Episode 12 The Beechgrove Garden

Hello there and welcome to Beechgrove.

Back in the good weather again.

I think by now most of Scotland must've been well irrigated. No more about the weather.

Here we are in the fruit cage where, for the most part, everything is doing quite well.

Except that plum tree there!

But there has been reports that plums didn't do well over winter.

That certainly hasn't. It's handy as a coat hanger and little more.

The rest of the fruit is coming on nicely,

in particular, soft fruit beginning to show the crop that we're going to get later on.

And they are looking good. I'm going to come back soon

and do a bit of summer pruning, because there's a lot of growth.

But they're looking clean because we're been spraying regularly with this garlic extract.

No insecticides, no fungicides.

And, of course, the organic guys says if you've got beasties,

put a bird feeder by the plants that have got the beasties.

But not if you've got a fruit cage to keep the birds from the fruit!

So we've taken that route and this seems to be working well.

Except where something, perhaps, has been newly planted.

There's indications here that we've over-egged the pudding.

We've got a new raspberry here called "Glen Fyne". Absolute cracker.

I've seen it growing at the James Hutton Institute -

Scottish crop research down at Mylnefield - and it's a belter.

But it hasn't moved since it was planted.

Compared, for example, with "Autumn Bliss", which has been there for a while and is well established.

So we took a soil analysis, we sent it to James Hutton and we've got the answer, I think.

We use a lot of mushroom compost in here, which tends to make the soil alkaline.

The pH here is seven, give or take.

That's quite high for soft fruit. They like an acid soil.

But it's when one thing is not quite optimum that other things also may start to go wrong.

We look at NPK - nitrogen, phosphate, potash,

and magnesium in fruit.

We find from the analysis that P, K and magnesium are high,

nitrogen is uncharacteristically low.

Why? Well, I would argue that it's because

the bacteria that are working on the mushroom compost are fuelled by the nitrogen

and these plants are not able to get their share.

The other point, of course, is why does it not happen with "Autumn Bliss"?

Well, these are established plants. So their roots, going away down in there,

are much better buffered by the soil.

This here is a little bit like feeding a six-week-old baby with chicken korma.

Got the message? You've got to be careful.

So I think we might have to do a little bit of foliar feeding with nitrogen,

just to see if we can get a bit more growth.

Whereas here, there's too much growth.

What I'm here to do in this "Autumn Bliss"

is to remove some of the cane growth.

These fruit in September, October, when our days are shortening.

They're getting cooler, there's a lot of moisture about and not a lot of sun,

and it's difficult to get the fruit to ripen.

And it's often caused by the fact that the canes are overcrowded.

So at this stage of the year, I'm going to go along and pick out canes that are weak and spindly

and take them right down to ground level

to allow the big ones to get all the growth that's going,

all the good,

and produce decent crops that will ripen

because they'll have room to develop.

Now, in the rest of the programme...

Today's a calm, splendid day,

but, believe me, on this site, the wind can be ferocious!

This week I'm visiting a garden

that has a wonderful range of plants.

From the more reliable pieris

to the more unusual and tender aeoniums.

Well, the news from the potager this week

is that we've got a few plants into our barrel greenhouse.

And right on top here is a range of little tomato plants.

The variety, chosen by Lesley, is "Sweet 'N' Neat". And isn't it just a wee stoater?!

And I think it'll do rather nicely there.

One wee comment to make, I suppose, is that, because there are plants underneath,

perhaps each of these pots should be in a tray

so that we don't get drip.

Underneath, we put together a few bits and pieces. We've got aubergines and basil in here.

Basil does need protection, but there it is, looking quite good. We can start picking away at it.

And we put two larger plants in, a tomato plant and a cucumber,

which gives you the perspective of exactly what is capable of being carried

in this wee stoater of a greenhouse.

On the outside, not a lot's changed since we were here last time,

because plants are just beginning to get established.

But the brocauli,

which is a cross between broccoli and cauliflower, I assume,

still looks like broccoli to me, is ready for its first cut.

Perhaps even before the day is out.

Then we get the side shoots coming and we'll get the same crop.

We've got the runner beans in, this is "Celebration". That is just weather damage.

It'll grow away as the weather gets warmer.

The pea bean in this corner... Come back and look at that later.

A staggering one for me that I haven't grown before

is celtuce.

This vegetable, lettuce, obviously, in it, and you can pick the leaves.

It gradually, as it matures, comes up on a long stem

and you can harvest the stem at the outset.

But it's really liking it here. It's growing away nicely.

A wee word about thinning... When you're thinning vegetables, we've got a little chicory in here,

and what you want to do is to choose the plant you're going to keep,

I'm going to keep that one there to give it more space,

but I put my fingers round it to protect it as I pull these two out.

OK?

The next one's got plenty room at the moment. It might go later.

That one's got plenty room. We come up to this end.

Which plant are you going to keep? That one?

Pull that one out and you protect it and don't move it.

Take that one out. And so you go through them all.

I keep the best and take the weakest one, if there is, out,

protecting the one you want to keep.

And then, of course, all you're doing after that

is just tickling up the ground, keeping it cultivated.

That, by the way, is slug bait. We have a wee problem with them here.

I've come to Dollar, at the foot of the Ochils.

I know you can't see them, but they're literally behind those trees.

The garden belongs to Rosemary and Bill Jarvis,

and I can tell straight away that Rosemary is a bit of a plantaholic.

You've got some favourites, like the perennial wallflower,

but she's also got some rare and unusual plants.

For example, did you know that you could get a hosta this size?

Rosemary, your borders are totally jam-packed full of plants.

I hate bare soil. And it's got lots of advantages. No weeding, that's the best one.

And you end up with all sorts of things popping up all over

from things that have seeded themselves,

and you get lots of happy surprises.

The yellow grass there is great. I didn't plant it, but it goes with the poppies and it looks great.

It really softens the stems of the rhododendron there. It's beautiful.

What about your collection of Angel Trumpets? They're rather unusual.

And very tender. You have to keep them in a heated greenhouse through winter.

But they are gorgeous plants. I thought I'd lost them this year,

but with anything that's frosted, you wait a bit and see,

and it's all sprouting again, which is great.

You've got a trumpet there, sadly not quite out at the moment.

It does produce the most amazing trumpet.

They have trumpets about that big and they smell absolutely fabulous at night.

They're pollinated by moths. They attract them at night-time and the scent is gorgeous.

-So a good excuse to come out at night and have a look round!

-Absolutely.

-You obviously love your hostas.

-I'm a bit of a hosta freak. I've got loads of them all over.

They're brilliant plants. They give really good ground cover.

The leaf colour is amazing. And they give lovely flowers.

And they're quite adaptable to either moist soil or even dry soil.

I've got one that's seeded itself at the edge of the pond.

And your acer is stunning.

-And what I've just noticed is, it's actually in a pot.

-Yes. It's been there for about 30 years.

I feed it every year, and it's in a place that suits it,

and it's doing very well. It's creeping all over the ground.

One of the most important things is that it has shelter. You've found the perfect place for it.

-They don't like wind too much.

-It looks stunning.

This is probably my favourite bit of the garden.

Two reasons - one, because I like the look of it,

it was built by my son several years ago,

but, secondly, I'm a biology teacher

and I spend hours sitting on that rock over there just watching the life in the pond.

You can obviously watch the wildlife because the water's lovely and clear. Do you treat it?

Yes. We UV filter it, which kills the little tiny algae which make the water green.

-We probably shouldn't be doing that because it's a wildlife pond.

-But it works for you, doesn't it?

-I think I've spied a new plant.

-That was from Gardening Scotland. I couldn't resist it.

It's a viburnum, which starts off pink,

and as it progresses through the season, it goes white.

-Just full of flower at the moment.

-Yes.

A couple of plants I'm interested in there in the corner...

They're pitcher plants. People say, "You can't grow them in Scotland," but you can.

It's been there for several years, including our two very hard winters.

-And flowering at the moment.

-Yes. Really unusual flowers.

-What about the lime one?

-That's a young plant. It's putting up its pitchers early.

Again, you wouldn't think it was hardy, but it's perfectly hardy.

They're hardy, but any other conditions that they need?

Yes, they're bog plants, therefore they need a boggy area.

The liner of the pond extends right to the end, so all these plants are growing in really very wet soil.

You've got some gorgeous plants in amongst it. The rodgersias, with those beautiful leaves...

-The golden grass...

-I grow that all over the place.

It ties the garden together.

It's growing along the edge there. That's shade and not very wet,

and yet it's full sun and very wet, so...

-So a bit like the hostas, they're quite adaptable.

-Yes.

We've been here for about 34 years.

-I bet it's changed an awful lot.

-Ever so slightly.

It was mostly grass when we arrived. We had a vegetable garden and a rockery.

There was a wooden pergola instead of the metal one.

What I have realised is, the garden is pretty sheltered. That must help with what you can grow.

We're fairly high up so we shouldn't be able to,

but there are so many trees, I can grow things you shouldn't be able to grow at all!

Back to the vegetable patch. The broad beans are looking healthy.

Yes. Pigeons don't like broad beans. They like everything else!

And the pergola... I love the style of it, the width and the height.

And the perfume must be amazing when the honeysuckle comes into flower.

We've got honeysuckle at the far end and roses and clematis, and it's really lovely.

What I also like about your garden is, it's fun.

Especially here, with the cloud pruning.

The two of them were great big blobs of conifers and really taking up far too much space,

and we'd been to China where we'd seen the cloud-pruned trees - absolutely gorgeous!

Clouds wouldn't be appropriate, so I lollipop-pruned instead!

And Bill, he's a bit creative in the garden?

If it was left to him, this garden would be clipped and manicured, which isn't my style at all.

He can do his thing along there.

-And what do you call that?

-It's Bill's Folly!

-It's using a shrubby Lonicera.

-And bits of wire.

-And he just, what, takes one of the long side branches and ties it all in?

-That's right.

Lots of wire and lots of twisting. He never has a plan, it just comes.

-Maybe we should have a folly at Beechgrove.

-Absolutely!

I've really enjoyed looking round.

It's totally stunning. So much to look at. Thank you very much.

In this garden, everything's growing in containers.

For a lot of people, this might be the only way they can garden, so it's very special.

It's important that everything looks good all year round because you're looking at it all year.

It might be a little balcony or terrace.

We've got a bit of maintenance to do, because in this pot, we've had spring-flowering bulbs

and there were pansies that went in in the autumn.

They are not going to flower again really very productively,

so what I'm going to do is clear them out.

This is in striking contrast to the pansies that went in in the spring.

They are still blooming away and looking gorgeous.

I don't want to do anything to that pot at the moment.

That's why I always keep a few spare pots -

often your spring-planted bedding will be looking fine

but you're ready to put some of the summer stuff out.

I want to make sure that we keep on having a real seasonal sparkle.

Final job with this back one is, when I've got all the pansies out,

it's got bulbs in and I want to store that,

so I'm going to tuck it somewhere, out of sight, because they will flower again in the spring.

This Senetti has been an absolute star of the garden.

It's already sort of started to finish flowering. It's still got some decent blooms on it.

What I want to do now is, cut back these long stems

because you can see underneath it's already starting to produce new buds.

It's a very, very hungry plant.

What I want to do is give it a little boost.

I'm going to give it these pellets - slow-release fertilizer.

I'm going to push these into the pot and this will help it to reflower.

It should do that by mid-summer.

Now, we have some permanent features in this garden.

One of them is the table, which is really useful for potting on and eating out on, as well.

And we do have some plants which are here all year round, providing structure.

There's an apple tree, which is growing out along the wires, and the two buddleia.

They came through the winter, which we're delighted about.

We've got mint and sage, which, again, are nice herbs to use when you're cooking.

I popped some nasturtiums next to the apple tree.

That's some nice companion planting because the nasturtiums give off a fragrance which distracts aphids.

But I want to start popping in some things for summer colour.

I'm choosing two of my favourite plant families.

One of them is diascia, known as the "twinspur",

because behind each little flower, there are a pair of little horns or spurs.

The beauty of these is, they flower for ages and ages.

You don't need to deadhead them and these will just tumble and froth over the side of the pots.

This one is "Red Ace". This little pink one is called "Little Dancer".

This is quite unusual for me because I don't particularly like orange, but this is "Little Tango".

When you see how well the colour combines with the terracotta pot, I couldn't resist it.

The other plant I'm going to put in are some nemesias.

There are so many different varieties of these.

And it has the same attributes as diascia because it flowers for ages and doesn't need deadheading.

This is "Amelie", which is a very pretty lavender.

I'm going to pop three of those in here.

And then this one is from the "Berries and Cream" series. This is "Raspberry and Cream".

So appropriately named. You can see the pinky-purple flower there with the bi-colour of white.

I've got two osteos at the back, just to give us a bit of height.

And then finally, in the corner, this is Nemesia "Aromatica". It's just got a gentle fragrance.

I just so like having something that gives a really good perfume

just next to where I'm sitting out in the garden.

I'm outside Morebattle today in the Scottish Borders, near Kelso.

If you look behind me, there's some magnificent views here.

If you come here to buy a plot of land on which you want to build a house,

you will be absolutely entranced by the views.

That's what happened to Virginia and Peter when they came to this site.

What they forgot about was the fact that, on such a site, it is exposed.

There is wind everywhere. You get wind shear, wind chills, wind blow, wind moulding,

the whole lot.

Look what's happened to that tree. It's all to one side. So are some of the trees on the landscape.

So, please, when you go to a new plot

to look for somewhere to build a new house,

look at the landscape round about you.

When we realised that there was a problem with the wind,

we planted these trees here to try and make a shelter belt.

But some of them are actually growing too tall and too thin.

-All the shelter's up there, isn't it?

-Yes.

-And you wanted it down here.

-Some more down the bottom here.

-What size were these when you got them?

-This size.

-Quite tall. You want value for the money.

-Yes.

Sometimes it's better to buy smaller plants where the branches all come from the base.

-I can make this one have branches from the bottom.

-OK.

-But do you know what I'm going to do?

-I should imagine cut quite a bit off it.

-Quite a lot off the top.

-Are you prepared for that?

-That's fine.

I think we would cut it round about there.

-Are you OK with this?

-That's fine.

-Quite sure?

-Yes, quite sure.

-It's too late now!

-Yes!

What will happen now, we'll get more branches on the base,

like the plant behind us, where we've got all these shoots coming out from the bottom.

This is a pear tree, bought about three years ago.

And I think the wind is seriously damaging this one.

-It's all over that way!

-The shape's all gone over here.

-Indeed, it's got a problem.

This tree should be standing up like this.

What we're going to have to do is pull it back, get it vertical, get a stake in it and tie it up.

Possibly three ties on a tall stake and make sure it's secure.

Because if I tried to pull this one back...

See what's happening in the crotch down there?

The whole thing is splitting. You get this split when the thing is pulled back.

So that will have to come off round about there.

We'll then trim in some of the side branches

to make it more a columnar shape, rather than this wide sail effect.

This was a thorn that we moved from the top of the garden,

where it was too wet and windy and wasn't happy up there.

But it doesn't seem very happy here either.

-So you've transplanted it. You dug it up from where it was established and brought it down here.

-Yes.

When you dug it, possibly you only retained 20 percent of the root system.

Sometimes it's less than that, no matter how careful you are.

But you were careful to maintain and retain the whole of the top.

So 100 percent at the top, only 20 percent at the bottom.

-It's not a good balance, is it?

-No!

-What we need to do is redress that.

We'll cut some of the shoots back, or maybe all of them back,

because the root system hasn't the energy

to push the water all the way to the ends of the shoots.

So that's a good indicator of what we need to do.

We've got to trim back these shoots so that we can get the whole thing back into balance.

Then it will take off and will very quickly make a decent tree.

-Sorted!

-Thank you.

We've come down to the gooseberry bush in the fruit garden.

Now, this... Look at it. It's windswept, as well.

It gets all this wind coming round the corner,

it's just buffeting the whole thing into one direction.

What we need to do with this is to start thinning it out

so that there's not the same pressure of wind on it.

There's some wonderful fruit. The thing obviously grows very well, because you've got great growth.

What I'll do is, I will thin back some of these side shoots, OK?

Now, when you plant a gooseberry bush,

what you've got is a straight stem, like that, which we call a leg,

and the branches radiate from around the top.

What we're trying to do is to keep that clear leg

and then trim each one of those branches, or prune them,

-so that we can get our hands round them to pick them.

-Right.

That's like a barbed-wire entanglement!

-You would never get out alive if you fell in!

-No.

We've nearly got that here, but, of course, the whole thing is, it's all over towards Kelso!

Now, this conifer seems to sum up all the problems we've had here with wind, snow, frost.

-It's had the whole lot, hasn't it?

-Yes.

-It doesnae look happy!

What we should do with this is, we've got this lovely skirt of growth coming from the base,

we'll take out this dead bit and try and pull it together with string.

So you've got these magic loppers,

and just get in there and cut that one there. That's it.

And then this big fella.

-Can you manage that? It's quite a hefty cut.

-Hefty.

You're good at this!

And now, all we need to do is to put the string on it,

pull it up like that.

Look at that. There's nothing wrong with that.

Right, Virginia, this delphinium doesn't know what it's doing!

It's come out and then it's gone up. This is the wind, as well.

The wind got there before I did, I'm afraid, and this is the result.

And that's happened in quite a number of places in the garden, this terrible wind damage.

-Now, I cannae stop the wind, I'm afraid!

-Can't you?!

-No,

but I can do things, as you've seen, to help modify the effects of it.

-I hope it's been helpful.

-Wonderful. Thank you.

I think George should go back to that problem corner next year and see what happens to that tree.

Lots of interesting things there. This is all about micro leaves.

It's the latest thing, apart from your sprouting seeds. This is maybe the next stage.

A lot of restaurants, lots of chefs really like to use these.

Really, it's a stage where you get the cotyledons, or the first true leaves.

What a fantastic range. They're so colourful.

Aren't they just? These were started seven to ten days ago.

Yes. You know how people say,

"I wish you came to my garden next week,"

well, maybe I would like to see these a week further on.

-These were sown about ten days ago.

-Yes.

The rocket's not doing too badly.

-Do you want a taste?

-I'll take a little bit.

The flavour's meant to be really intense. They're very nutritious.

-I'm going to try the mustard.

-Oh, my goodness! That's incredible for such a small leaf.

-Is it quite intense?

-Mm. But it's really, really nice.

Now, the mustard, I'm just getting a flavour now. To start off with, it's quite mild.

And then suddenly, you get a real zing!

What we'll do is, we'll let these grow on. It'll end up looking like a little box of cress.

-We can keep picking them.

-You use a pair of scissors and you cut it across.

It's a great idea and fairly easy to do.

You can buy these packs of trays, they're not particularly expensive.

And this kind of felt in the bottom is biodegradable,

so you can put that on the compost heap.

My mouth is still burning!

But you could use any plastic tray as long as it doesn't have drainage holes.

These are microwave trays, which I think are a good idea.

And that is just using three layers of kitchen roll and just soak that with water.

If you have to keep watering them,

just put it in the corner, because that stops shifting the seed.

You can do this on a windowsill, so you don't need a garden. It's a doddle to do.

-The children can do it.

-Great idea for the children.

-There's loads of seeds!

You don't need a greenhouse. You just sprinkle these on.

The other thing to remember is, if you've got the warmth, it's 12 months of the year...

-Which one are you doing? I'm doing basil.

-I am on to the mustard green thrills.

-Frills, not thrills!

-Well, it could be! If it's that hot, it could be very thrilling!

-And then you put the lid on.

-That's right.

What I would suggest, as well, remove that every day

so you get a little bit of ventilation in there.

-As soon as they germinate, take them off.

-Brilliant.

I'm about to sow some cornflower seeds.

This flower has been adopted by Motor Neurone Disease as their emblem.

We're entering their awareness week,

so they'll be handing packets of seeds out all over in the next week or so.

A trifle late for us to be sowing them here, but I'm about to do that.

Just sowing it broadcast in this wee patch.

When you do sow in broadcast,

just keep your... keep your going steady, like so.

Spread them out. And then in, like that.

These will flower later in the summer.

If you want to buy a second packet or give them another donation, hold on to it.

Sow it in September. They'll flower next year.

But with a bit of luck, the cornflower is quite adaptable to our climate.

It may seed itself and come up all over the place.

What could be better? It's lovely.

It must be two or three weeks now that we've been bedding out plants.

We haven't had chance to look at this border.

-What's the theme?

-The theme this time is the daisy border,

or the fancy name is Compositae, because everything belongs to the Compositae family.

Quite interesting, as well. There's the blue ageratum,

marigolds, bidens..

Rudbeckias, which aren't in flower yet.

What else have we got? The bidens, which is good for trailing over.

I'm slightly limited because my choice this time was, maybe to save the gardeners a little bit of work,

plants that you could buy from plug plants in catalogues.

You're limited for height because of the width of the border.

It's a very narrow border. But I think it'll be really colourful.

The colour theme tends to be going for the whites, the yellows and the blues.

-They're nice open flowers, so they're good for wildlife.

-Absolutely right.

-Jim, look over there!

-HE TUTS

-I wish you hadn't mentioned it!

-I'm glad you mentioned it!

There's four lovely fronds there, and there's another one just coming up.

Good old tree fern.

-It's not very big for its age!

-It's doing really well.

Did you get Scottish ones?

If you'd like any more information, it's in the factsheet.

You might want some information about those micro leaves,

or the plants that Jim was putting in the barrel greenhouse.

The easiest way to access the factsheet is online.

Next week, we'll be replanting the Mediterranean herb garden,

and we're going to use some herbs which can cope with the Scottish climate!

Oh, yes, yes, yes!

I'm going to give everybody a warning, because next week we are letting MO Bacter out of the bag!

-Scary!

-This is the new material that eats moss! But what else will it eat?!

Until we see you next week... ALL: Goodbye.

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