Episode 26 Gardeners' World


Episode 26

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Gardeners' World is now running for a full hour.

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So we have time to give you even more of what you love.

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Hello. Welcome to Gardeners' World.

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when you get warm days and cool nights

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and we've had torrential rain here at Longmeadow

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you get the most wonderful misty mornings.

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And the garden slowly reveals itself out of that mist.

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And then, as the light lifts and sifts through the haze,

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you realise that amongst all the hedges,

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are thousands and thousands of cobwebs,

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as though mist has been trapped and spun and decorated.

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And then autumn progresses and that dies away.

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are an absolute measure of the season.

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This week, Carol continues to look at plant families.

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It's beautiful, and I'm pretty sure that it belongs to

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a family called apiaceae, otherwise known...

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Adam has been hard at work in his veg garden.

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And Nick Macer is on the west coast of Ireland,

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visiting an extraordinary forest of ferns.

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I'm at Kells Bay, Kerry, where the local climate and

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conditions come together to create a very special garden.

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And I shall be adding umbellifers to the garden,

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as well as planting bulbs for colour next spring.

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We've got lots of grass here at Longmeadow.

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I like grass as a green filler between spaces,

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and sometimes it's lovely to walk on and sometimes it's

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but whether you are a fanatical greenkeeper or whether,

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like me, you're fairly carefree about it,

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every now and then you do have to repair grass,

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and now is the perfect moment to do that.

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I'm just talking about repairing the bare patches

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The thing to do is to take a bare area like this and

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then just start by cleaning out any weeds.

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What is it, Nige? Oh, it's gone back in.

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The first thing to do is just remove any obvious weeds.

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I've got a little dandelion there, that can come out.

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or I do actually...and this is toys for boys...

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This is a Japanese weeding knife, and it's made of

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very soft metal, so you could never get a sharp edge onto it,

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but it's brilliant for this type of thing,

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so you just cut in there like that, and take it out.

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What do you want? Go on, off you go. Move.

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The next stage is to either fork it over, if it's very,

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very compacted and heavy, or if it's reasonably light soil

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you can just use a scratch rake and just rake like that.

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that's going to quite do the job.

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I'm going to just ramp it up a bit.

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Yeah. You see, that's making more of an impression.

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It's very dry underneath the tree.

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I've mixed up a bucket which is half sharp sand,

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So if we just sprinkle some of that on,

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the compost is going to give a little bit of goodness and

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the sand is going to help the drainage.

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And then rake it so it's a little level.

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That is now ready to sprinkle grass seed onto.

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And at this time of year, when the air is warm,

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the ground is warm and the nights aren't too cold,

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So by about next April you'll be mowing this and you won't

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So we'll sprinkle a little bit of seed onto that.

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When you buy a packet of grass seed,

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always give it a good shake before using it, because all

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grass seed will be a mixture of different types of grasses.

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So by shaking them it means that when you sow them

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And then, whatever type of grass you're sowing

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and wherever you're sowing it, sow it thinly.

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You can buy grass-seed mixes now for fine lawns,

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for hard-wearing football pitches, for shade.

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So just take stock and choose the right seed,

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but in general you won't go wrong if it's mainly rye-grass.

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And then... lightly rake it over.

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What I do then is just firm it in to get contact.

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So the seed has got good contact with the soil, but if

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it doesn't rain by the end of the day, certainly water it in,

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because you don't want to push the seeds out.

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And that's a very simple job, but it is a good one to do

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and particularly a good one to do now.

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Now, most of us grow shrubs of some kind in our gardens and

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I bet most of us have one or two that have become

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a bit unruly, we don't quite know how to prune them,

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And Nick Bailey has been to a garden filled with shrubs

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Today I've come to Windsor to look at a garden beset with

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a challenge that many gardeners face.

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This is the case of the overgrown shrubs

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Gardens often start out with the best-laid plans.

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You buy plants, get them into the garden,

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get them established, and then life takes over.

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And those little plants we've put in turn into monsters.

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This climbing hydrangea, Hydrangea anomala petiolaris,

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so it needs a serious pruning job.

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And this kerria has virtually been treated like a hedge,

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it's been clipped on the front but hasn't had the kind of

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thinning it needs so it's not flowering very well.

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Then, over on the other side of the garden here,

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there's a group of phormiums which are looking a bit sad,

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so I need to move them through the whole border.

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And then some of these tired old shrubs that aren't

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performing very well can come out and we can add some

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There's lots to do so I'd better crack on.

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Climbing hydrangeas are normally pruned in spring,

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where you take the old flower buds off and then it allows

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these new shoots to produce during the year,

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which will give next year's flowers.

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However, this one is totally out of control.

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You can see it's come nearly a metre away from the fence,

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and so we need to do a really radical prune.

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This hydrangea won't necessarily rejuvenate

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Now, if you're not sure, one of the easiest ways

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is to make a little scrape on the surface of the stem

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to see if there's any green underneath.

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Or you can just make little cuts until you hit live growth,

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so the three Ds - dead, diseased and damaged wood -

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So each cut I'm making I'm ensuring is about

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a centimetre ahead of a fresh bud or a fresh leaf.

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next year we'll have a whole wall of foliage

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and then the following year a wall of flower.

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What I've decided to do over here is to leave this part of

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the plant unpruned to let Hydrangea petiolaris

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do what it does best, which is disguise things.

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With a young kerria I would do a prune in spring,

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after flowering, but this one is old and overgrown and

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needs some serious work, so I'm going to do it now.

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Lots of the tips of this kerria have been chopped off,

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almost turning it into a hedge, and that's really not

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the ideal way to grow it if you want lots of flower.

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So I'm just tracing these back to the base and removing them.

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And then once the framework is clear,

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a third of the older stems, also right down to the base.

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the best way to deal with a shrub like this kerria,

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is to give it a thin every spring after it's flowered.

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With the last bits of dead removed,

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that's the rejuvenation complete.

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but this one is on the rampage and needs a bit of

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a gentle prune to bring it back under control.

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In front of it is a hypericum and a hebe,

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both of which are slightly past their sell-by date,

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so I'm going to take them out and replace them.

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Now I've cleared a bed, it's time to tackle the phormiums.

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There's two different forms growing here.

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with very straight sword-like leaves,

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and back here is Phormium cookianum,

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with these slightly softer, more lax leaves.

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Just taking out some of the dead leaves from the base here.

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You won't be able to pull them out, they're so, so tough,

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So I'm holding the leaves back so I can get to the base.

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It's a little bit like sheep shearing.

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Luckily, this Phormium cookianum is in a pot,

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so I'm going to move it further down the bed.

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This position is so much sunnier that it will produce

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a wonderful dome of foliage now and it will flower as well.

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Where it was previously, tucked behind the other phormiums,

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Don't be afraid to use your boot

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if you're planting larger, stocky shrubs like this.

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It will just make sure that the soil firms in

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and the plant can start to absorb moisture

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Don't be tempted to wait till the end

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and squash it all down the sides.

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I'm going to add some extra plants into the bed

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to contrast and compliment with its form and foliage.

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I've gone for Gaura Pink Panache.

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It's brilliant for late colour -

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Behind, we've got Melianthus major,

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Coming a bit further forward, the Russian sage or Perovskia,

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a Sedum and Anemone Honorine Joubert.

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So, having moved the phormium up to here,

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we've now got a lovely repetition or continuity

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through the border and then with the mix of plants

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that I've introduced, there'll be great colour,

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form and contrast for many years to come.

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Carol has been visiting RHS Rosemoor in Devon

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within different plant families.

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It's beautiful and I'm pretty sure that it belongs

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to a family called Apiaceae, otherwise known...

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Apiaceae are mainly annuals, biannuals or perennials.

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Some are surprising, like the eryngium or sea holly,

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where the tiny flowers are arranged in a cone,

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often protected by spiky bracts.

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The family that we now call Apiaceae

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That's because of the shape of its flower heads.

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"Umber" is the Latin for "shadow"

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and each of these forms is sort of umbrella, if you like,

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this plateau and each one is composed of lots and lots

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of tiny flowers, which are gathered together in florets,

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and all those stems emanate from one place on the stalk,

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making this flower head really delightful

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as there always are with plant families, to this rule,

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but when it comes to their seeds,

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they've all got the same sort of structure,

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whether it's parsnips, astrantia,

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each seed is in two parts and each seed

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as you can see when I break this parsnip seed apart.

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So, whether we eat the seed itself or the vegetables

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this family contains lots of really important foods,

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but beware - there are a few really nasty poisons

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which also are members of the family.

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Hemlock is one of them and we all know how poisonous that is.

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The Astrantia is also a member of this intriguing family.

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Its flower heads are comprised of a pin cushion

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of scores of minuscule flowers and circled by papery bracts.

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Ranging from deepest, darkest crimson through soft pinks

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to whites, they're perfect for all but the driest garden.

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Plant them in moist, fertile soil, in sun or partial shade

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and keep deadheading to prolong flowering.

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Of all the members of the Apiaceae family,

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surely Selinum must be the godfather.

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From the word go in the spring, it's magnificent.

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Great, green doilies of finely cut foliage and, from them,

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thrusting up these huge, purply stems.

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these great umbels of beautiful creamy white flowers.

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in this family are propagated from their seeds.

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and if you've collected the seed yourself,

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So I've got this lovely dry coriander seed now

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and it's just about coming off those stems.

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And it's at that stage, it's just perfect for sowing.

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It's unusual, coriander seed, because it's big and round.

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Most umbel seed is quite flat and skinny and what you can do

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with big seed like this is to station sow it.

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That simply means that you actually place the seed

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where you want it to grow. It's a bit of a fiddle,

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and you just work out this little matrix of the seeds,

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right across the surface of your tray.

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That means you won't get any damping off.

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Those seedlings won't be close to one another.

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They'll actually have their own sort of independence,

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their own little space to grow on.

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these sort of twin leaves that all seedlings produce,

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but then you'll see the proper sort of ferny leaf of coriander

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and it's at that stage you can actually separate these

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and put them into separate little pots.

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but the growing conditions are a bit different,

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according to what you want to get out of it.

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If you want it for seed, grow it in a hot, dry, sunny place,

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starve it a bit so it flowers and produces seed.

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then grow it in really lush conditions.

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And then, rather than watering from above,

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you just put this into a tray of water, just an inch or so.

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but also lots of ornamentals, too.

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Of all the culinary plants, many of them are herbs

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and this is my very favourite herb of all. It's dill.

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I love these fine, feathery leaves.

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They just make these lovely soft sort of shapes

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and the flower heads are just so beautiful -

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absolutely symmetrical and covered

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with these tiny bright yellow flowers.

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But whether you grow them because they're decorative

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or downright delicious, it's for sure

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I have to say that I do like an umbellifer, too.

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Fennel is always a star in the garden at this time of year

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They attract butterflies and bees.

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One of the things I like about fennel is if you get the seed

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and chew them, you get that lovely aniseedy flavour

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and it's a great stomach settler.

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and will stay looking beautiful right into the new year.

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These become skeletons - bony memories of what they were

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but it comes and goes. It's called Angelica gigas.

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This is one of my favourite umbellifers of all

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it's this fantastic, rich plum colour that it has.

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The other reason that it's so good in the garden is that,

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almost no other plant is so addictive for bees

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so fantastic for improving the wildlife in the garden

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But it has one little quirky habit.

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usually, once it's flowered and set seed, it dies.

:21:03.:21:15.

Its sole purpose in life is to create seed,

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this might take as long as three years to do it,

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but once it happens, there's no road back.

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So if I wanted to have this colour next year,

:21:27.:21:36.

than this which does and this is more or less guaranteed

:21:37.:21:45.

It's always a joy to plant into the Jewel Garden

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because the soil is like fruitcake.

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It's rich and crumbly and yet holds moisture.

:22:02.:22:07.

Now, if you're a gardener and you love soil,

:22:08.:22:09.

that's a very, very beautiful thing.

:22:10.:22:12.

you'll be thinking I'm as daft as a brush, but there you go.

:22:13.:22:17.

If I pop this in, that will go there.

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Another problem with planting a mature angelica

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is that they have a taproot and like all plants with a taproot,

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once that grows, they do NOT like disturbance

:22:36.:22:38.

so the taproot is not being disturbed,

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A rather better root system than there was

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is going to be overshadowed by these bananas in full glory

:22:45.:23:04.

and they are unbelievably exotic and dramatic,

:23:05.:23:09.

but Nick Macer has been to see exotic plants

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and what he found really, truly is breathtaking.

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where the local climate and conditions come together

:23:26.:23:29.

to create a very special garden.

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A few weeks ago, I promised you a rainforest.

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Well, that's what I've come here to see.

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Kells Bay Garden is on the extreme southwestern

:23:41.:23:42.

tip of Ireland, and covers 18 hectares.

:23:43.:23:45.

It's very naturalistic in style,

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thanks to a late Victorian craze for wild-looking gardens.

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They mixed native and exotic plants together informally

:23:52.:23:55.

The garden lies in a coastal valley

:23:56.:24:01.

which follows the course of a beautiful river

:24:02.:24:03.

Even the river looks like it's flowing with Guinness!

:24:04.:24:13.

The water stained brown by peat,

:24:14.:24:15.

which lies on the rain-drenched mountains that lie inland.

:24:16.:24:23.

With up to two metres of rain falling every year,

:24:24.:24:26.

the climate here just about qualifies

:24:27.:24:28.

And parts of the garden really do look like a jungle.

:24:29.:24:35.

plants here don't just grow on the ground.

:24:36.:24:40.

jostle for position as epiphytes.

:24:41.:24:46.

Epiphytes are adapted for an aerial lifestyle.

:24:47.:24:50.

They perch on the branches of trees and shrubs,

:24:51.:24:52.

They absorb moisture from humid air

:24:53.:24:56.

and often send their roots into damp moss instead of soil.

:24:57.:25:02.

Mosses and ferns blanket the trees and rocks here,

:25:03.:25:05.

creating a living emerald carpet,

:25:06.:25:07.

just as they do in the forests of Costa Rica or New Zealand.

:25:08.:25:13.

For me, of all the plants that hail from rainforests,

:25:14.:25:16.

the most evocative and spectacular are tree ferns.

:25:17.:25:21.

And here at Kells Bay, they thrive in a way

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almost unequalled in the British Isles.

:25:25.:25:30.

But through the gates to this walled garden lies something

:25:31.:25:33.

I think most of you have never seen before.

:25:34.:25:42.

is a tree fern that is growing out of the wall.

:25:43.:25:49.

This has come here from a spore, a minuscule spore.

:25:50.:25:54.

It has germinated within the wall,

:25:55.:25:56.

that this trunk is not made of wood.

:25:57.:26:01.

This is something you just do not see

:26:02.:26:09.

in garden centre-bought tree fern trunks.

:26:10.:26:13.

This is thriving, absolutely thriving,

:26:14.:26:16.

in this perfect atmosphere for the growth of such beauties.

:26:17.:26:24.

Here is something quite extraordinary.

:26:25.:26:29.

Over 600 tree ferns, all over a century old.

:26:30.:26:38.

This is a sight you would only really see

:26:39.:26:53.

south-east Australia and Tasmania.

:26:54.:26:57.

In the British Isles, remarkable.

:26:58.:27:04.

These are all the species Dicksonia antarctica,

:27:05.:27:06.

the tree fern you are most likely to see

:27:07.:27:08.

It's hardy down to around -10 Celsius for short periods,

:27:09.:27:15.

and needs sheltered, humid and dappled shade

:27:16.:27:18.

Billy Alexander is the garden's owner. Lucky man!

:27:19.:27:26.

So, what got you so interested in tree ferns?

:27:27.:27:29.

Well, I bought a small tree fern at a plant fair in Dublin

:27:30.:27:32.

around the mid-'90s, and it just captured my imagination

:27:33.:27:35.

as a plant, and a few years later,

:27:36.:27:38.

this property came on the market in the early 2000s,

:27:39.:27:41.

and I'm now the proud custodian of probably the biggest

:27:42.:27:45.

tree fern forest in the northern hemisphere.

:27:46.:27:48.

Of all the gardens I've been to,

:27:49.:27:49.

I have never seen tree ferns planted to this sort of extent.

:27:50.:27:55.

Well, my understanding is, this tree fern here is

:27:56.:28:00.

about 120 years old, planted in the 1890s.

:28:01.:28:03.

And we believe that this is the mother plant

:28:04.:28:05.

of the tree fern forest outside there,

:28:06.:28:07.

of hundreds and hundreds of mature tree ferns,

:28:08.:28:12.

So you're telling me that the entire garden and estate

:28:13.:28:18.

has been populated by this one tree fern?

:28:19.:28:20.

Who would have thought one tree fern could spawn 1,000

:28:21.:28:29.

I love that cathedral stained glass impression

:28:30.:28:53.

And there's one thing for certain I'm going to get -

:28:54.:28:58.

a tree fern or two here for long weather. They are lovely.

:28:59.:29:03.

Jane Moore visits a small garden

:29:04.:29:19.

by the sea that is full of character.

:29:20.:29:23.

I have a picture of what I want to create,

:29:24.:29:25.

and what I want to do, and it's got to be there tomorrow.

:29:26.:29:27.

We've got carrots with character too.

:29:28.:29:30.

as he continues his odyssey of creating

:29:31.:29:43.

a garden around his beautiful house in Lincolnshire.

:29:44.:30:00.

Here we are at the end of July, and do you know what,

:30:01.:30:02.

this garden just gets better and better.

:30:03.:30:04.

It's the light levels in the morning

:30:05.:30:06.

and the light levels in the evening.

:30:07.:30:08.

And it makes the greens just sort of shine.

:30:09.:30:15.

I get here and I more or less have to stop for five minutes

:30:16.:30:18.

to actually enjoy, I suppose, just peace.

:30:19.:30:22.

This orchard is absolutely full of atmosphere.

:30:23.:30:28.

There's over 40 known local varieties down here

:30:29.:30:30.

in South Lincolnshire, and I'm really, really hoping

:30:31.:30:33.

that I've got one of them in behind me.

:30:34.:30:35.

What I'm going to do now, though, actually is,

:30:36.:30:37.

have a really good feast off them.

:30:38.:30:41.

and then we'll give them a really good prune in winter.

:30:42.:30:52.

You lot have probably already worked out by now

:30:53.:30:54.

that I'm completely and utterly in love with this wisteria.

:30:55.:30:57.

And it's pruning time. And guess what?

:30:58.:30:59.

It looks stunning, so I haven't got the heart to prune it.

:31:00.:31:04.

I'm going to have to leave it another couple of weeks.

:31:05.:31:06.

But you look at it now, it looks completely different

:31:07.:31:09.

with the flowers and the foliage,

:31:10.:31:11.

but also, there's a beautiful bronze tinge to the tips.

:31:12.:31:15.

The sets are all in, really pleased

:31:16.:31:38.

how this terrace has come together.

:31:39.:31:41.

All I've got left to do now is brush the kiln-dried sand in,

:31:42.:31:44.

and I don't want to actually add mortar and cement them,

:31:45.:31:46.

because I'm happy actually for plants to seed themselves

:31:47.:31:49.

into the gaps. Also, you'll see that I've left the gaps

:31:50.:31:52.

and we'll plant that up as well.

:31:53.:31:56.

But you can really start to understand

:31:57.:31:58.

that this sits in a much wider area.

:31:59.:32:02.

If you remember rightly, I was having a good old rant

:32:03.:32:05.

about front gardens and what they meant to me,

:32:06.:32:07.

and actually about this sheer gravel that washed right up

:32:08.:32:11.

to this beautiful old house and was doing it no justice at all.

:32:12.:32:14.

But now, you can start to see the borders have gone in,

:32:15.:32:17.

and I can really feel that there's going to be

:32:18.:32:19.

Talking about plants, look at the Taxus.

:32:20.:32:23.

That's had so much sort of foliar feed

:32:24.:32:26.

but it's responded really, really well.

:32:27.:32:32.

I'm using a soft broom to gently brush the sand

:32:33.:32:38.

into the gaps in all different directions across the paving.

:32:39.:32:44.

It's worth topping up here and there,

:32:45.:32:46.

to ensure you fill all the gaps.

:32:47.:32:53.

The soil I'm going to use to fill the planting pockets

:32:54.:32:56.

It's a perfect soil mix for the plants

:32:57.:33:01.

that I hope are naturally going to seed themselves

:33:02.:33:04.

In the veg garden, I've been cracking on

:33:05.:33:10.

with the hard landscaping. I've dug out for levels,

:33:11.:33:14.

and a low retaining wall is now in place.

:33:15.:33:17.

I'm now at the stage to build the different beds

:33:18.:33:19.

and borders in which I'm going to grow all sorts of goodies.

:33:20.:33:24.

Raised beds really are a fantastic way to grow

:33:25.:33:28.

vegetables in any garden, but especially in a small garden.

:33:29.:33:31.

It doesn't matter about your soil,

:33:32.:33:33.

because you're raising everything up.

:33:34.:33:34.

You can constantly improve the soil.

:33:35.:33:36.

You can get more crop into the space,

:33:37.:33:38.

so for me, they're absolutely brilliant.

:33:39.:33:42.

So what I've used here is what they've described online

:33:43.:33:45.

as half-sleepers, so good, sturdy piece of timber,

:33:46.:33:48.

but the most important fact for me

:33:49.:33:50.

so that means actually they're good for outside.

:33:51.:33:54.

They're going to see that test of time

:33:55.:33:55.

and they're not going to rot away quickly.

:33:56.:33:57.

Sizes I've used - really, about 200 deep, which is six inches,

:33:58.:34:01.

but you can use whatever you want.

:34:02.:34:04.

For me, what this does, it's not as wide as a main sleeper,

:34:05.:34:08.

so it gives me a little bit more planting space inside.

:34:09.:34:13.

And in here in the corner, I've used these posts.

:34:14.:34:16.

You might be wondering why they're sticking up in the air.

:34:17.:34:19.

They're working three- or fourfold, really.

:34:20.:34:22.

One is, they're fixed into the ground,

:34:23.:34:23.

so they give you sort of sturdiness in the corners,

:34:24.:34:27.

and what I've done is, actually,

:34:28.:34:29.

I've drilled each corner to hold everything together.

:34:30.:34:31.

But I've drilled through them as well,

:34:32.:34:34.

and you'll see what I can do is put a rope through each post.

:34:35.:34:37.

It means I can put a net or a fleece over the top,

:34:38.:34:40.

and one thing that really annoys me in the garden

:34:41.:34:43.

is when you're dragging the hosepipe around,

:34:44.:34:45.

and all of a sudden, it's gone up the edge,

:34:46.:34:47.

So actually, this will stop that happening.

:34:48.:34:51.

And last but not least, you know when you're

:34:52.:34:53.

getting on a bit, and actually, you've been weeding all day,

:34:54.:34:55.

and you might just need a hand to get up.

:34:56.:34:59.

So what I've done here is, I've concreted then in,

:35:00.:35:01.

so that's a ballast and cement mix, about 8 to 1.

:35:02.:35:05.

That'll hold them in nice and firm.

:35:06.:35:07.

a wonderful sort of deep grey colour,

:35:08.:35:10.

which will be a fantastic contrast

:35:11.:35:12.

So, the veg garden's not the only place

:35:13.:35:18.

I'm going to be growing edibles.

:35:19.:35:20.

I've got this idea for this wonderful big old border here

:35:21.:35:22.

meets a taste of the unexpected.

:35:23.:35:30.

My plan is to plant a border that connects the veg garden

:35:31.:35:33.

with the breakfast terrace and continues that edible theme.

:35:34.:35:40.

I want to play with that whole idea of food that you can

:35:41.:35:42.

forage from the wild, but not just from this country.

:35:43.:35:46.

I want to use plants from across the world

:35:47.:35:49.

and take advantage of the warm microclimate on this

:35:50.:35:52.

By using food here, not only will it have that lovely

:35:53.:35:57.

relationship with the veg garden,

:35:58.:35:59.

but I can use that idea and then wrap it

:36:00.:36:01.

all the way up and round the breakfast terrace and along

:36:02.:36:04.

But I'm not going to rip this lavender out at the moment,

:36:05.:36:08.

I'm just going to let the bees enjoy that wonderful nectar.

:36:09.:36:22.

Jane Moore has been across Britain looking at inspiring

:36:23.:36:26.

planting and design in small gardens.

:36:27.:36:29.

This week, she's near Seaford in East Sussex.

:36:30.:36:34.

With the sea only a stone's throw away,

:36:35.:36:36.

it's easy to see where this gardener got his inspiration.

:36:37.:36:39.

But I bet there have been a few battles with the elements

:36:40.:36:41.

'creating this garden for 12 years.'

:36:42.:36:56.

My goodness, what a little wonderland you've got here!

:36:57.:36:58.

That's the reaction when people walk round that corner.

:36:59.:37:01.

Either their jaw drops or they say, "Wow!"

:37:02.:37:03.

So you get the gold star. A combination of both, actually!

:37:04.:37:06.

Even though it's a lovely, balmy day we're seeing today,

:37:07.:37:09.

I can't imagine it's always like this, Geoff.

:37:10.:37:11.

We had 64mph winds over the weekend.

:37:12.:37:13.

Right, which most gardens would not handle at all well. No, no.

:37:14.:37:17.

Well, this didn't, but, yeah, we've worked some magic on it.

:37:18.:37:21.

Absolutely! You certainly have! Well, it looks a picture.

:37:22.:37:23.

Many people that live on the coast come and visit the garden

:37:24.:37:26.

and are interested to know what's growing here,

:37:27.:37:28.

and my answer to them nearly always is,

:37:29.:37:30.

"You can grow anything by the sea if you look after it and

:37:31.:37:33.

"create a sort of small microclimate for it.

:37:34.:37:35.

And you've got some very interesting plants.

:37:36.:37:38.

I'm guessing there's water, because I can see a gunnera.

:37:39.:37:41.

Well, the gunnera's actually in a pot. And people always say,

:37:42.:37:43.

"Gunneras are huge things. You walk under them.

:37:44.:37:45.

"How can you grow them in a pot?"

:37:46.:37:47.

But I desperately wanted one in this very small garden,

:37:48.:37:50.

and I went to Hampton Court a few years ago and the guy

:37:51.:37:52.

selling them said, "There'll grow according to the

:37:53.:37:54.

"so put it in a pot and it will grow accordingly."

:37:55.:37:58.

I'm really keen to start exploring the garden.

:37:59.:38:00.

Can we go and have a look? We can indeed, yes.

:38:01.:38:03.

It might be small, but there's a lot in it.

:38:04.:38:10.

One of my favourite areas along there. Quite stunning.

:38:11.:38:13.

It seems like your garden's always got two sides.

:38:14.:38:16.

You've got the riot of colour down there and then up here

:38:17.:38:18.

The logic behind that is because in essence there's

:38:19.:38:23.

a degree of shelter from the winds

:38:24.:38:25.

from the sea in that corner behind the house,

:38:26.:38:28.

whereas, because the garden slopes upward,

:38:29.:38:30.

this area here is a little bit more exposed.

:38:31.:38:33.

I planted 800 annuals in this garden this year,

:38:34.:38:35.

and I've probably only got about 500 of them left,

:38:36.:38:38.

because, again, it is survival of the fittest.

:38:39.:38:40.

But to get the effect, you need to densely plant and help them.

:38:41.:38:44.

I love how you've used the sculptures to kind of tie up

:38:45.:38:47.

I found that when we first came here, because the garden was

:38:48.:38:51.

so exposed, I had great difficulty getting height.

:38:52.:38:54.

as you looked out from the kitchen.

:38:55.:38:57.

So the sculpture is there to get the height in the garden.

:38:58.:39:00.

I mean, behind you we've got this umbrella.

:39:01.:39:03.

People look at that and wonder what it is,

:39:04.:39:05.

but it's actually a genuine Victorian topiary frame.

:39:06.:39:07.

Now, fortunately, the two really complement each other.

:39:08.:39:18.

I love all these little corners that you've developed.

:39:19.:39:21.

This is particularly nice, with aeoniums and the echeverias.

:39:22.:39:25.

Yeah, I mean, it's one part of the garden that I think you

:39:26.:39:27.

because it's perfect for a small courtyard garden,

:39:28.:39:31.

for a patio or even a balcony, to be honest.

:39:32.:39:33.

And they're always great in a small pot, aren't they?

:39:34.:39:36.

Yeah, I mean, there's lots of small pots here with

:39:37.:39:38.

different things in, particularly in that tray.

:39:39.:39:40.

But another nice addition is this chair,

:39:41.:39:42.

which cost me ?1 from the local tip.

:39:43.:39:44.

Took the seat out, put some pond liner in it with a hole in

:39:45.:39:47.

the bottom and every year I put something different in it.

:39:48.:39:49.

This year, we put this display of echeverias in here and this

:39:50.:39:52.

beautiful Sagina Lime Moss in the centre.

:39:53.:39:54.

And it's amazing how many people remark on it.

:39:55.:39:57.

It makes a really jolly little feature, doesn't it? It does.

:39:58.:40:00.

Of course, the great thing about using succulents is you

:40:01.:40:02.

don't need to worry about the watering, either! That's true.

:40:03.:40:14.

Oh, I love this little framed area.

:40:15.:40:17.

But they all look like annual bedding plants.

:40:18.:40:19.

If you saw this area in May, you'd get a real surprise,

:40:20.:40:22.

because it's this beautiful set of steps that you can no

:40:23.:40:24.

longer see because I've just covered each side of it with

:40:25.:40:27.

There are about ten large pots that line these steps,

:40:28.:40:31.

I have a picture of what I want to create and what I

:40:32.:40:35.

want to do, and it's got to be there tomorrow.

:40:36.:40:37.

So that's why I use these pots and the annuals, because, OK,

:40:38.:40:40.

it takes time for them to grow but I can see what I want and

:40:41.:40:43.

it turns out pretty spectacularly.

:40:44.:40:45.

It's pretty spectacular, as you say.

:40:46.:40:53.

Usually, a small garden is more about what you leave out,

:40:54.:40:55.

but Geoff hasn't worried about that.

:40:56.:40:57.

Instead, he's packed everything he likes in and tied it all

:40:58.:41:01.

together with sculpture and art.

:41:02.:41:07.

Come on. Oh, come on, bring it here. Good girl.

:41:08.:41:13.

Good girl. Good girl, bring it to me.

:41:14.:41:18.

I love the way that behind the seemingly ordinary front

:41:19.:41:25.

doors of so many houses in this country are gardens that are

:41:26.:41:30.

And what's great about Geoff's garden is that you can see it.

:41:31.:41:36.

It's part of the National Gardens Scheme.

:41:37.:41:38.

you can get details of when he opens it up.

:41:39.:41:43.

I've been planting bulbs into pots over the last month,

:41:44.:41:48.

but bulbs in grass or open ground is a much looser affair.

:41:49.:41:53.

I have a crocus here, Crocus tommasinianus.

:41:54.:41:58.

It comes from the area round Bulgaria and Romania,

:41:59.:42:03.

and it will grow perfectly well in deciduous woodland.

:42:04.:42:08.

Now, bearing in mind this is deciduous woodland,

:42:09.:42:10.

and that means that the leaves all fall and there is nothing

:42:11.:42:13.

to stop the light coming through in early spring other

:42:14.:42:17.

than the branches themselves, and they flower

:42:18.:42:20.

as soon as there's a little bit of winter sunshine.

:42:21.:42:22.

It has a kind of very simple sort of shout of joy,

:42:23.:42:25.

it just opens like that in this silvery lilac colour, and

:42:26.:42:29.

the great thing is that they seed very freely.

:42:30.:42:33.

I'm going to plant this batch here in the copse around the

:42:34.:42:39.

This is a dog I had called Beaufort,

:42:40.:42:43.

who was buried here in '99, and this is Poppy's grave,

:42:44.:42:47.

and I think she was about 2003, 2004.

:42:48.:42:51.

And to have them flowering in spring will be a good thing.

:42:52.:42:56.

Now, it doesn't work if you plant bulbs in rough grass or

:42:57.:43:02.

trying to select the right spot.

:43:03.:43:06.

And the easiest and best way to do it is simply throw them

:43:07.:43:09.

on the ground and plant them where they land.

:43:10.:43:11.

And if that means planting them in odd batches and lumps and

:43:12.:43:15.

groups, it doesn't matter, because they will look natural.

:43:16.:43:18.

So, like that. And then another batch there.

:43:19.:43:24.

And because the corms are so small,

:43:25.:43:36.

it's not worth having a bulb planter of any type.

:43:37.:43:39.

Just a sharp trowel does the job fine.

:43:40.:43:43.

If you can plant them a few inches deep,

:43:44.:43:46.

so much the better. And you see this?

:43:47.:43:49.

I'm not worrying about putting them the right way up or

:43:50.:43:51.

anything like that, I'm just sticking 'em in.

:43:52.:44:01.

Of course, what you think is if I planted this...

:44:02.:44:05.

..we'd have a tennis-ball plant. Good boy.

:44:06.:44:11.

When you're planting any bulb into rough grass,

:44:12.:44:15.

and that is not to cut the grass until the foliage of

:44:16.:44:20.

the bulb, whatever it might be, has fully died back.

:44:21.:44:24.

And the reason for that is that if you cut off the foliage

:44:25.:44:27.

too soon, the bulb won't be fed properly, so next year's

:44:28.:44:30.

flowers won't be so good or even not show at all.

:44:31.:44:34.

But the good thing about crocus generally

:44:35.:44:36.

and Crocus tommasinianus in particular

:44:37.:44:38.

is very often these have completely disappeared

:44:39.:44:41.

by mid-May and you can cut the grass back if you want to

:44:42.:44:45.

and keep it mown and treat it as lawn.

:44:46.:44:48.

The whole point of this kind of planting is it takes you to

:44:49.:45:12.

that space where the tightly controlled world of

:45:13.:45:15.

horticulture meets the looseness of the natural world.

:45:16.:45:19.

And somewhere between the two of them

:45:20.:45:21.

you get really beautiful, interesting things.

:45:22.:45:25.

However, sometimes the tightly controlled world of

:45:26.:45:29.

horticulture is something to be celebrated.

:45:30.:45:33.

And in Newark in Nottinghamshire,

:45:34.:45:35.

delightfully bonkers vegetables.

:45:36.:45:44.

I've been growing giant vegetables as

:45:45.:45:46.

a hobby for 25 years, at least.

:45:47.:45:51.

I currently hold the record for the heaviest carrot,

:45:52.:45:54.

and that was in 2014, and it weighed exactly 20 pounds.

:45:55.:45:59.

And that broke the previous record,

:46:00.:46:02.

which had stood for well over 20 years.

:46:03.:46:05.

And so far I've held it, more importantly!

:46:06.:46:10.

I always say growing giant vegetables is a fun hobby,

:46:11.:46:13.

but it's serious to me to actually grow the stuff.

:46:14.:46:19.

I try to research the best methods, keep records,

:46:20.:46:25.

ask other growers, go to seminars on growing,

:46:26.:46:28.

I'm quite pleased with this. It's, erm...

:46:29.:46:35.

a very dense beetroot. They weigh heavy.

:46:36.:46:40.

'Over the years, I've been fortunate enough to hold quite

:46:41.:46:43.

'I think the first world record I had was for a cucumber,

:46:44.:46:48.

'something like 15 world records.

:46:49.:46:54.

'I've done reasonably well over the years

:46:55.:46:56.

'I think, going back a long time,

:46:57.:47:01.

'I think I did have the record for the heaviest parsnip,

:47:02.:47:04.

'but that's been well beaten since then.

:47:05.:47:06.

'I don't seem to be any good at it any more.'

:47:07.:47:09.

Not a good one, no. No.

:47:10.:47:11.

National Giant Vegetable Competition round the country,

:47:12.:47:17.

so we've travelled a lot up and down the country,

:47:18.:47:20.

showing vegetables! Lots of people who grow marrows, er,

:47:21.:47:24.

so they can have a bit of luck and have a big marrow.

:47:25.:47:30.

Not everybody wants to be perhaps dedicated enough

:47:31.:47:34.

I'll be talking to someone and they'll say,

:47:35.:47:38.

"Well, I've just come back from a couple of weeks in Spain,"

:47:39.:47:41.

"so I don't think you're going to win much."

:47:42.:47:45.

I wouldn't like to be away for a couple of weeks in summer.

:47:46.:47:47.

If you're not there, well, everything's lost, isn't it?

:47:48.:47:52.

Carrots, I've never done really well until the last few years

:47:53.:47:56.

and since then I've come to the fore with them.

:47:57.:48:00.

I don't know whether it's just having the right seed

:48:01.:48:03.

or changing my growing methods, but it's working, anyway.

:48:04.:48:11.

So I've got, basically, a normal deep plant pot.

:48:12.:48:15.

I'm going to turn it upside down

:48:16.:48:19.

so the carrot will actually grow up through there.

:48:20.:48:21.

You can really grow a big carrot from seed

:48:22.:48:25.

that you can buy from a dedicated seed merchant

:48:26.:48:28.

and if you can get a good strain of long carrot,

:48:29.:48:31.

really anybody could grow a big carrot.

:48:32.:48:34.

over the years with my weights by starting early

:48:35.:48:39.

in the greenhouse, so I'm sowing things like carrots

:48:40.:48:44.

with heat and once they've germinated,

:48:45.:48:51.

perhaps into February, put an artificial light on them.

:48:52.:48:55.

So that'll continue until obviously the weather,

:48:56.:48:59.

and I can plant out in the open ground in April.

:49:00.:49:09.

When I'm preparing the planting station in my half-barrels,

:49:10.:49:13.

I mix my own, you know, free-draining compost for that,

:49:14.:49:18.

but I incorporate a high-phosphate

:49:19.:49:20.

and a high-potash fertiliser in that at that time.

:49:21.:49:26.

for Harrogate Autumn Flower Show,

:49:27.:49:31.

which we have to stage overnight into Friday morning.

:49:32.:49:35.

It's a three-day show over the weekend.

:49:36.:49:37.

The main thing with carrots and parsnips is to look at what

:49:38.:49:40.

sort of a crown there is. It's a good start.

:49:41.:49:44.

Fingers crossed that it all comes out all right

:49:45.:49:46.

If not, I might just have to dig another one.

:49:47.:49:52.

Quite healthy foliage, isn't it?

:49:53.:49:58.

This is the most exciting bit, really.

:49:59.:50:01.

You're either really pleased with the result,

:50:02.:50:07.

what you've grown, or you're disappointed.

:50:08.:50:11.

But, I mean, either way, it's exciting. Yes, yes.

:50:12.:50:15.

We'll take that away and then we can see what we've got.

:50:16.:50:19.

I mean, the whole aim of lifting the carrot for the show

:50:20.:50:24.

is to enter it in the class for the heaviest carrot,

:50:25.:50:27.

so it's important to get every little bit of taproot

:50:28.:50:30.

and every part of the carrot we can out of the ground.

:50:31.:50:32.

It might just be that difference between winning

:50:33.:50:35.

and losing or coming second or not getting a prize at all.

:50:36.:50:40.

Now we're getting down to this bit and it's gone very thin,

:50:41.:50:44.

They haven't got those big strong heavy roots

:50:45.:50:49.

We might sort of get it if we can.

:50:50.:50:56.

Yeah. THEY GROAN

:50:57.:51:05.

It's a good lump of carrot, isn't it?

:51:06.:51:09.

It's all weight. There aren't any faults with it.

:51:10.:51:13.

I don't think this is going to break me own record.

:51:14.:51:19.

but until I get it finely trimmed, you never know really.

:51:20.:51:25.

I'm quite happy with it. It's a good one. It's a real solid...

:51:26.:51:31.

It's all solid all the way round, in't it?

:51:32.:51:33.

At the Harrogate Autumn Flower Show, Peter swept the board

:51:34.:51:41.

with his giant veg, including his monster carrot.

:51:42.:51:52.

I don't think Peter is going to be troubled by my carrots.

:51:53.:51:57.

if not a disaster, it's a disgrace.

:51:58.:52:03.

There was very, very poor germination and those that

:52:04.:52:07.

never quite took off and, to be honest,

:52:08.:52:10.

because we had a very good carrot crop last year.

:52:11.:52:16.

Now, most of these are a fairly regular carrot shape,

:52:17.:52:28.

without any embarrassing or otherwise hilarious oddities.

:52:29.:52:32.

But we can all enjoy a funny carrot,

:52:33.:52:35.

so if you've got any vegetables -

:52:36.:52:37.

they don't have to be just carrots - that you think are

:52:38.:52:40.

side-splitting because of their oddities or rudeness,

:52:41.:52:44.

then you can e-mail us a picture or send them

:52:45.:52:47.

to our Facebook page and if we think they're fit

:52:48.:52:50.

for human consumption, we'll show them on the programme,

:52:51.:52:53.

although it might have to be after the watershed

:52:54.:52:55.

The turnips and the kohlrabi are doing very well.

:52:56.:53:04.

And you just take off the foliage, like that,

:53:05.:53:13.

and if you grate that, you can eat it raw.

:53:14.:53:17.

And then the turnips have grown really fast.

:53:18.:53:21.

and turnips are a treat with a bit of brown sugar,

:53:22.:53:27.

so the turnips are coated in this kind of caramel

:53:28.:53:30.

and you have a sweetness from that with a slight bitterness

:53:31.:53:34.

from the turnip and it's a very good taste indeed.

:53:35.:53:37.

And this is a whopper. This is too big, I think.

:53:38.:53:40.

I like my turnips smaller than that. Yeah, that's a good size.

:53:41.:53:45.

That's about the right size for a turnip for me.

:53:46.:53:50.

We've got the chicory here, which is absolutely

:53:51.:54:00.

a winter plant, and I'll be taking off the lower leaves.

:54:01.:54:03.

I like that at this time of year.

:54:04.:54:05.

There's a sense of two seasons coming together,

:54:06.:54:07.

one which you're leaving in a great sort of bounteous harvest

:54:08.:54:11.

and the other which you're entering and trying to manage

:54:12.:54:14.

so that in the months to come you'll have lots to pick.

:54:15.:54:18.

And you don't have to worry about months to come -

:54:19.:54:21.

just think about this weekend, because here are some jobs.

:54:22.:54:26.

If you buy prepared hyacinth bulbs, they can be planted

:54:27.:54:30.

so that they flower indoors by Christmas.

:54:31.:54:35.

Use a gritty compost and leave a half to a third

:54:36.:54:39.

Water them and then put them somewhere dark.

:54:40.:54:44.

and don't let them dry out completely.

:54:45.:54:52.

Yew hedges can be cut later in the year than most other kinds,

:54:53.:54:56.

A good cut now will keep it looking crisp and trim

:54:57.:55:02.

right through winter on into late spring.

:55:03.:55:07.

If you've got a young yew hedge like this one,

:55:08.:55:09.

just cut the sides and any extra-long shoots on the top.

:55:10.:55:17.

Inevitably, windfalls drop from apple trees

:55:18.:55:20.

I like to put a container under each tree

:55:21.:55:25.

and they can be used for juicing or cooking

:55:26.:55:30.

or eating raw if there's any ripeness to them,

:55:31.:55:32.

but to get the best from an apple,

:55:33.:55:34.

you need to pick it ripe and handle it with care.

:55:35.:55:37.

Twist each fruit carefully and it comes away in your hand.

:55:38.:55:42.

Store it somewhere cool and dark,

:55:43.:55:44.

taking real care not to damage the fruit.

:55:45.:55:50.

Now, it's turned out to be a lovely day here at Longmeadow,

:55:51.:55:54.

but at this time of year we can,

:55:55.:55:56.

extreme heat, extreme rain, extreme wind, just about

:55:57.:56:02.

everything, so let's see what's on offer for us this weekend.

:56:03.:56:22.

whoever that may be. means some getting off to a soggy

:56:23.:56:22.

The combination of the fake wasps' nest and the screens

:56:23.:57:17.

across the door seem to have kept the wasps at bay

:57:18.:57:20.

and it's looking good. It's looking a good harvest.

:57:21.:57:23.

I have tasted a few and this is Black Hamburg and we want

:57:24.:57:28.

the colour to be really quite rich,

:57:29.:57:31.

There we are. Isn't it wonderful?

:57:32.:57:44.

Well, I reckon that's a pretty good harvest and we should get

:57:45.:57:52.

at least a basket of ripe grapes every week

:57:53.:57:55.

for the next month, six weeks or so.

:57:56.:57:58.

And we need something to look forward to, because yesterday

:57:59.:58:01.

so now the days are losing the race with light.

:58:02.:58:11.

so let's treasure every moment of daylight that we have.

:58:12.:58:17.

No more daylight to share with you today, I'm afraid.

:58:18.:58:20.

But I'll be back here at Longmeadow

:58:21.:58:25.

and we will all be back next week at the same time

:58:26.:58:28.

with another full hour, so until then, bye-bye.

:58:29.:58:33.

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