Episode 5 Gardeners' World

Come on.

Hello, and welcome to Gardeners' World.

This is the Writing Garden,

and the Writing Garden is planted fundamentally with white flowers.

I say fundamentally because some are touched with pink,

and that's deliberate,

the idea being to pick up the white and the pink of the apple blossom

as and when it comes.

Having said that, there are some rogue plants.

It's amazing how often you plant something or sow something

and another plant altogether appears -

and there's nothing you can do about it,

and occasionally you make a mistake.

So, for example, we've got this lovely white daffodil,

thalia, which is creamy, touched with a little bit of lemony yellow,

which is fine - but then bright yellow daffodils,

which I certainly didn't intend to put in here,

popping up occasionally.

The only thing to do is pick 'em.

I've got a pink hyacinth - should be white -

and these rogues will make perfectly good plants elsewhere.

I'll move them in a few weeks' time, but, for the moment,

I'll let the flowers come, pick them, put them in a vase

and they'll be fine - but not here in the Writing Garden.

There's not too much purification needed,

and it's always so exciting to see this growth coming through -

after a barren winter, flowers are appearing every day,

and what is also exciting to appear are my bees,

and it's time to see how they're getting on.

This week, Carol is visiting a garden

filled with flowers that thrive in shade...

This time of year, a woodland garden is just a thing of beauty.

It's very natural, it does its own thing, really.

..and Frances Tophill begins a new series of films

trialling some of our most popular vegetables.

We're going to learn from this which are the highest yielding

and, really importantly, which tastes the best.

There is bee activity.

For quite long periods of the winter, there was nothing -

no sign of them at all -

but the sun is coming out, there are flowers and they've got pollen,

and they're starting to get busy.

And whilst it's too early to open them out completely,

it's worth just checking them,

and I'm going to give them a little bit of fondant,

that's sugar and water mixed, because it can get cold.

We could have a burst of really bleak weather,

and that's an insurance against bad weather -

and if they don't need it, well, no harm is done.

So, I'm going to protect myself a little,

just in case they get irritated at my presence.

This is the fondant, which you can buy from bee suppliers,

and fundamentally it's icing sugar mixed up into a paste, and

that's perfect for them - it will give them all the energy they need.

So, I'll take the top off...

..like that.

Now, this is a top-bar hive, so that the combs run downwards,

and if I just take this off first, which is the stopper,

then there should be a couple of empty ones there, and that...

There we go.

And there are the combs, and I just slip that in like that...

..put these empty bars back on top...

And they build their combs that hang down from the bars...

..and that will happen over the next few weeks

as they get more and more pollen from the plants...

..but at least they've got a nice bit of fondant

to tide them over a lean period.

Put the top back on.

There we are...

..and just leave them to get on with it.

Well, I do hope that the sun stays out

and they don't need that fondant.

But, of course, some of us

have gardens where it doesn't matter how sunny it is, it's in shade,

and I get a lot of letters, people saying,

"My garden is in total shade, what can I do about this problem?"

Well, it needn't BE a problem,

and Carol has been to visit a garden not very far from here

which is in shade,

but which is a glorious example of what you can make of that situation.

Whether it's a border illuminated through a profusion of leaves

or a damp oasis in the shadow of the wall,

we all have shady spots in our gardens -

yet with a little thought and imagination,

we can turn them into the most magical of places.

Over the last 15 years, through trial and experiment,

Stuart Donachie has learnt just what to grow in shade.

I know people are always talking about enchanted woodland,

but this really is magical, Stuart!

This time of year, a woodland garden is just a thing of beauty.

It's very natural, it does its own thing, really.

You know, all these anemones,

they're wild anemones which are coming up round here.

Yeah, and woodruff.

Yeah, sweet woodruff just beginning to come out.

So, this is all native, is it, Stuart?

They're almost all native - I garden very lightly in here,

and I've only introduced the odd plant into it.

But all these plants exploit this opportunity, don't they?

Yeah, at this time of year,

-there's very little cover from the leaves above.

-Yeah.

It's a deciduous woodland - the plants grow, they burgeon.

They just take real opportunity of all this wonderful moisture,

which is unusual in this part of the garden,

-which, in the summer, is very, very dry.

-Very dry.

But they've all evolved in different ways to cope with that

-sort of situation.

-They have, yes.

The wood anemones,

you've got these little rhizomes that creep everywhere -

but it's not just native plants you've got in here -

look at that!

-Look at that!

-That is lovely.

It is a lovely trillium - that's an American woodlander.

They like it as now - they get a bit of moisture in spring,

and then they can be baked all summer.

It's growing away fantastically here.

Because there's the same kind of temperate woodland, isn't there?

Yes, it is the same.

Right the way over from the Far East through the Middle East right

the way through Europe and across to the States.

People think of them as acid lovers, as well,

but so many of them will actually grow in neutral conditions.

This used to be the most tremendously wet border,

-and you can hear from the ducks...

-QUACKING

..and if you look over there, I put this pond in,

and the pond has got a great sausage of clay along one side of it,

and then the pond is carved out of it, and all of a sudden,

all the water stopped coming here,

and it dried the border up tremendously,

and so, yet again, a new opportunity

to try out a different kind of shade-loving plant.

-So, you had to rethink your planting here.

-Yeah, totally.

I ended up planting lots of things like the epimediums,

-which you have here on the left...

-Yeah.

..and just plants which absolutely love

being sort of on that slightly drier side of shade.

The ferny leaves of this dicentra,

I mean, that just looks so splendid,

and yet it's a plant that anybody could grow.

Oh, it runs like crazy and the foliage is so fantastic.

And doesn't it look good with this brunnera?

-Now, that's a superb plant.

-Oh...

-Don't you think?

Well, they will grow in the shadiest spots, in the driest of spots,

and they will perform for you almost all year,

because you have this fantastic foliage which persists after

the beautiful sort of forget-me-not flowers go.

Yes. It becomes a foliage plant.

Look at this honesty that's just seeded itself through here.

Oh, it's very good value,

-the variegated one with the white flower.

-Yeah.

Even when the flower goes, the foliage,

with that variegation, it really still pops out at you.

-And what about this? What's this?

-HE CHUCKLES

-It's a scopolia...

-SHE GASPS

..which has wonderful architecture at this time of year,

because it's getting a bit of moisture,

which enables it to put on much more leaf,

and then you get these wonderful bell flowers.

It's got that kind of vaguely sort of dangerous look, hasn't it?

It does, doesn't it?

This area, you'll see, is a very, very different area,

where you start seeing much bigger leaves,

cos this is very wet, damp shade in here, and particularly down here,

in the water, you can grow some really very big leaf things,

like the skunk cabbage down here. Um...

-This lysichiton.

-Yeah.

So, how deep does the water get here?

-Ah!

-I mean, is it always this really nice trickle?

-If we get quite a lot of rain...

-Yeah.

..then it can come up to two or three feet.

-All the plants which are here have got very thick, fleshy roots.

-Yeah.

Some of them have got things, like lysichiton,

-they just go straight down forever.

-Yeah, right down,

-and hostas have big roots, don't they?

-Hostas, as well.

And so they take the water, belting through,

and they remain firmly anchored.

-Very few ferns really love their feet in the wet...

-Oh, yeah.

..but matteuccia does, as well, doesn't it?

Oh, it does -

the shuttlecock fern is beautiful.

Most people think of euphorbia as something which only grows

in sun and dry, and there's a euphorbia here,

which is Euphorbia palustris...

-Which means "living by a stream".

-Yeah.

-Yeah!

It needs water.

And as well as all these glorious big clumps of things,

-you've got some very, very special stuff, too, haven't you?

-Yeah.

-Look at that!

-It's a podophyllum. Who couldn't love that foliage?

I mean, just look at the big, shiny leaves.

And it's spreading, isn't it, here and there?

Yeah, it runs. It's got a very fleshy rootstock,

and it goes through all the really moist soil,

and then pops up, as you can see, in the middle of the path.

Here, there, and everywhere. Very convenient places.

Shade just is full of opportunities to grow unusual and peculiar things

as well as some of the more common things.

People always think of it as being a problem.

But, in actual fact,

some of the most beautiful plants in the world come from shady places.

Absolutely.

And whatever kind of shade you have,

there is something beautiful to grow in it.

One of the features of this garden

is that the shade has changed really quite a lot

in the last five years or so.

Trees I planted 25 years ago

cast no shade at all for the first ten years,

and then, gradually, as they've grown, that shade has grown

and, suddenly, you've an area that was in full sun

is now very shady.

And so I've had to adapt the planting.

And in this part of the garden, I've made these new beds last year,

and I'm gradually planting them up.

It's worth pointing out I'm making a new path.

You can see - still very much in the process of being made.

I had meant to have it all finished by now.

But there have been delays. That's the way life goes.

But you can see the stage we're at.

And this will have pavers on edge running down,

and what I want is a fairly low-key path

just so we can take a wheelbarrow up and down

without causing mud between the borders.

And I'll get that done sometime over the next few weeks.

We'll come back to it before I finish it.

But planting and shade.

I've got a couple of plants here

which are perfect for shady positions.

This border was, this time last year, part of our compost heaps.

So it's very young. It's just at the stage of being planted.

But you can see the ferns are looking good.

This is Helleborus foetidus, one of our native hellebores.

And primroses coming in here.

And it's starting to get a feel.

So I want to build the tapestry.

Not every plant can be a star.

And I've got two.

We've got tiarella and tellima.

This is Tellima grandiflora Forest Frost.

Tellima is a saxifrage, comes from North America

and likes cool, light shade with a fairly rich soil.

And you get these leaves which are coloured

but, also, the flower spikes, they rise up

and you have little bells on racemes.

They're subtle, delicate, but really charming.

And most importantly,

they form part of the drift and the tapestry

and the flow of shady planting.

They go really well with ferns and hellebores.

So we'll place that there.

We want to build up drift. Put that into there.

As well as a couple of tellimas, I've got here a tiarella.

Tiarella Spring Symphony,

with these white spikes of flower rising up.

And tiarellas also like

cool, rich positions, shade of woodland.

Not too dry. That is really important.

And not too hot. They don't like blazing hot sun.

So this will be perfect.

This is Tiarella Pink Skyrocket.

And the name implies

that there is a touch of pink to go with it

which, of course, will pick up with the pink of the apple blossom.

These tiarellas spread by stolons, rather like strawberries,

with runners, along the surface off the ground.

And they will spread quite well.

This, I think, can come down here, actually.

These are plants that will do very well planted in amongst shrubs.

They'll like the shade, they'll like the companion.

They're an understory.

But they have a kind of charm, a sweetness.

They're not intense, they're not dramatic.

But they seduce you. They pull you in.

Now they're planted, these almost disappear into the mulch.

But they will grow very quickly.

And the tellima and the tiarella will start to flower

in the end of April, and May,

and although they'll never sing their song from the rooftops,

they are really charming, and I love them.

And also very, very good plants

for what might be seen as a tricky situation.

Now, later on in today's programme,

I will be starting to lay out my new veg plot.

What I'm looking for there is to extend the range of veg,

grow some heritage varieties, things that look good and taste delicious.

But when you start to grow veg,

it is quite tricky to know what varieties to grow

and which do the best.

And Frances Tophill is starting a trial,

which we'll follow through throughout the year,

looking at those varieties which taste best

and have the best harvest.

This veg trial is so exciting,

because we're growing four of the most easy vegetables.

Cucumbers, tomatoes,

sweetcorn and climbing French beans.

And we're going to learn from this which are the highest yielding

and, really importantly, which taste the best.

I would encourage everyone to try growing veg.

It's a brilliant thing to do.

And, also, the taste of them is so much better than anything you buy.

I've seen this first-hand in my work at a charitable trust in Devon

which runs a market garden.

It's just such a rewarding process for anybody,

however good you are and however experienced you are.

To start our trial, I've come to my local RHS garden here in Devon -

Rosemoor.

We'll also be running the trial at RHS Harlow Carr in Yorkshire,

which means we can compare how our vegetables perform

in different climactic conditions.

With the four veg we have, there are three varieties of each,

which means they may have a slightly different flavour,

they may look slightly different.

And, today, I'm just going to be planting one of each.

But for the rest of them, do check out the website.

So, if I start with cucumbers. It really is an easy seed to grow.

I've got a 9cm pot, which you can pick up anywhere.

The compost that we're using to grow this

is a specialist seed compost,

which means, essentially, it's very low in nutrient.

Seeds don't actually need nutrients.

What they need is moisture and somewhere to put their roots.

As well as that, we have perlite mixed in,

which helps to retain moisture and helps to drain the pot.

And just firm that down.

Now, cucumber is a plant that tends to romp away as the year goes on,

so don't sow too many

unless you have a huge space to grow them in.

So this is going in the pot upright.

We don't want it sitting flat,

because it might well rot in the water.

So, pointing up.

This particular variety is called Marketmore.

And the claim is that it's a brilliant variety

for growing anywhere in the UK outdoors.

We'll see if that's the case here in Devon and in Yorkshire

and whatever our wonderful British summertime

has to throw at these seeds.

All seeds need water. They will not germinate without it.

So you have to make sure you keep them moist all of the time.

Here at Rosemoor, we're growing our cucumbers in a polytunnel.

But still they will need to go into something called a propagator,

which just gives them a bit of extra protection.

as it's quite early, we still have a few frosts every now and again,

so it stops these seedlings from getting damaged by the weather.

Now, in a glasshouse, you wouldn't have to worry about that

because the glass protects them.

But the great thing about this is, if you have neither a polytunnel

nor a glasshouse, as many of us don't,

this can go straight on your windowsill.

The next seed to sow in our veg trial,

although technically it's a fruit, is a tomato.

We've gone for Tumbler F1.

F1 just means "first generation", so the parents of this tomato

will guarantee every single offspring

will be just like it looks on the packet.

Although we're growing this one

and the other two that are on our website,

you can grow any ones you want.

There are hundreds of varieties of all these veg out there.

It would be great if you grow them alongside the ones we're doing

and tell us if they taste better.

Same size - 9cm pot.

I'm just firming that down.

That just guarantees there's no big air pockets in the soil.

These seeds are much smaller than the cucumber.

And generally as a rule,

the smaller the seed, the nearer the surface it will go.

So these I'm going to put right on the surface of the compost.

Unlike all our other veg,

these tomatoes are actually going to go in hanging baskets.

You need to be careful when you're choosing your varieties

that they cope with a container situation,

so these are tumblers, they'll hang down beautifully.

On top of this,

I'm covering the surface with something called vermiculite,

which will just hold these seeds down,

stop them blowing away...

..but won't cause any damage.

As with cucumbers, tomatoes are a little bit more tender

in their early stage of life, so I'm going to put them in a propagator

and this one has the added bonus of being electric,

so plug this in and it'll get bottom heat,

which just gives tomatoes the kick-start that they really need.

Our third veg is sweetcorn.

This is Swift F1, said to be a tender and extra-sweet variety.

I'm sowing these seeds into separate pots at a depth of half an inch.

Because sweetcorn is a wind-pollinated plant, as a rule,

the more you sow, the more likelihood you have of pollination.

We'll be growing 16 of each variety.

These will go directly into the polytunnel here,

but you can grow them uncovered on a sunny windowsill.

So our veg trials are under way

and if you want to join in, don't delay,

check out the varieties we're using on the website,

order your seeds, and get sowing.

"And what about the French beans?" I hear you cry.

Well, actually, I'm going to sow them direct into the ground,

which I'm just adding a bit of compost to now.

That will be in May time, when the last risk of frost is gone.

In the meantime, I've just got to prepare my beds.

Come along.

Come on.

Come on. HE WHISTLES

Well, certainly, I can't imagine gardening without growing veg

and I love it.

I've been doing it for absolutely ages,

but every year, it gets more exciting and this year,

it's about to get even more exciting yet,

because although we've got a perfectly good vegetable garden

with raised beds, I'm expanding.

Coming out into this plot here - this was our nursery beds,

so we've got a nice, big space,

which I can fill with veg, and not just any old veg -

what I want to get back to is that sense of delight and excitement

about special vegetables, heritage varieties.

Vegetables that I don't normally grow, perhaps.

Things like okra, purple carrots,

lovely purple-podded peas.

Try things out,

and things that are especially delicious.

It doesn't matter what kind of vegetables you're growing,

where you're growing them or how you're growing them,

there are certain things you need to consider before you start.

The first thing is - what is the sun doing?

Here, it's rising over there

and it's setting over there, which means that that is south,

so this side of the garden is the sunniest bit,

which is why I've dug along here and don't intend to have a path,

because I want to use this for maximum sunshine.

Most vegetables do best in full sun.

Some really need it - squashes, sweetcorn,

courgettes, if you're growing plants like basil,

it must have as much sun as possible.

Conversely,

it means that this end is going to be in shade for some of the day,

and that'll be fine for spinach, for lettuce, gooseberries, redcurrants.

They will cope and actually be fine in a bit of shade.

So already, the sun is starting to dictate the layout of the garden.

First thing to do is mark out the path.

A good idea to have a good ball of twine.

This is hop twine,

which was used round this part of the world for tying up hops.

Less and less now, but is lovely stuff.

Get some canes and mark it all out

before you plant, dig or sow anything.

Get the structure exactly as you want it,

so if we start here,

push that in and I want the path in the middle to be quite wide.

It must be wide enough to take a barrow,

so it's going to be five foot.

Two, three... Well, that's four foot,

so if we go to the edge there...

..three, four...

There.

The whole of Longmeadow was laid out in this way.

I want to mark out three square beds on either side.

That means I can have a tripart rotation.

When I've got it all strung out, I can see how it looks

and then I'll fine-tune it.

All this before I sow a seed.

Plan it out, work out what you want from your vegetable garden,

how it's going to look, how it's going to be part of your life.

And in a week or two,

we'll be sowing seed, planting plants,

and the journey has begun.

Now, I guess some of you don't grow vegetables

and can't be persuaded to,

but I bet here are some jobs that you will want to do this weekend.

As daffodil flowers fade, they develop seed heads.

If they're grown in long grass, they should be left,

as this is a good way for them to spread.

But if they're in a container or a border,

cut off these seed heads, leaving the stem.

This will enable all the energy to go into the bulb

and, therefore, next year's flowers.

If you're growing fruit in a container,

or trained in any shape against a wall,

it's a good idea to mulch them thickly,

now as they're forming their flowers.

Use good compost if you can

and as well as feeding them, this will keep in the moisture

and suppress competition from weeds.

Although it's been rather too cold to sow directly outside,

seedlings raised under cover have now developed true leaves,

which means they can be pricked out.

Holding them by the leaf, not the stem,

ease them out of the compost with a pencil

and transplant them into plugs or small pots.

They can then grow on until they're ready to plant out.

The spring garden is moving into its next phase.

The crocus and the snowdrops have gone, daffodils are finishing,

tulips will be coming through soon.

The smell of the imperial fritillaries,

although they're not flowering,

is really strong.

There's a new flower, a scilla.

Nigel, can you come here a minute? Just lend me that.

Its name is really tricky.

It's...mischtschenkoana

or something like that.

It scrambles your mouth just to try and say it,

but, boy, is it lovely?!

It's got these icy blue flowers that appear out of the ground,

almost without a stem of any kind.

I'm going to sow more for next year, they look fantastic.

That's it for this week.

We are off air next week, because there is some sporting event,

but we shall be back in a fortnight's time,

so enjoy your gardening without us

and I'll see you here at Longmeadow in two weeks' time.

Until then, bye-bye.

Come on.