Episode 4 The Beechgrove Garden

HOLLOW TINER RUMBLES

Thanks, Ben. Save me from shouting.

Welcome to the Beechgrove Garden on a reasonable kind of day.

Well, it's been a crazy, mixed-up season, has it not?

So forgive me for mixing you up even more,

because what are we doing?

We're hollow tining this lawn at the wrong time of year,

some would say.

The fact of the matter is,

we get the chance to try this machine out.

And it's the most remarkable piece of kit, so simple.

Engine there, and the works here with these hollow tines.

As you can see, you can go along at a fair old lick,

taking out a core, about an inch and a half or thereby.

Why are we taking out the core?

Well, this lawn has suffered from compaction over the years.

There's very little topsoil here

and we've got to do something to rejuvenate it,

so I'm taking a chance, hollow tining,

and you'll notice that the besom

is probably one of the best things to use to collect that stuff up.

And at home,

I stack that and then use it for putting into tubs and troughs

when we put in the bedding plants.

What's the aftermath of that, having taken all that out?

Well, the next story, of course,

is that we want to top-dress with a special top-dressing material.

Here you see it, here.

This is two parts sand to one part soil.

Sterilised soil.

Two kilos to one square metre.

And that's what it looks like when it's on.

Then you take this rake, back of the rake,

and just gently rub it all in, and I tell you what,

what a difference it will make to the lawn.

If you're a bit of a He-Man, or if you've got a big lawn to do,

you can use a lute.

Yes, that's what it's called.

It doesn't play tunes.

But I'll tell you what it does do...

It actually gets the stuff in a lot easier.

And because of the size of it, it bridges the lumps.

And so you can fill in the little hollows in the grass.

Now, what are the risks of doing it at this time of the year?

Well, we've opened up the surface.

So if we get some really bad frosts,

the frost'll go in and perhaps will damage the roots of the grass.

Won't kill it, set it back a little bit,

and secondly, of course, if we get very dry weather,

you get the loss of moisture.

So you get a bit of evaporation, again, short-term disadvantage.

I think the overall advantage of using this machine...

Well, we'll see what happens in a month or two's time.

I reckon this lawn's going to be a belter.

Now, in the rest of the programme...

I'm in St Andrews, the home of golf and royal romance.

But today,

I'm exploring a beautiful garden tucked away on the edge of the town.

And I'm going to have a look at some design ideas

for a new front garden.

What do you do when the builders have left?

Well, here we are in the calendar border,

and of course, that means we've got to have interest here

for 12 months of the year.

And my favourite plant at the moment is looking superb.

That's Salix Wehrhahnii, with the beautiful catkins,

especially when they're in bud.

And then Viburnum bodnantense 'Dawn,'

that's a great plant for flowering in the winter,

before the leaves come on,

but those blooms are still going at the moment.

You know, rather delicate pink blooms,

but they are incredibly hardy.

Last year, we added into the border, for a spot of summer colour,

the Asiatic lilies.

And they're in pots, because, well, I thought,

well, if we want to move them to somewhere else in the garden,

we can, and it means that we don't disturb them.

At the moment, we've got some foliage coming through,

and, well, to encourage those beautiful blooms,

which have perfume, you really need to do a spot of feeding.

And what I want to use is some sulphate of potash.

And I just sprinkle this on,

and with this kind of weather that we're having at the moment,

well, it's naturally going to be watered in.

You could if you wanted just use a liquid feed,

with a tomato fertiliser, but you know, that's every 10 to 14 days.

This is just now, and probably in the autumn time as well.

In the post, just arrived this week, are these, tree lilies.

And, well, they're called tree lilies

because they get to about three metres in height.

It's a variety called Robina, again with lovely fragrance,

and pink blooms,

and what I want to do is plant these in between these shrubs.

So instead of having to stake them,

hopefully the shrubs will act as a natural support.

Quite big bulbs, remember, plant those about six inches deep.

And they are incredibly hardy, as well.

Here, I'm adding a bit more interest to the sort of fruit theme.

Jim planted those saskatoons a couple of years ago,

the juneberry.

I'm not particularly keen on the fruit, but Jim quite likes them.

So now I'm going to add an ornamental bramble

called Loch Maree, it's the first of its kind,

because it has a double flower which is pink.

And that also is thornless, well, that's quite good,

cos some of the brambles with the thorns

are incredibly difficult to train.

This, I think, is quite an interesting feature.

It was suggested by Jim, kind of an inverted tripod.

But this is going to be used for the support,

because it will get to two metres in height.

And we can just add a few wires around that.

And then the other fruit, this is called the fourberry.

And I need to remember, it's got four features.

So it has flowers, yellow flowers, the flowers are fragrant,

then we get the lovely black berries,

and then finally autumn colour.

And, well, when it comes to the planting,

I mean, this is beautiful soil, it's good drainage,

but what I'll do is add a little bit of bonemeal

into the bottom of the hole, make sure that you really mix that in,

so it doesn't burn the roots, and then, well, we can put the plant in.

I'm having a look at the design challenges

that are posed by a front garden.

Last week, we had a look at a mature house

where the front garden was just a sea of gravel.

This week, something completely different.

Brand-new house.

And what comes with that? A brand-new front garden.

So what happens when the builders have finished?

You have a lovely new house, and your front garden

is either nicely levelled with soil or with turf.

There are other things which have to happen in a front garden.

All the services need to come from the road to the house,

so inevitably you'll be left with drainage covers,

rodding eyes, gas meters that have to be read.

Do you know, 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.

And I'm going to show you how.

So, Lesley, what's the plan?

Well, the whole issue of car parking, getting out of the car,

-beautifully dealt with here, so we don't have a problem.

-Yeah.

However, getting over to the front door,

well, you know, in America on a campus,

they wait at least a year to see where people walk,

then they lay the paths.

-Sensible.

-I think people are going to cut the corner.

You didn't, I did,

-so we're going to broaden that whole entrance with slabs.

-OK.

Pretty up the front door a little bit,

and then we're going to plant up here,

making sure you can still get to the gas meter.

And there's quite a nice little corner,

-that we're going to put a seat in here.

-OK.

Not a wee bit exposed, with the neighbours just there?

Well, it is, but what we're going to do is put a bed in the middle,

kidney-shaped, bring it close to the house,

-and that will give a nice little bit of privacy for that seat.

-OK.

I'm sure we're going to love our neighbours,

but we're still going to plant up here

-so we delineate what's theirs and what's ours.

-OK.

And these.

I want to disguise the drainage covers, the rod eyes.

-People quite often just plonk a pot on there.

-Mmm.

That just draws attention to it.

So we're going to include that into a planted bed.

-OK.

-We're just mocking all this up,

so it's not going to take very long, is it?

No. Be finished by lunchtime.

That's good, cos it's going to snow.

Er...

We could take one off that end there, could we?

-No.

-You think...

-No, I like that as it is, no.

Can we cheat under here?

-And just put slabs at the front?

-That's rough.

And say the whole thing would have been paved.

But I didn't bring enough slabs.

-If you're willing to admit that.

-Yeah, yeah, that's OK.

I brought more than I was asked to.

SHE LAUGHS

So the first thing we've done

is we've widened the entrance to the front door.

So it's much more welcoming.

Now we've just dropped these slabs down.

I cannot emphasise enough, we haven't laid them properly.

But the principle is that you have a nice, wide entrance here,

and it stops people cutting the corner.

We've prettied up the front door as well.

Besides Mike, sweeping beautifully, we've got some lovely pots,

just adding a little bit of colour.

And then we've put some stepping stones here,

nice, even paces over to it,

and then a seating area which is also laid on slabs.

So what's next, Lesley?

Well, I think we need to get some green down.

-Well, that's the last bit of turf down.

-Yeah.

Even though we're just putting it down for the day,

you've made sure we've got the beautiful stripes in it.

And we've got the beds delineated. We've run out a little bit,

but we've got an island bed that's going to give us privacy.

In real life, I would actually like this to be much more curvy

so it was easier for the lawn mower to go round and stuff.

But it's just really indicating the fact that we've got an island bed...

-Shows the principal.

-Exactly, going to give us some privacy.

-Now, we're going to place some big plants.

-Bring on the plants.

So when you get your new home, you also get a set of missives.

Now, these are the same for all home builders in Scotland,

and it's some rules and regulations

about what you can and can't do in your front garden.

All very sensible.

The first thing is, you can only plant ornamental plants.

So, what have we done in our front garden?

Well, first of all, we had a gas meter,

which we need to disguise but still require access to.

This is euonymus called "Katie", it's evergreen and it's nice and floppy,

so you can still take the readings.

We have a seating area here, surrounded that with fragrant plants

and then screening at the back is evergreen.

We've nestled a couple of bird feeders in there.

Birds will visit your front as well as back garden,

and it's really pretty to watch them from the sitting-room window.

Back reading the missives, you can't do fences and walls,

but you still need to delineate where your garden starts and stops

and increase your privacy.

So we've put a whole line of evergreens, conifers,

Viburnum tinus.

This island bed is very, very important,

because when you're sitting on the seat,

you want to have a feeling of privacy and enclosure,

and this tree, which is just top work, does that.

It's gorgeous, it's Prunus Okame,

and then it's top worked onto a stem of Prunus serrulas.

It's going to give you that bark interest as well.

We always have this rude intrusion of drain covers and everything.

How do we deal with them?

Far better just to have plants covering them,

this is Juniper "Blue Carpet", which will just arch and cover them,

and soon they will be invisible.

In amongst the plants, we've got a little bit of bling,

that is things which are going to flower and then just recede

back into the border.

At the moment, this forsythia is absolutely strutting its stuff,

as is Prunus Kojo-no-mai.

So now, what does this garden say about me?

It says, "Welcome to my home."

Well, well, what can you say about the weather?

It sounds more like a monsoon out there than a spring shower,

I can tell you.

We've had the lot in the last two or three weeks.

I've got an inside job to do, thank goodness,

and we're going to take another look at the substitutes for peat compost,

and there's always a new range to be got at.

In times past, we've used one compost as a control

and unbeknown to us, they actually changed the formula this year.

We've got some of it in stock and this is what is in the multipurpose

that used to be our control.

Cos they've changed the formula altogether.

A bit of firewood, we've got some bits of plastic, we've got some...

Somebody suggested that might be a bit of hemp, a bit of hash,

whatever, we've got...

And it just gets worse.

We've got pieces of glass picked out.

Now, I think that's a damn disgrace. We're paying for stuff like that,

and these are the kind of compost that get the whole thing a bad name

and make sceptics like me wish to turn the clock back

and go back to John and his compost and peat-based compost.

And it doesn't help the case at all.

However, we have to progress.

And we're looking at a range of new composts, new formulations.

There's two of them are courier-delivered,

and that might affect the price.

Because this time, I want to look at the price-per-litre of compost.

I'm very conscious that there are different-sized bags

and I think there's a price hike in there somewhere.

So we want to look at the price per litre.

The first one is based on coir.

The coir is the substitute for peat.

And it's a superb material,

but it is known that it's difficult to handle.

Now that's another story that we have to keep telling you.

If you change your compost,

don't think you can treat it like the one you did before,

because they all have their own characteristics

and you have to be prepared to learn to work with them.

So this one is coir. This is a courier-delivered.

It cost 27 pence a litre.

Now we get to wood bark,

which is the main substitute in many of these composts.

This is one that is an improvement on what they used to produce before.

It comes down to 10 pence a litre. That's an off-the-shelf price.

For that, I would use.

This one is... I suppose in a way it's a control,

because it's 100% sphagnum peat

from Irish sources with other ingredients.

Looks good, looks like the old stuff, very fluffy,

very nice to handle, 10 pence a litre,

plus carrier costs,

and I think that would put it up to 15, 16p a litre.

It looks as if it might run out of steam, I don't know.

It might be very good for the plants.

Then we go back to the wood fibre type stuff.

This is more like the thing...

12 pence a litre, plenty of that about,

and we've seen these kind before.

I would be reluctant to put young seedlings into that, I have to say.

I think it's too coarse.

Now, this one here has got charcoal in it, you can see bits of charcoal.

"It's got magical properties,"

Well, it's better had, because it's 45 pence a litre!

But it has improved from the product that they put on the market last year.

It's quite nice, and it smells quite sweet.

But all sorts of claptrap on there

about what it's got and what it hasn't got, how can you prove it?

Then this one.

Now, the interesting thing about this guy

is that it comes in a concentrated form.

It comes in a wee bag like this, look.

And this is what it looks like. There you go.

One of the crew said, "And if it dries out, will it go back to that

"and leave the plants high and dry?" Well, time will tell.

This is a 20-pence-a-litre product, which I would use.

It looks quite good. But, as I say, over the year,

we will be looking at the performance of these

using calibrachoa, which is Million Bells, it's related to the petunia.

And for no other reason than I like it,

we've got this little brachycome, the "Swan River Daisy".

We'll come back to this in due time

just to see how they're all getting on.

Well, the air in the conservatory here is just filled with the perfume

from this white rhododendron. It's gorgeous. Just like vanilla.

And the little gardens behind the conservatory

are just bursting into life. This is the White Garden.

Last autumn, we added some bulbs

so we have a little bit of extra spring interest.

The Muscari "White Magic" is in flower,

as is the thalia, the little narcissus

over there and a white scilla.

And the Spiraea arguta has just got the arching little branches there,

with white flowers. That's known as the bridal wreath.

But this is the area that I want to concentrate on today.

Now, it used to be a sensory garden,

but over the years, we've had quite a few deaths and disasters.

I want to replant it with some plants

that are going to give us a lot of fragrance.

It's on a slope and it's been terraced.

And as a really good design tip,

on the top of this wall, we've got an 18-inch coping slab.

This is really nice because it gives you a little seat

that you can sit on and perch. It's good use of space.

So you can imagine sitting out here on a sunny evening

with a glass of wine, gorgeous perfumes wafting over to you.

Now, the sort of plants I'm adding...

First of all, something like Erysimum "Bowles Mauve",

that is the perennial wallflower.

It's got got purple flowers on it now.

Just behind that, there's a dianthus, one of the cottage garden

dianthus, one of the larger growing ones.

It's called "Gran's Favourite".

Very good reason why I chose that.

It's got white flowers, pink centres and the beautiful clove fragrance.

And then, towards me here, I've got dianthus, this is "Firewitch."

A little alpine dianthus, much smaller and politer,

same glaucous foliage.

Lovely fragrance from the flowers, bright red flowers.

But there are some things that we have to work a little bit harder

to get their perfume. Say, for instance, the curry plant.

What I need to do is just touch, slightly crush the leaves.

That's just astonishing how like a curry that does smell.

And then here, just at the edge where I can rub my hands over it,

I've got thyme. This is "Red Carpet".

And of course we can use these in cooking as well,

as we're appealing to another sense, that's taste.

I've got a Prostrate rosemary with blue flowers and an upright one.

And then further on, this is a little bit of a legacy

from the original sensory garden, we've got golden marjoram.

Got a daphne here, this is "Retusa".

An astonishingly good perfume as well.

The other bit of the garden is a little tiny promontory here,

which needs to be planted.

I want to have a very strong corner,

so I've got Prostanthera cuneata or the Tazmanian mint bush.

And again, when I crush that, it's very sweet but minty

and it had clear white flowers.

And then, my final dianthus.

This one is a new one, it's called "Pink Fizz".

And it's just going to froth over the edge.

I'm in the east nook of Fife, at St Andrews Botanic Garden,

and it's a real hidden gem. And I'm about to meet one of the volunteers.

Anne Lightwood, as one of the Friends,

what do you find so special about this garden?

I love it because it's a living entity.

Every time you come, something new has opened out

and there's something different to see.

I hate to be slightly negative,

but I understand the garden's slightly under threat?

Yes, the ground belongs to the University.

It was a University botanic garden.

For the last 25 years, it's been managed by the council

and that arrangement is coming to an end next year,

and there will be financial cutbacks in the future.

The Friends are a support organisation

and we are being drawn in as stakeholders

to set up a charitable trust, which we hope will manage the gardens.

So everyone's hoping that it's going to succeed?

There's a feeling that the garden must continue.

It's an asset, not a liability.

Speaking about the Friends, you've got a huge number of volunteers.

Yes, we have about 1,400 Friends.

Not all are volunteers, but very many come in regularly

and plant and propagate and clean seed

and arrange plant sales in spring and summer.

We have an Education Trust, where we have loads of school children

and we also have workshops.

So there are always jobs needing to be done

and many of them are done by volunteers.

As well as the help of volunteers, the garden also benefits

from the expertise of honorary curator and old friend,

Bob Mitchell.

Bob, it's lovely to see you again, no stranger to the programme.

No, and it's nice that you've come here to St Andrews, in fact.

There are some beautiful plants to look at here,

I don't know where to start,

but I think the pasqueflowers or the pulsatillas are wonderful.

And we've three particularly that are good just now.

The vulgaris, which is native to the chalk downs in Europe,

and there's montana, which is native to West Europe,

and then the Himalayan one, ambigua, which is a stunning plant too.

Another plant that I think more people should grow

is the lathrys, Lathrys vernus.

Yes, it's so easy to grow and readily available

and it's ideal for the front of a border.

And very hardy. It comes up every year in my garden

-and that's a frost pocket.

-There you are.

Look at this narcissus.

The petticoat hoop daffodil,

and that again is from Spain, Portugal, and requires no attention.

So a little bit of weeding and that's it?

Bone meal round about it perhaps, to help it produce more flower bud,

-but you can't get any more than that, can you?

-It's lovely.

Little prunus, I'm not familiar with this one at all.

It's called the Dwarf Russian Cherry.

Prunus tenella.

It's been there for over 30 years and it's running,

and we don't really need to do much about it.

And produces these lovely pink shoots regularly every year.

So that would be quite a good one for a small garden,

even though it runs, it's quite short in height.

Well, if that's 30 years' growth, then you're all right.

No problem at all.

Carole, this is the rock garden and scree.

When we started to develop the garden,

we looked at the sort of natural situation

in the wild as to where alpines grow and the situation they were in

and it was a sunny exposure, which we've now produced

with these terraces.

And it's important to spend quite a bit of time the way you place the rocks?

They're much better when they're naturally in terraces

as opposed to the plum puddings of the ancient rock gardens.

And then we move into the scree.

Well, naturally, of course, the scree follows from the rock face

and we develop this fallen rock in the middle of it,

and chose the plants which are ideally suited for scree conditions.

And then we move into a completely different habitat.

Well, you're following the natural again,

from a scree into heathland.

The scree is really the fulcrum between the alkaline rock garden

and the acid heathland and behind it is the rhododendron garden.

Bob, this is a lovely part of the garden, the woodland,

and some lovely gems of plants.

It is my favourite part of the garden.

Now, I know you've been involved

with the Botanic Garden for a long time.

Can you tell us a little bit about the history?

It dates back to 1889, when the University laid out order beds

for teaching within the University.

They decided in 1960 to move the garden down to this site,

which was two greenfield sites.

And that's when you started to become involved?

I came in '62 and I was given the opportunity to develop the site.

-Well, it's absolutely wonderful.

-This is rhododendron davidsonianum,

from China, and it's a stunning plant.

Well, it's absolutely thriving

and we've even got the sunshine on it at the moment.

And it missed the frost last night!

Well, Bob, we're mainly undercover, but it's still quite cold in here,

because The Alpine House has to have good ventilation.

Yes, it does. Most of the plants in here are hardly outside.

And we've brought them in here because they don't get much blush.

Some don't like winter wet, and the public can come here

in the wet days to view some stunning alpines.

I really like this for ground cover, and those tiny little flowers!

Trifolium uniflorum, and you get it from coastal meadows right up to

the high mountains, in this lovely pink form,

and a white one too.

And this is an old, old plant, it's maybe 20-odd years old now.

Fritillarias, I mean they'll grow outside, won't they?

Oh, they will. And the yellow one you see here in fact

is growing outside, flowering outside at the moment, just behind me.

But again, there's no mud splash on it.

Now a plant that's really in tiptop condition is this cyclamen.

That's one of the parents of the cyclamen we buy at Christmas.

But this one needs alpine conditions,

because of the winter wet, it just does not stand it.

So it's in its right position here.

Now, we've really only touched on

a little bit of the Botanic Garden here,

there's lots more glasshouses, there's lots more environments.

We range from arctic right to tropical.

-We didn't do tropical today, did we?

-No, we needed to.

So, if you're visiting St Andrews,

come and see the Botanic Garden, it's well worth a visit.

Dahlia tubers, sprouting nicely in the propogating house.

If you fancy increasing your stock,

now's the time to take a few cuttings.

And this is what we're looking for, young shoot like that.

Take it off right at the base.

Remove the lower leaves. Aw, this is just in perfect nick.

And then gently...

trim the base. So that there's no...

Pop it into the hormone rooting powder.

Knock off the slack.

And then enter the compost.

Now, I've always used 50/50 peat and sand,

and I don't see any reason why I should change.

We often get asked questions about people worried about growth

and fungal diseases on their plants.

Well, if you've got something like this, let me reassure you.

This is nothing to worry about.

This is a lichen and it only grows where the air is really clean.

You know, this is one of my favourite spots,

the woodland garden, especially all these gems, the understorey.

Absolutely, they've been built up over the last wee while,

and they're beginning to show off.

They are and there's the lathrys

that I was speaking about at St Andrews Botanic Garden.

It's a good plant.

Some of them are quite tiny, there's a little primula down here,

"Victorian Lace", very subtle, but so beautiful.

Now we saved that from the trial of primulas the year before, didn't we?

-It's beautiful.

-You'd think someone finished off with a fine paintbrush,

all around the edge of it.

Mine is dentaria, there, that lovely lavendar shrub.

Sub-shrub, I suppose.

-They tell me they're calling it after a weed now.

-Is it cardamine?

Well, I thought so.

-They keep changing the names, don't they?

-Well, this is very true, yes.

Anyway, if you'd like more information

about this week's programme, it's all in the fact sheet.

You might want some information about Lesley's front garden.

And the easiest way to access that is online,

and then new to us this year,

you can follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

Next week, Carole and I are going to be very busy,

we're putting some climbers into the Seaside Garden

and I'm going to be pottering in the Potager.

And it depends on the weather...

..but I suppose I'll be gardening again. Till next week.

-OK, bye.

-Bye-bye.

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