Shakespeare wasn't afraid to push boundaries.

He was changing theatre and literature and so that's why

we decided to do something contemporary.

But every single piece of this site has a reflection to the way

Shakespeare was occupying the house here and the land and his life.

So each of the garden rooms kind of blend seamlessly,

almost like they're like a different act within a play.

Although they are totally different periods in gardening history,

-they will kind of blend seamlessly...

-Yeah.

..into one garden.

And actually that approach that you've just described

is quite theatrical, isn't it? It's like stepping into a theatre.

-Absolutely.

-You really are surrounded by it.

-Absolutely.

He based his whole life around the theatre

so it should be flamboyant, it should be gregarious,

it should be just billowing with artistic quality and flair.

The garden is not open yet but will be soon

so if you go to our website,

we can let you know exactly when it's open,

you can go and visit it for yourself.

Now, there's one thing you won't see there

and certainly you wouldn't have seen in the garden

when Shakespeare was alive - tomatoes.

They did come over from America around the same time as potatoes

but they were regarded as potentially poisonous

and viewed with great suspicion

and they finally filtered into our diet much later.

And, of course, now, we all grow tomatoes.

But if you're going on holiday, there's a real chance,

particularly if you go away for two weeks,

that you could ruin all of the good work that's led up to this moment.

And the thing about tomatoes, from now on, it's all about the fruit.

The plant has grown.

We've done everything we can to ensure a nice, healthy plant.

All your attention should be to maximising the quantity

and the quality of the fruit.

So there are a number of things you want to do before you go away.

First of all, remove any leaves that are obscuring ripening fruit.

We want air and ventilation and the plant will be fine.

As long as it's got some foliage, it'll be perfectly OK.

You won't damage it.

The second thing is to make sure you take out all and any side shoots

and these, of course, are the shoots that grow between

the stem and a leaf and you just go like that.

Now, if it doesn't want to come, use a knife

because there's a risk of tearing.

And cut it off, like that, so don't damage the plant.

And then check it to make sure that everything is nice and secure

and you see this one here is bending down.

Now, if I didn't tie that in, I'm away for ten days, two weeks,

that will grow up and could potentially fall and break

and we'd lose fruit.

So just go around and tie them up so they're supported.

If you can get someone to come in and water them,

say once a week while you're away, that's great.

If you can't, give them a good soak before you go,

leave the doors wide open so they don't get too hot

and there's plenty of ventilation.

Now, it's a good idea to feed them regularly at this time of year,

basic tomato feed is fine.

We're looking to feed the fruit, not the plant so much.

We don't want a bigger plant, we want more flowers and more fruit.

Now, comfrey feed is great

but something I do quite often is, I don't even make it into a feed,

you pick leaves

and you simply place them round the base of the plant,

like that, as a kind of leafy mulch and that does two things.

It suppresses weeds and keeps the moisture in

and also very quickly breaks down and feeds potassium into the roots

and that goes into developing really good fruits.

And, finally, and perhaps most importantly,

pick all ripe tomatoes.

Eat them if you can

and if you can't, give them to someone who will enjoy them.

They're good this year.

I'm sowing some salad rocket now

and I shall be sowing, this weekend, some lettuce

but not just any old lettuce, varieties that will overwinter,

like Marvel of Four Seasons and Corn Salad

is very good too at this time of year.

And if you sow now, and it is something you do want to get on

and do as soon as you can,

these will germinate very quickly at this time of year

and then you can plant them out and they will give you salad in autumn,

into winter if it's mild, and if it's cold you can protect them

and then they will start growing again in early spring.

And it's a very good way of keeping a continuity

of fresh green leaves growing.

And just sprinkle the seed thinly onto a seed tray.

You can do this direct into soil but there is a risk of slugs and snails

eating the seedlings so I like to protect them a little bit.

You don't need to cover them with soil,

just press them down in so there's contact.

Label it, water it and don't let it dry out.

And those will grow really fast this time of year and you will have

nice, young plants ready to plant out from the seed tray

into the garden in about four, five weeks' time

and that will give you a crop right through, if you're lucky,

until Christmas.

Now, I've always loved the idea of a walled vegetable garden.

There's marvellous Victorian gardens with greenhouses

and cold frames and peaches and apricots growing on the walls

and rows of perfect vegetables.

And Joe has been to visit one

belonging to a politician, Chris Mullin,

who was a successful MP and wrote brilliantly about politics

but all that time hankered after a walled garden of his very own.

Now, behind this stone arch is a walled garden.

They're magical, romantic places

and the microclimate within means that you can grow

a wide range of plants too.

They are every gardener's dream.

This particular gardener is Chris Mullin.

After a busy career as an author, journalist and politician,

he's now found the perfect antidote to that fast-paced life

and he's agreed to give me the grand tour of his garden

in all its current glory.

So where did you get your passion for walled gardens from?

Well, we used to go on holiday in Northumberland

and I noticed a lot of abandoned walled gardens around

and I like the tranquillity and I like the challenge,

perhaps bringing it back to life again.

We've some wild flower borders,

-you can see there's a sort of central aisle up there...

-Yeah.

..and we've dotted fruit trees around there,

all of which are doing reasonably well.

The trouble with the wild flower garden is that it tends to

get overwhelmed by the grass.

Cos the thing about wild flower meadows is that garden soil

tends to be very rich, you know, if it's quite a rich, clay soil

and they actually like a really poor soil.

So that's why the grasses tend to take over.

So there's different ways of dealing with it.

First of all, when you mow, you've got to make sure to take away

all those mowing clippings, never feed it.

And also you can introduce yellow rattle,

-have you heard of yellow rattle?

-Yeah, we've got yellow rattle.

You get explosions of its seeding and then over two or three years,

it will hopefully take over and wipe out some of the grasses.

I like the combination of the wild flowers and the fruit trees,

it gives that a real sort of orchard feel.

I collected a lot of poppy seed from last year

and I scattered that liberally around here

but can you see a single poppy? Not one.

But there they are, look. They all came up in the vegetable patch.

-You scattered them here?

-I scattered them here

and they decided to come up there.

-They look like you've planted them in rows!

-They do, yes.

-THEY LAUGH

-They're doing beautifully well.

They're doing wonderfully.

So we're now into your...

-The vegetable garden.

-Your vegetable garden, yes.

There's 11 vegetable plots.

Pink fir apple potatoes, I've got several lots of those.

I grew some in the vegetable beds but I also grew some in the

clay soil all round the edges just for the purpose of breaking up

the soil and that has had a good effect.

-These roses...

-Aren't they wonderful?

Wow, they're really stunning, aren't they?

Oh!

-Oh, wow, they're fruity. Very fruity.

-Yes.

No doubt about it.

And then we've got fruit trees espaliered round the walls.

This is a green grade. It doesn't have many on it this year.

It had a huge crop last year,

there's another one on the other side that's got a reasonable crop.

'It's when we get to the top of the walled garden

'that I can truly appreciate the thought behind the design.'

-It's very formal, isn't it?

-Yes.

The layout, it's symmetrically the way...

You can see the picture now,

-it should be viewed from this end rather than that end.

-Mm-hm.

And you've got the roses on either side.

And a little terrace here where we can have lunch occasionally.

The only problem is that tree, I don't know what's called.

Yeah, that's a black cherry plum, the Prunus cerasifera nigra.

Well, my view is it's in the wrong place

and it needs to go.

-Unfortunately, Mrs Mullin has vetoed its removal.

-Right, OK.

But if you were to say on camera that you agree with me

that it should be removed, I think that will carry weight.

-Oh, right. OK.

-So what's your view?

You could raise the crown,

-really clean up the bottom stems...

-Underneath?

-Yeah, right up to, you know, 15 foot maybe...

-Yep.

..and then just keep lifting the crown

-and you'll get a view through it.

-Personally, if it was up to me,

I'd bring it down because it's also draining the energy out of the soil

-and that flower bed...

-Yeah.

-..and the moisture.

-It's a bit more work, then, to do.

-That's all right, that's fine.

I can cope with that.

-Now, here we go, this is sort of a...

-Herbaceous border.

This is a herbaceous border.

And the soil is much better here and the old lady who lived here

before who really did know about gardening,

much more than I do, had been cultivating it for a long time.

I suppose one nice thing about a garden is to have different rooms

that just when you think you've seen a lot,

you come to something that you haven't seen before

and I guess that's what happens here.

'To give me a sense of the scale of the project he undertook,

'Chris wants to share some of his photos of the restoration.'

This is what it looked like when we first moved here.

A fir tree forest, just make out the outline of the wall at the back.

-There's me digging.

-Ah, there you are.

See, they put in vegetable beds.

-Seriously muddy mess there!

-What a mess, eh?

-This is the terrace where we're sitting now.

-Yeah.

And that's where the lawn goes down the centre.

Then we put in the wiggly path, go through the wild flower area

which runs along here and along here.

And that, I think, six months between this and this.

-So you've got a lovely, lush green lawn.

-Yeah.

-Major process, that six months.

-Big step forward for mankind, yeah.

JOE LAUGHS

-These just go to show in three years that, you know...

-Yes.

..you turned that into this

which is a huge step forward for you and your garden.

What would you say was the most challenging part

of making this garden?

I won't say any of the challenges have been overwhelming,

these are the best years of my life.

And is this the garden that you always imagined?

I used to sit in the select committee which I chaired,

-doodling plans.

-THEY LAUGH

-You can say that now!

-I can say it now, I couldn't admit that before.

I looked at many abandoned walled gardens

and they were either unaffordable or geographically so remote

that my wife, quite sensibly as it turned out, vetoed.

And in the end, it's worked out brilliantly.

Well, it's a lovely story and it's a fantastic garden.

-Lovely to meet you.

-Thank you very much.

Good boy. Good boy.

That transformation from a muddy field

where you have to desperately try and dig some sense into it

to a lovely garden is always amazing.

But you know here in the jewel garden

there's a real transformation, even from May.

In May, before the annuals open, it always feels like there's

an orchestra tuning up, you can see what's going to happen

and you're expecting it but it certainly isn't there yet.

And now, in August,

it's as though a full symphony orchestra hits maximum stride

and this is its month

and that will carry on into September and it's full

and it's rich and it's voluptuous and that's what is intended

and that's what it delivers.

And one of the plants that never fails me is this buddleja.

It's Buddleja weyeriana,

it's got these orange flowers and they will go on flowering,

long past the davidii buddlejas have finished

right up till Christmas, if it doesn't get too cold.

And, of course, the butterflies love it.

And I often feel, at this time of year,

when there is a little bit more time to look around,

that's what you should be.

You should be like a butterfly, float round the garden,

let your eyes alight on plants,

drink deep from them and then move on.

And then when you've finished being a butterfly,

you can be busy because here are some jobs for this weekend.

Collecting your own seed is good fun and can save you a lot of money.

Use brown paper bags or envelopes

and label them clearly before you put the seed in.

Plants like foxgloves simply need shaking into the bag.

Don't worry if there's extra chaff in it

because that can be easily sieved out

and either store the seed in a cool, dry place

or else sow it immediately and the seeds will germinate

and produce young plants which can be then overwintered

before growing on next spring.

The pea season has come to an end and any peas left in the pod

will be rapidly drying out.

So pull them all up, peas and all,

and take them to the compost heap.

But the ground is ideal for brassicas

because they take advantage of the nitrogen

that the peas leave in the soil.

Summer fruiting raspberries are coming to an end

but autumn fruiting ones are replacing them

and as well as producing lots of fruit,

there is masses of new growth.

Now, this can sprawl everywhere

so it's a good idea to support it

to make it easier to pick the berries.

It's only temporary so as long as you use canes

that can be banged in firmly,

you can wrap string around, adding layers as you need them

just to hold them in place till the end of this season.

The mound is now looking good and smelling good.

Of course, the sweet peas are wafting

their slightly fruity perfume

but added to it now is the Nicotiana sylvestris.

And this tobacco plant, with its dreadlocked white flowers,

soaks up the heat during the day and then releases this oily,

musky, rich fragrance

that I love and to sit here in the evenings,

bathed in the scent is becoming a fantastic experience

and that's new to the garden.

And it does show that if you've got a new border

and your major plants are still very small,

put in a mass of annuals

and a nice vigorous one like the nicotiana

and it can look good from the first year and then next year,

the key plants, like the roses, like the peonies,

will get stronger and they will take over.

Although at this time of year some pots,

particularly if they're packed with plants, can be like a sponge,

need watering every day, in principle,

it's much better to give a pot a really good soak

once or twice a week rather than a sprinkle every day.

But whatever happens,

do keep on top of them and if you're going away,

try and get a friend or neighbour to come in

and water all of your pots for you.

Now, whether you're going away or not,

I shall be here at Longmeadow the same time next week

so I'll see you then.

Till then, bye-bye.