Letter B The A to Z of TV Gardening

Welcome to the A To Z Of TV Gardening,

where we sift through gardening 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 B.

'Here's what's coming up.'

'A gardener's nightmare -

'how Alys Fowler overcame losing most of her crop to hail.'

No. It's not.

It's not typical weather and it's not fair.

'The berry on everyone's tip of the tongue.'

-Blueberry.

-Blueberries.

-Blueberries, yeah.

-Blueberries.

-Blueberries?

-Blueberries.

-Blueberry, of course.

'And Matt Baker is topping up on some beetroot wine.'

That goes down very well.

You could easily drink a large quantity of that!

I'm thinking about it!

'Just some of the treats we have in store.'

We start with a unique show of colour from a native flower

that usually arrives in April

after a burst of sunshine followed by showers.

'Our first B is for bluebells

'and Mike Dilger has found one of the best displays in the country.'

Now, there are lots of wildlife spectacles

which we share with other countries,

but there's one that is uniquely British.

It's a spectacle on a scale you will see nowhere else in the world.

I'm with Fraser Bradbury from the Forestry Commission.

-Fraser, shall we show them?

-I think we should.

-Look at this.

# Slow, uh-huh-huh, slow me down

# Slow, uh-huh-huh, slow me down...

'This is West Woods, near Marlborough in Wiltshire,

'reputedly one of the very best bluebell bonanzas.'

There are bluebells for as far as the eye can see -

front, left, back, forward. It is 100 per cent blue, Fraser.

-You must be very proud.

-I am, it's a sea of blue

and it's here because we manage these woodlands for the bluebells.

-How many?

-How many bluebells?!

I'm only halfway through counting!

I would say probably millions, we might even be approaching billions.

Well, we've got maybe 300 hectares of bluebells here,

so it's quite a large site.

And it's over so fleetingly, isn't it?

The great thing about West Woods

is different times you get different aspects,

so the bluebells will be out in one area but not in another,

so you can walk through this wood and see bluebells beginning of May,

middle May, end of May.

'Some liken the spectacle to a cathedral

'with a wonderful carpet of flowers below.'

'Certainly visitors, who come from near and far,

'are awed by the dazzling display.'

Absolutely gob-smacking.

I came here with the Ramblers Association in Bath

about five years ago

and, ever since, I've been bringing friends back to show them

because everybody has their favourite bluebell wood,

but nothing matches this place.

We came because it was recommended and it's brilliant.

It so express the English countryside, for me,

and English woods personally.

I love England and bluebells are especially beautiful.

Although you shouldn't pick wild flowers,

I've been given persmission to pick one bluebell by the landowner

to show you their amazing bulbs.

If I have a look at it and give it a good old squidge -

urghh! -

look how sticky it is!

And this substance has been used down the generations

for helping bind books.

But they found this material also prevented the books

from actually being eaten

by things like moths and silverfish

because of its toxic properties.

Really amazing - look at that!

'Because it's poisonous, most foraging woodland animals

'wisely leave the bluebells alone.'

'But there is one potentially serious threat -

'a foreign lookalike.'

Don't these bluebells look gorgeous?

Well, they're not as lovely as they might seem

because they're imports from the Continent

and the problem is they like mixing it with our native bluebells.

I'm meeting Mark Spencer, who works for the Natural History Museum.

Isn't this a lovely spot to sit?

Absolutely fabulous.

Nowhere else in the world can you come and see this kind of spectacle.

Particularly when you get low, you get this vivid blue colour,

-the whole way round.

-It is stunning. It is a completely unique thing -

the British landscape has got something

to go "Wahey, this is ours, it's British and we love it."

Is it likely to last? What is the problem with the Spanish invader?

Well, we need to find out - is there a problem?

There's been concerns raised by conservationists, gardeners

and whole parts of society

that there may be a threat from the so-called Spanish bluebell,

which has been growing in British gardens for about 300 years,

but there are signs that it is moving out of gardens,

partly from people throwing away excess bulbs,

sometimes it's just naturally seeding into the local environment.

People are concerned that it's hybridising with the native plant

and this hybridisation may affect the ability of our native plant

to survive into the future.

So what is the difference between our native bluebells

and the Spanish conquistadors, which you have?

The British plant has classically a sort of Gothic arch just here,

on the flower spike.

This one's wilting, but the flower spike on the Spanish

tends to be more upright.

The native plant - each individual flower is tubular,

straight-sided, the petals,

whereas the Spanish, they're much more wide and opened out.

Leaf width is also a useful feature.

You can see that this leaf is much, much wider...

-Oh, yes.

-..than the native plant

and it tends to be more vigorous.

Often you find that these are quite large

compared to these plants here.

'But, rest assured, here at West Woods,

'the British bluebell rules supreme.'

'Wasn't that beautiful? Thanks, Mike.'

'Now we're joining Alys Fowler this time.'

'This B is for beetroot.'

'It's April and, as well as my potatoes,

'I've been sowing a range of vegetable seeds in trays.'

'These are beetroot - and there's no part of beetroot you can't eat.'

'It's a touch, corky little seed, so when you've placed it on the soil,

'you need to press it in to stop it floating away when you water.'

'Do that and you'll have tiny shoots within a fortnight.'

It germinates at low temperatures - about eight degrees Celsius -

so, at this time of year,

it should be super fast.

'It's been a busy time,

'sowing seeds and planting out my first real crops

'and things were looking good...'

CRACK OF THUNDER '..until the hailstones arrived.'

Well, the hail has pretty much just destroyed all my work.

It looks like, thanks to the hail,

I'm not going to be eating anything until well into June.

No, it's not.

It's not typical weather and it's not fair.

Right, I say we all go in

and have a cup of tea.

'But the trick to successful vegetable growing

'is to always have a backup.'

'I've been growing extra seedlings on my windowsill,

'so, three weeks after the hail, I have a new batch to plant out.'

'A way of making my edible garden look as good as it tastes

'is to plant my borders in drifts of colour and texture

'and that's what I'm going to do with my beetroot.'

It's easy to grow beetroot in modules.

Now, you quite often get clusters of them

because the seed is actually a cluster of seeds.

So I'll thin those out later on,

but, for now,

I can just

pop them in.

'Yes, the time will come when I will have to be brutal

'because a cluster of seedlings in the soil will strangle each other,

'so I will have to take control,

'pulling out and discarding the weaker shoots

'to allow the strongest room to survive and thrive.'

'I'm planting all my vegetables in generous quantities of compost

'because most soils, including mine, lack some nutrients.'

'It's like sending your kids to school with a lunch box -

'a ready-made meal, giving them energy to grow.'

I'm starting to harvest my beetroot in earnest now,

so I can make one of my favourite summer dishes,

which is a cold Polish soup called chlodnik.

Now, you need to use baby beets and all their leaves.

And these are perfect.

My little drift has worked out...

superbly.

'All the other ingredients also grow in the garden.'

'I'm using two herbs - dill and French tarragon.'

You don't like it.

Give it back!

'Every bit of the beetroot is cooked, including the leaves.'

'Once it's softened, it's liquidised to a thick, soupy texture.'

'The rest of my home-grown ingredients include radishes,

'cucumbers, Japanese bunching onions

'and some sorrel leaves.'

'And once it's cool, stir in a carton of yoghurt.'

Well, I can't claim to the yoghurt,

but, apart from that, this is my soup.

I grew it from my garden

and now I'm going to eat it.

'Even the garnish was freshly laid this morning.'

'Whilst the bread is still warm.'

SHE GIGGLES

You're rubbish at that trick!

'Brilliant - planting tips and a soup recipe.'

'But it's not just food beetroot can be used for,

'as Matt Baker finds out.'

'The dramatic sweep of the north Pennines belies a gentle side.'

'Away from its craggy hills and exposed moors,

'one locally grown crop is used to produce something rather unusual.'

Over here, they're making wine.

Not from grapes, but from this - beetroot.

'It's provided a welcome new market for beetroot grower Neil Hodgson.'

-It's been on the decline, but this beetroot wine might...

-Boost sales.

Have you tried this wine, then?

-No, I haven't.

-Why not?

-I would have a go, but...

-"Have a go"! As if it's a challenge!

-Well, I'll give you a hand picking some.

-Good idea.

How many kilos have you got this week? This is the beginning?

-This is the start!

-Oh, right!

Look at that one. It's a beauty.

'Just a couple more,

'then I'm taking these to a man who makes wine from fruit and veg.'

-I've got Neil's wine-making beetroot for you.

-Oh, that's great.

First thing we have to do is wash them thoroughly,

-get the soil off.

-So we can't use these.

-No.

-But we have some that we did earlier.

-Excellent.

And these now go into the mill to be chopped.

MACHINE HUMS

-Straight in?

-Straight in, yep.

-MACHINE RATTLES

-Wow. Powerful machine, isn't it?

Yes, it chops very finely.

So how long does this process take, to make a bottle of beetroot wine?

It takes about a month fermenting

and then about a month settling.

And how many beetroot in one bottle of wine?

-Probably about two or three.

-OK.

Just one more for luck.

MACHINE RATTLES

There we go.

-Right, come this way.

-Thank you.

-Pour the beetroots in here.

-OK.

It splashes everywhere, doesn't it?

Yes, don't want it on your clothes.

-Why did you think of making beetroot wine?

-We realised from our veg patch

that beetroot grows easily up here, so we thought "Why not?"

"It has a great colour, let's do something with it."

'But does it taste as good as it looks?'

That goes down very well.

You could easily drink a large quantity of that!

I'm thinking about it! That's lovely, actually.

Who would've thought that your beetroot, sugar, yeast and patience

could be turned into wine?

And saving pennies is what we're discussing next.

'B is for budget gardening and we find inspiration with Andy Sturgeon

'as we visit the Chelsea Flower Show.'

There are great ideas in the Future Nature garden.

This path is made from recycled roofing slates put on edge

and it gives it this fantastic texture.

This bench is made from old roof joists.

You could drag these out of a skip and it wouldn't cost you a penny.

The whole garden is covered in crushed builders' rubble and brick.

It has compost in it so the plants, which like free draining conditions,

are planted straight into it. There's no soil underneath.

But it's automatically a very attractive mulch.

Here's an idea that won't cost a penny because it grows on trees.

These twigs are stacked in the box to attract beneficial insects.

It's a good idea and it looks great.

Boundaries of a garden are important, but can cost a fortune.

Here's a good way to deal with them in the 1984 garden.

This is just stacked logs.

This is just a concrete wall

which has been painted and it's really cheered it up.

If you've got a few leftover tins of paint,

you can even create your own free artwork.

In the Eco Chic garden, which won the Urban Gardens' Best In Show,

there's a very simple idea here.

Fencing can be expensive, but these are scaffolding boards,

so it's a very cheap way to make something very sophisticated.

How about this? James May's smarter than he looks -

make your plants out of Plasticine, then, if you get bored of them,

you can just roll them all up, start again.

This courtyard garden also won Best In Show in its category

and has great ideas to save money.

It proves you don't have to invest much to make an outstanding garden.

This thing is an old water tank from a loft.

They're often redundant now with modern boilers,

so there are a lot knocking around.

On the flooring is some old stone crazy paving,

which you can get for a few pounds.

Crazy paving isn't fashionable, but it's all about how you use it

because it looks great here.

You can save money by looking at things with fresh eyes.

There's not a garden in the country without a few bricks lying around

and in this garden, Pottering In Cumbria, they've created this path

out of bricks that don't even match and it still looks wonderful.

It's simple but effective.

So, even amongst all the ostentation here in the heart of Chelsea,

it shows there are lots of achieveable and affordable ideas

for your garden

and it proves that good design doesn't have to break the bank.

'Thanks, Andy.'

'Our next B is for berries.'

'In botanical terms, a berry is "a fruit with seeds".'

'Rachel De Thame looks at one type that's proving very popular indeed.'

Superfoods.

The name is now so familiar that it is in the Oxford English Dictionary

and it says "a food considered especially nutritious

"or otherwise beneficial to health and well-being."

And if you ask most people nowadays to name a superfood,

there's one thing they'd pretty much be guaranteed to say.

-Blueberry.

-Blueberries.

-Blueberries, yeah.

-Blueberries.

-Blueberries?

-Blueberries.

-Blueberry, of course.

'The blueberry is on the tip of the tongue when it comes to superfoods.'

'Because of their recent popularity, more gardeners are growing them

'and they're not difficult to grow.'

'Like rhododendrons and chamilias,

'they prefer acidic soil with a pH of 4 to 5.5.'

'If your soil isn't acidic, blueberries grow very well in pots.'

'Choose a large pot and line the bottom with crocks,

'then a layer of lime-free gravel

'and fill with ericacious compost.'

'Blueberries are bog-loving plants - they need to be kept moist -

'so I'm adding water-retaining granules.'

'Add water to the granules before you add it to the compost.'

'To help keep the moisture in, add a good layer of mulch.'

'Water with rainwater as the lime in tap water can dilute the acidity.'

'Then leave it in direct sun or light shade.'

'And you should grow more than one plant of different varieties

'for a really good crop.'

It's fascinating which other fruit botanists class as a berry.

Tomatoes, water melons and even bananas are all berries

because they have seeds.

'Our next B is for birds.'

'Whatever the time of year, lots of us like to keep the birds well fed -

'it tempts our feathered friends to come back year after year -

'or does it?'

'Chris Packham might just be about to shatter some illusions.'

We all like to think that we know our garden birds really well.

Some people even go so far as to give them names.

But, during the autumn and winter,

things aren't what they seem on your feeders and in the garden.

Most of our garden-bird species

indulge in a bit of what we call "chain migration".

So if you think you know all the birds in your garden personally,

you're probably wrong

because if Barry the blackbird

was breeding in your hedge in the spring, he's not here now.

He's more than likely in the south if you live in the north

or, if you live in the south, he's gone to France and Spain.

So who have you got in your garden if you've got a blackbird?

Well, it's more than likely Olaf, because, in the winter in the UK,

24 per cent of our blackbirds come from Norway,

18 per cent from Sweden, 17 per cent from Germany

and 13 per cent from Denmark.

Why do they do it?

Well, they migrate for the same reasons most other bird species do -

hard weather and shortage of food.

The first thing to say is "My garden's still packed full of food -

"Why has Barry deserted me?"

It's because he's a southern softie, he can't take the weather here,

he needs to go somewhere where it equates closer to the conditions

that he's grown up in in our spring and summer.

And Olaf? Well, Scandinavia at this time of year weather-wise

can be pretty unpleasant for birds.

And the days are short there, so even if there's plenty of food,

there's not enough foraging time for Olaf to find it.

So it's much better for him to come over to this country.

And it's not just blackbirds. If you've got robins in your garden,

they're more than likely Belgian.

The blue tits, the great tits - Swedish.

So if you really want to know the birds in your garden personally,

you'll have to be multilingual.

You'll need to know lots of European names.

Sven, Helga,

Philippe, Juan...

On that bird-based bombshell, it's time we ended today's programme.

Join us next time for another A To Z Of TV Gardening.

Until then, goodbye.

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