Letter C The A to Z of TV Gardening

Hello and welcome to The A To Z Of TV Gardening.

It's time to look at one of Britain's favourite cut flowers.

Our next C is for chrysanthemums,

which in Greek means "golden flower",

and here's Alys Fowler with some planting tips.

If you've only got 30 minutes to spare in your garden this weekend,

then try sowing something really unusual like this,

which is a chop suey green,

or sometimes known as a chrysanthemum green,

and it's a very pretty chrysanthemum,

but it's grown mainly for its small foliage,

which is used traditionally in Japanese and Chinese food.

It has an incredibly...distinct...

very green, slightly bitter taste, which is amazing

when you stir-fry or in with dishes with chicken and ginger.

It just brings this really interesting element

and this is probably the last chance to sow it.

Now, it's quite a small seed.

And, really, all that needs to happen...

..is for you to sow it on the surface. Just press it in.

Give it a good watering, and up it will come, and the more you chop it,

the more it branches out, just like any chrysanthemum.

And then in the spring, you let it bolt and flower

and you get these beautiful, pretty little flowers.

And then you can just let it flower and set seed,

collect the seed and start the whole cycle again.

OK, coming up is one of the most rewarding veg to grow.

In fact, just one plant can feed a whole family.

C is for courgettes.

And here is veg expert Carol Klein with all you need to know.

These were sown in April, the end of April.

Hello, Highbrow.

Bit of grub for you there. How are you doing?

Have you brought up those youngsters yet?

BIRDSONG

So, I'm going to plunge each one of these into a ten litre pot.

This is a striped one, I think it's called Striato d'Italia.

And I like eating the flowers of these,

just as much as I like eating the fruit.

I've also grown a whole load of yellow ones called Gold Rush,

and it produces an abundance of yellow fruits.

The reason I'm not planting these straight into the ground

is I've run out of space.

Because this is going to grow into a phenomenally big plant.

We've got these nice old hessian sacks.

So the whole thing looks a bit more rustic.

All Cucurbits have flat oval seeds.

Sowing them on their side discourages rotting

and it promotes successful germination.

Sow them in April and plant them into their final positions

after the last frosts.

I've got eight pots of courgettes, because I really do love them,

and I'm standing them in-between the beans and peas

where it's really sunny.

All they need is plenty of water and, because they are in pots,

a nitrogenous feed every week.

They'll keep producing fruit right through till October.

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