Episode 16 The Beechgrove Garden

Well, hello and welcome to Beechgrove.

Now, we've been complaining a lot about the weather.

I think some of the vegetables could complain as well.

But, on the other hand, some have responded very positively, given the right treatment.

So, we're going for a wee tour.

Fennel, looking well.

Started to bulk up now.

And these were covered, of course, early on, as you can see from the hoops that we've got.

Similarly, with the celery and the celeriac.

We've had this tunnel over the top.

This, you can get in various types of cover.

This one stands up to the wind and everything else,

just to bring these things on because they were a wee bit late in getting planted.

The crop, I suppose, that's the most remarkable at this time are the carrots.

Now, you were here when we sowed these carrots at the beginning of April.

They were covered with fleece until the beginning of June.

So they got away to an absolutely superb start.

And they're looking well. We're due to get a second visit from the carrot fly,

the second generation eggs are laid at the beginning of August.

So, in another couple of weeks, we will be putting the fleece

back over these carrots so that the fly doesn't get in to lay its eggs.

Because the maggots can then, if they're allowed, tunnel into the maturing roots.

So, that will get covered. So too will the young carrots here be covered at the same time.

In between we've got some beetroot that are really suffering from weather. That's all it is.

They're really tattered but they will give us a crop without a doubt.

But they have suffered from the cold and the wet.

Potatoes, well, we reported earlier that we've got a bit of blackleg in some of the varieties.

But they're doing quite nicely.

Variations in height are probably due mainly to the fact we've got half rows.

We got about eight varieties here.

Not, I don't think, attributed to the use of Nutrimate, a new fertiliser recommended for potatoes.

We put the Nutrimate on this half of the plot

and compensated the other half with ordinary general fertiliser.

I don't think it's made any difference at all.

A nice bit of lettuce, red deer's tongue. Isn't that stunning?

It's worth a place in the flower border.

Then we come to the brassicas.

Now, jumbo brassicas, you might call them.

They are doing really well.

The back half of this plot was treated with Perlka, much

recommended by Medwyn Williams, the so-called world champion vegetable grower - whatever that means.

It's a high nitrogen fertiliser.

It's got about 20%, 18%.

Somebody said the first time I mentioned it I said 80%.

Well, it looks as if it's 80% nitrogen.

The front half is just grown over.

The fact is these crops are looking well because

the ground is well looked after and rotated.

So they get the best out of the crops whatever.

And I think some of these new materials if they're applied to

ground and that may be not such good heart, will make a big difference.

The bonus with Perlka is, of course, that it also inhibits clubroot.

Well, we don't have clubroot in the garden - thank goodness, touch wood - at the moment.

So, that is not one that would persuade us to use it.

But just look at the size of these cabbages.

They are stonking. They're really superb.

That would keep a family going for a week, that one.

And the calabrese, it's just ready for picking. Absolutely stunning.

And, as you well know, it snaps off just like that.

And that part is part of the vegetable.

It's as tasty as the flower.

I tell you, it's as sweet as a nut.

Cauliflower, let's have a look at these. Stunning cauliflower.

Covered over with a leaf or two, just to be able to keep the sun off it so that they don't lose colour.

And then we've got kale, two types of kale.

And the Brussels sprouts coming on very nicely at the end.

So, the Perlka experiment,

I don't think we need it, to be honest with you.

We'll stick to our normal practice.

Now, in the rest of the programme...

How do you transform a slag heap

from an open cast mine into a beautiful and entertaining garden?

And, this week, I've got a problem with wind.

It's coming from up there, right down through this site

and disappearing round the back of the house.

I'm in the cutting garden and things are starting to really take on a very colourful look.

The outside beds are all planted with perennials that flower in the summer.

And I've picked a selection of them.

The astrantias are looking beautiful at the moment.

This one is Roma. I've teamed that up with this very, very blue delphinium.

It's standing at about six foot tall.

I've just picked some of the smaller flower spikes. This is called Langdon's Orpheus.

And it's a stunning, stunning blue.

This is sea holly. Ouch.

Eryngium, which is quite spiky.

This dries well, as well as being a cut flower in water.

The other plant that we've got next to it, this is a new achillea.

This is taygetea. What I've done, I've got this in water, I'm going

to let the water evaporate and it will just dry naturally.

And it will keep that colour throughout the winter.

Both the eryngium and the achillea make really good cut flowers and dried flowers.

So we've actually planted up a selection of them in one of the beds here.

This is terracotta, with this rich orange.

And I've teamed that up with salmon beauty.

I'm going to let those dry naturally.

And this vibrant red is called the beacon.

Again, it's going to dry off.

It's good if you've got your flowers in glass like this.

You can actually see when the water level does go down.

In a jug or something, you've got to just check they're not running out of water.

We've also got a beautiful rose called eglantine.

If you don't want to pick a lot of the flower, the way you can just

expose one like that is just have it floating in a lovely glass bowl.

The next bed is all the half-hardy annuals.

These were started off in the greenhouse and planted out once there was no risk of frost. And I've picked

a little selection of them.

They're in shades of blue and pink.

This is orlaya, or the lace flower. I've never grown that before.

It's exquisite. The good thing about picking the flowers like this, this is really live heading.

The more I pick, the more flowers I'm going to get.

Teamed that up with a cosmos gazebo, a little fragrant stock.

And then I think probably the star of the show is cerinthe, with these electric blue bracts.

It's so attractive and very unusual.

The last bed were hardy annuals. They were sown directly into the ground.

If you don't have a greenhouse, you can still have flowers to cut.

They've grown up beautifully, but not flowering yet so I'll have to show you those next time.

Two or three weeks ago I visited a garden down in the Scottish borders

near Kelso, where the main problem was one of wind.

Wind was damaging the trees and plants, buffeting the leaves, breaking the branches.

Today I've come to another garden which has a problem with wind.

But this is a blank canvas.

We've got in here right at the beginning, so we can actually do something which will perhaps

help the owner to get over the problems that the wind might cause.

The wind comes whistling over the top of the hill, right down into the garden, here.

Also, the cold air comes down this slope and rolls into the garden and causes frost damage.

We've got two problems.

So, Martin Walker, tell me what this site was like

-when you arrived.

-George, it was completely overgrown.

The plants in the garden were as high as you and I when we first came here.

We had a look to see if we could salvage anything, but it had all gone to height.

Previously it had been a lovely garden.

But it was just not salvageable.

So what we did was strip everything out and we're now left with the blank canvas here.

-Did you use weedkiller?

-We used weedkiller

and also my mother has been out on her hands and knees.

I think, frankly, she's fed up doing that.

We need to do something that's going to solve that problem.

-Fresh start?

-Absolutely.

-Clean space.

-Now's the time to change.

-Indeed.

You might think it's rather strange that we're cutting back some

of this vegetation which is acting as a windbreak.

But the reason for doing that is that I want to establish a line

along the fence so I can pin the artificial windbreak material to the fence.

-George!

-I am so far away from that, it can't possibly be me.

I just can't leave that.

-Rubbish.

-Nonsense.

-Hold it properly.

Oh, I see.

He'll never notice. No, I couldn't do that to you.

So, what we've done here is we've put on this membrane along the back, here. This is a windbreak membrane.

This is not solid material.

It actually is semi-permeable. It's got lots of spaces in it.

What's that does is it allows the wind to come through it.

If this had been solid, the wind would have come sweeping

over the top, we would have had all sorts of damage.

So it doesn't do damage because it's filtered as it comes through, slowed down.

It will also stop the frost. The frost rolling down the hill will get trapped against the outside of that.

-OK. And should I plant anything in front of it?

-I don't think you need to.

I think this rough grass that's here will grow up over the base and will obscure it sufficiently and

-make it pleasant to the eye, when you look out the house.

-Excellent.

So, we've nailed the fabric to the post.

What we've got now is a protected area here, the worst of the wind is going to be kept out the garden.

What we're going to do now is to prepare this site.

And Martin's got all the neighbours mobilised so they'll be able to help us.

So, Martin, what I've done is I've laid out the plants.

I've selected a range of things which I hope will give you interest right through the year.

So, from spring, things like the bergenia at the front, that one

with the great big elephant ears, that one will flower in the winter.

Next to that is

sedum spectabile.

That one will flower in the autumn.

So we've got colour and interest right throughout the year.

And do these spread out at all?

These will spread and will fill the spaces.

All we need to do is to get mother to come out and do some weeding, if you can manage that.

She'll be delighted to hear that.

Now, the grasses, miscanthus.

And they have a wonderful movement in the wind.

-Right. That's what we want here.

-That's right.

In between that I've put some shrubs. We've got

viburnum opulus. This is diablo, this dark, dark one here.

And does that flower?

A little flower on it. There's a little pinkish flower.

Then the one behind it, however, is much better.

That's Viburnum bodnantense dawn.

That flowers in the middle of winter with no leaves on it.

And then sometimes again in July.

Sounds great.

Now, you're looking at it rather strangely, I fear.

There's some fairly large gaps, I've noticed.

That's right. Well, I could have come and taken your garden from

you and imposed my will on it, as it were, by selecting plants.

But I've not. What I've done is, I've given you an idea of what you can plant in specific areas.

So, that miscanthus could come right down through the middle.

-OK.

-That will give us, with the wind, great movement.

-That sounds great.

Then, at the far side, we've got things which are tactile.

Plants which we can see much more closely and enjoy seeing closely.

Things like the dianthus, and there's catmint over there.

That tall, stately one, that's morina longifolia.

That is a plant worth seeing in detail close-up.

Again, try to keep in mind that we want interest right through the year.

Right, that's the planting pretty much finished.

We've left some spaces for you to fill out with the plants if you want to flesh it out a bit more.

We've cut the hedge back as well, we saw that earlier.

That really thickens the hedge up and it will give a better shelter to the garden.

Your plans for this area?

I'd been thinking about grass for this area, just from a maintenance point of view.

Sowing it or turfing?

I haven't really thought, to be honest with you. I don't know if one method is better than the other.

I think for you, I would just turf it.

It's going to be more expensive but I would turf it.

There are so many sparrows around here that

if you sow with this with grass seed, they'll just eat it all.

-And it's more instant?

-Much more instant.

But make sure it doesn't have a lot of rye grass in it.

Rye grass grows very quickly. And it takes a lot of maintenance.

You're looking for a low-maintenance lawn.

-So, enjoy your garden.

-Excellent. Thank you very much.

Well, we've got a problem here to solve of our own.

We're in the herbaceous bed.

On 23rd May, Scotland had this huge gale.

We escaped reasonably lightly. One tree came down.

This poplar came down.

We were also lucky in the fact that it went over into the border and didn't do any damage there at all.

No, it did break the crambe cordifolia's flowers and everything.

I think we've got to appreciate the fact now that this whole area has got so much more light.

It's maybe a good thing that it's come down.

In some ways. It's always an opportunity.

I haven't been here for a couple of weeks.

So I thought we'll plant and we'll just disguise the stump.

So I brought up some really nice prostrate shrubs.

This is a lonicera lemon beauty, which is a shrubby honeysuckle.

Yes. And that spreads a metre or two, doesn't it?

So if you want to disguise a drain cover these would work really well.

-Juniperus squamata, that's blue spider.

-I've not heard of that one.

That's a nice spready one. Or the cotoneaster gnome.

You haven't been out for a couple of weeks and look, it's sprouting.

Having got here. I was so pleased my viburnum recovered from its roots.

And, of course, this is now starting to do this. Whoops, I snapped one.

So, what do you do with a stump like this?

You could get in one of these stump grinders.

That's quite expensive and sometimes it's a bit difficult with access to get something in.

I'm quite keen not to do too much physical digging and damage here for two reasons.

First of all, there were clematis up here.

And the clematis are all recovering here.

The other thing is, we're very close to the waterfall. The liner is just here.

I don't want to do too much physical pulling so I just really want to try and kill it.

There's three chemicals here available on the market.

When you read them, a couple of them are really quite good for the old wood.

And straightaway we've drilled holes in because it's important that you are treating fresh wood.

All we need to do basically, you can paint it on or you can just pour that into the hole.

We've got that in a cafetiere.

I should point out we have marked it weed killer.

And because we are just pouring and painting, we're wearing gloves.

If you were going to spray this we'd have to put eye protection on.

You know what I would do as well?

I would cover this with polythene afterwards, especially if you've got pets and things around the garden.

It's actually quite alarming how much this has gone through the bed, we've uncovered a root here

which I think we'll probably saw some of these off.

I would do that right the way round.

Uncover some of these, chop them back and try and keep it within this area.

-It's even sprouting up through here which is really quite a nuisance.

-Incredibly invasive.

We are also going to do a little bit of planting.

What we've been doing is picking up the plants we have here

in the herbaceous bed and reflecting them over in the calendar border.

I've brought up some herbaceous geraniums because I just love them.

The one next to you, geranium Azure Rush, is really pretty.

It's a relation of Rozanne, and that means it's really nice

-and spready and will climb and scramble, so it will come through these shrubs.

-It's stunning.

I don't want to touch it because I've been touching the weed killer.

I've got another one, geranium pratense, which is a white one.

Because this is the cool end of the herbaceous border.

And under the tree on the other side where it's shady,

another white geranium, that's macrorrhizum White Ness.

That's one of the best, isn't it, for shade?

-And white as well as beautiful.

-Yeah.

But first of all, let's get killing.

More painting and more pouring.

I'm with Malvina Dwyer in her lovely front garden.

We are at Avon Bridge, just outside Falkirk.

You have altered this garden quite dramatically in the last couple of years?

I certainly have. It just had a lawn, borders and the hostas at the centre of it.

My son called it my pensioner's garden so I thought

I would lose it, have a change and I didn't want to cut the grass either.

-You are 77, if you don't mind me saying that.

-Only just!

I love the greeting at the front door with the two baskets,

the double storey. I had it at Beechgrove like this but mine snapped.

It's the first time I've tried it, so I hope mine doesn't snap!

You got rid of the lawn which would make it easier.

Looking at this, you might imagine that you can just have a nice,

low-maintenance garden that you don't do very much.

It's lovely because I can get round it fairly quickly and then it's finished.

And this is your front garden. The back garden tells a very different story.

Having got rid of the grass in the front garden,

you've got a lot of grass here and it's on quite a slope.

Yes, I'm afraid it is. It's about 45 degrees,

but I manage.

Quite difficult to cut.

It's extremely difficult.

You've got lots of lovely trees.

The prunus serrula when you first come into the garden.

-That's my favourite.

-The bark just peeling.

-It's gorgeous.

-Really attractive.

And you've been quite funny with your trees. You've given them faces.

I like humour around the garden, I can't see any point in having everything all serious.

-It caters for every taste.

-So you've got Naughty Nancy.

Yes, she's pulling faces.

I've got Sally Smiley, Tired Tim,

-Grumpy Gordon, but he's lost half his face.

-Maybe that's why he's a bit grumpy!

-Then I've got a tree spirit.

-That's beautiful.

-That's a natural looking thing.

-The carving is gorgeous.

-There's another one up the garden.

-I also like if you ever have to have a tree taken out, instead

of going right down and taking the stump out, you leave it and then it's a platform for a sculpture.

One of them is holding a pot.

That's right, or using it to haul on when I can't get up the bank.

That's really imaginative. And there's a lion under this tree, what is he called?

He's called Yard.

-My son christened him.

-What's the reason for that?

Well, he's only got three feet.

It took me about ten seconds to get that.

We found another place to sit, and what I do like about this garden

-the fact you have lots of seats all over.

-That's right.

There's a bit of history attached to this, isn't there?

That's right, it was actually a wash house when we first came here.

We didn't want it so we just pulled the whole thing down.

But you've adapted the walls to be seats, which is fabulous.

We are in an area where I can hear water from one water feature and there's the other pond.

This is important, isn't it, for encouraging wildlife?

Very much so. I have a badger that comes in, I have foxes that come in, I've got moles, which I like.

Not so sure about them.

Lots of bird feeders around as well which are lovely.

I just like wildlife coming in.

I just feel they have every right to be here, they are welcome to

come here and I consider it an honour that they wish to live in my garden.

And you are quite relaxed about how things might self sow, the

digitalis or the foxglove there has popped up, which is good for bees.

-And they are dotted all over the garden.

-That's right.

If something wishes to grow in a place then I think that's where it will grow well.

So I just leave them where they are.

-You don't try and control.

-No. No.

Wow, this is fantastic!

You come out from a woodland walk into this gorgeous open space.

It's lovely.

And you started to get a real idea of the scale of the garden.

That's right, it's three-quarters of an acre altogether.

Beautiful views down there.

This grass is looking gorgeous.

-I know, I love it.

-It's so airy, just blowing in the wind.

Blue oat grass, with a very complicated name which I can't pronounce.

I'm not going to try and say that either.

And then when you come here, this is just gorgeous.

Looking down into the garden.

You can actually see the depth of the garden.

Tell me something about the history.

Here was a very large heap of subsoil that the local open cast had put into an old quarry.

Right down at the bottom was a large hole just filled with washing machines, etc.

So I had a machine brought in to take the top off the hill and place it down the hole and fill it all up.

Then I presumed just to make it all into garden.

It's quite remarkable, but the soil was really very poor, it was rubbish.

Very much. It was heavy clay, rubble.

A lot of rubbish.

What is also very remarkable is the fact that you haven't always kept that well.

You've had your hips replaced and then that's been revised.

You've got a new knee, you're going to have some more surgery. That doesn't slow you down.

You've moved stones, because we have walls that have been created here and you've lugged the stones over.

And that is now that's helping to terrace and retrain it. You are a real inspiration not to give up.

-Thank you.

-And the other bit of good news is the fact your garden is open on August 7th, so people can come,

they can wander round, admire it for themselves and meet you.

That would be lovely, thank you very much.

1 o'clock till 5 o'clock.

THEY LAUGH

Here we are back at the decking.

We were looking at the geraniums two or three weeks ago and they

-are still looking rather sad, aren't they?

-I know.

They really like a hot... Sunshine to make them flower.

We've had so much rain, there's lots of rotten blooms.

It's constant dead-heading.

Let's have a look at some of the veg as well.

It's amazing what you can grow in a small space.

Lots of results here. Everything is in containers.

It's been really productive already.

We are going to have a look at the carrots.

I'm going to pull one or two and you can explain what we are doing here.

Lower down here the carrot root flies are supposed to fly in...

-How big is yours?

-These are... Oh!

Maybe you can get some slightly bigger ones?

She's supposed to fly in at 21 inches.

There's another one for you.

They are not very big, are they? Yours are much bigger.

But they are not damaged either.

You could use these in salads. I think I would leave them for a little bit longer.

That's the middle, that's the top. That's quite interesting.

Isn't it? Small, medium and large.

Now, tatties for Christmas.

What I do is normally keep some of my own potatoes that I chitted.

Instead of planting them in April, I've kept them in the greenhouse.

They look awful. This is Charlotte.

And I'd like to plant them at the beginning of July.

We are just in time now so they have the 10 to 12 weeks growing period.

If it's too late it's almost like a waste of time.

It is. I've rehydrated these, they still look awful.

As I say, it is Charlotte.

We are going to put it into this potato bag which has got compost in and drainage holes.

-It's the same principle as what we've done earlier.

-Exactly.

It's warm enough at the moment, these can stay outside.

But what you've got to do is keep them growing, so as it gets colder

-you'll probably have to move it into the greenhouse.

-By the end of September?

You have to protect them. Maybe fleece them as well?

Yeah. They are commercially available so it's just in time.

These don't have to be chitted, you just plant these again.

But do it now, otherwise forget it.

And don't rely on it for Christmas Day.

Check underneath that you have actually got some.

We are quite excited that we've got tatties here that might be ready.

Look at the foliage on this, looking rather sad.

Jim had a look at this for us and he reckons this is just weather. It's not blight.

Some people might think it's blight.

Because the foliage is bad, I think what we should do is empty this one out of the pot.

This is a French variety. Are you going to speak to it in French?

-I was hopeless at French at school.

-I'm just going to wait and see

because I've got exactly the same variety here in the stacking system.

-I'd like to see what you've got crop wise.

-If anything.

It's a variety called anoe.

It's meant to be yellow potatoes.

Isn't it exciting!

That's rather good.

Does that mean you are going to knock your one out as well?

I've never done one of these before. The thing is, you are supposed to be able to grow the stacks up.

I guess I just take them off like this.

Is it going to collapse all over?

-Here goes my competitive nature now.

-You get yours out of my way.

-These are mine.

-I know, we'll get them muddled.

This is an interesting thing because I guess you could just do this in stages and have some...

I know.

We're going to count them all, aren't we?

Well, we can look at the end of the programme as to how much we've got out of this.

No cheating.

There's that well-known phrase, seed time and harvest.

We've come to harvest because as the weeks go past more things become available.

How about the strawberries? Have you had a taste?

I think we all agree that symphony has got really good flavour and it produced the most as well.

Yes, these are the first of the outdoors, following on from that indoor lot.

That was the highest weight. These are our first potatoes from our containers. We've weighed them.

Yes, and I think we've both done quite well.

You had two and three-quarter pounds and I'm on to three-and a-half pounds.

-I think we've both done quite well.

-You won.

We should be metric, shouldn't we?

You should be. They are French, aren't they?

It's all about flavour, it's not necessarily just about the yield.

-I think that's Glasgow.

-How would you say it?

Anno.

But the veggies are coming along as well.

Some good carrots already, great calabrese and cauliflower.

-Absolutely super.

-This is delicious.

A real salad potato.

Waxy and gorgeous.

-What about the blackcurrants?

-Yes, what about the blackcurrants?

We've gone too automatic harvesting.

-Mechanical harvesting.

-That looks like a dustpan.

It does, doesn't it?

What you do is you just run this gently up the stem.

-That's very nifty.

-It works really well.

There's a wee compartment at the back to hold them.

I quite like George's idea last year when he was saying you can prune off some of the branches.

You can't do that with the redcurrants but with blackcurrants is fine. That's good.

That's so he can take them into the potting shed.

We are all speaking with our mouths full.

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

about the berry harvester or any of the varieties,

then it's all in the fact sheet.

The easiest way to access that is online.

And I'm excited because George is going to let me see his show veg.

We will see how they are progressing.

He's going to be a busy boy because he's going to be back in here with me as well,

because we have a pruning things to do and a few decisions to make.

-It's a busy programme again next week. Till then, goodbye.

-Goodbye.

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