Letter N The A to Z of TV Gardening

Hello. Welcome to The A to Z of TV Gardening

where we sift through all your favourite gardening programmes

and dig up a bumper crop of tips and advice

from the best experts in the business.

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

First, let's look at a plant that we all love to hate.

Especially when the sunshine is out and you've slipped a pair of shorts on!

Our first N is for nettles.

If you're one of those gardeners who's scared of them stinging you,

James Wong is here to show that you can overcome that fear.

As an ethno-botanist, nettles are fascinating to me

because they've been used by so many cultures for so many different things.

From medicines to foods to textiles.

One thing I've never heard them being used for, however,

is for entertainment, but that's exactly what happens

at the World Nettle Eating championships

where they're eaten raw and stinging. And I'm taking part.

The championships held for the last 12 years at The Bottle Inn pub in Marshwood, Dorset

has attracted competitors from around the world.

However, it started from rather more humble beginnings.

The legend goes that two local farmers decided to settle a dispute

over who had the longest nettles on their land

and the loser would have to eat them.

From this, the championships were born.

But if I'm to stand any chance of succeeding, I'll need some help.

And who better to turn to for advice than one of today's judges and the current world record holder.

So, Simon, you're a true veteran. What do I need to do to prevent myself getting stung?

-Commitment.

-OK.

It's a psychological test for you.

-OK.

-OK. And to focus.

That's really important. So, pick a leaf and see how you get on.

-And stick it in my mouth?

-Stick it in your mouth.

OK. Ouch!

-When you go for that leaf, go with commitment.

-OK.

I'll show you. Pull it off so you've got the complete leaf there.

-OK.

-Give it a go.

-That's all kinds of manly.

-OK. No fear.

-That's half OK.

Now make a little parcel like that.

Put it between two fingers and put it in your mouth. Don't touch your lips.

Lips are very sensitive.

That's a lot easier than I was expecting! I didn't sleep last night because I was thinking about...

What flavours are you getting there?

Tastes a bit like cabbage. Watercress?

-Right.

-Stings your fingers more than it stings your tongue.

OK. You've got to hold that thought in your head, OK?

-OK.

-That's the happy thought you have to stick with.

-OK.

-When you get to the bigger leaves, which you'll have to eat

because there's no choice. You'll be given a two-foot length of nettle

and you've got to take all the leaves off that stalk

and put them in your mouth and eat them.

For my record, I actually ate 76 foot.

Which is 38 stalks.

-What are my chances?

-I think you did moderately well, shall we say.

A first timer, I reckon by the end of the timed hour,

if you've eaten ten stalks, that's 20 foot,

I'll be very impressed.

'So Simon has set me a challenge.

'Maybe a little ambitious, but I'll do my best.

'I've resigned myself to the fact that I'll get stung a lot today.

'But there's a good reason for these weeds being so defensive.

'Stinging nettles have evolved to protect themselves from being eaten by animals

'and each leaf contains a layer of hollow hairs

'which are similar to hypodermic needles.

'When they penetrate the skin, an acid is injected,

'causing painful stings lasting for a few minutes to up to 24 hours.'

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for turning up.

Please, competitors, join us up here. Please come on.

'I'm starting to feel quite nervous.'

Brace yourselves. Brace yourselves.

Five, four, three, two, one, and go!

'The aim is to eat as many nettles as you can in one hour.'

It's basically like a salad eating competition.

Except the salad bites back!

The more you eat, the more the dye from the nettles turns your tongue black.

I'm way behind. I've got a new technique, though. Check it out.

If you do that, they all come off pretty quickly.

So they're neater then.

So you can get clean stems, but you've also got to eat the damn things.

I'm going to do ten, cos that's the challenge Simon set for me.

-Five, four, three, two, one!

-That's it!

Hooray!

'Thank goodness that's over.

'I think it did pretty well. Hope the judge agrees!'

-You've got four.

-I should be proclaimed the winner!

-Six disqualified.

-Excellent.

So I think I've eaten about ten stems. Not bad going.

About 20 foot of them.

Except the judges don't consider any of these are good enough.

Because there are little bits of leaf left on them.

So I've only done four stems,

but that's eight foot high, taller than I am.

That's not bad. First timer. Never know, next time I may beat them.

Haven't even got a black tongue yet!

Today's joint winners, Mike Hobbs and Mel Lang

ate 46 feet of nettles each!

Astonishing!

I had a brilliant time today.

Even though I'm disappointed I had six stems disqualified.

Now coming up is an exotic plant

but it's one that can be seen growing in the wild in this country.

N is for Nymphaeaceae.

Water lilies, to you and me!

Monty Don will plant a few later on,

but first, here's Carol Klein with all you need to know.

They take their name from the Greek word for Nymphaea,

a water nymph, mythological creature,

who lived in rivers, streams, ponds, lakes.

It's these beautiful flowers

which inspired some of the most celebrated paintings in the world.

Claude Monet's Les Nympheas.

The Water Lilies.

Of course, his water lilies were in his pools and ponds at Giverny.

They were cultivated varieties.

But those lilies, and all our water lilies,

have their roots firmly in the wild.

You'd hardly believe that this exotic looking plant

is indigenous to the British Isles.

It's one of only a couple of species

that we have as wild flowers.

It's an extremely vigorous plant.

When it's left to its own devices,

it will just take over any stretch of water it can find

and cover it with these great green pads

and these exotic white flowers.

Think of water lilies and you imagine a whole array of colours

that goes far beyond yellow and white.

This is down to the life's work

of one passionate Frenchman.

Joseph Marliac devoted his life to the water lily.

Using wild species as his starting point,

he developed and hybridised over 110 new cultivars

in a kaleidoscopic range of colour.

Here at Bennett's Water Garden,

Jonathan Bennett knows all about how this incredible colour range was developed.

What did he start off with, then?

I believe he started off with the wild white alba lily.

-Yeah.

-And he also imported the Mexicana Yellow from South America.

I think that was the magic ingredient.

The plants that he got together there were capable of producing seed

in the climate he brought them together in.

It was in the south of France, a lovely warm climate.

Look at this! Isn't this beautiful!

Yeah.

You must love them, too, Jonathan.

Yes, I've been working with them for so many years now.

If you have to throw the plant away because it's in the wrong place, it's a weed,

you have to save the flower and pop it in water, cos it'll carry on opening for a few more days.

It's such a beautiful thing. There you go.

-It's a beautiful colour, isn't it?

-Such perfection.

What are their roots like?

Apart from being ugly?

The chunks of rhizome down there

and fine roots that spread right out through the mud.

In this situation, they're spreading miles away.

Bring in the food, extracting nutrients from the base.

And the leaves, they make a contribution, too.

They're the food factory of the plant.

The unique thing with aquatics is they're taking air down to the roots.

There's not much air down in the mud.

-And the stems have got these little...

-Tubes.

-That's it.

So it's not just photosynthesis.

It's dragging air in, as well.

Which one is this?

This is a Marliac one, too?

Yes. This one's called Hermine.

It's almost brilliant white

and it's grown for the unique thing about the star shape of the flower.

And lovely apple-green leaves.

Something tells me this is a special favourite of yours.

I've got this in my garden pond at home.

-That's a really good recommendation.

-Yes.

-And you've got the pick of how many?

-About 180 varieties! Yes.

-This is Escarboucle.

-Escarboucle. What a lovely name.

It's difficult to say. It's a slow grower

and it doesn't produce many side-shoots.

So therefore, it won't fill a pond up so quickly.

Joseph Marliac's breeding programme continued apace.

But he needed somewhere, a broader platform to exhibit what he'd achieved so far.

The opportunity arose when, towards the end of the century,

in 1889,

the World Fair was held in Paris.

He took his water lilies there and showed them off to huge public acclaim.

One of the people who saw them there

was the painter Claude Monet.

He fell in love with them.

He wanted to grow them, but more than that,

he wanted to paint them.

But just imagine what those paintings of Giverny would have been like

if it hadn't been for the work of Joseph Marliac

in creating this wonderful range of beautiful colours and forms.

In fact, they might have contained only white and yellow water lilies.

Thanks, Carol.

Now let's join Monty Don who's pulled on his waders

to tell us more about these wonderful aquatic flowers.

When I planted these water lilies...

..I set them up on layers of bricks

because the idea is to have the water lily foliage

just sitting on the surface.

If you've got deep water and a short plant,

it's obviously not going to happen. They'd be completely submerged.

So by jacking it up, that gives it a chance to get the maximum light

and then as they grow, you can lower them down.

If I lift this one up here,

you can see it's well clear of the water.

I could drop that by about six inches.

As long as one or two of the leaves are floating on the surface,

the others can be below the water level.

Now, the base of the pond is sloping and it's quite slippery.

So I don't want to go falling over,

which I'm sure would provide good entertainment.

But not the desired effect.

Leave that to one side.

I'll set it down there.

And then grovel around under the water

for bricks.

I put the bricks inside a plastic container

so they wouldn't fall over and damage the liner.

There are two.

Two more.

Right.

See, that leaf is floating on the surface

as is that one and just about that one.

So that's perfect.

Still one brick to take out

and then it'll be sitting on the bottom.

I don't have to do that this year. It can stay all winter, if need be.

If they don't grow any more.

But that now will encourage it go grow more and get more established and spread out.

And we've reached our final N today.

Would you Adam and Eve it?

That's a little cue to the subject matter!

Our final N is for Naked Gardening.

Here's Dominic Littlewood to reveal all!

Today is a day with a difference.

Because here in the heart of rural Wiltshire,

lies Abbey House Gardens.

And they're stunningly picturesque!

This was a Benedictine monastery 1,300 years ago.

So it's fair to say it's a historical and holy place.

But nowadays, once a month,

people come here to enjoy the scenery,

the gardens, have a picnic.

Throw their clothes off!

And not get told off for it!

It's a first for me!

Like me, you're probably asking yourself

why naked in the garden?

Let me tell you. It all started when naturists Ian and Barbara Pollard

bought Abbey House.

Being keen historians and gardeners,

they set about recreating this estate

to reflect the history of the site.

Tell me about the gardens.

We bought the place back in '94.

13 years. When we came there was nothing here.

The only bit of yew was that funny face. Not a bad resemblance!

Thanks a lot! OK. I can see where this is going!

I wanted to get the history of the place into the garden.

So we're walking along the side of my Celtic cross knot garden.

This is an open day with a difference, isn't it?

We've become known as the Naked Gardeners.

We found that naturists were emailing us saying, "If you garden naked,

"can we visit naked?" And we decided to offer one day a month

to allow people that opportunity.

What's the difference between a normal naturists' day and an open day?

A normal naturist event elsewhere

would be where everyone has to take their clothes off.

Here, it's entirely optional.

What could you do that would make me feel like getting my clothes off now?

We're not here to persuade you to take your clothes off at all.

What we are doing is giving you the opportunity.

-So I'm the odd one out with my clothes on!

-Afraid so!

You don't have to stay clothed.

I can't help feeling a bit awkward about letting people see me in my birthday suit.

Especially as it needs an iron!

You know what they say?

When in Rome, do what the Romans do.

That's what I did. I got butt-naked and mingled with the naturists.

Oi, do you mind?

I've got to be honest. I didn't enjoy it at all.

I felt very conscious of the fact

that I was looking at people, they were looking at me,

and I felt like covering myself up.

I can understand why Ian and Barbara do it,

but what I can't understand is why so many other people

travel so far to come and do it here.

-Where are you from?

-Coventry.

Everybody seems to be enjoying themselves, except me!

I never know quite where to look!

You find that people don't look anywhere apart from eye contact.

Most of the time. It's the feeling of freedom

that you can enjoy nature as nature intended.

I hope you don't mind me saying your hair looks like it's lost!

-Does it?

-It's all over your chest with none up there!

Why are you carrying towels with you?

At all naturist events, we carry towels.

We carry something to sit on.

Do you tell people at work about this?

-They'll all know now!

-They'll definitely know now, yes!

It's been a liberating experience, but I must be honest.

I'm not so sure I'll be rushing back to do it again soon.

One thing I have learnt, though.

This is not a place for voyeurs.

In fact, voyeurs are actively discouraged.

So if you don't have any hang-ups and want to get back to nature,

this could be for you.

Can I just interrupt. You haven't seen a pile of clothes anywhere?

No, sorry.

-Can I borrow one of your towels?

-No, bring your own!

Thanks a lot(!)

Well, he's shown everything he's got there!

And so have we, for today.

Do join us next time for more top tips on The A to Z of TV Gardening.

Goodbye!

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