Episode 23 The Beechgrove Garden

Hello and welcome to Beechgrove.

I could have told you it would be a belter of a day

because I'm starting in the greenhouse.

This is a final tot-up of how our tomato trial has done here.

We have one variety, Shirley.

But I wanted to try out different grow bags.

We chose eight different types of grow bag.

Then we would take the compost out of the bag

and put it into pots,

so they all have the same volume of compost per plant.

Four plants of each, and I have to say the results are pathetic.

Aye, I'm admitting it.

ALDI. 2.5 kilos,

from four plants.

It was the first to start cropping, right enough.

But not a lot. Verve,

B&Q. 2.5 kilos per plant.

J Arthur Bowers. 1.8 kilos per plant.

Here we've got Asda. One - it's bottom of the league this year.

One kilo for four plants.

And then we go to New Horizon.

1.78 - we're on the up again.

And then the variety of compost

that we use as our standard is Levington.

Three kilos for the four plants.

That's much better.

Then 1.6 for Westland,

and 1.3 for Miracle-Gro.

So, same conditions for all of them

and a fair range of yields from the plants.

I can berate myself by saying maybe the pots are too small,

and so they would dry out more quickly.

So the difference between wet and dry was too quick,

and it has affected the plants.

Other people have had problems and we can exhibit some of them here.

I've picked out one or two because they're quite common.

Here we have splitting,

and that again is about water.

Between wet and too dry.

Skin actually tightens up

and when it gets the moisture,

it's not elastic enough to swell, and it splits.

That's one thing.

Here, too much de-leafing, perhaps.

And you get russeting,

basically from sunburn.

Then, you quite often go into the greenhouse in the morning,

and the green ones are falling on the floor,

and you'll see some like that, which is this ghost spotting.

Ghost spotting is botrytis.

When the sun comes up, the moisture dries up,

and it remains just a spot.

But if it doesn't dry up the moisture lying in the wee hollow

by the calyx,

you then get the full-blown botrytis in the plant,

and the fruits fall to the floor.

I promise that we'll try to do better next time

because this is not a very good show at all.

Anyway, in the rest of the programme...

For a start, last seen, Lesley Watson and George Anderson,

with hiking boots over their shoulders,

were heading for the north of Glasgow.

Let's see what they've been up to.

I'm in Milngavie, start of the West Highland Way,

where, of course, young, fit guys like that

can go off on this wonderful, long journey through the Highlands.

'And sometimes we take our fitness for granted.'

Just close by is Clober Farm,

where the 208-year-old farmhouse and garden has just been recently converted

into a facility to be used by those with spinal cord injuries.

The accommodation has got lots of special features,

and so has the garden.

All is not gloom and doom here at Beechgrove.

I've walked about ten metres from the one greenhouse with tomatoes

to the fruit house,

where we have a very different story to tell.

Of course, we're still cropping strawberries.

Fruit size, a little bit small.

Days are getting shorter, temperatures are dropping.

They're ripening up more quickly, I suppose.

But it's a success story that I'm quite happy with.

To recap - I get these recapping things to do all the time,

just to test the memory -

we started off with some fresh runners of the variety Sonata,

away back in February.

Brought them in here, and they started cropping

at the end of May, beginning of June.

From this, we've picked about five kilos of strawberries.

By the time they were coming to the end,

we went outdoors to pick strawberries in the outdoor plots.

There, the two best varieties were Symphony and Alice.

Both cropping about six kilos from half the number of plants.

But the point is, these are second-year plants. These are bigger, stronger plants.

These are young runners.

In the meantime, at the beginning of June,

we took in a second batch of Sonata.

Popped them into the boxes, kept them in the cold frame

till the first lot were out of here,

and they've started cropping from the middle of August.

They're going to go on for quite some time.

What did I say we got from the first lot?

Five kilos?

This is at 4.3 already,

and we've still a week or two cropping to do.

So, you see, in the fruit house,

we've actually had a very successful season, that's for sure.

You'll remember the cherry, which is looking good,

had a cracking crop on it.

We have plenty of bunches of grapes here.

They're always a bit on the small side - we'll maybe have to work on that.

But enough to make a nice wee vintage of something or other.

They may not be dessert size, but there we are.

Bit of discolouration in the foliage - nothing to worry about at this time of the year.

The fig, which Mr A slaughtered,

is doing superbly well.

So he's vindicated. Good man.

So we want to spread that out along the end there,

and make a fan of it.

But there are some ripening figs on there - that's a good story.

From the fig to the peach. We've had a very good crop of peaches off here,

but sadly, we've had a late onset of red spider mite,

and that sucks the sap out of the leaves

and causes them to fall prematurely.

We'll have to be good on the hygiene - get rid of all the leaves,

make sure we burn them,

and then give a winter wash to the plant

and make jolly certain we're on top of it next year.

Then that brings us full circle to the strawberry plants.

What do we do with them now?

Well, I fancy that we will keep them here,

and next spring, we'll start them into growth again, right here,

just as if we'd bought them in,

and see what we get from second-year crowns.

We might even get a better crop.

That's all in the future, though.

Spinal Injuries Scotland is a national voluntary organisation

concerned with helping new and long-term spinal cord-injured people.

Their focus is about support and educating people,

the families and carers who look after these people,

and the folk themselves.

Karen Laing, you're the landscape designer here.

You were given the brief for this, and you had to fulfil it. What was that brief?

The brief was to make a garden

that was accessible to the users of the flats here

for Spinal Injuries Scotland.

For example, the planters that we have here, raised planters,

you'll notice they're all different heights.

I looked at those - "What's this woman playing at? They're different heights!"

But that's necessary, isn't it?

It's providing an opportunity to try different things,

because not one size fits all.

So it gives people a chance to come here and say,

"This bed might suit me, that height suits me, I can work at that."

And there's different ways of dealing with gardening that are going to be good for you.

Absolutely. And this area?

This will be a naturalised perennial bed.

We've got a really rich mixed planting of grasses and perennials

for all-year interest

with the garden.

Obviously, there will be people coming to the garden all year round,

and we want to be coming out and enjoying it.

My name is Clare Burn and I'm on the board of directors

with Spinal Injuries Scotland.

And I'm Joanna Martin and I'm also a director with Spinal Injuries Scotland.

The garden means that people with, perhaps, new injuries,

are able to come and spend some time

with their family,

get an idea of gardening from a wheelchair,

and even somewhere just to relax and enjoy a nice garden.

That's what we're hoping.

Another thing we'd thought about was

bringing people here from the hospital to do some wheelchair training skills.

It's quite difficult when you first start to use a wheelchair.

It takes a bit of training

to get experience with it,

so this would be a lovely environment to do that in.

My name's Cathy Crilly.

I would like to see a garden that is suitable

for all levels of injury.

I would like to see raised beds,

where people with my level of injury

can go along and take part, even a little bit.

It's not, obviously, the same

as it was before my injury,

but at least I can take part...

You're not just sitting watching.

So Karen, this is the first bed that will get planted.

I think it looks stunning.

What's your idea here?

The idea behind this is that it's a naturalised perennial planting scheme,

so it's a mix of grasses and perennial plants that will come back every year

and grow throughout the season,

and give us a rich canvas of texture and colour.

And it's just beautiful.

It is gorgeous, and you've got some clever things, because you have little, dotty anemones -

the white anemone coming through the grass there.

Just a wee sparkle. Lovely!

I think a really important part of this drifting planting

is having those spot plants coming through it, as well.

It's very, very densely planted.

That's deliberate?

Deliberate, indeed, yes.

It gives you the instant impact.

It also helps with the maintenance area,

because you're not fighting off weeds. We'll mulch it.

You've got some lovely colour combinations, as well,

because you have that verbascum, Jackie,

which starts raspberry, goes sort of lemon,

through to the heuchera - that is a really clever combination.

They work beautifully together, don't they? And it is about playing off plants against each other

and complementing each other, so you have the verbascum and the heuchera

and then the blueness of the grass.

It's not just about colour, there's also that richness of texture

you get in the off-season. In winter, it's still going to have seed-heads and grass.

When Spinal Injury Scotland did a survey of their membership,

they found that about 84% wished to have a garden

which was accessible and open to all.

Now Jim Spiers, you've been involved in horticulture

and gardening almost all your life.

-Yes.

-Before when you were a fireman and then after your accident.

-Always had a garden.

-Always.

Now, when you were at the Southern General, Jim,

-you were a bit of a nuisance with the garden there, weren't you?

-Well, I was annoyed at the...

the state of the place when I got there,

and, of course, I didn't know I was going to be there for six months.

But once I got into the place...

we emptied out all the big pots and re-established them

-and pruned the bushes, put them all in.

-And created a garden that everybody could use.

-Uh-huh.

-But here we've created a bed.

-Oh, this is ideal.

-Absolutely ideal.

And these things that we've put in the bed, because it's high and has good drainage,

we've now put in a lot of herbs and these will grow and flourish.

-I wish we'd had this...

-Well, that's it.

-How high can you reach? Because that's quite important.

-Oh, I can reach up.

-You can.

What about how high should we let these grow?

-About 15 inches, 12 foot, 15 inches.

-Because most of those things

you can prune back, because you'll use the soft tips for cooking

-and flavouring, so we can get these planted.

-And they'll become a bush.

-Absolutely.

-So we can get on and get these things planted.

-Right.

We can do that.

Karen, you've had many volunteers helping with this, haven't you?

-It's brilliant.

-We've had such a lot of support.

As you can see, we've got a good pile of people doing all that planting we were talking about.

They've been chomping at the bit. And they're all pretty skilled, but not in gardening.

Yes, some very diverse skills in fact. Yes.

I mean, the solicitors that have been working for Spinal Injury Scotland,

there are accountants.

The architect that's done the refurbishment of the flat and built a beautiful extension,

they've all just embraced this project so heartily

that they want to keep being involved with it.

-Very skilled people we've got planting.

-Very skilled people.

And we've also had great support from the SRU rugby charity Hearts And Balls.

This is the Glasgow Warriors.

They came out for a day and they did a team-building exercise with us.

Barrelling everything around. We had all these burly lads, in fact I think you can see one of them

in the background there.

-And of course rugby is sometimes the game where people can hurt their backs.

-Indeed.

I think that's why they've embraced the charity so wholeheartedly,

because many rugby players do in fact get quite bad spinal injuries.

So while it's all going really well here,

let's go back to the garden to see how they're getting on there.

Well, thanks, Lesley.

I'm busy here in the garden in amongst the bulbs - well, mainly hyacinths.

And these first three rows of hyacinths that I'm planting

were actually the hyacinths that we forced for Christmas last year.

In other words, they were prepared bulbs.

And that's a little bit of a reminder to say to you

if you want hyacinths flowering for Christmas,

you need to get them within the next week or so.

But what I'm doing now is, what we did was we actually saved those.

We started to feed them up even after they had flowered.

And then we dried them off and this is the result.

We've got good bulbs and what I want to do now is plant them

in the garden and see if they will flower for us next year.

When it comes to planting, they're quite a sizeable bulb

and so the depth is roughly about five to six inches.

And we need to cover that up.

Now, the next section, more garden hyacinths

but this time they're not prepared ones - they are for the garden.

They are Dutch hyacinths, that's the other name.

And I've got 17 different varieties.

All the colours of the rainbow from the whites to the blues

to the pinks to the purples. I think it should look fantastic.

Having said that, I always think it's a good idea to have

a little bit of an insurance policy, so I'm planting in the border

and I've also got some spares, and I'm going to put them into pots, as well.

Moving on from the garden hyacinths, another relative,

and this is the grape hyacinth or the muscari.

They only grow to about six inches in height

and they're great for things like the rock garden, containers again,

in the front of a border,

and I've got 12 different varieties I'm trying.

They are much smaller,

so you only plant those about two to three inches in depth.

And I'm hoping we're going to have a lovely display for next year.

On the same theme, though, of bulbs,

I want to move on to this great success story of last year.

We did these layered bulb pots, and we had one in a sheltered position

and the other one in an open position.

And we've kept them and we want to see the results again for next year.

But we want to do a comparison. I want to start off with fresh bulbs.

And in the first layer, you start off with a tulip.

This is a double flowering tulip, it's called Angelique. It's pink.

So that is the first layer. And then we put on a bit of compost.

Then it's going to be more hyacinths.

I think we're going a bit hyacinth-mad for next year!

This variety is Woodstock. You start that layer.

And then on top of that you go to the third layer

and that's going to be a little tete-a-tete.

And then the final layer is the smaller bulbs,

things like crocus, we've got more muscari.

And we will see the results next year.

Well, it's harvest time in the brassica plot again.

Last time we were looking at cabbages and cauliflower.

This time it's kohlrabi. Do you know this veg? There it is.

Variety is an F1 called Cossack.

Swollen stem just above the ground, they get to a fair size.

You get them purple-skinned, as well.

A lot of people don't know it at all.

Well, this one was picked before we started

and half the crew have had a shotty at it.

And they're quite taken with it.

It's got the consistency of an apple.

And I think it's probably best if it's eaten raw,

could be shredded and used in a salad.

But I've heard of people putting it in a wok with other things

or steaming it. But actually the flavour is actually quite delicate

and I think it would be lost. Shred it in a salad for me.

Crunchy, fresh - quite nice.

From the veg plot, I'm in the fruit cage.

And here is a fruit that's done particularly well. It's a cranberry.

It loves moist conditions and we've had a wet summer, haven't we?

The other thing it needs, it needs acid conditions.

So the gardeners have been feeding this with an ericaceous fertiliser.

The fruits aren't quite ready, but there's a good crop to come.

And then we've got the autumn raspberry here.

It's a variety called Autumn Bliss. Look, there's one or two that are ready to crop.

It crops in a very different way or grows in a very different way

from the summer fruiting raspberries.

In other words, these canes grow up over this season and fruit

and then you chop it right back,

whereas with the summer fruiting canes,

these are the new ones that we've got to leave on

and next year those will grow up and bear the fruits.

A fruit that I particularly enjoy is the blueberry.

And it needs acid conditions just like the cranberry.

It needs conditions of around about five for the PH.

And you can see there's one or two fruits ready to pick.

They are absolutely delicious.

The great thing about these plants, as you might remember, they were growing in a polytunnel last year

and they've been transplanted and are growing really well.

But before I taste these fruits,

meanwhile we go back to Clober Farm in Milngavie.

And George is speaking there with the project coordinator Shaun Dargan.

I've been involved with the project for the last 18 months.

The project has been seven years in the making. We inherited the property seven years ago

and it's taken us seven years to raise the funds.

-Finance is quite a big problem?

-A huge problem.

Because we're a charity, we rely on fundraising,

we rely on people donating money and all our sponsors helping us out with sponsorship packages.

-How do they do that?

-People do fun runs, they do lots of marathons.

We get lots of people doing marathons and three peaks challenges,

-which is three peaks in Britain in 24 hours.

-I've heard of that one.

Which is really impressive, so there's loads of bits and bobs that people do.

It's all our membership and the families are digging in to help the charity to help themselves.

Now, you've modified the garden, but you've also modified the house.

What have you done?

We've taken a 300-year-old farmhouse, which was grade C listed.

And we've fully adapted it to be fully accessible.

-Lots of planning restrictions there?

-Yes.

Planning have been really great with us.

The only thing is, they stipulated we had to have a green roof.

So we've got a nice sedum roof on there.

We threw in all this new technology.

A lot of people have the fear factor, due to finances and due to new technology,

so what we've done is got a full home automation kit in there that controls the doors,

the lights, the blinds. Everything you can think of, it can control.

We've basically given people a try-before-you-buy scenario.

They can come here, look at the garden, see what it's like,

they look at the house, see what it's like, so that when they go home, they know what they need.

Yes, they can do their own adaptations to suit their level.

-It's a brilliant project.

-Definitely.

-This building is really beautiful, isn't it?

-It's gone up overnight.

It's quite amazing.

They're going to be using it as an office and maybe in the bad weather

-they can hide in there!

-Fantastic to sit in there and enjoy the garden.

These trees have been kept, which is a really nice planting opportunity,

-isn't it, for underneath them?

-You can't lose that structure. They give so much to the garden.

But then we've introduced new plantings like this ameliancher

-which is just shining out beautifully just now.

-Gorgeous.

And we've got an understorey of woodland plants, aspleniums and bergenia.

Lots of nice evergreen cover there.

It's a really good time to put bulbs in. Snowdrops, bluebells, hyacinths.

-Do you know how I arrange them?

-Tell me.

-Get a handful and throw them.

-Plant where they land.

-Nicely random.

-It is, yes.

-Very good way to do things.

-Elaeagnus, which is evergreen.

-A nice bit of screening.

-Yes, indeed.

And then one of my favourite plants here, Cornus kousa.

It's going to be a really nice feature from the house up there,

so that's going to look down.

-And we've got this, which needs to be tidied a wee bit.

-Is that George?

-I'll sort it, don't you worry!

-A trifle threatening!

Well, we'll take off some of the worst of the rubbishy bits.

Just tidy it. We're not going to cloud prune it, are we?

Oh, no danger.

-That's fine. No risk of that.

-We'll check you out!

And then we're back round to the raised beds.

Joanna, you were just saying you were quite interested in how we'd made these.

Not quite what you expected.

No, no, I thought of raised beds as being made with wood, really,

rather than brick and concrete, so very interesting.

-They're quite stylish, aren't they?

-Lovely.

-This matches the paving.

You're putting in rocket there. Still time to do this,

you can put little Japanese onion sets in, spring cabbage.

Still things that people can be growing just at the moment.

It's going to be a year-round resource.

-That's going to keep on changing.

-Absolutely.

Whereas the bed where Claire is planting, these are all perennial ones.

-So once this is in, all staying put.

-Yes.

Again, and that goes in with the theme of the perennial planting bed beside it.

So we've got rhubarb, asparagus,

strawberries that Claire's popping in.

This one's good, a pine berry, a white one.

Look, it's got lots of little babies,

-so we're going to peg those down. Real good value.

-Free plants there.

And then we come up to this beautiful perennial grass bed,

which is looking fantastic.

-Over 200 plants in here.

-Yes, the guys are still going strong at it.

About five minutes to plant each plant...

-What does that work out?

-17 hours planting.

-My goodness.

Normally when I grow cordon apples, I'll grow them on Malling 27.

And I do them in pots.

Here we are doing them in a raised bed and we've got them on Malling 9,

which is a dwarfing rootstock too, but the trees get up to about here.

But we can top them off and stop them going so tall.

Normally two, we would plant cordons at an angle,

45 degrees, facing north or facing away from the sun.

Here, we've got to put them in upright,

because we're a wee bit restricted for space.

So that's why they're upright.

Don't criticise me. That's why they're done this way.

So what we're doing now is we're pruning off all these branches

back in, so that we're spur pruning the thing to create the shape

that we want.

Then we'll tie the main stem to the wires. That's job done.

Well, that's the turf down now. And what a difference. It's fabulous.

Interesting shape, what was the inspiration for that?

That's very much tying in to the architect's design

of the extension that they've got here.

It's an elliptical pod shape

and I wanted to use that same elliptical form coming round

in the paths giving access round the garden

and it gives us this beautiful tear shape of the grass.

And then what we've done with the grass coming down is it raises up

into this bank, and we've got this curved wall.

The wall allows people to transfer from this side out of the wheelchairs

onto the lawn, and the sun is going to shine in Milngavie now.

And they'll be able to sunbathe here and just enjoy this lovely garden.

Quiet and tranquil spaces within a garden are just as important

as productive areas. Somewhere where you can be quiet,

you can sit, you can look and you can imagine.

This is one such space.

What's going to happen here is we're going to create something which is slightly Oriental.

It will have gravel and rocks and only one or two plants.

Almost like islands in a sea.

This way you can sit here and you can look and you can imagine

and you can see whatever it is you want to see.

There's actually a gorilla's head down here if you look closely.

But first of all, I've got to prune this acer.

There's one or two crossing branches. I want to take them out

so that they don't need to touch this plant again.

Now that the garden's finished, I think it's absolutely fantastic.

I think it's better than anybody had expected.

My favourite part of the garden is the raised beds.

Because I've got a high injury, I can use tools to plant bulbs.

Obviously I need a bit of help, but it makes me feel part of the garden.

I can design it myself and, with a bit of help, I can plant bulbs.

Well, across the country at the moment, just like us,

there are a lot of people trying to dry out their onions.

And Pearce Taylor in Tillicoultry has a system which I commend to you.

Absolute cracking. It's no' braw, but it looks good.

There he's got his garlic and his onions will go on the racks,

so to speak, and then he covers them with tin, with corrugated iron.

And that has the effect of any sun striking on it,

it raises the temperature. It keeps them dry and you get really good stuff to keep all winter.

As I say, it's no' braw - but it works.

Meantime, over in Milngavie...

Now is a really good time to be planting bulbs

which will flower in the spring.

I've got bluebells and, as I said earlier, to get a nice, random distribution,

I just toss them, plant them where they land.

The other important tip is the planting depth.

For something like this bulb, I want twice its size in depth of soil above it.

In other words, that's how deep this bluebell is going to go.

Planting which links one area of the garden to another

is a very valuable feature in garden design.

We've got a sedum roof up there,

and down here we've got a scree area with sedums in it.

So we're echoing that.

But what I want to do now is more or less what Lesley did with her bulbs.

I want to throw these plants around in the area

so that it's a sort of random planting.

And then it'll create a mosaic when it comes up

and it'll cover the ground and won't need any maintenance.

Well, the fruit and veg cornucopia is ever-changing,

-but it's still on the go.

-It is, it's doing really well.

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

it's all in the fact sheet.

I don't know what you're doing next week, but I'll be back in the veg plot getting some winter veg going

-and looking at some nice crocosmias.

-But the last word...

Well, it's over to them a lot in Milngavie. From us here, bye.

Well, ladies, we do quite a number of community gardens

and we get great pleasure from them all,

but this has been one of the best I've been involved in. It's been absolutely super fun.

-Is been brilliant. Every corner's accessible now.

-It is now, isn't it?

-Absolutely.

-It's just brilliant.

It's going to give years of pleasure.

-Well, that's all from all of us here at Clober Farm. Bye.

-Bye.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd