Episode 3 The Beechgrove Garden

What a difference a week makes! Welcome to Beechgrove in Lapland.

Last week, we were in the Riviera.

Don't let them ever tell you that Scottish weather's predictable.

On my schedule, I'm meant to be in the fruit cage.

Just have a look at this. What a state!

Now, I'm actually meant to be planting a hardy fig

up in that corner, and over in that far corner, there,

cutting back the raspberries, the autumn fruiting raspberries.

Not today. Look at this.

And we lost a net last winter because of the weight of snow,

so this has got to come off.

You know, and this is going to be a big job. Call for the troops.

I tell you what, I'm also supposed to be on the lawn with my plugger,

doing spiking and putting on a top dressing.

Nae chance! I'm going to get a job in the greenhouse.

Well, I did say there's always plenty to do in the greenhouse,

and so we take a moment when the weather's not so good to get on with it,

and as I say that, the sun's just come out, so I'll be sweltering.

What I've chosen to do is to start pricking out our early brassicas.

Now, they were sown in these little trays,

and they were in a case, a propagating case, here,

with a little bit of bottom heat to get them up.

Now, in advance of moving them

and giving them a bit of disturbing, you've got to cool them off.

So here they are, they're all sat out there, cooling off,

hardening off, if you like, from the frame out on to the open bench.

Because when they're potted up, when they're moved,

they will go back on the bench.

In other words, you don't give a plant two shocks at the same time,

if you want to be kind to them.

Here we go. We're going to plant them out in, what, the middle of May?

So they'll have about a month to six weeks to live in a pot,

so I reckon this size of pot is quite big enough for the job.

And it's a multi-purpose compost I'm using. So, very carefully,

from the kitchen drawer, dig these seedlings out, like so.

Handle them...

..the seed leaf, like that.

Don't handle them by the stem,

because it's readily bruised,

and could be damaged, so, paintbrush one day, dibber the next.

Right down, to open up the hole. Down it goes.

And...gently...

There you go.

You want to finish up with these cotyledons on the surface,

and by so doing, you'll get the plant growing nice and sturdy.

Doesn't need much of a firming at all.

Quite a quick job, this.

They go back on the bench, and they need immediately watered in

with a rose on the end of the watering can,

with water which is slightly tepid. It's had the chill taken off it.

Here we go.

Meanwhile, in the rest of the programme...

Well, it's lovely to spend time in a gorgeous back garden like this,

but, you know, it is worth putting a little bit of time and effort

into the front garden as well.

I'm in a west coast garden, a plantsman's garden,

where plants from all over the world have been collected together,

and by Jove, are they thriving!

-SHE WHISPERS:

-Top secret!

SHE KNOCKS

-Yes?

-Can I come in?

Yeah, I suppose so. But you've got to be very quiet and tell nobody.

-Oh! What are you doing?

-Isn't this good? Look at this.

-Very exciting.

-Look at it.

-Yeah, so you've got huge air pots.

-Right.

We thought we would try them in air pots this year,

because we can open the air pots at the end of the season,

and we don't destroy them. Easier than a barrel

and the things we used last year.

-These are your veg for show.

-This is it.

-This is the long veg in those ones.

-So you've got sand in there.

Yes, but we make spile holes, or holes with a pinch bar,

and then we fill them with a secret compost. Have you got some compost?

-WHISPERS:

-This is top secret.

-Yes, that's what's in it.

-Is it really top secret?

-Yeah. You'll need to hand me the funnel.

-Oh, yes, so I do.

-Hang on, that's got stuff in it.

-You're all of a doo-dah.

You see, you've got over-excited.

Now, top secret. Hmm.

Feels quite heavy.

-Yes, well, just you give me it.

-It's got perlite in it.

-Has it?

-Yes.

-Is that what that white stuff is?

You know, I always think gardeners are really generous, George,

-and they share all their hints and tips.

-Yeah.

Do you think if you're doing it for show, you're not so prepared to?

Well, it's like these secret recipes that we have when we're cooking.

Some people tell you the whole set of ingredients, and others don't.

No, OK. So, they're just going to grow in that.

Are you going to feed them with anything?

No, I think there'll be enough feeding in this. I think there'll be enough feeding.

-You're going to plant them in there.

-That's it.

-Yeah, OK.

-Seeds get sown on the top of that,

then they'll grow right down through, the roots'll never come to the outside.

They'll just be in the good compost. We've done the same with that.

That's the Sweet Candle that we're putting in there.

-Smaller versions.

-It's a good, long carrot, it's a nice stump-rooted one.

Then in these ones, "Purple Haze," which is a wonderful purple carrot,

just for show, really, just for colour, and then beetroot.

-But you haven't got sand in here? This is just the compost?

-That's right.

These ones, cos it doesn't matter about those, they need a lot of nutrient,

-that's what's important about it.

-OK. Now, when you're doing your narcissi,

you were doing it for a very special date.

-Are you doing this for a very special date?

-Yes.

-What is it? You can tell me that!

SHE LAUGHS

All right, we'll tell you that.

It's the 17th of September. Now, that's Dalkeith Show.

So we've given away something.

So there'll be guys out there saying, "We'll beat him at Dalkeith,"

-so that'll be exciting.

-We'll just see, won't we?

-We will indeed.

Front gardens come in all shapes and sizes,

and yet it's probably our least loved area of our property.

It's seen by everyone.

It's the first impression when you come to your home.

So what does your front garden say about you?

The disadvantage is, with our front garden, that we can't just

use the space as we wish, because there are lots of activities

which have to happen there - car parking, bin store,

access to the front door for visitors, newspapers and the post,

and these are non-negotiable.

So what I'm going to do today is show you some design ideas and tips,

which will help make your front garden practical and pretty.

We've borrowed a colleague's house and garden for the day,

so we can be really rude!

But what we're going to do, we're going to show you, in the front garden here,

some common problems and easy solutions

-There is a lot of gravel in this garden, Mike.

-There is.

I mean, it's a good solution, because it's a busy road,

so we need to get the car off quickly and park it,

-and it does let the water soak through.

-Good for drainage.

-Now, we come to the front door, it's not very welcoming.

-It's not, really.

We've got little steps that we go up, and people are maybe here

with bags of wine, and presents,

there's not very much space, it's not very welcoming.

So I want to change this,

and I have actually sort of sketched it out.

Ah, we like a plan.

Yeah, to make it a sort of level landing here,

and then steps round the edge.

-That's quite a lot of work, though.

-It would be, if we were doing it properly,

but we're just going to mock it up for the day, to give the idea.

-The other thing is, how many plants can you see in this garden?

-None.

Nope. So, we really do need to get some planting,

because it's really important for the environment

that there are some plants here, otherwise it's just an absolute desert.

-Brighten it up, as well.

-Come on, so let's crack on.

But it does say, "This is the front door." Is it standable on?

Of course it is!

-You see? And then you can all hang around here.

-With your bags of wine.

With your bags of wine, waiting for them to answer the door.

Well, this is to illustrate the first point,

which is, we want to make the front door as welcoming as possible.

So previously, there was just a set of steps.

We've widened the whole waiting area out the front.

If you were doing this for real,

you would make sure the risers match the stone of the building.

-Of course, yeah.

-I know all that, but it's a much more generous waiting area.

And then we've embellished it with pots, which just looks really, really welcoming.

-A huge difference.

-A lantern which you could light before your visitors arrive.

So, that's our first task completed.

-What's next?

-Phase two.

Now, one of the things that a lot of front gardens have to accommodate

are wheelie bins. Sometimes two, sometimes three.

Particularly awkward if you're in a flat.

It's quite an easy way just to disguise them

by putting some nice trellis round it, then growing some plants up it.

We also have the issue of,

we now have the view from the window, which is looking out here.

You don't want to be looking at the cars the whole time,

so what I'm going to do is strategically put a tree here.

Now, it's got a clear stem, and then it's got the branches at the top.

That will fill out and disguise this view.

What we're also doing is putting in some climbers

against the house to soften it.

We've got ivy, cos this is north facing,

and a Garrya elliptica here with all the tassels, which is lovely.

And that will green up this, and stays evergreen.

I think in a front garden, it's quite important to be quite formal,

so we're going to do some repeat planting.

We've got a bed here by the front door,

and a bed here by the bin store.

And I'm putting a skimmia.

Now, these are fragrant, so they're gorgeous to have by the doors.

This one is "Obsession",

and I've put one this side and then one the other.

I'm also going to keep going with evergreens.

I've put a Cryptomeria japonica "Elegans" in here.

That's gorgeous and green now,

and it gets that bronze colour in the winter.

And this will absolutely fill the bed.

And, again, climbers are quite important.

We would need to wire the wall first so they could climb up it,

but I've put a honeysuckle here. This is "Halls Prolific."

It will cope with the shade,

but when you're waiting at that front door for your doorbell to be answered,

you will get a wonderful fragrance.

While we do need to maximise the amount of space for the cars,

there still is a planting opportunity the other side of the garden.

What we need to do is not have anything

too high as you are exiting the garden, because you mustn't

block the sightlines for cars and also for pedestrians on the path.

And then going down here, we've created our border

and we're alternating conifers.

So this one is a juniper, and it's "Blue Arrow."

Very pencil thin, and then this is thuja, and it's "Smaragd."

Now, this isn't going to be a hedge.

Each of these conifers will be trimmed up to keep their shape.

And we're going to mimic that right the way down here,

so we're nicely delineating the border of the house.

And then we jump to the other side,

and underneath the window here there is also room

to have some planting, and we've mirrored the thuja,

so we have two "Smaragds"

as sentinels either side of the path which leads into the back garden.

We've got a little euphorbia here. This is called "Baby Charm."

On the corner, euonymus "Emerald Gaiety."

This is an absolute star at the moment.

This is a winter flowering heather, and it's called "Winter Sun."

Covered in pink flowers from November right through

to the end of March, April.

Now, this is a really good palette of plants,

and what I would then do is mimic this between all the conifers as we go up the side,

and then we'll get a really good rhythm of planting.

It's quite a limited palette, quite restricted, it'll look very stylish.

When we started in this garden this morning, it was just

a sea of gravel, and it just shows what a difference plants can make.

We've put some climbers against the house,

which is really going to soften the look.

Screened the bins with trellis, and planted in front of that.

I think probably one of the biggest changes

is the welcome at the front door.

Previously, it was a very steep set of steps.

We've enlarged that, and embellished it with pots.

And there's still room for more planting,

because although the cars have to come in, there's space here,

and we've got a really good palette of evergreens

and ground cover that's going to give us year-round colour.

And our final planting is very formal,

and it's a set of conifers running down here on the boundary.

Well, I hope we've given you some ideas to try out in your own front garden.

Grand opportunity to get back into the fruit house on a day like this.

If you remember, last year we fed the cherry and the other fruit,

and it's time to do it again.

There's what happens when you put down the fabric

and you feed them - the roots come right to the surface.

Wonderful feeding roots.

So if I can do that again, by making some holes,

and either filling them with compost - I'll show you in a minute -

or... I'll have to get up to pull this up.

Look at that. There's a hole, that's grand.

Now, what we can do with that is, either fill it with compost

which has been augmented with some fish blood and bone,

or really a simpler way is to use some of these pellets,

cos they just fit the hole, and we can poke them down into there,

two per hole.

Top it up with a little bit of compost.

Put the surface back over the top, the fabric and then the gravel.

Bob's your uncle.

Make sure you water it, because that is essential.

This is demanding a lot of feeding and a lot of water at the moment, now that it's just into growth.

Those who are regular viewers will remember

that I grafted apples last year.

There is what we did.

There is an apple there, with the young bud just starting to come away.

Now, if you remember back, we took one bud off a stick like this,

and put it onto there.

What we want to get from this is a new apple tree,

which is a dwarfing root stock, so it's going to be a dwarfing apple.

And eventually, what I'll do is, I'll cut that off there,

so that that young shoot grows away.

It'll grow for a year,

and there's what it'll produce - that one's a year old.

So we've got two shoots, and again it'll need some formative pruning

to get it into the form that I want.

Wait a further year, and then you have this.

That's three years old. Now look at the growth that's on that.

And we've got some fruit buds, so this year, we'll have some fruit.

Three years from budding? That's not bad at all.

And eventually, it will turn into an apple tree like this.

Now, this one has been in this pot for some time.

And what I'm going to have to do again is just scrape off the surface.

I'm going to take off all the old compost off the top, there,

and feed it with some new compost.

That way, the roots'll come out, get into it,

and we'll really get some good growth onto the tree again.

Because when they're in pots, there's a tendency to forget them

and ignore them, and that's really the worst thing you can do.

You've got to keep an eye on them.

Now, the peach is in full bloom.

This is the time, in a warm part of the day, to come in here.

Take your blusher brush,

everybody should carry a blusher brush in their pocket.

Come on, get in amongst there and start fertilising

and pollinating as much as you possibly can.

Do it on the peach, do it on the cherry as well, do it on the apples.

When the things are in full flower,

that's when you've got to be in amongst them.

There's potential of a lot of fruit,

cos we've got plenty of flowers, but eventually, we're going to have to

thin the flowers out to about a hand span apart.

Fewer fruits, that way we'll have far bigger fruits, juicier fruits.

Now, this is a busy time of year

when it comes to looking after your house plants.

This clivia looks lovely at the moment in flower,

but the foliage is looking a little bit yellow, and I think some of the older leaves.

It'll tidy it up and look much fresher if we cut off some of these.

So there's one or two round here I can just cut back.

At the same time, it's rather pot-bound.

I want to leave it alone at the moment.

It does thrive when it's pot-bound, it does help it to go into flower.

But I would also do a bit of feeding. And that goes for a lot of your houseplants at the moment.

From April right through to September,

start feeding those plants every ten to 14 days.

Now, that is quite heavy.

Right, what else can we do with our houseplants?

The streptocarpus, here. They are looking a little bit sad.

Just have a look at the growth.

We've got lots of moss, and what I would like to do,

rather than pot them on, because they're quite small plants,

there's not a huge root system, I will just take away

some of the old compost,

put it back into the pot,

and really, it's just a little bit of top dressing.

And that's going to give it a little bit of a boost.

Now, also, plants can be potted on at this time of year.

This is a cordyline, I don't know the variety, it's called "Kiwi."

Now, that is rather pot-bound.

It's spiralling around and I would pot that up,

say a couple of sizes bigger, into that.

But at the same time, you know me, I like a little bit of propagation.

And I'm going to leave those two, cos I think it'd be quite nice

to have a multi-stem plant.

But this one here at the side,

I reckon if I just pull that off,

a little bit of a root, and I've got another plant.

Now, the other plant that's one of my favourite houseplants,

is the oxalis.

OK, they look very sad at the moment.

These are mine that I've brought in from home.

I put them on the top of my kitchen cupboards,

and dry them off from October right through till now,

and then I want to start them off again.

Now, you should find... Yes, this is what I'm looking for.

These tiny little tubercles.

I only started off with about three in the pot,

but you'll see how it's multiplied.

I've got several, here.

Years and years ago, we started at Beechgrove with three tubercles,

and look what we've got now.

Then what I do is, put them into fresh compost,

and I'll just lay them on the surface, here.

That should be plenty.

A little bit of compost on the top,

and then start watering that.

It'll come into growth.

And what it produces is these amazing purple foliage plants,

and they're like butterflies - they're open during the day,

and they close at night.

I'm on the Rosneath peninsula, near Cove on the West coast.

I've come to visit Jamie Taggart at Linn Botanic Garden.

He's got about three acres of land,

and in it, he grows over 6,000 different types of plant.

Cove is at the foot of the Rosneath peninsula. Over there is Gareloch.

Behind me is the Ayrshire coast, we've got Dunoon over this way,

the Holy Loch,

Loch Long, and Loch Goil.

It's influenced by the westerly winds off the Gulf Stream.

It's a wonderful place for growing plants.

Gosh, look at the colour on that. That's magnificent, isn't it?

-It's very good. A form of arboreum, Rhododendron arboreum.

-Uh-huh?

And this particular plant, I grew from seed

that I collected in China.

Gosh! Now, isn't it exciting when you go and collect seed?

You find the things in the wild and then you bring them home,

they flower in your own garden, and it's just a great sign of success.

It is, that's why I go out collecting.

-That's the main reason.

-That's it!

So, as we'd expect on the west coast, lots of New Zealand plants.

-Nice and tender.

-Yes.

-So what have we got here?

Right, well, we've got these very spiny plants.

They're aciphyllas, and they're a type of carrot.

An astelia next to it,

and they have red fruits, which are sweet and good to eat.

And the other silvery plants -

a lot of those, and there's a huge number,

-are New Zealand daisies, celmisias.

-Right.

A lot of plants in New Zealand have grey foliage,

these are alpines, and it can help conserve moisture.

If you have hairs, it stops the leaves losing moisture.

-Or the wind.

-The wind.

-It's a windy place, isn't it?

And why the white flowers, what's the reason for that?

That's to aid pollination. A lot are pollinated by night insects. Moths.

Not bees, which came to the southern hemisphere later.

So that's why they have white flowers,

cos they're much more obvious in the grey dark.

Cos I was always fascinated by this fact that New Zealand things,

predominantly, were white flowered.

Yes. It makes a nice theme for a planting.

This corner, though, looks as though it's been badly hit by something.

Like a bomb's gone off.

-It was the last of our bad gales.

-Right, uh-huh.

-The third of January one. 125 mile an hour winds.

-Good grief!

Blew out of the ground a huge oak tree dating back to 1840,

and that landed on top of all these rhododendrons.

-Right. So all of this has just been absolutely devastated.

-Smashed.

-Yeah.

And landed on this parapet in front of you.

The bridge held, the parapet didn't quite.

-It's back, now.

-Right, so am I safe?

-You are safe.

-Right, OK.

But the trees and the shrubs behind have been devastated

just with things landing on them.

But there'll be so much more light getting into this now. So that will be a benefit, won't it?

The additional light is a benefit.

Things will flower more freely, the broken stumps of the shrubs

will sprout, and it'll be better in the long run.

It'll be better for the garden.

Sitting here in this wonderful sunshine, the scent is great.

-It's off that thing, isn't it?

-It is.

-That's Osmanthus delavayi, from the Himalayas, I believe.

-Right.

It's a beautiful scent. If you want a neat garden shrub that's hardy,

versatile, best scent you could have, that's the shrub to go for.

I mean, it really is full of scent at the moment.

-And it flowers early, too.

-Yes.

Now, that's Himalayas, but so, too, is that fella down there.

Now that, to me, has a wonderful stem on it.

-It is.

-The colours on the stem are just outstanding.

That's Euphorbia griffithii, "Fireglow."

There's a lot of good plants from the Himalayas that you can grow.

That one there has particularly got good stems on it.

The colouration on the stem, it's almost like snakeskin.

Especially in the spring, when it's emerging.

It's particularly dramatic then.

So right down here, even in the lower part of the garden, there are trees down.

-How many did you lose?

-Well, I counted 40.

-And stopped.

-Right. But of course, when they fall, they do more damage.

-Yes.

-Yeah.

-With the density of plants in the three acres,

if you put 6,000 different plants in three acres,

woody plants, shrubs and trees,

when they fall down, they hit something.

They've got to. And they're going to break things.

GEORGE CHUCKLES

And it's going to be a bigger mess.

So it's hearts and it's plants that get broken.

But there's a happy story here, too.

-A happy/sad story.

-Yeah.

There's a duck that's taken up residence

under this fallen tree trunk on the island.

She's nested the past three years. Last two years, she was unsuccessful.

This year, she's nested under this tree trunk.

-She's got more protection from the elements.

-Right.

So she's benefited from this gale.

She wouldn't think there was anything different or wrong with this, would she?

She'd just think, "Ideal place to nest."

I think that's exactly what she thinks.

But when she's left the nest and the ducklings have hatched,

-she'll be losing her little house.

-Aye, right.

Well, assuming this snow period is temporary and is going to move on,

we can get back to the spring work in the garden, including a bit of pruning.

Here we have hypericum, you know that lovely yellow flowered shrub

that tends to get a bit floppy at times.

You can really rejuvenate it by pruning it hard, right down into the base.

You see the little buds coming here.

There you've got them there, on here. Look at that.

And you want to go... Cut them right back.

And you get some fresh, new growth.

Now, I'm actually doing that to illustrate,

because I know for a fact there's a rather severe frost actually forecast for tonight.

So I might not take the chance and go the whole way,

but here you are, that's how to do it.

Take it right back down, there.

Although they're already growing,

this is now the time to prune some of the ornamental stemmed willows.

We've got things like orange stemmed ones

and possibly white stemmed ones, or grey stemmed ones.

This one is the Japanese fantailed willow, with these fasciated stems.

This was very badly damaged by frost and cold last year,

and I'm going to prune it right hard back, get in about it, get it to regenerate,

and it's the young growths that give you the fantails.

Now, this is the perfect place for snow, here in the alpine garden.

These little plants are perfectly at home.

Don't be tempted to scrape off the snow,

because if you get blue skies like this, and it gets frosty at night,

that snow will protect them and act as an insulator.

Well, hopefully by the time you are watching this, the snow will be long gone.

But when it's freshly fallen and unblemished,

if you've got a rabbit problem in your garden,

it gives you a really good opportunity of seeing their tracks

and finding out how they're getting into your garden.

So who's going to tell him he's not getting the job?

THEY LAUGH

We should've been in the woodland garden, but it's covered in snow,

so it's not quite as attractive as it was the other day.

No, but it will bounce back once the snow melts,

which should be quite quick at this time of year.

-Conifers looked absolutely superb this morning with the snow on them.

-One or two were leaning.

Yeah, and there's an osmanthus over there which looks super,

and the scent is brilliant.

One of the plants that's maybe appropriate is the flowering currant,

-"White Icicle."

-How appropriate!

-Looks bonny.

That Japanese quince up there is just stunning.

I mean, it's just shining out there, just now.

-So there's some lovely things in the garden.

-Plenty.

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

it's all in the factsheet.

And maybe in the factsheet we might get the information

-about your secret compost for show veg, do you think?

-LAUGHTER

Well, the easiest way to access that is online.

And don't forget, new for us, as well,

you can find out about Beechgrove on Twitter and Facebook.

Well, next week, I'm going to be having a look at another design solution for a front garden.

This time, it's a new house. What do you do when the builders have left?

And back here in the Beechgrove itself, it's a little bit of...

-..more gardening!

-Till then.

ALL: Goodbye!

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