Episode 25 The Beechgrove Garden

Well, hello, and welcome to Beechgrove Garden.

I tell you something, I'm not complaining about having

an inside job today.

It is really wild out there.

But there are jobs we can be getting on with.

First and foremost, here I've got some of the tuberous-rooted begonias

lifted out of the bed.

They're absolutely wringing wet.

They're coming up like this, and I want to save the tubers

and be able to grow them on next year. So I've given them a wash.

Here they are, quite clean. Not as big as I would have thought.

Another problem of the kind of weather we've had.

We want them to sit in the air

and for all that top foliage to dry off.

Don't go cutting it off just now. Let it dry off naturally and then

dispose of all that, because there are reports that there's been

quite a lot of spotting on the leaves of these begonias this year.

It could be a bit of downy mildew, whatever,

you want to get rid of all that.

Don't put it in the compost heap, get it dumped and then make sure

that you examine the tubers.

And I've got some here that are already drying out,

because they were in tubs, and, look, that's how they'll look.

This is the little multi-flora ones, and they've dried out. I can rub off

all the sort of extra... There's a wee bit of root and so on there.

They're ready to go into storage.

But I will make a point that,

if there's any doubt at all about, maybe, diseased foliage,

these you can dust with sulphur,

which will protect them over the winter.

And also look closely

into all the little crevices, because this is

a time of year when the grubs of the vine weevil

are feeding on tubers and on roots of other plants, as well.

You can very often find them, nestling in there,

hoping you'll not notice them.

But they're white, they're in a little foetal shape

and a little brown head. Get rid of them, for goodness sake.

Then, you'll notice I have these sitting on the top here, on this.

They'll sit in the greenhouse like that, until these have matured

and dried off. Then we can store them,

not in a dry, arid atmosphere,

but frost-free.

You get away with it in a greenhouse box for a while,

but if it gets very frosty bring them indoors and,

and as long as they're firm, they will be fine.

And whilst we're on the subject, a week or two ago, we were looking

at these wonderful, great, statuesque gladioli,

which had been badly hit by the weather.

Well, here they are in now, ready for drying off, as well,

because in time, that will all die back

and the whole thing will dry up and the new corns can be

cleaned off and treated just exactly the same as the begonias -

kept over winter, ready to start again.

Don't throw them oot, that's a waste of money.

In the rest of the programme...

I'm revisiting one of Jim's problem corners from last year.

I'm also revisiting a community garden in Edinburgh,

which we helped with two years ago.

-What flavour's yours?

-Hmmm, sweetcorn, with a hint of chocolate.

-What's yours?

-Eh, fleecy bean.

That's new to me, but they're quite nice, aren't they?

It will be new to them, as well, but you'll find out all about it.

Well, there's a bit of a break in the weather.

Let's get this bit done before it comes on again.

One hand dry and the other wet.

It's the last time we have to see the wildflower mixes.

I think they've been a success. We've had fantastic colour, we've had

lots of poppies and cornflower and this corncockle which we've got

and the yellow daisy is absolutely superb.

OK, what's the treatment from now on?

For anybody following us, what they should do now is wait till

the seed is set on here. because there's lots of seed. Look at that.

-Oh aye, aye. But it's, as yet, unripe.

-Immature.

We've got to let it ripen. We'll cut the whole lot down, leave it

lying, so that the seed can go back into the soil,

then rake that off, into the compost heap and see what comes up next year.

There's a fair bit of clover in these two here.

Now these are perennial ones, these other ones up there are annual. This is perennial.

There's a butterfly and a honeybee one here.

It's got chicory and all sorts of things in it, so we'll see what that does.

-Have you got a log of what's there?

-Uh-huh.

Because next year, the indigenous population will begin to assert itself.

And at our age we forget things!

But we photographed what was in there, we've got

the packets, as well, to let us know what was in the seed mixes,

and then we'll be able to assess what's the best value

and what's better over two years.

Good stuff. Let's move to the grasses.

Now, if I said to you to pick five, we'll find room in the garden for five, what are the best five?

OK.

Chionochloa, which is at the bottom,

It's an all time favourite of mine. I've got a fantastic plant at home and that's a must.

The fact is, that does not hit you between the eyes,

is that because they're in the wrong place? Is the bottom of the hill too wet?

-All the wet at the moment, but that will come away.

-Aye.

The pheasant's tail, I think is super.

That one, look at that, tatra gold, absolute stoater.

It'll stay small. Never need mowing.

We'll put that under the trees with the bulbs. Look at these!

Look at these stems on that. Is that not just bonnie, eh?

Waving around, with the wet on them and all the rest of it. That's the molinia...

-Passing on swiftly!

-Now see this, look at that.

I think, apart from the sort of minging foliage, which might

just be the weather, the seed heads are, to my mind, absolutely divine.

There's purples and pinks and silver, with the water in them.

-So delicate.

-You could almost get poetic about it.

-But that's calamagrostis.

-That's four, you've one more.

There's one, that one - pennisetum,

but I have to have this one, as well.

This is a thing called Molinia Skyracer. That is just superb.

-More to come from that?

-There'll be very good autumn colour on those.

Right, now then. Green manuring. Where's your fork?

It's just over here. Now, this is where we were looking at what we should use as green manure.

We've got a bit of fibre coming through there, we can see the fibre and that's quite important.

You're not skimming it in and burying it right down.

you're just turning it in.

No, I'm just turning it over. I just want to make a seed bed, to put some more in there.

Let's just recap - any spare bit of ground will benefit from one of these, sort of, short-lived crops

that bulk up a lot of root, because it improves the soil

and improves the efficiency of the soil?

That's right, and it stops the rain hitting the soil surface

-and causing erosion.

-The important thing is, you choose the crops that will bulk up the root system?

Yes, the two best would be caliente mustard and phacelia.

-They will be the two that will bulk up the fastest.

-Tell us about this caliente mustard.

Well, this caliente is one which, when it breaks down,

produces a mustard gas, or something like that, in the soil

and it will actually act as a fumigant.

-A fumigation?

-A bio-fumigant.

-So you're going to put more on?

I'm going to sow some more in there, I've got a packet in my pocket.

OK, leave the phacelia, cos this yin's interesting.

Yes, this is quite good down here, Jim.

If we look at this one. This is where I was digging before.

This is lupins.

-Aye.

-Now, see what you've got. You've got the root, which is broken up soil,

hard soil will be broken up with that, then you've got all these nodules.

Are you going to tell the people the secret of the nodules?

Right, these are the nitrifying nodules, they grab nitrogen from the atmosphere...

Like the peas and beans?

Absolutely, so you could use beans, as well, for the same thing.

Then these decay and it goes into the soil.

So it enriches the soil, as well?

Absolutely, that's free nitrogen, coming from the air.

-Yes, exactly.

-You're not buying it.

-No, we're recycling. Are you going to do these again next time?

I will put the same things into the same spaces next year and we'll see then again.

It's a two-year job, just like the wild flowers.

George, the time has come to conclude our trial,

which is all about growing sweetcorn and French beans

here in Beechgrove in Aberdeen, and also in your allotment in Edinburgh.

So, 120 miles apart, differences in day length, differences

in temperature, differences in general climate, really.

-And how we looked after them.

-That's right.

-Less said about that!

Anyway, first of all the sweetcorn, we have got, first of all,

this group here, eight plants, which were grown from seed in the garden,

and then we bought in another eight plants of the same variety.

Now these were very small when they were bought in and planted,

but quite, well, 35 pence, these sixpence.

-Roughly sixpence, but that's not talking about compost.

-Well, extra to keep them.

And we've got two varieties, we've got early bird and we've this swift,

But when you look at them, to me, roughly what, two cobs per plant?

Yes, and not really much difference in growth.

-Yes, well, I think maybe we should just have a quick look.

-Right, OK.

Let's see if it's set.

We're looking for the threads to be going back, aren't we?

Now, this is still perhaps a little bit early.

There you are, look, there aren't many in this one, unfortunately. Look at that. I would have expected more.

Well, look, that's the same, that is really disappointing.

-Oh, my goodness, it is. Now that will be a weather-related thing?

-It will.

Because there's no pollen flying.

Right, OK, will we have a look at the beans now?!

Yes, there was just as many problems with the beans!

Yes, it's been a hard, hard year.

-So, four varieties that we were growing.

-Yes.

We had ten plants each, of each variety,

I had some outside, which were a total disaster, and then we had the same really underneath

the giant cloche and the polytunnel, and I did get some of the crop.

You did, well, no, absolutely, you've done very well.

I had to plant mine under fleece,

I planted them out, but I had to cover them with fleece.

If I hadn't, the wildlife would have got them,

and also the weather would have done them in.

So, I'll take the flak for putting fleece on them, but I think I've got a crop and we'll see.

Well, we need to go down there.

Let's go down there tomorrow and we can compare.

-Maybe we can have a wee taste?

-I think we can.

I think, straight away, your sweetcorn looks a bit taller.

Well, the difference in temperature, I think, down here.

No, it's all about the fleece!

Come on, we must say again that you did cover it with fleece.

I covered it with fleece, in order to protect it from foxes

and the cold east wind. It's desperate. But good, isn't it?

Yeah. Which variety are we looking at?

Well, this is early bird, and there's one lot which are the plugs

-and the other lot which were the seed.

-So this is the seed?

That's the seed-raised stuff. I don't know if there's much difference.

Not much difference. And the number of cobs?

Well, there's some threes on there,

-but the majority have just got two cobs on them.

-So slightly more cobs than Beechgrove?

Slightly more cobs than Beechgrove. But it's the reveal that counts.

Oh, I know, I hope they're going to be better than Beechgrove.

I'm a wee bit anxious. There we go.

-Right.

-What have you got there? Oh, George, I'm impressed.

-Are you? Well...

-Look.

-Oh, my goodness, look, Carol.

Now that is what I call a proper cob of sweetcorn.

Can I just say, never having grown this before,

I'm actually quite chuffed.

Well, I've got some in the polytunnel at home and this is the kind of result I've got.

I think we should have perhaps a higher burier at Beechgrove.

-Maybe, aye, because I think what happened...

-They're quite exposed.

..was the pollen got blown away, because the ones up there were different.

Look at that. We need to get that in the pan.

We need to run home and cook it immediately. That's absolutely...

-That's wonderful, but what about the beans?

-We'll have a look.

What I did was, I brought down varieties from Beechgrove.

-You had four varieties, ten plants of each.

-That's right.

-Just like at Beechgrove.

Yes, but they're behind us now, and they've finished, so they've pretty

well finished cropping, but what's interesting is that the prince,

which we grew at Beechgrove and down here, has come out on top.

It was the heaviest cropper, it cropped earlier and it's cropped heavier.

-I've got to trust you!

-Well, you have.

But yes, you started cropping on the 7th of August, but you know

we started on the 8th, so I mean there's nothing in that.

Not a lot of difference.

But, what is interesting is you've got about twice

the amount of the prince.

-Yes.

-But, the prince came out top for both of us.

Yes, so that's the best variety. Amethyst did very well, also.

-That's the purple one.

-That's the purple one.

It wasn't as good, though, as maxi, which is another green one.

Now all of those ones which I brought down from Beechgrove have now finished.

They're not cropping any longer.

Now what about the beans in front of us?

Right, I brought down a whole set of seed and I've sown them out.

Now this is quite a rough test, as well, a rough trial.

A whole different range of varieties, they've all been sown out,

and so it tests the germination, and it's now testing the cropping.

OK, well, let's talk about the cropping.

Which ones were the best for you?

Well, I think that this one here, which is delinel,

that has done very well.

Laguna and dulcina have done well.

The one at the end's rather unusual looking.

It's all over the place.

I think that's supposed to be a climbing French bean,

but that's borlotti, the fire bean, it has wonderful colour

on the pods, flat pods, and they really do taste really superb.

-I think we need to do a bit of cropping. Have you got any bags?

-I have indeed. Let's go.

JAUNTY PIANO MUSIC

Right, here's the borlotti bean, try that, that's the big flat one.

It's lost its colour, though, hasn't it?

Yeah. That's tender, isn't it.

-Hmmm. That is lovely.

-Hmmm.

-The purple amethyst, it's lost its colour, as well.

-Lost the colour completely.

OK, nothing wrong with the flavour.

Look at the sweetcorn, George, I bet you're chuffed to bits with this.

-Look at my face.

-I know, and a bit of butter.

-We have to give it a little taste. Mmmm.

-Mmmm. Oh, isn't that nice?

-That is delicious. What do we learn from this? Fleece?

-I think it is.

And I think, maybe, at Beechgrove, a polytunnel for the sweetcorn.

-I think so.

-Mmmm, wonderful.

-Mmmm, I'm in heaven.

-Mmmm.

RAINFALL

Well, it's not very heavenly here in the urine containers.

These are permanent planters that I did last year,

so I've got nice black grass here, Ophiopogon Nigrescens,

and I've got a snowdrop coming through that, which looks

so pretty in the spring, the white and the black.

This Heuchera is Plum Pudding. It's looked gorgeous all year

and I've got Muscari Pink Sunrise underneath it.

Over here, we're growing more temporary plants.

We had summer bedding in and that's all been removed, so they're empty.

In fact they're not completely empty,

because they also have bulbs in from last year.

In this one, we have some peachy-coloured tulips

and then blue chionadoxa.

The ivy has survived from last year,

and what I've popped in is a little viola.

This is called Delft blue, and that will flower throughout the autumn.

In this next pot, I'm going to put in winter-flowering pansies.

Now, I'm not changing over the compost,

so to refresh this, I'm putting through slow-release fertiliser.

This is a winter-flowering pansy and now is the ideal time to put it in.

It needs to have flower, actually, on the plant you're putting in,

and you need to put it in from mid-September to mid-October.

It makes a big enough plant and it will flower throughout the winter.

I'm going to pack these in really tightly,

because they haven't got much time to grow.

In here we've also got Tulip Plum Pudding.

And finally, in the last container, I've got a range

of tulips here called Tropical Punch and they're reds and oranges,

and in there, I've popped something for the spring,

this primrose is called Primrose Orange. That's going to be a lovely combination.

If you haven't got any pots with bulbs in, then now is the time to be doing it.

It's the usual drill, you need a pot that's frost-proof,

and a great big drainage hole with a crock. Pop in compost,

it doesn't have to be bulb-fibre.

Now the tulip I'm going to use is Lady Jane. This is the one

that came up best in our trials in the spring, it flowered for ages.

So I've got ten bulbs in there,

and I'm just going to put some more compost on the top.

With this pot, I'm going to give myself the best of both worlds.

I'm going to put something in for the autumn, that's for now, and this

is a cyclamen, which is in flower, and even when these haven't

got flowers on, the foliage has got that gorgeous marbling.

And then for the spring, I'm popping in some Sweet William,

and the fresh green leaves look lovely next to the glaucous foliage of the cyclamen.

George, I want to take you back to a cold and frosty December day.

-I mean, it's pretty awful today, isn't it?

-It's bad now.

I was wearing a different hat, and taking hardwood cuttings

-so I think we should look at the technique first.

-Yeah.

This is a dogwood,

and what I'm doing is I'm looking for this season's growth.

So these nice, young,

vigorous stems.

Hardwood basically means they are quite woody,

it's had the whole season's growth.

And now what I'm going to do is prepare them,

and we'll be planting them outside.

Now when it comes to the preparation of these cuttings,

what I'm looking for is a pair of buds, you can see the buds there.

I'm going to cut just below,

just a straight cut,

and then I'm looking for another pair of buds,

about six to nine inches up the stem, so this pair here,

and what I need to do with that is cut just above and at an angle.

The reason for the angle is so that the water can drop off of that.

After I've prepared them, and I've got some here already. This is another dogwood,

dark stems kesselringii, dip them into the rooting hormone powder,

and then I've got the trench already prepared.

A couple of inches of sand in the bottom,

so that's going to help with drainage,

and then you want to put these about six inches apart.

Now the kind of material, as well as dogwoods, is all kinds

of willows, you can have ribes, the flowering currant, privets,

and then what you do is you fill in the trench, really firm the soil,

and if it gets frosty you maybe need to firm it in again.

And we won't come back to these cuttings until autumn time,

when hopefully they've rooted.

So this is the big reveal again?

It is a little bit disappointing, George, though, with the results,

we've only got a couple of dogwoods that have taken.

The willows have taken OK.

It'll be interesting to see where the roots are from,

because you spoke about roots coming from the nodes

and things like that, so the cuts were important.

Don't you think that, in a way, the best time to take hardwood

cuttings is actually immediately after leaf-fall,

so sort of late October, maybe?

That's right. Then the shoots are full of nutrients, full of water,

and we don't want them to dry out, so you take them

and you get them inserted into the soil as soon as possible.

Normally, when I do them, I would bury them

just with that showing above soil level.

Maybe we need to try that another year, or even put them in a cold frame.

-That's right.

-Let's see what we've got.

I mean, if you've got good roots, I would just pot them up.

Well, oh, now, look at that, here we are.

-Hey!

-There's nothing wrong with that. What's interesting, though...

That costs you nothing, George.

No, it didn't, but the other thing is the roots have come near the top

where the oxygen is,

and round about where the nodes are.

All the things we talked about, that's where the root initials are and that's where they came from so...

-Well, I would try it again, wouldn't you?

-Yeah.

Hardwood cuttings is a great way.

Oh yeah, easy way to do it,

and there's a range of plants we can use.

-So we'll pot these up?

-Yeah.

I've come to the garden of Nicola Hughes in Linlithgow.

She wrote to us last year with a problem corner.

So, Nicola, just remind us about the problem again.

OK, well, when I moved here initially we had grass right up to the fence.

I found it quite difficult to cut, because it's such a steep slope,

so we took the grass away and planted some plants and then,

basically, had a constant battle

with weeds coming through from the waste ground at the back,

and the grass coming back and things, so last year

Jim helped me put some bigger plants in and fill it out a bit.

The wall that Mike built for me has definitely helped contain it as well.

It's lovely how the plants have taken off, and the helianthemum has softened the wall a bit.

It's lovely when they trail. As the sun comes, the flowers are lovely.

-I'm pleased to see the rosemary's come through the winter.

-Yes, it's done very well.

The main problem really has been that I lost my lilac tree

in the storms earlier in the year, as you can see.

Which is a real shame, because that was a bit of a focal point.

It was, it was lovely.

I wouldn't suggest another tree, just because of the slope,

but I wonder about a climber like honeysuckle?

-Yeah.

-You've got the wires there, so that would maybe work for you.

But what I do notice is, the lilac is suckering a little bit.

Yes, although it looks very dead from the stump, it does still sprout

quite a lot of shoots and I'm constantly pulling them out.

Well there are some chemicals available.

Sometimes you can paint it on, and then the other thing you need to do

is cut the stump again so you've got fresh wood when you're treating it.

OK.

And if you're worried about any pets,

-I would put a bit of polythene over it.

-OK.

And the other thing I would suggest is there's

a sort of a blank area just in front of it.

-Yes.

-I would put a stepping stone there.

-Oh, that's a good idea.

All right? So you haven't got that steep slope, because that's almost 45 degrees of an angle.

It is, it's very steep.

-Then, if you want, you can put a pot there, and fill that with a bit of colour.

-OK.

I'm now at the Royal Edinburgh Community Garden, which was

a huge project that Beechgrove helped with two years ago.

Hilary, you now manage the project, so in two years, just tell us

-a little bit about the progress that's gone on.

-There's actually been quite a lot of progress,

We've more than doubled production in the north garden,

we've also planted quite a lot of hedging, we've planted five rows

of strawberries and blackcurrants

and blackberries through the forest garden.

We've also planted in a young fruit tree nursery, with 1,000 trees,

and they're all apples,

and they've all been grafted by community members and volunteers.

Oh, that's wonderful, You've mentioned volunteers, so who is actually involved?

Every sector of the community.

We're working with four local primary schools, there's two nurseries,

there's a mum and kids playgroup that comes in,

and patients and staff from the hospital come down and work with us.

We also have corporate challenges, where there's an opportunity

for team-building and they're able to make a donation to the garden.

So all in all, we're looking at about 1,000 hours of volunteer time

that's contributed to the gardens every month.

Simon, you're the garden coordinator here,

and straight away, I'm really impressed with the path system round the orchard,

so tell us a little bit about the philosophy here.

We're actually leaving some of the nettles here, to promote

the conservation and bio-diversity, especially things like butterflies,

great for pollination, we cut this twice a year, and all the

community members get involved, with an old traditional scythe.

Oh, absolutely brilliant. Well, look, the nettles are encouraging the wildlife.

Behind you, I can see the tree's protected, so I'm assuming rabbits are a problem?

They are a problem, however, we do work, like I say,

with nature to promote that, as well. As long as there aren't too many.

CAROL LAUGHS

-You can live with them.

-Yes.

-And I can see that you've had a woodpecker.

-Yeah, had a woodpecker.

There's quite a few on site,

but again, we're trying to promote that for conservation.

The woodpecker preys on insects that we don't really want.

-Leave the dead wood on the tree, you don't want to prune it out.

-Absolutely.

-You don't want to be too tidy.

-No, no, not here.

What about the vegetables? I mean, there's a huge plot in production.

Yes.

It's been a difficult year, but what's done particularly well?

Broad beans have done well.

And also lettuce and the radish and the onions have been brilliant.

However, we have had problems.

It's been quite a difficult year for growers.

But one or two vegetables are going into a show?

Yeah, there's one in particular, which is the onion we've named John, after one of our members,

and, hopefully, we should come away with a first.

Now, this is the area two years ago, we were putting in a barrier

and that was to stop the Japanese knotweed

from invading into this area. Has it worked?

Very well, it's totally contained the Japanese knotweed

and we've actually cut the knotweed back, letting the comfrey

and the docken grow over it, shadowing it, and helping to drive that out.

I think that's an interesting technique, so you're letting the plants smother the knotweed.

-Yes, yeah.

-Excluding the light.

Now this was a pilot scheme for NHS Lothian,

so how successful has it been?

It's been very successful.

This was the initiative of NHS Lothian's chairman,

Dr Charles Winstanley, managed by local charity Edinburgh Cyrenians,

and the second NHS Lothian community gardens will open in Midlothian this year,

with the third planned to open in West Lothian next year,

-so were very excited about this.

-Absolutely wonderful.

Right, we're just going into autumn, and now is when

the birds will eat all your apples, but you have to remember that there will be other predators, too.

It's a good time to plan, and the one thing we're planning for this

time of year is to prevent winter moths from going up onto the top

of the apple trees, so we're going to put round a grease band.

That goes round the tree as tightly as you possibly can, at that point.

Now it's still loose, top and bottom, so what we're going to do is put

string round there, just to make sure it goes right in next to the stem.

This will stop the wingless females of the winter moth going up

and laying their eggs on the top of the apple tree,

and then eating leaves and fruitlets next spring.

I would just like to draw a conclusion to our mini-aubergine trial.

We had them in a cold greenhouse and the fruit wasn't setting,

so what we decided to do was bring them into the propagation house,

and here we have temperatures of around about 15 degrees centigrade.

Just have a look at the results.

This one, the variety's called Pot Black, you can see why,

and then this variety is amethyst, lovely pink fruits to that one.

Well, here in the decking garden we've the stacking potato system. We cropped one earlier.

-You did quite well with it, didn't you?

-Yeah, but there's some tiny ones at the top, and let's leave it.

This variety is Bounty, it's a main crop, so we're going to reveal.

-Does the name augur well? Bounty!

-I don't know, Jim.

-So how are we going to do this?

-Keep going.

-OK, give this a shake.

-Oh, there's one!

-Oh! Look at that!

I've brought this for the crop.

LAUGHTER

-Look at that.

-Getting better.

-Got one.

-There's a pea.

LAUGHTER

-Oh, look at this.

-Crikey.

-Look, there's some in here.

-Oh, blimey.

-Is this a golden bonanza, or a bounty?

Do you think if we were to sell these at the end of the road

we'd make the price of this system and the compost?

We should stick to our fertiliser bag.

It's better than last time, when I had one potato from three seeds.

That's true. There are some good-sized ones.

-There are such a variety of sizes.

-Absolutely.

-Have you really sifted through that carefully?

-Oh, absolutely.

You're not competitive, are you?

-No, it's not worth it.

-That will make all the difference.

That will just tip the scales.

If you want any other information about this week's programme,

have a look on the factsheet.

And I have to say, if you've got any wee problems in the garden that you would

like us to solve, just like Nicola's there in Linlithgow, which you went to see,

let us know about it, write in and the best way to get in touch with us is on the website.

And the same goes for community gardens like the

Royal Edinburgh Hospital. If you were inspired by that one, because

it's gone from strength to strength, if you've got some like-minded

people and a nice piece of land, well, why don't you apply, too? It's all on the website.

Well, that's it for this time. Next week's the last programme,

until then...

I'm away to put the chip pan on. Until next time...

ALL: Bye!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd