Episode 19 The Beechgrove Garden

Well, from time to time in the past, I've been able to say

no expense has been spared to bring you the moment and the story of the moment.

Well, I can tell you, I'm in Venice. Yes.

Well, think about it - canals and glassworks. Venice.

But we're in the Venice of the North,

to tell you the latest regeneration story.

Aye - we're in Maryhill.

That's the Glasgow Maryhill, of course, and the whole area owes its existence

to the building of two mighty canals in the late 17th century,

and they in turn made it the pulse point of this city.

You'll hear the word "regeneration" a great deal in this programme, starting with the canal itself.

Being able to navigate through here now is a result of the largest canal regeneration in the world.

It's an impressive 35 miles long with 39 locks.

And just above the canal is a community garden that we have come to help out with

and it's a regeneration project in the midst of a whole area of regeneration.

Right in the midst of Maryhill is this impressive piece of engineering

which is, of course, the Kelvin Aqueduct.

It carries the Forth and Clyde canals on four graceful arches

over the River Kelvin, which is just over there, 75ft down.

When built, this miracle of 18th-century engineering and architecture

was regarded as a wonder of the world.

Today you can still walk or sail along it.

-Hello!

-This beats Shanks's pony!

-You get the good jobs!

-The next one's not for two days.

SHE SIGHS

Maryhill itself is a large, previously highly industrial area of Glasgow.

It's some seven miles long and it's home to around 50,000 people.

The area is undergoing a programme of massive regeneration

and where old tumbledown buildings have been demolished,

new state-of-the-art buildings have been going up.

This is Branston Court.

First opened its doors in 1988 and recently fully refurbished by Ypeople,

to provide accommodation and support for up to 50 vulnerable people

whose lives have been affected by homelessness.

As well as providing residents with safe and stable accommodation,

Ypeople staff also support them in learning the life skills which will allow them to move on

and integrate back into the wider community.

Working alongside Ypeople and the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers,

the residents drew up plans and secured funding to create a small barbecue area

and a vegetable patch.

And from those initial thoughts, the plans grew,

and grew, until they took over the entire site at the back of Branston Court.

This very ambitious project is being supported by the Garden For Life forum,

through Scottish Natural Heritage, an initiative that invites you to go closer to nature.

There is much to be done but first George is talking to Debbie Fraser,

whose role is fundraiser for Ypeople.

And she's also the driving force behind this whole community garden.

So where did you get the idea from for this?

When I joined as fundraiser in 2009,

one of my tasks was to visit all the services that we have and to see what type of funding they wanted.

And I happened to be Edinburgh one day at one of our services there

and I met a gentleman called Michael who had been in a cycle of homelessness

and within that service they had got some funding to do up a very small garden,

and Michael was sitting in the garden on a bench and he was listening to music,

and the lovely plants and flowers all around him,

and you could see he was calm and he was enjoying that experience,

and I wondered, where would he have been if the garden wasn't there?

Then I came to see Branston Court and saw this vast area

-and thought, "We have to do something with it."

-So what do you want this to achieve?

Well, it's not about myself. It is more about the residents

and they've been involved, really, from the beginning,

and it's their ideas of what they would like to get out of the garden.

And we try to help them, through this difficult period of their lives when they come to us,

to learn life skills,

and within the garden, they'll be able to learn how to plant and grow,

they'll cook on the barbecue, and the healthy side of things,

but also, we're now multicultural in this particular project

and we want to build a community,

and rather than people being isolated in their own accommodation,

this would give them a great area to come together.

Tracey and Alan, you've been residents here for a while. How long have you been here?

-I've been here for 20 weeks.

-Right.

-Aye, so just over three and a half months.

-And Alan?

-I've been here from the start. I've been, like, the main man, Tracey, eh?

-Aye.

Just making sure the residents are out, volunteering,

and just having fun and making the garden look good.

Now, what do you want the garden to do for you?

Bring us all close together.

Get everybody to know each other a bit better as well.

-And you, Alan?

-Just looking forward to it - a nice summer's day,

the residents getting to know each other, chill out in the chill-out area,

work out in the gym, stuff like that. So it's going to be good fun.

Well, Lynn Harris is the garden designer on this project.

You're a seasoned Beechgrove community garden designer.

I'm always impressed how you come up with all sorts of requirements for people and fulfil those.

-What were the special challenges here?

-Well, this is quite a different garden for me

because of the age group of the people involved in the community.

The residents here are between 17 and 25 and I've never done a community garden

for that age group before

and, boy, did they have a wish list!

-Big long shopping list.

-Yes.

-So how did you fulfil that?

Well, in order to get everything that they wanted into the garden,

I've divided it into lots of different zones, and I've called it the Zone Garden.

-OK.

-So we've got lots of different areas to relax in -

a patio garden, and right next to that we've got an area where they can grow herbs and things

that they can use on the barbecue.

We've got a deck zone.

We've got a chill-out zone where they can perhaps have parties.

And then we've got the sweat zone, which is an outdoor gym.

-Which is a new one for me.

-Lovely. Yeah.

And finally, we've got the jump zone, which is a basketball court.

Do you know, I didn't know Jim and George were quite so fit!

Bam bam bam bam bam...

bam bam bam bam bam...

bam bam!

Hey!

RECORDED WHISTLING AND APPLAUSE

RECORDING STOPS ABRUPTLY

-George, what are you up to?

-This is the jump zone.

Where you come to throw a few hoops.

Oh, I thought it was netball.

Well, these zones are all joined by this path here

and you can see it's a little bit of a work in progress at the moment.

Lovely healthy plants.

They've still got to be planted

but with this rain they don't need to be watered at the moment!

And then here are the girls.

Lynn, what are you up to?

This is the sweat zone. What do you think?

-Are you sweating in this weather?

-Er, no.

Can you go backwards?

Er, maybe.

And what are you doing?

I'm doing the twist!

Oh, good for the waistline!

Lesley, I'm not sure about this.

Oh, I feel a little bit like a deranged string puppet.

I'm going to be so fit.

It reminds me of Spotty Dog but I think I am showing my age there.

I think that was the Woodentops.

Anyway, a bit of a work in progress with the woodchips. And Jim?

Calm down. You're in the important garden zone.

More of that later.

OK.

And Carolyn again, are you having a little bit of a rest now?

I'm in the chill-out zone.

It's great.

A nice place to relax.

This rubber surface is going to get covered with Astroturf,

big oversized beanbags, a lovely little willow arbour that will grow up at the back.

A nice place to cosy in.

It sounds wonderful.

But now it's a big team outing because George tells us

that he's found an inspirational gardening project

and it's not far from here, so we're all going,

with some of the residents, to find out a little bit more about that.

OK, so I have brought you all down to the middle of Possilpark,

where you might think there is absolutely nothing,

and I've brought you to the Concrete Garden, which sounds a bit strange.

-Sounds as though it's full of concrete.

-Well, it's not.

Now, what you'll see here is something which

I guarantee will blow your socks off.

It's a fantastic idea, so come on.

Oh, these tomatoes look good.

What is that?

-A cucumber?

-It's like a cucumber.

It's the same family, but it's a courgette.

Yes, a courgette.

-So you could grow them, maybe, back in your garden, couldn't you?

-Aye.

It just shows how easy it is.

Have you seen the birdfeeders?

Just recycled cartons.

It's really good, isn't it?

Mo, as the community development worker here, what's the project all about?

Basically, it's sow and grow everywhere.

It's an opportunity to use an urban space to allow the local community to grow their own fruit

and vegetables to feed their family and to get in the great outdoors.

So what we're looking at here, is this just one person growing this?

Yes, this is... All the beds on the entire row here are taken up by

members of the community who want to come along and grow their own food.

-Tomato...

-Yes.

-Chives...

-You obviously like the chives. Do you go at the chives a lot?

Aye, I eat them all the time.

Paula, I can tell straight away looking at your hands

-that you must be the gardener.

-Yes, I am.

I come along and give people advice and help them out

if they have any questions on what they want to grow in their plots,

when to eat things, when to plant them, things like that.

The aim is that everything is free for anyone,

so we'll provide a starter kit, so to speak,

and they can add on to it as they wish.

There's peas, there's spinach, there's cabbage, there's radish...

-Try that.

-This is the first time I've eaten this.

Because I thought these were just flowers to make the place beautiful.

But you can eat them, you can eat flowers,

and this is pot marigold.

You could do this at Branston Street, no problem at all.

This is a fantastic system, Katharine. How did it start?

It's a new project that was put together by NVA,

and we're working with some great partners to make it happen.

We have been lucky enough to have the beds designed as a modular system,

which means the gardens can kind of pop up as an instant garden.

So is this how it arrives on site?

That's right, it comes with soil so it's ready to grow instantly

-and people can just get growing.

-And the fence at the back?

Yeah, it's made from recycled timber by Glasgow Wood Recycling,

so it's a great use of local materials that would otherwise go to landfill.

And it's really important that we help people sustain

the quality of the soil,

so lots of work around composting and using worms.

So you give all this advice for free?

Just have a little bit, cos it's quite strong.

Wouldn't imagine you'd get a taste like that off a plant.

It's really nice.

What, you don't like it?

Becks, I noticed, obviously, your compost bins,

that's something dear to my heart.

Do you have a sort of teaching process to tell new people

that this is where the rubbish goes?

Every time somebody comes in, they get given a tour

of the entire garden, and one of the things we do pop in

is this - we only built it this year, and we basically say,

if it's uncooked, chuck it in, if you're unsure, ask us.

There's always somebody in the office,

and we just try and get people knowing.

A real good recycling story.

But listen, while I'm talking to you and listening,

I'm seeing these boxes on that back wall over there.

What's the story?

I made a new logo for the concrete garden and made up a poster,

and I went down to the Lush store and asked to put up the poster,

and they said, "by the way, we have all these window-boxes,

"would you like them?"

So, of course, yes, that'll be fantastic!

Do you find that sort of attitude pervades the community,

if you ask in the right way you'll get help?

Yeah, more often than not people really want to help,

especially when they find out it's for free.

There's a good feel about that, isn't it?

Because it widens it out through the community,

and you can deliver this free for the folk who most need it.

Do you like this one, are you spitting the other one out?

No, I love this one. I love the rocket.

It's just different, isn't it?

-It's actually quite strong.

-It is, isn't it?

I think that would actually complement a nice salad, that strong taste bursting through.

How long do you spend here in a week?

Me? Probably four, five days.

Really? Just to keep this wee bit?

No, everything, watering!

In other words, it's really co-operative?

Yeah, everybody helps with everybody else.

-What about children?

-We've got lots of children.

A lot of the people who have the plots have young children,

and they love to get to the watering barrels and water everything.

I bet they must love going to those barrels, that's really super.

they just sit underneath with their buckets, it's great fun for them.

Well, recycling is the name of the game,

water is harvested from the roof of the little building here,

and it drops down into these barrels.

What a good idea.

That's what is used for watering all the tubs and the greenhouse and so on.

You've got to check if these are full...

SNIFFS

The smell lingers on.

That sometimes we have wee picnics and we get together

and make up a wee salad or something.

We get the barbecue out.

So we'll be doing a wee bit more of that.

It's a real community feel, I think it's absolutely brilliant.

It's accessible to everybody,

because of the actual layout of the garden.

Anyone can come in, they don't get a sore back,

wheelchair access is perfect,

so there isn't anyone who can't enjoy this space.

Meanwhile, back here at Branston Court,

I'm getting these raised beds ready for planting.

When we first saw them at the concrete garden,

we were so impressed we decided we had to have them

for the community garden here, and what we're doing - boys -

is we're filling this with a mix of topsoil and compost,

and it's recycled compost, and what we've got is a 3-1 mix.

We've got three parts screen topsoil and one part of this lovely

recycled compost, which is very high in nutrients, from GP Green.

That's great, boys, thank you very much.

And what we're going to fill them with is some herbs

and vegetables and things like that.

We've sent some of the residents off to the Botanics

to get some advice as to the sort of herbs that we can plant in here.

Assistant curator Louise Bustard took residents

Tracey, Alan and Marianne to have a look round

the Botanics' herb beds and is full of stories about their uses and origins.

This is another old British plant, called tansy.

Again, our ancestors in the past would add flour, milk and butter to that...

..with the leaves, and that would help with stomach ulcers or an upset stomach.

This one St John's Wort, this yellow flower here.

Let me take one of those leaves.

Now, hold it up, if you can look, can you see up there?

in that leaf it looks like it's got and lots of little pinpricks.

Inside those pinpricks there's resin, goo.

The resin in this plant is now used to treat people

who suffer from depression.

This is a very interesting one,

another wild plant found throughout Europe, not just Britain -

the Latin Artemisia, and this has an incredibly bitter taste.

Believe me, you don't even want to put a tiny bit on your tongue.

But, interestingly, it has a chemical in it that, today,

is now being used to treat malaria.

-Malaria is very common in Gambia, where I'm from.

-Absolutely.

And then yarrow, another native plant here,

was a very useful one for heart disease that they used in the past.

I should emphasise, these are things that have been used in the past -

never use a herb without asking a proper doctor first,

you do have to be very careful.

What sort of herbs could we take back to Branston?

I would always recommend culinary ones,

because most people will know about the culinary herbs.

For example this is garlic.

Everyone knows about the garlic.

It depends how much space you've got,

but this big construction is covered with hops.

I'm sure you're aware of what hops go into,

that's what makes the bitterness in beer.

Right.

That's very interesting...

LAUGHS: Absolutely!

We'll take them back to Branston.

Well, we can certainly take some cuttings,

and you can start making and brewing your own beer!

Meanwhile, back at Branston Court,

what we're doing here is filling these large SAGE beds,

and in particular we're putting in some culinary herbs.

You were at the Botanic Gardens with Louise

-and she was suggesting that, wasn't she, Alan?

-She was, yeah.

What we've done, we've got chives here, which is oniony, thyme, sage and rosemary,

and we've put them in rows like this so we've made

a little mini potager or a pretty garden,

then we've got these nice planting spaces between.

And in the middle we're putting in a plum tree,

so you will eventually get fruit from that, but I think

you'll have to wait a year or two before that happens.

What we're going to do here, we're going to sow some seeds and these

are a nice wildflower mix, really good for bringing wildlife in.

-Have you ever sown seeds before?

-No.

The seeds don't know.

Put your hand out.

It's not just one variety, there's corn marigold, facelia...

If we sow these now,

they'll come up as little plants, but won't flower till next year.

I just want you to sprinkle it like that so you spread them out.

And the great thing is, they're going to attract the bees

and butterflies, and they'll be good pollinators for the plum.

-You've sown seeds before, haven't you?

-Yeah.

-What about planting plants?

-Yeah, I'll try.

Well, if you want to put the strawberry in there.

These strawberries have come from Beechgrove Garden.

-They're a lovely variety called sonata...

-I like strawberries, very sweet.

-You tasted them, didn't you, at the concrete garden?

-Yes.

I'm afraid you're going to have to wait till next year before you get the fruit.

These are lovely, actually,

the ones we thought were the sweetest and produced the most.

Now, the other thing is about propagating plants,

and that's a little runner with some roots on it.

And if you push that into the soil like that

you'll eventually get another plant.

-That's good.

-I think you're a real gardener.

Very enthusiastic.

Yes, it's very interesting.

He's done this before!

Anna, since I came on site, I've seen nothing

but these green T-shirts with the BTCV on it. What is it?

We're a group that go out, with volunteers.

We do conservation work in and around Glasgow.

Where do you get the volunteers? Are they sitting at home?

Some of them are, yes.

It's a better opportunity to do something with us and learn new things.

We have all ages, all types of backgrounds.

I'm told you've been here since the start, really getting tore in here.

Yes, right from the start, in all weathers, it's been.

We've done the lot. We've lifted turf, we've rotavated.

This thing here, did you create this?

Yes, we did. It's a living willow seat.

The idea is that obviously the bits that grow,

we weave back in but it's living and there's a grass top to it.

-It's going to come right up over the top?

-Eventually, yes.

We'll bring in more on the top and there's going to be a nice sculpture here

and we're hopefully going to frame that nicely.

I know for a fact you guys do so much.

-A lot of projects would never happen without volunteers.

-Definitely, yes.

-I couldn't do it without my guys. Without a doubt, yes.

-Thanks.

Lynn, at the back of the garden, at the top of the garden is this woodland bed.

What I've done is try to borrow from the existing trees here

and complement on this side with trees and shrubs,

very much a woodland border and very wildlife-friendly.

We've got hawthorn over there, hawthorn here, rowan.

We've got loads of wildlife-friendly plants,

things for butterflies, for bees,

loads of berries for the birds.

And very, quite big shrubs, things that don't need a lot of maintenance

and loads of ground cover as well.

When this knits together, you'll be able to borrow some of the bigger trees.

You won't see where the end of the garden is. I like the herbaceous,

you've picked it up, you've got a rhythm going, repeating it.

And at the end of that woodland bed, there is a lovely patio.

-Yes.

-And this has got a stone sofa on it.

And then you look out on the most spectacular view over Glasgow. It's terrific.

-Carolyn is down at another area.

-Yes, this is the flower zone down here.

I'm back in my comfort zone, which of course is the flower zone.

There's nothing nicer than having planting where you're going to be walking.

Taller things at the back like rhododendrons for spring colour,

followed by hebes and these beautiful pink hydrangeas.

And lovely silver coloured brachyglottis which has got a great foliage.

This along the front to give us a little bit of ground cover.

Little pink geraniums. Alchemilla mollis, that kind of thing.

This is the very nearly finished chill-out zone,

and there's nothing more relaxing than the smell

of rosemary and if that doesn't chill them out, nothing will.

Now from a brand new and emerging garden to a more mature

and certainly quieter garden, George has been off to visit Roddy Mungall,

who's Ypeople's learning and development manager.

-So this is the deal?

-It's a nice, peaceful place.

-And the water and the sound of the water just makes it, doesn't it?

-It does.

A mature garden. Yes?

And what's lovely are the hydrangea at the top there at the door,

there's this rock rose round at the bottom. That's looking splendid.

Bamboo. Just see the way the leaves on that contrast with the yew tree.

It's just wonderful, the colours just merge.

-And this?

-Montbretia, my favourite.

-Really good at this time of year, isn't it?

-Beautiful colour.

Now, that's all very well and good

but apparently we've got one or two wee problems.

-Yes, a few things wee we could have some advice on, please.

-OK.

Ah, now this is Picea albertiana Conica.

That's the ornamental form with this fine foliage,

but this here is the original form and that's growing out.

See how different it is. So we'll prune that back like that.

-It's not going to leave a big hole, is it?

-No. I'll cut it back gradually

so it doesn't leave a great gaping hole in it.

What will happen then is the form you want,

-will eventually cover that up.

-Ah, right.

You've got something else that's a problem?

-Aye, a wee apple.

-A wee apple. Oh my goodness.

-I'm intrigued by this term, "wee".

-Well, you'll see,

-right at the back there.

-Crivvens, aye, look.

-It is wee, isn't it? Which one is this?

-It's a Braeburn.

It's awfully peely-wally.

This foliage is very yellow and it's maybe got a magnesium shortage.

So what we'll do with that is we'll make it move,

we'll give it some Epsom salts because that's got magnesium in it.

That will sort that out and then we'll put some sulphate of potash on it,

which will ripen up the wood and get some fruit buds

for next year and hopefully we'll get more next year.

Then next year, give it a feed with, what, fish blood and bone?

-And that will really push it on.

-Excellent. Smashing.

-Something else?

-There's a walkway that we have round here.

-You've lost a walkway?

-We've lost a walkway.

-Let's go and see if we can find it.

This is a wonderful little suntrap, isn't it?

Immediately you lean back on your seat, this is coming over the top.

-This is supposed to be a dwarf though.

-It's gone a bit giant, isn't it?

We could prune that back and we'll give it a bit of a shock.

It'll grow away again, I'm quite sure. Now, you've lost a path?

Well, it's along here. A secret path.

You sound a bit anxious about it.

I think all we need to do there is cut some of the overhanging vegetation

-and reveal it again.

-OK.

-And that'll be job done.

-You didn't know you had that, did you?

-No, no.

-That's a viburnum.

Here we are.

Five minutes with the loppers and there's what we've done.

-Fabulous, isn't it?

-Amazing.

-Isn't it?

We've actually found a viburnum that you thought you'd lost in there.

So, that's it. Your path is found.

Excellent. Thank you very much.

LAUGHTER

This fabulous sculpture by Rob Mulholland) is obviously a leaf

but it's a newly emerging leaf, as you can see.

It gives beautiful, organic sort of concave and convex shapes here.

And all these little pieces, there's 1,000 of them.

They represent cells that make up a plant. You can see it shines wonderfully in the sunshine.

Soon it's going to be framed behind me by Anna's willow arch,

and Rob's made another sculpture to sit in the garden,

which is his take on the Ypeople logo.

Finally, I have to mention this great little gazebo.

It sheltered us from the rain all yesterday, the sun today.

Underneath that, an extensive area of decking made out of plastic and rice husks.

It goes down very easily because I laid a lot of it myself.

I've been more impressed by these tables and benches

made by Glasgow Wood Recycling. That tells you a story.

Absolutely brilliant work.

And this artificial grass in the chill-out zone is superb.

A wonderful example of a brilliant Scottish product and it's bouncy, hey?!

There's lots of brilliant planting here.

I particularly like all around this area,

it's blocks of really bold single colours.

It makes an exciting party space.

And this truly has been a great community garden project,

with so many helpers, including the residents.

And if you'd like more information about this garden

??or indeed be concrete garden, it's all in the fact sheet

and the easiest way to access that is online.

Next week, we're back in the garden.

Carole and Lesley are revamping alpine containers.

-You're off to Glenbervie House Garden.

-I am indeed.

I'm tackling a problem in Burntisland, a tricky wee slope.

But until then, from all of us here, the new Ypeople garden in Maryhill!

ALL: BYE!

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