Episode 14 The Beechgrove Garden

Hello there, and welcome to Beechgrove. Another bonny day.

By jingo, we've had our share of rain recently,

so this is a great relief.

Now then, children.

Here we have a problem that happens in many suburban gardens,

in particular where space is tight.

We've got a tree that's spoiling this lovely avalanche.

You plant things in the space underneath, think they'll be OK,

and it grows.

What we really need to do is lift the crown.

We've done this already,

But every now and then, you've got to have a look at it.

Explain that technical phrase.

Lifting the crown is taking off some of the branches off the main trunk

so that we're letting more light in.

-Once it is cut off, you can't put it back.

-That is true.

So you've got to keep looking.

Don't take it all off at once.

We need to have a go at this, taking off some of the weight to start.

I'll hold this.

I'll cut that with the loppers.

That immediately springs up and takes it away.

Your wee plant's got plenty of space now.

But that's rather untidy.

I think we could afford to take the whole thing off.

I'll just undercut that.

And I'll hold on to this.

Why are you undercutting?

Because if I don't, it'll tear,

and the whole thing looks horrible, right down...

Here we go. A nice, sharp saw.

That's good. Look at that. Excellent.

-Now...

-Stand back?

Stand back, have a look.

You see, that's better for this.

-Absolutely.

-The sun's through, but that's horrible.

Have you got your loppers?

-Whack that one off.

-I'll do that.

I can't handle the loppers, they're too expensive.

So we can just take a bit off like that, which is quite easy.

Better still. Now, behind you, I'm facing Deutzia,

a cracker of a shrub, and you can't see the form of it.

It's being spoilt. So, George?

I think if we took this branch off there.

This is small enough to take off with a one inch.

Can you hold that, while I hold on to the...?

Just take the weight, that's it.

Let's just pause a moment.

You're getting anxious, Mr McColl.

I am, because you guys get trigger-happy.

I think we need a bit off here.

And this one here.

I'm going to stay out of the way.

Look at that. Can I take this off?

Um, yes.

-Good.

-Underneath.

Now...

You need to have another inch, George.

The second layer up.

You've got to be joking!

Stop, you too. Stop!

Oh, come on.

God, Sweeney Todd's got nothing on you.

It's brilliant.

They'll be nothing left for the next time. Look at this!

It's amazing what's come off, though,

and yet there's still a whole tree here, Jim. It's a good shape still.

I want to be sure that there is a whole tree!

Meanwhile, in the rest of the programme...

I'm in the Cairngorms, where last month,

the temperatures were down to minus five.

Come and see what you can do

even when it's as cold as that.

And my challenge this week lies in the heart of the Buchan countryside,

very arable, very windswept,

small cottage, big garden.

George, I'm really excited because at last we've got honey berries.

And I planted these plants back in 2009.

You need two for cross-pollination. So, a wee taste.

Don't get too excited, because...

You're taking the big ones first.

Yes, obviously.

Now, I think that's quite nice.

That's off this plant here.

You're kind of pulling a face.

It's mediocre. I wouldn't really cross the street for it.

It is meant to be the replacement to the blueberry.

It's like blueberry taste.

It doesn't need acidic conditions. It's very hardy, from Siberia.

-And this other one?

-The little one?

That is disgusting.

The trouble is, though, you need the two plants.

I hope that's the cross-pollinated and we don't need to eat it.

But, look, that one is the worst tasting, but it's actually

the best foliage plant. Look at the stems on that.

So you're going to do a bit of propagation. I'll leave you to it.

Thank you very much.

No spitting out!

Now, if we're taking semi-ripe wood cuttings of this,

what we've got to do is select ripe shoots

where the growth on the end is slowing down.

That's what you're after with semi-ripe wood cuttings.

Three or four leaves long,

trim it off with a sharp knife, just below a leaf, a leaf joint.

Trim off the leaves. It's as simple as that.

Then dip that in some hormone,

shake off the excess,

and put it down the side of a pot

where you've filled the pot with a compost of peat-sand mix

or a cutting compost,

and some sharp sand on the top.

The sharp sand runs down the side of the cutting and it aids rooting.

Make sure they're watered, put a poly bag over them,

and then either on a windowsill, somewhere semi-shaded,

and they'll be rooted by the spring.

Well, from George taking semi-ripe cuttings,

I'm going to look at a different type of propagation,

and that's with houseplants. I've got three houseplants to look at.

First of all, the peace lily.

There's a lovely spathe.

I find this one flowers even in the wintertime.

Then we've got the Aspidistra, or the cast-iron plant,

and I think that common name gives a little bit away,

that really it is very hardy,

doesn't mind being in a shady place in the home,

and really is quite happy with a little bit of neglect.

And then the last one I've got here is Billbergia.

You might not be so familiar with this one, but it's a bromeliad.

So, what do they have in common when it comes to propagation?

All of them can just be divided.

Let's start again, back with the peace lily.

If we take a closer look,

you can see there are almost like rosettes here,

and if I make sure that when I divide it,

I take a whole rosette, I'm going to end up

with probably four or five plants.

Then if we have a look at the cast-iron plant,

if you look down here, you can see these are basically rhizomes,

and as long as I divide it by taking a couple of leaves,

then I'm going to increase my stock.

There I reckon, again, I could have at least half a dozen plants.

I want to leave these two alone,

because there's nothing wrong with them at the moment.

Indeed, the cast-iron plant is quite happy if it's a little root-bound.

But the Billbergia, I think this has suffered a little bit of neglect,

and I really do want to try and divide it up.

Although this is rather pot-bound, once I can pull this out,

I'm hoping that I'm going to be able to get maybe three plants from this.

So, some of these rosettes have completely died.

This is where perhaps you need the bread knife.

We can cut through here.

That crunchy noise is the fact I've got gravel in the bottom.

So, there we go. I would pull away some of the dead foliage,

and if I wanted to, I can divide that again.

You know me, I like value for money!

We would end up with two plants like that. I can just pot those on,

and I can take one home and give some to some of my friends as well.

Martina Monroe lives and gardens in the Buchan countryside,

and she's looking for a few ideas to pep up her vegetable growing.

Martina, there's a difference now from March,

when we first visited to look at this garden. A bit of colour.

-Considerable difference, isn't there?

-Aye, a bit of colour here.

Did you plant most of this yourself?

I did. Nature helped me as well, as you can see.

Yes, it is kind of higgledy-piggledy, in some terms.

That's a nice thing there, that perennial wallflower.

-Yes, and it's very hardy, too.

-Perfect.

There are some new varieties about,

so if you're keen on it, you should look at the catalogues.

Why did you write to Beechgrove?

Because the vegetable patch that I have is too small for me now,

and I wanted another area where I could do that.

We talked about it in March.

You were talking about that top corner of the garden.

Yes, and I thought that part of the garden isn't very productive.

It's not doing very much, and that's why I thought...

Whilst it would get shelter from the wind,

I thought the stuff would be very shaded, because it's a secluded spot.

-It is.

-Since, I felt it was a bit too far from the back door,

and that maybe you'd appreciate a little potager-style by there,

so you could pop out the back door,

pick some parsley, back into the soup, absolutely fresh down here.

That's a very good idea, and a practical suggestion.

It's kind of in your face.

You can't ignore it. If it's needing weeding, then you've got to.

True. It would be an incentive to look after it.

That's very realistic.

We're going to use some boxes to make a little potager style,

and because of that, we can pop them about,

and when you're happy with the shape,

-we can get stuck in.

-Lovely.

-OK?

Leave a wee path in the middle. That's it. Whoa.

Quite like that idea.

Second thought, of course, is to use this pot as one edge of it.

-What do you think?

-I like that, too,

because that's quite economical in terms of the space it's using up.

The final one is to have them all in a row.

I don't think that's quite as inspiring or as ornamental.

I'd like to seem them from here, if that's not awkward.

She reminds me of my granny buying a hat.

-You think that's as good an idea?

-It's your garden, madam, not mine.

We could also have the hooks the other way.

I think that would be better, honestly.

-I like that.

-You happy with that?

-Yes.

I'm back in.

This stuff's pretty weedy, and if you're keeping it as a lawn,

you might want to try killing the weeds.

The thing to do is store it as turf, because upside down like that,

fill that with some rubbish there, and we'll get it up quite high.

Leave that for a year, 18 months, and then come and chop it down.

The most wonderful lawn for topping the pots

or topping up these boxes, or whatever.

Don't throw it away!

Having finally decided on the location of the beds,

we got the dust stripped off, we've got them filled with compost,

a proprietary multi-purpose compost, a simple way to do it.

I've made a selection of plants which you might disagree with,

so when we've gone, you can please yourself.

But this is how I thought it out.

This one here, I thought, maybe herbs and one or two perennials,

the shrubby-type herbs,

including an old favourite, rhubarb.

I've even got some mint here.

Because some of them can be very invasive, we've got this.

-Oh, what a good idea.

-So we bury the pot

and leave the rim just proud of the surface, put the mint in there,

-and it prevents it from spreading. You've got to watch it.

-Very clever.

So, there's a selection like that,

then we've got some vegetables for this season,

the Brassicas and a few leeks for the far away one there,

then we've got strawberry.

The bonus is there's quite a few fruits on them. There's Elsanta.

Would I need to put straw in with the strawberries?

It helps to keep the strawberries off the ground and clean.

There's one left, of course, in my pocket here.

There's still time to be sowing things like radish and lettuce,

and I've got some swedes here. But again, it's up to you.

-You can choose.

-Thank you, that's lovely.

I think we should start setting them out.

They're not going to get out of this.

It's Italian rocket.

That's the job done. Are you happy with it?

I'm absolutely delighted, Jim. It's a great inspiration to me.

I shall look forward to seeing how the plants fare,

and also look forward to growing new crops as well.

Yes. The rest of them will be your choice.

-This is an indication of what can be done.

-Yes.

-It's not intimidating, because they're quite small units.

-Yes.

And I should say that you're helping the environment,

because these are made from recycled plastic.

-You know the covers for the silage rows?

-Yes.

All collected, and that's what this is made out of.

That's wonderful. It is very good indeed. It's lovely.

Huge thank you indeed. I am delighted. Absolutely delighted.

To accommodate the change in level between the Silver Garden

and the trial ground, we've created this double-walled bed here,

tried Euonymus Emerald Gaiety in it as a wee hedge, it didn't work,

pulled them out, and we're going to put lavenders in.

They like good drainage, so we're giving this border a doing,

both sides of the steps.

First of all, some compost, in it goes,

really upping the amount of organic matter that's here, and then,

remembering that drainage thing, gravel.

It helps to open up the soil. Fork that in like so.

And we're ready to plant.

George, here's the prepared soil, so loads of grit in it,

plenty of good drainage in that. It's important.

-Then landscape fabric on the top.

-That's going to keep down the weeds,

keep down the maintenance, then we've got gravel on top of that.

-That's going to be nice and ornamental.

-It shouldn't get too wet even here.

And now the lavenders. This is the French lavender. I think it's a really pretty flower.

This is a wonderful flower. I love the scent.

-And these rabbit ears which stick up...

-They're gorgeous but I don't know how hardy that is.

I've had trouble with things that aren't hardy

-so I'm not going to say too much.

-Then we move on to Lavender dentata "Devonshire Compact".

If it does what it says on the tin it will fill the space and look superb.

Then we've got the more familiar lavender, the English lavender.

This is the one everybody has in their garden and it should be familiar to everybody.

-That one along there...

-Silver Mist.

-Beautiful thing, wonderful shape and form.

-Four varieties. Hopefully these will do well.

We've got gaps because we're going to put some obelisks in

and have a bit of height and something to climb.

I was going to ask about that. What colour are we putting there?

-Probably purple if Lesley has her way.

-We'll wait and see.

I haven't been in the secret garden for a while yet and you've been pushing the boat out, have you not?

I have. I was trying Southern Hemisphere plants in here

just to see if we could go along with climate change as we thought.

-Like that at the back there? That's deid.

-Disaster, isn't it? That was Berberidopsis

and that is dead. But they're small plants and I think that had something to do with it.

-Maybe not established before the bad weather.

-Absolutely.

That was supposed to be special too.

They're still special, just. It's Watsonia. That will be fine.

That will look good against the stained glass. It'll be fine.

-You heard it first here. Aye, aye.

-Just have faith, my boy.

And there's a big gap over here.

-Are we still in the Southern Hemisphere?

-Yes. That's New Zealand.

There was a New Zealand thing in there too. That's surprising.

That's Ozothamnus and that's OK.

The Corokia which ce-roaked it! If you'll excuse the expression.

I think we've just been lucky over the last 30 years.

I knew Corokia, back in early '60s, in Berkshire.

And these fancy plants have been creeping further north,

-and we're getting bolder and bolder.

-We've been lulled by the nursery men.

And we've had some 'deidies' in this corner.

This was completely dead, great planting opportunity.

What I've decided to do here, we'll have a ground cover

which will be formed by putting in forget-me-nots.

I've got forget-me-not seed which I'll put in right at the end,

but we've got stuff to plant before that.

-That would be broadcast.

-Just scattered, let the stuff come through. Got some ferns here.

This is a wee bit of a Victorian stumpery. It's not very large,

but you and I are of an age where we can remember these things.

-Aye, don't remind me!

-So ferns against the stumps, I'll put these in in just a second.

Once I can find my... Here we are. These, that's the Cobra Lily.

That is a cracker. The Arisaemas, I've seen in a lot of gardens.

They seem to do well, I reckon they will do quite well here.

-If that comes up through the forget-me-not, I think it'll look splendid.

-OK.

Now, to keep the blue theme going,

there's also some Meconopsis,

-I've got Meconopsis betonicifolia at the front there.

-Yes.

-We'll have a fair bit of variety in it.

-You'll get some ground cover as well from that.

-Is it a Heucherella or a Tiarella?

-That's Heucherella.

-Really?

-It is indeed.

-Which is a cross between the two.

Aye, well, interspecific hybrid, and that will give a light bounce out of the corner there.

Next to a fuchsia. Now, how did that manage to survive that winter?

Never be dogmatic, because once you say that...

-Aye, did you mention the Hostas?

-I hoped you would ask about them.

These are little Mouse Ear Hostas, this is "Blue Mouse Ears", this one.

There's "Frosted Mouse Ears" as well and "Holy Mouse Ears".

And what we've got are ones which are supposed to be slug-resistant.

So if we put them in here, which is slug corner.

-Slug territory without a doubt.

-I think we will prove it right or wrong, won't we?

-Absolutely.

They will come through the ground cover of forget-me-nots.

The thing that's interesting, the forget-me-nots are up,

they'll do their own thing, be blooming in the spring.

And they'll go away and just lift them. The seeds left another year.

-Time alone will tell.

-We will see.

This week, I'm in the Cairngorms, outside Nethy Bridge,

where Chris Jamieson has created a garden out of virtually nothing.

Tell me, what was the site like when you arrived?

Well, it was just natural.

Just grass, a few violets.

-Right.

-The trees were here,

the silver birches and rowans were here.

The house wasn't a house, it was a ruin.

-It was the height of the bottom of the windowsill.

-What had it been before?

It had been a mill. And there was even a tree growing out of what's now the kitchen.

My goodness! How did you have the courage to take on a site like that,

-all those years ago?

-It was nothing to do with courage.

We were young, we wanted a house, we liked the site

-and you didn't think about it.

-I suppose that's right.

-It's on a slope, had you been used to gardening?

-Yes. My parents have a house on a slope,

-so there was rockeries.

-So they knew what to do.

-Did they come and holiday?

-Yes, they came and helped.

Now, how many years?

We've been here 35 years, but we've also brought up two girls.

-It's not constant.

-It wasn't constant, no.

The whole thing now, you see, just looks as though it has always been here.

It's all melted into the countryside and looks superb.

But what really gets me is this wonderful collection of plants you have got.

You've got some great primulas. There's that little one down there, Primula wilsonii.

-What's this one?

-Alpicola.

-Look at it, two different colours.

And vialii and a Dodecatheon.

These are superb. So a great collection of primulas.

But it does have a down side...

-Oh!

-..because somewhere along the line,

without me knowing, I must have introduced New Zealand flatworm.

And in three years, I have been collecting over 7,000.

-Not funny.

-You're a sad person!

-Yes, yes.

Counting them as well. It's the only thing to do, collect them,

nothing else keeps them under control.

They eat the earthworms, of course,

and because you have been using compost and things like that,

I suspect that's why you have lot of earthworms. There's lots for them to feed on.

-This is my other problem, George.

-This is a Hamamelis.

Now, what did you buy this as?

-Hamamelis mollis "Pallida".

-That's this one at the bottom.

And of course, that's grafted on to Hamamelis virginiana.

That's what we've got growing here.

So the suckers have come from the base of that

and overtopped Hamamelis mollis "Pallida".

What you can do, because this one flowers in the autumn,

that one flowers in the winter.

So that's a great thing for up here. Just take off one of those suckers,

and leave the rest of it so you have got an autumn-flowering plant

and a winter-flowering plant.

And go and buy another plant of Hamamelis mollis "Pallida".

That won't be difficult!

This year, for the first time, Chris opened her garden

under Scotland's garden scheme,

along with her friend and neighbour Helen Blyth.

So what a contrast this is. We've seen a garden on a slope,

and now we're surrounded by trees, this is a woodland garden.

And everything here loves the shade of the woodland conditions.

This Meconopsis is just a cracker.

-What is that one?

-Betonicifolia.

-That is a Cedrus one.

-It is indeed.

The colour on that is just magnificent.

It's lovely with the sun shining through it.

Then this dusky cranesbill, with all the bees on it.

-The "Mourning Widow", apparently.

-Is it? Oh my goodness, poor soul.

Further over, we have a plant with this milk chocolate-coloured flower,

this thing Bupleurum. I think it's Bupleurum lancifolium.

-That is just superb.

-It is, it's a lovely plant.

It's not terribly brilliant but to see the sun shining through it,

-it's almost opaque.

-Is it?

-Yes, it's lovely.

Then the Morina next to it, this thistly-looking thing.

-That is a wonderfully statuesque plant.

-It is, very structural.

Although that normally grows in dry conditions,

it's loving that with the sun pouring in on it.

-Yes, it's quite successful there.

-0h, it is successful.

-You've also got some interesting trees and shrubs for me to look at.

-Oh, yes.

When I walked over to this,

I thought this was going to be Acer griseum,

the Paperbark Maple that comes from Japan.

-Of course, it's not.

-No, it's a birch.

-It is.

Look at that. It is a birch.

I think it's possibly Betula utilis,

one of those ones which is... it's a diverse group.

Wonderful bark, and when the sun shines through that, it is absolutely magic.

And it comes into its own in the wintertime.

-It's an orange glow. It's beautiful.

-Now this one does the same.

But this is a white one. This is Betula utilis as well,

although on your list, it'll possibly be something different.

-Jacquemontii.

-That's right. Betula jacquemontii is the same thing.

This one has wonderful pure white stems. What I really like about it

is the way in which when you get branches joining the trunk,

you get these wonderful narrow bits. It almost looks like elephant hide.

I think that is a magical feature in the plant.

You have got a garden which has got spring colour,

-I'm sure you've got bulbs, we've not seen them.

-Absolutely.

We've got summer colour with the herbaceous. We've got winter colour with these stems.

And then in between, autumn colour, which I'm sure was planned as well.

Well, yes indeed.

And you've always got variety.

That makes the garden come alive, and it's a splendid place to be.

If you don't like using insecticides in the greenhouse

but want to control whitefly,

think about using these yellow sticky traps.

All you have to do is hang them up in amongst the plants

and hopefully, that will trap the whitefly.

Since we pruned this fig earlier in the season,

it's made an enormous amount of growth.

What I'm going to have to do to encourage the figs to develop

and to get a crop for next year is to spur prune it.

I'm going to count four leaves beyond the well developed figs,

and prune it off there.

That will encourage those ones to grow and ripen this year.

Then there will be small figs which will develop,

and they will be the crop for next year.

Well, they say thyme, it is a precious thing. Isn't it?

-Isn't it wonderful as well?

-Super.

-It's flowering its head off.

Lesley and myself revamped this garden a few weeks ago. We did pull out a lot,

-but obviously we've left enough.

-Thank goodness! Absolutely.

But this here vegetable display is a bit alien to this part of the garden.

Maybe so, but it's a great demonstration of what you can have in your garden.

There is some turnips, that is Tokyo Cross, it is only about eight weeks.

-And that's just the thinnings.

-Yeah.

Then we've got Salad Bowl lettuce, this wonderful purple one,

then this one here, which is the kale.

-Look at the purple stem. Gorgeous.

-Really good on a plate.

Absolutely lovely. The important thing about that little turnip

is not to let it get too big because they are really sweet,

just mouth-sized bite at the moment.

-I thought you'd ask whether that's the championship vegetables!

-I was hoping he wouldn't!

-They are not.

-I won't embarrass him.

-We need a bigger table for that.

-Aye!

If you'd like any more information about this week's programme -

the plants Jim and George were putting in the Secret Garden,

or the propagation items, it is all in the fact sheet

and the easiest way to access that is on line.

Next week, Carole and I are ploutering in the bog.

We are going to plant some carnivorous plants. That should be interesting.

Yes, I just hope it's a unisex bog. Moving swiftly on!

I'm going to be sowing biennials and overwintering veg.

And I believe you and I will be looking at some trials.

-Yeah, we're going to be busy!

-Indeed.

-So until we see you again next time, it's bye-bye.

-Bye!

-Bye!

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