:00:18. > :00:22.Hello and welcome to Beechgrove. It's dry at the moment. I'm hoping
:00:22. > :00:26.it will stay dry! The first visit back to see our sweet peas. We're
:00:26. > :00:29.growing them in the old-fashioned way of cordons up the single canes.
:00:29. > :00:32.That means taking out side shoots, like this one here, because it's
:00:32. > :00:37.flowers we want to encourage. It's the same story as the tomatoes.
:00:37. > :00:40.It's been a difficult season for sweet peas. We've had a lot of
:00:40. > :00:43.reports of this condition... There you are. I've cut that stem.
:00:43. > :00:48.There's not an indication of any buds at all on that. Bud drop,
:00:48. > :00:52.caused by atmospheric conditions. Cut the stems off and move on.
:00:53. > :00:56.There's not a lot you can do. On the other hand, it's fresh ground,
:00:56. > :00:59.it's well mucked, plenty fertiliser in. We've got three collections - a
:00:59. > :01:03.Showbench collection at the top, a Cutflower collection here and a
:01:03. > :01:09.Fragrant collection at the bottom. In this Fragrant collection,
:01:09. > :01:12.there's one or two famous people. Here we've got Terry Wogan. I don't
:01:12. > :01:15.think he'll be too pleased. It's a peely-wally kind of flower. Nothing
:01:15. > :01:18.wrong with the plant. Good stems, all the rest of it. But not
:01:18. > :01:21.producing the best of flowers. It's maybe not warm enough for them.
:01:21. > :01:26.This lot are called the Fragrant collection. I wouldnae give them
:01:26. > :01:31.house room, to be honest. Take that, for example. The flowers are far
:01:31. > :01:34.too far apart and they should be half as big. I think you're better
:01:34. > :01:38.to choose the colours and varieties you want and you'll get the best
:01:38. > :01:42.results. Now then, we move onto runner beans. I was despairing as
:01:42. > :01:45.to whether we'd ever get runner beans this year. It's been a bad
:01:45. > :01:49.season for them in the beginning, here at Beechgrove. It's wet, cold
:01:50. > :01:52.and windy and they don't like that sort of thing. When I first came to
:01:53. > :01:56.Aberdeenshire people said to me, "You'll only get a good crop one
:01:56. > :02:00.year in five." But I think it can be better than that nowadays. We've
:02:00. > :02:03.got five or six varieties. No point in talking about them until we've
:02:03. > :02:06.got pods, because it's the bean pods we're interested in. But then
:02:06. > :02:11.again, flower colour can be quite interesting, too. This one, called
:02:11. > :02:17.Celebration, is rather pretty. Nice to be seen in a tripod in the
:02:17. > :02:20.middle of a border perhaps. Anyway, in the rest of the programme...
:02:20. > :02:28.visiting Douneside House in Tarland, Aberdeenshire, and the garden is
:02:28. > :02:38.quite spectacular. And how does your garden grow? In a lab? Just
:02:38. > :02:38.
:02:38. > :02:42.wait and see. Lesley, cooking in the garden! We're going to have a
:02:42. > :02:46.bit of fun. We're looking at the oriental veg. A bit of stir fry and
:02:46. > :02:53.salad. Which is what you tend to associate them with. What I'm going
:02:53. > :02:56.to do, I'm putting garlic in. nice and hot! Two things which
:02:56. > :03:00.associate really well with oriental vegetables, spring onions and
:03:00. > :03:03.ginger. I'm popping all that in. I'm just going to get these nice
:03:03. > :03:08.and golden in the wok. Of course, the secret of stir fry, the oil's
:03:08. > :03:15.got to be really hot and it's very quick. Which is good, because you
:03:15. > :03:18.keep all the vitamins and nutrients in, which they are packed full of.
:03:18. > :03:21.We must admit straight away with sowing oriental vegetables,
:03:21. > :03:24.sometimes they bolt. This is what's happened and I think it's weather
:03:24. > :03:27.conditions. It's been very hot and dry, and then we've had rain and
:03:27. > :03:30.it's been cold. We've picked things, Lesley, like the pak choi. That
:03:30. > :03:35.came from the potager. How are you doing? Absolutely fine.
:03:35. > :03:38.Concentrating! I am. I want these to get nice and golden. We're doing
:03:39. > :03:42.really well. We've got the purple flowering choy sum. That's the seed
:03:42. > :03:46.heads. We've got mibuna, mizuna. Are you just about ready for this?
:03:46. > :03:53.I am. I'll put a tablespoon of fish oil in. That gives it a nice
:03:53. > :03:56.saltiness. And we have actually torn this up, haven't we? Yes.
:03:56. > :04:01.Recipes will be in the factsheet, won't they? All the details of what
:04:01. > :04:05.we're doing. They will. This is lovely. It's really nice if you
:04:05. > :04:08.serve it with duck or with prawns. Really, really tasty. Is that just
:04:08. > :04:13.about ready to put on the plate? We've got chrysanthemum leaves, but
:04:13. > :04:23.I don't suppose that matters. could decorate it, couldn't we?
:04:23. > :04:23.
:04:23. > :04:26.That's absolutely perfect. Put that on. Let's see what it's like.
:04:26. > :04:30.The fish sauce is really nice and salty, isn't it? The flavours are
:04:30. > :04:34.nice and strong. You do need to eat it straight away, don't you? Yes.
:04:34. > :04:36.What about the salad? The same kind of things? It is. We've put some
:04:36. > :04:39.chrysanthemum petals in, which is pretty. To keep the oriental
:04:39. > :04:42.flavour going, we've got rice vinegar in here, two tablespoons,
:04:42. > :04:50.two teaspoons of the sesame oil and, again, half a teaspoon, and this is
:04:50. > :04:53.chopped up ginger. Mm, which is lovely. Whisk that up and then I'm
:04:53. > :05:00.going to run this through the salad, teaming it up with grapefruit.
:05:00. > :05:04.a little handful? Yes, just mix that through. I'll just toss that
:05:05. > :05:07.through. OK. The fruitiness of that goes so nicely with the greens.
:05:07. > :05:15.Toasted almonds, and that just gives a nice crunchiness to the
:05:15. > :05:21.salad. Top it off with raw beetroot. Nice colour! It is. It tends to
:05:21. > :05:24.bleed everywhere, so you just pop this as a topping. Brilliant. Of
:05:24. > :05:28.course, the great thing about these oriental veg is that you can sow
:05:28. > :05:32.them now. And, in fact, the chances are, they won't bolt quite so much!
:05:32. > :05:36.Ideal time. As we go into autumn, the days are shorter, so they make
:05:36. > :05:40.more leaves than flowers. If you've peas or beans, that'd be an ideal
:05:40. > :05:43.site for them. Are we going to try this? Which was my fork? That's
:05:43. > :05:53.yours. See what it's like. What do you think? It's very different. I
:05:53. > :05:57.
:05:57. > :06:01.like it, actually. The grapefruit's Here we are, admiring a bunch of
:06:01. > :06:04.plants that are happy with their lot. They're looking good, and I
:06:04. > :06:11.would expect them to be because they're growing in soil that's well
:06:11. > :06:15.looked after. And that is going to be the subject today. We'll look at
:06:15. > :06:19.one or two elements of that. The first I would draw attention to is
:06:19. > :06:23.this idea of acidity and alkalinity. We use a pH scale, and it's good to
:06:23. > :06:30.check every now and again. And you can use little kits, like this one,
:06:30. > :06:33.which I have been using and have prepared earlier. The whole idea is
:06:33. > :06:38.that by a colorimeter system, we can check where the pH lies in this
:06:38. > :06:43.soil. It looks to me as if it's between yellow and green. That
:06:43. > :06:47.would indicate that it's in the high six. But let's check that out
:06:47. > :06:50.in the lab. The lab I mentioned is at the James Hutton Institute,
:06:50. > :07:00.formerly the Macauley Institute for Soil Research, here in Aberdeen.
:07:00. > :07:03.
:07:03. > :07:06.I'm here to meet my old chum Dr Jason Owen. Well, then, Jason, that
:07:06. > :07:11.sample of soil I sent to you came from our old strawberry patch.
:07:11. > :07:14.yes. But before I sent it, I took some and sampled the soil to test
:07:14. > :07:23.for pH with this little piece of kit that you can buy readily in
:07:23. > :07:26.garden centres. What do you reckon? It's looking there like neutral.
:07:26. > :07:34.It's got this green colour, which would come in at pH7, which is
:07:34. > :07:38.neutral. Yes, yes. Now, it's over an hour since I did my little test.
:07:38. > :07:41.When I let the soil settle out, it was much more straw-coloured.
:07:41. > :07:44.risk, leaving it too long, is that things might start dissolving
:07:44. > :07:49.within the soil. If there was a hint of lime, it may've dissolved
:07:49. > :07:51.and that would adjust the pH. higher than I thought. But what did
:07:52. > :07:59.your machine show? Well, we took the same soil sample and we
:07:59. > :08:02.analysed it on our pH meter. Yes. It's coming in at about 6.3.
:08:02. > :08:07.this is accurately measuring, and this is an approximation, working
:08:07. > :08:13.on the colorimeter. I mean, they're accurate according to the scale to
:08:13. > :08:16.about one pH unit. If you're thinking, "Is it acid? Do I want to
:08:16. > :08:19.plant an ericaceous, acid-loving plant?" compared to, say, for
:08:19. > :08:22.example, your soft fruit, this is accurate for a lot of purposes
:08:22. > :08:26.within the garden. That's the answer I was hoping you would give
:08:26. > :08:29.me. But you guys have also got a system if you want the full monty.
:08:29. > :08:32.We can, and we accept soil samples from gardeners. We can analyse them
:08:32. > :08:42.in our labs if that's what they want. We'll put all the details on
:08:42. > :08:44.
:08:44. > :08:48.If you expect to grow brassicas as sonsie as these, you have to look
:08:48. > :08:54.after the soil. You have to keep it fertile and, most importantly, you
:08:54. > :09:00.have to check that pH regularly because brassicas need lime. The
:09:00. > :09:05.natural pH of a soil is influenced by a couple of things heavily.
:09:05. > :09:08.of which is the parent material. So, for example, if your soil is
:09:08. > :09:14.derived from a granite rock, it will tend towards the acid side.
:09:14. > :09:19.Yes. If it's in a limestone, neutral or alkali. So in Scotland,
:09:19. > :09:21.we have quite a lot of granite rock. The other thing is, if you apply a
:09:21. > :09:24.lot of inorganic fertilisers, especially the ones containing
:09:24. > :09:27.nitrogen, that has an acidifying effect as it breaks down within the
:09:27. > :09:35.soil. So in combination, you can start to have a decrease in soil pH
:09:35. > :09:38.towards acidity. How much at any one time? Here's the raw material.
:09:39. > :09:42.This is agricultural limestone. It's literally rock crunched up.
:09:42. > :09:48.It's quite gritty, but it's fine material. Yes. Here we have 400
:09:48. > :09:51.grams of this. Yes. If you were to apply that to a square metre, you
:09:51. > :09:56.would probably get an increase in soil pH of approximately half a
:09:56. > :09:59.unit. And when's the best time to apply? You can put it on in the
:09:59. > :10:08.springtime, before you start planting, giving it time to do its
:10:08. > :10:11.work. Or at the back end of the year, round about autumn time.
:10:11. > :10:18.last, and most important link in the chain, of this wee story about
:10:18. > :10:20.soil relates to organic matter. As you grow crops, whether it be
:10:20. > :10:22.herbaceous borders, vegetables, flowers, fruit, lawns, you are
:10:22. > :10:31.burning up organic matter, that's what fuels the growth, and it
:10:31. > :10:34.starts to disappear from the soil. If you keep on going, you'll finish
:10:34. > :10:39.up with very low organic matter level. The soil becomes unworkable,
:10:39. > :10:44.intractable. It's awful. I've seen it. And the answer, of course, is
:10:44. > :10:48.compost. Organic matter is very important. It's the driving fuel of
:10:48. > :10:54.a soil. Yes. The micro-organisms and the earthworms are utilising it
:10:54. > :10:58.all of the time. So what we have is, we've got sand, and silt with some
:10:58. > :11:03.clay soil. If you were to compact that, you would destroy its
:11:04. > :11:10.structure. Hence the old adage, "Never work a clay soil when it's
:11:10. > :11:14.wet." Exactly. And I've included 10 percent by weight organic material
:11:14. > :11:19.to both the sand and the silt soil. What this will do, this will help
:11:19. > :11:22.hold water from what could otherwise be a droughty soil. And
:11:22. > :11:24.here, what we've done, the actual physically mixing it up has
:11:24. > :11:29.increased the porosity and the channels from which water can
:11:29. > :11:33.travel through. And over time, of course, earthworms and micro-
:11:34. > :11:43.organisms will do that for us. now we're going to give them a
:11:44. > :11:50.
:11:50. > :11:54.shower of rain. What we have here We've added our rain and instantly,
:11:54. > :12:02.I hope, what we can see is that the water in the sand soil is starting
:12:02. > :12:05.to penetrate very quickly. It's very open and porous. Over here,
:12:05. > :12:10.we've got this silt with some clay in it, and it's already starting to
:12:10. > :12:13.pool on the top, which is never a good look. Yes. Within the sand,
:12:13. > :12:16.it's a little slower, but the organic matter is starting to hold
:12:16. > :12:19.onto that water. Within the silt and the clay soil, because you've
:12:19. > :12:22.broken it up, we've increased its porosity, the water's now freely
:12:22. > :12:30.draining through that soil. If we're growing plants in this, it's
:12:30. > :12:32.this that we should be aiming for. Yes. So the incorporation of
:12:32. > :12:36.organic matter into soil is absolutely vital to grow plants
:12:36. > :12:41.well? Yes. It drives the biomass, it's the fuel source, and when it
:12:41. > :12:51.comes to opening up the structure and porosity - organic matter.
:12:51. > :13:05.
:13:05. > :13:08.ENGINE WHIRRS This lot's for the As we were saying back at the lab
:13:08. > :13:15.in the James Hutton Institute, you do have to keep adding organic
:13:15. > :13:18.matter to the soil. And before I left, I made reference to this bin
:13:18. > :13:25.here, which, at the beginning of the series, we put the contents of
:13:25. > :13:31.that one into that one for the final stages of the process. And
:13:31. > :13:37.now we've got compost. Look at that. It's like good loam. Ready to be
:13:37. > :13:41.used in the garden at any time. We're at a time of year when, of
:13:41. > :13:45.course, we're creating lots of material for the compost heap. And
:13:45. > :13:48.there's two things we always advise. One is, don't put too much of any
:13:48. > :13:53.one thing at a time. And secondly, if it's large and coarse, if you
:13:53. > :14:00.can possibly chop it up, it helps. We've got some examples here. Not
:14:00. > :14:05.too much at any one time. Here we've got some edgings and weeds
:14:05. > :14:09.from the borders. That can go in, like so. It's a big bin. Spread it
:14:09. > :14:15.around, like so. This is detritus from the greenhouse - tomato leaves
:14:15. > :14:23.and bits of fruit and stuff, like so. That can go in. No problem. Not
:14:23. > :14:28.too much at any one time. That's fine. Spread it about. We have
:14:28. > :14:33.access to shredded paper. We can get some of that in, as well. Not
:14:33. > :14:38.too much. This has actually got chicken manure sawdust in it, as
:14:38. > :14:42.well. Really powerful stuff that helps the breakdown process. Don't
:14:42. > :14:48.put it all in at the one time. Now we're getting to the interesting
:14:48. > :14:54.bit. Because we've got comfrey leaves. Stems. This is a harvest to
:14:54. > :15:02.make compost with. This needs chopping. And I just happen to have
:15:02. > :15:12.a machine that might do the job. Let's see. We can fire it up.
:15:12. > :15:24.
:15:24. > :15:27.MACHINE WHIRRS How's that, then? A little bit of
:15:27. > :15:32.twiggy stuff, as well. Look how that copes. I had one of these at
:15:32. > :15:38.one time and it would never have taken the soft stuff. That will
:15:38. > :15:42.start to...work, start to make the compost rot down very quickly.
:15:42. > :15:47.There we go. Lesley, I think the lavenders are really set off nicely
:15:48. > :15:51.with the gravel. It's going to be a sea of fragrance. Punctuating this
:15:51. > :15:56.are these obelisks. I think you and Jim had the idea of putting
:15:56. > :16:00.clematis up. We thought about you! I concur! What we've got to make
:16:00. > :16:03.sure is that they're a good size to go up these obelisks. They've got
:16:03. > :16:06.to be nice and compact, patio variety. They're only going to grow
:16:07. > :16:13.to, what, five, six feet? This one is called Picardy. The flowers are
:16:13. > :16:17.exquisite. Stunning. A lovely, lovely purple. Really nice texture.
:16:17. > :16:20.We've pulled the gravel back. thing to bear in mind, when I put
:16:20. > :16:22.this here, people might be horrified, but look how deep that's
:16:22. > :16:27.going down, and that's quite important. It's ideal for planting
:16:27. > :16:30.clematis. We've got four to six inches of stem buried. If it
:16:30. > :16:34.happens to get wilt, it'll regrow from those stems below ground. Also,
:16:34. > :16:37.make sure they've got a really nice, cool root run. Sunny tops and cool
:16:37. > :16:43.down at the roots. When we've planted that, we'll put the gravel
:16:43. > :16:47.back and train it up. We've trained one further along. That's another
:16:47. > :16:51.patio clematis called...? "Ooh La La". The French theme, because the
:16:51. > :16:54.French lavender... The bees love that! I'm not sure how they'll cope
:16:54. > :16:59.with the winter. I don't think they'll like the winter, but we'll
:16:59. > :17:05.just have to see. Shaping up the U, it has been shaped up once and it
:17:05. > :17:08.needs another bit of a trim. We're going to make these into pyramids,
:17:08. > :17:13.which will be architectural features in the winter. This will
:17:13. > :17:18.look lovely with frost on. This is a cheap way of doing it - four
:17:18. > :17:21.canes. Absolutely. You just make the shape. What we need to do is
:17:21. > :17:25.use the secateurs rather than the shears, because it's quite woody.
:17:25. > :17:35.If you take off the odd piece, you can stand back, and you just have
:17:35. > :17:35.
:17:35. > :17:38.to keep going down over it. The yew is very forgiving as a conifer. You
:17:38. > :17:42.can cut into old wood and it'll regrow. You couldn't attempt this
:17:42. > :17:45.with some conifers. You couldn't. Once you go into the old growth, it
:17:45. > :17:49.doesn't come back. Also, you say this is a cheap way of putting up a
:17:49. > :17:52.frame, we've got the lovely metal frame behind us. It can be a
:17:52. > :17:55.permanent fixture. It'll look so nice with frost on it when there's
:17:55. > :17:58.nothing else in the garden. It gives you that shape. I just love
:17:58. > :18:02.this. Yes, the pleached lime is wonderful, isn't it? I love this as
:18:02. > :18:05.a look! It's like a hedge on stilts. It could screen something and then
:18:05. > :18:08.you can get views through. It's quite a job Ben's got at the
:18:08. > :18:12.moment! It is a good time to trim it, though. Once a year, perfectly
:18:12. > :18:15.OK. It's an opportunity for us to maybe have a look at one or two
:18:15. > :18:19.plant combinations. I'm going to check up on my blue and gold
:18:19. > :18:22.Wildlife planting. OK. I have to say, one of my favourite plants
:18:22. > :18:25.definitely has to be that elder, and the variety is "Black Lace".
:18:25. > :18:28.Beautiful dark foliage just about to flower. And in front of that,
:18:28. > :18:33.the lovely white flowers of the lychnis are really set off against
:18:33. > :18:36.the dark foliage. And then this little ground cover plant here,
:18:36. > :18:42.it's a sedum, and it's great the way it's closing that corner and
:18:42. > :18:45.following the wooden edging. I'm pleased how this bed has come
:18:45. > :18:47.together. It's been planted for eight weeks. We delineated the
:18:47. > :18:50.spaces with sand and it's knitted together beautifully. We've got
:18:50. > :18:55.some new varieties. This is "Coreopsis Be Bop" and it's got
:18:55. > :19:01.that lovely ring in the centre. Remember, everything is good for
:19:01. > :19:04.wildlife. It's buzzing at the moment with bees. The sunflower is
:19:04. > :19:07."Little Dorrit", which is a dwarf one, and it's already flowering. It
:19:07. > :19:12.looks really pretty. This slightly strange flower at the back is a
:19:13. > :19:15.phacelia, and this is so good for bees, butterflies and hoverflies.
:19:15. > :19:18.Just think, if everyone planted plants like this every year, how
:19:19. > :19:25.good it would be for wildlife. I've been very restrained on the colour
:19:25. > :19:28.palette. It's just gold and blue. And this is lovely. We've got
:19:28. > :19:33.cornflower here. Typically, it's dark blue, but I think these little
:19:33. > :19:38.pale ones are really pretty, just as a little contrast. And there's a
:19:39. > :19:43.lot of buzzy activity down here. This is limnanthes, or the poached
:19:43. > :19:46.egg plant, and you can see why it gets that name. Bees, butterflies
:19:46. > :19:50.and hoverflies love it. The nasturtium at the front is a new
:19:50. > :19:53.one, "Banana Split". When we put it in, it was looking a little bit
:19:53. > :20:03.scratty. It's bulked up beautifully and flowering its socks off. I
:20:03. > :20:04.
:20:04. > :20:07.pronounce this a resounding success. Well, this is definitely my kind of
:20:07. > :20:10.greenhouse. What a display. It's absolutely full of colour with the
:20:10. > :20:20.busy lizzies and the geraniums. A lovely contrast of foliage. No
:20:20. > :20:21.
:20:21. > :20:28.signs of pest and diseases. Well, And the reason we're not surprised
:20:28. > :20:34.is that here Douneside House, the head gardener is Stephen McCallum.
:20:34. > :20:40.How you doing? Hi. 'He was our head gardener at Beechgrove for seven
:20:40. > :20:42.years.' Is this quite a contrast to Beechgrove? It is in a number of
:20:42. > :20:49.ways, but probably most significantly is the sheer scale of
:20:49. > :20:54.these gardens. We've got 17 acres, for example. It's a lot to look
:20:54. > :20:56.after. It is. A little bit about the history. We're standing in what
:20:56. > :21:03.is the original development, carried out in 1911 - so it's
:21:03. > :21:06.exactly 100 years - by Lady MacRobert. You can see this has
:21:06. > :21:12.been laid out as alpine beds. She, in the 1910s, had a master
:21:12. > :21:14.collection of about a thousand alpine species. Obviously, it's
:21:14. > :21:19.changed over time because the plants have grown. Exactly. We've
:21:19. > :21:22.got shade and free roots. It's changed the conditions. But it
:21:22. > :21:28.lends itself now, not to alpine beds, but much more to a woodland
:21:28. > :21:31.glade almost with these moisture- loving hostas and ferns. They're
:21:31. > :21:35.loving it, aren't they? The rodgersia next to the Primula
:21:35. > :21:37.florindae there. And obviously you've been here a few years, and
:21:37. > :21:41.new developments are going on further up stream. The first
:21:41. > :21:49.development I carried out when I came here was to remove a bank of
:21:49. > :21:51.sasa palmata. Very invasive bamboo. Exactly! And it was a huge job. But
:21:51. > :21:57.we've completed that, we've relandscaped and replanted and it's
:21:57. > :22:07.looking well. I can see a bit of colour just through there. It's
:22:07. > :22:10.
:22:10. > :22:14.Douneside House was Lady MacRobert's family home, Carole,
:22:14. > :22:20.and her three sons were all pilots and, very sadly, all died as pilots.
:22:20. > :22:23.Two of them were killed in the Second World War on active service.
:22:23. > :22:26.So on Lady MacRobert's death, she put the estate in trust and she
:22:26. > :22:29.requested that Douneside was used for members of the armed forces,
:22:29. > :22:39.both serving and retired, as a holiday home. That is still the
:22:39. > :22:42.same case today. It's a lovely place to come to. I can see what
:22:43. > :22:49.you mean now about the 17 acres because of this lawn and the superb
:22:49. > :22:52.view. It's a fairly extensive lawn, absolutely. You can see that it's
:22:52. > :23:00.not natural, the level, this tabletop level has all been raised
:23:00. > :23:03.at some point. So manmade? Yes. to bring in tons of top soil.
:23:03. > :23:07.Effectively, then, it's a little bit like a ha-ha. It gives exactly
:23:07. > :23:12.that effect. It continues the garden into the surrounding
:23:12. > :23:15.landscape and beyond, so the whole estate becomes part of the garden.
:23:15. > :23:18.Talking about the landscape, let's have a sense of place. Well, just
:23:18. > :23:21.round here we've got Clachnaben, and then we come across a bit and
:23:21. > :23:25.this pyramid one is Mount Keen, and further round, looking at the edge
:23:25. > :23:29.of the Cairngorms, that's Loughnagar. We've even got the
:23:29. > :23:33.sunshine. Yes! The purpose of the garden, though, presumably several
:23:33. > :23:36.fold. We're maintaining these gardens and developing them in a
:23:36. > :23:42.manner that Lady MacRobert would be proud of. It's important that we
:23:42. > :23:45.secure them for future generations. The other obvious uses for the
:23:45. > :23:49.guests that are here at Douneside, we use the gardens and the grounds
:23:49. > :23:59.for charitable fundraising, such as our annual open day. We had one
:23:59. > :24:02.
:24:02. > :24:06.recently and raised �3,000. That's And another important aspect of
:24:06. > :24:10.these gardens is training. I run a horticultural training scheme in
:24:10. > :24:12.which we employ up to four trainees in any one year. These gardens lend
:24:12. > :24:18.themselves so well to training because they cover all the
:24:18. > :24:26.principle horticultural disciplines. We're doing lawns and propagation,
:24:26. > :24:30.ponds, streamside. Don't forget the productive garden, as well. Indeed.
:24:30. > :24:33.Vegetables, cut flowers, fruit. The trainees will, from propagation of
:24:33. > :24:39.the seeds, see these vegetables through to completion and harvest.
:24:39. > :24:41.That's brilliant. Just having a look at the vegetable patch, one or
:24:41. > :24:44.two techniques that they're obviously picking up, like using
:24:44. > :24:46.the landscape fabric to keep down the weeds. Absolutely. And that's
:24:46. > :24:55.something we trialled at the Beechgrove, numerous landscape
:24:55. > :24:58.fabrics. The one that we use is a woven fabric and we can re-use that
:24:58. > :25:08.year after year. It's cost effective, but saves a huge amount
:25:08. > :25:10.
:25:10. > :25:17.This is a fine example of mixed planting, your herbaceous trees and
:25:17. > :25:19.shrubs. Yes, this is what we call the terraced borders. Although
:25:19. > :25:24.there's a huge amount of plants, it's relatively easy to maintain
:25:24. > :25:27.through the summer months. What we need to make sure we do is, lift
:25:28. > :25:33.and divide a couple of borders every year so that in five years we
:25:33. > :25:38.come back to the start again. That's what keeps them vigorous.
:25:38. > :25:41.it's important not be lifting and dividing every border in one year.
:25:41. > :25:45.We would spread the load. Spreading the load, this isn't the only
:25:45. > :25:51.garden that you look after! It's not. This is our flagship garden. I
:25:51. > :25:56.have four gardeners. But we need to cover here, as well as six acres,
:25:56. > :25:59.plus policies at Alastrean. We've got one acre at Tarland Lodge. We
:25:59. > :26:05.help maintain the gardens for the pensioners in the village, and
:26:05. > :26:08.footpaths in the estate. We've just, in the last four years, planted
:26:08. > :26:10.about 5,500 trees across the estate. So all of that needs maintained.
:26:10. > :26:20.That's absolutely brilliant, because what you're doing is
:26:20. > :26:28.
:26:28. > :26:32.Our living willow arbour in the Equinox Garden has made loads of
:26:32. > :26:35.growth. It's time to give it a bit of a tidy up. But I want to be
:26:35. > :26:38.steady with the secateurs, because it's an opportunity for the younger,
:26:38. > :26:42.flexible stems to be woven in and that will help thicken it up. When
:26:42. > :26:45.we've done that, we'll give it a nice trim all over. Over the next
:26:45. > :26:48.few weeks, you'll start to see bulbs coming into the garden
:26:48. > :26:52.centres and I just want to highlight one or two of our Asiatic
:26:52. > :26:57.Lilies that we have flowering in the Calendar border. This one -
:26:57. > :27:00.look at the size of the bloom! That one's called "Yellow Electric". In
:27:00. > :27:04.comparison, much smaller, but a gorgeous colour. This one is
:27:04. > :27:12."Patricia's Pride". But my favourite is this one in the front
:27:12. > :27:15.here - "Vivaldi". It really is beautiful. This is a nice sheltered
:27:15. > :27:18.corner, isn't it? It's lovely. We've been telling bad-news stories
:27:18. > :27:22.about plants that have died and plants that have died, maybe it's
:27:22. > :27:29.the shelter. But, I mean, celmisia there, New Zealand, it's hardy as
:27:29. > :27:32.anything. Come through beautifully. And such a lovely time of year
:27:32. > :27:36.because you can start picking so much from the garden. Not just the
:27:36. > :27:39.vegetables, but look at the flowers, too. This is a bit of a potager for
:27:39. > :27:42.me. That's the leaf beet, as well as the lovely flowers. This is
:27:42. > :27:46.lovely. It's got the astilbe with that metallic blue, a little
:27:46. > :27:49.scabious. Just gorgeous. And the perfume of the sweet peas, Jim.
:27:49. > :27:56.Smashing. I'll put in a word for the hebe behind you, "Sapphire".
:27:56. > :28:00.Not a mark on it. You see, it's in the right place. Just shows you.
:28:00. > :28:03.Good news. If you'd like any more information, it's all in the
:28:03. > :28:13.factsheet. You might want more information about Jim and the soil
:28:13. > :28:16.science. It's in the factsheet. The easiest way to access that is
:28:16. > :28:19.online. Next week, none of us will be in the garden. We're all going
:28:19. > :28:22.to be away, helping out with our first community garden in Glasgow.
:28:23. > :28:25.Great stuff! Yes, indeed, we'll be taking time out. We're off to the