Episode 11 The Beechgrove Garden

Hello there. Welcome to Beechgrove on a nice, warm day and I'm on glasshouse duties today.

There's a lot to be done, so I've got the peeny on and the gloves.

That green stain gets everywhere.

A couple of weeks ago at Gardening Scotland, we were asked quite a lot about this condition.

In tomatoes in a cold greenhouse, it causes leaves to roll over. There's nothing really wrong.

High day temperatures plunging to low temperatures at night, they can't cope with the big swing.

But it's cosmetic and doesn't do any harm. Getting to the work,

we've got to regularly remove side shoots.

Like little ones like that. I move them one side to the other and they come out cleanly.

Then you get this size and it happens in the best of circles that you sometimes get this.

Which one should I take off? Well, this has a good truss of fruit on it

so it's this one here that I need to take off.

And I will snap it out...

that way and that way. Look - clean as a whistle.

That's how it should be. But it gets dangerous when they get to this size

and you've got to do it regularly.

I'll do it with this hand, then snap it back the other way. Comes out cleanly.

Some people use a knife. That leaves an edge which is liable to dampen off.

I've got all this lot to go through.

Before you go, in the corner we've got Leslie's Sister.

There are six plants, each one in an individual pot,

in trays that are watered from underneath by the liquid in that reservoir in the corner.

It's working an absolute treat. I've got it at home and the plants are doing really well.

These have been watered with liquid feed all the time. You put liquid feed in the tank.

It goes underneath and they suck it up and are the better for it.

If you give the plants too much plain water, they get blowsy and disease-prone

and the fruit is not as tasty. So feed it every watering. Half-strength will do.

Cucumbers. They start to produce fruit very early, these new modern hybrids.

It stunts growth as their efforts go into producing the fruits.

If I actually takes these off, for about a foot up the plant,

it allows the plant to use its energies to put on more growth.

Take off these tendrils, like so.

Get it onto the string and away it goes.

Finally, a quick word about peppers. It's a funny old plant, the pepper.

Do you see what it does? It goes so far and then it divides.

It finished up usually with a flower bud, as you see in the next one.

It grows so far then it divides to two shoots

and a flower bud which will be the fruit.

Well, you can imagine over time this plant gets this way.

It becomes an absolute menace to train it and they can fall over.

So what the commercial grower does is he takes that one off.

So you've got a stem with - when I come to the next one you'll see it - he takes that one off...

..and he's got a fruit there.

You keep on going. As they grow they produce more than one fruit at each joint.

And you've got a plant that you can take up a string. Easy peasy.

In the rest of the programme...

In Problem Corner, my challenge is to make a small decking area

both pretty and productive.

We're well into the Scotland's Gardens year and this week there are eight gardens

open in Stirling on the same day.

-Now we've bedded out all the plants in the greenhouses, we've got loads of space here.

-Not for long!

-We're going to fill it.

-Rapidly! With these peppers.

-Yes, baby peppers and some chillies.

Some hot chillies as well. We'll fill this greenhouse with them.

Which will look really ornamental. Just looking at this one, the leaves are quite puckered.

That's a sign of aphid attack, but there's no sign of any more.

I wondered about pinching them out, but you'd lose the flowers. I think they'll come true OK.

They should be fine. The greenhouse behind us is empty as well.

I think we should fill them with some greenhouse annuals. I did this a few years ago.

You end up with a lovely lot of colour in the winter and spring.

I haven't ever done this before, so I'm fascinated by this.

There's an array of things like Cineraria. I don't like the foliage.

The leaves are coarse, but the flowers are lovely.

Then Browallia, lovely blue flowers. The Celosia, that's used as a bedding plant as well.

-Lovely feathery foliage.

-Called a cockscomb, isn't it?

-Yes, that's another one.

-And then you've got...

-Schizanthus or angels wings.

I have to say when you get these seed packets out,

-the seed is very, very small and it's like...

-They're well wrapped-up in the foil.

-Yeah.

Well, you say those are tiny, but you need a magnifying glass here.

-There's some tiny little seeds in the bottom.

-What's that one?

That's Calceolaria. I'll have to add sand to that.

I'll gently sow this here, very, very carefully.

I think I can be precise enough to get them spread. When they germinate,

-we will pinch them out.

-Yes, it's just like bedding plants.

I'll put a bit of sand into this, just so.

You can maybe see now I've got a lot in there. Give it a good shake.

I can spread it on the compost. They'll be potted on just like bedding plants,

but in the greenhouse. We have a little propagator here

because you do, to start off with, need to give them a little heat.

But after that, most of these will survive with temperatures down to about 8-10 degrees Centigrade.

Just to complete the story here, I've broadcast the seeds then I'll put a very fine layer of compost

on top and stand it and allow the water to come up.

-With fine compost, the flour sieve is perfect. Just don't cook after!

-You mean baking flour.

-Baking flour, yeah.

-I'll wash it.

This week I'm in Glasgow visiting Lisa who has a lovely tenement flat and a small space she can use,

but she's not sure how to tackle it so I'm here with some inspiration.

-Hi, Lisa.

-Hi!

-What a lovely secluded back yard.

-Thank you.

-How long have you been here?

-Nearly 7 years.

We had to rip the place out and focus on the inside,

-so we've only just begun to look at the outside more recently.

-Right.

How much of all this is yours? Obviously it's communal.

-As you come out, everything to the right.

-What have you done so far?

Well, a couple of years ago we had the decking put in

and we just grew some normal container plants.

Last year we grew some strawberries, peas, beans, courgettes, tomatoes,

which I was really encouraged by,

so I'd like to learn a wee bit more about how to get the best out of them.

-Have you had any problems?

-We have a lot of shade from the trees, which are overhanging.

-That's a problem.

-They're nice, but big.

-All these windows are yours?

-Yes.

-Well, containers are the things we need to use for the decking.

-The light, I take it you've spoken to your neighbours about taking bits off trees?

-I have spoken to them

because you guys were coming. That's OK.

I do have with me a secret weapon called Mark. He's going to help us

-lop some branches off, let light in and everything will do better.

-Excellent.

Is that the bit we agreed on?!

What I need to do now is come in and look from the inside out.

There's obviously some to come off at the top.

I've got my pointy stick to point at the branches. ..Can you reach up there?

Yeah, go for it.

-See the light? Isn't that great? Come and look - it's amazing!

-Wow!

-What a difference!

-Feel the sun!

-The sun's just come out in time.

Lisa, I've got a couple of things to put on the wall.

-Your sandstone walls are beautiful, but a little decoration...

-So plain.

Well, I was thinking I've got these pots that you can just hook onto a wall.

-Something like that.

-They're lovely.

-For here. They just hook on.

They've got a flat back. So a couple of those there.

And then... wall baskets further down.

-You've got a step here, so if you had one at that height and one a wee bit lower.

-Yeah.

-To match the fact that you're stepping down.

-Yeah, they're really nice. Lovely.

-It softens that wall a wee bit.

-Great, perfect.

We've got a selection of things here. I know your remit was pretty, scented, edible.

-And good for wildlife.

-Yeah.

-So we've got lavender.

-I love it.

-Nice and scented.

-Gorgeous.

You wanted a holly, so you've got berries and evergreen colour.

A lot of people really like Buddleias, but they think they'll be too big. This is a dwarf Buddleia

-which stays small and can go in a pot.

-Lovely.

Edible things, I know you like cooking so I tried for a range of things and you can choose.

-I brought a couple of courgettes.

-I love courgettes.

-One is pretty much a courgette already!

-But still wanting to make it pretty, yellow courgettes.

-Fabulous.

-That'll be nice in your vegetables.

-They're so easy to grow.

-They are. There's some herbs - chives, coriander, parsley,

some sweetcorn, some lettuce, so it looks really nice as well.

Some scent with some rosemary and I couldn't resist sweet peas.

-We can put them in this basket, put some canes up to give us height.

-Gorgeous.

But the first thing really is you've got pots here with old pansies.

We need to take out the things that are coming out, see what we've got, lay it out so it looks nice

-and then decide what to plant.

-Yep.

It's quite nice to have space for another pot.

Let's leave a space for sweet peas.

You're strong, Carolyn!

-I'd be as well doing this with my teeth!

-Do you need scissors?

Have you seen this stuff before? This is water retaining granules.

-No, I have not.

-It basically starts life like that, crystals. Imagine what wallpaper paste turns into.

It's like that kind of idea. You put that in with the compost

and then give it a little... You want it into the compost.

When you wet the compost, it holds on to the moisture so you don't have to water as much.

The courgettes get quite big, so leave them a fair amount of space.

And remember to keep cropping regularly or you'll have marrows!

-These wall pots are lovely.

-They're gorgeous.

The petunia and lobelia will trail out and tumble down.

I can't believe it's just a couple of plants in each one.

It just finishes it all off. The thing that's nice with a small space

is you've got a little bit of everything. It should be manageable.

-It's perfect. I can't wait to see it all come into full bloom.

-So you've got potatoes, beans, tomatoes,

-rocket, chives, everything!

-It's exactly as I imagined it, but even better.

-I'm so pleased.

-Thanks very much.

-Cheers.

I'm at the far end of the Silver Garden and there's quite a lot of noise going on.

We have a nest of blue tits. They are just about to fledge.

We have a quite attractive wall here, but I want to clothe it - lots of plants tumbling over the edge

to soften it. I'm using things which we would more often see maybe in a basket or container.

These are tender plants. Using Bacopa, this is the Gulliver series.

The flowers are much bigger and a lovely, startling white.

I've got Dichondra, silver falls in here.

I'm trying to keep most things silver and white for the Silver Garden.

I haven't had much success with Dichondra, but we'll see. Some white trailing lobelia.

I'll be not at all surprised if some have blue in the flower. It's inevitable, it seems, with them.

This is the tender Nepeta.

This can get up to six foot and will cascade over here.

This Convolvulis Sabatius - beautiful bluey-white flowers. They just add a little contrast

so it's not too grey and white. More lobelia.

This Helichrysum is silver. Sometimes this can be too vigorous in a hanging basket and takes over,

but it should be really good here. And my final one is variegated ivy. It will nicely flop over the edge.

So this is all tender stuff, but we'll put more permanent planting against one of the other walls.

Up here in the trials beds, we've got a wee wall, so an opportunity for more dangulation!

-But this is permanent planting.

-They are. I've chosen five. Oh, you've moved that one.

-Is that hole big enough?

-We'll pop fertiliser in.

This is a halimiocistus.

-So that's a cross.

-Between something and cistus!

-It's got these little flowers which cascade over.

-Cistus sometimes isn't particularly hardy.

-Will that be OK?

-This is the best chance they'll get - sunshine, good drainage.

-This Campanula, it's beginning to exhibit the tendency that we want.

-Yes, it's nice and spready.

-Presumably you have to encourage it.

-I want to make sure it does go over

-and doesn't interfere with Jim's Crocosmia.

-They're settling in well.

-This is a Hebe - Summer Frost.

-Again, the prostrate ones are good and hardy.

-Smaller the leaves, hardier the hebe.

We've gone very blue and white again.

-We're still in the silver theme. This is Prostrate Rosemary, which you reckon is hardier?

-I do.

Rather than the upright form.

The last one - this is Eau de Cologne Mint.

-It's gorgeous if you run it under a hot tap in the bath.

-Lovely!

And we're going to plunge this bottomless pot or it'll spread.

And we will keep our eye on that and make sure there's no excursions.

-That's going into the shady part?

-The shadiest bit that we can.

'This Sunday, eight gardens in Stirling are going to open under the Scotland's Gardens scheme.

'I'm going to visit two of them, the first being the very large garden of John and Lesley Stein.'

-John, what was it like when you moved here 25 years ago?

-It was April Fool's Day, 1986.

We arrived and there was a very Victorian garden

with a beech hedge. Up here was the place with rockeries and plants.

And these three trees - the copper beech with its elephant feet.

-It's absolutely stunning. You wouldn't want rid of that.

-We wouldn't be allowed to.

Then you have the cedar and across there is the Camperdown elm, which is wonderful.

-You obviously redesigned it.

-Well, we didn't, actually.

We were consulted, but we had this wonderful man who chopped down the dead cedar

and we were sort of burbling on about what we might do.

-He said, "We should start again." So we did.

-You've planted a lot of trees, like the silver birch.

-Yes.

-Beautiful.

-That was a tremendous bit of inspiration by him.

-He could see that we were north-facing and if he coppiced it...

-Cutting it right down.

..with lots and lots of stems coming up, we'd get this tremendous reflected light from the silver bark.

-It's the best way to treat it, actually. Multi-stem is the answer.

-I think you're right, absolutely.

Lesley, tell us a bit about the herbaceous border. It's some size.

It certainly is, isn't it? It's a traditional double Victorian herbaceous border.

The idea behind it was to bring it up to the house and so the view from the kitchen window

is permanent, lovely, throughout the year. We've got irises, we've got peonies,

-various repeat plants.

-Nice early colour.

But you also repeated the Aruncus there. That's a lovely plant.

Yes, I was inspired by walled gardens for these repeat ideas.

The Aruncus starts off a lovely lime colour, develops into a very nice creamy colour

-and even the brown's attractive.

-A value for money plant!

-Absolutely.

-I'd like to know about your Open Gardens day, this Sunday, the 19th.

-That's right.

We're open from 1 till 6. There are eight gardens opening with things going on in each one.

We've got the Big Noise Raploch Children's Orchestra in this garden along with a singer

and in the others there's a hat show, strawberries and cream, Pimm's, cream teas here,

-home baking, a bottle store, silver jewellery, plants...

-There's so much!

-..silk scarves!

I'll be looking for the cream teas! And you don't have to be a gardener.

-No. Come along.

-I'd like to look at one of the other gardens now.

-OK.

This garden is just round the corner from John and Lesley's and it's open on Sunday, too.

'And the second garden I'm visiting in Stirling belongs to Fleur McIntosh.'

-You've been gardening for six years.

-That's right.

-And this was a blank canvas?

-We started from scratch.

It was laid out to lawn and gradually we bought more plants at the garden Scheme stalls

and we've grown some from seed and eventually filled up the whole garden, though I'd squeeze more in!

-Now looking at it, you have a bit of a colour thing going on.

-Yes.

I seem to be drawn to the purples and then things contrast with them.

-The pinks and the acidic green of the Alchemilla.

-The Alliums are beautiful architectural plants.

-They last quite a while.

-They have this year and they have done so well in the storms, bouncing back up,

-even with the very strong winds.

-I'd like to mention the design.

Our Lesley was talking about long, thin gardens.

-You've divided it into two.

-Yes. We did want the garden to feel a bit bigger and not see it all at once.

And more of a sense of a journey that you're on.

We worried about putting in a thick hedge here in case it shadowed these beds.

So my husband put up the fence to give a dividing structure.

-It's because it's south-facing. You want the light.

-Exactly.

We didn't want to lose the sunniest bit by putting more shadows in.

-Am I right in thinking you are a bit of a plantaholic?

-Yes.

-I can imagine the grass getting smaller!

-It has a couple of times.

If I had my way this spring, it would be smaller again!

But I've got two young kids and they need space.

What about the chickens? Do you garden organically?

We try to. We've got the compost and the hens help with that.

We've got some aphids, but lots of ladybirds and butterflies, which the kids love.

-I think you're being really brave. This is the first time you've opened to the public.

-It is.

Quite nervous about it, but I've been to lots of garden openings and I know how enjoyable they are.

-I hope people enjoy this one.

-I wish you luck.

-Thank you.

How about this for a really colourful display? You've brought these all along, these geraniums.

We're going to try to look at all the different geranium types.

-Talk me through this. Start with the zonals.

-These are all cutting raised, so should be stronger.

This is one called Moonlight. It's a compact dark green leaf.

This is called Fredo, a lovely, salmony orange and lovely dark stem.

I like that contrast of the dark foliage. It's really compact as well.

There's Veneta and Violina.

-Compact and dark green leaf.

-That one's really nice, Fredo.

-Super.

-OK, that's the zonal. Where next?

-Next is a lighter green leaf. This is Peach Kiss. More vigorous.

-Great colour. Super colour.

-And a nice contrast.

-It is. The next one is this light green leaf.

This is Sunrise. It's what they call XL, so it's even bigger and more vigorous.

-Softer colour, too.

-Nice, isn't it?

-Can we move to the ones with variegated foliage?

-They're popular.

If you go through a city centre and look at the parks, they use a lot of these.

-You've got the extra interest.

-And this one is called...?

-It's my favourite. Frank Headley.

-Then a real golden leaf here.

-Madame Salleron.

-That's gorgeous.

-And then in contrast, these are seed-raised.

-You tend to get them in a little pack.

£3.50 or something for a pack. They won't flower as long, but I want to compare them.

-If you want to grow them at home, you must start early.

-Too late now.

-This is interesting, almost like a ground cover geranium.

-They crossed an ivy leaf trailing

and a zonal. This is a landscaping geranium.

So it gives you this sprawling, spreading habit. This is Saxonia. That will cover a metre squared.

-Wow. That'll keep the weeds down!

-Nice, single flowers so it should shed the rain better.

-You can see it's got the ivy leaf.

-So does the one in front of you.

This is Schone Von Rheinberg. Lovely big, single red flowers.

-That will just sort of lean, not trail.

-Leaning over.

-Well, we hope it leans that way!

-And this is an ivy leaf geranium.

-That's the one I'm more familiar with.

-This is Pacific Soft Pink. A beautiful colour.

The only one I'm contributing is the climbing one, Sky Rocket. It climbs to six feet in height.

-I'm interested to see... It's going to have to be tied in.

-Yeah, it'll have to be encouraged.

We've also got some ivy leaf geraniums in these baskets.

-I really like that one up there.

-It's Atlantic Burgundy. It's great.

-This is a lovely white one.

-And then the regals. People forget about the regals.

This is an interspecific type. Grandiosa Royal Salmon.

-And this one at the end...

-It's stunning.

This is Cherry Picotee. It's really striking. That will mass out.

-Hopefully, loads of flowers.

-It'll look amazing in a couple of months.

-So what do you call a group of geraniums?

-A grove?

A gorge? A gaggle?

believe it or not, I'm still catching up from Gardening Scotland two weeks ago.

From John Stowar we got some plants of his Saskatoon berries and here they are, fruiting.

Why are they in this calendar border? Because the autumn foliage is stunning.

And we had to put nets on to save these from the budgies.

Here in the cutting garden, the hardy annuals have come through from seed.

We can see where the weeds are and we need to remove those. Beth is planting out the half-hardy annuals.

We're now just going to wait for the most glorious summer show.

Back in the geranium border, I'm just finishing off planting the seed-raised varieties.

You don't have to plant them all together. You can use them just to fill in a gap.

I like to use some rose fertiliser when I'm planting. It gives good growth, loads of flowering potential

and keeps them healthy and flowering right the way through summer.

I'm sorry. I did come off best today having the indoor glasshouse, in more ways than one.

-It's been a bit wet!

-It has.

We're picking the first strawberries of this challenge

-that we could pick strawberries from May to September.

-Did we make it in May?

-Not quite.

-On 31st May, there was one with a red cheek!

-Aww.

-Embarrassed!

-But since then this is the main pick. There are three varieties. The faraway one

is Sonata. Then we've got Darlisette.

And we've got Elegance.

-We'll do a total overall.

-We're weighing, so I can't eat them?

-Not yet, not yet.

But what a wonderful way to go on. When these lot finish,

the outside ones will start to crop and then we've a third lot, in little boxes in the cold frame.

We'll bring them in in July and they're the ones that will produce fruit in August, September.

-The ones in the hanging baskets, Mount Everest, are doing well.

-That's from last year.

-They've come away nicely.

-If you'd like any more information

about anything in the programme, have a look at the factsheet and the best way is online.

Next week I'm back with a year in containers and summer colour.

And I'll be sowing vegetables and salads to produce micro-leaves.

Indoors this week... and I shall be in the fruit case next week, out of doors.

-Until then, goodbye!

-Bye!

-Bye!

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