Cumbria Glorious Gardens from Above

Britain has some of the finest gardens anywhere in the world.

For me, it's about getting in amongst the wonderful plants

that flourish in this country

and sharing the passion of the people who tend them.

However, there is another way to enjoy a garden.

And that's to get up above it.

I love ballooning

because you get to see the world below in a whole new light.

From up here, you get a real sense of how the garden sits

in the landscape, how the terrain and the climate

has shaped it, and I want you to share that experience with me.

This is a day that promises wonderful flying weather

and a chance to see one of Britain's most picturesque counties.

Today, we're in Cumbria,

characterised with its magnificent mountains

and sparkling lakes.

The Lake District, with over 900 square miles of outstanding beauty,

has Scafell Pike as its highest peak and Windermere as its longest lake.

Cumbria is England's most northwesterly county.

Air blowing in from the Irish Sea and England's highest mountains

means that it has some of the highest rainfall in the country.

And it's no stranger to water

because it's surrounded by spectacular lakes

and over 200 fell tops.

And Cumbria has got some rather magnificent gardens.

And I discover that one of them

has the power to put a spring in a man's step.

You put your profile down, you know, and up came Jean with a 91% match.

I'm sure it's now up to 100% because she was a vegetarian then

but she isn't now.

SHE LAUGHS

Things have changed a bit.

But it's all because you come here, you see.

Everything works when you come here.

And I'll meet the wonderful volunteers whose dedication

has transformed the gardens that were left to the people of Cumbria.

Someone made me laugh and said, "It must be very competitive,

"people in different beds."

I said, "It's not competitive at all.

"If the standard's high, it's because we don't want to let the side down."

And they don't do things by halves up here.

We'll learn about raw materials used by ingenious engineers

to create these mighty structures.

And we'll find out about the legacy left

by one of our favourite children's authors.

At the end of her life, Beatrix had amassed 14 farms

and over 4,000 acres of countryside,

and this was an amazing legacy to leave to the nation.

The rainfall might be challenging to gardeners,

but this county is blessed with some truly-inspiring gardens.

Like this one, glorious Levens Hall.

The eight acres of Levens Hall lie 20 miles from the coast,

in Cumbria's South Lakeland.

From in the air, you can see Levens Hall sitting as it has

for over three centuries.

It's moved on but it's still the same garden as it was

when it was created but, still,

the level of horticulture that's very exciting.

There've been families living at Levens Hall since the 13th century

but the house as we see it now was created in 1580,

and the gardens were laid out at the end of the 17th century.

As you approach from the south, you come to a tree-shaded walk

called the Wilderness, and then you're into the Fountain Garden.

It was reinstated in 1994,

but it's based on the original 1690 design.

Opposite is the grassy square of the Bowling Green,

where 18th-century gentlemen did indeed play bowls,

and the game is still played on it today.

Emanating out of the centre of this southern part of the garden

is the grand beech hedge.

It's 500 feet long and offers a quiet oasis of green calm

amongst the colourful and busy borders.

To the east of the house lies what is perhaps

Levens Hall garden's most exuberant and playful feature,

the Topiary Garden.

Those magnificent topiary pieces dominating that garden,

making it one of the most wildest, zappiest gardens in the country

and, for me, it's very, very exciting.

Levens Hall, a magical place where you pass through a doorway

and the eruption of fun.

It's like Alice In Wonderland, the Mad Hatter's Tea Party.

Great shapes, great fun, great horticulture, all in one garden.

Gardeners at Levens Hall have had so much fun working here,

they hardly ever leave.

In over 300 years, there's only ever been ten head gardeners.

And the latest, Chris Crowder, has been here for nearly three decades.

He's hard at work in the orchard.

-Hi, Chris.

-Oh, hello.

-Nice to see you.

-Hi.

-Hi, what you up to?

-Planting some bulbs today.

-OK, what you putting?

Underneath all these fruit trees in this orchard we've got tulips.

-Right, can I give you a hand?

-Yeah, please.

We put the last lot in about ten years ago,

and what with voles and we get loads of pheasants in the winter

digging them up and eating them, so every decade or so,

it's time to top them up a little.

Apeldoorn, in this case, a bright red.

Quite a vigorous one, which it needs to be,

to keep up with growing in this grass.

So, why are you putting in tulips?

I would have thought, you know, nice daffs.

The daffs in drifts look nice in an orchard or wilder area,

but here it's quite formal. It's in the centre of the garden

so, for formal effect, we thought tulips would be the business.

It's quite a hit through here when it's flowering stage,

in about May time.

Levens has a tradition of planting tulips in this formal way,

and these colourful flowers have a fascinating history.

Originally, the tulip was a wild flower,

growing across the Middle East and Central Asia.

Its cultivation began over 1,000 years ago

in Persia and Turkey.

In the 16th century, they were introduced into the Netherlands

and became all the rage.

Such was the demand that the roaring trade in bulbs

offered great financial rewards.

This period became known as "tulip mania".

In 1635, one bulb sold for 2,500 florins,

more than 16 times the average yearly salary.

At today's wage levels, that would equate to nearly £400,000.

It wasn't to last.

The market crashed suddenly in 1637, leaving some investors penniless.

Despite this, tulips never lost their popularity.

With thousands of varieties in swathes of glorious colour,

they're a real favourite.

They're hardy and easy to grow.

They work well in pots

and can provide a real focal point in a garden.

Plant them in November and enjoy them

when their brilliantly-coloured blooms burst forth in the spring.

So, how did you get into gardening?

I've loved it since I was a lad.

I used to help out on my dad's allotment when I was small,

still at school.

So the obvious thing was leaving as soon as I possibly could

and getting a job with the local parks department.

So, what's your vision for the garden?

How are you going to take it forward?

Well, we do, we move with it every year as much as we can.

It's just to make it the best garden that we possibly can

with the amount of people we've got to do it.

It's a struggle, but we do develop a new piece every year

within the old framework, and it's a series of pictures.

That's how I sort of lay out the garden in my mind,

or when we design new areas.

It divides up into lovely compartments, if you like.

There's plenty of hedges to the garden, so it's keeping each bit

separate and different from the rest and being a wow at every turn.

Yeah, cos I tend to think of it as, you know,

you've got the topiary, the orchard, the Fountain Garden, the hedges,

you've got the veg.

It's a great sense of adventure wandering through.

Yeah, it's a series of wows or photo opportunities or big hits.

Lead one to the next, yeah. That's how we're going.

Well, it strikes me that you're doing all right.

Oh, thank you, thank you.

Do you have a favourite bit of the garden?

Well, I don't know whether I do, actually.

I like... The bit that has to be right, of course,

is... I live in the garden. I have the gardener's house,

-so the view out our kitchen window has to be right.

-Ah!

After that, it's different areas come...peak at different times,

so right through from Easter, through to October.

So, what's the biggest job you have to do?

Well, in this place, it's topiary and hedges.

We seem to have miles of it or hundreds of them

and it keeps us busy for about six months of the year,

starting just round about now.

I think I want to come and have a look and see what you're up to.

-We'll finish this job later.

-Yeah.

But let's go and have a look at the rest of the garden.

The Topiary Garden at Levens Hall

is the oldest part of the formal gardens.

Some of the trees are 300 years old,

but little has changed since they were planted

and trained into shapes in the 1690s.

Time to trim a bit of top topiary, then.

Oh, well, if you show me how to do it and then I don't make a botch up.

Well, I'm hoping that won't be the result.

And, in a way, it's just very similar to doing a haircut.

It's grown over the year and it's time to take all that growth off.

Certainly on a shape that's established,

we can see the line, and it's a question of slowly looking at it

and trimming it back down to that line.

Yes, well, you can do the top bits.

I'll bring my ladder out later, yes.

-So it's just following the line.

-Snipping them round.

And my other top tip really is the one we've always used is

to have a squirter with us because the shears gum up as you use them

and, after a while, they're either too sticky to move

or the blades are pressed apart

and they're just not giving that sharp finish.

-It's very satisfying...

-It is satisfying.

..and, like any hand crafting, sculpting or painting, I suppose.

But how many pieces have you got?

Over 100. This one's a new one, actually.

We've added to the burden of future generations by putting a few in.

It's about 15 years old, that's all, and we plant them as tiny little

hedging plants

and then start to grow them up and out from there.

-Right.

-And you can change the shape over time.

They would all have started as cones, in the early days.

When did topiary, you know, start?

And how did it start? And where did it start from?

It goes back to Roman times.

Back in ancient Rome, it was box and there's actually documents

and letters from those times, documenting fleets of ships

-and hunting scenes.

-Right.

And topiary, the word comes from 'topiarius', I think,

-which was Latin for 'the garden slave'.

-Right.

And the garden slave would have done all this.

-Well, that's what...

-It doesn't change.

-...we are now.

Yeah, so it has got a long, long history.

It spread from Italy, across France,

and the grand gardens would have had clipped forms,

and it ended up in England.

The high time for this fashion was in the 1690s,

just when this garden was being set up.

Levens was the height of fashion with its green sculptures

clipped into bold silhouettes.

It, and many gardens like it at the time,

were THE place to be seen.

The Dutch style was all the rage,

with clipped greens set in a pattern of formal box-edged beds.

But fashions change and, by the 1730s,

many of these beautifully-manicured yew and box gardens

were ripped out to make way for the new trend of natural landscaping.

Capability Brown had a lot to answer for

as open parkland became the next big thing.

Topiary was not lost completely.

The 1830s saw a revival,

as people decided landscape

had become old hat.

The Victorians moved topiary on, as they did so many aspects

of garden design and machinery, and so it continued to thrive.

We British are known for our eccentricity

and eagerness to give things a try.

With guides available, showing what shapes could be achieved,

anything was possible.

Though, some efforts were more successful than others.

Levens survived, and I'm hoping my efforts don't scupper things.

So, what sort of tools did they use in the past?

Well, we assume they were something like the shears we're using today.

That would've been the way. Possibly, for rougher hedges,

-it might have been a sickle just across the surface, like that.

-OK.

Some sort of sharp blade.

But we've now got the electric and the petrol ones to help us on our way

and, of course, the access equipment. The higher they get,

we now use scaffolding. It was ladders,

-but scaffolding and hydraulic lifts for the top ones.

-Right, so

-cherry pickers, things like that.

-Yeah.

There's a great view from up there, sometimes.

-I bet, yes, yeah.

-And, of course, the other handy tool

we've got sometimes is a cane,

and they're quite handy if you really want a flat edge, you can...

If your cane's straight, anyway, you can hold it against a flat edge

and just eye it up and see you're going in the right direction.

But also, at the end, we like to give it a good flick off.

Gets rid of all those prunings and clippings that'll turn brown later.

Also, it flicks up the odd thing that'll...

-That you've left.

-If you don't do it now,

it'll blow out in a month's time and haunt you for the rest of the year.

So it just shows us the last bits to clip off.

So, how long does it take you? And how many people are involved?

Well there's four of us work in the gardens but not all of us

are on the hedges all the time.

But, certainly, two people for the best part of six months, almost.

It's from now till Christmas to do all the topiary

and get that part of the garden put to bed,

and what with hedges and stuff, it can drag on a little.

We're happy to start, but we're even happier to finish

-at the end of the season.

-I bet, yeah.

And how quickly do you allow your apprentices to let rip?

Um, it's a slow thing.

We let them go on the rounder things, round the back first

and, if they can master the art of doing amorphous blob-like shapes,

we'll start them on a flat bit of hedge that nobody will see

and if that goes well, they're on and away on the rest of the topiary.

-Slowly, though.

-Yeah.

Yeah, the more you do, the more you get into it.

Well, I think that's not a bad job, actually.

I think, together, we make a good team.

-Shall we go and have a brew?

-I think it's well deserved, yes. Excellent.

Gardening at this level is a painstaking process, it takes time.

But the simple act of growing something can not only soothe

a troubled mind, it can also help heal it.

And that's exactly what's happening here at Growing Well.

Since 2004, a crop-share scheme has been run from this six-acre farm

outside Kendal and it provides local families with a weekly supply

of seasonal vegetables.

Hey, let's see if we can get these back in one piece.

Many of the local volunteers who work on the farm

have suffered mental-health problems,

but have found gardening an important part of their recovery.

Clairelouise Chapman of Growing Well explains.

The thing about poor mental health is that many people

don't feel valued.

When you're feeling very low, it's all around that sense of worth

and why am I here?

This project offers a supportive environment for people

looking to find a way through their problems.

You come in and you work with us, you feel a valued part of the team.

Growing is a continuous process, so that ability to plant a seed

and, several months later, harvest from that seed,

gives an amazing sense of continuity,

and the growing process gives a reason to get out of bed

and come and see what you've done

and how that is growing,

and it helps you grow within yourself, as well.

Kevin has been coming here for a year.

After his wife died,

leaving him with their four children to bring up, he struggled to cope.

Working in this way has helped him to feel positive about life again.

Working here on a daily basis...

..it has shown me light at the end of a tunnel.

It's the fresh air.

Um, there's a good bunch of people here you can have a chat with.

If you've got a problem, you can speak to people.

It keeps my mind occupied.

Growing Well's a very special community, so it's not just the work,

it's the fact that you're coming to us

and you're being part of our community.

Each day is different.

You meet lots of different people with lots of different issues.

You know, you can talk to each other about it and ask them

how they're feeling that day,

and some people like their own space,

some people like to work on their own.

We know that people have very strong friendships that are formed

at Growing Well,

and we all take breaks together, we all eat together,

and that social inclusion is a really important aspect.

Mike was a teacher for many years,

but began to find the workload too much of a strain.

He wanted to make a change but didn't know which direction to take.

I started off coming cos I really wasn't well.

I was so poorly, I wasn't able to make any decisions.

And coming to Growing Well helped me with that,

and I felt rewarded for coming

and doing something which was completely different.

And the result of that,

I was able to make a decision about my teaching career

and to end it, because it wasn't going to get any better.

And that's what I did.

It's not just volunteers who benefit from working at Growing Well.

It's really lovely working at Growing Well

because you see change in people.

You see people who start and just really lack that confidence.

Even seeing people being able to sit and have a cup of tea

and have a conversation with somebody else, is brilliant.

For Kevin and Mike,

it's fair to say that this project has been a lifeline.

It gives me a source of something to do.

It keeps me going.

I'm not quite sure where I would be without Growing Well.

I've always believed that gardens are a balm for the soul.

Even just walking amongst the glorious displays is a real tonic.

And I'm not the only one.

Lakeland lad, Len Hayton, has been inspired by Levens Hall

for nearly 20 years.

-I moved to Levens in 1997, actually...

-Right, OK.

..with my wife Joy,

and we used to come here for lunch

and we used to come into the garden

because it's lovely, really,

and when she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer,

um, my niece suggested that we should have some photographs

-taken in the garden...

-Right.

-..at that time.

That was a very...

-It was...

-That obviously meant a lot to you.

-It did.

-An awful lot to you.

-It did indeed.

And it has done ever since.

-After she died, I used to come here and I felt welcome.

-Yeah.

I always felt welcome. And when you come into this garden,

it's as if you've stepped off the world into heaven.

It's like coming through the gate into heaven. It's absolutely lovely.

What do you mean by that?

You leave the mundane world, as it were, and all the problems outside

and you come in here and there's peace and there's quiet.

Gives me a feeling of tranquillity and, at the same time, inspiration.

Len's late wife, Joy, had worried about him being lonely,

so, after two and a half years as a widower,

he tried his hand at internet dating.

You put your profile down, you know, and up came Jean with a 91% match.

-Eh.

-And, by God, that's been true and, I'll tell you,

the last four years have been bliss.

I'm sure it's now up to 100%, because she was a vegetarian then

but she isn't now.

SHE LAUGHS

Things have changed a bit. But it's all because you come here, you see.

Everything works when you come here.

Jean is just as happy here as Joy and I were happy here. It's lovely.

-Gardens are about cultivation.

-Yeah.

It's not just cultivating plants, it's cultivating people.

Probably right about that.

It certainly helped me through illness and everything,

and this garden has had a lot to do with it.

It's wonderful to hear about the way this magnificent garden

has helped Len through darker days.

Levens Hall is a special place for me too,

and I'd like to leave something behind

as a thanks for all the magic.

Local artist Libby Edmondson

has been coming to Levens Hall for years.

But she first caught a tantalising glimpse of the garden

during family holidays to the Lake District.

We used to pass Levens Hall. I could see this wonderful

place behind a very big wall.

I could see the topiary peeping over the top, which was a bit enticing.

So I always promised myself that I would, someday, go in

and have a proper look at it,

which I did as soon as we moved here, and...

wow.

Like me, Libby thinks the garden is a veritable Wonderland.

It was like being Alice.

You walk in a small gateway

and you have this vista of strange shapes and trees

you haven't seen before.

I could see some of those topiaries getting up

and having a little dance round the lawn when nobody was looking,

because they...a lot of them have skirts.

SHE LAUGHS

The garden has clearly left a lasting impression.

It's influenced my art because it has this fantasy feeling.

It just makes me feel good.

The beauty and grandeur of glorious Lakeland has appealed to artists

throughout history.

Author William Wordsworth and painters JMW Turner

and Edward Burne-Jones all found inspiration here.

But there's one very famous devotee of this landscape,

one who dedicated much of her life and fortune

to preserving it for generations to come.

Beatrix Potter is perhaps the 20th century's

most-adored children's writer,

and her tales of Peter Rabbit and other charming characters

have enchanted children for over 100 years.

But she has another legacy, and it's this...

mile after wonderful mile of stunning Lake District scenery.

Liz MacFarlane is house manager at Hill Top,

Beatrix Potter's Lakeland property.

Beatrix Potter first stayed in this area when she was 16.

Her family came to the Lake District on holiday,

and it was during these long summer holidays that she was able to enjoy

all that the Lake District had to offer.

What Beatrix really loved about this landscape

was the freedom that it gave her

and what it provided her with in terms of inspiration.

So she was able to draw the landscape,

she was able to study the wildlife,

the flora, the fungi, collect fossils and everything.

Of course, she would commit to paper, drawing, painting and sketching.

It was on this holiday that Potter met a man

who was to have a profound effect on her life

and on the British countryside.

When she was just 16, Beatrix met Canon Rawnsley,

who was one of the three founders of the National Trust

and he really instilled in her

that need to protect the way of life here, the fact that that way of life

was in danger, and something needed to be done

in order to protect

the farming and the income that was being generated from the land.

Canon Rawnsley's views on preserving the natural beauty

of the Lake District had a lasting effect on Potter.

He campaigned against the construction of roads

over the Lakeland passes

and promoted sign-posted footpaths.

He was also the first published author she'd ever met,

and later encouraged her to publish her first book.

She, of course, became a literary sensation.

Well, with the money from the first four little books,

Beatrix was able to purchase Hill Top, the farm here,

and that was the first of many land purchases and farms in this area.

Potter bought Hill Top in 1905,

and she used it and the surrounding countryside as inspiration

for many of her subsequent books.

But she was also becoming much more focused on her life

as a countrywoman.

She wanted to preserve the old ways of life of the fell farmers,

and protect the landscape.

The continued success of the little books enabled Beatrix

to carry on buying land and farms,

and when she married a local solicitor, William Heelis,

at the age of 47, she was really

concentrating on her farming and the books were a means to an end.

They were giving her the means to buy these farms and landscapes.

As a far-sighted benefactor,

Potter worked to protect the vulnerable landscape.

When she died in 1943,

she bequeathed to the nation all the farms and farmland she'd acquired.

At the end of her life, Beatrix had amassed 14 farms

and over 4,000 acres of countryside,

and this was an amazing legacy to leave to the National Trust

for the benefit of the nation.

Beatrix Potter was so captivated by this landscape

that she wanted to pass on what she'd preserved

so others could enjoy the beauty of her Lakeland farms.

And she wasn't the only one who was generous.

My next port of call was also left to the people of the area.

15 miles north of Levens Hall,

on the hillside over there, is another very spectacular

Cumbrian garden - Holehird,

and it's managed and run by volunteers,

showing just what can be achieved in the harsh landscapes of the Lakes.

Set in a mountainous spot, high above the northern end

of Lake Windermere, Holehird Gardens cover 17 acres.

The volunteers here are custodians of a garden that's expanded

since they took it on.

At the heart is the Walled Garden.

Once a kitchen garden for the original grand house,

its planting was mapped out in the 1980s to ensure that all sides,

north, east, south and west, are used to best effect.

The island beds in the centre provide year-round colour.

Presiding over it is the fellside, a wooded hill with rockeries

and specimen trees.

One of Holehird's six greenhouses is given over to alpine plants,

whose shoots need protection from Cumbria's wet weather.

Tumbling down the hillside is the Cascade and then the terrace.

The original owners of Holehird established the gardens here

in the late 19th century.

They flourished until the end of the Second World War.

But, after that, it became too expensive to maintain them

and, for nearly 25 years,

the garden laid abandoned and unloved.

Since the late 1960s,

a growing band of local volunteers has set about

reclaiming this gem of a garden.

Shelagh Newman is one of their number.

-Hello, Shelagh, how are you?

-Oh, hello, Christine.

-Good to see you back in Holehird again.

-Great to be here.

-What you up to?

-Well, you know how keen we are on our alpines

-here at Holehird.

-Yeah.

-Well,

-there's this bit that's been a bit neglected of late.

-Right.

This seems to have got a bit too big, Christine,

it's taking over the whole area

and I think at least some of it should go.

Shelagh's working with tufa.

This rock is formed as lime-rich water evaporates,

leaving behind a soft and porous calcium-rich limestone.

It's ideal for growing lime-loving plants.

It's light and easy to handle, and it absorbs and holds water.

When plants are grown in tufa,

they get a slow and steady release of moisture.

A lot of people don't realise that a tufa garden is light,

-so you can have this on places like balconies.

-Right.

-If you want a rock garden in the sky, you can.

-What a good idea.

The other thing that people say is, "I've only got a courtyard,

"I've no soil at all." It doesn't flipping well matter.

Get yourself a couple of lumps of tufa, plant it up

and you've got a garden. It's fantastic stuff, it's lovely.

I don't know what you think,

but it looks to me as if it could do with the odd new cushion plant

-to revitalise it.

-I think you've got a Saxi, so...

-Yeah, that looks rather a nice one.

-It does, yeah.

Well, that could go in there and then it will grow over that rock

and I think that'll be quite nice, but we'll need to make a hole.

-So, have you got a hammer and then...

-Yeah.

-..something

I can gouge this out with?

-And we've got a little spatula.

-Now, I don't know how you do this,

-but I tend to make the hole but keep the tufa dust.

-Right.

So have you got something like a cup or something like that...

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

-..we can knock the old tufa dust into?

So if you can sort of...when I start getting stuff out.

Is that so that it sort of weans it into the space a bit?

There's two schools of thought involved with this.

There's the school of thought that says you take out a hole

around about two inches deep and about the same diameter

-and then you put in a gritty soil mixture.

-Right.

And then there's the school of thought that I tend to run with,

that you take the tufa out, then you put the tufa back.

-Right.

-Now, the reason for that is, in my opinion,

if you use a soil mixture,

you've got a different air concentration in the soil

-than you have in the tufa.

-Right.

And the plant can put its roots round the soil

-and never goes into the tufa.

-Right.

-So it can...

-Pot bound.

-It's pot bound

and the plants can dry out.

Whereas, if you put back what you've taken out,

the air is at the same concentration,

the plant establishes much quicker and it runs into the patent rock.

It's a jolly good tip, actually, I didn't know that.

I mean, the other thing that's fascinating about this stuff,

is that you can buy it from nurseries

but, when you buy it from nurseries,

it's often sold outside.

And, as you know, this is actually absorbent.

-Yeah, it's porous, isn't it?

-It's porous.

-So, when you buy it from outside, it contains water.

-Yes.

-It's sold by weight.

-Ah.

-So you're buying a lot of water.

It pays them to store it outside, really, doesn't it?

Well, some nurseries are more scrupulous than others

but occasionally you'll find it's quite wet,

and you're paying, literally, just for water.

If you go to an aquatic centre,

it's stored inside and it's dry,

so you get more for your dosh. And, being a tight Northerner,

you can guess where I go.

SHE LAUGHS

So, what made you come to Holehird?

Well, about 20 years ago, I retired early cos I was caring

for my mother,

and we'd just moved into a house with a much bigger garden.

So I thought I needed some advice on what to do,

and a friend told me that they were running an RHS course

up at Holehird.

-All right.

-And, for 18 months,

I did this, really, rather good RHS course

and then I realised there was actually a garden here

and you could volunteer at it.

I decided I would come and be a gardener here too...

-Wow!

-..and it's kept me learning.

Now, then, I'm going to knock this out...

but what I do is...

I'll take all this off.

If you wash this off.

So, you've just got a little bit of soil there,

-but predominantly roots...

-Right.

-..and then I'm going to put this tufa dust back...

-Right.

..so that it's at the same consistency as that tufa.

-And you wouldn't add anything else Christine, to that?

-No, I don't, no.

And that will establish, and in three years' time,

you'll have a beautiful mat that creeps over there and flowers,

and it will just literally mould itself into the rock.

We planted a Saxifraga, this one with a cushion-like habit,

but there are thousands of different alpines.

True alpines originate from high-altitude regions,

above the tree line, where there's good drainage and cold,

dry winters with high light levels.

In the wild, alpines spend their winters dormant.

They remain dry and protected from extreme temperatures

and cold winds by being covered with a blanket of snow.

The vast majority of plants sold as alpines

are easy to grow in most gardens,

and need only the minimum of care.

There are even drought-busting species.

Those from Southern Europe are ideal to plant

if our summers are getting drier and we face hosepipe bans.

And the beauty of alpines is that you can travel the world

without leaving your own garden.

So, Shelagh, what makes coming to Holehird so special for you?

-I think, as much as anything else, it's the people.

-Right.

It can be quite solitary if you're gardening on your own.

Maybe the neighbours are at work,

maybe you're in a country garden and you don't see anybody.

But, if you come here, you're gardening as a team

and, also, there's a sense here of ownership with the beds.

We get together, either as individuals or groups,

and look after our own bit of the garden.

And we don't just deadhead and weed,

we actually choose what we plant.

We have a budget where we can go out and buy our own plants,

and the only consideration is that don't plant a tree

or take one down without conferring with somebody else

cos that could impact on somebody else's bed.

But there's a lot of sense of ownership, so I think that

builds... It builds a good spirit,

that you belong to the place, really.

And what's fascinating is that, though you have this magical garden,

you've got an emphasis on labelling, but it's not in your face, is it?

Although we're not officially a botanical garden,

we actually do quite like to have our plants labelled

and we do find most of our visitors really appreciate that.

But do you know one of the things that I appreciate

so much in this garden,

is the level of expertise,

and this is a garden that is looked after and cared for with love.

Hmm. Oh, yes.

And it's love from gardeners that have not trained

but have spent their life in the university of gardening

and life and it's very, very special and it's always impressive.

But the one thing I always say,

and particularly when I'm bringing groups,

is, "Look at the standard they maintain."

And it's awesome and it's very, very impressive

and it's a phenomenal credit to you all.

-So just keep doing it.

-Thank you.

-You're doing it right.

Thank you very... Do you know, someone made me laugh.

A visitor that came round the garden

and said, "It must be very competitive,

"people in different beds."

I said, "It's not competitive at all.

"If the standard's high,

"it's because we don't want to let the side down."

And it's that, really.

It's community spirit, I think.

-And that's what makes it very special.

-Yes.

I'm sure that Shelagh and the rest of the determined volunteers

at Holehird will never let the side down.

They're hooked by its stunning setting

and the challenges of the terrain.

This mountainous landscape meant Cumbria remained pretty inaccessible

to all but the hardiest of travellers

until the middle of the 19th century.

All that changed when the railways began their march

across Northern England.

The crags and scree are evidence of what lies beneath.

Seams of limestone dating back more than 300 million years

crisscross the county.

This raw material was perfect for building the railway viaducts,

and the timeless nature of this stone

transformed the fortunes of the area.

But it had been exploited for hundreds of years.

Robert White, Senior Historic Environment Officer, explains.

Limestone's very much the landscape of this area.

Most of the field walls are made of limestone,

many of the farm buildings and houses are made of limestone.

You can see limestone in the bed of the streams.

But resourceful Victorian engineers had much more ambitious plans

for this useful construction material.

Hewn out of this limestone are these mighty feats of engineering.

The viaducts span the dales and gullies

to create the Settle-Carlisle Railway,

and have become part of the landscape.

The Victorian and Edwardian travelling public

took it to their hearts as they thundered through the countryside.

But the limestone didn't just provide building material.

In a highly-polished state, the stone was considered

beautifully decorative and became known as Dent marble.

Limestone's the major rock of Dentdale

and some of the beds of limestone, when cut and polished,

would look just like marble. They could take a shine.

It was making things like mantelpieces, memorials,

sometimes floors.

It was very popular in the Victorian period,

when Queen Victoria was in mourning for John Brown.

The buildings of the old marble works are now houses,

but it's still clear why this landscape was so bountiful.

There was unlimited limestone

and a plentiful water supply for powering the marble cutters.

Local farm hands would have made a few bob on the side

by putting in hours as quarrymen and marble workers.

One of the quarries was beneath this, the Dent Head Viaduct.

The railway had a double-edged effect on the industry.

It was much easier to take the finished products away by railway,

much easier than it would have been by horse and cart or packhorse,

but it also meant that lighter material was imported into the area.

True Italian marbles could come in.

And it had another impact.

Dent Head Viaduct is actually built on top of one of the major quarries.

Constructing the railway over the quarry meant that the quarry

had to cease production.

The quarry owner was compensated,

but a large part of the industry was no longer there.

The compensation may have gone some way towards softening the blow.

But a new taste for imported Italian marble

meant that Cumbrian Dent marble fell out of fashion.

It's peaceful here now,

but the mighty viaducts are lasting monuments

to those 19th-century engineers

and to the vital raw material that lay beneath.

Just as scene-stealing is the topiary at Levens Hall.

Designed to be picture perfect,

it's captured the heart and soul of Len,

and seen him through good and bad times.

It's brought life back.

It's like a rock, it has stability, like old England...

..and it's something that we should look after.

I can't say any more, really.

I can't think of anyone better than artist Libby,

who's been so inspired by Levens Hall,

to put some of these emotions onto canvas.

The gardens have touched so many people

and it's high time to pay tribute.

I think it calls for some celebratory Levens apple pie.

Well, look at this, nice little party.

I think I should have some of this.

-If you're good, you can have another piece.

-Can I?

-Right, is this local, then?

-It's local. It's come all the way

from the other side of the hedge. The apples, anyway.

-It's Levens' apples.

-Yeah, they're our apples. I believe so.

-Let's see what Levens' apples are like, then.

-Excellent.

Aye, it's not bad, you know. Aye.

You know, what surprises me, is how delicate these little pieces are.

I thought, up in the North, we had decent pieces.

-We've not started on that one, yet.

-No, but...

-Don't panic.

Well, I'm not doing but today's all been about pieces, hasn't it?

And not only pieces of pie but pieces of gardens.

What's come across is, for you, that this garden has framed

-elements of your life.

-Indeed, it has.

Some of them very spectacular and some of them very sad.

Indeed.

And, for Chris, you've also said

about how you want to manage the garden

as pictures to encapsulate different images for people.

And what we thought we'd like to do is ask Libby

to encapsulate the magic of Levens.

Ooh, look at that.

THEY APPLAUD That is fantastic, isn't it?

Absolutely lovely.

What a great idea.

Libby, that's an inspiration. It's fantastic.

Wild and fabulous.

Libby knows just how to capture the special magic

of this enchanting garden.

Her painting celebrates the hard work of all the gardeners

and the pleasure the garden gives.

It'll have pride of place in the teashop as a fitting

and lasting tribute.

Here in Cumbria, I've seen how the landscape draws people in

and stays in their heart.

Artists and writers and gardeners have, for centuries, been captivated

and inspired by this glorious land of lakes and mountains.