Yorkshire 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 have shaped it.

And I want you to share that experience with me.

Now, I'm a proud Lancashire lass,

but today I'm heading east to visit our friendly rivals over the border.

And look at the colours of the landscape. Ohh...

With wonderful views like these to enjoy, I'm not complaining.

Today, I'm visiting Yorkshire.

In modern times it was split up into small regions.

But historically, Yorkshire's the largest county in England.

Yorkshire sits in the north-east of the country, bordering the Humber

estuary to the south and with the North Sea pounding along its coast.

But it's the Yorkshire countryside that I'm looking forward to

seeing from a whole new perspective.

Absolutely beautiful.

It's a county that some people would say has the most beautiful green

areas, with mile upon mile of Yorkshire dales

and those fantastically exciting North Yorkshire moors.

And the best way to get a look at Yorkshire is from up here.

Even as a Lancastrian I can see why it's known as God's own country.

It's going to be a breathtaking ride as I'm taking to the air to enjoy

the hills, the dales

and some tremendous gardens.

Today I'm visiting a pair of gardens which bring together old

and new to stunning effect.

I'll be getting above it all to appreciate how two designers

work their magic here, hundreds of years apart.

Hey, you get a great v... Look at that.

And I'll be finding out how an old garden has found a new

lease of life.

I know when I've got a nice garden, cos it generally

puts its arms around me and gives me a squeeze just like me mum.

It's enough to make me come over all philosophical.

To teach somebody how to garden, is to teach them about life.

I'm on my way to visit one of Britain's most beautiful gardens.

Scampston's walled garden is the work of one of the most celebrated

contemporary garden designers in the world.

And from up here I'm privileged to be getting a unique

view of one of his masterpieces.

You can really see how this garden fits into the landscape.

You've got the beautiful sort of basin effect of the landscape

and then this folding around the garden of trees.

And you can see it sitting perfectly,

slap-bang in the middle of green froth.

The garden sits behind the magnificent Scampston Hall within

the walls of the old vegetable plot.

Look at that. Ee-hee.

Where spuds and sprouts once grew, there are now circular flower beds,

clipped hedges, and the fabulous modern planting.

What you can see from up here is the hall's original kitchen garden.

And you've got those rippling rivers of grass,

the strong architectural pillars, but regular geometric shapes.

A garden that's modern yet still exciting.

Some people think modern gardens can't be and truly not exciting,

but there is a very exciting modern garden.

And I just can't wait to get down there.

The Scampston estate has been in the same family for over 300 years.

The house dates back to around 1800 and is one of North Yorkshire's most

impressive stately homes.

But it's the gardens that make this place so remarkable.

And it's got two to be proud of.

Surrounding the house are 80 acres of traditional country parkland.

There's rolling grassland, mature trees and a tranquil lake.

It may look ever so natural

but it was created in 1782 by one of the most famous garden designers

this country's ever produced, Capability Brown.

200 years later, the current owners, Sir Charles and Lady Legard,

commissioned a modern designer to create a stunning contemporary

garden for them.

And that's where I'm starting my exploration of this Yorkshire gem.

Scampston Walled Garden, a garden for me

that's taken traditional herbaceous perennials and whapped them into

the 21st century, just proving that gardening isn't set in concrete.

The man responsible for this remarkable garden is a Dutchman

called Piet Oudolf.

He's one of the leaders of a trend of gardening called

the New Perennial movement

and one of the most important garden designers of the last 25 years.

The award-winning garden he designed for Scampston has become world

famous and now attracts over 20,000 visitors a year.

Head gardener Paul Smith has been here since 2008.

-Hi, Paul. How are you?

-Hi, Christine. I'm fine. How are you?

I'm fine, yep. What are you up to?

-I'm just training in these pleached limes.

-All right.

-Can I give you a hand?

-Of course, yeah. Come and have a look.

-I'll come on up.

-Hop onto our platform here.

Well, better than a ladder, isn't it, at end of the day?

That's all right.

Hey, you get a great v... Look at that.

Brilliant view over the silent garden.

A nice bit of sunshine today, shining over there.

And they look much more powerful actually from up here than

-they do down there.

-It's a completely different view actually.

Cos of course normally you would only see it

from the entrance to that particular room at that side.

But from this platform it's a bit special, a bit different.

-What are you doing here?

-This is the trained limes

-and we're aiming to get three tiers...

-Right.

-..of growth on here.

Tied down horizontally and then of course the verticals will come in

-and create a nice solid block for us.

-Right.

-So it's just a case of tying them in and taking them down.

-Yes, it is.

Yeah, tying them in then reducing them down to about three buds.

-Three buds. Can I help you, then?

-Yeah, course you can. Yeah.

I'll deal with this bottom one.

What makes Scampston so special, then?

This is a...quite a different planting style within the walled

garden that's very interesting. And it's a four-acre walled garden.

Of course originally it would have been the kitchen

garden for the hall.

But outside of this wall we've got the Capability Brown landscape.

So what we've actually got is two distinctly different styles of garden on the same site.

-Right.

-And you're responsible for the external estate as well? Yeah.

So, what's interesting is you've got that complete contrast.

-But the contemporary garden is also sandwiched inside these walls.

-Yeah.

So they don't interfere with each other sort of aesthetically.

And which do you love?

-I think probably the walled garden because it's so different.

-Right.

But I do like that traditional thing.

You know, you can go out, you can see the lake

and the Capability Brown and all the wildlife.

It's all good. It's all good.

Part of Piet Oudolf's philosophy is that perennials have a

place in the garden throughout their lifespan,

even after flowering,

when they'd normally be cut back.

This brings a whole new range of challenges to the head gardener.

It's a completely different style of garden and a completely different

cycle to the work, really, on how it goes.

But it's still plants that come up, flower,

-then die down and repeat that cycle all the time.

-Yeah. Yeah.

-It's still gardening.

-Yeah. Yeah.

You know, it's still cutting grass, it's still pulling out weeds.

But the difference is - certainly from a maintenance point of view -

sort of think of a traditional garden, you get very big peaks

and troughs in the labour requirement.

You know, the end of May, end of October.

Here the difference is maintenance-wise it's very level.

So we're busy all year round.

-But we don't actually cut down here till February.

-Don't you?

So, traditionally of course you'd cut down in the end of November.

You know, get everything tidied up,

all put to bed for Christmas as the saying goes.

Whereas here, this stands, so the season's a lot longer,

there's a lot more seasonal interest. You get winter interest.

Presumably you get birds coming in to feed on the seed heads.

-You get birds, so it's a lot more ecological as well.

-Right.

And do you have a favourite bit of the garden?

My favourite bit is probably the perennial meadow,

-which is in the centre of the garden...

-Yeah.

..predominantly because it changes so much within one season.

It sort of starts interest-wise about, I guess, the end of May,

beginning of June.

-Again it carries on right through till that February cut-down.

-Right.

You can be here year-on-year and every season it's slightly different

because of course the weather has a different effect on how it works.

-Yeah.

-So it's always interesting. It changes every day.

It's never the same.

15 years after it was first planned,

Paul is responsible for taking the walled garden through to maturity.

Now, this garden was designed by Piet Oudolf.

-And he has a very distinct style...

-Yes.

..a modern style of using herbaceous plants.

But are you going to be slavish to that, or are you going to move away?

What's your vision?

I think... You've got to stick with his overall plan.

This is his work, it's not my work in that sense.

I think our real plan now for the next 10 years or so,

is to really work on the maturity of this garden.

So we'll look at a lot of the structural plants such as these yew

columns behind us.

It's really getting them absolutely solid, absolutely straight,

just as they're supposed to be,

because that structure is the skeleton behind the overall plan.

-Yeah, I mean, it's why you're doing this to this.

-Same as this.

Yeah, we want this into a completely solid block

and then you kind of see the vision really played out.

And, you know, that's what, a 20-25-year project?

-But in gardening terms that's normal.

-Absolutely. Yeah.

-Right. Well, we've done this bit.

-All told. Yep.

I think we can go off and do a bit more.

I can't resist the chance to get down amongst the plants a minute

longer.

I'm starting my tour of the garden in Paul's favourite place,

the perennial meadow.

The walled garden once supplied all the fruit

and vegetables for the big house.

But by the 1990s, it had been derelict for 50 years.

So Charles and Lady Legard gave Piet Oudolf a free hand to create

a new garden within the four-acre site.

And he created a series of separate gardens, linked by pathways.

At the centre of the perennial meadow is the original dipping pool,

where gardeners would have once filled their watering cans.

Oudolf loves grasses and they look spectacular in the drifts of the grass garden.

There's fabulous modern topiary in the serpentine garden

and the silent garden.

The cutting garden features opulent circles of colour.

And if you're not lucky enough to have a balloon,

you can still see the garden from above by standing on the mount.

But Scampston is two gardens - this one bold and contemporary,

and the other, traditional.

Over the walls beyond Piet Oudolf's garden the parkland that surrounds Scampston

stretches as far as the eye can see.

What's hard to believe is that once upon a time,

this landscape was as revolutionary

as the design of the walled garden is today.

The 18th century had its own garden designers.

And in the mid-1700s,

the very best was a man called Lancelot "Capability" Brown.

Before Brown came along,

gardens in the poshest houses were very formal.

But the canny salesman would tell potential patrons

that their parklands had the capability for improvement.

He forged a new style and earned himself a nickname in one go.

One of his major projects was Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire.

Dr Oliver Cox is a historian with a special interest in gardens.

-COX:

-There's a massive change that happens to the English landscape

in the 18th century, is that we move away from working against nature

to working with nature.

So, nature's lines and curves are emphasised and embellished

by architects and landscape designers such as Capability Brown.

So, what they do is they plant trees in certain places

to hide views

and then you move away from these trees, there's a reveal that

shows the house maybe or another particular vista.

So what Brown is working with is he's trying to turn

eyesores into eye-catchers.

He's turning agricultural land into part of a sort of pleasurable

view from out of the house.

The formal landscape was all about smacking you in the face

straightaway with the big house. There it is at the end of the drive.

You know what you're heading to.

What happens with Capability Brown is that he delays that.

You see glimpses of the house, you catch maybe a turret here,

a pediment there.

And then finally at the end of this long sweeping drive is the full

house revealed to you.

It's all about making nature what you want it to be.

And your view of nature is actually really quite artificial.

There are over 150 Capability Brown gardens in the UK.

And they're easy to spot if you know what you're looking for.

A great example of the sort of three giveaway signs of an English

landscape garden - that is water, trees and grass -

is here at Blenheim Palace where we have this clump of trees here that

hides the main front of the palace from view.

So, again, it's this notion of delayed gratification.

The smooth grass edges sort of roll down to the edge of the lake.

And of course the lake, the vast body of water that is so important

both in terms of creating a scenic picture but also in terms of use.

Of course, there are fish in there, which you can eat.

Capability Brown's landscape at Blenheim cost the fourth

Duke of Marlborough over £20,000,

the equivalent of nearly £3 million today.

When it was first built, a garden like this was the ultimate status

symbol for a rich, powerful man.

At the time that Capability Brown was courting the rich

and powerful...

..Yorkshire was becoming one of the most important

manufacturing areas of Britain.

During the Industrial Revolution, fortunes were made from metalwork,

coal, steel, shipping and wool.

But in the 20th century,

heavy industry collapsed in many parts of the country.

And in Yorkshire many mills fell derelict.

Armley was once the world's biggest woollen mill

and is now the site of the Yorkshire Industrial Museum.

Recently, a community group called Hyde Park Source has started

renovating the unloved wasteland surrounding it.

Behla Hutchinson is their volunteer coordinator.

We do quite a range of things.

So, we do after-school groups with children doing forest school

activities and gardening groups.

We run supported volunteering opportunities,

so for people who need a bit more support to come

and volunteer with us and teach people different skills -

construction, gardening, joinery.

So, it's sort of the whole breadth of the community from children to

old people, people with mental health issues,

physical health issues, learning difficulties and disabilities.

So, quite a wide variety.

A year ago, the group created two special gardens - one with

vegetables for anyone to pick,

and the other planted with plants with a special link to the mill.

This is the colour garden.

And it's a colour garden because we're growing all the old dye plants

that would have been grown for use in the mill to dye the cloths and the wool.

So, we've got plants that will make blues, greens, yellows,

all different types of colours.

The dye plants are bringing back a tradition that was really

rich in Leeds and Bradford and other mill towns.

That history's sort of been lost quite a lot, so bringing the plants

back here and sort of showing people hands-on how to do it again has been

really interesting and people have really enjoyed learning where colours come from.

Welcome to our dye session for today.

Debbie Tomkies is a textile expert.

And today she's going to be demonstrating how to make natural

-dyes from plants in the garden.

-We're going to pick some leaves.

We're also going to pick some flowers.

And we're going to pick some roots, just see how

we can get different dye colours from different parts of the plants.

The group is going to make three different coloured dyes -

yellow from coreopsis, a popular garden flower,

red from madder roots and blue from woad leaves.

The yellow and red are extracted by soaking the flowers

and roots in water.

Can you see the colours already coming out of there?

Getting the blue colour from woad leaves is a bit more complicated.

It needs a chemical helping hand.

Now, traditionally that would have been urine, but you'll be pleased to

know we're not going down that road today.

If you'd like to use urine at home at some point in the future,

you're very welcome.

Instead of urine, Debbie's using sodium carbonate,

also known as washing soda.

A setting agent's added and the leaves and flowers are strained.

Finally, it's dyeing time.

For the first time since the 1960s,

there's textile work happening at Armley mill.

And it's all down to the plants popping up in the colour garden.

But it's not just knickers that are getting a makeover here.

Regeneration is all about creating a new use for old surroundings.

At Scampston they commissioned one of the most

talked about contemporary gardens in Europe.

But looking to the future isn't just about plants.

They're nurturing the next generation of gardeners too.

Local schoolchildren can come here on work experience placements.

Seven years ago,

gardener Tony Aconley took a young lad called Nathan under his wing.

-MAN:

-He just came as a youngster,

just a bit of experience potting in sheds

and helping out around garden.

Left school and he keeps coming back in his summer holidays

and helping out.

Fairly good, is Nathan.

Nathan's now a student at university.

But ever since doing work experience he's been coming back

here in the holidays. And he and Tony have developed quite a bond.

I'm quicker than you are. He was 14 when he first came.

And about a foot shorter than what he is now.

He's grown quite a bit since he come. He's always enjoyed it.

He knows most of the plants what he's dealing in,

he knows what they are, what they're called.

Hopefully some day he'll get a good job

and be a good gardener for somebody if he wants to go that way.

I hope he keeps coming for a bit longer actually.

And, uh, keeping us going and making a joke and whatnot.

I've asked Tony if he can spare Nathan for a chat.

So, how did you manage to get the job here at Scampston?

I started out in Year 10. I came and did two weeks' work experience here.

-Yeah.

-And I've been invited back every summer since.

They said, "Yeah, you've done a good job." So they kept me on.

Isn't that nice?

You obviously enjoy it. But what is it that you enjoy so much?

Well, obviously at Scampston, all the people here are really nice.

I get on with everyone.

I mean, Tony especially in the veg garden,

we're always having a good time, so...

And do you have a favourite plant?

-Um, I'd probably say the Astrantia Claret.

-You know some Latin.

-I know a little bit, yeah. Picked up a few.

-That's terrific.

Can you name any other in this border? Show off, go on.

-We've got veronicastrum here.

-Yeah. And what's this purple job?

-Salvia along the bottom.

-That's impressive. What's that white job?

-A flox.

-Great. And what about this great purple job?

-Um, a eupatorium,

-that.

-Do you know, I'm very impressed.

-There's not many youngsters that would be able to do that.

-Cheers.

Eh, I'm quite proud of you. Young horticulturalist in making.

Good on you.

Of course being good at gardening is a lot more than picking up a few

Latin names. But you've got to agree that's impressive anyway.

Nathan took his new love of gardening home and got his mum

and dad involved.

My parents weren't particularly gardeners but then after I finished

my two weeks' work experience,

I took them down to the garden at Scampston

and showed them around and they got really into it

and managed to sort of coerce them into letting me do a little

bit of gardening at home and start building a bit of garden for myself.

-WOMAN:

-Once Nathan had been to Scampston,

he came back with all these wonderful ideas,

"We've got to have some circles, Dad.

We'll have to do a little rock garden, Dad."

So they were out there, worked away at it.

And we're really proud of what he's achieved today.

He's taught us a great deal, which is absolutely wonderful

that you can learn from your own children.

Nathan's used the skill and plant knowledge he's picked up at Scampston

to begin to transform his mum and dad's garden.

It was really just two big fields, front and back.

And then we've developed the front garden

and we've got some perennial borders.

We've put all the flowerbeds in.

The grasses in this area,

they're all the same ones that they use in Scampston.

We've got the Molinia Transparents in the centre.

I've decided to use Echinaceas around the edge just to give it a bit more colour.

A lot of the plants in here are ones that

I got given on my work experience, which I've grown on and then in case

I've propagated myself just to bulk it out a bit more.

This area was originally just a little pile of rubble and stones

and stuff and I've changed it into a bit of a secret,

hideaway garden at the back of the house.

I just put a few hostas and heucheras in,

which don't mind the shade.

And managed to find this little fella,

which adds a bit of character.

Nathan's been really inspired by Piet Oudolf's ideas.

But little birds told me that flowers and grasses aren't

actually his plants of choice.

Do you have a favourite bit of the garden?

I'm going to have to say the veg garden, I think.

-Yeah, I really enjoy it in there. I mean...

-Why?

Tony works in there a lot and I've worked in there for most of my two

weeks' work experience with him.

The last seven years when I keep on coming back, he's been mentoring me,

telling me what to do. I really enjoy it in there.

Very, very important, isn't it, that somebody actually nurtures,

not only the plants but the people. And that's lovely. Right.

Shall we go down the veg garden and have a shifty?

Yeah. No, that'd be really good.

So, how old was you when you first came into this area of the garden?

I was 14 when I started in there.

This is where I spent most of my first two weeks' work experience.

And then a lot of time since as well.

-And presumably Tony was involved in this area.

-Yeah.

He worked here full-time when I first started.

But in the last couple of years he's retired

-and now really only looks after this in the garden.

-I mean, he's

producing some great crops, there's leeks, there's sweetcorn, lettuce,

-courgettes, beans, all sorts of things.

-Yeah.

-Doing a grand job.

-But I see you've got some rhubarb.

-Yeah.

We've got a bit of Yorkshire variety.

-I should flipping hope so.

-Yeah.

Although most of us eat it in puddings,

rhubarb is one of those rule breakers.

It's not a fruit, it's a vegetable.

To grow particularly tender stems rhubarb is grown in the dark,

known as forcing. And it's even harvested by candlelight.

Having a dedicated forcing shed is beyond most of us,

but you can buy rhubarb forcers to pop over individual plants

to keep out the light or even improvise with a black bucket.

Yorkshire's famous for its rhubarb triangle,

an area south of Leeds where the heavy clay soil makes the ideal

conditions for growing the finest rhubarb in the country.

From the late Victorian times, special trains would carry

tons of the stuff down to London markets every day.

They always did their best to get forced rhubarb out of Yorkshire,

down to Covent Garden first.

Because people would pay a premium for long,

succulent sticks that were Yorkshire.

And the best rhubarb, even coming from a Lancastrian,

is forced Yorkshire rhubarb.

But having seen this, it's given me an idea.

I like to leave a memento in the gardens I visit,

though I wouldn't want to interfere with Piet Oudolf's work.

But coming into this vegetable garden has been

a bit of an inspiration.

Slap-bang in the middle of the rhubarb triangle is a firm that

produces something that's as traditional as they come.

For over a century this family firm used the local clay to make drainage pipes.

But 15 years ago,

they branched out into making all sorts of garden pots.

The factory can turn out over 1,000 a day of all shapes and sizes.

Some are decorated with bespoke plaques before they're fired in this

massive kiln for up to five days.

Something from here might be perfect to leave behind at Scampston as a

tribute to the wonderful way they've nurtured Nathan's love of gardening.

If Nathan decides on a career in horticulture, he might become a head

gardener, looking after a great estate like Scampston.

But like so many jobs these days, gardening isn't always for life.

A charity called Perennial helps people who work in horticulture

when times get tough.

And the charity owns a very special garden indeed.

On the other side of York from Scampston is another very beautiful

garden, hidden behind the ancient church in Adel

lying on the outskirts of Leeds.

This is a small garden, but its architecture is still very strong.

There's an intimacy of each garden space.

It's tiny, it's an acre, but it's very, very beautiful.

This is York Gate.

From the air it's easy to see that York Gate is a very different

kind of garden from the rolling parks of Capability Brown or

the sweeping naturalism of Piet Oudolf.

This garden follows the English tradition of making garden rooms

with walls of clipped hedges.

The garden only covers an acre on the site of an old

orchard in a village on the outskirts of Leeds.

But it's full of tricks to make it seem bigger.

The York stone paving is laid out in patterns to enlarge the space.

There are statues to draw the eye and there's a feeling that around

every corner and through every doorway there's a surprise in store.

I'm here to meet my old mate, Martin,

who's the current head gardener.

Hey, oop, our Martin. How are you?

-Hello, Christine. How are you?

-I'm good.

-Lovely to see you.

-And you.

-Yeah, what you doing?

-Are you coming to give us hand here?

-I will.

If you can bob round the top where I'm just taking the tops off these

astrantias. OK. Because it's looking a bit miserable around here.

-We've got a few plants to brighten the place up.

-Right.

You've all sorts of things.

-So just chopping these back and then dropping stuff in.

-That's right.

Just put them in temporary, just to give us a bit of late colour.

-But these astrantias, they've got really messy.

-Yeah.

We'll just cut the tops off them.

-Get these down then.

-Yep.

So, how long have you been here now, Martin?

-Just coming up to two years now.

-Two years?!

The thing about it is I only came here to visit the head gardener.

And he said, "I'm retiring next week."

And I said, "Like you do in gardening.

"Oh, if you need a hand for a few weeks, I'll pop in." I'm still here.

-And it is lovely.

-But isn't it lovely?

You've obviously been here long enough now to get

an appreciation of the garden.

So, what makes it special for you?

It's such a fascinating garden.

14 different rooms like a chocolate box of sweets.

But do you know what surprises me about it, Martin?

It's an acre but actually what's beautiful about it is its intimacy,

each little garden.

You could imagine this being your own garden at home

and take ideas from it cos it's that scale.

It's got a personality, hasn't it, this place?

And the great thing about it is they're all different as well.

So you can take something that you like.

You may like pines or you may like alpines,

or you may like woodlands or herbaceous plants.

But you can find it here.

I know when I've got a nice garden because it gently

puts its arms around me and gives me a squeeze just like me mum.

You see, and that's a lovely way.

Because a lot of people take a lot out of the garden.

And it's not just from plants, it's the atmosphere, it's the memories,

it's the journey.

It's the whole flipping caboodle.

York Gate was the work of a family called the Spencers.

Frederick Spencer started the garden in 1951.

And when he died his son Robin took over gardening duties.

Robin died in 1982 at the early age of 47,

leaving his mother Sybil to look after the garden.

In her will she left it to the charity Perennial,

which used to be called the Gardeners' Royal Benevolent Society,

looking after horticulturalists who need help.

It's not really that well known, but gardening is a strange occupation.

Lots of gardeners end up with tied cottages.

-When they lose the job they lose the house.

-Right.

And they have financial problems and emotional problems.

And that's what the charity does, it helps people around that.

What better shop window than the garden,

-and a garden that's as special as this.

-Oh, it's amazing. It's lovely.

-The charity does embrace.

-It does.

And it is that mum giving you a cuddle.

It's such a good cause that I'm happy to help freshen up these borders.

Even Martin's been influenced by the New Perennial movement.

You know, a few years ago when all this grass carry-on was going about,

people were starting to do all of this grass thing,

I was a bit dubious about them.

But I do really like them for this sort of situation.

Well, some of them give tremendous height and movement,

but also grace sometimes.

-I mean...

-They do.

-..that can be quite nice.

That's over a bit, I think.

-Oh, look at the colour on that.

-That's gorgeous, isn't it?

Beautiful. Autumn. Autumn russets. Aww.

But when York Gate was being planned,

for most people grass just meant one thing - what you made a lawn out of.

But over the past 50 years,

ornamental grasses have become increasingly popular

and certain varieties have become very fashionable indeed.

Pampas grass was the big thing back in the '70s.

And today, grasses of all heights

and colour find a place in contemporary gardens.

Some bear beautiful flowers. Some are even scented.

But all of them provide months of interest from their shape as well

as bringing movement and sound into the garden.

They're a great thing to grow and I'm glad Martin's taken to them.

-It is. It's lovely.

-I think that's all right, you know.

-It's smashing.

And it's just that little bit of extra colour at this time of year.

-Not bold and brash like a bedding scheme, a hint of colour.

-That's right.

But so much of this garden is about manipulation, isn't it,

-and playing games and the rest of it?

-It is, yeah.

And there are some quirky things. There are some strange things happen in this garden.

-And there's one I want to show you.

-Come on. Let's have a look, then.

-My God. Look at that.

-It's incredible, isn't it?

-That's amazing, Martin.

-Manipulation on a grand scale.

-I'll say.

But isn't it fantastic?

This is a cedar but it's cut

and trimmed to look like no other cedar I've seen before.

It's incredible to think that this is a tree not dissimilar to

-a Christmas tree. It wants to grow 80 feet high.

-And 40 foot wide.

-I mean, it's a whacking, dirty great big tree.

-But it's manipulated here.

And it's manipulated to cover this stone wall.

Like all manipulated plants, though, it needs to be kept trimmed.

So we're going to try and cut some of this back now.

-So you want its whiskers clipping.

-That's right, yes. Yeah.

Let's clip its whiskers.

Just trim these shoots back to the main part of the plant.

-And that tidies it all up, makes it look nice and smooth like that.

-OK.

But, you know, why aren't you using hedge clipper?

Well, you could use a hedge trimmer,

but it doesn't give it that fluffy feel.

I think the nice thing about that,

-it's still got that fluffiness of a cedar, hasn't it?

-It has, yeah.

-It has.

-And with a hedge trimmer it just... I don't like them.

They don't seem to...

And also they nip off all the tips of the needles and then it goes brown.

-That's right.

-And it looks horrible, to be honest.

But this must be unique

because I've never seen any one like this anywhere in the country.

I haven't, not of this particular species.

I mean, you see topiary and things like that.

But I've not seen one like this before.

-It's like a bloke with a beard, it needs a shave occasionally.

-It does.

-It just needs trimming now and then, as they say.

-Absolutely.

What's the vision? Are you going to take it forward? What are you going to do?

Well, the thing about a garden like this is,

and particularly York Gate, it's broken into 14 compartments

and they all need different things.

So one of the things we're going to do this autumn is replant Sybil's

-garden.

-Right.

-I want to try and change these hollies behind us.

-They obscure the view of this lovely cedar.

-Yeah.

And you can't cut hollies back,

so they're going to have to go unfortunately.

And sometimes you've to make that decision, haven't you?

It's not worth it, and for the time and everything else.

Have it out and start again.

The other exciting bit about York Gate,

we're going to build an outside classroom.

Now, you can walk around this place and try and learn it

and try and enjoy it.

But what better than have a classroom where people are going to

-teach you how to do this?

-That's great, Martin, absolutely great.

But, you know, I think we've probably done enough of this,

-haven't we? We've done quite a bit. So, do you fancy a brew?

-I do, yeah. I'm exhausted.

I've got some lovely Yorkshire tea in house.

I don't mind drinking that occasionally. Come on.

It's wonderful to see that York Gate is going to carry on bringing funds

to a very important charity for years to come

as well as providing inspiration for the next generation of gardeners.

Today, I've been privileged to see Yorkshire from the air.

70 years ago the sky wasn't full of balloons,

but a very different sort of flying machine.

During the Second World War,

the east coast of Britain was dotted with airfields.

One of these old bases is now the site of the Yorkshire Air Museum,

celebrating the achievements of local flying

heroes like Barnes Wallis and Amy Johnson.

But there's one Yorkshireman whose contribution to

the history of flight is not so well known.

Here among the modern jets is a replica of a very old

and very magnificent flying machine with the fabulous

name of the governable parachute.

Its inventor was Sir George Cayley.

Ian Reed, the director of the museum, knows his story well.

Sir George Cayley was born around 10 miles from here, near Scarborough,

in 1773.

When he was nine years old, he heard about the Montgolfier brothers'

first hot-air balloon.

And I'm sure that inspired him

because the rest of his life was devoted to flying machines.

This aeroplane here was the 1853 Governable Parachute.

That's 50 years before the Wright brothers.

You'll see it has a tail, an upper surface and a fuselage.

And this was really the first aeroplane.

This is how aeroplanes have been ever since

with a fuselage, tail and wing surfaces.

And it is of course a glider. It isn't powered.

It was pushed down a hill and used the force of gravity to take

the aircraft off, like a modern glider today in some ways.

Sir George carried on inventing and writing about science

until his death in 1857.

Many people think that the Wright brothers invented flying.

But they were the first to pay tribute to the work of a pioneering Yorkshireman, Sir George Cayley.

Following their successful flight in America in 1903, they did actually

compliment the fact that Sir George Cayley played a very important part.

And acknowledged him as being the father of aeronautics.

He was a prolific inventor and a very sound scientific mind.

And it's a very, very proud boast of Yorkshire

to be associated with Sir George.

Back at Scampston I've arranged to meet two very special

Yorkshiremen in the vegetable patch.

I can't leave Yorkshire without presenting Nathan

and Tony with something to remind them of my visit.

And the clay pot makers have done me proud.

-Hi.

-NATHAN:

-Are you all right?

-How are you two?

-Good, cheers.

-Fine, thanks.

-Great.

-Well, you might well be wondering what's under here.

-Yeah.

But gardening's all about growing and cultivating.

And, Tony, you've cultivated Nathan.

One of the great gifts of a gardener is he's passing on that knowledge

and experience, the wisdom to a youngster.

And it's that cultivation that's very, very special in gardening

because to teach somebody how to garden is to teach them about life.

And that is very, very important.

So, from the heart of Yorkshire something practical like rhubarb

forcing pots. So, how's that for you, then? Made in Yorkshire.

-Thank you.

-And it actually says on it, because this is very important,

"Nurturing tender shoots."

And you're going off into the big, wide world.

But I hope you'll come back and realise that gardening's all about

looking in rhubarb pots in spring and being excited by what you find.

-So, there you are, some rhubarb forcing pots.

-Thank you.

-I think we'll make good use of them.

-Yeah.

-Good.

-I think they'll be all right, won't they?

-Cheers.

Yeah, they'll come in very useful.

And the surprises don't end there. There's another one next door.

I've asked friends and family to gather

for a special celebration tea.

This is a bit of a surprise, isn't it?

And I'm thrilled that the guest of honour is Sir Charles Legard,

the owner of Scampston.

So, I'd like to ask Sir Charles just to say a few words, please.

-Well done.

-Thank you very much.

And thank you for all the years you've spent here.

We remember you as a young lad sweeping up leaves.

And here we are fully grown gardener with a wonderful, I hope,

gardening career ahead of you. You're the same height as me now.

-You're a bit bigger.

-Yeah.

But you're a hard-working chap.

-And I hope your career goes from strength to strength.

-Thank you very much.

-And so we've all come to join in and say thank you.

-Cheers.

And what a better way to celebrate than chomping on Yorkshire rhubarb crumble.

So, come on. Get in there. Tea and rhubarb.

Go on. Yeah, you be Mum.

Thank you very much indeed.

Can I have some cream, please, with my rhubarb?

Here's to Yorkshire.

Thank you very much.

What a happy and tasty end to a terrific visit.

So, has everybody got some rhubarb...that wants it? And a brew.

From a Lancastrian to a lot of Yorkshire folk, well,

what more could you have? So, keep growing.

Keep producing Yorkshire rhubarb and good luck to you all.

-ALL:

-Thank you.

Today, I've revelled in seeing old and new working together.

York Gate, once a superb private garden,

now the pride and joy of a gardening charity.

Armley Mill, a derelict industrial site beginning to blossom with new life.

And Scampston where a contemporary garden sits like a gem in historic

parkland and where old hands are inspiring young hearts.