Episode 11 The Beechgrove Garden

Well, hello and welcome to Beechgrove.

What a cracker of a day it is and, if you thought

the Jubilee celebrations finished yesterday, you are up a gum tree!

This is right in the middle of our bedding season, isn't it?

Now's the time to plant your bedding. What better way to do it than with a Jubilee theme?

-Take us through the style of it.

-Well, it's a Union Jack.

For the red across the middle, we've got salvias,

we've got red geraniums, red begonias and some red petunias.

For the white, we've got some Begonia semperflorens,

some lovely bright white petunias there

and there's white alyssum as well.

Blue...blue salvia at the back,

lots of blue petunias

and lobelia as well.

The baskets, they, of course, have been started earlier?

It's a great way to get your baskets on early,

so the minute they go out, they're full, flowering, they're ready to flower.

-You're getting a month at the beginning of extra flowering.

-Yes.

-Those bacopa flowers tend to get bigger and bigger.

-They are.

Getting bigger. The nemesia are lovely and have beautiful perfume.

-Following the theme there as well.

-Red, white and blue.

Lovely dark red verbena, petunias and blue petunias as well.

-A nice punchy colour scheme, isn't it?

-The other half of the squad,

-today, are busy along there on something similar.

-Oh!

Yes, over here in our bed,

we've taken a slightly different spin on the Jubilee, haven't we?

Well, we have. No flag here. This is all about diamonds, isn't it?

Three silvery diamonds with Cineraria maritima.

And then, we've filled them

with green Lollo Rosso and then the red is round the edge.

-All very edible.

-So you can use edible plants as well, can't you? Limited palette, isn't it?

I think it's quite sophisticated and then, in the centre,

we've got a hanging basket and, again, it's greens and whites.

Quite a strong blue-y purple coming through, which is a royal colour.

A bit of gold helichrysum. I'm hoping that looks a bit like a crown.

I think that's a great idea.

You've got an interesting plant in the middle.

I have. We're going to do another hanging basket,

just free-standing like this

and the central plant is going to be a petunia and it's called Queen Bee.

-That's a lovely name.

-You'll see it better on here.

-That's gorgeous!

It's a big plant of it and we're going to put, again, more purples and silvers in here.

-Now, I was talking to the Queen when I was down at Chelsea...

-Yes?

..about us planting up things for her Jubilee

and I can't tell you exactly what she said, but she was very pleased

and also the fact that there is so much planting going on

to celebrate the Jubilee. Really, really cheering people up.

-There are lots of things going on.

-I think it's a great idea, isn't it?

BOTH: On the rest of the programme...

I'll be in Scotland's newest city, Perth,

to see how they're joining in with the Jubilee celebrations.

And this week, I'm planting trees.

I was waiting until the ice melted!

Lesley, a lot of the programme we're going to be spending bedding out plants, the annuals.

But we've got perennials here, this is my trial

-of first-year flowering perennials.

-And that's what's significant.

These have been started in seed, but they're going to flower this year.

People, if they saw the first programme,

Jim and myself were sowing these, or some of them,

-on February 14.

-Valentine's Day! How romantic!

You've got to start them off early

and it'll be interesting to see whether we do get them to flower.

Even if you don't, it's an incredibly good value way of getting lots of plants,

because these perennials will get bigger and better year after year.

You're speaking about value for money, yes?

It depends how well they've germinated.

Out of the 14, two of them didn't germinate at all.

The others I really would say are value for money

and I think, at this time, we've got to look at the price

and the germination. This is delosperma.

-It is number one. 100% germination and 1p a plant.

-Such good value.

You can't go wrong with that even if it doesn't come through the winter!

Prunella, you like that one, don't you?

It's good for wildlife and I've grown it from seed.

That worked out at 9p a plant, only 50% roughly of germination.

-It's still very little money, isn't it?

-Poppy,

I think that might be a short-lived perennial.

-Bright red flowers. It's going to be stunning.

-It came second in price,

2p, but only a third of germination, but there are so many seeds in the packet.

We cant mention them all, but I mean, achilleas,

you've got some of those in the cut-flower garden?

These are summer berries, a lovely mix of colours.

Just on the planting side of it,

the soil is lovely and warm, it's incredibly hot.

I would be planting out in the evening

and certainly watering in the evening.

I think, if you can, that is a good idea.

Just to say again on price with that one, 6p a plant

and 90% germination. So far, so good.

-Absolutely.

-Back to the bedding again and some foliage plants.

Lesley, this scheme is all about being rather subtle, isn't it,

because it's just foliage plants.

These are the baskets you did a couple of weeks ago.

-They're coming along nicely.

-Starting to fill out,

but remember we did have the pansies, we haven't got

rid of those, because they're looking beautiful, aren't they?

It's all a little bit about maybe sort of mirror image,

for example, the sweetcorn which is lovely in the sun, isn't it?

-You haven't got a plan?

-No, what I think now...

-Lay them out.

-Plectranthus Silver Shield which is lovely.

-Gorgeous!

-We should have a band of that round the edge of the hanging basket.

-OK.

-I've not seen that one before. That's lovely.

-It is nice.

-What do you think of this one?

-THEY LAUGH

-It looks like a tray of weeds! What is it?

-It's rice.

-It's Black Madras. It is starting to go black.

-It is. As it matures.

We'll come back to it, we'll come back to it.

When you see this week's problem corner,

you might think I've lost the plot.

But a good friend of ours, you might recognise her, Eleanor Bradford,

the BBC Health Correspondent, said to me, "Do you think I could grow

"a few apple trees, 700 feet up in Morayshire?"

I said, "Well, let's give it a go."

Eleanor and Ross,

the thing that appealed to me about this project was the fact that

you got started gardening before the house is finished.

You got your priorities right and I love that.

Of course, hedging to begin with.

You need shelter in a place like this.

It's an edible hedge,

so there's pretty much everything you'd expect to find in a hedge,

but every now and again,

there's something we can eat or the birds can eat.

-He's a very keen cook!

-Right! I was going to say, because there's roses,

there's amelanchier, hawthorn, cotoneaster

and there's even a crab apple in there somewhere as well.

The only thing I'd say is, we're looking east here

and that's not where the main prevailing wind would come from.

Shelter from here is good, but what about the other side?

-The prevailing wind comes from over there.

-Yeah, yeah.

You've got something up there to deal with it. Let's go have a look.

-This is the prevailing wind side, isn't it?

-Yep.

What a novel way to get rid of the old timbers.

Where did that come from?

I think we saw it in a book somewhere. We had all these trees

all growing in the wrong places, which Ross took down,

and it left us with loads of branches,

and we thought that would kill two birds with one stone.

-You called it a dead hedge?

-A dead hedge, yeah.

When the wind is blowing from that direction, which it normally does,

you do feel a difference, actually. It's good.

It's got all the elements of the right kind of windbreak.

You're not trying to stop the wind altogether, and frustrate it,

because it just gets angry and comes over and swirls.

It filters it and slows it down, and that's what achieves

-the relief for plants underneath.

-And not too much expertise needed!

And if you've any more of the stuff, you can enhance it.

But we're patently onto a terrace here.

The middle one of three, if I can judge properly. Yes?

-What's for the bottom one?

-Vegetables, at some point!

-And then working up here for soft fruit.

-Yeah.

-The soft fruit have come through reasonably well.

-Yeah.

There was a bit of a howling gale when we put them in and they were knocked back a bit.

They've come back, so that's good.

The bit we're really interested in today, here we are.

All nicely prepared, grass down, this is going to be a doddle!

-THEY LAUGH I hope so!

-When we first came here,

your ideas were all about an orchard!

-Yeah!

-That sounded grand, didn't it?

I'm afraid I had to disabuse you of that,

because I don't think cherries would do too well, or gages.

-No.

-That's right, yeah.

But I think it's worth having a go, and so, having left you

with a very good catalogue, you've made your purchases.

-Yeah.

-We've got six trees and I think they'll be right here.

So, that was really good. You gave us a really good list of...

-Quite a long list...

-Yes.

-..of trees that'd stand up to the climate here,

because what we found before was the list was endless

and you were trying to choose what would pollinate with what.

It was all about the taste of the apple

and not about whether you'd get any apples because of the climate.

Well, exactly. That's still the big gamble.

We've got to see how effective windbreaks are, how they come through the spring,

if the blossoms come to fruition in the form of fruits.

We've also picked a rootstock for the apples, 106, which is quite vigorous,

but I think that will counteract the short growing season.

You've got four apples and two plums,

and I think that's a reasonably good test for this part of the world.

As far as the varieties are concerned,

they will cross pollinate.

You do read this is self fertile and that is self fertile -

that's under perfect conditions.

-That's something we were getting bewildered with, actually.

-Yeah.

-You're on the end of the potential here.

-Sure.

-I think you've got

-to be sure that you've got cross pollination.

-Right, OK.

-Do you think we should plant some?

-Yes. Let's get a warm-up.

There should be room for all of it with the number of boulders you've taken out of this.

-LAUGHTER

-I felt every one of them!

Nicely rooted.

Not too interwoven.

-So that's fine.

-Is that OK,

all the roots going round and round the root ball, is it?

They've not overdone it, so to speak.

That plant is just about the right... I've seen me,

where it's really thick,

-running a knife through them, just to break them open.

-OK.

That's not too bad at all. The crucial point

is to keep that graft union above soil level.

If you bury it, up to here,

then that bit might start to root into the soil...

-OK.

-..and then it would counteract the effect of the rootstock.

You want to turn it back and push it all the way down.

-It ensures that there's no pockets.

-OK.

-Rather than just heaping stuff on top.

-And then put the boot in.

My boots are a bit bigger than yours.

What an admission for a lady to make!

Mind you, I have got...dainty feet.

SCREWDRIVER WHIRRS

So do we just slacken that off as the tree grows, Jim?

Yes, indeed. I think you can actually also put a little nail

-through there to prevent it sliding either way.

-OK.

-But in fact, you should look at it every year.

-Right.

Now it's a matter of grow!

One down, five to go!

Well, we've had three rehearsals, three trees planted.

I can safely leave you to do the other three?

-It's been really good, really good.

-Thank you very much.

Quite a challenge for you guys, cos you're not used to this environment for growing things.

No, we've never had a garden before and so

we jumped in the deep end with gardening in quite a harsh climate.

The reason I wanted fruit trees is

because I have fond memories of where I grew up in the Midlands,

which is called "the fruit bowl of England", and it's full of orchards

that, in this time of year, are covered in blossom and it's lovely.

-But here, it's a little different, er...for the trees.

-It's a little bit different,

and, of course, in your present position, you'd want to encourage people to eat healthily.

-Yes, five-a-day, all from the tree for us.

-You lead from the front.

Talking about eating, by the way, our food,

there's quite a bit of fertiliser in the pre-planting compost

that was mixed with the soil.

But it wouldn't go wrong to give them a bit of bone meal.

-Just work into the surface.

-Sure, OK.

-Remember to go back each year

and give them a handful of bone meal until they're well established

and leaving a space round the base is really quite important,

so they don't have to compete with grass for any available moisture.

And we've had plenty of that today, but moving on swiftly!

Thank you for a taste of winter again! I hope all goes well.

Any time you want winter, come to us!

And if you want a taste of summer, then come to Beechgrove.

-This is the best bit today, isn't it?

-It's gorgeous.

Do you remember, this is the trial we're doing to look at alternatives to Busy Lizzies impatiens.

cos, last year, we'd a lot of problems with mildew,

so we're looking at plants that will offer an alternative.

-A lot of garden centres aren't even selling them this year.

-Yeah.

You don't know - depends on the weather - whether we get it.

-Let's be on the safe side and look for something else.

-Yeah, OK.

-What have you got?

-We've got verbena. This variety is called "Tuscany".

Nice and compact. Same sort of size as the Busy Lizzy,

flowers through to the end of the season. That one's dark blue.

Next, dianthus. The thing that's good about dianthus is you can plant it earlier,

cos it's a bit more hardy. Lovely colour range.

This is called "Strawberry Parfait", but you've got all the pinks

and lilac, so you've the same colour range as Busy Lizzies.

Begonias we've used before at Beechgrove very successfully,

and the fact is Busy Lizzies will cope with a bit of shade

-and still perform, as will begonias, so they are a good substitute.

-Yeah.

The semperflorens there, that's "Bada Boom", and you've also got

these tuberous ones here, a variety called "Go Go Pink Shades",

and it's nice because you have that foliage colour.

-A lovely foil for the flowers.

-Busy Lizzies will also take the sun.

When we plant them out here, they'll cope with a bit of sun as well.

So, if you've got a sunny spot, you could use some of the petunias.

Now, I always think it's best to go for the multifloras, which are a smaller flower.

They recover quicker from the rain. This is a variety

-called "Frenzy Grand Rapids", it's all the blues.

-Good point.

-Antirrhinum.

-Antirrhinum - this is the new variety called "Twinny".

It's a double flower. I know you'll give me a row for, but it's pretty.

-You have to have some double flowers.

-I know, they're just not very good for wildlife.

They flower for a long, long time, again they're tougher,

you can plant them earlier and will flower to the end of the season.

-This last little group here?

-These are dahlias.

I think they're becoming more popular as well.

We have to think what will take the place of Busy Lizzies,

for a few years, anyway.

Dahlias, a good colour range,

they flower right to the end of the season.

They really have a long, long flowering period.

And then, let's just have a look,

-because these are Busy Lizzies.

-These are Busy Lizzies.

The problem with the downy mildew, it comes to the walleriana variety,

which is like the bedding Busy Lizzies we know.

This is a New Guinea impatiens, which doesn't get it,

but this is in seed trays first,

-so it's nearer the price point of our walleriana varieties.

-Yes.

-The others are expensive.

-In a bigger pot and more expensive.

-We'll pop those in as well.

-I've got something else to show you as well.

-You expect me to get up quickly?

-Come on.

-Gosh!

THEY LAUGH

Right, so I wanted to show you, I've got another little trial going -

this is dwarf sunflowers.

Unless you're having a "grow the tallest sunflower" competition,

you don't need something 15 foot tall, do you?

Now they're in the shade at the moment,

but this bed does get the sun normally.

The nice thing about the dwarf sunflowers,

you're looking at something at that sort of height.

They're good in beds and containers, great for kids,

-because they're at the same sort of level.

-Some lovely colour.

This is three different types of "Pacino"

and this is "Lemon", and I think that's such a lovely, soft colour.

A lot of them are very egg-yolky colours.

They're very popular. I'm growing these in the cutting garden.

-None of the same varieties.

-There's loads.

-Mine are dwarf too.

This is a nice one, "Junior." This has got the biggest flower.

It's 17 centimetres across, which is a big flower.

They have all these little branches, so you get a lot of flowers.

Once this one finishes, all the rest will grow up and take their place

-and you get a lot of flowers on it.

-You know I'm not going to like that.

-I know it's double, but it's "Teddy Bear," it's very sweet.

-All right.

Finally, "Choco Sun" is probably the most dwarf one.

It's got a great big flower, dark chocolate centre,

-contrasting with yellow round the edge. It'll be lovely.

-A lovely bed.

-It will, when we get sunshine all summer long.

-Of course!

A couple of weeks ago, Carole was showing you her trial

of seed and cutting compost, peat-free compost for seed sowing.

There were some interesting results coming through on that.

For some years now, I've been doing the same thing

but with the next stage, with the multipurpose

and, this time, we've got all peat-free bar one.

There's a uniformity about this which pleases me greatly,

it means these guys are getting their finger out

and we're getting that sort of reliability that we've been looking for.

A quick run through them - this is Carbon Gold, with charcoal in it.

I complained last year, it was awful funny stuff to work with, but it was better.

Here we've got a nice one, this is Miracle-Gro

and these are looking pretty good.

This is from East Lothian, this is Gardening Solutions.

A wee bit of damage to the foliage -

I'm not sure what that is, they might have dried out.

Nothing to worry about - the young growth is nice and fresh.

This is a Westland formula here, looking good as well.

This one here, FertileFibre,

is one of these that gets delivered by courier,

it's not generally available

And the plants are fine, but they're a wee bit thin.

Coir used there instead of peat, by the way.

Finally, we've got New Horizon,

which is possibly top of the league at the moment.

All the plants are looking fine. If I go back to this one that's a bit behind,

there's really nothing wrong with it.

Quite often, the reason why things are slower

is the nitrogen that's in the mix when they make it up,

Sometimes, it's a wee bit slow to be released but overall, pretty good,

as they are with the brachycome, we just did some brachycome,

the little swan river daisy, just so we've got two different types.

We're getting the same results through there.

Really, I'm quite chuffed with the fact

that we can rely on these a wee bit better nowadays.

Same next door - let's look at the tomato trial now.

Well, it's trials, trials, trials, trials this week.

You'll be sick fed up with them by the time we're finished today.

We're in the tomato house.

Each row of tomato plants represents a particular brand of grow bag.

We're trying one with the other

and comparing price of grow bag and all the rest of it.

And, I have to say to you, these are the best set of tomato plants

I've seen in this establishment since I first came here.

They're looking superb. Looking tremendous.

There's very little difference showing at the present moment

between the different makes of bag.

Perhaps, if you were picky, you'd say that lot at the end there

are a little bit thin, but time will tell when we come to taste them,

and when the first pick and the total pick.

And then, I'm busy actually just putting the strings up.

You're supposed to be able to do this with one hand -

I'm getting a bit all fingers and thumbs nowadays!

-HE LAUGHS

-Here you go.

And there it is. The bottom is anchored to the bottom of the plant.

Quite slack, because you twist it round the plant as it grows.

I tell you what, they're growing like mad.

If you look here, you'll see all the little side shoots.

We want to grow them as upright cordons,

so we just, when they're about that long, you just take them out.

Like so.

We want to get the energy into the first truss -

there's the first truss of fruit just there -

and the plant will go on growing and every third set of leaves

will produce another truss and another and another.

Happy days! Beautiful fresh tomatoes.

I'm here in Perth, Scotland's newest city,

to meet Jenny Williams from the Community Greenspace team,

to see how they're joining in with the Jubilee celebrations this year.

Jenny, tell me, what have you got going on this year in Perth?

Obviously, it's Jubilee celebration.

It's the year that we achieve city status.

We have the Queen's visit as well

and so we are having a bit of a Jubilee theme.

We have a giant crown bed, we have red, white and blue beds

and various hanging baskets and boxes around the town as well.

-So you're really going for it big style, aren't you?

-Absolutely.

We're at Westbank Nursery. Is this where you're growing the plants for the display?

This is obviously the council nursery here.

We grow thousands and thousands of plants

and hanging baskets here, working alongside colleagues

in the YouthGrow program, which is a program for young people.

It's really a classroom without walls.

We work with Beautiful Perth, the Bloom Committee volunteers

and we're working with Community Payback as well.

We've been working with local schoolchildren

from Viewlands Primary School, the P7s there.

They came to visit us in March and planted some seeds with us.

The first thing we're going to do is have a look at what they've grown.

-So these are all the plants that you guys grew?

-KIDS: Yeah.

-You grew these yourselves from seed, did you sow the seeds?

-KIDS: Yeah.

-And roughly when was that?

-KIDS: March.

-March time.

And do you know where these plants are going to go now?

-The bottom of the crown.

-So in the crown at the bottom.

-Are you surprised at what size they're like now?

-KIDS: Yes.

-Did you think they'd be bigger or smaller?

-Smaller.

-Smaller? Are you surprised how quickly they've grown?

-Yeah.

You're going to plant these outside.

They're going to get bigger right the way through the summer.

They'll end up probably about that tall.

They've a lot of growing to do. They're actually still quite small.

They'll look fabulous with this lovely, shiny silvery foliage.

They're going to do a great job in your display.

So will we go and get trowels and gloves and things get planting?

-KIDS: Yeah.

-Come on, then, let's go and load the truck.

Tell me a bit about the design.

Obviously, this is our interpretation of the crown

and we have a mixture of bedding.

We have recycled glass in there and we have recycled bark in there.

What kind of plants have you chosen?

Cineraria "Silver Dust" and "Cirrus,"

mainly for the ermine at the bottom of the crown.

We have the begonias and blue ageratum as well.

Any idea how many are in there?

-We have 5,500 bedding plants in there.

-Gosh, that's a lot.

How long do you think it's going to take you to plant that?

Well, we plant with all the schools across Perth city,

so we actually take a week for the planting.

Pop it in there. Well done.

Is this you giving horticultural advice?

Well, I know how to dig holes anyway!

All I know is about digging holes.

Well, if you can dig the hole, that's half the battle, certainly!

They are doing very well. It is quite hard because people are walking over the ground.

Have you guys done planting before?

They've got an allotment at the school.

What kind of things do you grow in your allotment?

It's one up in Cherrybank allotment.

Um, stuff like vegetables and flowers.

Yeah, I walk past those quite a lot.

Do you want to put this one in here?

-Do you have a lot of success with your veg?

-Yeah.

What's your favourite?

I just like sweetcorn.

So, Scott, what's your involvement in all of this, then?

I run a project called YouthGrow, which is a partnership

between education and the environment services.

We offer a work experience programme to young people

who would rather their education was outdoors.

And I want to know more about these jewels. They sound fascinating.

What are they and where are they going?

The glass jewels will be dotted about the crown,

-as you would on the coronation crown.

-Right, yes.

Through trial and error, we came up with an idea.

We actually cast them in buckets...

-OK.

-..with an epoxy resin...

-Right.

-..and they go brick-hard solid,

-but they still leave a nice sheen, crushed-glass kinda surface.

-Lovely!

They can do them in all different colours.

That'll look fantastic and, on a day like this,

when the sun sets, they're going to really sparkle.

A bit of bling for the Queen.

And at the back, you've got the beautiful dolphin splashing about.

What's going in those beds?

Well, that's having a red, white and blue theme

and that will be planted by our Community Payback team.

I think the design is great and once they're planted

and we've got a few weeks of growing in hopefully this weather,

the whole design will look lovely. You must promise to send a photo

-that we can show everyone.

-I'll certainly do that.

These are our Jerusalem artichokes, and they're looking quite healthy.

It's interesting, though, the ones in the tubs are further ahead

than the ones in the border.

I think that's simply because it's in a container

and, when you get warm weather, well, the soil warms up as well.

Now's the time to start earthing them up.

That's a good reminder, if you're growing potatoes,

then why don't you earth those up as well?

Well, here's another good news story to report.

It was with some trepidation, I have to say,

that I agreed we should hollow tine fork this lawn

in the spring of the year, a job that's usually done in the autumn.

Following that, it's had a top dressing again of fertiliser

and I think we're well on our way to having a really nice looking lawn.

Here behind the conservatory,

the white garden is looking really cool on a hot day.

The tulip "Mount Tacoma", the double one,

has still got some flower on it and I want to add

two tall white flowering plants to the back, both with ladies' names.

This is verbascum "White Bride" and we sowed the seed earlier.

I shall pop those plants in.

It gets to about three feet, so it's going towards the back of the border.

And then a hardy annual, which we can just put the seeds in directly,

is "Snow Queen." That gets to four foot.

So I'm going to sprinkle this in little patches at the back.

You can tell that this is our sunny border.

I've picked gladioli for it, lovely cut flower.

Are they all going to be tall? We've got these sticks that we're going to put some netting on.

Yes, there's one variety I think only grows to about two feet,

but the others get as tall as maybe three, four feet in height.

So, yes, we're using this, um, lovely netting.

-Rather bright, isn't it?

-Just a little, but it was cheap!

And on the shady side of the street, you're going to be so pleased to notice that the tree fern's alive!

-Yay!

-Brilliant!

-Drat!

-Aww!

-It's going to be round up next spring!

Carolyn, you've still got your nails painted?

I know! They're getting a little bit chipped now, but hanging in there.

-I'll just try not to do any work!

-LAUGHTER

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

perhaps all the gladioli varieties, it'll all be in the factsheet

and the easiest way to access that is online.

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

Next week, we're going to be dipping into our post bag or Twitter bag

and we're going to be answering some of your questions.

I'm going to get up close with some bush tomatoes.

-Until then, bye-bye.

-ALL: Bye!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd