Letter K The A to Z of TV Gardening

Hello and welcome to The A to Z of TV Gardening,

where we sift through your favourite garden programmes

and dig up a bumper crop of tips and advice

from the best experts in the business.

Flowers, trees, fruit and veg,

letter by letter they're all coming up a treat

on The A to Z of TV Gardening.

Everything we're looking at today begins with the letter K.

Here's what's coming up.

Alan Titchmarsh on the best kit for the job.

Every time I dig with it, I'm digging with an implement

that the man who inspired me to garden also dug with.

James Wong shows how to grow a kiwi plant.

All you need to do is plant it against a south-facing wall,

just so it benefits from that extra heat in summer.

And David Dimbleby explores an Elizabethan garden.

What did they do? Walk around in it?

Just take gentle walks round on the grass.

-Oh, they walked on the grass?

-Oh, yes.

-You don't walk inside the knot?

-No.

-Oh. So I'm in the wrong place, really?

-Really, yes.

-Oh.

That's all to come. But first,

we look at a garden that was created way back in the 17th century.

Our first K is, of course, for Kew Gardens.

I've been here many times, and in all different weathers.

It may be sunny, it may be raining.

Come here and you'll immediately forget you're still in our capital city.

The scale of the place and the variety of plants

makes a real impact,

especially on those who have had the pleasure of working here.

And Alan Titchmarsh is one of them.

When I left the student course,

I became a garden supervisor,

a sort of foreman equivalent.

When you're a foreman - garden supervisor -

you're entitled to a bike.

And that was one of life's greatest pleasures,

cycling round Kew Gardens.

Proper job, this.

BRAKES SQUEAL

Ooh, my brakes were better, then!

But when I started as a student, three years before that,

you made your way round by Shanks's pony. No such luxury as a bike!

The first place I worked was somewhere called the T range,

a T-shaped range of glass houses

that were tropical in their content.

They've been knocked down now

and been replaced by this wonderful thing called the Princess of Wales conservatory.

It was great fun, especially in winter,

coming down the Mortlake Road into your place of work

which was a tropical rainforest!

Though not quite as glamorous as this.

But we did still have this,

the giant water lily, Victoria Amazonica.

In those days, in the T range,

it grew in an enormous tank, three feet high off the ground.

In the corner were big rocky banks with tropical plants growing through.

Every now and again, you had to remove these rocks to remake the bank.

And whenever you lifted one up, it was absolutely crawling underneath with cockroaches,

which I've never liked ever since.

Since we're reminiscing, let's look back at the history of Kew Gardens.

It all started with Princess Augusta,

who wanted a place where all the Earth's plants could be found in one garden.

But that was just the beginning.

Her son, King George III, then picked up the baton

and took things even further.

When George inherited the garden,

he wanted to turn it into a bold statement.

A symbol of his power and influence.

He wanted plants displayed from the farthest reaches of his empire.

On 12 July 1771,

HMS Endeavour arrived back from a three-year voyage of exploration

around the world.

Tales of Captain Cook's adventures swept through London.

On the journey with Cook was a young man, a botanist,

called Joseph Banks.

The king, always intrigued by new botanical discoveries,

summoned Banks to Kew.

The young man turned out to be a very able and enthusiastic scientist,

but more to the point, a very good storyteller.

Indeed, so impressed was the king with the young botanist

that he invited Banks to take charge of the royal garden.

Before Banks, the random acquisition of exotic plants in Kew's collection

had come as gifts from other botanic gardens

or brought home by travellers on state business.

Banks was to usher in a new era.

Plant hunters sponsored by the king.

Kew could, he argued,

become a great botanical exchange house for the empire.

It could collect seeds and plants from wherever they were growing,

nurture them and transfer them to wherever they were needed in the interests of empire.

Key to Banks's plan was the establishment of satellite gardens throughout the British territories

receiving and looking after these new plants as necessary.

Just as Banks envisaged,

the exchange of plants continues today.

Here's Jules Hudson, who's taking one of the world's most endangered plants

from Kew to the Isles of Scilly.

Lying 28 miles off Land's End,

the Isles of Scilly are an archipelago

of 150 islands and rocks.

Only five of the islands are inhabited.

St Mary's, the main island, Tresco, St Martin's

Bryher and St Agnes.

They enjoy a favourable climate throughout the year thanks to the Gulf Stream,

making them one of the warmest places in the UK.

Flying over these islands on a clear day like this,

you get a real sense of the unique climate down here

that means that plants we wouldn't normally associate with mainland UK

can thrive outdoors here all year round.

I'm accompanying this one on the last leg of its journey

to the world-renowned Abbey Gardens down on Tresco.

It's all part of a plant exchange scheme

that exists between gardens in the UK.

Just as you might share a plant with a neighbour or friend,

so too do our most prestigious gardens.

This rare aloe has been cultivated at Kew Gardens in Surrey,

the only place in the world where these plants are known to grow.

I'm helping to move it to Tresco

in order to spread the species and ensure its continued survival.

At Kew, this has been nurtured in a greenhouse to help it grow,

but here on Tresco, there's no need for glass because the area's unique micro-climate

means this should thrive perfectly well here.

The Abbey Gardens were created in 1834

around the remains of a 12th-century priory.

They contain a unique collection of sub-tropical plants

many of which are too tender for cultivation on the British mainland.

Mike.

Hello, Jules!

Look at this.

Finally, look what the tide brought in.

-I've got the hole ready for you now.

-Your new plant. There you go.

-How about that for a specimen?

-Fantastic. All the way from Kew.

Why is this so special?

As you know, Tresco can grow plants from all the Mediterranean climate zones of the world.

All the nice places.

South Africa - well, this comes from Kenya -

but South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, California, Mexico.

The Canary Islands. All places that like a bit more warmth than normal. We can do that here.

This looks like home, doesn't it?

This is fantastic. This plant is quite rare.

There's only three cultivated plants of this species in the world.

-What kind of plant is it?

-This is an Aloe from Kenya.

It's a bit more tender than the ones we're used to so we're going to try it out.

-Right.

-Let's put it in.

-Let's put its feet in.

This is very nice to see. It's in flower, which is nice.

We'll get that in there.

How big will it get in time?

It won't get as big as these chaps behind me,

but it will make a fair-sized plant

and with us they'll flower in winter.

It's still maintaining its flowering period as it would in its own country.

I imagine the exchange scheme with places like Kew

is vital in keeping gardens like this going.

Tresco has had links with Kew from its very birth.

The garden started in 1834

and very quickly after that, Kew and Tresco were exchanging plants.

From then on, also, other gardens around the world have always done that.

But we've maintained that.

So we're always moving plants and seeds and cuttings around the world's botanic gardens.

That's the way it all works.

-I'm really pleased about that.

-Good.

It's a good addition to the garden collection.

We've brought you this. What are you giving Kew?

Let me show you.

I've got something I think you'll like.

This is the most extraordinary plant I wanted to show you.

This is what we're going to give to Kew Gardens.

-Bizarre-looking thing, isn't it?

-Fantastic, isn't it?

It's called a facria from Mexico.

It takes 20 years to get to that height.

It only flowers once in its life

and once it's flowered, it dies.

It starts life as one of these.

This is what we're going to give to Kew Gardens.

What's that, a fruit or a bulb?

It's a complete plantlet. A complete self-contained plantlet.

The great thing is it grows up over 20 years

into this staggering great monolith.

Then, when it gets ready to flower,

from that point there it goes up about 15 or 20 foot in about five or six weeks.

-That green bit I can see?

-That little green bit there.

-Five or six weeks? You must be able to watch it grow before your eyes!

-Nearly!

It then cascades into a wonderful yellow Christmas tree of flowers.

Then it starts developing these lovely plantlets as the flowers die away.

What we have to do then is get rid of it.

They've got an extraordinary root system that you can't dig easily.

So what we do is set fire to it

and then pull it over.

-Set fire to this stuff?

-It's like an old Yeti. Wonderful thing.

So you've got one plant there.

That's what you're going to give to Kew?

This is just a small handful. There's a whole handful there.

Here's an envelope I prepared earlier.

-Right.

-"Kew Gardens, Kew, London."

-How many shall we give them?

-Well...

-Half a dozen?

-Let's give them half a dozen, yes, to be on the safe side.

That can go back to Kew. So another 20 years we'll have one of these.

Brilliant. So we've completed our side of the exchange deal.

Now we have to deal with this.

I'll get Andrew to officiate with this

because he does this all the time.

Do you not feel a bit sad, you two, when you see this?

No. We've passed on the young plantlets to Kew.

We can wave goodbye to that one, but hello new one!

Hello new one, in 20 years time.

Thanks, Jules. We'll have more on Kew later in the programme,

as well as how to plant a kiwi fruit and the best gardening kit money can buy.

But first, a look at what the Victorians did for us.

They had a fascination for plants

and developed vegetable-growing techniques still used today

in our next K for kitchen gardens.

And we're visiting one that is still very much in keeping with that era.

Garden supervisor Nicola Bradley heads up a team on nine gardeners.

We're quite unique at Heligan in the sense that we're very similar

to the amount of staff they would have had in the Victorian period.

It's very labour-intensive to keep the ground weed-free

and cultivated to the highest possible standards.

Remember, it was all done by hand

so if we see caterpillar eggs on cabbages,

we go through them thoroughly and squash them.

Incredibly time-consuming jobs.

Training the fruit trees,

washing the trees down in the winter time

with a toothbrush and soft soap.

All of these things.

You need a lot of members of staff to achieve that.

But it wasn't just about manpower.

One of the secrets of the Victorian success

was the layout of the garden.

It's very much about precision, regimentation, neat hedges.

But it's not just about aesthetics.

It does have practical reasons behind it.

You're allowing the plants the maximum space

to grow to their full potential

and produce the best possible crop you can.

Necessity drove innovation.

They refined the system of crop rotation to get as much value out of the ground as possible.

One of the most important things for the Victorian kitchen garden

was to produce food all year round.

So they had to create lots of ingenious ways

of prolonging the growing season.

A classic is sea kale and rhubarb

in the lovely terracotta forcing pots.

You could use individual little lantern lights

to cover salad crops earlier in the season,

just giving them that extra bit of warmth.

And in the burgeoning industrial age,

there was no stopping the Victorians.

Technological advances meant that the Victorians could start heating their glasshouses,

using hot water systems that were powered by boilers.

So you can see all these lovely pipes running through here

which meant they could extend the season, start heating the glass houses earlier on in the year

and providing the temperatures that they needed.

Within the heated glasshouse,

they went to extreme lengths to create flawless fruit to impress their guests.

They had the knowledge to understand how to nurture a plant.

So if you look in the melon house

they've got beautifully made individual little melon nets

which support the plant as it grows

so it doesn't come away from the stem.

Obsession with perfection set a precedent for our exacting standards today.

There was nothing worse than having at a table that wasn't at its perfect best.

And that brings us to the cucumber straightener!

The cucumbers hang from wires and this would be tied just below an immature cucumber.

As it grew and developed,

you get a lovely straight cucumber.

The only thing is to keep a close eye on it

because obviously if it swells to a huge size and you don't harvest it in time,

it's going to get stuck in your tube!

But their quest for excellence had some seriously unpleasant consequences.

These fumigators were nicknamed widow makers, unfortunately,

because of the chemicals they were spraying. Things like arsenic

and nicotine were incredibly poisonous.

And the average life expectancy of a gardener back in that time

was probably not much beyond their late 30s or 40s.

Luckily, we've come a long way since then.

Now we're heading to North Yorkshire, where gardeners like Jo Campbell

are finding out how to turn old kitchen gardens

into new local ventures.

When we first arrived here,

the walled garden was derelict.

The wall fruit was unpruned and untrained.

The family wanted to grow veg and turn it back to a kitchen garden,

how it used to be.

So they set about restoring the garden.

It soon became apparent we were growing too many vegetables for the house

so we came up with idea that we'd sell the vegetables locally

and that's where I became involved in the project five years ago.

My interest really has always been in cookery,

with working and training as a chef.

I was used to seasonal fresh produce

and had an idea what local restaurants would like to use.

I had no previous knowledge of vegetable growing.

I've just bought lots of books, read, watched programmes,

looked in cookery books for inspiration.

The garden has developed from there, really.

I promote it as an ornamental walled kitchen garden,

not as a commercial venture.

So I'm looking at different planting combinations,

the different colours of leaves.

The gorgeous rich dark colour of the Bull's Blood beetroot

against the nice yellow beetroot.

Looking at companion planting, growing sweet peas with the runner beans

to attract pollinators, and it also looks really pretty.

My favourite part of the garden has to be the curly kale.

There are all different colours and textures of kale,

so there's the rich deep purple of the Redbor kale,

the bottle green of the Cavolo Nero kale,

and then the green curly kale.

I grow a nice dwarf variety

and through that I plant nasturtiums for companion planting.

Bugs love nasturtiums.

Hopefully the white fly will be attracted to the nasturtium

as opposed to my curly kale.

I also try to introduce lots of interest into the garden

produced by local craftspeople.

I use a local potter. He makes the ornamental terracotta cane tops.

So it's really important for me to try and stay as local as possible.

Both buying the products and selling the produce as well.

I want to supply the freshest produce picked at the perfect size.

I think vegetables should be displayed beautifully,

prepared well, weighed up and tied up in bundles.

Just seeing all the different colours and textures

and displaying them together and inspiring people.

'I like to get good feedback from customers, chefs,

'on flavours of the produce.'

Very nice, too. Thank you.

-Some Cavolo Nero.

-Brilliant.

-That's one of your favourites.

We'll do that with the deer dish and the gooseberries.

Jo, we've been working with her for a number of years.

I think it would be five or six years. She approached us.

A lot of produce, with it being so seasonal, so different,

it's very colourful, brilliant stuff.

As soon as she turned up, we had to have it whatever.

We were going to use it somehow, somewhere.

People like to know where things are coming from nowadays.

And we're in such a brilliant area here, the top of the Vale of York,

it's a good growing area, the soil's very good, very rich.

It reads well on our menus.

OK!

'I just love every aspect.'

It's a way of life, really.

Everything I do is related to gardening and vegetables.

I get involved with meeting interesting people,

artists, chefs, local crafts people.

It's just a fantastic opportunity,

and it's extremely satisfying.

And we're staying with kitchen gardens,

but this time we're learning the best way to plant an interesting variety of K for kale.

And Knightshayes Court supervisor Lorraine Colgroup

is giving Carole Klein the low-down on how best to plant it.

This is a local kale, called Taunton Dean,

and the locals would have had these in their gardens

and it would give them kale all year round.

It's very interesting. It has no viable seed.

Right. Not a flower in sight. How old are these?

These are four years old, and I've never seen any flowers on them.

If there's no flower, there's no seeds. How do you propagate it?

Well, you have to take a piece from it.

Here's a suitable piece. Let's pull it down. Here we go.

You pull a piece off. You've got a bit of a heel there.

Yeah, you've got a tree! A cabbage tree!

A big piece. For growing, you don't want it to have so many leaves.

Just snick them off like that.

All you want is the growing leaf.

I'm very careful up round here. I'll take that one off.

So when you put it in the ground,

you put it in at least half way up.

Up to about there I would think on this one.

Denude it!

And there you go.

It'll concentrate on making root

and will all these side shoots come...

You can actually see the new leaves beginning to come out from there.

That will be your nice bushy new plant.

Yes, they really are architecturally beautiful.

Lovely plants.

How long till a piece like this takes root?

It does take a while. Probably two or three months.

I live in a cottage, too, so I can have my own Cottager's Kale!

Now, after that unusual vegetable,

it's time to get our hands dirty with a flower

with a very suggestive name!

Our next K is for Knautia,

It's easy to grow and Alice Fowler can't recommend it highly enough.

Now, this garden's looking a bit bare

and I need to find a plant that will flower its socks off

continuously all summer long

in a complimentary palate

to these sweet peas which are the Geoff Hamilton, Percy Thrower,

Alan Titchmarsh and Monty Don

which are all in a pink to dark pink palate.

So what I've done is got hold of some Knautia Macedonica.

This looks very similar to a scabious

and it comes from the Balkans.

It is just a fantastic plant. If you buy one thing in the summer, buy this,

because whatever the weather,

it will flower its socks off continuously all summer long.

It's really value for money.

It's a lovely deep, dark, pinky purple

so it will be very complimentary.

So I'm just going to dot it around.

And to bulk up supplies, I have a friend who has a pastel pink version in his garden,

and it's self-seeded itself all over the place

so I've managed to get a few off him.

Knautia likes to grow in full sun to partial shade

and it's particularly drought-tolerant,

so it's good if you've got a little baked back garden.

They're such healthy, strong-growing happy plants

that you really just shove them in the ground and give them a water

and I guarantee they'll be off.

I also guarantee they will self-seed themselves all over your garden,

so you'll have plenty of these to come.

It's no bad thing, cos you can give them away to friends.

And one good tip.

Never dead-head knautias,

as you'll remove the flower's ability to self-seed.

Now we stay with flowers

as our next K is for Kniphofia.

Monty Don explains what it is and how best to plant it.

The last plant I'm going to put in

is a Kniphofia.

Kniphofia Gladness.

And I want these to link the jewel garden

with these beds.

Because if you've got two separate pieces of garden,

or just two separate borders,

it's no good having a dramatic change from one to the other.

You need some continuity

so that the eye can easily make that transition

and also so they can mingle.

It's not a separate garden, just a separate idea.

These kniphofias work perfectly for both.

They come from south and central Africa

and are named after a Dr Hieronymus Kniphof

and really we should call them Kniphofias.

They're beautiful.

You don't just get red hot pokers.

You can get them in every shade of yellow and orange

that will take you right through the summer into autumn.

You can see here that I've got little offshoots coming.

So next year or the year after, I can divide that

and I'll get two free plants.

That gives us an instant flair of colour.

That'll be picked up by the coneflowers and the daisies

and carried right through into autumn.

You don't need a big garden to do this.

Just a small patch of ground, you can get the idea of that and translate it

and it all works.

It will work really well on any scale.

Thanks, Monty.

Now, a plant that could be seen as exotic

but actually, it grows well in this country

and produces wonderful fruit.

This K is for kiwi

and here's James Wong putting it to good use.

Loads of nurseries sell kiwi plants.

Go for a hardy self-fertile variety

like Jenny.

Growing a kiwi in the UK is really basic.

All you need to do is plant it against a south-facing wall

so it benefits from that extra heat in summer.

They'll survive anything the UK winters can throw at them.

Give it a decent bit of space.

I'm going to put some hooks and wires on this

just so it can scramble its way up.

In just three to four years,

you'll end up with a plant that'll be covered in fruit every autumn.

I want to show students Casey and Zoe

how to turn kiwis and papayas into a natural face mask.

I'm going to show you how to make a natural chemical peel

but instead of using stuff you get from a lab,

I'm going to use the fruit we've got in front of us.

-We're going to apply it in a face mask.

-Wow.

-Fantastic.

I'm going to start off with your star ingredient, kiwi.

Kiwis are full of stuff called alpha hydroxy acid.

You might have heard of it in poncey beauty commercials!

-What does that do?

-Basically, it's a chemical exfoliant.

They get rid of all the dull stuff on top

and let the younger stuff shine through.

'Mash two kiwis through a sieve to get rid of all the seeds.'

It's a good work-out!

If I was making it just for me, would one kiwi be enough?

Half a kiwi. You can pay an awful lot for those individual packets of face mask.

And this is a slice of fruit you'd probably throw away with the rind anyway.

So it's almost cost free.

I was going to say I'd probably eat what was left!

Waste not, want not!

'Squeeze the juice of two limes into the bowl with the mashed kiwi.'

There's not much juice in these!

As if making face masks isn't enough of an insult to my masculinity,

I can't squeeze a lime now!

'Take a papaya, scoop out the flesh,

'mash, press through a sieve into a separate bowl.'

All I'm going to add now is a gelling agent.

It's vegetable gelatin you can buy in any supermarket

where you have cake mixes and stuff.

What that'll do - this stuff is great, but it's in such a liquid form, it would drip off your face.

It wouldn't stick and start doing the work.

I have some of this at home, making cheesecake.

It's exactly the same stuff.

'Stir the vegetable gelatin into the papaya

'and heat gently in a bowl over boiling water.

'As it starts to thicken, it'll form a gel-like consistency

'and then it's ready.'

Ooh. Ooh, ouch!

Still quite hot, as you can see!

'Pour the kiwi juice gradually onto the papaya,

'whisking all the time so the mixture doesn't set.'

Do you wear these face masks?

I have done before, but mainly to test them out, obviously!

'When it's all mixed in and cool enough to touch,

'it's ready to apply.'

Do you want to take the plunge and have a go at it?

OK. Oh, it feels quite funny.

It's nice if it's warm, actually.

-I'd put it on warm.

-Yeah.

It's really smooth, as well. Goes on really easily.

You can leave this on for anything from about ten minutes to even an hour.

The chemicals in them will break down some of the cells but in a very, very mild way.

So it's not the kind of thing you have to quickly get off.

'As it's made from fresh ingredients,

'it's best applied immediately, or will keep in the fridge for up to two days.'

So go and have fun with them!

-There you are.

-Thank you!

-Thank you!

It's time to move away from the garden and head for the shed.

Alan Titchmarsh and Monty Don are our guides for our next K, for kit.

And we start with Monty on hedge trimming.

One thing I have learnt over the years

is that A, you need to use the best kit you can find and afford,

and B, and perhaps more importantly,

no one piece of kit does it all.

I've got lots of different hedges of different heights and purposes

and you need to use different tools to get the best from them.

These really tall hedges need an extended arm.

These came out about ten years ago, I think.

They transformed my life

because you can stand on the ground and do most of it from ground level,

whereas before there was trellises and the whole thing was a caper.

So this...

..has got a really chunky, heavy-duty battery

which lasts for about 40 minutes

which is the time it takes for the second battery to charge up.

If you buy this with a spare battery, you can keep going all day long

and keep changing the batteries.

The beauty of this is it's lighter, it's not very noisy.

You still need to wear eye protectors.

And this box, which has been growing out,

which I want to become rough topiary

is a perfect example of where this solid, heavy-duty electrical machine works.

A rough shape on that.

This is the start of the process of making this into topiary.

And it copes with really quite thick branches.

But if you see, it's got... I'll take the battery out to make it safe.

You can see here that there's really quite thick gaps between the teeth.

And to do fine work like this box hedge, that's too crude and it tends to crush them.

If you have a finer one like this...

This is another electrical machine,

very, very light and much finer teeth.

The disadvantage is you've got to plug it in,

and in a garden like this, it means yards and yards of wire,

and if it rains that's no good and I'm forever cutting through it.

But very good for doing fine work.

Mind you, the simplest thing of all, and the most old-fashioned, is often the best.

A good old pair of garden shears.

This pair, heavy-duty, I could easily cut that hedge with it.

It would be hard work but it would work and it would be much cheaper.

You can buy really good ones for about 50 quid

and they'll last you years and years.

And if you're feeling a bit expansive,

you can get ones like this - Japanese shears,

designed for topiary.

They're razor-sharp. They're about twice the price of the other ones,

but about half the price of the cheapest of my hedge-cutters.

What they do it they just give you an exact edge.

So if you want to make topiary, say we take this bit here,

I can shape that and get it perfect,

down to an individual leaf.

Whatever hedges you've got,

what I would say is, just consider the most suitable bit of kit for it.

Buy the best that you can afford

and that will save you a lot of work, a lot of time,

and in everything but the very shortest time, a lot of money, too.

Because good kit always lasts.

Thanks, Monty.

And now, as promised, here's Alan Titchmarsh.

Secateurs, for pruning and snipping.

You do not need to spend a fortune on them.

30 or 40 quid? Ridiculous.

Pay a tenner, and if it has a replaceable blade like this,

you can keep it sharp and replace when it's blunt.

So, the trusty trowel.

A little bit more expensive.

But it is tough. You can't try it over your knee at the garden centre,

but make sure it doesn't bend easily.

Comfortable handle, and that will last you for years.

The rake, for levelling soil.

Make sure the head's built in one section.

It's stronger that way.

And the hoe for slicing off annual weeds.

As with the rake, a smooth handle is a must.

The two most important tools in the shed.

First, the fork.

Use it for moving manure, digging it into your soil.

It's the one tool I wouldn't give up.

This one has a lovely comfortable D handle.

But it's quite a big implement.

Do not be embarrassed to get one of these instead.

A border fork.

It's lighter. You'll be able to dig for much longer.

And finally, the gardener's emblem, the spade.

For planting just about everything.

This was my granddad's.

Don't think you've got to spend a fortune on tools.

You can pick them up cheaply. Farm sales, junk shops, you can find a fork for a fiver.

It's been well run in. And if, like me,

you can get your granddad's spade...

As well as it being silky smooth,

I also know that every time I dig with it,

I'm digging with an implement that the man who inspired me to garden also dug with.

It's really special.

Now, a blast from the past that's trying to predict what kit would be essential in the future.

This gem from Tomorrow's World

has Robert Simms marvelling at some watering equipment,

that in 1988 would have made your neighbours green with envy!

It's a garden sprinkler that moves round the flower beds in a pre-programmed path.

The water makes the head rotate

and that motion drives the wheels

by means of these gears.

The bit of lateral thinking that I like

is this guidance wheel down here.

It sits on the hosepipe.

So all you need to do is lay the pipe along the bed you want watering.

And then the sprinkler will simply follow the hose back through a path.

Well, job's nearly done.

Certainly beats wandering around with a hosepipe!

Ah!

Roll on the summer!

Now, time to put the kit away and move on to our next pick.

We're at K for knot gardens.

We're joining David Dimbleby as he visits a typical Elizabethan garden.

Across the Peak District

and up into Cheshire,

is a house and garden whose design is intricately woven together.

Here at Little Moreton Hall

is a very rare and perfect example

of an Elizabethan knot garden.

These geometric shapes made from tightly clipped box.

In the middle of it, this four-leafed clover pattern...

..which is clever because it exactly copies the pattern on the house.

Knot gardens are made to look like a knotted piece of string

with the hedge woven under and over itself.

Hello.

What's the idea behind a knot garden?

The concept was to try and bring some of the house

out into the garden.

So as you can see in here,

the walls are yew hedging

and you can look down into this room from the upstairs there.

-Why the gravel in the middle?

-To set out the path.

-Would they have had gravel?

-Yes. It was purely ornamental.

Sometimes they used coloured gravels if it was available.

It's interesting. It's the exact opposite of what we think of as little gardens today.

With flowers, and informal beds and this and that.

This is very, very...

..very formal. Do you think it satisfied them?

-I think so, yes.

-Did they walk around in it?

Just take gentle walks round on the grass.

-Oh, they walked on the grass?

-Oh, yes.

-You don't walk inside the knot.

-No.

Oh. So I'm in the wrong place, really.

-Really, yes.

-Oh.

If it was anybody else, I'd be telling you off now!

Do you get bored, just doing the same thing, year after year?

-No, it's quite therapeutic.

-Is it?

-I think so, anyway.

Don't you want to go mad and change the shape?

Ooh, no. No, heaven forbid!

We're back at Kew, and as we reach the end of today's programme,

we're rejoining Dan Cruickshank

to find out how plant gatherers of today

are helping to safeguard the planet's future.

Kew's teams are still collecting seeds from all over the world.

Once, collectors collected for the glory of the king.

Then for the profit of the empire.

And now, in these very different times,

they're concerned with the environment and species extinction.

And here, in Kew's Wakehurst Place,

a new collection has begun.

This bomb-proof bunker, designed to stand for 1,000 years,

is the first phase of the collection of the seeds of every species of plant on the planet.

Dr Paul Smith is head of Kew's Millennium Seed Bank.

Ooh! How cold is it in here?

It's minus 20. But with the wind from the fans,

it's minus 40 degrees Celsius.

Wow. You can feel it biting, can't you, biting through?

How long can you stay in here when you're working here?

30 minutes maximum.

It slows your metabolism right down

and you need to be out of here before too long.

-It slows down ageing, doesn't it, which is handy!

-It does, yes!

I might spend some time here!

Tell me the aims of these cold rooms.

There are over 23,000 plant species here.

Over 1.3 billion seeds stored here.

By next year, we'll have ten per cent of all the world's plant species represented

and by 2020 a quarter, 25%.

Absolutely astonishing! This is such an important space.

You can really re-seed the world, to a degree, from this room.

If something awful happened.

What we try to encourage people to do is not think of these as a billion seeds,

but to think of them as a billion plants.

That's what they have the potential to be.

Good heavens. Absolutely amazing.

How will this repository of seeds be used in the future?

That depends on our need.

But the key thing is, if we have the seeds,

then we have options for their use.

We might want to use one of these species in horticulture.

It might be a new food crop.

It may be a forage species for wild animals and livestock to eat.

It gives us options.

So this really is such an important room

in terms of Kew's function globally.

It's incredible, really.

We see this as the world bank.

The world bank for seeds.

-It's there for everyone to use.

-Yes.

In these seeds are the answers to problems mankind has not yet begun to encounter

in a time of mass habitat destruction and shifting weather patterns.

This is the last-ditch safeguard against extinction of all plants

for the benefit of the future of mankind

and the planet.

We'll leave you with that message of hope

and hope you'll join us next time for some more planting tips

on The A to Z of TV Gardening.

Goodbye!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd