0:00:02 > 0:00:04Hello and welcome to The A To Z Of TV Gardening.
0:00:04 > 0:00:06We're digging up the best advice
0:00:06 > 0:00:09from all your favourite programmes and presenters,
0:00:09 > 0:00:12so join me as, letter after letter, one by one,
0:00:12 > 0:00:17we explore everything from flowers and trees to fruit and veg.
0:00:33 > 0:00:35We're starting with a real treat,
0:00:35 > 0:00:41a very rare look at some of the most famous and exclusive gardens in the world
0:00:41 > 0:00:44because our first Q is for the Queen's Gardens.
0:00:44 > 0:00:48Back in 2004, Her Majesty granted Monty Don
0:00:48 > 0:00:53and the Gardeners' World team a special "access all areas" pass
0:00:53 > 0:00:55to the open spaces of Buckingham Palace,
0:00:55 > 0:00:58so let's enjoy what they found.
0:01:34 > 0:01:41Buckingham Palace Garden in the heart of central London is flanked by St James's and Green Park,
0:01:41 > 0:01:45both originally hunting grounds for the monarchy.
0:01:45 > 0:01:48The garden occupies an area of 39 acres.
0:01:49 > 0:01:53The Serpentine Lake is at the heart of the garden
0:01:53 > 0:01:58with a lawn the size of five football pitches running down to it.
0:02:00 > 0:02:03The lake has been enlarged a number of times
0:02:03 > 0:02:08and in the dig of 1827, some of the spoil was used to enlarge this mound
0:02:08 > 0:02:11that was created to hide the garden from the Royal Mews.
0:02:11 > 0:02:16The Buckingham Palace Rose Garden was originally laid out in the 1960s
0:02:16 > 0:02:19by the celebrated rose grower Harry Wheatcroft
0:02:19 > 0:02:23and has been continually updated, often with commemorative roses.
0:02:23 > 0:02:27This is Royal William, Rose of the Year in 1987.
0:02:29 > 0:02:32Silver Jubilee flowers all summer long.
0:02:36 > 0:02:40The Queen Elizabeth has been going strong since 1954.
0:02:41 > 0:02:46And Gracious Queen was launched at Chelsea for the Golden Jubilee.
0:02:50 > 0:02:53And species roses, always a favourite with the Queen Mother,
0:02:53 > 0:02:57still thrive around the Admiralty Summer House.
0:03:00 > 0:03:06One of the oldest residents in the garden you'll find dotted around in the grass and it's this -
0:03:06 > 0:03:13the chamomile, which was first recorded in the 17th century and has been here continuously ever since.
0:03:15 > 0:03:19In more recent times, a sandpit, swing and slide were added
0:03:19 > 0:03:22for the young Prince Charles and Princess Anne.
0:03:22 > 0:03:26The swing and slide have gone, but the sandpit is still there,
0:03:26 > 0:03:29its wooden cover now hosting a colony of lichens.
0:03:31 > 0:03:33There's also a tennis court.
0:03:33 > 0:03:38King George VI was a keen tennis player, even competing at Wimbledon.
0:03:38 > 0:03:41Today, the court is used by Palace staff.
0:03:41 > 0:03:45And like anybody trying to encourage wildlife into the garden,
0:03:45 > 0:03:48the Queen has her own royal bird table.
0:03:54 > 0:03:56BIRDS SING
0:04:05 > 0:04:10'One of the highlights for most of the guests is the herbaceous border.
0:04:10 > 0:04:13'Over 150 metres long and five metres deep,
0:04:13 > 0:04:15'it peaks in July.
0:04:15 > 0:04:19'One man who knows royal gardens better than most
0:04:19 > 0:04:23'is writer and garden historian Sir Roy Strong.'
0:04:23 > 0:04:28I suppose the first thing is how does a herbaceous border fit
0:04:28 > 0:04:31into the gardening tradition, let alone a palace one?
0:04:31 > 0:04:35The herbaceous border, Monty, was really a mid-Victorian invention.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38The great reformer William Robinson,
0:04:38 > 0:04:42who wrote The English Flower Garden, then his pupil was Gertrude Jekyll,
0:04:42 > 0:04:46and the apogee of this form of gardening was really before 1914
0:04:46 > 0:04:50with the relationship of Sir Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll,
0:04:50 > 0:04:54mass planting of herbaceous plants in a kind of symphony of colour,
0:04:54 > 0:04:59ascending at the back to tall things like delphiniums which we can see here,
0:04:59 > 0:05:02and, believe it or not, banana trees.
0:05:02 > 0:05:06I suppose you can say they're a symbol of a vanished empire,
0:05:06 > 0:05:11plants from all around the globe gathered into this fantastic border here.
0:05:11 > 0:05:13Then it's like so many other things.
0:05:13 > 0:05:18Once they cross the Channel and they arrive here, we think they're English.
0:05:18 > 0:05:23They're part of our multicultural identity or diversity now.
0:05:31 > 0:05:36It's nice to see sweet peas because they always make me think of the late Queen Mother,
0:05:36 > 0:05:38who absolutely loved sweet peas,
0:05:38 > 0:05:44and all her houses were decorated in sweet pea colours and she always dressed in sweet pea colours.
0:05:44 > 0:05:49- I think that's... - Do you think that's deliberate, a sort of family...?
0:05:49 > 0:05:53It's possible. It's a kind of memory of a much-loved person.
0:05:53 > 0:05:59I mean, do remember that the royal family and the Queen live in there
0:05:59 > 0:06:02and it does give her something wonderful to look down on.
0:06:02 > 0:06:08Then also the border screens, what, if I remember rightly, is a little private walk
0:06:08 > 0:06:11because any royal person leads such an exposed life.
0:06:11 > 0:06:18I understand that Her Majesty takes the corgis for a walk behind there, which I find absolutely enchanting.
0:06:25 > 0:06:29And I do like to see delphiniums that are huge.
0:06:29 > 0:06:35I think this trend of breeding dwarf delphiniums seems to be losing the very essence of the plant,
0:06:35 > 0:06:39- and to see enormous...- They're quite a fierce blue, aren't they?
0:06:39 > 0:06:41Yes, I don't mind that.
0:06:42 > 0:06:45And what is unusual about this border...
0:06:45 > 0:06:49There's great attention to flower and leaf shape and height.
0:06:49 > 0:06:54But there's less attention to colour. Some of the colour is quite aggressive.
0:06:54 > 0:06:59If I had to be critical of this, I think it's planted but not designed.
0:06:59 > 0:07:04But in a funny sort of way, the fact that this arrived in the post-war period...
0:07:04 > 0:07:09All through the 20th century, you've seen the democratisation of the monarchy,
0:07:09 > 0:07:12then more and more accessibility of the monarchy,
0:07:12 > 0:07:18and the monarchy in a way responds to that and you can say this is almost a gardening response
0:07:18 > 0:07:23because here on a mega scale is what most people have in their back gardens.
0:07:23 > 0:07:25They have a border, a mixed border,
0:07:25 > 0:07:29but here at the Palace, boy, you have a mega mixed border!
0:07:29 > 0:07:35I like that kind of relationship because people can really relate to going along and looking...
0:07:35 > 0:07:39A lot of the plants, like the dahlias and the delphiniums, everybody grows those,
0:07:39 > 0:07:42so I think there's a very good statement
0:07:42 > 0:07:46about the dialogue of monarch and people said through the border.
0:08:10 > 0:08:14As garden ponds go, the lake here at Buckingham Palace is huge, three acres,
0:08:14 > 0:08:21but at no point is it very deep. The deepest point is about five foot, which comes up to my chest.
0:08:21 > 0:08:27It's great for wading birds, but its history is also connected with its shallowness.
0:08:27 > 0:08:31This was the wettest part of the garden, almost swampy,
0:08:31 > 0:08:37so the lake was made simply to drain it. In Victorian times, people complained it attracted malaria,
0:08:37 > 0:08:40that it was stagnant and shallow.
0:08:40 > 0:08:44But it was deepened out, the spoil was used to make the mound,
0:08:44 > 0:08:50and the lake as we see it has been pretty much the same for the last 150 years.
0:08:50 > 0:08:54Beyond there, you can see the trees that are on the island,
0:08:54 > 0:09:01an island on a lake in a large garden in a city, the supreme urban haven for wildlife.
0:09:01 > 0:09:07The intention throughout the whole area is to preserve that naturalistic feel and make an environment
0:09:07 > 0:09:12for animals and insects to prosper. Along the edge, you wouldn't expect to see this fringe
0:09:12 > 0:09:17of grasses and reeds, but ideal cover for insects and birds.
0:09:17 > 0:09:23And as you face it, you can be forgiven for thinking that this is a country lake
0:09:23 > 0:09:25or part of St James's Park.
0:09:25 > 0:09:33It's not until you turn away and go back towards the house that you remember where you really are.
0:09:40 > 0:09:46I'm always fascinated by the working areas of any garden, so it's back to the yard,
0:09:46 > 0:09:51past the potting shed, and round the corner is the greenhouse for the Palace.
0:09:51 > 0:09:55It's 28 metres long and a really good example
0:09:55 > 0:09:59of an Edwardian - built in 1900 - lean-to greenhouse.
0:09:59 > 0:10:04It's got the painted timber and cast-ironwork and lovely mechanisms
0:10:04 > 0:10:07for opening the louvres in the window.
0:10:07 > 0:10:11And, in its own way, it's grand, but this is a 40-acre garden.
0:10:11 > 0:10:17You might think that they would need acres of greenhouses to service all their needs,
0:10:17 > 0:10:23but that's to miss the point of what this garden is. This is a town garden.
0:10:23 > 0:10:29And town gardens didn't have all the elements of gardens that you would get in the country.
0:10:29 > 0:10:35Very few had vegetable areas or greenhouses with peaches and apricots and grapes or what have you.
0:10:35 > 0:10:40The people that owned the houses in London would also have country houses
0:10:40 > 0:10:46and they would be brought up by train every morning - asparagus and peaches
0:10:46 > 0:10:51and flowers for the table, coming in from their country estates.
0:10:51 > 0:10:57Buckingham Palace is no different. To this day, if they want flowers and vegetables and fruit,
0:10:57 > 0:11:03it all comes from Windsor, where it's grown. So this greenhouse is a much more intimate affair.
0:11:03 > 0:11:08It's used for housing some tender plants, gifts that can't be put outside.
0:11:08 > 0:11:11And a little bit of propagation.
0:11:11 > 0:11:15But there are details that I love and you won't find anywhere else.
0:11:15 > 0:11:19For example, look at that. A pot, monogrammed ER.
0:11:19 > 0:11:22That's, of course, Elizabeth Regina.
0:11:22 > 0:11:26And it can do better than that. Some of the pots date back further.
0:11:26 > 0:11:31Now if I get down on my hands and knees,
0:11:31 > 0:11:36under here we've got the pots ready for use,
0:11:36 > 0:11:39crocks to get drainage from broken pots,
0:11:39 > 0:11:44stacked out in sizes. And we can see - here we are -
0:11:44 > 0:11:48ER, ER, ER on those pots.
0:11:48 > 0:11:53So those have obviously been made since the Queen came to the throne in 1952.
0:11:53 > 0:11:56But there are older pots as well.
0:11:56 > 0:12:00Here we have one at the back with what looks like GP
0:12:00 > 0:12:04but in fact is GR. The bottom bit hasn't come out properly.
0:12:04 > 0:12:09That's either her father, George VI, or possibly George V.
0:12:09 > 0:12:13I suppose it could be George IV, but that's a bit unlikely.
0:12:13 > 0:12:16However, there is a pot here just on the side.
0:12:16 > 0:12:21And if you turn it round you can see...
0:12:22 > 0:12:25VR - Victoria Regina.
0:12:25 > 0:12:31Whilst this greenhouse isn't the biggest around, the plants aren't the most special,
0:12:31 > 0:12:36what I love is the way that the history and succession from monarch to monarch
0:12:36 > 0:12:40is evident in even the tiniest details in this garden.
0:12:47 > 0:12:51Really beautiful and such a treat to visit the Queen's gardens.
0:12:51 > 0:12:58And with that we've reached the end of today's programme. Join us next time on the A to Z of TV Gardening.
0:12:58 > 0:12:59Goodbye!