Episode 17 The Beechgrove Garden

Well, hello there.

Welcome to Beechgrove on a delightful day,

and I'm definitely going to try and accentuate the positive

by starting here in the fruit cage, looking to harvest some soft fruit.

Let's start with the cordon gooseberries. You can see how well they've been trimmed.

That exposes the fruit to the light

and it colours up and it makes them a lot easier to spot and to pick.

This variety, which turns red as it ripens,

and it's hairless, it's bald, if you like,

is martlet and it works so well in this fashion.

The next variety I would talk about is invicta.

Here it is, here,

green, turning to yellow.

Again, it's been well pruned and therefore,

you can see that the fruit are ripening up

and they're beginning to soften now and ready to pick.

Both of these are resistant to American Gooseberry Mildew,

which can be a bit of a scourge. So, we're thankful for that.

They've really done well. Then onto redcurrants.

Interesting story here.

We've got some gorgeous fruits ready to pick.

The variety's Jonkheer van Tets.

You can see where the pruning again has been done early

to expose the fruit and to get it ripened up,

but with the kind of weather conditions we've had,

we've had this great rush of growth all the way down to the bottom.

Hiding the fruit. And I can tell you what's going to happen to it,

it's going to get chopped right back,

right in there, like so. No messing.

And then we'll get the picking done.

I'm going to leave you to get on with other things as I start picking,

and when we do the old redcurrants, we pick them

on the sprig, so to speak. Like so.

You don't try to pick them individually. Isn't that lovely?

Aren't they gorgeous? Some people who are always in a rush,

who are always looking for technology,

want to use this Hoover thing.

I find this is good for blackcurrants,

but not to get into these.

And, of course, you're supposed to do this like having a haircut.

Not for me! Meanwhile, get on with the rest of the programme.

It's not every day of the week that you will find a Weeping Judas Tree.

Absolutely stunning, and I know it is because it's there on the label.

Of course, we're in a botanic garden in the middle of Aberdeen.

And I'm going to be turning this once productive vegetable plot

into a low-maintenance ornamental border.

You know, I'm delighted we've got some great results

with our first year flowering perennial trial.

I just want to take you back to tell you

what we were doing here. It was February 14th,

Valentine's Day, when we sowed these seeds

and this is the results now.

We want to see - are they flowering in that first year?

Well, starting off with the delosperma

and this came out as top for germination.

We had 100% germination

and the cost was a penny per plant.

That's not taking into account things like compost and pots,

but when we look at the number that germinated,

one pence per plant.

And here, we've got the flowers, they started flowering

in the middle of July.

They love the sunshine, because they really open up in the sun.

The next one, prunella - that doesn't mind a bit of shade,

that started flowering at the end of July

and there's loads of buds to come.

It's a good groundcover plant

and it looks really healthy.

Now, how about this for brightness?

The poppy.

Now, this one comes out top for flowering first.

This started flowering at the end of June.

And the insects, things like the hoverflies

and the bees, really love this plant

and the variety's called solar fire.

Lavender's a little bit disappointing,

but that's not surprising, because we haven't had the sunshine

and we've had so much moisture.

Lavender really thrives with good drainage.

But the next plant, this is a salvia.

This started flowering in the middle of July again,

loads of buds to come

and I think that will flower for several months.

This one has to be my favourite, though.

Vesuvius, a lychnis,

the variety called Vesuvius, well, that describes it really well,

because look at these bright, fiery flowers,

and a gorgeous contrast

with this maroon foliage.

But when it comes to buds on the plant,

I think gaillardia has to be the top one.

A really compact variety.

Yes, it did start flowering towards the end of July,

but again, I think this one's going to go right through to the autumn.

And then achillea,

this is summer berries, it's a good cut flower.

I think this is later than usual, because of the weather,

but this will continue.

And I what I want to do is continue the trial,

because I want to see if these perennials are hardy.

We will leave them in the ground

and see if they come through next winter.

Our garden visit this week is a bit of a home game.

You find me in the leafy suburbs of old Aberdeen

and I'm heading for the Cruickshank Botanic Garden,

and there, I shall meet the new curator, Mark Patterson.

Well, you'll be the new man then, Mark. How long have you been here?

-I've been here just over six months.

-Beginning to find your way around?

Having a lovely time, absolutely.

That's jolly good. But how long has the garden been here?

Garden's been here 114 years now, 1898 is when it started.

I wonder how many people realise

that you've got such a gem here in the centre of Aberdeen!

-Fewer perhaps than one would like!

-Yes.

We're in a botanic garden,

people think it's only for academics,

students, and all the rest of it.

Behind these walls is not the world for me.

That's not true, is it?

Absolutely not, no. This garden,

as with any botanic garden, is available for all to use.

We have just walked through this fabulous border.

Fabulous in a year when most herbaceous

has been flattened to the ground. This is a great credit to the staff.

That's very kind of you to say so.

-No, but it's stunning. That's what people can see.

-Yes.

And if you've just moved to a new area, we get letters about this,

what can I grow? If you've got a botanic garden like this

anywhere near you, go and have a look.

What else have you got to show me?

My goodness! How much time do you have, Jim?

Let's move on.

-Here we are making our way into the sunken garden.

-Absolutely, yeah.

It's a sun-trap in its own right.

It's quite a sight, isn't it?

-It's beautiful, we've got some stunning colour here.

-Yeah.

Some are seasonal, but plants

that are from various parts of the world

-and will look good throughout the year.

-This is south-facing,

-and we find the old phygelius from South Africa.

-Very much so.

Phygelius is looking lovely.

We also have, in the foreground here, agopanthus. Soon to come into flower.

I hate to mention it, but is the mower bust?

You're looking down on our lawn at the bottom,

deliberately looking like an unmown lawn. Grass has gone to seed...

We had a wonderful range of bulbs underneath

and, in the spring, species of daffodils,

fritillaria coming through the grass. It looks beautiful.

These rodgersias are stunning.

The leaf cover there is super, isn't it?

-Facing North and they're perfectly happy.

-Doing very, very well,

to the point where they're encroaching on the path on that side.

We're going to push them back this winter.

Well, we're now, Jim, in the rock garden and pond area.

Completely different atmosphere.

-This rock garden was put in in the 1960s.

-Yes.

And you are now seeing many of the rocks

being exposed once again

and that's because the original planting

involved so-called dwarf conifers.

Let him go for 40-odd years, they're no longer a dwarf!

I'm glad you put in that bit about so-called,

that's another story! But behind us here,

what's this? A little primula. That's stonking!

They are beautiful, these primulas, aren't they? And again, it's part of...

you can see here that we've opened it up,

it allows more light levels, new plantings

to come in. Seasonal colour.

And this is another gorgeous little corner.

I've only ever seen that in a pot in a show-bench.

It's a roscoea humeana.

South-west China?

-Indeed. And belonging to the ginger family.

-Oh, really?

Which is very special, to be able to grow outside at this stage.

It's quite unusual, isn't it?

Well, the flower is just so stunning, isn't it?

They're like little handkerchiefs, just dangling there.

I think you're absolutely right, and slightly creamy colour,

a little bit of yellow tinge in there.

Offsetting other plants in the bed, including the geranium.

Calm down, lad! We'll never see the whole place if you go on like that.

Well, Jim, here we are moving out of the rose garden

which, again, is another lovely area of Cruickshank Botanic Garden.

This was developed in the 1980s

and some of the roses have been here ever since that time.

What's the extent of the garden in total?

11 acres. 4.6, 4.7 hectares.

And how many staff do you have?

Excluding myself, those in the grounds, doing the horticulture.

four-and-a-half right now,

because we have a summer student gardener.

With our seasonal gardener, three-and-a-half, but in winter, that drops to two-and-a-half.

Wow! That's quite a drop.

Do you have a friends organisation that are able to help in some way?

The Friends of Cruickshank Botanic Garden are very supportive.

They've been running 30 years, and volunteers as well.

Plenty of volunteers, or enough to be able to meet the demands?

Enough to help, enough to be very supportive

and use it as a learning opportunity for themselves,

but always open to have new volunteers, yes.

Well, this is fabulous!

The arboretum - heaven!

Trees! Isn't it stunning?

This bit of the garden is the most recent purchase of land,

in the 1960s.

The vast majority of the trees we see here are 50-odd years old.

You're making use of all the space,

as I see a bit of an experiment going on here.

From the top of the hill, it changes down

to that cultivated area at the bottom. What's happening?

As we look at the top slope sweeping down between us here,

we have one, two and three different Scottish meadow mixes,

with an open bed to be sown for next year.

There will be four in total.

As we come in through the gate at the top and look across,

we see these lovely double spires of the old cathedral.

It's been there longer than any of it at all.

Walk into the arboretum, top end,

you get that wonderful view of the double spires.

I take it you'd like to

open that up a wee bit?

I would love to open up that vista a bit more,

and that's part of the game, that of being a custodian here -

having a legacy to come into, leaving a legacy as well.

I made a reference there to the fact that

this is even less well-known than the garden itself.

I mean, it's hidden away here.

A bit of a hidden gem, is it not?

The arboretum is. The whole garden is.

One of the most common phrases I've heard

from people I've been able to introduce to the gardens,

and all those who know it, is,

"This is Aberdeen's best-kept secret."

To which my response is,

"Best kept, it will be. Less of a secret, it must be."

That's a great motto for you.

The Cruickshank Botanic Garden in Aberdeen is open seven days a week.

It's free of charge, so well worth a visit.

You know, we've had lots of letters in and we've even been

stopped on the street about problems in the garden with this summer.

You're not alone and the three of us want to share with you

some of the problems we've got in the garden here.

I'm going to major on the bedding.

This was meant to be an absolutely gorgeous display by now,

we're majoring on foliage,

but look, for example, at that one there,

which is very brown, pretty dead.

It is Kochia, meant to be the burning bush.

We should just call it a brown bush!

Then we've got things like the millet. They've just sat there.

The foliage has just got really, really poor

and has just started to wither away.

I suppose things like the castor oil plants, they're slightly better.

But if you remember last year,

we had an ornamental potager and I grew that plant,

and at this time of year, it was probably twice the height.

But at least the foliage has stayed nice and fresh.

We've got rice. Rice, again, has sat there,

almost started to disappear.

You would have thought in the rain that it would thrive,

but it obviously doesn't like those cold, wet temperatures.

I think what's interesting is a lot of the silver foliage plants,

the hairy plants, have done quite well.

This one is a new one to me - Plectranthus "Silver Shield".

Lovely big leaves on it, but I still reckon

if we'd had better weather, that would be twice the size.

However, the hanging baskets are pretty good.

I think maybe because they are in baskets,

they've got the good drainage, when we do get a bit of sunshine,

they heat up quite quickly.

And so the helichrysums are happy - again, it's a hairy-leaved plant.

And things like the nepeta, beautiful trailing plant there.

So, OK, some negatives and some positives.

Well, lots of positives here and lots of flowers.

I'm in a bed which has got herbaceous perennials in it.

Those are things that die down, disappear each year,

but come back reliably.

They are flowering really, really well.

This verbascum, with its tall yellow spires with yellow flowers.

Verbena bonariensis, adored by butterflies,

and those pretty blue scabious,

and lupins still in flower.

So it really shows that these have been much less affected

by the weather than maybe the annuals.

But another problem that you probably will be having

is the fact that we've had so much rain,

it's really rinsed through all the nutrients in the soil.

There's very little food left.

Plants really need three basic nutrients.

Nitrogen - they use this to make leaves.

Phosphates - they make roots.

And potassium - and this is for fruits and flowers.

At this time of year, this is what you should be applying.

It's called the sunshine fertiliser,

so you need to have a look on anything that you put into the garden

to make sure it's got high numbers of K.

That will help ripen the plants and make sure that they flower

and fruit really well next year.

I suppose I'm doing a bit of a summing up,

because I'm talking about perennial perennials.

You don't get any more perennial than trees, do you?

I've got a sheaf of letters here from Inverleith, Inverclyde,

from Glasgow, from Dundee, from this area as well,

all talking about premature leaf fall in trees,

mature trees that have been there for years.

Well, I honestly believe that it's not disease for the most part,

it's the weather conditions that we've had.

In the case of fruit trees,

there might be a bit of additional disease has come in

as a result of the damage,

but over there, we've got a beautiful Prunus,

the Tibetan Prunus,

and there's quite a lot of dead wood in that and it's looking very sad.

But the last thing I would be recommending is to go in with a saw

and do anything drastic, because if it is weather,

then they will recover in due time.

If there's a little bit of pruning necessary,

clean them up in the spring and give them a feed and away they come,

but don't go hacking into them.

I just think that they've had a message -

very warm March, then we had an autumn in April/May,

these guys thought it was time to shut up shop.

I reckon that this is premature senescence,

as we would call it botanically.

They're dropping their leaves because they think it's autumn.

So you just keep your trees and don't cut them down.

Here in the potager garden,

it's all about growing things prettily and productively.

We've got some gorgeous salad crops and edible flowers,

and in little compartments, so they contrast with one another.

Over here, we've got this calendula - bright orange -

next to...

purple lettuce "Delicato".

It's almost metallic,

but beautiful together in a salad.

But actually, I'm going to keep them for something else.

We've also got some edible little violas here.

I'm going to pick a few of those.

The important thing is, we have got salad crops which are ready now,

so we're going to be using those.

You need to keep on planting. I'm going to put in some oriental leaves.

It's best to do this after midsummer,

then they're much less likely to bolt and go to seed.

I've already got a row of Mizuna oriental leaf in,

and I'm planting here red pak choi.

I'm going to keep my hands clean

because I want to show you something else.

This is using some of the leaves

and some of the flowers that we've picked here.

I want to make an ice bowl. This is really, really easy to do.

You just need two interlocking bowls like this.

What I do is put some water in the bottom of this one, freeze it,

and then the smaller one will sit on top

and I can start to arrange it.

However, I actually have a kit,

and so you would freeze the bottom part

and then just start to push in

things like this lettuce "Delicato" -

push it in, down the sides.

You can maybe use a little barbecue stick like that.

Then the calendula.

And when you've got them all in -

and take a little bit longer

than this to arrange them -

fill it up with water,

pop it in the freezer,

and then this will be the result.

Now, in this ice bowl,

I've actually got some little violas,

some purple lettuce, some lavender,

and then I've picked some parsley seed heads.

It's sitting in a sort of a top hat,

because this will catch the water

as it melts. It'll last for

two or three hours.

If you're using just the bowl system,

you'd have to sit it on a plate or something.

And you can use this as, I think,

a stunning centrepiece for a supper party.

You could put ice cream in here, shrimps,

or even just float some candles

and it would look beautiful.

On a smaller scale,

if you want to just make some very, very pretty ice cubes,

then the secret with this is just half fill the tray with water,

pop flowers on top - so I've got blue borage and the purple thyme -

freeze them, so the flower is now

glued where you want it,

top that up with water and then pop it in the freezer.

That makes a lovely addition to summer drinks,

so you can sit back on the terrace in the sunshine.

I'm just south of Aberdeen today, in the lovely coastal town of Cove.

The sea is literally just a few hundred yards that way.

You might think that I'm just going to be visiting this lovely garden.

It belongs to Eleanor Patterson. She has a wee problem in the back.

Eleanor, your back garden is just as lovely as the front.

You've obviously worked hard on it. How long have you been here?

15 years in November.

It was just a blank canvas when we came in -

grass, and one or two bushes here and there.

So my husband, being a very keen gardener,

put up his greenhouse

and then he allocated this patch of ground for vegetables.

-Sadly, your husband passed away a few years ago, didn't he?

-He did.

Yes, eight years ago.

He managed to get seven years doing the garden here.

I've been trying to keep the garden up in his memory.

He thought that flowers are for the living...

..and that was my philosophy as well -

just to keep his memory alive in me.

So this was his vegetable patch, which I am no longer fit to do.

So, really, you wrote to Beechgrove because you want lower maintenance?

Yes, yes.

Well, we're going to get our hands dirty together,

and I think it should be fun making this low maintenance.

-Well, I did say my prayers, so the sun has shone!

-Brilliant.

When I first met Eleanor,

she was really keen to have this frame over the border removed.

What's climbing over it is a vigorous clematis.

Clematis montana.

It's flowered beautifully for her

and this is the perfect time to be pruning it back.

You can prune it back really hard, it will respond to that.

I'm cutting it back just on the edge,

and then when it starts to grow,

Eleanor can train it along that frame there.

-Is that enough room for you to get the saw in?

-That should be fine.

Oh, gosh, look at all the snails here!

There's loads of them.

The year of snails and slugs, I think.

-Right, I'm going to get my hand out of the way.

-I would!

Easy.

Right, I'm going to leave you to it and find Eleanor at the end here.

You're cutting my favourite cut flower - the Sweet William.

-Yes.

-A beautiful perfume.

-Yeah.

You've got a problem here, haven't you, with the eucalyptus?

I noticed that the base is split,

so what I tried to do is I put a bag of compost on it

and I put these four bricks, thinking I would be able to save it.

I can see what you mean. Really bad split there.

As you say, the bricks,

the compost, which I'm not particularly happy with,

because if you put it round the neck,

then the bark can get really soft.

The other thing is, look how loose that is.

That was the wild winds of Aberdeen.

-I think we should take that out. I hope you don't mind?

-No, no.

-I've got a suitable replacement.

-Oh, well!

And this conifer is a juniper. It's called "Skyrocket".

Gorgeous colour.

It is a lovely colour. It's very similar to the eucalyptus, isn't it?

But that will go up in height,

but the width is only going to get about two feet, at the most.

-Much better for that space.

-It's perfect, isn't it?

Eleanor, I believe you're quite keen

to put these blueberries into the border?

Yes, I think, actually, they seem to grow better in the border.

It's easier, absolutely easier.

I mean, growing something in a container,

you've got to always watch the watering.

My only concern is that it's a vegetable plot.

I'm assuming you've probably put some lime on it?

Well, there has been in the past.

Yes, my husband was quite keen on doing the thing properly.

Yes, because a vegetable patch needs a pH of around 6.5/7.

Now, blueberries really like it acidic, down to about five.

I want to add plenty of ericaceous compost when we plant them.

The other thing I want to do is a bit of a belt-and-braces approach,

but add some yellow sulphur as well, because that really helps.

You've inspired me. I thought, right, ericaceous plants,

that's going to go down that end because

it's a little bit productive with your rhubarb and you've got herbs.

Well, why not add a few more things like the rhododendrons and heathers?

That would be good.

Well, we've got all the acid-loving plants in

and then quite a few other plants I've chosen here.

Partly, I was inspired by your blueberries,

because they give you white flowers,

so I've tried to go for a bit of a colour theme with white flowers.

The other inspiration was yourself, because you said

you like the shade of green, or the shades of green.

40 shades of green is just exactly the thing for me.

It is, isn't it? I mean, look at each of these plants, and what a variety of colours!

We've got different shapes of leaves....

We've got lime green, we've got dark greens

and, as you say, different shapes of leaves.

We've got things that are evergreen, so you've got 12 months of interest.

And then, obviously, you want things flowering right through the season.

Yes, if we can.

So, let's start off with things like the hellebores,

-because we have long winters, don't we?

-Of course we do.

What have we got in flower at the moment?

Things like the Leucanthemum. That's called "Silver Princess".

-I love the Astilbe.

-Astilbe's lovely.

"White Sensation". So a whole mixture.

And at the end of the day, I think this is going to look really nice.

So working with that soil, it was so easy to put in the plants.

Of course, we cut back the clematis, we've given you a new tree.

All those plants, hopefully, you're pleased with them!

You've made a lovely choice.

Each one, as I saw them coming in, I thought,

"I like that, I like this."

Oh, that's great.

Well, if there's one class of vegetables that have

really lapped up this weather, it's the brassicas.

They're looking absolutely stunning.

Our calabrese is ready for harvesting.

This is a variety - "Monterey".

It's an F1 hybrid and the sooner I get that head out,

the sooner the side shoots will start to grow

and give us a second crop.

If you look up the row, they're all the same. The important thing is to harvest them straightaway.

They can go in the freezer and will keep for ages.

One of the best vegetables to be growing is the calabrese.

Not quite the same as the cauliflower,

this is one I've been using since I was knee-high to a daisy.

This is a variety "All The Year Round".

Quite small, got a wee bit to grow yet. The next one's the same.

They're not so even as the calabrese.

This is an open pollinated variety.

I can't use them all on the same day.

I can't get all the calabrese done

and into the freezer, so what do I do?

I bend this over - just break the leaf -

bend it over like that, and it'll prevent it from shooting.

We're in the white garden.

This dianthus, looking gorgeous, and it smells beautiful.

But sadly, with all the wet weather,

some of the buds have actually rotted and aren't going to open.

What I'm going to do is carefully pick through this in the sunshine,

nip them off to make sure that all the buds that there are to come,

so we'll have lots and lots more of these beautiful flowers.

This is a lovely scented foliage geranium. It's a variegated form.

However, if I look further down, look at this.

You can see how it's reverted back to green.

That's just going to take over from the plant.

If I follow it right down, it's almost like a sucker.

I'm going to have to cut all these branches off

and trace that right down to the bottom.

-This corner of the garden's fairly buzzing, is it not?

-Isn't it just?

This is the seaside garden and it is looking fantastic,

and covered with bees and butterflies on this lovely sunny day.

It's covered all the soil too, so it keeps down the weeds - brilliant.

Yes. And we're beginning to see the harvest

after all that hard work, even in a bad season.

Those look gorgeous, and the vegetables look beautiful. Look!

-Don't they look great?

-It's shiny!

-"Tokyo Cross" turnip.

-Too good to eat!

-The cauli and...

The little cucumbers, which are brilliant, aren't they?

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

maybe about the harvest, it's all in the fact sheet.

The easiest way to access that is online.

Don't forget as well, you can find us on Twitter and Facebook.

-Smell these, Lesley.

-They are gorgeous!

And next week,

we're going to be having a further look at fragrant plants.

The sweet peas are fabulous.

Yes, and Mr Anderson's back next week.

He's going to be looking at his trials on grasses

and green manuring and wildflower mixes.

There's a lot in it. See you then.

-Bye!

-Bye-bye!

-Bye!

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