12/07/2012 The Beechgrove Garden

Well, hello there, and welcome back to Beechgrove.

It's not very much different in here than it is outside.

It's pretty grim.

Anyway, time to have a wee look at progress in the crops.

First of all, let's look at this automatic watering system,

which Lesley's been trying at home for these last two or three years.

I've had it for a couple of years,

and we've always just had one crop.

The whole ideas is we have six plants,

all fed from one reservoir.

But we've got three different types of crop

with different demands.

This time we have two cucumbers, two tomatoes, two peppers.

Just to see how they go,

being in bed together, so to speak.

They all get the same treatment.

Now to this trial we have here.

We've taken eight different grow bags,

tipped them out into pots,

so the size, shape and volume of the grow bag

doesn't come into the play -

it's just the compost we're looking at.

We have eight different types.

Same variety of tomato.

And they have started to change a bit

over the time since we've been away.

This crop here was always looking behind.

It's doing not too badly. The plant is a bit thin,

but that's not always a bad thing if you're getting decent crops,

and you see a nice truss of fruit developing there.

A little bit of chlorosis of the foliage -

we'll come back to that in a minute. But the others

have really changed, from looking really good.

I think they're suffering from a combination of weather

and, more importantly,

it's not strictly part of the weather,

but lack of light.

Not easy to tell the difference between them yet.

I suppose, looking superficially, that this lot here

are probably the healthiest-looking.

But they are beginning to show a bit of chlorosis.

I talked about that earlier. Here it is here.

Because the nutrition gets imbalanced.

If the plant's not operating and getting enough light

to be photosynthesising, and all the rest of it.

So, the trusses are sparse.

I get reports from all over the place

there has been poor setting of the early trusses -

again, lack of light.

I think these guys need a wee bit of a pick-up.

So we need to give them a bit of fertiliser,

and possibly even a dose of salts.

In other words, some magnesium sulphate,

which would help with that chlorosis.

The crop is there, but we do need some bright light, really.

We need to bring them on a bit.

There's no question about that.

Now we'll have a look at how the bush tomatoes are doing

up in the tunnel.

As I think I said when we planted these bush tomatoes,

many people regard them as an outdoor crop.

But not in this part of the world,

and what better year could we have had

just to show that?

These young tomato plants are looking superb.

They're all bush varieties. There's four either side of the path here,

all beginning to show their different characteristics,

which we'll look at in more detail as they come into cropping.

Even - we've them in the baskets here -

they were wonderful names.

This one's called Cherry Falls.

There it is, flowering away madly.

Then we have Peardrops,

and Tumbling Tom Red. There's more to come.

Meanwhile, in the rest

of the programme...

I have a confession to make.

My visit this week is to a place

I'd only ever visited in the dark before.

I'm awful glad I came back.

Wait till you see this village. It's a belter.

What could possibly be wrong with a beautiful location like this?

Well, keep watching.

Jim, I think you were making a really interesting point

about the bush tomatoes.

-They're happy under cover this year.

-Yes, indeed.

We start off with these runner beans.

It's not going to be a classic year for them.

It's not a new variety, a golden variety, is it?

It looks really poor.

-On top of that...

-What about your French beans?

I know. George and myself are doing a trial.

George in his allotment, down in Edinburgh.

We're growing them here,

and the ones outside look really sad.

Again, the ones with an umbrella over them

-are not doing badly.

-I think we'll get something from them.

Sweetcorn, as well?

We have the barrier around,

but I still think when we planted those out

it went really cold. Touch of frost.

But look at George's here.

I have to say I think he's been cheating.

He says - you can see it -

he's just taken the fleece off.

Already with the beans,

you can see one or two flowers.

And there are one or two male flowers starting to form

on the sweetcorn.

East Lothian is the Land of Goshen. They claim it's the best place to grow...

But he's put a fleece on it. Wait till I see him!

-Well, he's not here to defend himself.

-No!

But he's cheating!

-Anyway, something positive, Jim.

-Absolutely.

We'll sow some seed. It's a cheap way to get colour,

isn't it, for next year?

We're talking about bi-annuals.

Sow them this year, and they flower in the spring of next year.

We get so used to going to the garden centre,

and taking plums - you're shelling out and all the rest of it.

Packet of seeds. Shall we do it?

Yes, why not? Anything from £1- £2,

and you can get about 400 seeds.

-It really is a cheap way.

-Yeah.

The end point is we will do one of these lovely, old-fashioned

bedding displays for the spring.

-In one of the big trial beds.

-Yeah.

Let's be positive, definitely.

You standing on the boards

is taking me back nearly 30 years,

when I first started with George Barron.

-It's come to the bit when you're reminiscing.

-It's terrible!

First of all, prepare the ground.

I'll take out the seed.

-Nice you let me do the standing-up bit.

-I'll do the seed-sowing.

What kind of plants? Things like the lovely wallflowers,

-with a bit of scent?

-Yup.

They tend to flower a bit late, don't they, sometimes?

The Siberian wallflower, but it's a lovely orange colour.

And myosotis.

Yes, the blue myosotis, but you can get a pink variety, as well.

Other wallflowers. This one is Cloth of Gold.

There's a lovely one called Scarlet Bedder.

There's no bellis here, there's none of that daisy.

I'm not going to be planting daisies!

SHE LAUGHS

The whole point is,

by growing them in this way, as soon as the seedlings are handle-able,

we prick them out, as it were,

but putting them into a nursery row.

Then we move them again,

and what it does

is to break the taproot,

so you produce really bushy plants.

I remember having to plant them with a spade at one time,

they were so big.

-But they come through the winter well.

-I hope so!

Get on, then.

Today, I'm in what Jim McColl would describe as "the Land of Goshen".

This is East Lothian.

This is where my horticultural heritage came from.

I was born in Drem, which is down there,

and Athelstaneford - which is over that way -

is where I went to school.

I'm in the little village of Kingston,

just outside North Berwick,

where Rosie Craik is.

She contacted us,

to see if we could solve a problem she had

with a very dark area in her garden.

It's right below a tree.

Dry shade. One of the most difficult problems to solve in gardening.

But we'll see what we can do.

I've been here about 2½ years.

There's lovely stuff in the garden.

-It's been a loved garden?

-Yes.

But I just don't know how to tackle it.

We have this very dry, dark problem!

Look at it. It's not so dry today,

but we have an area which is dry shade,

underneath a tree.

We can do something about that,

because this is a cherry plum. We can take some of the branches off -

there's some fruit there.

We can take the branches off, open this up,

and you'll see a huge difference.

It's quite important, cos the view from the window

allows you to see right up through there.

When we've planted the new stuff in here,

I think we'll get this wonderful effect of colour

most of the year round.

Or maybe all the year round.

That's quite important, that.

It is very important,

cos that's the corridor from the kitchen to the sitting room.

You're coming along there every day?

Yes, many times a day.

So no pressure on me to get it right(!)

THEY LAUGH Absolutely none, George.

If we take a branch off that,

I think we'll allow the light in underneath,

and it'll be so much better.

We can get things to grow in there.

The rest of this, we can take one or two branches off the back.

-Is there anything precious in here?

-Not that I've identified!

Bulbs or anything?

-No, they're all out. Yes!

-Wonderful.

So, we have carte blanche here. We can take out what we want,

and that will give us some wonderful planting places

-to get some stuff in.

-Perfect!

Did you mean to cut that?

Who's holding the ladder now?

You all right, Rosie?

We can see you, can you see us now?

I'm starting to see you. It's great!

Can we have Mike all the time, please?

He's very expensive to feed.

SHE LAUGHS

The thing to remember,

when you cut back big branches on trees like this,

especially when there's foliage on it,

is to trim it back from the ends,

so that you lighten the load.

That means you can hold on to the branches

when you're sawing through, and they don't split.

The last thing you want is it to split,

and tear the bark right down the trunk.

You have to be very kind to the tree when you do this,

because you're giving it an awful hammering.

Woo!

See how dry that is? For all the rain we've had,

and it's still almost as dry as dust under there,

that's cos the roots of the trees are taking all the water out.

So anything we put in here,

now it has this wonderful light to bask in,

will have to be drought-tolerant.

And I have the plants in the car for that.

The idea was to get as much colour

into the whole of the year as we could.

I hope that's what we've done.

We have sedum over there,

with the purple and silver on it,

and when we put these into the dry,

they will really intensify their colours, so that should be OK.

If you look at some of the little rocky knolls

round here in the landscape,

you find there's thyme, and some of the pinks,

and there might even be thrift on it,

cos we're not far from the shore.

So I've tried to bring in things which would normally be

in this sort of area.

Lovely.

Plants which will grow in woodland.

Dusky cranesbill is what that is - it's a geranium.

That's a super thing for growing in woodland conditions.

Come up year after year.

Lots of these things are perennials.

Once we plant them, we hopefully can just forget them.

-Great!

-Hopefully!

Some of these will do at the window,

where you'll see them every day as you come through.

And others way back in the distance.

Fair bit of interest, I hope.

Oh, lovely. I'm thrilled!

Yes!

-The rain's coming on now, so we best go and get them planted.

-Great.

This is the bit you'll see from the window, isn't it?

Yeah, walking up and down the hall.

This has got to look quite good.

Are you happy with that?

It looks really nice, and they'll fill in the gaps.

The other thing is, I've just brought SOME plants.

If you like what's here,

go away to a nursery and buy some more of the same,

and put them in, cos there's plenty space.

Done!

Lots of light getting in here now.

That's it planted up.

Maybe now I see it planted, there's not as many plants here

as I would have wanted.

But that's the way it is.

It's opened out, we've got lots of things in here

which will give us colour.

It goes right down the bottom to where the window is.

-Yes.

-Right where we wanted to have that view.

That will be, I hope, splendid as well.

You now have the licence to go off and buy things,

cos I spoke to Alistair earlier,

and he was quite happy for us to buy the things we liked,

and put them in.

That's the idea. Look and see what grows well,

buy some more of it, and plant it.

That's the way to garden to begin with.

Gardening is supposed to be a pleasure!

There it is. Enjoy it, cos that's what it's about.

Thank you very much.

-It's been lovely.

-No pressure(!)

-Yes.

It's a few weeks since we had a look at our bedding display here.

Our Jubilee bedding display.

It's very simple, with two varieties of lettuce,

and the silver cineraria.

It's filled-in totally. I think it looks absolutely great.

Then, in the centrepiece here,

Lesley chose a petunia called Queen Bee,

sadly not looking so good at the moment,

just because of the weather conditions.

Really what you need to do

is keep deadheading.

That goes for all kinds of bedding plants,

even the pansies here.

If you keep deadheading,

it stops the plants from setting seed,

and, hopefully, we'll get some more flower colour,

because that is a lovely petunia.

Here, you may remember

that I did a little trial with some lettuce plants,

and the marigold Naughty Marietta,

looking at different types of seed composts.

I've taken it one stage further,

and gone into a multi-purpose compost.

I only have one pot of each.

I think to do a proper trial,

we need a few more.

But it's quite interesting, cos at this stage,

with the multi-purpose compost,

the peat-based one is doing the best,

and then I think the next one

is the reclaimed peat.

That's very different results

from the seed sowing.

Now come round here,

and have a look at the tatties.

I think Lesley is going to be really delighted.

and Lesley, I am looking after your potatoes here.

What we need to do is keep earthing them up.

This is a variety called Bounty.

Lesley, this time, has gone for a main crop.

The "main crop" means it can take a long time

before we start to crop them.

You'll notice already I've put another tier

on the one there in the corner.

Who knows? We may even be able to go up another tier,

add another ring to that.

My potatoes that I chose

were new varieties

of second early potato,

so we should be able to crop those in maybe two or three weeks' time.

I hadn't realised I had actually gone for

a red, white and blue theme

with the varieties,

so a bit of Jubilee celebration with potatoes, as well.

Lettuce, ready for cropping.

These little carrots that I sowed in the grow bags,

these are small, round carrots.

Look at the difference here.

Same grow bags,

four different varieties,

but you'll notice these ones

are a lot shorter in height.

I think that's just the fact

that this is in a little, sheltered corner.

That just shows you where you grow things can make a difference.

A dwarf new variety of broad bean,

called Robin Hood. Loads of flowers on that

so I hope we will get a good crop there.

A little pea that doesn't really need staking at all -

that one's called Tom Thumb.

Again, loads of flowers.

I'm not sure you want to look under here, though.

Courgettes. Don't they look dreadful?

Again, it's the weather conditions.

I think everyone is suffering when they're growing courgettes outside

at the moment.

Then we have this tiered container

with the carrots.

We won't be cropping those yet.

But will there be a difference between the top and the bottom?

But finally, just have a look at these radish.

It's a variety called Jolly.

Wow - look at the size of that!

I need to find some water, and have a taste of that.

The decking veg are looking pretty good.

I saw there was Carole earthing up potatoes.

A word of warning.

We've had a blight warning for this area,

which is a Smith period.

It's all about temperatures and humidities.

The fact is, there is blight in the air.

We have a lovely crop of potatoes

in prospect over there in the main veg plot,

and we will have to spray.

Because the fungicides we have are protective materials.

They're not for eradicating it once it's in.

So you have to get the copper oxychloride in, PDQ,

if you want to save your tattie crop.

Especially in this part of the country.

I imagine that is more widespread, actually,

considering the weather reports from around.

Whilst we're over on the veg plot,

our onions and shallots are doing rather well,

coming through the cornstarch there.

Needing very little weeding, or anything at all.

That's how we benefit from it. They look pretty good.

I'm here at the raised beds.

It's something of the same picture as you've seen already.

Here we have courgettes that have done absolutely nothing.

This raised bed is quite valuable,

and we should be starting to fill up gaps.

Nice crop of lettuce.

This is Little Gem, ready to cut,

and you have to cut them fairly regularly,

otherwise they'll go past.

Some direct-sown leeks here,

which will come on - maybe need a bit of feeding.

But we'll pick them in early winter.

I'm afraid it doesn't matter

whether they're in the ground -

these French beans are for out.

The space is far too valuable.

Tom Thumb, a little lettuce here,

just the last of it.

Then more courgettes. I've cleared them,

ready to plant lettuce.

Filling up the spaces.

I think we can sow carrots, beetroot, and turnips, as well.

Keep the beds filled up.

Over this side,

the whole thing has been covered with fleece,

because of the cushies.

And also to keep the carrot fly out.

Cushies would go for the brassicas, carrot fly for the carrots.

Good parsley.

Absolutely spotless, ready for using.

Here we have the little turnips.

This is Tokyo Cross.

Jane had actually sown them in modules,

planted the module with several little plants at each station.

They push themselves out in this kind of soil.

Lovely crop.

New beetroot here called Cornette.

Then our ideal - carrots and so on, looking fine.

These turnips, I think maybe we missed the boat.

We should have thinned them a bit.

Then we're looking at trying to get this miniature cauliflower again.

Igloo is the variety

that we test all the others by. And they'll come away.

There's a nice cabbage, called Guardian.

The important thing is, the bed is full - they're all coming on.

I'll start filling this one up again,

get some lettuce planted.

"Yestreen the queen had four Marys, the nicht there'll be but three.

"There's Mary Seaton, and Mary Beaton..."

I'll stop there, because the said Mary Beaton lies

in that churchyard, just up behind me.

Today, we've come to have a look round

the award-winning, picturesque little village of Fordyce.

Gorgeous poppies, hey?

Magic.

This little village is home to about 150 souls.

But by 22nd July, 12 of their gardens will be open to view.

I'm going to see how many I can clock up today.

Richard Leith is one of the village stalwarts

who helps to run this garden scheme.

Richard, tell me about this gardens opening scheme.

Well, Jim, we started six years ago.

But it was originally just an idea for a one-off event

to raise funds for the village hall.

And the first year we had was so successful

that many of the visitors asked us

if we'd hold another one the following year.

How many gardens at that time?

That first year, we had three gardens open.

And last year, we had 20.

What's the fundraising for?

The fundraising is for the village hall,

which is somewhat dated,

and simply needs to be revamped.

A key element in the village, of course.

But you don't charge for entry, so where does the money come from?

The money is made principally

from WRI put on wonderful afternoon teas,

which are always hugely popular.

We have a plant sale.

What's the story with these pancakes?

The pancakes are available all day.

Anybody, at any time,

can come and have one.

Sounds good! Now, your garden is part of this scheme.

-I reckon we ought to have a look at it.

-Excellent. OK.

Richard, I get a great sense of design.

It's not all just casual here.

I've wanted to create a garden

that has loads of areas of interest.

Basically, you're creating different rooms.

This is Sissinghurst-like.

Well, they did copy us, yes(!)

THEY LAUGH

What we've created here, what we've just walked through,

is very much the woodland wild garden.

Aye. Quite.

I love your recycling policy.

We have a cairn here of all sorts of bits and pieces.

You can take that bowl off the top and just keep on going.

A multi-storey cairn, yes.

The wild flower area around here

seems to have developed rather nicely.

Over the last two years especially, it has come on.

We took down some trees,

to open it out,

and it's given it much more light.

Absolutely gorgeous. I could stay here for ages.

I like talking to you.

-But I have to see these other gardens.

-OK. Bye-bye.

Fordyce is such a compact wee village

that all the 12 gardens could be seen easily,

moving around on foot.

This is Pat Currie's garden. A real cottage-y feel about it.

Look at the butterflies enjoying themselves.

These poppies are still putting on a fantastic display,

despite the fact their foliage got hammered by the weather.

If you're ever stuck for what to do with a redundant coal cellar,

how about this, then?

Brill, eh?

The Jubilee Garden.

Work-in-progress,

by the children of Fordyce Primary School.

Some of the gardens, you must go through the owner's house to get to.

I'm now in Susan Clark's garden.

You know that saying,

"You never know what's around the next corner"?

Have a look at this.

Absolutely stunning! Isn't it?

A tiny, narrow space,

and how well has she used it?!

Beautiful shrub area,

and here we have it,

and some gorgeous carp.

Heavens above!

I doubt the local seagulls dinnae ken they're here.

So what's the story of this garden?

Well, it belongs to my neighbour.

I live over the garden wall.

Is he secretary, treasurer, or something...?

He's the secretary of the Community Association.

They're the people who organise the open day.

The thing about these gardens,

I just love this beautiful, wee, herbaceous,

informal, no staking... It's gorgeous.

And the colours have changed throughout the whole year.

It's quite stunning. Now, lead on, MacDuff.

Come through here, there's a lovely colour...

It predominates at the moment.

The geranium, Johnson's Blue.

We've more of this lovely, herbaceous cottage garden planting.

-Yes.

-And a huge bit, further on.

That's the old field.

That's what he still refers to as "the field".

And that's where you would find

the marsh orchids and things?

The fritillaries and such-like.

He's got a huge patch of euphorbia down there.

Very spectacular.

I like the fact there's no need

to keep that as pristine down there. It can be allowed to go.

-It's natural.

-It's lovely.

By now, you'll think I've found a bit of paradise

here in Fordyce.

But things are not always as bonny as they are here.

This burn flooded twice in recent times.

Would you believe it? Look at the depth of the walls here.

It flooded.

Pulled down a bridge up there.

brought it down here, blocked this one. Flooded the garden.

Floated this summerhouse across.

That garden has been flooded twice in recent times.

It just shows, we're not the only survivors.

Look at these bonny yellow roses.

Well then, Dorothy. How long have you been gardening here?

-About 44 years.

-Crikey!

But it wasn't always a garden here.

There used to be cottages here,

so my husband had to get out the shovel,

put in new earth and everything,

and make a garden.

He's made a fine job of it.

The first year was tatties!

-HE LAUGHS

-It's often the case.

It's supposed to clean a garden, isn't it?

Well it does, because you're out cultivating them.

You have a fantastic range of flowers.

Right in front of us here,

we have one of these replacements

-for the Busy Lizzie?

-That's right!

We all know

that it's suffering from a disease.

This has been promoted as a replacement.

What do you think of it?

It's bonny,

but they don't like the cold,

and it hasn't been easy to grow.

It is a New Guinea Impatiens.

The very name tells you it really wants warmer conditions.

Of course.

You've so many other things to choose from.

Everywhere I turn, I see something different.

You're a credit to the village, my dear!

-And tell the manny that, will you?

-Of course I will!

-Thanks.

And it's open to the public. By jingo!

We can't hide it, really, can we?

It gives us pleasure,

and we hope it gives everybody else great pleasure.

I'm sure you're right. It will.

I fairly enjoyed my day. We were blessed with decent weather.

To see a feast of colour

in all these gardens - absolutely stunning.

I hope they're similarly blessed on the 22nd of July.

Don't forget, if you come here,

to get a pancake made by the rural wifies of Fordyce.

I think we should finish with a good news story.

The sweet peas are looking great, aren't they, Jim?

A member of the leguminous family doing well!

Whereas the beans,

absolutely dreadful!

They are, aren't they?

With them growing as a cordon - a single stem -

which I think is great,

there is quite a bit of maintenance, though.

If we shoved in the time between dinner time and tea time, we could.

We take off these, there,

and remove the side shoots from in-between,

and we will very quickly...

I think you're beginning to see a flower appear.

There is the odd flower I can see down there. There's one.

How about these new clips?

-I think they're great.

-They only cost about ten pence each.

That's a lot better than your plastic-covered wire.

-Round the broom handle?

-Yes.

That costs you hardly anything, but I do like these,

because if you have quite a big cane,

look at the way that just slips onto there.

Clever, and it doesn't damage the plants.

At ten pence each?!

-Fantastic!

-I know what somebody will get for their Christmas.

SHE LAUGHS

If you'd like any more information

about this week's programme -

and we do have some successes in the garden -

it'll all be in the fact sheet.

The easiest way to access that is online.

Don't forget, new for us this year, you can find out about us

on Facebook and Twitter.

Next week,

the old "heidwallahs" haven't got their diaries right yet.

We're off golfing next week.

We'll be back with you on the 27th.

-See you then.

-Goodbye!

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