Episode 9 The Beechgrove Garden

Hello there, and welcome to Beechgrove Garden.

By jingo, these carrots are coming away fine.

They were sown at the beginning of April,

and I rather envy them today because they've got a bit of a colour and it's a wee bit nippy.

It's been cold, it's been wet

and getting things done has been quite difficult.

I could do with a skateboard to get round all the different bits.

All I'm saying is that the tatties are in but you can't see anything yet.

They are keeping down out of the way of the frost and everything else.

We made a start in this plot here. We've got the onion sets going out under corn starch.

We use that to keep the weeds down so we don't need to go through them again.

It's devilish stuff to work with, to be honest.

It's very lightweight and it blows about

so you've got to dig it in all round the sides to keep it in place.

When you're finished with it, you just bundle it up and chuck it in the compost heap.

It is biodegradable, that's the whole point about it.

Here, I'm getting ready to plant the brassicas.

I've always been taught to do this by planting them in a v-shaped drill,

but you can see the ground behind me here is flattened.

We've had it covered with a tarpaulin

to keep the worst of the wet off it and to raise the temperature a little bit.

It needs a wee bit worked up, put on the fertiliser first,

and I'm getting ready to plant the first of the summer cabbages.

The variety is golden acre, which is quite a small cabbage.

We showed several years ago that if you actually plant them

close together, they will heart up more quickly

than if you give them more room.

Rows about 15 inches apart.

That would be 35 centimetres.

The plants are 30 centimetres apart. Really super plants.

Going in at the bottom of this.

You can see already that they are getting a bit of shelter from here,

but, in fact, by the end of the day, these plants will be covered

with a fleece like that, because they suffer from pigeon damage

very readily, and that would make a nice meal for the pigeons.

There we go. We made a start in the veg garden.

Now, in the rest of the programme...

I'm going to investigate the strange world of pretty ugly plants.

I'm in Portobello. Am I stumped or can I grind out a solution?

I want to take the opportunity of having a look at my seed trial.

This is all about seed and cutting compost,

and I was sowing marigolds and lettuce.

The whole idea is to look at some alternative composts,

ones that are low in peat or even peat-free.

Straight away, we've got to have the control.

It's a Levington compost we've used here,

and the results are rather interesting, because

what we've got is quite erratic germination.

The gardeners have been great here

because we've tabulated the germination,

the percentage of germination.

When it comes to the marigolds, we've got 73%,

but with the lettuce, only 40%.

I'm really disappointed with that one.

Moving on, this is quite exciting for us, because this is New Horizon,

and it's a peat-free seed and cutting compost.

It's come out top. We've got 93% germination with the marigolds

and 87% with the lettuce.

You can see it's really even.

The only thing is, when you compare it, the plants are a lot smaller.

What we've really got to do here is adjust the feeding regime.

Because that's come out top,

I think we should be trying this a bit more in the garden.

Then we move on to another peat-free. Not quite so good.

We're talking about 77% and 67.

77 for the marigolds and 67 for the lettuce.

John Innes, so that's really a soil-based one, with about 44%.

The good news was that did really well with the marigolds.

We're again up to 93%, but not quite so well with the lettuce.

Then, finally, the reclaimed peat. That was pretty average.

77% and 87%.

All in all, these four, pretty good,

and the control, really disappointing.

As I say, we will try this peat-free one more with other plants.

Also, we've got our foliage baskets.

We're going to do a trial this year with different types of foliage plants,

so we're going to be putting them in the border,

and plants that we can put in hanging baskets.

It's quite amazing, the range of plants that we've got,

and I just want to highlight a couple at the moment.

I'm going to start off with this one here, it's ipomoea, called blackie.

Interesting colour, beautiful-shaped leaves,

and in the catalogue it says that that really spreads and hangs over,

so we're going to have to come back in a few weeks' time.

Then this one. The little helichrysum.

Silver mist, tiny leaves, so I don't know that one either.

The great thing is, if you get them planted up now

and you hang them here for a couple of weeks, when we put them out,

they're going to look really established.

Then the trial in here,

we've gone Shirley mad with tomato plants,

because Jim is growing the variety Shirley with the growbags,

but here, I'm comparing grafted plants with non-grafted plants.

In other words, plants you can just grow from seed.

This is the first time we've had a chance to compare the same variety.

Grafted plants, they're a lot more expensive.

You're speaking about roughly £3 a plant as opposed to just over £1 a plant.

What they say about the grafted ones is they're more vigorous,

you're going to get more of a crop, they're going to crop earlier.

They're more resistant to pests and diseases,

and also fairly tolerant of nutritional disorders.

Only time will tell.

I'm in Edinburgh.

I'm actually in Portobello, and I'm down here to see Jacqui Ritchie

and her daughter, Rosa.

They want to grow vegetables in a little raised bed, but you know what?

You should see the mess the corner's in where we've got to do it.

So, an old lilac tree. You decided you didn't want it.

Of course, the problem with that is when you cut them down,

they all come from the base.

We hadn't realised that.

We thought by cutting it down it would kill it off, and it hasn't.

Then we started looking into how you get rid of them.

We just didn't really know where to start.

We would love it taken out so that we can use the land

-to plant vegetables.

-My dog's called Harry!

We'll cut it right down and we'll get the stump grinder in

and we'll grind the stump down as far as we can, and that should stop it.

We can put some fabric down underneath

to stop anything else coming up and then put the soil in.

What's your favourite vegetables?

-Lettuce.

-Lettuce, and? Anything else?

-Do you like carrots?

-Carrots.

-Carrots and?

-Peas.

-Peas. Now, will you help me?

-Broccoli.

-Broccoli! My goodness,

what a challenge you're setting me.

-Would you like me to sow those for you?

-Yeah.

-And will you help me?

-Yeah.

-Good girl.

-There's the main stem. Now, that's the bit you cut back, isn't it?

-Yeah.

It's just all grown from round about it.

That's what happens, because this thing has been grafted on

to a wild lilac, and it's also good at suckering.

It suckers all over the place and just grows away from that.

-That's a girl.

-It's a worm, Mummy!

-You show Mummy. There it is.

OK, Mr McGlashin. I think that's up to you now, that's a grinding job.

We can't get any more out, I don't think.

This is going to be a bit experimental.

So, a grinding machine, there you are.

There's the teeth on the grinder.

These are pretty heavy duty teeth, and the thing is, they're attached

to a motor that's going to be going round at a great number of revs.

Make sure that you wear goggles, make sure that you wear ear protectors,

because it's going to make a bit of noise.

-Quite a difference.

-Isn't it? Unbelievable.

-Is that all the way down to the bottom of that root?

-Yes.

That root's now completely and utterly gone

and it shouldn't come back, but in case,

what we'll do is we'll level this out.

Give it a good level and a tramp and rake it, then put a membrane on it.

Then we'll start making the beds. Then, madam can get our plants sown.

And again round this way. It's a job at the corners, isn't it?

Look at us, Mummy! We're doing this.

I actually can't believe it's all gone. I can't believe it.

And what a space it leaves.

I mean, it leaves a workable space now, whereas before it was just

this mound of vegetation, so we'll put some membrane down,

fabric down, to stop anything that wants to grow come up through it.

Is that a precise keel? THEY LAUGH

No scratching!

Just getting its eye in...

Just looking... "Oh, that looks like good for scratching in."

THEY LAUGH

I don't want the hens to scratch,

but you can't stop them.

When are we going to plant?

We are going to plant in about two minutes.

The seeds are right here.

Oh, they're right there? We'll need to see what we've got.

Can you remember what we've got?

Now, you'll need to find the carrots for me.

Find the carrots in there. Find the carrots.

They're quite munchy, aren't they? And crunchy. They're good.

-Do rabbits eat them?

-Yes.

So you'll need to keep the rabbits off.

Now, what we will do is we'll make some rows across the way

and then we'll sow them.

Mike has gone off to saw a board so we can measure.

Can you hear him?

So that we can measure the rows, and then we'll sow these seeds

and then we'll cover them up and one day they will all come through.

That'll be good fun, won't it?

So, Jacqui, there we are. What a difference, eh?!

A bit of an improvement, isn't it?

Isn't it just!

We've put the space to good use and it should be nice and dry.

You just need to stop the hens from scratching round about in.

The veg are all sown and planted.

Her majesty has been very good in doing that.

We've filled the whole thing with a good quality topsoil

and planter mix.

That'll be absolutely super. You'll not need to do anything to this, just water it,

put some fleece over it and that's it, job done.

-Thank you.

-You are welcome.

You've been a good help, haven't you?

Yep, not a cross word between us.

Oh, George, she was a lovely little gardener.

Wasn't she just? And she was just so special. Now, can you be special?

-I hope so.

-And can you also be quite discreet?

-Yes, indeed.

-Good.

-We're back in your polytunnel with your show vegetables.

-Yeah.

-You've got them covered in fleece.

Yes, this is the parsnips in here.

They'll need to be thinned, cos we want them down to one parsnip for each clump.

Cos you want the roots to be really, really long.

-And they'll go right to the bottom of that, I'm quite sure.

-And you would choose...?

-Keep the biggest seedling, Lesley, always keep the biggest one.

-Quite a decision...

-No, it's very important to keep the big one.

-Those are nice.

-These are good.

These are the little globe beet.

They'll get to about the size of a tennis ball. We want them all the same.

Some carrots, and then in the one at this end is long beet.

-You can thin these out as well.

-Okie-dokie.

If you can be trusted... Excuse me.

-Are you going to leave me in here...

-Yes, but...

-..to do the thinning?

Swear you're going to be good and not muck anything up, OK?

I've got a wee jobbie to do outside with Carole. See you in a minute.

-That sounds interesting!

-It does, doesn't it? What's this, then?

Well, the story is, we're going French bean mad this year.

-You've plenty here, haven't you?

-We have. We've got four varieties that we're trying.

We've got four varieties here outside, the same varieties

in the giant cloche, I like to call it, like a polytunnel but no doors,

and then you are going to take these varieties down to your allotment.

That will give them about a 120-mile separation.

We'll see what difference that makes.

Maybe slightly warmer in Edinburgh, longer light here in Aberdeenshire,

we will see whether that makes any difference.

I don't think it will, because, remember,

we grew the leeks last year and I was really impressed

the way you just sowed them direct from seed.

-I'm not competitive...

-You were cynical at the time.

I am going to take some seed down and sow some varieties, different varieties again.

OK, but we're also going to look at some sweetcorn.

Yes, so no chance of being idle, then, is there?

Oh, no, you've got to keep busy when you're retired, George.

What retiral? What retiral?!

This is the same sort of story as the French beans,

because you're going to be taking some sweetcorn down to the allotment.

We've got two varieties that we're growing here.

We've got Early Bird,

and we've also got Swift, and they're both super-sweet varieties.

-Are these short varieties?

-No, they should get to a decent size,

hence that we've got the windbreak.

Normally, we grow them undercover. I don't know how they're going to do.

The other allotment holders down where I am have grown them outside

and put little shelters round them, so they should be OK.

We can but try.

-The other thing is...

-Difference in size.

These are the plants that the gardeners have grown,

which are fantastic, aren't they?

-How much have they cost us?

-The wonderful thing is,

we had about 90% germination from the seed packet.

So from a cost point of view, round about six pence a plant.

-That's very good, isn't it?

-These are mail-order, they've been brought in.

The cost of those, 33 pence a plant.

Some of that is postage, of course, but even so...

I think it is still worth trying, isn't it? Because if you get a few cobs...

But these have got to make sure they grow, haven't they?

-They certainly do!

-We will see.

I've come to south-west Scotland, just outside Newton Stewart,

near the banks of the River Cree.

I'm here to learn about carnivorous plants from Alex Reynolds,

who grows them in his nursery called Pretty Ugly Plants.

Alex, if I was to name a carnivorous plant,

I would go for the Venus flytrap.

-I mean, that's the most popular, isn't it?

-I think you're right.

It conjures up everything that people think about

when they think about carnivorous plants.

It's unique, it has a unique shape,

it has a unique mechanism of catching the flies with its leaves that close,

but it's not the easiest to grow.

The most popular, but not the easiest to grow,

and that's why I've gone for this sarracenia,

the North American pitcher plant.

So, North America, presumably quite hardy?

Yes. East coast of America, north of Florida,

right the way up into the Canadian borders.

They are so attractive! I mean, you don't often see them in flower.

This is gorgeous. They're really orchid-like, aren't they?

Yes, when showtime comes along the flowers have normally gone,

unless you've grown them outside

where the flowers are going to be a bit later.

From a show point of view, they will have gone

and the pitchers will be at the forefront.

When flowering occurs, how mature do the plants need to be?

They mature at around three years, and that's when you start to see the flowers form.

They're here now to attract flies and to pollinate.

OK, so they attract it for the pollination,

but how does it actually work

with the feeding process of the plant into the pitcher?

As the pitchers mature, the pitcher secretes a nectar solution

around the lip of the pitcher plant.

-I can maybe see a slight glistening there.

-That's it.

That attracts the insects to it. It's sort of slightly narcotic.

They get drunk and they stumble into the pitcher.

It's a nice way to go, isn't it?

I mean, these are the older pitchers, presumably, looking in.

-That's really gruesome.

-That's last year's pitcher,

which will be taken off to allow the new ones to grow now.

As you can see, it's full to the top, and the plant is absorbing

all the nutrients it can from the carcasses.

So you just treat that like a herbaceous plant?

-You just cut that off?

-That's it, yes.

You'll cut those back, the new pitchers will come up.

-And do you supplement the feeding at all?

-Not at all.

They're a bog plant by definition.

They grow in soil that is constantly getting washed through,

constantly getting leeched.

They feed like any other plant, they photosynthesise -

there's green chlorophyll in the stems

and also in the leaves that they can produce from time to time.

They're not deformed pitchers, they are leaves.

They'll take what nutrients they can via the roots,

but they need to supplement their diet,

and that's where the insect-catching part comes in.

Look!

Well, Carole, these are divisions from last year of mature plants,

and like any other herbaceous perennial,

you can divide them vegetatively in the spring.

The sarracenias create a rhizome.

-That's a real fleshy root system, isn't it?

-That's right.

You can cut that into sections and create new plants.

But you can also sow from seed?

You can, once the flowers have set and been pollinated.

-I can take those and sow that seed.

-And this is the result?

This is the result, yes.

So, what kind of conditions do you need for sowing, them?

Typical seed sowing conditions - a bit of heat and some moisture.

This is slightly different. Do you know what you're going to get when you sow seeds?

I do with these because I set the flowers.

However, sarracenia are very promiscuous,

and you can find some wonderful hybrid seedlings being formed.

This is sarracenia purpurea,

which is the hardiest of the sarracenia family.

Although you do find it moreso in the states of the east coast of America,

this goes right the way up into Canada

and this crossed with the flava...

That's the yellow-flowered one?

The yellow-flowered one, yes, makes brilliant hybrids.

I'm really glad to hear you say this is one of the hardiest, though,

because we're growing this one at Beechgrove

and it's come through one winter and looking not too bad.

It's fully, fully hardy.

I mean, these things grow outside, we grow them in our canals here

and over the winter time, when these canals freeze,

you can pull the pots out of the ice,

put them back in again, and here we have them now with the growth.

Something we haven't mentioned is that

you're going to Gardening Scotland and it's your first time.

I'm assuming this is a bit of a mock-up for you?

It is. This is an island display,

and this is what I'm going to be doing at Gardening Scotland.

The display itself is going to show people

how they can either build or add planting to their bog garden.

You'll notice there's already familiar plants,

the gunnera, cotton grass,

iris is there as well.

It's just to show people how the sarracenia fit in

to the conditions that you've already got.

-So it's all about plant association?

-Yes.

I don't want to worry you, you've only got a week to go,

have you got enough plants?

-Fingers crossed!

-We'll see you there. Best of luck.

I love it when a trial goes wrong!

This is up in the trials border,

and this is where you had your heucheras, isn't it?

I did, and we still have some left.

-They've not all died, but quite a few have.

-What's done well?

This is green spice, with that pretty marbling, it's fine.

Marmalade's OK with that nice red round its head.

We were looking at purple ones, greeny ones and orange ones.

One or two in here,

that lime marmalade is an absolutely splendid plant when in full flight,

but there's been something wrong there, hasn't there?

Things have not gone as well as you wanted.

Quite a few of the purple ones have died.

What I was maybe expecting was them to slightly lift up,

there's times you have to replant a heuchera, but these are not happy.

Something else happened. You're lifting up and replanting,

that happens after two or three years often, but see what we've got here?

I found this earlier. See? There we are.

There's a cutworm - that's a moth larvae.

I also found earlier, although it has disappeared, was vine weevil.

Typical! That's what we would expect to find in an organic soil

and in a fibrous rooted plant, so they've been jiggering the roots.

Eats the roots, and you pick this up and it becomes more like a wig.

It does a wee bit, doesn't it?

In other parts of the garden, they're fine.

What we are replacing those with are a whole range of sedums.

We have got sedum spectablie

and we've got sedum telephium.

-Telephium is the one with the purply leaves...

-Oh, we like that!

..which will suit you, won't it?

And then we've got purple flowers in the autumn,

great for the butterflies.

We've got them all together here and we'll be able to compare them,

and this should do well enough in that soil.

This is what I wanted to have a look at,

because I wanted to do a little instant gardening.

We're always telling people to be patient,

but if you've got a new house, a new back garden

and it's really flat, this is getting you instant height.

And you can also use annuals on this, you were saying?

That's right - a whole range of annual climbers growing up wigwams.

These have all been painted, so as soon as we put them up, they're really good colour straight away.

These are awfully even.

This is my nifty thing. I've just got a cane like this with string, and then just make a hole,

put the cane in there, make a hole, so you get a really good circle.

-Cunning, eh?

-These have been started off in the greenhouse.

This is canary creeper. Lots and lots of bright yellow flowers,

which I think is going to look fantastic against the blue wigwam.

-Beautiful with blue, really is.

-This is an ipomoea.

That's morning glory, and, normally, it's blue,

but this one is Spanish flag,

so it's the yellow one with little red edges.

Almost looks like a runner bean, that thing, when you see it, too?

-It'll be nice with the colour there.

-It'll be superb.

And the foliage is wonderfully layered, so can see

right through it and you can see the flowers, presents very well.

And it turns purple in the autumn as well, so that's really good.

And the other one we've got is hazelwood blues.

That's more of a typical ipomoea colour,

shades of blues and whites and purples against the purple wigwam.

The last one is rhodochiton, or the purple bell vine.

We're growing that up the pink,

which will be a really nice contrast, won't it?

It's going to look just fantastic.

Another plant that we are going to try and grow in the Keder is okra.

I've tried to grow this before and it has given us a few problems.

You can see at the moment, there's quite a few yellow leaves.

As far as I'm concerned, this is a sign of temperature.

What we're going to have to do, I think, is put them back into the propagation house

and give them a bit of warmth, a bit of boost,

and then hopefully at the end of the day,

we will get some of those lady's fingers.

By now, the peach flowers have set fruit.

The fruits are swelling and it's time to thin them out.

We can thin them out by taking the smallest fruits off.

What we want to end up with is one fruit

about a hand span apart from the next one.

This is the time when we're shaping up our bedding plants.

Just take the top off that one, because it was getting tall and I want a bushy plant.

Here's another one racing away.

Just taking that top bit of growth out...

These little side shoots and the one below

will now actually burgeon out.

The other reason I think you can be doing it,

here we've got a little dahlia,

and as long as it's putting its strength into that flower,

it's not going to produce a bigger plant.

It is a handsome plant as it is, but at the moment,

that flower's not doing a lot, so I just take it out, side shoots come,

and we'll get more flowers later on.

I'm often asked, should you continue with bird feeding throughout the summer?

The answer is yes.

Seeds like this will be a vital food supply for parents,

particularly when they've got eggs and chicks in their nests.

Also, peanuts are very good,

providing that you have them in a mesh feeder like this

so the parents only peck out small bits.

One of the rough areas which we don't normally see, isn't it?

Full of wild flowers, but also,

there's one or two of your thugs coming through, Lesley,

one or two of the brambles.

And the rosebay willow. I would be inclined to deal with those.

I think you could spot treat these and plant it with something else

so that it takes over that space and just doesn't let anything else go.

It needs a bit more thought to it, doesn't it?

We've quite an area here and we could come up with a plan.

I'd like to see us try naturalising some bulbous species.

Oh, fritillarias!

And then on top of that, how do you manage it?

When you cut it or do you cut it, etc?

-We have got to come back to this.

-We should.

And, complete change of direction, it's Gardening Scotland next week.

It is, as a matter of fact, and what better way to celebrate

the Queen's Diamond Jubilee than to go to an absolute jewel of a show?

I hope we can see you there.

The show starts on Friday 1st,

and then it's open right through the weekend, the 2nd and 3rd.

Of course, the place to find it, just outside Edinburgh,

It is Ingliston, the Royal Highland Showground.

And, as always, there will be the magnificent Floral Hall

with over 150 exhibitors,

some of them hotfoot from Chelsea, brandishing their gold medals.

But as ever, Beechgrove will be concentrating on Scottish talent, Scottish plants.

And there'll be inspirational show gardens -

these wonderful large gardens outside,

if you've got lots of money to spend.

If you don't have much, have a look at the pallet gardens.

Absolutely.

We'll be there, we'll be hoping to give you a flavour of it,

but better than that, get yourself there.

And, of course, all the information will be in the fact sheet.

Anything about this week's program will also be in the fact sheet,

and the easiest way to access that is online.

Don't forget as well, new to us, Jim, that Twitter and Facebook!

OK, next Friday, 8:30pm, BBC Two.

We'll see you there, if not at the show.

-Goodbye.

-Goodbye.

-Bye.

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