26/07/2012 The Beechgrove Garden

Hello there, and welcome back to Beechgrove Garden.

When I got up this morning, the sun was streaming through the window.

I thought, "Hawaiian shirt, the day". No!

Just as well I didn't!

The sun's gone - but it's fine, it's dry.

This time of year tells me we should be howking early potatoes.

Well, we've got a bonny lot of potatoes here.

Not a lot wrong with them. Been sprayed with copper oxychloride.

There's been a blight warning here - so keep your eye open for it.

When I say everything's green and looking well,

There's one plant that's no' so well over there -

I reckon that's blackleg,

and we'll wheech it out later.

But look at that one back there, which is flowering away like mad.

That's "Blue Danube".

I reckon it's worthy of being in the herbaceous border.

Gorgeous flowers. When you see it in a block, it looks stunning.

Anyway, we've got four varieties of early potatoes,

planted the second week of April.

It tells me there should be a few tatties to harvest.

And what's better than early potatoes

with a wee bit oatmeal on them?

We've got four varieties, half-rows.

Started off with this one here, which is "Casablanca".

This one is billed to take the place of "Epicure",

the early Ayrshire potato.

Better than that, heavier-yielding, and shallower eyes.

So that one's heading for the big time.

There's only four tatties at the shaw, at the moment.

One good thing about potatoes -

if you're not getting enough when you lift them, leave them.

They'll get bigger.

The next one I lifted is "Rocket",

one of the earliest - that's the one in the middle, looking not too bad.

But the surprise, one I knew nothing about,

is "Ambassador".

That is a decent boiling from one shaw. And they'll just get better.

Then, the final one is "Lady Christl".

I'm away to lift that and somebody handed me this -

a new piece of kit.

It looks like for taking the chips out the pan,

and getting the fat off them.

This is meant to be for lifting tatties.

Fine, if they're growing in buckets and things...

Cost you 15 quid, by the way.

You're supposed to, I suppose, do this.

And then, this....

Then lever them.

And all the soil falls away.

And the wee potatoes are caught in the middle.

Ha-blooming-ha(!)

Here we've got "Lady Christl".

Looking quite nice.

But I shall revert

to what I've always used.

That is a flat-tined tatty grape.

See if there's a bit more in this.

I think there might well be.

Get down there.

While I continue to search, in the rest of the programme...

Now, this really is a garden brae view.

Those are the Braes of Angus.

This week, I'm problem-solving in Forfar.

And I'm in an inspirational garden, just outside Edinburgh.

And to get you in the mood, this is A Forest by Jim Lambie.

I'm going to start with a good-news story. It's the okra.

Do you remember a few weeks ago, they looked really poor plants?

Then we had the idea of putting them onto the heat mat.

They do need high temperatures -

between 18 and 21 degrees Celsius.

And we finally have got

some ladies' fingers. They're beginning to set.

I think that's fantastic -

it's a variety called "Pure Luck".

Obviously, it's a bit of a novelty crop.

But I'm really pleased

that we are going to get some of those ladies' fingers.

Over on this side, this is a crop that people really like to grow.

Tomatoes.

And here, I have a comparison

of grafted and non-grafted plants,

of the variety called "Shirley".

Now, I start with the first bag -

that is a non-grafted.

Then it goes on to grafted

and then non-grafted.

What it says is, the grafted plants are going to be more vigorous.

You might think that,

from the one there in the corner, which is non-grafted,

but I think that's been affected by the cold weather.

The rest of them here are all about the same height.

The other thing they say about grafted plants

is you are going to get them to crop earlier.

Well, at the moment, when I start having a look at these,

you can see one or two of these -

the setting may be up to the third truss.

That seems to be setting a bit ahead of the non-grafted.

But we won't know until we start actually cropping.

The one thing that I want to do at the moment

is to let in a little bit of light.

And the way to do that,

is taking off some of the lower leaves.

You can just bend these back and forward,

and snap them off.

I'm only going to go up to the first truss.

That will let in a little more light -

it will help the tomatoes to ripen.

They're really healthy.

The only thing is,

I think there's a little bit of chlorosis setting in here.

I think, like Jim was speaking about with his tomatoes,

and the gro-bag trial,

we need to put some Epsom salts here.

In other words, giving it a dose of magnesium.

Now, the melons. A variety called "Outdoor Wonder".

We grow them under cover. Look at the size of the plants.

I can't imagine we will get a crop off of this this season.

However, we've got squashes - winter squashes,

and summer squashes.

I think what you've got to bear in mind here

is fruit starting to set.

I'm now going to nip off the tip here.

You really only want maybe half-a-dozen

of the squashes setting on each plant.

Again, it's just because of the season.

And finally,

I've got a gherkin.

It's a variety called "Partner",

And...well, again,

I don't think we've grown these before.

Related to the cucumber family.

Mm. Beautiful and sweet.

You can cut those up fresh, in salads,

but I really like them pickled, too.

This week, I'm in east Scotland,

in Forfar, the county town of Angus,

which is well known for its agriculture.

I'm helping Grace Murray with a small problem area

in her back garden.

What a view. This is absolutely brilliant, isn't it?

Isn't it? It's lovely.

Super planting at the front of the house, great planting here.

You've obviously got an eye for planting.

Thank you very much.

BUT it wasn't always like this.

We've been here five years now,

and when we came in at first, it was an absolute tip.

There was nothing but concrete and hard-packed earth.

-Oh, right.

-So we designed it ourselves.

You've made a fantastic difference to the whole thing.

-You know what you're on about with plants.

-Thank you.

What's the problem?

Well, this here.

The weeds come up through, all the time.

and I've got arthritis in my fingers.

I find it very hard to weed.

It's funny how that's what goes.

The grip goes, and we can't pull them out.

Possibly, there is no fabric underneath here,

-to stop the weeds coming through.

-There isn't.

That was a big mistake.

We can do something with that.

Nice little Acer in the middle.

-Is that a water feature?

-It is.

That's a curling stone, with a hole in the middle.

We actually like water music in the garden,

but there's not a big enough drop at the moment, so we can't hear it.

We'll have a look at that, and see what we can do.

Now, this is viewed from the kitchen,

-and from the dining area.

-That's right.

You're going to see it all the time,

so it's quite important that we get this right, isn't it?

Oh, yes. But I'm sure you'll manage, George!

I'm glad we're going to save the Acer, cos I'm really fond of it.

The idea is that when we've finished,

it should be much easier to maintain.

Oh, I'm sure it will be.

This is just a weed, isn't it?

-No.

-What's that?

Lysimachia nummularia folia.

A nice little yellow one, and it creeps along the top of the ground.

It would do just in one of the borders,

if you were to put it into one of the borders,

and let it come over the edge.

I'll do that right now, in fact. I've got a trowel somewhere.

Grace wanted to be able to see the water feature,

and to have what she calls "water music".

I'm going to have to cut away some of this foliage,

to let the water come up,

and then fall back down again.

We've tested this pump, haven't we, Mike?

It's OK. There's nothing wrong with it.

We've had an electrician in and it appears everything's in order.

It's just a case of adjusting the flow of water

to make it more suit the requirements.

-To give us the music.

-That's the effect.

When I go to a garden centre, and order one of these pumps,

what will they tell me?

I suppose the main choice is whether you go for mains voltage,

or a reduced, 12-volt pump, or whatever.

Low voltage obviously being the safer of the two,

They'll keep you right about all of that,

and there'll be information on the packaging.

We could make such a fool of ourself, couldn't we?

One could.

HE LAUGHS

What's in there, Mike?

I dread to think.

Hey, that's terrific!

That's really good!

-You can hear it now, can't you?

-Yes.

You'll be able to hear it right up there in the terrace, as well.

-That's marvellous!

-That's one of the problems solved.

Part one solved.

Part one, we're OK.

While Mike's down there, working with the fabric,

getting that all sorted out, I've come up onto the patio,

because Grace said she was having a problem with the roses up here,

and if you look at them,

they're not growing terribly well at all.

There's a bit of a problem.

They've been planted into a very small space next to the wall.

Come and see what's happened.

This is what the roses have had to deal with.

The landscaper, when he put in the patio,

made sure there was plenty bottoming for the patio,

but there's not enough soil for the roses to grow properly.

So, what we'll do,

we'll mix some topsoil and some compost,

put that into the hole, re-soil the whole thing,

and I've got two new roses to put in.

I've got a range of things here which are slightly Japanese.

They give that sort of feel, because that's what we've got.

-Remember, we're focused on the window?

-Yes.

So the water leads us down

what looks like a wee dry river bed,

down to the window.

We could put these irises where the water-splash is.

Now, that's a nice variegated one.

You have to have this one in an area where you can see it.

That would maybe go over there?

I think it would be beautiful there. That would be really nice.

-Isn't that wonderful?

-It is a beautiful, beautiful thing.

-A "Red Hot Poker" primula is what it's called.

-It's a lovely thing.

That can go down in at the front there, perhaps.

This is Meconopsis cookei, and it's a thing called "Old Rose".

And that's exactly the colour it is, isn't it?

It's a beautiful, beautiful thing.

-Can you see that inside?

-Mm!

-Look at that!

-You'd need a mirror underneath it.

-You would, just about.

-Now, what do you think?

-I think that's super, it's really nice.

The iris is in front of the jet of water.

We'll move that to that side

and then the meconopsis needs to come that way a wee bit.

-It does, and the thyme need to come...

-Just a wee bit out that way.

-Could you do that? I'll watch you.

-You shout if I'm getting it right.

-Come and have a look at that.

-What do you think of that?

That better?

Much better! That's really nice now.

When you're planting through fabric and putting stones over the top,

make sure the plants are sitting proud of the fabric,

so that when the stones go in,

they're just underneath the neck of the plant.

Don't plant these too deep, or the stones will be right over the top.

So there we are, the bed transformed.

Nice bit of water music, OK?

Planting, I think, should look OK from the window.

The roses are in as well,

the weeding has been reduced,

so, easier on our arthritic fingers later on.

So there we go - all the boxes ticked.

-Perfect, George, it's wonderful. 100%.

-Thank you.

-Not bad, coming from a teacher!

-There's your gold star.

-Thanks!

Now, if you remember, the point of this trial, Carol,

was to look for alternatives for Impatiens walleriana,

which were the ones last year had all the trouble with the downy mildew.

You've got a whole range of plants and of course,

it's not been the summer, has it, for bedding plants? Here we go again - weather, weather!

But, you know, it's not been as bad as I would have thought,

because some things have actually done quite well.

I can see why the begonia is the number one -

look at the flowers, they're great, but they haven't filled out.

They've flowered well,

but they've not grown because it's not be warm enough.

Same with the semperflorens, across there.

Flowering, because they don't mind the rain, but not grown, as they need the heat.

There's a bit of a sad story here.

The reason I put these impatiens, this is a variety called "Divine."

It's a seed-raised New Guinea Impatiens.

That's done quite well, because it doesn't seem to get downy mildew.

It won't, but it needed more heat. That's what that should look like.

That should be full of things like that.

-If the weather improves, do you think they'll recover?

-I don't know!

-I think it's doubtful.

-I think these will.

I think these verbena and these dianthus,

you can see in the last few days of sunshine, their flowers are starting.

They've filled out a bit, haven't they?

They don't mind coolness, same with dianthus,

there's flowers just starting to open now it's become a bit sunnier.

Look at all the buds still to come.

That will look superb if we get a bit of sunshine now.

Now what about thinking ahead, maybe to next year,

and what are the breeders producing for bedding plants now?

Ornamental breeders are primarily interested in the flower,

so we're looking at new flower shapes.

We got things with these begonias, with a lovely long, delicate petal

and these orange and red ones with an even longer petal.

-They're really nice. Now the bacopa, the size of the flower!

-I know!

They've been breeding them to get the flowers bigger.

Remember little "Snowflake" was tiny? This is "Atlas" and it's a huge flower.

That's stunning. I presume there's different colours?

They're always looking for a new and exciting colour.

We've got black petunias, we've got blue diascia.

Not sure if that's exciting. I mean, I like the colour blue...

It's different, though, it's different.

-It's rather a dirty blue.

-I know, but I like the black.

Also, within the colours, they're looking for interesting styles.

We've got a pink petunia here with a dark vein.

We've got a pink verbena there with a white star, so extra interest.

Something else that we've been trailing as well,

is bringing in plans that now are trying to be a bit hardy.

This is it. Breeders were trying to get indoor plants, like gerbera,

breeding them so they're hardier, so they can go outside.

Yes, for the summer though. We've tried it through the winter.

-It's not hardy enough for Scotland!

-Not yet, not yet.

And then, I mean, how long does it take to produce something like that?

It takes a long time. Breeding is a long process.

Something like the geraniums,

to get from a self-colour, like these reds and pinks,

to a bi-colour, can take five years.

They start crossing them, they get seedlings,

they grow them on, they trial them.

Five years to get from that to these bi-colours here.

And it's the number of plants as well, that's involved in it.

Out of about 30,000 seedlings,

you'll get five to ten plants that will make the grade

and go into production.

It's a long time and a very small, small success rate.

You're saying five years for that, but something like doubles is a lot longer?

The work that's gone into double osteospermums

and calibrachoas has been 10 years to now get doubles of each.

I mean, they are stunning, but it's taken a long, long time.

Now what they're doing is looking at getting the flowers bigger and more interesting colours as well.

The process goes on and on and on, just to please you and me in our gardens.

Well, some you like, some you don't.

Well now, I'm just picking the last of the cherry crop.

How's that? Aren't these looking gorgeous?

The variety is "Sweetheart".

The sad thing is,

I have no idea how prolific that tree was,

because a lot of the harvesting was unrecorded, if you see what I mean!

And it wasn't just blackbirds that were getting in, I can tell you.

Isn't that lovely?

We think it's worthwhile growing this cherry indoors

to get something like that.

The variety is "Sweetheart", and, of course, it's on its own - it self-fertile.

The real reason for being here, of course,

is to pick the last of the strawberries of this crop.

What you do notice is, last of the crop,

they're getting smaller, they're sort of jam-size berries.

The variety, as you can see, is "Sonata."

We've only cropped half the quantity this year

that we cropped last year - for two reasons .

First and foremost,

they got off to a bad start -

we got some crown rot in them. We'd to start them all over again.

Since then, as you know, we've had bad weather,

we've had poor light and we've had a bit of botrytis coming in.

In fact, here we are, just picking the last of the goodies.

Like so.

And what I'm going to do, is take these boxes down.

There are a few fruits to ripen yet,

but I'm going to take these boxes down from the frame,

put them on the floor out of the way,

and put the new ones in their place.

And that will take us to fruiting right into September.

Same variety.

These come out of the way, these come up.

These were planted in June and they've been in the cold frame,

and they're making really nice growth.

In fact, you can see flowers appearing on them already.

Before we start harvesting them,

we're going to be harvesting from the outdoor crop,

which has already started.

We've got a nice continuum of strawberries.

I was alluding to the fact that we've had botrytis problems.

When you're picking fruit, you should always use two punnets.

One for the ones that have got damaged with the foust,

with the botrytis on them,

and one for the good fruit as well.

You must pick this to reduce the inoculum.

But there's maybe a saviour on its way,

because it's just been launched on the market as an organic fungicide.

We have it here, ready. This lot are going to get sprayed once a week.

I don't want any botrytis on this crop going into the autumn.

because the days are shortening,

we would expect to get botrytis in that time.

If this weather continues, it's almost a certainty.

I'm looking forward to testing out this new material.

It can be used to prevent botrytis

and to prevent mildew.

There we go. I'll get on with finishing the harvesting.

Jupiter Artland, just outside Edinburgh,

is a totally unique garden, full of contemporary art.

Where are you going to see an orchid like that?

It's called Love Bomb.

Richard Irving, you're head gardener here at Jupiter Artland.

Normally when we come and visit, we're looking at fantastic trees

or rhododendrons, but here, it's all about works of art.

Yes, it is, and here we have Antony Gormley's piece, Firmament.

Antony Gormley, of course,

famous for Angel Of The North down in Newcastle.

It's made up of an ancient star constellation

twisted into the shape of a man.

The ground level's been built up

so that we can see the blue sky in the background

and also the Forth rail bridges

and the bings from Edinburgh's industrial era.

Antony was quite specific about how it was to be arranged?

He was, very specific.

In fact when he came up after it had finished being installed,

he said it would actually look a lot better

if it was turned round 161 degrees.

-That's quite precise.

-Very precise!

Don't forget that last degree, but he was right.

Once it was turned,

it does look better and does frame the background.

It looks fantastic.

It was started by Nicky and Robert Wilson.

Nicky is very much at the forefront of Jupiter Artland

and bringing artists

and putting them into a setting in the landscape.

She's actually a sculptress herself?

She has been a sculptress herself in the past,

-and very passionate about what she does.

-Lots of contacts?

Yes, lots of contacts, well-connected in the art world.

Now, it's a charitable trust, so it's non profit-making?

That's right. All the money we make from it goes back into education,

bringing kids and students from the local community in

to see land, and famous artists in the landscape.

This is a totally different scale, isn't it

Yes, it is.

This piece is by Laura Ford. It's called the Weeping Girl.

She got this idea when her friend's child...

They caught her pretending to have a tantrum in the mirror -

covering her face, and clenching her fist,

to see how effective it would be.

So, there's actually five of these, and they're spread around.

They work really well in this situation, don't they?

That's right, and why it's important to get an artist involved

in how they want things to be set.

When I first saw this, I thought they were a little bit creepy.

But actually, they're very tactile,

and you feel like comforting her.

I've been patting her, and she's actually made from metal.

That's right.

Made up of scrap metal, left lying around a foundry.

It's melted down into wax...moulds.

Poor wee soul. It'll be all right.

This is very characteristic of Ian Hamilton Finlay's work, isn't it?

It is. The Temple Of Apollo.

A very special piece for me.

When I was a boy, I went out to work at Little Sparta,

where my dad's the head gardener.

I was cleaning out a pond, and planting a hedgerow.

And, as all fathers do,

they're talking to their son about what you're going to do -

what's your career going to be in life?

It was an inspirational day at Little Sparta.

When we were just leaving,

I saw these stones piled up in palettes,

and I asked my dad what they were.

He said this is a temple that Ian had built for Little Sparta,

installed, but didn't feel it was right for the setting.

So it was taken down, piled up,

and actually, one of his last commissions

was to come here to Jupiter, and he found this home for the temple.

Like Ian Hamilton Finlay's poetry, which was written in stone,

I also like to think that it was written in stone somewhere

that I should work at Jupiter Artland.

Oh, that's lovely.

This is the latest addition. It's just beautiful!

Yes, this is Anya Gallaccio's new piece.

It's called The Light Shines Through Me.

It's made up of a three-metre-deep hole,

filled with amethyst

and surrounded by obsidian.

It was a real Jupiter team effort, building this.

Everybody was involved in some way.

And we all had great fun working with the artist

in putting this piece together.

It's just beautiful.

I had no idea amethyst came in so many different shades.

-Yeah, it's quite an incredible piece.

-It is.

There must be some logistical issues in building a huge hole like this.

What have you done with the water?

We've got quite an elaborate drainage system,

which takes the water away.

Also, the walls are waterproof.

They're two-feet-deep, and have a waterproof membrane,

which runs in behind them.

Wow! It's just beautiful.

This is a massive installation.

It is. This is the Charles Jencks Landform.

It's called the Life Mounds, and it's to do with cell division.

For me, it's to do with the symmetry of the bankings,

the slopes, and the way it all runs together.

-You helped actually build this, didn't you?

-That's right.

It's been under construction for about six years.

I've been involved with it for four years now

and I am very proud of the work that's gone into it down here.

It's fantastic. It must be a nightmare to cut the grass.

It is. We call it the Forth Rail Bridge of grass-cutting jobs.

SHE LAUGHS It's excellent, because as you come in, this is what greets you.

It is - we call it "the jaw-dropper".

It really is a majestic entrance to Jupiter Artlands.

It's fantastic. We have just scraped the surface here,

but people can come for themselves, can't they?

We're open from Thursday to Sunday, from ten till five,

throughout the summer.

I can't quite believe we're into the fourth season of pruning this pine,

so that we get this cloud-pruning effect.

The first time I pruned it,

gosh, we ended up with kind of pyramids.

But now, I'm delighted to say we've got these lollipops,

so it does take a bit of time and a bit of patience.

This is the time of year when you need to prune these candles.

Basically, you just cut them back by half.

It's quite fiddly, quite time-consuming,

but I find it quite therapeutic.

And you get results like this.

There's so many things going on in this place,

we sometimes miss key jobs.

We have paid practically no attention

to our new crop of perpetual-flowering carnations.

And a little bit of dis-budding is necessary. Look at this here.

If we leave all these buds to grow,

it will reduce the size of the end one.

Of course, this is the one we need for a button hole, or whatever.

So, it could pay to just do that.

Take these off, like so.

Now, if I was growing them as cut flowers,

wishing to have a stem,

as well as that, I might even take that one off, as well.

But we'll leave some, and we'll be able to compare them later on.

These anther lines are looking quite good, but as you can see,

the weather has affected all these first flower spikes.

So, what I would like to do is

nip all them off, right at the bottom.

That's going to encourage lots of new flowers,

so when the weather gets better, they'll be good to go.

Because it's been so wet lately,

I bet you've got this little fellow in your lawn.

This is red thread.

It will have turned patches of the lawn pink or red.

Don't be too alarmed.

All you need to do is to feed the grass

with a heavy potash feed.

That will sort it.

Well, a bog garden with beach.

-Looking quite nice at the moment.

-It's lovely.

I think the beach is working well, cos it's containing that juncus,

-which can be a bit of a thug.

-That little wild orchid right in the middle -

did we plant that, or did that just appear?

That's just appeared.

We put in the primulas and things, and they self-seeded, which is nice.

Did we plant that "Lady's Mantle" there, there and there?

Don't! My garden's the same. I wish I'd never planted it!

But it looks pretty, as you say.

Absolutely gorgeous!

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

maybe it's about Jim's tatty varieties,

or Caroline's new bedding plants -

it's all in the fact sheet.

The easiest way to access that is online.

Don't forget, new for us this year is Facebook and Twitter.

Next week, we won't be in the garden,

because it's our first community garden of the year.

Yes, we're on the randan again.

We're going to God's country, we're down to Ayrshire,

where the community in Barrmill are putting the finishing touches

to a super project, and we want to be part of that. See you then.

-Bye.

-Goodbye.

-Goodbye.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd