Essex 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.

I'm taking to the skies over a county on the south eastern

edge of the country. And what a surprise it is.

I'll show you a wonderful open, rural landscape, bisected by

waterways and bounded by 350 miles of coastland,

with the Thames providing a direct link into the heart of London.

Today, I'm visiting Essex.

In the north of the county,

you've got the beautiful Epping Forest.

In the far south, the Thames Estuary and on the east, mile upon mile

of marshland and mudflats.

What a view!

I want to show you how different this county is

from the suburban outposts of London we sometimes imagine.

It's the maritime geography of Essex that creates a temperate climate.

It's one of the driest counties in the country

and that makes for some fascinating gardens.

Today, I'll be seeing how two beautiful gardens are flourishing

here despite the low rainfall.

The first belongs to a woman who's inspired a whole generation

to get more creative in the garden.

See, I like that, I like that.

And I find out from one garden curator, who was once a student

of mine, how his career has flourished.

I remember as we were sort of dozing off, that you used to sort of

shout and get us all awake again. So those moments still haunt me.

-THEY LAUGH

-Pleasantly?

While we see how keeping the simple traditions

alive in Essex not only gives us a link to the past,

but also ensures our future.

-How is it?

-Lovely.

Inland, most of Essex is made up of small, traditional villages

and glorious farmland as far as the eye can see.

And five miles to the east of Colchester,

lies a green haven that has a special place in my heart -

the Beth Chatto Gardens.

This garden, started in 1960, is world famous for its pioneering,

naturalistic approach to planting, which changed the way

people looked at their gardens forever.

This garden, to me, oozes plantsmanship.

A lake, woodlands and a dry garden, the like of which you won't

see anywhere else. It's exciting,

it's invigorating and I can't wait to get down there.

This glorious place is a testament to the vision of Beth Chatto

and her farmer husband, Andrew,

who were determined to make a garden grow out of an arid wilderness.

Today, you just have to marvel at the way Beth makes plants flourish.

It's her simple philosophy to grow

plants in exactly the same conditions as

they would have done in the wild.

And, in doing that, she's turned what was once a wasteland

into a wonderful garden.

Beth Chatto's right plant, right place.

But we seldom see it.

But here, in her garden, it exudes from every single bed

and is a testament to Beth's genius.

She's probably most famous for creating this Gravel Garden,

which proves her theory beautifully.

It's full to bursting with all manner of fantastic plants,

despite the fact it's never been artificially watered.

In contrast, there's a Water Garden, where clusters of

irises and other plants make beautiful swathes of

colour and texture around four ponds.

It's like finding an oasis in a parched landscape.

And in the glorious gloom of the Woodland Garden,

you'll discover shade-loving plants at their very best.

Beth Chatto has had no formal horticultural training,

but has a creative eye for what works.

And she isn't afraid to experiment,

and that's what I love about it here.

But back in 1960, it was hardly an auspicious start.

Beth moved into a new house with her husband Andrew, a farmer.

But the house was surrounded by the worst possible growing conditions.

Dry, gravelly soil and a boggy ditch.

Most self-respecting gardeners would have run a mile.

But the couple began planning a garden that would make

a feature of each difficult area.

In 1981, a fresh-faced young reporter visited Beth

to hear about the problems they'd faced. You might recognise him.

You think that you've got a problem garden.

Can you imagine trying to make a garden out of this?

It's a piece of wilderness that's got in it every

kind of perennial weed you can think of.

Not only did she have an enormous weed problem,

but she also had a pretty rotten soil.

Just look at this.

Beth and Andrew worked with the problem areas in their garden,

rather than trying to fix them.

Andrew researched the wild background of plants,

collected specimens from all over the world and Beth created

artistic displays of unusual specie plants

rather than the colourful cultivars popular in the 1970s and '80s.

For me, it is the shape of a plant which is the most important,

the texture, the foliage,

and so I like to build up contrasting shapes.

Fine leaves, small leaves,

contrasted with the big leaves of hostas and then occasionally,

the tall spikes of anything, whether it's a sword-like leaf or

a fine grass or a foxglove or delphinium, whatever.

By the time Alan visited,

Beth had already become a successful gardening author and TV personality.

Crowds were flocking to visit her garden and she was

winning gold medals every year at the Chelsea Flower Show.

But these days, at the age of 91,

Beth isn't as hands-on as she used to be, leaving some

pretty big shoes for garden director David Ward to fill.

-Hi, David, how are you?

-Hello there.

What are you doing?

I'm collecting Phlomis russeliana seed.

'Also known as Turkish sage,

'this has striking yellow flowers in the summer.'

Ah, lovely.

-It's a lovely plant, isn't it?

-Yes, it is.

I just love how it goes up in rows and rows and rows.

-Yes, it's such a useful plant.

-I mean, ding, ding, ding.

I know, I know, it's a fantastic sound, isn't it?

You can just rattle. FLOWER RATTLES

-So they're ripe, ready to pick. Yeah.

-Can I help?

Yes, you certainly can. If you'd like to grab a bag.

-Great.

-There you go. You can write the name on the bag first.

-Not very technical.

-Date.

Yeah, date will be great, yeah.

'In a garden like this, there's always something to be done.

'And seeds are gathered

'and stored, for selling or for re-sowing next season.'

If you spin 'em round, they just pop out.

Yeah.

It's good fun, isn't it, the old, the old twist and shake?

That's right, yeah.

How did you come to be here, David?

Well, I've been working here for over 30 years.

I actually turned Beth down. I made her wait a year

-before I came...

-Oh!

And then I realised I'd probably made a bit of a mistake,

came back and she very kindly said, "Yes, you can still come along."

And when I first came here,

she was totally involved in everything.

I mean, she had her own ways of doing things.

She horrified me when I first arrived because

the sort of way she did cuttings,

her equipment was a razor blade and a pack of plasters.

THEY LAUGH

So I just, I did refuse to go down that route

-and said, "I prefer to use my knife."

-Yeah.

It's a wonderful garden, it's a lot of hard work

and a lot of effort has gone into it.

Even before I came here, I appreciate that Beth had built up

a lovely garden and all of us here are quite proud to carry it on.

David's been around as the garden's evolved over the years,

playing his part in Beth's more radical schemes.

The Gravel Garden was created in 1992, on what was once a car park,

and was an experiment to see which drought-resistant

sun-lovers would survive, without any form of irrigation.

During a hot spell in the first two years,

when the plants were failing and Beth was desperate to water,

David persuaded her not to.

It could have all gone horribly wrong,

but luckily the weather broke and the rest, as they say, is history.

-Hey, look what I've got here.

-What have you got in there?

Hey, you've got a right plethora in here.

-Yes, you will do.

-Look.

What happens is, you have to leave the bag open

-and they'll all crawl up.

-Yeah, well we've got shield bugs.

-Right.

-We've got ladybirds.

-Earwigs, earwigs.

-We've got earwigs.

Yeah, hey, well, let's go and sort these out

and let all these bugs out. And shall we have a cup of tea?

-That sounds a great idea.

-Come on.

Beth's planting philosophy was heavily influenced

by a Japanese theory about the three layers of Heaven, Earth and Man.

And I think this is beautifully illustrated here.

It draws your eyes up, or down, with something to see at every level.

And this garden's just full of examples of Beth's

-triangulation, isn't it?

-It is actually, yeah.

I mean, we're just walking past a really good example.

You can see a lovely line.

It's all about shape, line and form.

So, from this Cotinus, through the

Amelanchier, the monkey puzzle, up to the conifer,

you've got a lovely linear line through there.

-And the same thing coming down.

-Yes.

You know, this way, and if you move here,

you've got the same flipping principle.

That's right. Whatever way you view it from.

But so many people, in their garden, I mean, they just plonk plants,

don't they, without even thinking, really?

It is. It's not just the tall, medium and short,

there's a lot more to it than that.

Yeah, I mean, you can also do it, you know, with plants in pots,

can't you? Because so many people buy and they don't play.

I've seen people go to a garden centre and don't, you know.

It's like sort of putting in regimental sergeant majors.

They'll put them in a line and you sort of think, actually,

nice plants but you could so much more with them.

-That's right.

-And it is just that triangulation, isn't it?

Sort of contrasting the leaf shapes and the size.

It's not, you know, it's not rocket science.

'I don't want to sound bossy but think of all the fun you can have!'

I love doing this, you know. I love going to garden centres

and just nicking things off benches and playing to see it, the magic.

I like that, I like that, I like that.

Well, another way of doing it, what Beth would do is to say,

put the grass down here so the line's going like this

and sort of fill that void in, round there.

That's what's missing in so many beds, isn't it?

You don't get the sense of adventure.

Of being able to, you know, what is just round there?

-That's right.

-Let's go and get some more plants

-then we can play a bit more.

-That's a good idea.

For gardens like this, with plenty of sun

and a tendency to dry soil,

sedums are very nearly the perfect plant.

As well as being drought-resistant and needing very little care,

this plant will provide gorgeous, colourful flowers in summer,

and even looks good in the winter.

The smaller species will give good ground cover,

and the taller ones are great for cutting and drying.

And if you need any more persuading,

they're great for attracting butterflies and bees, too.

Somehow Beth managed to combine the creation

and running of this wonderful place with a busy family life.

Her two daughters and six grandchildren,

and now their children, have all grown with the garden.

Julia Bolton is Beth's eldest granddaughter,

and commercial director at the garden.

Now you grew up in this very special place.

What childhood memories have you got?

You know, a lot of my memories are about parts of the garden

that no longer exist, so...

For instance, the Gravel Garden before was the car park, so...

-Yes.

-So we would play on there, you know, football

and take our bikes and... But really my very favourite place is here,

in the Water Garden, where we are right now.

Throughout their childhood, Julia and her brother spent their

school holidays here, at a time when Beth was at the height of her career

doing Chelsea and writing books.

But for the youngsters, the whole

gardens stretched out before them like a giant playground.

Now, Julia's children have the run of the place.

What I do remember doing was making some

little boats with my brother. And we used to race them under

the bridge here. And I wondered if you'd like a challenge, Christine?

Oh, yes, yes. We can play. Yeah, yeah.

Jolly good, but I have to warn you,

I did actually push my brother in once,

when he was leaning to get his boat, so I don't want any funny business.

OK. Well if you promise not to push me in, I promise not to push you in.

-OK. It's a deal.

-Right, come on, let's play.

Get down there, come on.

On a count of three. Do you want a count down?

Yeah.

One, two, three.

Oh, look!

Go on. Get up there.

Oh, mine wants to stay near me.

Well, look at that, it's going to catch it up, no, it's not, no,

-no it is, go on, after it.

-No luck.

'I can see she's done this before.'

I think I'm just going to have to admit defeat.

Admit defeat, yeah.

-Well...

-You're a good sport.

Well, you know. It's all very well doing this

-but now we've got to get up.

-That's right. Come here.

-THEY LAUGH

-Give us a hand.

Well, that's fun.

This garden is filled with happy memories for Julia,

and she's enormously proud of everything her

grandmother has achieved. But I'm sure she and Beth have more plans

up their sleeves.

What of the future?

You know, what are you going to do with this garden?

Well, you know, we get asked that quite a lot

-because obviously Beth's getting older now.

-Yeah.

But, you know, gardens change all the time and obviously there's

going to be carrying on replanting certain areas

and that kind of thing but it's all in the style of Beth Chatto.

But one of the things that we are really excited about here

is that we're setting up an educational charity in

-Beth Chatto's name.

-Great.

It's something that we're really, really proud about.

You see, that's exactly how Beth has spent her life,

taking little seedlings, growing them on and then seeing them bloom.

-That's really, really lovely, very special.

-Spot on.

It is spot on. Yeah, come on, but

it's not spot on that I didn't win that race, so I want another race.

-Let's go and get some more boats.

-Come on.

From the smooth waters of Beth's garden pond,

it's just a few miles to the River Colne,

once an important trade route and much more of a

challenge for the boats that had to navigate its tricky waters.

From above, you get a spectacular view of the Essex coastline,

and a real sense of how it's shaped the county's history.

In the 19th century, these tributaries

and estuaries that wend their way eastward

and out to the North Sea, would have been crowded with the distinctive

red-brown sails of the Thames barges.

They carried cargoes of brick, grain

and coal along the Thames Estuary and out to the coast.

Kitty dates back to 1895,

and is one of the few restored working barges left.

Kevin Burtonshaw feels proud to be her current skipper.

What makes a Thames barge special is it's got a flat bottom.

So these were able to go up all the little inlets,

to all the little villages, take the coal,

you know, goods from London, whatever it might be,

right up into the little places, and a lot

of the work of these was what we call stack barges.

They'd literally carry a haystack, loaded up on their deck,

about ten-foot-high and they actually had to have a ladder

to get up on to the top, to see where they were going.

They'd take it down to London

and then unload it for the horses in London.

Then they'd come back with the manure to spread on the field.

Pick up another stack and off they'd go again.

So, yeah, they were very, very versatile craft.

In their heyday, there was about 2,000 of them registered.

You pretty much wouldn't have been able to go anywhere around

the east coast without seeing a Thames barge, and you'd

have seen them as far afield as down in Cornwall, over on the Continent.

Kitty was even used to take munitions to

France during World War I.

But her days were numbered.

By the end of the '40s and early '50s,

the biggest problem was actually finding crew.

So unfortunately, it all fizzled out, as it were.

The Thames barges had fallen out of fashion, but luckily,

there were still some seafarers who weren't prepared

to let these beautiful old boats sink without trace.

These vessels are all part of the heritage of the country.

They are unique.

No other country has anything like these. I think it's absolutely

vital that we still keep them for the generations to come.

It's a continuity with our past

which would be awful sad to see it go.

If there ever was to come a day when you couldn't look out

and see a barge, I wouldn't want to be around for it, I know that.

These barges are truly part of the landscape here in Essex,

perfectly adapted for use in their environment. And in every corner

of the county, you can see

how people have learned to work in harmony

with the climate and the natural world around them.

If you drive 50 miles south of here, towards London,

you'll find another magnificent Essex garden - Hyde Hall.

Sitting on top of a hill,

amongst undulating countryside, this is a garden that shows

exactly what can be done in one of the driest areas of the country.

This was once a busy, working farm

exposed to the elements on all sides.

But it's now been transformed into one of the finest gardens

in the east of England.

Hyde Hall is a mix of historic and contemporary horticulture.

They planted traditional woodland, meadows and hedgerows

that will eventually blend into the landscape,

as well as creating the Dry and New World Garden.

In 1955, when Dick and Helen Robinson bought this farm,

they inherited a few trees, an overgrown field of rye grass

and a derelict orchard as a starting point for their garden.

But they cleared the land and started again.

The gardening curator, Ian Le Gros, and I go back a long way.

He was once a student of mine.

Now that's nice that you're doing a bit of work.

-Oh, nice for a change.

-How are you?

-Good to see you. I'm doing very well.

-How you doing?

-Yes, I'm fine, yeah.

-Good.

So, what are you up to here?

We've just decided this stops a bit abruptly,

so we're getting another piece of stone in,

just to finish the seam off and tuck it into the hill a bit tighter.

Are you going to bung some plants in?

We've got a few little things and we'll filter those in around later.

OK, can I give you a hand?

It'd be great to have that hand, certainly, absolutely.

So I think, yeah, we've got to just measure, dig and then maybe put

some hardcore in the bottom cos we don't want the rock to sink.

Now, Ian, the last time I had any dealings with you,

you were as one of my students.

Yeah, I've got sort of fond memories of it.

Yeah, I remember as we were sort of dozing off, drifting

off slightly, you used to sort of shout and get us all awake again.

So those memories still haunt me.

THEY LAUGH

-Pleasantly?

-Pleasantly, absolutely, yeah.

He must have been paying attention in some of my lectures,

because just look at the glorious gardens

Ian and his team has created.

So what's your actual role here?

My role here is the head of site and curator,

so I'm in charge of the whole site, all the activities that go on it.

It's not bad for an old student, is it?

No, not bad at all, actually, it's not bad.

I mean, it's a great place to work, great, great team here,

great atmosphere to the place.

'If I do say so myself, he's done a grand job.'

What I like is seeing your name in the press.

Every now and then.

In the magazines, I think, "One of my old students."

-Yes.

-Great sense of pride.

Oh, that's good to hear.

Ian and the team have seen lots of changes in the 22 years he's

been at Hyde Hall, because this site was almost as

hostile as the one Beth Chatto faced when she started planting.

But unlike Beth's garden, the soil here was a solid, heavy clay,

giving them all sorts of different challenges.

And we always say that we put more under the ground

here at Hyde Hall than we do on the top.

Of course you do. That's what every gardener does.

You know, if you're going to do it properly.

It's a big piece of rock, Ian.

It is, it is a sizeable piece.

I managed to move it a little bit myself,

so I think between two of us, and with a bit of luck on our side...

Yeah.

I'll get out your way.

They've managed to create this dry garden by mixing in sharp sand

and grit to the clay soil to take the water away.

Perfect for drought-resistant plants of all kinds.

And one firm favourite since it came here from the

Mediterranean is lavender.

There are more than 30 species of this lovely plant,

which thrives in full sun and is happiest in well-drained soil.

Colours range from blue to lilac and violet and its

heady scent is unmistakable.

Lavender is good for encouraging sleep and relaxation.

Not much chance of relaxation here.

We've got this rock to get in!

Well, let's have a look at our handiwork.

Almost looks like we've done it, that there's a new rock in place.

Really tucks into the ground like we wanted it to at the start.

Is this your favourite bit of the garden?

It's a very nice bit, but no,

I actually prefer some of the Hilltop Garden.

OK, do you want to show me?

Why not, why not. Totally different theme, but beautiful nonetheless.

-Yes, come on, let's go and have a shufti.

-OK.

Hyde Hall is now owned by the Royal Horticultural Society and

attracts thousands of visitors a year, who come to enjoy the

variety of gardening styles on show.

From the contemporary look of the Dry Garden to Ian's favourite,

the six formal beds filled with masses of gloriously scented blooms

in the rose garden.

So, Ian, this is your favourite bit of the garden, but why?

I think it's my favourite bit

because the rest of the plantings at Hyde Hall all sort of meander

and sort of roll together and they look more organic.

This is a lot more formal, therefore it's different.

And it sort of rekindles people's love of roses, hopefully.

Lovely old English flower, shape, scent, very important for roses,

I think, but with disease and pest resistance in the modern breeding.

No longer do we have to don suits quite so often

and come up and spray them.

And what about the future? How are you taking it forward?

What are your plans?

Well the plans are to do up the perennial meadows

and the hay meadows that we're working on.

Huge drifts of bulbs naturalised in turf

and the landscape pockmarked with trees.

And then outside of that you've got the true East Anglian countryside,

the wild wood that we've been planting for 15 years.

You see, for me, that's what's typical of Hyde Hall.

You're constantly moving it on, but you're always showing

what you can do on a really windy, dry site.

And I think that's fantastic.

Time never stands still in a garden.

They've worked so hard to create something beautiful here,

that's so in tune with its surroundings.

But just a few miles away is a natural spectacle

that's largely untouched by time.

This must be one of the most stunning prehistoric sights

I've seen in the British countryside.

These salt-marshes have looked like this for thousands of years.

You wouldn't think anything could grow down there,

but believe it or not,

they support a fascinating and unique habitat for plant life.

Neil Harvey works for the Essex Wildlife Trust.

The salt-marshes have been here since after the last Ice Age.

And they're created when rivers that are bringing

the silt down to the coast, widen out and they lose their energy

and they can't carry that material any more, so they drop the silts.

What's left behind is very high in nutrients,

and this builds up to a height where the plants can start to grow.

The vegetation on salt-marshes is quite specialised.

There aren't a huge number of species of plants here,

it's quite a simple community, but all of the plants

are particularly adapted to growing in these conditions,

so they have to cope with various kind of stresses.

The salt-marshes are covered by the tide twice a day.

But the plants have to be salt-tolerant to

survive in this habitat.

Plants like samphire, which are succulent, a bit like cacti,

so they're holding onto water in that way.

Other plants, like the sea lavender, will have a really thick cuticle,

which means that they can hold onto the water.

So there are lots of different adaptations that they show

that allow them to live here where most plants

wouldn't be able to survive.

As well as plants, the salt marshes are a rich food source.

The Blackwater Estuary has been fished for oysters for 1,000 years,

and oysters are still harvested by hand here today.

And lamb grazed on salt marshes is deliciously juicy and tender,

with a fantastic flavour.

Perhaps it was this that led ancient settlers to find a way to harvest

the most precious treasure of all,

from this apparently empty landscape - salt.

The ancient town of Maldon, which sits at the head of the

Blackwater Estuary, has been at the centre of the salt-making industry

for 2,000 years.

Clive Osborne's family has been involved for four generations.

-Everything all right this morning?

-Yes, everything's fine.

Sea salt has been produced in this area going back to the Roman times,

and then through the Saxon and Norman times.

Going back to the great Domesday Book,

there were no fewer than 45 salt pans listed on this

particular part of the river.

This area has always been perfect for producing salt -

not only because it's the driest part of the country, but

because of the way the salt marshes help concentrate

and filter the sea water.

Salt produced in this area has been known as Maldon salt for a long time.

But in 1882, a company was formed,

called the Maldon Crystal Salt Company.

And the process hasn't changed much over the centuries.

Sea water is brought in from the estuary

and filtered into massive pans.

It's boiled to remove impurities,

and then heated until the salt crystallizes.

Workers use a traditional method of drawing the crystals by hand

from the pans.

Sometimes the older, simpler ways

of doing things really can't be improved upon.

And it's not only on the coast

that you can find rich pickings from the environment.

Head inland from Maldon and you can reach a community that's

determined to make the most of whatever it can produce itself.

Wivenhoe is one of more than a thousand so-called

Transition Towns across the world.

They want to practise sustainability

and save our dwindling oil supplies, by encouraging us all to go local.

Ruth Melville explains.

We've been going since maybe 2008, 2009.

As part of the project, we've started doing quite a few food-related things

because I suppose one of the core things about transition

is moving from sort of not thinking about where it comes from,

to realising that you can get a lot of things locally

and, obviously, it's fresher and it's easier to get hold of.

The group has converted bits of unused land in the town to

produce food, including the disused Station Master's garden

next to the local railway line,

which has become a herb and vegetable plot.

And they love nothing better than to share their bounty.

One year we had far too many courgettes which grew into marrows,

so we made marrow curry and gave it out to the commuters as they

were coming off the train.

Lucky commuters!

Businesses have also joined the transition campaign.

One pub landlord offered his back yard,

so that neighbours could set up a community chicken coop.

Carole Rennie and her son, Joshua, love getting involved.

I'm one of about eight of us, and we take shifts.

So every other Friday, it's mine and Josh's turn to do the chickens.

We come in, in the morning, let the chickens out of their coop

and then we come and collect the eggs, clean out the bottom

and give them any scraps that we've got.

We're not allowed to feed them onions, I think, but, like,

other things we usually do.

The kids are having fun,

getting their hands dirty at the same time as learning

where their food comes from.

And what have you learned, Joshua?

Not much, actually.

LAUGHTER

Well, you can't win 'em all!

The volunteers are so dedicated and productive that the local

council even asked them to take over a vacant plot of land

and do something with it.

The result is this fabulous wildlife garden,

which is John Rowland's domain.

Before we started creating this garden,

it was pretty much just scrubland. And then once we'd cleared all that,

we could start putting in plants that are good for

the bees and the butterflies.

The big thing was making sure that we had a pond, so we've got some water.

We've done lots of activities with pond dipping,

just getting people out here.

All sorts of events that we've done over the year to

sort of get the most out of what is quite a nice little wildlife garden.

Today, the neighbours are all getting together for a

meal in the open air.

Using ingredients from the garden,

including the eggs that the children collected earlier,

as well as herbs from the Station Master's garden. Scrumptious.

Quite a lot of butter in that.

Try a bit.

The idea of moving to a more sustainable society is one that

I agree with and I've met lots of nice like-minded people doing it.

These neighbours may be amateur gardeners,

but they've used their environment to produce a wonderful harvest.

What an achievement.

-How is it?

-Lovely.

-Do you like it?

-Oh, it's really coming out.

-So salty.

I need a pumpkin!

In Essex, it's fantastic to see the ingenious ways in which people

and plants have adapted to this dry, windy, low-lying landscape

and created something that not only produces food and sustains life,

but is also beautiful.

And the one place that sums it all up for me is Beth Chatto's garden.

She and Andrew did so much to show gardeners

how to work with their surroundings.

I love it here, and I want to give my own offering to this

beautiful place.

After garden director David and I had a close encounter

with all those lovely bugs earlier,

it occurred to me there's one thing that would

benefit Beth's garden and the local environment

for years into the future.

And it involves a practice that stretches back 4,000 years.

Perfect for traditional Essex - beekeeping.

As pretty much any schoolchild knows, plants need to be pollinated

to reproduce and spread.

Bats, birds and insects all do this job,

but by far the most important of the pollinators are bees.

For Essex beekeeper Lee Bartrip,

it was an accident of nature that led to a new passion.

Initially, a swarm came into the garden

and I didn't know what to do with them.

So I went online to check what you do with a

swarm in your garden, joined the local Bee Association and

really just found them so fascinating, I thought,

"Yeah, I'm going to become a beekeeper."

Lee installed a beehive in his garden

and has a colony of 15,000 bees.

He inspects the hive regularly to check on the health of the bees,

and to see how they're getting on with honey production.

If it's been a good year, you get honey, you get wax

for candle-making. It's just really good fun looking after bees.

No wonder bees got the reputation for being busy.

A worker bee visits about 100 flowers collecting

nectar on every foraging trip.

They store the nectar in their honey stomachs,

where it mixes with enzymes.

When they're full, they head back to their hive.

We have sealed honey here. The bees are still bringing in nectar,

which comes straight from the plant, has been passed

from the foraging bee to the house-working bees.

And these are all house-working bees,

so they're not old enough to go out to collect nectar yet themselves.

It's the job of these young bees to process

and store this sugary substance in the comb cells within the hive.

Bees top up the cells until they're full,

then allow water to evaporate off until the substance has thickened.

And that's a complete frame of honey.

It's been capped, so that is actually ready to harvest.

It's incredible to think that to produce one pound of honey,

around 500 bees will have visited about two million flowers,

and that one bee will only produce

a fraction of a teaspoonful in its lifetime.

But what a treat for us.

Gardens provide the habitat bees need to thrive,

and all the gardens I've visited today are a natural bee paradise.

Particularly this one, where Beth Chatto and her husband, Andrew,

have been so determined to work in harmony

with the natural world around them.

Beth doesn't make TV appearances these days,

so I'm thrilled that this towering figure in the world of horticulture

has kindly agreed to have a chat with me today.

Beth, how lovely to see you.

Oh, I'm so pleased to see you.

This is a real, real privilege.

Oh, not at all. For me, too.

For me, this garden has always exuded two people -

Andrew and you.

Indeed, Andrew, of course.

Without him, it wouldn't be like this.

And it was that ability of Andrew to really see plants in nature,

bring them back and then pass that knowledge to you, the plantsman,

the artist, the person with soul.

Well, we were...I think we were a good partnership.

We were so different, for one thing.

I mean, Andrew was not a practical gardener

in the sense that we perhaps understand it,

-he was an intellectual.

-Right.

I was a teenager when I first met him and I was

interested in gardening because my parents were both keen gardeners.

But here was Andrew bringing in to me

a totally new conception of gardening.

Not to be using hybrid plants,

which lost all their character.

He taught me, he taught me to look carefully

and see the beauty in plants as they are growing in the wild now.

The majority of people would think they're just fiddly,

you know, but think of many of the plants that are

growing here that are as they grow in the wild.

Although it is a very complicated garden now, I know, in many ways,

I've aimed for simplicity through the principle of

putting plants where they're comfortable and happy.

Because plants are like people,

they don't want to be pushed into the nearest available hole

and this, the Japanese golden rule - the Earth, Heaven, Man line.

-Triangles.

-Triangles, yes.

Yeah, well you pull it off with so much panache, it's untrue.

And what you're leaving us, Beth, is something very, very special.

So thank you so much.

I'm overwhelmed.

SHE LAUGHS HAPPILY

Thank you, Beth, thank you so much.

What a remarkable woman.

Beth's inspired so many people, including me.

There's nothing I can give her that could possibly reflect her

lifetime of achievements,

but there's one thing that would benefit the garden

that I'm sure she'll approve of.

Today, I've seen how, through the centuries, people in Essex

have learned to work with their environment, without changing it.

And how they continue to use traditional, simple ways

to harvest what they need from nature.

And to round off this very special day, I've gathered everyone together

for a little celebration.

Now this is a happy sight. Look at all this.

Honey cake, that's beautiful, isn't it?

-Very nice. Do you want some, Christine?

-Wow, I'd love. some.

Yeah, terrific. Look at the beautiful flower.

-And there we go.

-Oh, I'm going to have a chomp.

Mm.

I've had a really beautiful day today.

An iconic garden, a very iconic lady,

sharing a passion,

sharing a love.

We need to ensure that that love, that knowledge, that enthusiasm

for nature and gardens continues.

And we've got little seedlings from the same family,

a bigger seedling, the matriarch

and we just thought it would be really nice to actually ensure that

bees continue to come into this garden, so the future is secure.

And we thought it would be quite nice to

leave you with your very own beehive.

Well, that's wonderful.

Isn't that great? That's an old-fashioned beehive.

Absolutely. We couldn't give you a modern one.

I think that's lovely, isn't it?

-It's very attractive, yes.

-It's a des-res, that is, for bees.

So, I can come back and always have honey cake.

THEY LAUGH