Episode 26 The Beechgrove Garden

Well, hello, and welcome to Beechgrove on a delightful autumn morning.

-It's gorgeous, isn't it?

-The lady from the cutting garden has joined me

to look at some old-fashioned cut flowers!

-Aren't they doing well?

-They are really starting to strut their stuff.

-These crysanths are lovely.

-Yes, indeed.

We're not worried about colours at the moment, but about shape.

So, the sprays, single sprays, a single flower opens right up

until you see the yellow centres,

and we've got several varieties, there. That's quite a nice one, through the back.

Do you know, what's delighting me is how much bees, butterflies,

-hoverflies are resting here and feeding.

-Working away at them.

-It's wonderful.

We move from single to double, which is a rather nice full flower. Isn't that a lovely colour, too?

-That's very pretty. I like that cream colour, it's beautiful.

-Yes. Yes.

-And then we move to, I shall say it, anemone-centred.

-In case I say it wrong?

-Well, you could just say, I know it as...

-Cushion.

-Cushion-centred, yes.

Again, a rather nice range.

And, cut flower, absolutely superb cos they last quite a long time.

-These were started in March?

-Yes, cuttings came in March, April,

and they were grown on until they were big enough to plant out

in late April, so we looked after them pretty well,

because look what's in prospect, here.

-Yes, these are splendid. Look at that.

-Absolutely.

These have all been dis-budded, well, most of them have,

you've got to keep going round and taking out these little buds.

And the blue alkathene is here for a reason?

-Well, you could do that one.

-Are you sure I should?

-Come on.

-You're the guys that multitask.

-Yeah.

-Keep the chat going.

So, the blue alkathene piping is because...?

-Well, consider the weather we've had.

-Yep.

-And all of this bloom in prospect...

-Just give them a bit of shelter.

Give them an umbrella. There we're using some bubble polythene,

just take it over the top, keep the rain off them.

But that one's lovely. That's actually come into flower, and it's huge.

Well, there is a lot of cloth in it,

there's a lot of petal still to unfold, there.

-And it'll finish up twice the size.

-That's just gorgeous.

-Isn't that lovely?

Meanwhile, in the rest of the programme...

Well, originally I'm from Durham, Jim's from Ayrshire,

and Carole hails from Kent.

But we're all hardy enough to cope here in the Beechgrove Garden.

Plants come from all over the world.

How do you decide what's going to be hardy in your garden?

And we've a slightly different feature this week.

Not about a garden, but about a gardener.

And it's all about purple prose.

Well, no sooner have we finished with the summer bedding

that the ground has cultivated, and we're making a spring display.

We're getting right into it now.

The ground was cleared, dug over, a bit of organic fertiliser put in.

It's in lovely nick. And since I was responsible for this lot,

-instead of getting into bed with this pair...

-THEY LAUGH

Er, I decided... well, I'll describe it, and they can work away.

So, we've got the old-fashioned wallflower in the top here,

and it's orange and lemon wallflower with a triumph tulip,

the idea being that the tulip will grow tall enough to just

come over the top of the flowers,

and that tulip is really dark purple.

-CLEARS THROAT

-Did you hear me?

-I did hear that, it delights me.

Then we come to the two lower bits.

It has been euphemistically referred to as the Y-front design!

I'll leave you to think who said that, and it certainly wasn't me.

And of course the rule of law is that you put in the straight lines first around the edge,

and then random planting inside that, and then finally the bulb.

But Carole, do you want to describe what you're up to?

Yes, I really like what you've chosen here, Jim.

The lovely, traditional blue myosotis,

with a tulip, "Apricot Beauty". I think that'll be a nice combination.

And then round the edge, you've got the pansy with a yellow blotch.

But, of course, Lesley, you've gone and got the purple.

Well, I have. This is called "Denim", it's a new pansy. It's just gorgeous.

Bi-coloured purple, yellow in the middle. Looks so pretty.

Then there's yellow primroses in the middle,

and then a red tulip coming through.

I think I've maybe got two in one hole, so you can blame me!

Yes, it's "Monte Red", and once again, these are early tulips,

so they're much shorter stemmed, and they should come

just above the shortness and the spread of the...

And we plant the plants first, and then place the bulbs, isn't it?

-Yeah. You now know what to do.

-Yep.

-LESLEY LAUGHS We're busy.

Very good, girls.

If you're quick, you can have a piece of chocolate when you finish.

Well, I'm pretty sure you will have heard the expression

"a walk through a well-stocked Scottish garden is like a world tour."

It's a fact. Here we have Europe, the old heathers are there.

Round the corner we've got eucalyptus,

that's Australasia, and just over there, there's a Tibetan cherry.

There we are, that's Asia covered, isn't it?

And the reason we can do it, of course, is we have a maritime climate,

we are helped by the Gulf Stream, and everything should be hunky-dory.

But that's not quite the case.

The Royal Horticultural Society have just announced

that they're going to change their categories

for describing degrees of hardiness of plants,

because we are taking in so much from all over the place.

They've got four categories at the moment.

H1 needs a heated greenhouse. H2 needs a cold greenhouse.

H3, what we would call half-hardy -

in other words, six months outside, six months inside.

And then, finally, hardy, number four.

Well, that covers a whole multitude of situations.

The American system is zones according to minimum temperature.

That's not good enough either, I'm afraid.

So, the RHS have come back and said, we're going to have seven zones,

and were going to fill in a few of the gaps, because there are

certain things that pertain in an environment that will affect the plants.

Here we go again. Hamamelis, North America. Berberis, South America.

From South Africa, the cape figwort. See what I mean?

That's five continents already, in a very short walk.

So, hardiness is a very big problem, and we're going to try and help you

to decide how you can best protect your plants.

The last time I saw Carole Baxter, she was waving her passport about.

So you'd better go and see where she's going.

Yes, Jim, I definitely need my passport to find this plant in its native habitat.

Of course, it's the tree fern, all the way from Australia.

And we've had this plant growing in the garden for many, many years.

What we've got to bear in mind, though, this one is frost hardy,

but it won't withstand those temperatures that we get down to minus 15, minus 20 sometimes.

So we protect it over the winter time.

What we do is we put this mesh around the trunk,

we then fill that with straw, we even use fleece.

And on the top, to protect the crown, we put a bit of an umbrella,

just to make sure it doesn't get wet.

Now, it's not just the cold temperatures we need to think about.

If a site's exposed, it means it's exposed to the wind, and you get that wind-chill factor.

And this plant, Cotinus "Golden Spirit", it really doesn't like the wind.

It can burn the edge of the foliage.

So, have a look round your garden and find a sheltered spot.

This one is ideal because we've got the hedge there, the hawthorn hedge,

and we've got a fence behind it.

So we've found a lovely little microclimate for this plant to do really well.

However, we don't always get it right.

This is the seaside garden, and do you know, for many years, I tried to grow a hedge.

I tried two types of woody plants.

I started off with Senecio greyi, or brachyglottis as it's now called,

and also the small, shrubby Lonicera, Lonicera nitida.

Now, the reason they didn't survive is another factor you have to take into account,

and this is all to do with the wet, poor drainage, and in the wintertime that freezes.

And the roots of woody plants really don't enjoy that.

So, I had to settle for a dyke instead.

But you know, there are ways round the winter wet and poor drainage,

and this is a fine example, building yourself a raised bed.

And this French lavender from the Mediterranean really needs

good drainage and, when it gets nice and warm and sunny,

it warms up the soil, as well.

Well, another way of raising plants up and giving them good drainage is growing them in containers,

but you must remember

if you're keeping containers out all year round,

you have now got the roots above ground.

That means they could get really cold and chilled.

When they're in the soil, that's a really good insulator.

So you actually might need to put some bubble pack round once the temperatures drop.

Now, Carole was looking at some splendid lavender plants in the raised bed.

At this time of year, it is a good time of year for planting,

but there are just one or two things that I wouldn't put in now.

That's because I'd want them to get established in the spring,

get a good root system going, and they could withstand the winter better.

One of my candidates for not putting in now would be lavender.

It hates winter wet.

And similarly with the cordyline,

I know it looks gorgeous, but I would really avoid it.

There are lots of things you CAN plant.

In a recent survey, over 80% of people didn't realise

that autumn is a natural time for planting. It's nature's time.

The soil is warm, it's certainly moist, seeds are falling to the ground,

and things get going really, really well.

A whole group of plants that you can consider planting now are conifers.

And these give you structure and colour throughout the winter in the garden,

and for the rest of the year.

Teaming up with that, rhododendrons, azaleas and heathers.

Perfectly fine to plant them now.

Another whole group, deciduous shrubs.

In other words, they lose their leaves in the winter. They effectively go to sleep,

and therefore aren't nearly so vulnerable to cold winds and cold temperatures.

And of course, the other advantage,

as the leaves change before they drop,

you get these stunning arrays of colours as I have in this cornus.

Roses are fine to plant now, they are very, very hardy.

And then finally, the group of plants that are amongst my favourites,

and that's herbaceous perennials.

There's a stunning display behind me, giving us late autumn colour.

These, again, will go to sleep over the winter,

come back bigger and better next spring.

I've got a beautiful aster here, and a pink phlox.

The secret is, get the right plant for the right place.

Well, I'm thoroughly confused now, because here we are,

the dry riverbed, rather similar to the Spanish branca, you know,

but I'm amongst South African plants, the kniphofias and the crocosmias.

I tell you what, this hardiness subject is a huge topic,

and we've barely scratched the surface.

But the important thing is, this is an age when we're minding the bawbees.

Before you buy, before you waste your money, perhaps, seek advice.

Some of the garden centres have got really good advice systems,

but just pause before you make that purchase.

Well, that's a really good bit of advice, Jim.

Now, I'm in the Equinox garden, where it's all designed to look good in the autumn and the spring.

And earlier this year, I had a look at the plant growing here

which was just a big pile of shiny, green leaves.

And it's the autumn flowering crocus, or colchicum,

sometimes called naked ladies, you can see why,

because these purple flowers are showing and there are no leaves left at all.

There's the little white version behind there, as well.

It's a real picture.

Lots of other things looking really nice at the moment in this garden.

The vitis here, scrambling over this obelisk, and what it will do,

it'll colour up to a real fiery red later on in the autumn

and look stunning. Scrambling through it is a geranium.

This is "Rozanne", white centre and a blue edge,

and it really will climb quite high.

It's gone to three or four foot already.

The centre of this bed, we've got a range of hypericums,

this is the "Magic" series. They've got different coloured berries.

There's pretty rosy red, a peachy one there,

and then this sort of burnished brown one.

And you know, there's a little bit of a secret under here,

because a long time ago we planted a fuchsia.

This is "Sunray", a variegated fuchsia,

now that should NOT have come through the winter,

but it's nice and sheltered, protected by the hypericum, so we're getting away with it.

However, we did lose something in here because of hardiness.

We had a cercis, "Forest Pansy", in here for years, but sadly it's died.

I want to replace it, and I want to put something quite tall in there.

It needs a tree to give it some height.

We are very often asked about our favourite plants.

Well, that's a difficult one,

but if I'm ever asked about my favourite tree, then this is it.

It's called Prunus "Aumtumnalis Rosea".

So, it is a cherry, you can get from its name, Autumnalis,

it actually flowers in the autumn.

So it starts to offer up its blossoms in about November,

and then any time when it's frost-free throughout the winter,

it will actually be in blossom.

And then again in spring, it will have a lot of blossom then,

which is utterly stunning.

It will also have good autumn colour, so, for a really good tree,

then I reckon this is a good all-rounder.

Now, what I'm going to do, I've already got the hole dug,

and this is in the site of where we had the cercis,

and what I've also got in the hole, ready, is some mycorrhizal powder.

Now, this is specially designed to help the tree's roots develop,

so I'm not going to put any other fertiliser in.

And then we often had the debate about where to put this stake.

Are you going to put it in straight? Are you go to put it in squinty?

Is it going to cut through the root ball of the tree?

Well, the answer is, put your stake in first.

And you will put the stake in so it is in the teeth of the wind,

so the tree blows away from it.

And then, when you take the root ball off the tree,

have a look round and see.

Usually there's a side where you can actually present

the trunk of the tree close to the stake.

And I reckon I'm going to do it about here.

If there are a few roots in the way, you can just slightly tease them.

This is absolutely fine.

And then we're just going to pop it in there.

And then what I'm going to do is put the tie on and the buckle.

The buckle goes between the stake and the tree to stop it rubbing.

And then we're just going to fasten that nicely.

And then, obviously, I am going to put the soil back in here.

I will really firm it down hard with my heel.

I'm also going to give it a good water to help it settle down.

Now, this will ultimately get to about 12, 14 foot eventually,

and it's going to give us years of pleasure.

I reckon there are three reasons why we come into this conservatory.

First and foremost if it's chucking it down with rain suddenly,

as it might do any minute now.

Secondly it may be to see our marvellous pelargonium collection. Looking good still.

Or maybe even a streptocarpus.

I thought we had to have some more things to fill this

magnificent piece of kit here, this conservatory.

So we have a citrus collection.

The bottom line for me was we would choose varieties of citrus

that can take a temperature that goes down to plus five in the winter months.

We have proved we can do that here. We are quite safe.

All you can see here, some in flower, some in fruit,

like this magnificent Meyer lemon, will stand that temperature.

In the summer we can stand them out on a terrace

which we will create over the winter months outside.

We're looking forward to a whole collection of citrus.

They're in flower and fruiting all at the same time.

It is a whole new ball game for us here.

Secondly, we are always looking for early colour

when we start a series in the spring of the year.

This is a wee trailer for next year.

What better to do than have a collection of camellias?

We get a lot of questions about camellias.

Are they hardy? In one part of Scotland, yes, in one part of Scotland no.

The previous piece was taking that very line.

Where can you grow things outside?

The best thing to me, here in Scotland,

is to use camellias as potted plants.

Indoors in the winter and outside in the summer.

They will also occupy that terrace with the citrus.

We're going to be busy. There's a lot to look forward to.

Importantly we have got to talk about containers, drainage,

compost, culture, the whole jing bang.

We have got that to look forward to next year. I'm quite excited about it.

First thing that comes to mind is a flash of purple.

Boundless, almost infectious enthusiasm.

The things that spring to mind when I think of Lesley are purple and clematis.

After 16 years of service our lovely Lesley

has decided to hang up her purple Beechgrove boots for the last time.

She will longer be gracing our garden or our screens

with her purple presence, her sound advice, her good humour,

and, of course, clematis.

Hello and welcome to the Beechgrove Garden.

My penchant for purple is well documented.

I've got the purple sweet pea here. It just smells gorgeous.

Obviously on a day like this it's going to be a real challenge

doing any work in here.

Any time we come to film here we always have a problem.

'As part of Beechgrove's 25th anniversary programme

'Lesley described how she first came to know Beechgrove as a viewer.'

We had just got our first house and had started our first garden

and were faced with a sea of mud.

This wonderful programme started which was doing exactly the same thing.

They were starting from scratch. Showing you how to make a garden.

It appears that although Lesley

visited the Beechgrove Garden on an open day, she was a bit overcome.

I was a visitor to the garden when it was open.

I was too shy to talk to Jim McColl. I did not dare join the queue!

But Lesley did meet Jim and the rest of us

and joined the presenting team

when we moved the garden to its present site.

Carole did a Seaside Garden. Carolyn did the Low Maintenance Garden.

I did the Garden For Life.

That garden and, more importantly, the subject

have become one of Lesley's many passions.

It's hard to believe it's 16 years

since the Garden For Life was first built and planted here at Beechgrove.

'The aim was to showcase plants which are good for wildlife.

'Not necessarily wildflowers, but good garden-worthy plants.'

Lesley's other passions are also well known.

She loves purple.

She looks great in it.

Those tend to be the colours she chooses in her gardens.

This I love. If I had to have a favourite clematis it would be this one.

"Clem-uh-tis" or "Clem-ay-tis" whichever way you want to say it, she wants those in the garden.

Every garden's got room for at least six clematis.

I'd hate to think what will happen

if they produce a really stonking tartan clematis.

She will not know what to wear.

And the number one easiest-to-grow clematis

is one of my personal favourites.

It is a viticella and it's "Etiolle Violette".

It has got beautiful velvety purple flowers...

And my theme this year is purple.

-Surprise surprise.

-Thought I'd have purple vegetables.

This was described as dark navy, but it is the most gorgeous purple.

They have a sort of purple-black skin.

You can see the little sprouts are purple-black.

What else was he trying to sell you?

Lesley's brought a lot to Beechgrove.

In particular her garden design, her flair for design.

Meticulous preparation. And flair.

Because her designs were quite delightful.

Remember it's twice as long as it is wide. The first thing we've done

is separate the two gardens with an arch.

This has immediately given you

two nice, evenly spaced, more in-proportion little gardens.

-We come to the front door. It's not very welcoming.

-It's not.

We've got little steps that we go up

and people are maybe here with bags of wine and presents.

-Is it standable on?

-Of course it is.

You see. Then you can all hang around here...

-With your bags of wine.

-With your bags of wine!

The temptation is just put the turf down, go and sit in the sunshine

in the back garden, but this could be so much more.

Now, what does this garden say about me? It says welcome to my home.

Lesley is an all-round gardener and is as happy

in among the produce as she is in the ornamental.

And she has the knack of making produce pretty.

In this ice bowl I've actually got some little violas,

some purple lettuce, some lavender,

and then I picked some parsley seed heads.

I'm going to miss her with the decking. We have our competition.

Lesley's always pulling my leg, saying I'm not competitive

but I really am. So, how are we going to have our competition?

-Are we going for yield and flavour?

-We CAN'T go for yield.

I've only got five, and you lot have got nine for a start!

We're not competitive but we've weighed them.

Carole got five pounds and I got three-and-a-half pounds.

Yes, but not bad, I think.

How do you get so many potatoes in three-and-a-half pounds?

Yes, do you not notice the difference there? These have been magicked.

Oh, yes!

-What's the varieties?

-"Annabelle". It's a celebrity.

You're cheating!

'Gardening should be fun and Lesley always brings laughter to the garden.'

It was always noisy and funny when Lesley was here.

I think that is so important.

# There may be trouble ahead... #

-This reminds me of re-covering an ironing board.

-Me too.

THEY LAUGH

Can I help at all?

-Yes, you can supervise.

-I'm helping. You do have instructions?

-Yes.

-Might it be worth having a little look at them?

-No.

That would be like admitting defeat!

# And while we still have the chance

# Let's face the music and dance... #

Could somebody switch the chipper on for me, please?

Lesley was great. She did not so much laugh but she did go very red

when she was trying to hide her emotions.

He bet me a bottle of wine that he would make me laugh

and we'd have to retake.

Here, in the Plant For Wildlife garden, wait till you see the hips in here.

-I assume you're talking about the Rosa rugosa?

-What else?

Which is looking really gorgeous at the moment.

She was extolling the virtues of feeding the wildlife,

birds in particular.

'Birds are like humans in that they all like different things.

'They have different tastes.'

Birds like to eat the seeds.

Because birds have different tastes in food just as we have.

-Some like to eat seed, some like berries.

-Coconuts?

-They do indeed.

I entrusted Carole, because I trust her, to look after my hanging basket,

which was a series of three.

That was an absolute classic because there we were, saying goodbye...

It looked like it had been signalled.

-Until we see you then, goodbye.

-Goodbye.

-Goodbye.

THEY SQUEAL

Everybody still laughs about it.

I sort of smile politely and say, "Yes, it was very funny."

Aargh!

The whole team at Beechgrove will miss our lovely Lesley

and her purple passions.

'But we wish all the very best for a great gardening future.'

On a personal note all I would say to her was, keep laughing,

learn to wear purple really when you get older, and for goodness sake

just continue doing what you were doing because it was special.

She is a real honest injun and she works damned hard at her job.

I admire her for that.

I'm going to miss those long car journeys that we used to share

to far-flung community gardens.

She's the only person I know

that can talk from Edinburgh to the far north of Scotland non-stop.

But I guess it takes two to tango.

Lesley, I'm going to miss your smile. I'm going to miss your companionship.

We've been great colleagues together,

but I know that we'll always be friends and I wish you great luck in the future.

Whoo!

You'd better cut that. Start again!

I've had a few minutes to compose myself, having watched that.

It's just lovely. And I've dried my eyes.

I've had the most wonderful time here.

I've really enjoyed working with the two of you and Carolyn and George.

It's really been a privilege.

As you know I'm still going to be busy horticulturally

because of my day job.

-And RHS judging. And my lovely family.

-You'll see more of them.

-My beautiful grandchildren.

-Yes.

-I like to see you're wearing purple today.

-I thought I ought to.

The one time I haven't got purple on. Oh, no!

We're the front-of-house team.

-There's another team at the back.

-I know. I know.

They are such fun to work with too.

Everybody behind the camera makes it such a pleasure.

And the gardening team who, in a difficult year,

have produced such wonderful things.

-Fantastic.

-Isn't this wonderful? Straight away, okra.

-We have got two okra.

-Okra! The twin towers! Here they are.

Also... I'm going to keep going.

We've got a little purple, lovely little aubergine.

-Purple turnips. Purple kale.

-Purple flowers. Just hang on a minute.

I swear these blueberries are almost turning purple as well.

-Yes, they are.

-You've got persuasive powers.

-Is she coming back?

-She is coming back.

There's purple, purple, purple.

-There's Clematis in there.

-That's gorgeous. Oh, I see that.

These weren't all grown in the garden. There's anthurium.

-Now, now.

-They're beautiful. Thank you. They're just gorgeous.

Not only have we got the harvest here

but autumn colour, I think, has done particularly well this year.

The acer in a pot up in the Low Maintenance looks gorgeous.

I like staring across at that rudbeckia, that "Goldsturm".

It flowers for weeks and weeks and weeks.

-It doesn't need staking.

-It's a good cut flower as well.

It can last for ages.

I wonder how many people have seen something like that

and thought, "Oh, my tree's deid!" and cut it down?

-It goes that wonderful colour.

-It is stunning.

It has been a hard year but we've had good results.

We've had some fun, haven't we?

-Yes. And then you guys will be back next year...with more.

-Yep.

-We will, we will. Is it that time again?

-It is. So...here we go.

For the very last time, if you would like more information

about this week's programme, particularly the hardiness

cos we were just able to scrape the surface with that one.

-I need my jacket on!

-It's all in the factsheet.

-Apparently the easiest way to get that is online.

-It is indeed.

-And we're on Twitter or Facebook as well.

-Oh, really(?)

Twittering on. She's twittering on again.

We'll be looking for a few small problem corners,

trying to solve some problems for you, so if you want to get

in touch with us, again, on the website you'll get all the details.

We are also looking for community gardens.

If you've got a group of like-minded people

and a piece of land, why don't you apply for that as well?

And all the information there for the application form,

you can find that online as well.

And as an honorary member of the team, my dear,

you'll be welcome back any time you like.

-Thank you. I shall be delighted to visit.

-That's it until 2013.

Until then, bye-bye.

-Goodbye.

-Bye-bye.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd