0:00:02 > 0:00:04Hello and welcome to The A to Z of TV Gardening,
0:00:04 > 0:00:06where we sift through your favourite garden programmes
0:00:06 > 0:00:09and dig up a bumper crop of tips and advice
0:00:09 > 0:00:12from the best experts in the business.
0:00:28 > 0:00:33Everything we're looking at today begins with the letter K.
0:00:35 > 0:00:40And this time we're learning the best way to plant an interesting
0:00:40 > 0:00:42variety of K, for kale.
0:00:42 > 0:00:45Knightshayes Court supervisor Lorraine Colgroup
0:00:45 > 0:00:50is giving Carole Klein the low-down on how best to plant it.
0:00:50 > 0:00:53So, this is a local kale, called Taunton Dean,
0:00:53 > 0:00:57and the locals would have had these in their gardens
0:00:57 > 0:00:59and it would give them kale all year round.
0:00:59 > 0:01:02It's very interesting. It has no viable seed.
0:01:02 > 0:01:05Right. Not a flower in sight. How old are these?
0:01:05 > 0:01:08These are four years old, and I've never seen any flowers on them.
0:01:08 > 0:01:12If there's no flower, there's no seeds. How do you propagate it?
0:01:12 > 0:01:15Well, you have to take a piece from it.
0:01:15 > 0:01:19Here's a suitable piece. Let's pull it down. Here we go.
0:01:19 > 0:01:22You pull a piece off. You've got a bit of a heel there.
0:01:22 > 0:01:26Yeah, you've got a tree! A cabbage tree!
0:01:26 > 0:01:30A big piece. For growing, you don't want it to have so many leaves.
0:01:30 > 0:01:33Just snick them off like that.
0:01:33 > 0:01:35All you want is the growing leaf.
0:01:35 > 0:01:38I'm very careful up round here. I'll take that one off.
0:01:38 > 0:01:40So when you put it in the ground,
0:01:40 > 0:01:43you put it in at least halfway up.
0:01:43 > 0:01:46Up to about there, I would think, on this one.
0:01:46 > 0:01:47Denude it!
0:01:47 > 0:01:49And there you go.
0:01:49 > 0:01:51It'll concentrate on making root
0:01:51 > 0:01:54and will all these side shoots produce...
0:01:54 > 0:01:57You can actually see the new leaves beginning to come out from there.
0:01:57 > 0:02:00That will be your nice bushy new plant.
0:02:00 > 0:02:05- Yes, they really are architecturally beautiful.- Yes. Lovely plants.
0:02:05 > 0:02:07How long would a piece like this take to root?
0:02:07 > 0:02:11It does take a while. Probably two or three months.
0:02:11 > 0:02:15I live in a cottage, too, so I can have my own Cottager's Kale!
0:02:20 > 0:02:23Now, after that unusual vegetable,
0:02:23 > 0:02:25it's time to get our hands dirty with a flower
0:02:25 > 0:02:28with a very suggestive name!
0:02:28 > 0:02:30Our next K is for Knautia,
0:02:30 > 0:02:34It's easy to grow and Alice Fowler can't recommend it highly enough.
0:02:34 > 0:02:37Now, this garden's looking a bit bare
0:02:37 > 0:02:41and I need to find a plant that will flower its socks off
0:02:41 > 0:02:43continuously all summer long
0:02:43 > 0:02:45in a complementary palate
0:02:45 > 0:02:49to these sweet peas which are the Geoff Hamilton, Percy Thrower,
0:02:49 > 0:02:50Alan Titchmarsh and Monty Don
0:02:50 > 0:02:53which are all in a pink to dark pink palate.
0:02:53 > 0:02:58So what I've done is got hold of some Knautia Macedonica.
0:02:58 > 0:03:01This looks very similar to a scabious
0:03:01 > 0:03:03and it comes from the Balkans.
0:03:03 > 0:03:07It is just a fantastic plant. If you buy one thing in the summer, buy this,
0:03:07 > 0:03:09because whatever the weather,
0:03:09 > 0:03:12it will flower its socks off continuously all summer long.
0:03:12 > 0:03:15It's really value for money.
0:03:15 > 0:03:20It's a lovely deep, dark, pinky purple
0:03:20 > 0:03:23so it will be very complementary.
0:03:23 > 0:03:25So I'm just going to dot it around.
0:03:26 > 0:03:30And to bulk up supplies, I have a friend who has
0:03:30 > 0:03:33a pastel pink version in his garden,
0:03:33 > 0:03:35and it's self-seeded itself all over the place
0:03:35 > 0:03:37so I've managed to get a few off him.
0:03:37 > 0:03:42Knautia likes to grow in full sun to partial shade
0:03:42 > 0:03:44and it's particularly drought-tolerant,
0:03:44 > 0:03:47so it's good if you've got a little baked back garden.
0:03:47 > 0:03:51They're such healthy, strong-growing happy plants
0:03:51 > 0:03:55that you really just shove them in the ground and give them a water
0:03:55 > 0:03:57and I guarantee they'll be off.
0:03:57 > 0:04:00I also guarantee they will self-seed themselves all over your garden,
0:04:00 > 0:04:03so you'll have plenty of these to come.
0:04:03 > 0:04:06It's no bad thing, cos you can give them away to friends.
0:04:13 > 0:04:14And one good tip.
0:04:14 > 0:04:16Never dead-head Knautias,
0:04:16 > 0:04:19as you'll remove the flower's ability to self-seed.
0:04:19 > 0:04:21Now we stay with flowers
0:04:21 > 0:04:25as our next K is for Kniphofia.
0:04:25 > 0:04:28Monty Don explains what it is and how best to plant it.
0:04:28 > 0:04:32The last plant I'm going to put in
0:04:32 > 0:04:34is a Kniphofia.
0:04:34 > 0:04:35Kniphofia Gladness.
0:04:35 > 0:04:39And I want these to link the jewel garden
0:04:39 > 0:04:41with these beds.
0:04:41 > 0:04:44Because if you've got two separate pieces of garden,
0:04:44 > 0:04:46or just two separate borders,
0:04:46 > 0:04:49it's no good having a dramatic change from one to the other.
0:04:49 > 0:04:51There's got to be some continuity
0:04:51 > 0:04:53so that the eye can easily make that transition
0:04:53 > 0:04:55and also so they can mingle.
0:04:55 > 0:04:58It's not a separate garden, just a separate idea.
0:04:58 > 0:05:01These Kniphofias work perfectly for both.
0:05:01 > 0:05:03They come from South and Central Africa
0:05:03 > 0:05:08and are named after a Dr Hieronymus Kniphof
0:05:08 > 0:05:10and really we should call them Kniphofias.
0:05:10 > 0:05:14They're beautiful. You don't just get red hot pokers.
0:05:14 > 0:05:17You can get them in every shade of yellow and orange
0:05:17 > 0:05:21that will take you right through the summer into autumn.
0:05:21 > 0:05:25You can see here that I've got little offshoots coming.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28So next year or the year after, I can divide that
0:05:28 > 0:05:30and I'll get two free plants.
0:05:37 > 0:05:39That gives us an instant flare of colour.
0:05:39 > 0:05:43That'll be picked up by the coneflowers and the daisies
0:05:43 > 0:05:45and carried right through into autumn.
0:05:45 > 0:05:47You don't need a big garden to do this.
0:05:47 > 0:05:51Just a small patch of ground, you can get the idea of that and translate it
0:05:51 > 0:05:54and it all works. It'll work really well on any scale.
0:05:54 > 0:05:56Thanks, Monty.
0:05:57 > 0:06:00Now, we're at K for knot gardens.
0:06:00 > 0:06:03and we're joining David Dimbleby as he visits
0:06:03 > 0:06:05a typical Elizabethan garden.
0:06:13 > 0:06:14Across the Peak District
0:06:14 > 0:06:16and up into Cheshire,
0:06:16 > 0:06:21is a house and garden whose design is intricately woven together.
0:06:25 > 0:06:27Here at Little Moreton Hall
0:06:27 > 0:06:29is a very rare and perfect example
0:06:29 > 0:06:31of an Elizabethan knot garden.
0:06:31 > 0:06:35These geometric shapes made from tightly clipped box.
0:06:35 > 0:06:39In the middle of it, this four-leafed clover pattern...
0:06:40 > 0:06:45..which is clever because it exactly copies the pattern on the house.
0:06:56 > 0:07:00Knot gardens are made to look like a knotted piece of string
0:07:00 > 0:07:04with the hedge woven under and over itself.
0:07:16 > 0:07:17Hello.
0:07:21 > 0:07:23What's the idea behind a knot garden?
0:07:23 > 0:07:27The concept was to try and bring some of the house
0:07:27 > 0:07:29out into the garden.
0:07:29 > 0:07:31So as you can see in here,
0:07:31 > 0:07:34the walls are yew hedging
0:07:34 > 0:07:39and you can look down into this room from the upstairs there.
0:07:43 > 0:07:46- Why the gravel in the middle? - To set out the pattern.
0:07:46 > 0:07:49- Would they have had gravel? - Yes. It was purely ornamental.
0:07:49 > 0:07:53Sometimes they used coloured gravels if it was available.
0:07:53 > 0:07:58It's interesting. It's the exact opposite of what we think of as little gardens today.
0:07:58 > 0:08:02With flowers, and informal beds and this and that.
0:08:02 > 0:08:04This is very, very...
0:08:06 > 0:08:08..very formal. Do you think it satisfied them?
0:08:08 > 0:08:11- I think so, yes. - Did they walk around in them?
0:08:11 > 0:08:14Just take gentle walks round on the grass.
0:08:14 > 0:08:16- Oh, they walked on the grass? - Oh, yes.
0:08:16 > 0:08:17- You don't walk inside the knot.- No.
0:08:17 > 0:08:20Oh. So I'm in the wrong place, really.
0:08:20 > 0:08:21- Really, yes.- Oh.
0:08:21 > 0:08:24If it was anybody else, I'd be telling you off now!
0:08:25 > 0:08:29Do you get bored, just doing the same thing, year after year?
0:08:29 > 0:08:33- No, it's quite therapeutic. - Is it?- I think so, anyway.
0:08:33 > 0:08:35Don't you want to go mad and change the shape?
0:08:35 > 0:08:38Ooh, no. No, heaven forbid!
0:09:02 > 0:09:05Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd