Episode 25 Gardeners' World

Gardeners' World has grown.

Until the end of the series,

we will be bringing you an hour each week

of the best of British gardening.

We'll be meeting some remarkable gardeners...

And you see that orange rose over there? Yes.

That is absolutely, absolutely oomph!

..rethinking the traditional...

I want to show you that rock gardens don't have to be

how we remember them.

..exploring the exotic...

Down into the jungle.

..going right to the edge...

Very few of us will ever have to deal with something like this.

This is one of the steepest gardens I've ever seen.

..and inspiring you to make the most of your garden.

Hello. Welcome to Gardeners' World.

Now, my squashes and pumpkins are a little bit on the small side.

They started late, they didn't really pick up and get going

until about five, six weeks ago and I think they might

run out of time before they develop a really good size,

but, typically, my courgettes - which have been good this year,

we've had lots - have got a bit too big. There's always one.

You think you've picked them all,

but then you delve down into the... leafage

and you find a courgette that's decided to become a marrow.

There we are. That is how not to grow a courgette.

Mind you, tastes good. And, of course, it's now that the harvest is

really at its most bounteous.

Everything is demanding to be picked

and eaten or stored by bottling or freezing,

and whether it be fruit, vegetables or over-large courgettes,

now is the time to revel in this season of bounty,

after all the hard work of spring and summer.

On tonight's programme, Carol is at RHS Rosemoor in Devon,

delighting in the daisy family.

If ever a daisy had true joie de vivre, it must be heleniums.

Nick Bailey has got his work cut out in Reading.

This is the case of the tired, neglected border.

And it's a busy time over in Lincolnshire for Adam Frost.

As if there wasn't enough going on,

new puppy, Mrs Frost is still sorting out inside,

and I dig the front garden up.

And I shall be planting up some asters for shade.

As well as growing some extraordinary succulents.

One of the groups of plants

that have done really well this year are clematis.

And one of the things that lots of people have said to me

is they've never seen them so big, so much growth,

particularly on the late-flowering clematis.

This one, for example, is Summer Snow.

Delicate flowers, but a great froth of leaf

going up into the apple tree.

And the reason why clematis have done so well

is because of last winter's wet.

And it's a good reminder that clematis like wet conditions,

so if you give them a really good soak,

not just when they're in flower but earlier in the year,

that's the way to ensure you get a really brilliant display now.

The Writing Garden was lovely in spring and summer,

but I have to confess it's past its best now.

And sometimes that means cutting back hard,

which I've done over the last few days.

Now, whilst that's a shame, it is an opportunity,

because it's clearing space, and now is the time to be planting bulbs.

So if you've got some spare space in a border, get some bulbs in,

and then that job is done and they'll come up next spring.

And I want to plant two very different bulbs

here in the Writing Garden,

which will give me fantastic display next May and June.

For the first, in May, I'm going to plant a camassia.

These are large bulbs, they come from America,

they grow naturally in wet meadows in the United States.

Camassias make a really quite substantial plant and flower,

bigger than the bulb would suggest.

And once it's got established, and that can take two or three years,

it will be three foot tall,

and this lovely spar of flower that will last

for two, three weeks and then gently fade,

so really good if you can grow it.

Now, the trick to planting them is to plant them good and deep.

Six to even eight inches below ground.

Not least because they're less likely to dry out.

I've got a bulb planter here, which might do the job, or,

if you haven't got a bulb planter, a small spade will do, as well.

And the thing about camassias

is they really do like moist, heavy soil.

This is not a bulb to grow if you garden on sand or chalk

or have very free drainage.

They just won't thrive.

Now, the other bulb I want to put in here is very different.

This lovely sack of bulbs is an allium.

It's called Allium Everest. And it...

HE SNIFFS ..it smells oniony.

And I've got some in here.

You can see that there are a few seed heads left.

And Everest is one of the very few white alliums,

with its nice, strong upright stem and its bobble head.

This flowers a little later than Purple Sensation,

that we have in such abundance in the Jewel Garden,

round about mid-June.

And then what's so good about alliums

is they fade with an awful lot of grace.

So I'm very fond of them.

The effect I want to achieve with both these types of bulbs is

that they just drift through the borders.

They have no special place but, at the same time,

obviously, they've got to work with the other planting.

They don't want to be hidden by it or, in turn, to block anything out.

Now, alliums don't need to be planted so deep.

They do prefer better drainage.

If you've got sandy soil, they'll be quite happy.

And also they do like sun.

The Writing Garden's in its third year now and it's funny how

borders change in a way that you can't predict.

You have this idea that it's going to be a certain thing -

for me it was going to be frothy and light.

But of course it doesn't play ball.

It is frothy and light some of the time,

but other times it just sort of limps a bit.

So what I need to think about for next year is getting

a little bit of fresh impetus for the second half of summer.

But that's all part of the pleasure of gardening for me,

I like having to deal with problems,

however tricky they might seem to be at the time.

Well, Adam Frost has certainly got lots of pleasures

and lots of problems ahead of him,

as he tackles his brand-new garden in Lincolnshire.

We joined him earlier on in the summer as he was taking stock

of the plants that were beginning to emerge in his garden.

Flaming June, they call it. And my garden is no exception.

It feels like the whole place has just come alive.

As if I haven't got enough on my plate,

we've got a new member of the family.

And I'm taking Isla, our Labrador puppy, on a tour of the garden.

It's amazing when you take on that new garden and you've just

got surprise after surprise after surprise.

Someone's really thought about this in the past, because there's been

good early colour, there's things that are going to come later on,

like aconites, the phloxes, the sedums.

At the moment, I've got these wonderful peonies,

you know, geraniums.

We've got alchemilla, which is seeding itself about.

There's alliums that have just finished.

And as we redesign and plan the garden,

there are lots of these plants

I think will be dug and divided and put somewhere else.

When they start to die back, I've got to remember what they are,

so the best tool I've got at the moment, really, is this, the camera,

which all I'm doing in the mornings when I'm walking her is just

constantly taking photographs of what's going on in this border.

It's a fantastic, an easy way, really, now to build a record...

of the border as you go,

and also keeping a record of madam growing here.

HE CLICKS HIS TONGUE Good girl.

But the one thing I have noticed is there's bindweed

that's popping up all over the place.

And I think, rather than stress about it, I'm just going to try and keep on top of it for the summer.

The only thing I've got to remember, when I lift those plants,

is to make sure that I don't take any of that bindweed with me.

Yes, thank you very much. Bless ya. Thank you very much.

I've noticed walking round this garden

is actually the scent is fantastic.

But it's the roses at the moment have sort of taken over the show.

I'm struggling to work out what they all are,

so I've taken loads of photographs and sent them off to

a couple of mates that know a lot more about roses than I do.

But this I do know, Rosa Sander's White.

It's a fantastic big old rambler. It will grow up through a tree.

But it's starting to pull everything down,

so I'm going to have to do some work on there.

And I've got some lovely, big, thick hemp rope kicking around in

the barn, and I think I'm going to put some big posts in and

actually just start to loop between the posts,

so eventually we'll lay all this down, give them a good prune,

tidy out all the dead and then tie them back up

and have these lovely sort of draping archways

that will work their way right back to the house.

Isla! HE WHISTLES

Come on, good girl. Good girl.

I've got a million and one ideas for this part of the garden

going around in my head at the moment

but, actually, this border behind me I'm finding quite inspiring.

Off you go. It looks a little bit like it's taken on a life of its own

and maybe it's looking a little bit overgrown and needs a bit of work,

but that idea of planting the roses with herbaceous perennials,

I really like that idea, and if I can wrap it round this sort of

side of the garden and really make this an intimate space,

this would actually really give me somewhere to sort of enjoy that

afternoon and evening sun, fantastic sort of west-facing terrace.

The veg garden now is nearly ready to go.

I've stripped all the land back and I can really see what I've got.

But obviously I've had to design that before I started

and, for me, it's always important to get that down on a piece of paper.

The design has ended up being inspired by the windows

of the house, one window that overlooks the veg garden.

So I've got these wonderful planters and they make the pattern of

the window through the garden.

As well as the plan for the veg garden,

I've now had time to get my ideas down on paper for the garden

I'm going to build at the front of the house.

Do you know, as if there wasn't enough going on,

new puppy, Mrs Frost is still sorting out inside,

and I dig the front garden up.

You can imagine, actually, I'm not best popular.

But actually, this was really important to me, this front space.

We forget about breakfast outside in this country.

We come home, we think about, you know, evening terrace,

but sometimes that morning sun is absolutely some of the best

of the day, and here is brilliant.

This small breakfast terrace sits comfortably in my design for

the front garden.

The plan is to wrap the planting around the terrace and then

continue it the other side of the front door,

which will really help to soften the gravel drive.

I've dug out to a hard surface -

that's really the key to put in any terrace, is the foundations.

It's this work that you don't see,

that's the key to it not moving, going everywhere.

So I've dug this out to about 100mm,

which is four inches, again, about this much.

The hardcore's in, compacted in nice and tight,

and then after that I'm going to lay everything on a mortar mix, which

is sharp sand and cement, and 6-1 is the ratio, so six sand, one cement.

It's really worth taking your time with

the first course to get it absolutely spot on.

So I've set up a line, but I'm also double-checking everything

with a spirit level.

But I've used the angle of the house, so come over here.

Similar little design features really, you know,

just to change the angle.

Use this angle of this wall, all of a sudden this becomes, like,

far more sort of dynamic.

So instead of just everything being square to the house as you

come off, there's far much more movement through the space.

But we're going to build this up in lovely courses.

I'm going to leave reasonably good joints between the stone,

and the occasional gap, because I don't want this just to be

one block of paving, I want to interplant into it,

and more or less, I suppose, give it a life of its own,

so things will seed about and it will sort of create just

a nice place to come and enjoy.

Anyway, better stop talking, I'd better get on.

At RHS Rosemoor in Devon, Carol has been exploring the incredible

variety within plant families.

This week, she's looking at the largest family of them all,

the daisy.

All plant families end with -aceae

and are usually named after a plant typical of a family.

One group that's named after one of our most recognisable plants,

the aster, is asteraceae.

The asteraceae takes its name from the Latin for a star,

and it is a star.

It's the biggest flowering plant family in the entire world.

Within it there are all manner of plants,

from shrubs to perennials, annuals, even a few vegetables.

But until recently it had a completely different name.

It was called compositae.

If I cut one of these lovely coreopsis, I can show you why.

At first sight it's a simple flower, isn't it?

In actual fact they're ray florets.

They're the advertisement that brings in the insect.

And if you look here, instead of being just one flower,

this is composed of lots and lots of tiny little flowers.

They're actually called disc florets,

and each one of them is a separate tiny flower with its own stigma,

its own stamens, its own anthers.

And each one is pollinated one by one by bees, hoverflies.

Incredibly popular family, this, with all sorts of insects.

In most cases, a daisy is instantly recognisable.

But in some cases, you'd never know it was a daisy at all.

Achilleas, for instance, actually have these large heads

made of lots and lots of tiny little flowers,

but within each one of those are also those disc and ray florets.

Eupatorium, too.

You wouldn't immediately think of that as a daisy, but it is.

In this family there are a large number of edibles,

such as sunflowers, lettuce and globe artichokes.

But it's the daisy that defines this family, and one of the most

striking, with its glowing yellows and golds, is the rudbeckia.

It loves full sun, good soil and an open site.

It spreads sunshine with its vibrant,

brilliant yellow flowers, lighting up the late-summer garden.

Dividing it in autumn would be counter-productive,

after it's expended all its energy giving such a dazzling show.

Increase it by division in spring.

If ever a daisy had true joie de vivre, it must be heleniums.

Especially this one. This is called Chelsey.

They absolutely love really good, moist, fertile soil.

Give them what they need and they'll repay you with this bountiful

display of beautiful flowers.

Cuttings is a really good way of increasing tender daisies.

Things like these osteospermums, or argyranthemums.

The idea is so simple, they're just stem cuttings.

And all you do is assess your cutting - I'll probably get two out of that,

so I want to cut first of all under a leaf node,

directly like that, and then just take off the bottom leaf,

or possibly two,

nip out the top, which will make that whole cutting bush out.

It will really become quite shrubby.

And then I just want to make a hole -

I've got a very special dibber here, it's called a pen.

SHE CHUCKLES And just plonk them in there.

Now, the reason I'm using this sort of module-tray arrangement

rather than shoving them around the edge of a pot is because

there'll be absolutely no root disturbance when I pot these on.

And then I'm going to cover them with grit.

I think it's a really lovely way of increasing your plants,

and what's more, the plants you take it from, it does them good, too,

because as you take out these apical shoots,

these little top shoots,

it persuades the plant to bush out from all its leaf nodes,

and with those sort of tender daisies that's just what you want,

really bushy plants smothered in beautiful daisies.

This garden is packed full of daisies,

but none of them more ebullient,

more exciting than this gorgeous dahlia.

This is Moonfire.

We've only been growing dahlias for a couple of hundred years in this country,

and they became at one time

very much exhibitors' plants, up on the show bench.

But thanks to the efforts of adventurous gardeners,

we welcome them now into polite garden society,

mix them up with other plants, and they really are such great partners.

Look at them with these heleniums, with the Michaelmas daisies,

the perfect complement.

In common with other members of the daisy family,

dahlias are accommodating, versatile, good-natured.

In fact, you could say that the asteraceae family is a happy family.

I think it's fair to say that the daisy family

is happy and sunny and shining.

The trouble here at Longmeadow is, we can make them happy,

we can pander to their every need, but we can't always give them

as much sun as generally they would like.

For example, I really want to plant asters into these new

orchard borders but, by and large, asters really do like sunshine.

But there are a few that will grow in shade,

and I've picked three here, which I think will give me

that late-summer, autumnal colour that I want from these borders.

The first I've chosen is one called Twilight.

Look how it's shining out of the dark.

I've got three because I want a good, solid clump.

Although these asters will grow in shade

and, more importantly, will flower in shade,

don't plant them underneath a leylandii hedge

or a holly or a yew tree.

They're just not going to thrive and certainly won't flower for you.

But that will be OK there. I've got a couple of other varieties.

This one here is Little Carlow.

You can see the flowers are starting to form quite tall, quite strong,

and all these shady asters tend towards woodiness.

They're almost like shrubs, rather than perennials.

And finally, my last one is Aster lateriflorus,

and it's one of the last to flower,

and I'm going to put this one in the border back here.

So, I've got three clumps of three, and they will bulk out.

Now, the planting of them is pretty much the same.

This soil is naturally good, but if you've got very sandy

or well-draining soil, do dig in plenty of manure or compost.

Have you come to help?

I'm going to plant them all in the one hole,

so, essentially, I'm making three into one big plant.

That can come in there.

Good boy.

As I said, I'm looking to establish fairly large clumps,

which will need dividing in time,

but the time to divide asters is spring.

Don't be tempted to do it at the end of the season,

but just leave them, cut them back if you want to tidy them,

but although there's no need, and then in spring,

round about the end of March, early April, that's the time to

lift them and divide them,

and then, when you replant them, they'll grow quickly.

And last of these three, but not least, is Aster lateriflorus,

and this is probably the most adaptable of all asters.

It's not too fussy about soil.

It will cope with much more dryness than a lot of asters will,

and also more shade.

It has very small flowers with a little inner boss,

which starts yellow and then changes colour.

It's known as the calico aster.

And bees and butterflies love them.

So at the end of the growing season,

when there isn't much else in the garden,

sort of second half of October, well into November,

these are flowering and these are providing food

for butterflies and bees before winter comes,

and they're delighting you and I in the border.

Now, this is an aster that really is not bothered by mildew and, really,

the best way to avoid mildew - cos there's not much you can do

about it once you've got it - is to keep them watered.

Don't let them dry out, particularly in the growing season,

sort of June, July, before they're flowering,

then they'll get dry and that will set up the conditions for mildew.

Now, these borders are slowly working themselves out.

There's an element of me trying what I want it to look like

and the border responding and rejecting something.

And gradually, you find what looks and works best.

But there are times - sometimes when you inherit

a garden or even of your own making - when you just have to

accept that a border is not working and something

a bit more dramatic needs to happen.

And in the first of a four-part series,

Nick Bailey, the head gardener at Chelsea Physic Garden,

is off to Berkshire to help rescue a border that has lost its way.

This week, I've come to Reading,

and I've come to look at a garden with a very common problem.

This is the case of the tired, neglected border.

This is a really typical example of a border

that just hasn't had enough love.

It's a bit tired, it's a bit neglected.

It's in partly dappled shade and it's got the challenge

of this tree overhead.

The roses are really stretching, they're a bit thin,

producing big leaves because they're not getting enough light.

So there's some real challenges in this border,

but, in fact, there's some really, really easy solutions.

First thing we need to do is to look at these suckers, which are coming

from the tree behind us, and it typically happens if you've got

tree roots running through a border, and we need to get rid of these.

Then we need to dress the roses.

A good, hard prune should get them to rejuvenate.

We need to get rid of the ivy,

which has crept onto the trees and onto some of the ground cover areas.

We need to deal with the soil itself,

and it's really dry, dusty, nasty stuff.

And then, finally, we get onto the fun bit - the planting.

We're going to start with removing this sucker

coming from the tree above us.

And so we're just going to chip away here to expose the base,

but it's absolutely key that you don't chop into the root,

again, because that will cause even more suckers to come up.

I tend to think that that, sort of, chopping around at the base could

actually trigger it even more,

so I'm going to take it out with secateurs.

The next job is to get rid of the weeds.

These are perennial weeds and they're in really, really dry soil,

so we resort to the mattock.

Annual weeds are really easy to deal with,

but perennial weeds, like this prunella,

you really need to dig all of the roots out or it'll just keep

coming back, year in, year out. So that's gone, won't return.

Ivy can look quite pretty growing up a tree, but actually this is

compromising the tree in a number of different ways.

So, down at ground level, it's robbing nutrients from the trees

and it's taking up water, as well, that the tree would otherwise use.

Down at the base, to truly get rid of the ivy,

we need to cut it - probably with loppers or something similar

- and then use a brushwood killer,

and that's a herbicide that penetrates the roots

and kills the likes of this and bramble very easily.

Hybrid tea roses like this are normally pruned in spring or autumn,

but, because we're doing a rejuvenation,

we can just about get away with it now.

All I'm going to do is take it down to about 30cm,

to some outward-facing buds, and that will hopefully give us

a fresh crop of flowers this year.

It will certainly produce new foliage.

Before I put the compost down, I want to make sure that there's

a decent definition between the border and the grass.

It's always worth considering keeping those lines

quite smooth and flowing. If you make acute lines,

it can be really difficult to get the mower in there, so always think

about that before you start laying out beds or redefining those edges.

So, I've finished the edges, so now we're ready for the compost.

To sort out an impoverished soil like this,

the best mediums you can use, something like a garden compost,

a peat-free compost, or a composted bark.

I'm going to go for about a ten-centimetre layer

across the whole surface.

So I've now got a nice, neat and even spread of compost across

the surface. I'm about to mess it all up and dig it in.

Now, when you're laying out a new planting,

don't be afraid to experiment with it.

You don't always have to put things in groups.

Sometimes it's worth dotting them through a planting.

Another tip is to get all the evergreens in first,

so maybe evergreen shrubs like this skimmia,

or herbaceous plants that stay evergreen, like this epimedium,

so before you put in any of the deciduous plants,

any of the biannuals or annuals, these are the ones to set out.

Don't be scared to move them again.

Have a walk round, look at it from different angles,

see if it's really going to work.

I think that skimmia needs moving.

OK, I think that's in the right place. We're ready to plant.

Now, what you want to do actually is to go for about twice the depth

of the pot and about twice the width, and that gives loads

and loads of space for the roots then to emerge into this new soil.

When you're putting your plants in, it's much better to firm them in

from around the sides, so it's gripping nicely into the roots.

Level it off around the top and if you just create

a very small moat around the top of the plant, when you water,

the water goes directly into the roots and doesn't run away.

I've chosen the plants in this border for many different reasons.

The digitalis, the foxgloves, are fantastic because they'll self-seed

into the border, so it'll just perpetuate for years to come.

We've used a geranium, Geranium oxonianum,

and you can prune that back after its first flowering

and it will flush again. And then finally, wrapping round the corner

we've used Hakonechloa macra, and that's

a fantastic little doming grass that works brilliantly in shade,

it's absolutely happy in dappled shade.

I've prescribed a number of remedies to this once tired and

neglected border.

It's had a dose of pruning, feeding and planting and now it's

going to provide 365 days of colour and interest.

That's a shady border that's been completely transformed,

but I've got here a shady part of the garden that's very subtly

and really precisely changed at this time of year,

but I think in a way that is absolutely lovely,

because it is very shady and the ferns love it,

but for a few weeks in September and October,

these cyclamen suddenly appear.

Delicate, even fragile,

but really intense touches of colour.

And they last for four, sometimes even five weeks.

They make a great pot plant,

you can buy them in garden centres now, but also, if you plant them,

they will spread, and another fact about them that I love is

that the seed is spread by ants.

And in time, they will spread and I hope carpet all the way

along the path in September and October, but for the moment,

as they are, they are giving me a huge amount of pleasure.

Coming up later - head gardener Jane Moore

has been exploring the back gardens of Britain

and tonight she finds out how two gardens on the same

Bristol street make the most of very different growing conditions.

Wow, Tony, those bananas are incredible!

And we visit a nursery in Hampshire that specialises in members

of the asteraceae family.

They're like little suns and they just brighten up the borders.

A couple of weeks ago, we asked you to send us your pictures of

exotic plants or gardens that you've made.

Thank you very much indeed and please keep sending them,

we do like to see gardens from all over the country.

Now, this week, Nick Macer continues his journey round Britain

looking for the most exotic gardens, and Nick has gone to the east

of the country to find a garden that exceeds the wildest expectations.

I'm in Benfleet, Essex, perhaps best known for the Battle of Benfleet,

where the Vikings were routed by the Saxons, and there's another

point of interest, a garden not far from here, and when you see what's

growing there, you'll be hard-pressed to know you're in Essex.

Hello, Paul. Nick, good to see you. Great to see you.

I'm instantly getting the impression we're in for a treat.

We've got a big...

Instantly a big dasylirion from Mexico. Fantastic.

Come and show me what you've got. Let's go.

Down into the jungle. This is really rather luscious down here.

A lot of trachycarpus palms, the old classic.

Clerodendrum, tree ferns.

And one of my favourites, Paul,

Schefflera digitata, from New Zealand, right? Absolutely, yeah.

I've just spied another one here. Which one is this?

This is Aralia decaisneana. An unusual one, but for me,

probably the aristocrat of the shrubby aralias.

Absolutely stupendous,

probably my favourite shrub in the entire garden.

This is... This part of the garden allows me

to grow these type of things.

All the moisture seems to seep down to here,

it's like a sump for the whole garden.

It all gives a shade here and it's very cool and humid and

a completely different sort of feel to the rest of the garden.

So we emerge from the jungle.

Amazing backdrop!

Wow, wow, wow. This is really so fundamentally different from

anything we've seen so far.

This is really, really strikingly different from pretty much

anything else you can see in Britain.

I wanted to make a rock garden and I wanted to use lava rock.

I thought the combination of the spiky plants and the colour

of the plants would look so good and so effective against the lava rock.

I mean, that's just basically a dry-stone wall that's been

backfilled with freely draining material behind it,

so any rain that does fall just goes straight through the roots of

the plants and so I think I've tried to give the plants as good

a microclimate as I can possibly do.

The garden slopes down to the south.

The slope is facing the south, so the cold air drains away downwards,

cold air being heavier than warm air.

This is basked in the sunshine when there's sun,

so it just enhances the climate that's here and I think that goes

some way to allowing the range of plants to be broader.

I think you're absolutely right.

I think microclimates is a fascinating subject, but of course

there are microclimates within microclimates within microclimates.

You have a wide range of cacti here.

People don't associate cacti with the UK very much. Yeah.

I think they're probably one of the most unusual groups of plants

that you could see growing outside,

but I think it's like anything, you know. For example,

this cactus here, the soehrensia there,

that doesn't grow in a desert environment.

That grows in a fairly temperate environment

with fairly high rainfall.

So, Paul, this to me really is one of the most crazy,

bonkers kind of areas of the garden. What on earth are we growing here?

It's a giant cactus of, I believe, South American origin?

Yes, monumental proportions. It's Trichocereus terscheckii

from Argentina and...it seems quite happy. It's been here for 13 years.

How high is that, do we think? I don't know, 15 feet?

The buds that were flowers very recently, these are six inches long?

Yeah, absolutely,

and when they open, they're the size of tea plates, absolutely staggering

things, and I've never protected it.

I lie, I protected it the first winter.

I had an old straw sombrero that I stuck on the top and then

the first wind that we got blew it away and that was the end of that.

But people just don't think this sort of thing

is possible outside in the UK.

With succulents and cacti in particular,

I think drainage and air movement... You think of air movement, if you

put your washing out on a washing line, it dries quicker,

and that just helps to wick away the moisture

that's in the soil, the excess moisture.

I'm a good believer in air movement as well.

How many other people do you think are growing this kind of cacti

outside in the UK? I think there's a handful of idiots like me.

I could probably guarantee that no-one has one quite that size.

I can imagine that's correct. THEY LAUGH

It is extraordinary and inspiring at what can be grown in this

country, although, of course, what you can grow in Essex is very

different to what you can grow here at Longmeadow,

but with the judicious use of a greenhouse or a windowsill,

a conservatory, a porch, you can grow fantastic succulents.

I planted up this selection of echeveria and sempervivums last autumn,

they overwintered perfectly well, they flowered this summer

and they're very happy outside, and I'll pop them back inside

in about a month's time.

Now, those are fantastic and they don't have to be big.

It's not all about size.

They can be wonderful if they're small, and if you want wonderful,

they don't come much more extraordinary than these.

These are called lithops. They come from the deserts of Namibia.

The plants mimic stones so that grazing animals pass over them,

don't think they're edible and they survive. And today,

this flower has appeared.

It wasn't here this morning and would you believe it?

Isn't that extraordinary?

How a plant looking as though it should be deep beneath the sea

can produce a flower that's daisy-like in its radiance.

And not just lithops, which are extraordinary,

look at some of these.

These are not plants that I normally grow, but I think they're

so extraordinary. Looking like a Buddha's Temple.

Now, you can grow these,

but there are certain things you have to get right -

the watering regime and the compost.

Now, starting with the compost, they do need a really low-quality,

high-drainage mix.

I've got here the normal mix that I use for cuttings or for

potting up alpine plants, which is very, very free-draining.

It's got an awful lot of grit in

mixed with my normal potting compost.

But that alone is going to be a little bit too rich for most

of these. I will cut that with half, either with coir,

which is ideal, if you can get it, and you buy it in blocks.

If you can't get that, you could use sharp sand or perlite.

Perlite works very well,

but what I'm going to do is just put a scoopful of this mix,

which already is very free-draining, with a scoopful of the coir.

And coir, which is made from coconut husks,

is a really good mix, but actually has practically no nutrition at all,

so good for drainage, good for holding it together,

but it's not going to get them soft and sappy in growth.

These terracotta trays are really good for showing off succulents

and also, because they're fairly shallow, they won't hold moisture.

Got big drainage holes in the bottom and then...

put some in like that.

Now, we can make up a little mixture of these. I like these green ones.

So we'll pop that in there like that.

And I think I'd like to have these in there.

And then we've got bigger ones as well.

That can go in there like that.

A little bit more of this mix.

If in doubt, plant them

so they're sticking out a little bit more rather than a little bit less.

You don't want to bury them.

Now I'm going to put a layer of grit over them.

Partly to dress it so they look good,

and also to stop any moisture splashing back.

There we go.

That's one.

Now, I've got a bigger one here.

Put a bit of mixture in that.

Now, let's go to town.

Let's have this one.

These are desert plants, they want to be starved of water,

they want to have practically no nutrients.

In the winter months, effectively October through till March,

keep them bone dry.

If they're indoors and it's a centrally heated house or

above a radiator, it may get a little bit too dry, you may need to

mist them, but resist the temptation to water them.

And then you can water then in March, April,

maybe once every two or three weeks.

You just water them until it's running out the bottom,

then leave them alone, and the best thing you can do is be tough

on them, because that's what they've adapted to do.

Don't kill them with kindness, and if you do that,

you too can have the desert blooming on your windowsill.

Now, we've seen what extraordinary plants can grow in gardens around

the country, but you don't need a great big garden to make

somewhere that is truly interesting and, more importantly, is

idiosyncratic, and Jane Moore has been to the same street in

Bristol to visit two very different gardens.

We don't all have the luxury of a large garden, where you can

let your imagination run riot. In a smaller space,

every square foot has to count.

I'm told that in this street there are two gardens whose

homeowners haven't let a lack of space restrict their ambition.

The first belongs to Tony, who's an artist.

His family garden is a sunny south-facing space

that's full of colour and art.

Oh, wow! Tony, those bananas are incredible.

They're not the average choice for a small garden, are they?

A whopping great banana.

They've been here about 12 years and they're doing very, very well.

I think we've got a microclimate here but I guess they could grow

in most gardens if they're looked after, watered regularly,

cut and wrapped in the winter.

And I can see that you've got plants from all over the place,

but I particularly love the palm trees. Wonderful.

It was palm trees first, then it was bananas, then it was the echium.

And they were very successful.

All the seeds I collected grew.

I really enjoy creating trees from seeds.

Is there any particular style that you favour?

Although this isn't a specifically Japanese garden,

there are elements of Japanese design in it.

They somehow have a way of increasing space in a small area

by the introduction of curves and special plants and structures.

So your eye is kind of drawn to different parts of the garden.

So you've used loads of different textures.

Were you aware that that's a classic, again,

small-garden device to make a small garden seem bigger

if you're walking over different materials?

No, I wasn't, actually. So you've just done that instinctively, then.

It's been very intuitive.

I really like the mix of tropical planting you've got

with also quite ordinary plants.

So we've got the lovely Melianthus major, which I really like,

with that lovely bluey foliage.

And, erm... But it's next to nasturtiums.

And nasturtiums are growing up sticks,

so again they add the idea of a kind of jungle growing.

A south-facing garden certainly seems to offer a lot of

opportunities, but what's the story on the other side of the street?

Wow!

Matthew, those hornbeams make quite a statement in a small garden.

Yeah, they give a lot of privacy

so we're not overlooked by the houses opposite.

They must create quite a lot of shade in the garden.

It's a kind of shady garden anyway.

We get a small amount of sun that moves across it.

And I guess cos it's north-facing this is the sunniest it ever gets.

Definitely.

So a lot of the plants have to cope with not much sunshine at all.

I love the fact the garden's on two levels,

especially with this glass balcony.

It makes it seem so spacious.

Yes, it's nice to be able to look out onto the garden.

I didn't want anything to interrupt that view from the kitchen.

So let's go down, then.

I love these pots of ferns. What a lovely idea.

Yeah, a little bit of a fernery on the steps

making the most of the little space I've got.

Yes. Look at your gorgeous pond. Yes.

It's a nice sound hearing the water running in the background.

It's quite a different feel down here, isn't it? It certainly is.

You can feel the temperature drop and you're in a much cooler, damper environment.

And you feel like you're in your own little woodland

with the trees all around. Yeah, it's lovely.

It's a nice kind of tranquil green room to retreat to.

And you've got some quite interesting plants.

You've got a little dwarf ginkgo down there,

which I think is really quite unusual. Yeah.

Again, it's a beautiful leaf

and I could never grow a full-size ginkgo in here.

No, you haven't got the room for that. Definitely not.

What variety is that? It's called Troll.

What a fab name. Perfect. Yeah.

Is that a fig I can see over in the corner as well? Yeah.

I know it's a fig in a shady garden but I love the leaves.

I love the tropical shape of it.

So it doesn't fruit, obviously, but it's a great structure.

No, but you're getting that beautiful leaf, aren't you? Absolutely.

Over in this corner I really, really love your black bamboo.

The bamboo is perfect in this space

because I can have the leaves at the top,

so I hear the rustle when I'm up on the terrace,

but below I get the beautiful view of the black bamboo and the stalks.

Yes, you're kind of in the bamboo forest, aren't you, down here?

It's brilliant.

Where did you get your design ideas for this lower part of the garden?

After we planted the trees and created a screen at one end

I wanted to kind of bring the plants as though they wrapped around you.

So I raised them up by building a raised bed

so that the plants are all a little bit higher

than they would be if they were planted straight into the ground.

And I love the way that nature has kind of reclaimed parts of it.

So one of the nicest things is where the bricks have developed

this lovely mossy coat on top of them.

I know. You couldn't wish for anything better, really, could you?

It's just lovely to sit and stroke it.

So much of the great gardening in this country

is down to the particular passions of individual plant lovers

and we visited a nursery in Hampshire

that specialises in members of the daisy family,

in all its varied forms.

Everybody knows the daisy

because it's the first plant you usually draw when you're a child

and everybody knows about making daisy chains.

The asteraceae family, they're like little suns.

Come the autumn, then you get all the asters and the rudbeckias

and the echinaceas and they just brighten up the borders.

Very important for the butterflies and the bees.

They're good landing stages, an easy source for nectar and pollen.

They've just been about for so long

and I just don't think they'll ever go out of fashion.

We have about ten asteraceaes in flower at the moment.

We've got the Aster Lutetia, which is very nice.

The heleniun. This is Red Shades.

We sow this from seeds and it comes up different colours.

This is the same but it's come up a very dark red.

We have the bidens. They're a lovely lemony yellow.

That will flower now right through to the first frosts.

This is Cichorium album.

Usually it's blue but this one's a nice white.

We've got the Echinacea White Swan.

And also we've got the Kalimeris mongolica.

Me and Ange have always been interested in growing plants.

We built a butterfly garden together

and we just thought really we need our own nursery.

About 12 years ago this little bit of land was up for rent

so we thought we had to go for it and we haven't looked back.

Once he's sown the seeds every morning

Andy shouts out, "I've made the tea, got your glasses,"

and then we go down the rows and we look at all the seed trays

and there are whoops of delight when we see little seedlings emerging.

I think every gardener should have a go at growing seeds,

because there's something magical

about seeing these little seedlings emerge.

Right. These are Erigeron karvinskianus Profusion,

which is this lovely plant here.

I collect my own seeds and these were sown in July

and they're just about ready to prick out.

So you need a pot.

Some nice compost. Make sure all the lumps are out.

And then we drop it gently into the pot.

A little bit raised like that.

And then very delicately...

I don't use a proper dibber for this.

I use something I do my nails with, because it's tinier.

Then we make a little hole like that in the top

and gently ease the roots in.

We don't want to damage the roots.

Then tuck it all in around, the compost all around it.

And then firm down and we can get rid of any excess.

I am a bit fussy. I like to make it look neat.

And then one tap.

We like to sell them in this size pot

because they like their roots confined.

A lot of people don't manage to grow them in the garden because

they take them home and they put them in really lush soil and

the roots don't like it because they like to be nice and tight.

Not everybody has the space or the desire

for a wildflower meadow, so what we try and do is help people create

that kind of feel within their little garden spaces, and these are

two ideal plants to use that give you that kind of naturalistic

effect in your garden like a wildflower meadow.

This is a beautiful Centaurea jacea

and it's got lots of tiny little flower heads

that the bees absolutely adore.

Then you've got Leucanthemum superbum

and it's a real old-fashioned good doer.

Neither of these plants need a lot of attention.

I think there's an aster for everyone.

And we give people lots of advice when they come to the nursery

because they're our plants until someone buys them,

then they're theirs, but we want them to go to a good home

and we want them to do well.

They're our little babies.

I tell you what, without daisies the Jewel Garden would be

a bit thin on the ground at this time of year.

Rudbeckias, sunflowers, tithonias, dahlias.

And all really holding forth throughout September.

In amongst all these assorted daisies,

bustling and preening and parading, is a modern daisy.

Kniphofia.

This is Kniphofia rooperi, and like all red-hot pokers

it's lovely, and I really like the relationship between

the flowers and the deeply folded green leaves.

For about three or four weeks at this time of year it's a good 'un.

Well, it's one thing to stand and admire the flowers in your garden

but it won't get the work done.

So here are some jobs to do this weekend.

My squashes are a bit small, but whatever state your pumpkins

and squashes are in, remove any foliage that is obscuring the fruit

from the sun, and this will give them the maximum chance to ripen.

At the same time, take off any immature fruits or flowers.

Autumn-fruiting raspberries are really coming into their own now

and to keep them producing more and more fruit

it's important to pick them regularly.

And why wouldn't you, because they're delicious.

Plants are setting seed all over the garden at this time of year

so be sure to collect your favourites.

Use a paper bag or envelope, never polythene,

and put either the seeds or the whole seed pod inside.

Label it clearly and store it somewhere cool and dark,

and you can't go wrong with the fridge,

until you're ready to sow them.

We all need to plan our weekends so we make the best use of the time,

so here's the weather forecast.