Winter Life in a Cottage Garden with Carol Klein


Winter

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I'm Carol Klein and this is my garden, Glebe Cottage,

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nestled in the heart of the North Devon hills, 15 miles from the coast.

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For more than three decades, I've cared for this garden.

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I love it, and so do my family.

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I know every inch of the place and every plant.

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It completely absorbs me. I love spending time out here,

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surrounded by the tranquillity of this beautiful countryside.

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Every season brings its own delights and its own problems and challenges,

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but that's the thing about gardening,

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it's ever-changing and it's always exhilarating.

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It's a privilege for me to feel part of the process.

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Over the next six weeks, I'm going to show you

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a whole year in my garden, how it grows, flourishes, dies and is reborn.

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When you live intimately with your garden, its story becomes endlessly fascinating.

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I love my garden.

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I absolutely adore it. We've been here now for more than 30 years.

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During that time, everything's changed dramatically.

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Not just once, but all the time, continuous change.

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When we came here, though, you wouldn't have recognised it.

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It was full of old cars, old buildings, loads of sheds.

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But it's been transformed.

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I've really enjoyed making this part of the garden.

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We call it the brick garden for obvious reasons. All the paths are made out of bricks.

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But it's got loads of grasses. It's a very animated part of the garden.

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And over here are the hotbeds.

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They don't look so hot at the moment, but later on, you wait.

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They're packed full of all sorts of exotics.

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Cannas, dahlias, even the odd banana or two.

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And the colours are outrageous, really brilliant reds, very, very zingy.

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You could almost warm your hands on them.

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And through here, you can see across to my favourite bit of the garden.

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There's a big track that sort of bisects the garden

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and the two sides of it have got completely different characters.

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Over here, everything is open.

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Over there is my favourite, favourite bit, it's woodland.

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I planted all those trees to create shade

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for all those little delicate plants that I love to grow.

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We've got two daughters and they've each got their own garden.

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This is Alice's garden.

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Full of the kind of colours that she loves, whites, pinks, crimsons.

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'Alice is 28 now. She lives in Brighton, but she comes back from time to time.

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'And when she's here, she loves to be in the garden.'

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And down here

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is Annie's garden.

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Annie is my eldest daughter.

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She's 29 now, she's in South America.

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But I'm dying for her to come back and see what I'm going to do this.

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I hope she's going to join in, too.

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At the moment it's a typical example of the rest of the garden.

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Everything looks dormant, if not dead.

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But don't you believe it. Underneath the surface of that soil, all sorts of things are happening.

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Roots are thrusting their way out, new shoots are being formed

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and very soon the whole garden is going to green up.

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That's what it's all about, the death, the rebirth, the life of everybody's garden.

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It's January and February, but amongst the bleakness and cold of winter,

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there will be the first splashes of colour

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and incredibly for this time of year, I'm already thinking about my first seeds.

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These months of short days are packed with frantic moments,

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cleaning the remnants and debris of the previous year and getting the garden ready for the time ahead.

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You reckon that's stable? Ish!

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How about this for a complete tangle?

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I've got two wonderful plants here and the whole idea is they grow in sweet harmony.

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This clematis Huldine, it belongs to the Viticella group.

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It's completely taken over and it's actually distorting and pushing apart this lovely crab apple.

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If you're wondering who this bloke down here is, it's Neil, my husband.

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Ideally with a clematis like this, I should be able to prune it down to two buds from the ground.

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But if I do that I'm going to miss the beauty of some of these flowers at a sort of taller level.

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Although I should prune it when it's dormant, can you see it's already beginning to come into bud?

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So there's no time like the present.

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I'll pull as much of this tangle out as I possibly can

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and then I'll try and select a few shoots to be reintroduced.

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I'm going to shut up and get tugging.

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What a cruel winter it's been. I think it's been probably the cruellest winter

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since we been here, and that's more than 30 years.

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We've had the lot and we've had deep snow - we were snowed in for a fortnight.

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But the worst thing of all has been the frost.

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It's done such an amount of damage.

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My pots with the tulips in at the top are completely shattered.

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You can see all the roots and these plants struggling to survive.

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And as for my beautiful brick paths, they're just in pieces.

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And amongst the plants there have been so many deaths and when things haven't died,

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some things are maimed so badly. There really is quite a lot to get over.

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Ooh!

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That's so much better.

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Thank you for your services. I thought you were stuck to that ladder.

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How about a cup of tea?

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That would be lovely. It's all work, work, work isn't it, Neil?

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Well, what d'you think?

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It's a whole lot clearer now. I can really see what I'm doing when it comes to pruning this tree.

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But first of all, it's a question of dealing with the clematis.

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Can you see the masses of these stems which have actually layered themselves into the ground?

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I want to take a few of these out.

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I want to retain some so that I'll get these lovely starry flowers decorating the top branches.

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But look at this one,

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that's sort of coming right out onto the trap,

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so I think I'll be able to pull that one out.

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And I'm going to prune it just as you would

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any classic sort of group three clematis.

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So if you just trace the stem to where it's coming from here - it's quite old wood, this.

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I just need to leave two or three buds there, probably do it to that one there.

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You don't make a sloping cut like a rose

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because it's got two buds, one on either side.

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All I want to do is make this little shallow trench along here, just a couple of centimetres deep.

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Each one of these buds along the stem will break and make a brand-new shoot.

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That just wants to twang upwards, so weight it down with a stone.

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I'll keep a check on that, wait for some new shoots

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and then maybe replace the stone with a staple, but meanwhile where's my shoot?

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I'd better finish the job. It's behind me.

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It's a question of pulling it right out of here, I feel a bit like a bell ringer, but here we go.

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I might disappear out of sight.

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As the autumn fades into winter

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and the new year begins, all the colours within the garden become generalised.

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Everything's brown and dun.

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It's like a sepia photograph.

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This is Annie's garden and it's the site of the biggest revamp of the year.

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It's a major project.

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And before I do anything at all, I've got to clear away all this debris

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so I can see what's in here, I can see what these clumps are.

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And once I can identify everything, I'm going to lift it all out on to the tarpaulin.

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And having done that,

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I'm going to make a quick stock list, see what I've got

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and think about what the design of this is going to be.

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I've got one major decision, because at the end of the border there's this old apple tree.

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It's full of canker and disease.

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We've tried all sorts of things, tried pruning it, all manner of stuff.

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But I'm going to have to make my mind up eventually whether it stays

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or whether it goes, but for now there's plenty of work to do.

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I suppose winter seems a very long sort of season.

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It's a time when everything's dormant, dying, dead, perhaps.

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Although the majority of the garden is brown and very austere,

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there are already things starting to happen.

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If you look at the ground, there are shoots beginning to appear and in the hedges,

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catkins are beginning to dangle those lovely lamb's tails

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and spreading the pollen if you get a windy day.

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But the stars of the moment have to be my snowdrops.

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They are the plant that invites us into the new year.

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The dark, dank earth, you can almost hear it being split asunder as their shoots pierce it and up they come.

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The flower is just so perfectly designed.

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This great long pedicel, skinny, tiny, the stalk which supports the bell

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and you wouldn't think it could hold that great weight.

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But it enables these bells to move backwards and forwards

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in the thrashing winds that we get in January and February.

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Look how it's clumped and moved itself around and you can exploit that

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with any snowdrop by digging it up just as it goes to ground.

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As the flowers and foliage begins to fade and separating the bulbs and replanting them straightaway.

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The other way is to twin scale them. Take your bulbs at the beginning of their dormancy in June or July.

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And you slice them vertically with a completely clean knife. You must make sure everything is sterile.

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Each piece must have at least two scales and a bit of the basal plate.

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Then you put those pieces into a bag of vermiculite and put it away in a nice, warm, dark place.

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After a few weeks, new bulbs will start to form

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and then you can line them out into seed trays in decent compost.

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Grow them on and after a couple of years you should have decent-sized bulbs

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and then you can put them out into the garden to start the whole cycle going again.

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We've been getting on famously with Annie's border.

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And just as I'm congratulating myself, what happens?

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The clouds open and the rain pours down.

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It's typical January weather, isn't it? So unpredictable you can have the whole lot all in one day.

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Still, there's plenty to get on with.

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I just love this shed.

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I love this time of year because even though it's gone dark outside,

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I can still come in here and carry on gardening.

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There's so many things to do and you're so close to everything in here.

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You can pot up these primroses.

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Just look at them and anticipate just what they're going to be

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and the times when they're growing away outside and how the year is going to progress.

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Not always going to be dark like this.

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Eventually the garden will change and things will heat up.

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But for now, it's just lovely to be in here.

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That's the very last of that debris from Annie's border.

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I can't believe how much I've taken out.

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But I'd hoped to come straight down this morning, shift the last

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of the rubbish and get right on to lifting those plants, but not a chance.

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It poured down during the night, absolute deluge.

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But there are other things I can do.

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While I'm waiting for that to dry out, I think I'm going to take these out.

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This is Phlomis lanata.

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It's a from hot, dry sunny places and it's got grey, furry leaves.

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But they should be grey-blue. At the moment they're brown.

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The whole thing is as dead as a doornail.

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Fortunately for me, I took cuttings last year, I always do take cuttings

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from the tender plants, or the borderline plants, and they are thriving in a cold frame.

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All I did was in June, July, take little side shoots with a heel.

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Or you can get your knife in right under a leaf node.

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Nip the top out, put them all round the side of a pot of gritty compost and they root fairly rapidly.

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It's worth doing it two or three times, though, different weeks.

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But I think it'll be fairly easy to get it out.

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I shall replant some of those plants in here,

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but I certainly won't do it yet. I'll wait till the weather warms up.

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Things won't warm up for ages yet, but at least the rain has eased

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and finally I can get on with Annie's garden.

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Are you helping?

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At long last.

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I can almost hear that roll of drums.

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I can get cracking and start taking these things out.

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Something tells me

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it's going to be a lot easier said than done.

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This is a Phlox.

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It's strange to think that when they went in, these plants,

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they were tiny, they were minute little things and just look at them now.

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This is one of the smaller ones, too.

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What I like to do when I've got them all here is to divide them,

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to put some into a nursery bed, to look after them, anyway.

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I'm sure they will be fine.

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And then I can get to work on this soil, preparing a really lovely home for my new design.

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Some of them are going to come back in here, but they will be joined by all sorts of other lovely things.

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Each day you come out at this time of year, it's different.

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You get days where the sun is sparkling through the trees

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and then you'll get other days where it's foggy, really misty.

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Traditionally, the shortest day of the winter solstice is the day for putting your garlic in the ground.

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But I never do that because it's so wet and soggy here.

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I prefer to start them off in modules. That way they're off to a flying start.

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Most of the weather in my garden comes from the west, from the Atlantic.

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But in February, it comes from the east.

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Bitter winds bite you to the quick.

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They don't come round you, they go straight through you.

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It's a wonder anything survives at all.

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I'm taking down these completely rickety wattle panels.

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The weather has finished them off.

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I want to get at this hedge behind here.

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This is our native hedge that runs right the length of the garden and today Marcus Tribe,

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who is an incredible woodsman, is going to come round and help lay this hedge.

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Hello, Marcus.

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-Good morning, how are you?

-Lovely to see you.

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Step across your garden.

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Step across. Do you think we could get through here and then we can see what's happening?

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-It's what I spend most of my time doing, going through hedges.

-I know, you're good at it.

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My maths teacher always used to say I looked like I'd been dragged through a hedge backwards.

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-Now you know where it comes from.

-Yeah.

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-Can you get them through?

-There you go.

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They're sturdy, aren't they?

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Yeah, these are good stakes.

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-It's grown, hasn't it?

-Yeah, that's come on nice.

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-They're good enough to lay now.

-You reckon you can do a good job with that?

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-We can match it in with the rest of the hedge now.

-Fantastic.

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We've got two there.

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Just going to pull that one in.

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This one, I won't cut this one, I'll just lay this one in.

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Just weave it in.

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OK, the idea is we've got to cut

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three quarters of the way through the stem,

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but leaving enough on there

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so that it stays attached.

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You want a little bit of the wood, a little bit of the cambium layer and the bark.

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That's the layer all the sap passes through.

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And that will carry on up through there. There's enough there for it to keep on living.

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We just put the billhook in there and split that off and pull it over gently.

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-Weave it between the posts.

-Into the big hazel supports.

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And the whole idea of doing this is that sap's going to come rushing through.

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That sap will rise up the tree and it will also create new shoots that will come off there.

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So we're going to have all that growing up there?

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Plus a massive new shoot produced at the base.

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And then in future years, you layer those two.

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And later on we'll lay them again.

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This is part of the hedge that Marcus laid about four years ago.

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And it perfectly demonstrates what happens.

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All these laterals have sprung up, all those new shoots

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and they themselves can be laid, too, to thicken the hedge even more.

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It's a sort of ongoing process.

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It gives me an opportunity to grow a forest full of trees, really.

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There are about 10 or 12 different native species here.

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So we get a really rich tapestry, all manner of leaves, beautiful flowers,

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incredible fruit, climbers through here and, of course, it's loved by wildlife.

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It's a real sort of corridor. It's beautiful, I couldn't live without it.

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Another part of my garden that I absolutely love is the woodland area.

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Nestled deep in one corner, there's a lovely little stream.

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After all the rain and snow it's gushing away

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and it's completely clogged up

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so I have to get in there and clear all those leaves out.

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I suppose it's over here that the hellebore

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really introduces itself. What I think I love most about them

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is how different they are, how diverse.

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Some have pure white flowers and you've got everything,

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through a huge range right the way through to black.

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And they're fairly trouble free, but one thing I always try and do

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is cut all the old leaves off each and every plant.

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This makes sure that disease isn't harboured.

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It also means light can get into the centre of the plant so the new growth can really shoot through.

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I think when you've got a few hellebores,

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one of the most exciting things you can do is to try pollinating some of them.

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And you just choose two plants.

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From one you collect the pollen and you do that either with a little paintbrush

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or by rubbing the lid of a Biro on your knee

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to create static and collect the pollen from the anthers of that plant.

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On the plant you've selected to receive the pollen, you find a flower

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which is just about to open and you pull those petals

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gently back and you introduce the pollen from your Biro or your brush

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on to the stigma in the centre of the flower.

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You close the petals carefully and repeat the process on three days

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to ensure that pollination has taken place.

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And then to identify the flower you pollinated,

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just tie a bit of embroidery thread or a bit of coloured wool on the back of the flower.

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And then come the end of May, the beginning of June, in some cases, watch your plants carefully

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and as those seed capsules start to burst asunder,

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move in with your paper bag and collect the seed.

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Take it off and sow it directly on to the surface of good compost

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in seed trays or big pots.

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And cover it with grit, leave it outside, water it regularly

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and in September or so, these new seedlings will start to pop through.

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Keep on potting them on and within a couple of years,

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you'll see these brand-new flowers, flowers that have never been seen before.

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It's the end of February and the long winter's drawing to a close.

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It's wonderful to reach this stage in Annie's border.

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We've got everything out now.

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The whole thing's been dug over, forked over

0:27:240:27:27

and I'm at the stage where I'm adding compost to it.

0:27:270:27:30

This wonderful, fantastic black stuff

0:27:300:27:35

that's going to make everything I replant in here thrive.

0:27:350:27:38

I never feed my plants, I feed the soil because it's the soil that feeds the plants.

0:27:380:27:44

That's the way to do it and compost is just such magical material.

0:27:440:27:49

To think that this is just all that death,

0:27:490:27:55

all those plants that had died down,

0:27:550:27:57

all that detritus, that rubbish and it's turned itself magically with the help

0:27:570:28:03

of thousands of micro-organisms and worms and all sorts in this lovely process,

0:28:030:28:09

into this fantastic black stuff that's just going to feed my whole garden.

0:28:090:28:16

These two months, although they moved very, very slowly, they've consolidated

0:28:160:28:22

the whole sort of beginning of the year,

0:28:220:28:25

laid the foundation for everything that's going to happen afterwards.

0:28:250:28:29

I can already tell that things have begun to accelerate.

0:28:290:28:34

There's already that sniff of spring in the air. I can't wait.

0:28:340:28:39

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

0:28:490:28:51

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0:28:510:28:54

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