Episode 29 Gardeners' World

Gardeners' World is now an hour long

so we can celebrate even more wonderful gardens and have more tips

to keep your garden looking good throughout the whole year.

Hello. Welcome to Gardeners' World.

I always feel at this time of year

that the garden can flick seasons almost in the blink of an eye.

When the sun shines, the colours are radiant,

and you can kid yourself that summer is still hanging on,

but then you get a chill wind, a touch of frost,

and you realise that winter is just around the corner.

But that's fine, that's what happens at this time of year,

but it's not fine for a few of the plants.

Things like the banana, for example, the ensete.

It's looking fantastic, better than it has done all summer,

but one frost can kill that.

Things like dahlias and cannas, don't worry about those.

If they get blackened by frost, all you do is lift them then,

and take them in.

But that banana I shall be watching like a hawk,

partly to enjoy it while it's in the garden

and partly to protect it

because the first forecast of frost, that is coming indoors.

On tonight's programme,

Frances Tophill visits a garden on a mountain in Wales.

Go on.

-Go on! Get in there!

-There is no give!

That is just rock!

A neglected family garden in Birmingham

gets the full Nick Bailey treatment.

Acers and figs can do really well in pots

but neither of these plants are happy

so I need to apply a remedy to both of them.

Adam Frost begins renovating his rose pergola.

I'm going to loop that from post to post.

The roses will then come up and I will tie them in.

And Rachel de Thame is coming back to see me here at Longmeadow

and also give me a hand in the dry garden.

These borders that I made last year have proved interesting,

stimulating, but actually quite tricky, because they are more shady

than you might think, so I've got a plant here which loves shade.

You've got some dry shade -

then Mahonia is one of the very good answers.

I've got two here.

The first is Mahonia japonica.

This is a really robust plant.

It will grow quite big, it will spread out,

it will take any amount of cold

and grow in deep shade and produce

lovely yellow flowers

that have good fragrance, and best of all it will do all that

in the middle of winter, but it is quite big

and it is very prickly,

and I intend to put that at the back of the larger border over there.

But I've got a slight variation on that theme

This is Mahonia x media 'Winter Sun.'

Really good fragrance,

lovely lemon flowers, evergreen.

The bees love it, it will grow in the shade, it's a good plant.

I'm going to put this over here.

They are very adaptable, they'll take most soils.

If I pull that out, you can see that's what you can get

below a topsoil.

If you've got that hard layer below it, the water can sit on it,

and the roots of the plants grow down and reach it

and effectively they are sitting in a puddle,

and there are very, very few plants that like that treatment,

so we break that up and that'll be fine.

I like the fact the roots are yellow.

A hint of the flower colour to come. That's a nice healthy plant.

There we go.

That can go in there.

That's going to be a bit top-heavy so I'll just heel that in.

And of course, give it a really good drink.

Poor Nigel, Nellie. Poor Nigel.

Mahonias were named after Bernard McMahon,

an Irishman who emigrated to Philadelphia in America

in the 18th century. When he was there,

he set up a nursery which became a kind of horticultural hub,

a meeting place,

where people brought plants that they had discovered and of course

then they discussed them and sent them out around the whole world.

And I like the fact that Bernard McMahon is commemorated

in my garden, and I know I'm going to like the flowers

that will glow in the middle of winter, and the bees will enjoy

the nectar at a time of year when there isn't much else.

It's a really good plant for a dark, dry corner.

Now it's growing here at Longmeadow

in what is a lowland garden,

but Frances Tophill, in the last of her series

on gardens in extreme places, has been to North Wales

to visit a garden on top of a mountain.

Bryn y Llidiart,

the gate to the hills.

And the gate to a very beautiful but very exposed landscape.

I'm 1,100 feet above sea level on the edge of the Berwyn mountains

in the heart of Wales. Here, everything is open to the elements.

It's a pretty harsh place for sheep, for humans

and for a garden.

However harsh, remote and difficult the conditions are here,

the owners, Christine and John Scott,

have managed to create a wonderful garden.

I can see why you live here, that view is amazing,

but there must be challenges

that come with this kind of exposure.

Yes. There's the weather.

Quite a lot of weather.

And we are at 1,100 feet,

so we get more wind than they do in the valley, and then we get snow.

Quite often we have a ring of snow around the tops of the hills

-and the valley's green.

-But we do have another problem.

Quite a big one.

Go on.

Go on! Get in there!

There is no give! That is just rock.

How many inches of soil is that?

It's about two inches of soil and you're down onto the shale,

so I think I'll give you the crowbar.

-Have you ever dug a garden with a crowbar?

-No, not yet.

-There we are.

-Even that doesn't get through it, does it?

-I know!

So every single hole here you've done like that?

So all the plants that have gone in here had to have a hole dug

and the shale removed and some compost put back

into the hole to give it a decent planting hole and a good start.

That must have taken forever to get this done.

Well, I wanted a garden.

You must have wanted it pretty bad!

That verbena really is stunning

and I can see with the seed heads of the Crocosmia

and when that's in flower, it must be stunning.

We leave the seed heads on because they are still attractive

and then in the spring I take the Crocosmia up

and put the new corms back in,

-and take about half away otherwise it just runs away.

-Yes.

And the verbena, I keep a few seedlings

so that I can plop them into the gaps.

-So it's quite a high maintenance, really, this bit?

-It is, yes.

It's quite high maintenance.

-Hello.

-Hello.

There is a man who takes pride in his mowing, I'm guessing.

-It does look so nice when it's cut.

-It looks lovely.

I love the paths you've got.

Are they kind of designed or just how it naturally happens?

Partly following the contours of the land, and partly to enable us

to get to different parts of the garden, just walking on short grass.

The natural landscape here very cleverly moves

into Christine and John's garden.

Even this fence looks like it could be straight from a farm

and there's very gnarled hedgerows everywhere,

but then you move into an area which is highly cultivated.

Actually, I think that what Christine and John have done

is they have cultivated a lot of their land,

but this is designed to look very well kept,

and the rest of their garden is designed to look very natural

and in keeping with the environment.

-Wow. What a view from your vegetable patch.

-It's lovely.

We do have a problem here, as you can see, with these raspberries.

-They do not look good.

-They are not looking well.

They have been in the ground two years

and the first one to be affected was the one here.

This is the summer fruiting and then the autumn fruiting have got it too

and it looks as though whatever it is, it's moving up that way

in a northerly direction.

I think it looks like you might have something called cane blight

in your raspberries.

-Can you see those split bark, and the bases are very dark?

-Right.

And if you see any black sooty spores on the dead material,

then you know for sure that's what you've got.

So I think what you need to do is to remove anything that's affected,

-get rid of it, burn it.

-Yes.

And then if you find you keep getting it,

maybe move the raspberries to a slightly more sheltered spot.

Thank you very much. That's marvellous. Thank you.

-OK, sorry!

-That's all right.

This is gorgeous, isn't it?

It's marvellous and it's called Sorbus 'Copper Kettle'

and it acts the part, doesn't it?

It's beautiful, really lovely, but rather than spending all that

money on buying one, you can just propagate them from a seed

and hopefully, because there aren't any others around to contaminate

this one, it should come true to seed.

It's really easy, basically, you just take off any flesh.

The very small seed is inside. There it is.

-It's the same colour as the berry.

-Lovely, isn't it?

If you get rid of all that flesh...

-If I put that in your hand...

-Do you have to freeze it?

You don't have to freeze it, no, but if you put it into a sandy compost 50-50 and leave it

outside all winter, the cold winter should vernalise it

so it will germinate next spring.

-Right.

-And, free trees.

Free trees! Good idea!

-There we go.

-Thank you. That's marvellous.

You sow them, they'll grow up big.

You can carry on with your lovely naturalistic planting.

Thank you very much for showing me around.

I'll leave you to do the whole tree!

-Thank you!

-Pleasure.

-Look at that.

This garden demonstrates how amazingly clever Christine and John have been.

They've created a space that sits so naturally within its environment

without compromising at all on its beauty.

Throughout the summer, Nick Bailey has been out and about

solving problems in viewers' gardens.

And tonight he turns his attention to a neglected family garden.

Today, I'm in Kings Heath, a leafy suburb of Birmingham

to look at a family garden whose owners have let it run

a bit out of control.

I'm hoping I can bring it back in check

and return it to its former glory.

This bay tree is potentially quite beautiful but it has been

a bit neglected at the base, so you can see there's lots of old

pruning snags, lots of dead twigs and it needs a really good clean out

but after that I can turn it into a beautiful, multi-stemmed form.

Further into the garden, there is a whole different set of challenges

so there's a patio at the back which is bathed with sunshine.

And there's some plants growing in containers that really aren't at their best.

The soil isn't quite right for them,

they're not quite in the right spot.

So, a few subtle adjustments and we can sort that out.

Finally, on the back wall, it's a real missed opportunity.

I'll put some trellis and long-season flowering climbers

and really bring this patio back to life.

So, I'm going to make a start on this bay tree.

And you can see these old dead twigs and old snags.

They are important to remove.

They're an entry point for disease and they don't look

very pretty, either.

So, I'm going to start with getting rid of some of the heavier stems.

Also important as well, that you leave that collar around the base

which means the plant has a good chance to seal up all of that wound

and protect itself from future infection.

Do you know, there's a real bonus to pruning a bay tree.

There's a wonderful smell that comes off it while you're doing it

but if you harvest these stems, you can hang them for winter,

put them in a glass house or the kitchen,

they'll dry out beautifully and they're amazing in stews.

If you've got a heavier stem to prune, something like this,

it's worth making an initial cut to take the weight out of the stem.

I'm going to use a small pruning saw, cut it about halfway up.

The reason for doing that is that if you cut right at the base,

your finished cut, you stand a chance that the branch will fall

and cause a tear into the bark which will take years to repair.

So we've created quite a few new wounds on the bay tree but

contemporary thinking is that you shouldn't use a wound sealant.

They say now that at best it does nothing,

at worst it seals in potential fungal spores and the like.

Well, that is the bay all but complete.

And what's lovely is it's revealed the architectural lines of the plant

and it's one of those instant payoff garden jobs

so it looks great straightaway.

You can do this with other prunus and laurels to give them those

clean stems and canopy at the top.

Time to get on with the pots.

Now, acers and figs can do really well in pots but neither of

these plants are happy.

The acer is getting burnt by too much sunshine and wind and

there's loads of weeds growing in it.

And the fig is not draining well at all

so it's not growing happily and it's not enough sunlight.

So I need to apply remedy to both of them.

This marram grass is a clear sign the pot has got over-wet.

It's bog grass, so we really need to get it out and get rid of

the competition for the acer.

I'm going to try and save as much of this compost as possible.

So, shaking out the roots but

I need to get all the roots of the marram out to stop it coming back.

I'm just going to take out any dead stems from this.

Now I'm going to use the power drill

to give the acer the drainage it really needs.

I'm going to add some drainage material and I'm going to

use broken up bricks and tiles. You don't need to use anything fancy.

Add some ericaceous compost and make sure the drainage is improved

and then move it into a dappled shade position. Perfect.

A great dappled shade enclave,

out of the wind where this acer can now really thrive.

And again with this pot, you can see there's masses of this liverwort

which is an absolute indication it is far too wet for the fig.

It's going to be great in a pot because they like root restriction,

so as soon as we get that drainage into the bottom and it into the sun,

it should start to crop.

For the fig, I'm also going to add some extra drainage holes,

some drainage material and move that into a blazing sun position.

Now the fig is going to love this warm sunny spot against the wall.

It will climb up slowly over the years with

a bit of support and provide food for the whole family.

But I've still got the rest of the wall to deal with.

It needs some trellis and a bit of colour.

This is a Solanum jasminoides that I'm using on the back wall,

part of the potato and tomato family.

It flowers quite late in the year and will give a real burst of colour.

Wow, I think I'm all but done.

So, to my right I have got the Solanum jasminoides

and to my left I have Trachelospermum jasminoides -

that will flower much earlier in the year and then at the bases

I've used an ornamental Pennisetum Hameln

which will fill the base of the pots

and keep them looking perky right the way through into the autumn.

Job done!

I think what that shows very clearly is that you don't have to do

dramatic makeovers to transform a garden.

A few deft touches can be all it needs.

But I think the dry garden at the moment needs something

a little bit more than just deftness.

It's work in progress,

so there's no sense of it having gone wrong, but it has gone.

It's moved, and not quite in the direction I want it to.

What's happened, and what always happens at Longmeadow,

is the thugs get very thuggish.

So, what I want to do now is go through it,

take out everything which is overpowering its neighbours and that

will leave space for planting that will get the lightness and

the sense of vertical space.

Then there's the Euphorbia.

Euphorbia cyparissias Fen's Ruby

and I was warned, be careful what you wish for because it can

spread alarmingly, so I'm going to take it out.

This is Comfrey. It's not been planted, wrong place for it.

Now fennel, I love.

And actually it's got exactly the right feel for these borders,

which is light and tall and there's air around it

and these lovely umbellifer heads

but not as a row along the edge.

We want it sort of spaced out along the back

so I'll be taking it out all the way along the edge of the path.

Doing this at this time of year means that when I replant,

because the soil is still warm,

there is a chance for the roots to get established and they will

start growing as soon as it warms up next spring.

Whereas if I wait until next spring, if it's very wet,

it could well be April before I can get in

and the middle of April before I plant

so if you can do this in autumn,

definitely it will make life much easier next spring.

Well, I'll keep plugging away, clearing the border,

creating space so that when Rachel arrives, there will be room

for us to plant together, and it will be good to see her again.

She was last here at Longmeadow

when she helped me plant around the pond after we first made it

so there will be really quite some dramatic changes to share with her.

But not as big, I suspect,

as Alan Parr found when he went back to Marks Hall

where he began his working life.

I first visited Marks Hall as a student from Writtle College

in the early '90s

and I was lucky enough to work here shortly after that.

It released a very personal passion in me for working within historic gardens.

The Arboretum and Gardens here at Marks Hall

cover just over 100 acres.

It's split into geographical zones and is carefully managed to

support a wide range of local and exotic species.

And I'm back here today, almost 25 years later, to get stuck in

and do some work with the head gardener.

-Jonathan, how are you doing?

-Good to see you.

It's fantastic to be back.

What's critical about this time of year at Marks Hall for you?

We're looking forward into the winter.

We have a new planting season coming up.

We're collecting seed and planting that.

In the winter, people say, "What you find to do?"

and it is our busiest time!

Marks Hall is never going to be a place that is over-manicured.

A lot of it is about a landscape, a treescape.

Jonathan, the Honywood oak

is the most iconic tree at Marks Hall, isn't it?

It's a beautiful 700-year-old oak tree.

The Honywood oaks, they were known nationally for their stature

and, through the history of the estate,

they were sadly cut down in the 1950s,

and we have very few left.

But the biggest still remains,

and is sort of like a flagship for us to have it there.

It is an iconic tree.

If it sets a reasonable amount of seed, we'll collect that

and plant it and grow them on and plant them out on the estate.

We've got a few acorns on this side that will do nicely.

Yeah, there's quite a nice cluster over there, isn't there, as well?

And it's important, isn't it, to actually get them from the tree,

so you know where they're coming from?

Yes, this time of year, the ones that drop of early -

if you gathered them on the ground -

most of them, like this one, have been drilled by gall wasps,

-or have been chewed out by squirrels in some way.

-Yeah.

So picking them fresh, getting good quality seeds,

this is the best way to do it.

Yeah, there's some good-sized ones here.

What we're trying to do is just replicate what happens in nature.

So an oak tree will scatter all its acorns on the ground.

Most of them will just sit on their side on the ground.

-They will very quickly send down a taproot...

-Yeah.

..and sit there for the winter.

And then, the following spring,

they'll send up the leaves and start their growth.

When we do it, we just plant them in a pot, very shallowly,

on their side, and let nature take its course.

Monkey puzzle trees are now endangered in the wild.

But, thanks to Victorian plant hunters,

there's more diversity of this popular garden plant in the UK

than anywhere else in the world.

Jonathan has chosen Gondwanaland zone of the Arboretum

to plant a few more in.

And these monkey puzzles,

which are native to South America - Chile, Argentina -

these are bridging the gap into Australia,

because we've got our Wollemi pines over here,

-and they're closely related.

-Yeah.

So we're just linking the two groups

by scattering a few more trees in here.

Such a sense of long-term thinking, isn't it?

You know, investing in the future.

You put a tree in a position,

knowing it's going to be there for years.

We're thinking so far ahead with the planting we're doing, and it's...

A lot of the pleasure for me

comes from being involved at this early stage.

That southern beech was that height...

-That's right.

-..when I popped it into the ground.

It's just wonderful, isn't it? Putting a small tree in

and seeing it becoming something so beautiful, like that.

CROWS CAW

There is a huge satisfaction

from seeing a tree that you've planted as a sapling,

or even a seed, grow into some kind of maturity.

All the coppice hazels were seeds, hazelnuts,

that I saw sprouting, potted up and planted out.

And all these trees, every one of them,

I planted when they were small enough to pick up with one hand,

and I've watched them grow.

And, you know, it is as exciting to see them become trees

as it is to see the most exotic flower open out into bloom.

Right, this can go on the compost heap, ready for shredding.

Now, coming up on the programme,

I shall be discovering how grapevines are thriving

in deepest Herefordshire.

And, in his quest to rekindle our love affair with rockeries,

Joe Swift visits a Chelsea gold medal-winning sculptor

for inspiration.

But, first, we rejoin Adam Frost in his new house and garden

in Lincolnshire.

Where, over the last few weeks, he's been giving us a masterclass

in how a top designer tackles a new plot.

ADAM CLICKS HIS TONGUE

(Good girl.)

Islay are back in the walled garden,

enjoying the early autumn colour in the long herbaceous borders.

You know, we're at that time of year now,

you walk around the garden, you get covered in cobwebs and...

It's been lovely just watching it sort of come alive

and change and evolve.

I can remember walking up to that pear tree,

completely bare and just hoping that it was going to deliver.

And it has - covered in pears, and they taste fantastic.

The old clematis along there -

beautiful yellow flowers turning into the seed heads.

And I love the little elements of surprises

that this garden's given me.

If you look at it now, things like verbena.

Love that sort of airiness that it gives to the top of planting.

Anemones in there, beautiful pinks.

Things like solidago, the goldenrod at the back there,

is a plant I don't even use.

Nicotiana. I mean, that's self-seeded.

So that's what I love as well,

is that sometimes something just pops up

where it's not necessarily meant to be,

but it can drive an idea. It's inspired.

These key colours - the mauves, the pinks, yellows and creams -

are going to be my palette when I redesign the borders next year.

But, right now, I want to make a start on renovating my rose pergola.

Do you know, I actually thought that mist was going to clear earlier,

and it was going to burn off and it was going to be a beautiful day.

And we've ended up... It's actually quite grey and chilly.

I think this is the first time I've put a coat on in...

probably a good month or so, really.

What I've realised is I've got three decent roses.

And, actually, three that have seen the test of time.

What I want to do now is cut these down,

I'm going to take them out.

And my other roses are still flowering

so, you know, we're in September,

so we really want to be waiting until the back end of October,

going into November, then I can give those a really good prune.

And that's all about, you know,

cutting out the dead, diseased and damaged

and getting some real shape and vigorous growth into those plants.

But, today, cut these back, and then I'm going to get inside

and I'm going to start prepping my posts.

RAIN PATTERS

Well, it's grim out there now.

So a good job, actually, to do in the rain -

come in here and I want to get these posts prepped for the pergola.

Make sure you choose pressure-treated timber.

I'm using chunky four by four square posts

that will really help support the weight of my roses.

So what I need to do is drill some holes near the top of my posts,

and I'm going to literally loop...

I'm going to loop that from post to post.

The roses will then come up, and I'll tie them in.

So, really simple.

I'm going to measure 100 mil down, so about four inches,

from the top of the post.

Make sure my hole...

sits in the middle.

And I'm going to drill a hole all the way through.

But what you've got to remember

is always get the drill bit just slightly bigger than this rope

because what'll happen is, when this gets wet, it will swell up.

Don't laugh. But...

..have to be safe, don't you?

And carefully... When you start off, just be very careful -

the bigger the drill bit, the more it's going to bite into the timber.

What I don't want to do, just so you understand,

is I don't want to drill all the way through.

I'm going to drill from both sides.

The reason being, if I drill all the way through,

what it'll do is it'll punch through the other side,

so when you look at the timber from the top,

it's going to have... One side's going to look absolutely shocking,

and the other side will have a lovely, clean cut to it.

So we turn it over.

See the hole on the other side.

Back in, nice and upright.

And there we go.

But these probably are going to sit about two metres out of the ground -

the loops come down, you'll still be able to get underneath.

When I moved in,

there were lots of projects that I wanted to get on with.

But, by far, the biggest was my veg garden.

I'm really nearly getting there.

I'm chuffed to pieces with this area now.

So you can see, all been painted grey, looking really good.

I think, by the time this weathered steel cleans up,

it's had a winter, and you get that real orange out of it next year,

that will be a beautiful contrast.

And then I've got my hotbeds, nearly finished.

My pad's in for my cooking area. Greenhouse space nearly in.

And really today is all about just getting some gravel down.

And what I've gone for is a gravel called self-binding gravel.

It's sort of 12 mil gravel, so the larger particles are 12,

and it goes all the way down to what they call fines,

which is dust.

And, as it goes down and it's compacted, it goes totally solid.

And, actually, out of a tonne bag,

you'd probably do about eight square metres of path from it.

So it does work out quite cost-effective in the end.

And it's pretty easy to put down.

It's all about the work that you put underneath.

So it's digging out, it's getting back to a hard foundation,

and then putting hard-core in.

The hard-core base must be well compacted,

and then you can spread the gravel on top.

You're looking for a good layer of about 70 mil deep.

And it's worth taking a little bit of time in,

even if you go back over,

before I start sort of putting that whacker plate on.

The gravel needs to be very gently watered

as the compacting plate glides over the surface.

Never, ever, do it with a hosepipe.

You don't want to be spraying,

because you'll wash the fines straight down.

So...

So I am nearly there.

It's so exciting to see how quickly my garden is evolving.

I've transformed that sea of gravel out the front into a proper garden,

with a breakfast terrace

and the beginnings of an edible foraging border.

I've loved discovering the orchard, the meadow, the herbaceous borders,

and my head's stuffed full of ideas for the next chapter of the garden.

But the biggest transformation of all

is the overgrown mess

to the new veg garden.

To think I'm actually going to start planting in my own veg garden,

it's fantastic.

In the last of his series looking at rockeries old and new,

Joe Swift visits the sculptor of my own favourite exhibit

at this year's Chelsea Flower Show.

I love rocks and stones in gardens, in their natural forms.

But, of course, they can also be sculpted and carved

into pieces of artwork.

Now, today, I've come to meet a designer who likes to use them

as focal points in the garden to draw the eye into key areas.

Sometimes, in quite unexpected ways.

This year, one garden at the Chelsea Flower Show

created a huge talking point -

a 44-ton cube of granite, designed by Martin Cook and Gary Breeze

took rocks and gardens to a whole new level.

So what is it about rock and stone that you love so much,

and why do you want to incorporate them into gardens?

It has such enormous strength and permanence about it.

Mankind has always been fascinated by large pieces of rock,

you know, Stonehenge and so on, and they have an awesome presence.

What stone do you look for?

I tend to use natural British stone,

because it's indigenous to this country.

I have to know, when I'm spending hours carving a piece,

that it's not going to fall apart after the first winter,

so I use Welsh slate, Cumbrian slate, I use York stone,

-Portland stone, Purbeck stone...

-And granite.

-Granite was for Chelsea.

-A tough material, though.

-Very tough.

Not one that you really want to carve into.

Oh, I like these stepping stones.

"The book of life begins with a man and a woman in a garden.

"It ends with Revelations."

-LAUGHTER

-Oscar Wilde.

-Fantastic.

Yeah, what I like about it is,

-stepping stones, you see in any garden...

-Yes.

..but you've sort of added another layer of interest.

It does make you slow down.

You have to stop and you have to read it and, rather than

charging around in our busy lives, it forces you to take your time.

What happens if you go the other way?

Well, you have to read it backwards.

LAUGHTER

This part has always been really abundant and beautiful.

Here, we had to set a tank into the ground here, and it was all dug up

to let the gas tank in, and so we've just really put it back and just

left it and I'd welcome the opportunity

to do something really interesting.

It's a sort of classic rockery, though, isn't it?

You've got a lovely piece of stone here ready to go in, haven't you?

Yeah, we have. Yeah, I've scooped that out

to make a bit of a birdbath, which will be rather nice there,

and then I've got another piece in the workshop that would be great

-to set in down there and we can work around those.

-Sure, sounds great.

-Shall we go and get it, then?

-Sure.

You've got some nice, mature planting to set it into,

-haven't you?

-Yes.

BARROW SQUEAKS

Are you serious with your squeaky barrow?

LAUGHTER

You might be good with stone, but you know what? You need some oil!

Oh, that barrow!

Right, so what's the idea with this, then?

So if we stand this in here,

-we'll have a dry run and see how it's going to look there.

-OK.

I think about there somewhere, Joe, would look quite good. So if I...

-I'll jump up.

-Yeah, OK.

-So what do you think, Joe?

I think it looks great.

I think it works really nicely with the ferns,

-even the hemerocallis and then the buddleia behind it.

-Yeah.

Just putting this simple, contemporary piece in there

-really changes the dynamic, I think.

-Yeah.

It'd be really nice to plant some ferns in the front,

just to really nestle in at the bottom.

-Is this all right? You don't mind me re-rockery-ing...

-That's fine.

-..re-rockery-ing your rockery?

-LAUGHTER

-Are you sure?

-Yeah, none of it was intended!

LAUGHTER

-Just, don't you think, around the bottom...?

-Yeah.

-You know.

-You can do the standing back and having a look, now.

-Fantastic.

-Together, we'll go a long way, mate.

-We will.

I think it'll have to be called Cook and Swift, though.

No, Swift and Cook it is, it's got to be.

-Right, we better do the birdbath.

-OK, then. Yeah.

-Right.

This is... Well, this is altogether a very different piece, isn't it?

That is, yeah. It's a piece of the Hornton stone that was found here.

-How heavy is this, then?

-It's pretty heavy, so...

-Oh, God. I tell you what...

-Yeah, you know what?

I think we might leave that to younger men.

Boys, could you give us a lift with this?

-The heavy-duty boys.

-Stronger and younger than us.

It's not going very far. Where do we want it, then?

Just if you can get it on that angle, there, lads,

it would be great. So maybe...

That's it, maybe bring your end round a bit, John.

-That's probably looking good, actually.

-You like it?

-Yeah, that looks good.

-I think that looks good.

Looks very nice, doesn't it?

Yeah, it needs some planting around it, doesn't it?

-Just to soften it in there.

-Yeah.

-That coreopsis is perfect, really, isn't it?

-You think? Yeah.

Because what I like about the stone is it's got that warmth about it.

-Yeah, yeah.

-It's a really good colour,

but with the hemerocallis and then that geranium's got that red in it,

so I'm thinking, that goes in there...

-Yep.

-..and that'll just soften as it grows and...

It's beautiful, look at that - it looks really good.

-Yeah. Fantastic.

-Right, I'll dig it in, then.

-It's quite a nice soil, actually.

-Yeah, looks good, doesn't it?

-Should be fine in there.

-Yep. Great.

It's been in a pot, so it's quite upright,

-but it will relax and sort of fill this gap here quite nicely.

-Lovely.

-That'll look fantastic, won't it?

-Yeah, really good combo.

-Yeah.

From here, I like the way you've got the sort of crisp edge

-to the terrace...

-Yeah.

..and then that rock as a fulcrum leading you down to the steps.

It works in lots of ways, design-wise.

So have I persuaded you to include rockery in your garden?

I'm not sure about a rockery, but definitely an element of stone.

I've got a slate terrace, but it's very crisp and clean,

and I feel like I need to get in touch with a more natural form,

and not too big a feature, quite subtle.

-OK, so we won't have to crane it in.

-We won't have to crane it in!

-No, OK.

-Certainly not.

-But, yes, I would definitely want something rocky.

-Great.

I do think that stone in some form - whether it be used to look as

natural as possible, like Paxton's incredible rockery at Chatsworth,

or whether it is inscribed stone or sculpture -

always adds an element to a garden and, if you travel the world,

you will see stone used everywhere

as something that can be really, truly creative,

whatever your style or aspect of gardening might be.

Tomatoes still going well, here in this greenhouse and the other one,

and the grapes are now absolutely at the point

where they're all ripening fast.

I confess, I didn't really know the optimum time to pick grapes

until a few days ago when I went to visit a national collection

of vines, not so very far from here, in a corner of Herefordshire.

First things first, do you want a dessert grape or do you want

-a wine grape?

-Dessert.

-Do you want a seedless variety or one with pips?

-Oh!

-Oh! I don't mind, is the answer...

-OK.

..but I do know that I want taste.

I want it to be delicious.

I don't want to just be pleased because I've grown a grape,

I want it to be the best grape that I have ever tasted in my life.

-No pressure.

-No pressure(!)

-LAUGHTER

I have got a spot on a south-facing wall,

and we do grow against it, already,

a fig, a pear and a rose, and all three do fine.

Well, that's very good news, because if you can grow a rose,

you can go a grape vine, and I'm sure,

from the 478 different varieties we've got growing here,

we'll find one for you, Monty.

-Shall we go and look?

-Thank you. Yeah. 478?

I know a lot of people get a bit confused about pruning,

so let's work through it very basically.

-This is the vine that could be 100 years old...

-Yep.

..but clearly you've been pruning like mad up above it.

Tell me what you do for your winter pruning regime.

Well, the aim of the winter pruning is to leave just enough buds

to produce the new growth, which appears every year,

-on which the fruit appears.

-And just clarify that.

-Yeah.

So all grapes are only produced on the current season's growth.

-Precisely.

-Right.

Precisely, so that's our aim, so what we do, we can either...

A couple of methods of doing it - the spur prune method,

-where you can see the old spur here.

-Yeah.

In the winter, I would cut that off.

-Now, it looks here as though this is permanent structure.

-Yes.

But these are not. That's only a year or two old,

so what's going on there?

That's a slightly different way of pruning

known as cane replacement pruning, which is,

as it says on the tin, you are replacing this with a new cane,

so what I would do is, in the winter, chop that off there,

leaving a space for dieback, and then tie this cane down

and then that will be... This will look like that next year.

But why would you do that?

Why would you not just leave this as a permanent structure?

Because a lot of varieties, particularly seedless varieties,

fruit better when they're pruned in this way.

So what's the latest you would happily prune here?

I would happily prune... end of the first week of April.

-As late as that.

-As late as that? Really?

-As late as that, yes, yes.

OK, that's winter and spring sorted. What about summer?

Here we are, full growth. How do we manage this?

Well, one of the things you want to do is maximise the light and air

through what's known as the canopy,

which is everything that's growing here, so if we've got leaves here,

what we want to be doing is taking off leaves

round the fruiting zone -

-and fruiting zone, I mean, is where the grapes are.

-Right.

And we want to remove all those leaves.

And you do just pull them off?

You do, they just crack off, and what you're looking to do

-is to get an open enough canopy.

-Yeah.

The famous Australian viticulturist said you could place

a naked female behind the canopy,

look through, and once you've got a dappled nature,

you can't quite tell the details,

so it's that dappled nature of canopy.

OK, so my coy mistress will be observed

through the dappled light of a vine?

You've got it. Isn't that romantic?

Well, it could be. It could be very nice indeed.

LAUGHTER

Is there a critical element to the timing?

-I would say, as soon as the fruit sets.

-Right.

So as soon as you've got what looks like little sort of

pea-shaped berries, start taking off the leaves and start exposing them.

Do I need to cut the tops off at all?

Cut the tops off as well, but make sure you've got at least five

or six leaves from beyond the last bunch of grapes.

Mistakes people make are to cut them off and not leave enough leaves

-for the vine to feed.

-OK.

-So that's another thing to do.

Now, how do you tell when a bunch of grapes is ready to be picked?

Well, you observe the colour they turn to,

-so with the black grape, it'll turn black...

-Yes.

..and the final colour, and with a white grape,

-it'll go slightly translucent and soft.

-Right.

-Make a note of that date...

-Yes.

..and don't touch them for four to six weeks.

You want them to be ripe.

See, my guess is that most people, like me, pick them too soon.

Absolutely, and what they end up with? Sour grapes.

So if I start with this one, it's...

-What's it called?

-Lakemont.

-Lakemont.

-A white seedless.

Mmm! That's a nice grape.

-It's got some acidity...

-Yep.

..but it's also got floral tones.

Yes. And the next one, just have a taste. I won't say anything.

What's this one called?

-This one's called Interlaken.

-OK.

-Another white seedless.

Oh! SHE LAUGHS

Oh!

I thought that might...

Describe what's going on.

It's a hit of a really, really oversweet child's sweet.

-Bubblegummy, strawberry flavour.

-Yeah.

-Strawberry...

-Yeah.

-..but bad strawberry. Not in a good way.

-No.

-OK, what's this one?

-This one's called Himrod.

-Right.

-And you're not...?

-I'm not, I'm not. I'm not going to... Yes, yeah.

Disturb your palate.

That's very different. I have absolutely no ambiguity at all.

-I much prefer that one.

-Lakemont it is, then.

-Yes.

-Can I please have a Lakemont vine...

-You may.

-..to plant against

my south-facing wall? Brilliant.

-You'll be successful.

-Well, we've arrived.

-Ta-da!

-Gone down from 400 and... How many was it?

-478...

-478 to one.

-..to one.

-Brilliant.

It's been several years since Rachel visited Longmeadow

and, today, she's made a welcome return.

When you were last here, I think all of this was vegetables.

It's amazing, you know, actually, in four years,

that it looks so full, so mature.

-This...this is the pond.

-Ah, the pond. This is what I remember.

-The pond what we did.

-The pond what we did.

-Do you remember?

-Oh, we did a good job.

-Yeah.

-Transformed, Monty.

-Quite a lot of the planting, actually, we did

-is still there.

-Yes, yes.

-Although there's been a little bit

-of rearrangement.

-I see a lot of it.

You remember the Candelabra primulas,

which looked, in 2012, looked great.

-And in 2013 didn't look bad.

-Mm-hm.

-But by 2015 had disappeared.

And that was because I hadn't really allowed for the full growth

of the hostas and they thrived at the expense of things

-around them.

-Yes. I think we did a good job.

-We did.

Well, let's hope... OK, you've done a good job in the damp part,

let's take you to the dry part and see if you can help me do

a good job there.

-Yeah.

-Stunning colour.

-Right.

-Come on, you.

-This is the dry garden.

That, by the way, is a vine called Lakemont,

-which I planted just the other day.

-Ah!

-So that is going to come up over here...

-Lovely.

..and we'll have these beautiful, slightly acidic white grapes

in a year or two.

I've done a bit of clearing in here because this is

-very free draining...

-Mm-hm.

-..very sunny, but our high rainfall

and rich soil means that the things that thrive become

-thugs really quickly and take over.

-Yeah.

And what, of course, I want is, with any dry garden,

-you want it open.

-You said dry garden.

-Yeah.

So I thought sedums, I knew you liked them already.

-You've done your homework.

-And I've got a couple of nice ones there,

-do you think?

-They're fantastic and thank you so much.

I've got some eremurus, which I want in and I think they

should be planted first cos have a look at these.

-Look at that.

-They're like something from another planet.

-That is Joanna.

-That's fantastic.

Isn't it an amazing plant?

Now this is white and that's Charleston

and that is a really good soft yellow.

Now, I know that if we start placing them...

See, if that went somewhere in that space there.

-So just there?

-Yeah.

-So we need to make sure...

-Because they don't like being crowded.

-Yeah,

and also drainage, drainage, and then a bit more drainage.

So what I'm going to do...

I suggest, is put a layer of grit in so it sits on pure grit.

-Yeah, so it just lifts it up...

-Yeah.

-..slightly. Great.

Chuck a bit in there.

Do you know what, Monty, I have to say,

I really like gardening with somebody.

You know, my husband doesn't garden.

It's just nice to bounce ideas back and forth with somebody

who's equally plant besotted.

Yeah. I think one of the great unsung joys of this garden

-is it's been made by myself and Sarah.

-Yes.

-And we've always done it together.

-Yes, lovely thing.

Our whole relationship, for 37 years, has been a love of gardens.

-Yeah.

-It is important. It is...

You know, when you go to allotments...

-people chat and swap ideas...

-Yeah.

-..and help each other out

-and that matters.

-Exactly.

-Do you think we should mark them?

-I think we should definitely mark them

-because it's so easy to forget where that is.

-OK.

And, of course, not to plant where the roots are.

-It does mean there's a lot of bare soil.

-I know.

-Something like sowing annuals, perhaps? Maybe bulbs.

-Maybe...

Nelly. She's making a friend out of you.

There you are, you see. A new friend, Nelly.

Hello, you!

-A large... Nel!

-She does want the stake!

-Now, look here...

-Nelly, stop it.

You and I are going to have

-to learn to work together.

-Stop it, stop it.

If you're happy with where you've got the eremurus,

-we can just then work...

-Yeah.

-..the sedums in and around them.

Let's get another couple in there and then start working

-on the sedums.

-OK.

Monty, I'm just thinking, shall I leave a bit of space

and then we could put some sedum between them?

-Yeah, I agree, it's a good idea.

-How does that work?

-Thank you.

-There we go.

Tired, Nelly?

Now, sedums. You know, if you see those in the pot,

-nice and upright...

-Yeah, I mean, the thing is that they're just

-water storage units, aren't they?

-Yeah.

I mean, they're so beautifully adapted to storing water in here.

-Now, which one is that?

-This is an absolutely gorgeous one,

Purple Emperor, which I think is one of my favourites.

I mean, just that lovely dark colour. This reminds me, I think,

of broccoli and this is like a purple sprouting

-in its habit, it's airy and light.

-Right.

And that's the sort of more conventional lumpy broccoli.

-Well, I like lumpy broccoli.

-You like it!

And this lumpy broccoli is called Autumn Joy,

-so we'll stick with that.

-OK.

-If I...

put them sort of fairly close to the edge

-and in front of there.

-That one can go there.

It wants to be where it's going to not be shaded out.

That is the key thing. I wonder if we could get...

-Maybe another there?

-Another one there.

-That's going to get maximum sunlight.

-Group them together.

And the other thing I love about sedums is

just how wonderful they are for attracting beneficial insects,

-hoverflies, especially.

-Yeah, yeah.

And, you know, of course with hoverfly larvae feasting on aphids,

that can only be a good thing.

-As they age, they continue to look good.

-Yeah.

-They're still adding something to the garden.

-Yeah, exactly.

Even when the flowers are brown, they've still got

-that structural element.

-Well, I leave them on all winter.

-Yeah.

I love the way it's giving contrast to the Euphorbia behind it.

OK. That's the same old thing, isn't it? Right plant, right place.

Exactly. There's no getting away from it.

It's also quite a good idea to check for vine weevil

when you're just tipping it out of the pot.

-Do you know, I've never knowingly had vine weevil here.

-Mmm.

-Well, you don't want to introduce it with a new plant, do you?

-No, no.

It's not a bad idea to check.

That looks nice.

I think that's pretty good.

Obviously, it's got to fill in, we've got to get some bulbs in...

various other options and I want to fill some gaps,

but having the eremurus there, those are the key plants

-that everything else will...

-Exactly, and they'll be spectacular

-if they work.

-Yeah. That's really good.

Well, I'll water these in, and there's one more thing.

What's next, Rachel?

I would say it's jobs for the weekend.

Chicory has two distinct phases of growth.

The first throughout summer has masses of very bitter leaves,

which develops a good strong root and then in autumn,

the edible shoots appear. So strip away much of that summer growth

to let these new shoots have plenty of light and air.

Celery and celeriac are not fully hardy

but it's good to leave them in the ground as long as possible.

And if you pack them with a layer of insulating straw,

this will protect them from all but the hardest frosts.

Well, it's beginning to feel a little bit nippy here at Longmeadow,

so I wonder what the weather's going to be like this weekend?

Let's find out.

Nelly, stop it, not everybody likes that.

I do. Well...

Well, look, Rachel, it's very, very nice of you to come.

I'm sorry that Nel has taken a shine to you in a big way.

I'm taking her home with me.

-I think you must come slightly more often.

-Yes.

-I think four years is probably a little too long.

-Four years

is too long and I can't believe how much you've done in that time.

-Well, there's always more to do. You know what it's like.

-Yes, I do.

-There's always more to do.

-I do.

-But not tonight

because that's it for today and we'll be back next week,

but it's going to be the last of this series, so don't miss it.

-Till then, bye-bye.

-Bye.