Episode 10 The Beechgrove Garden

Well, hello, and welcome to the Beechgrove Garden.

Flaming June? Not quite.

At least I've got my jacket off and my sleeves rolled up,

but it's a still a nip in the air.

I'm busy here working on the soil because it's so claggy.

In recent days, we've had a lot of rain, a bit of snow,

some hailstones, and it gets so compacted.

Would you believe that these plots have been larded with stuff for the last 10, 12 years,

and it's still claggy on the surface.

Busy, of course, at the present time, earthing up our early potatoes.

There'll be some people getting ready to pick theirs,

in parts of the country!

But anyway, we grow them on ridges, like so.

And I'm conscious that there are often new gardeners joining the viewers,

and they wonder, "Why?" It's quite simple.

As I draw these rows up like this, I'm setting up that face to the sun,

and as it tracks around the sky, it gets to the other side,

so it warms the soil up. These are South American plants!

They need a bit of heat to grow.

So, we earth them up, and in the process, look, I'm killing weeds.

That's why tatties are often called a "cleaning crop".

It's only if you do this regularly. And then finally, of course,

it makes the harvesting an absolute doddle.

They're all in that ridge and they're easily forked out,

hence we do look after our potatoes.

If this weather continues and it gets a bit warmer,

I might just get to thinning the carrots, there,

under the fleece to protect them from the carrot fly.

Although the first generation are gone.

We'll keep it there because the weather's no' great.

And, hopefully, we'll be able to get the runner beans planted as well,

along the back of the plot.

They're ready to go in and they'll go like the clappers,

as long as we get some heat!

Now then, in the rest of the programme...

This week, I'm at the Royal Botanical Garden, Edinburgh.

Not to admire this beautiful blossom,

but to take a look at a state-of-the-art, brand-new Alpine house.

And if you want a man to do the job properly,

you've got to give him the right tools!

Not sure whether it will help with my problem corner - we'll see.

Well, it's great to be cropping some lettuce.

This is Jim's hot bed, and it's done really, really well.

You can see the lettuce have matured,

and yes, I'm picking quite a few.

It's very similar, actually, with this bed. They seem to have caught up with one-another.

I think this is quite an interesting story,

because I'm actually going to be doing

some successional sowing of salad lettuce,

and just look at the size of them!

They were sown at exactly the same time,

and this just shows that when you harden off your plants,

well, they get a real check, and they stop growing.

So, these ones, as I say,

were sown exactly the same as Jim's plants in the hot bed.

So, those were sown back in March. Then we move on three weeks later.

Those, again, were sown in the greenhouse and then planted out. That's into April.

Then we move into May. These were sown direct,

and you can just start to see those little seedlings coming through.

These are outside. I've also got a little comparison to...

It's like a giant cloche, it's our poly-tunnel with no doors on it.

And when you take a look, I reckon there's very little difference

between the ones under cover and outside.

And again, I just think that's the weather conditions.

If anything, the second batch is maybe slightly ahead of the ones outside.

So, every three weeks, we are doing this sowing

and it's all about sowing little and often

to make sure that we have a crop right through the season.

The good news is, it's also a cost-saving exercise.

I'm still on my first packet of seeds and it is our fourth sowing.

And I reckon, well we're probably - right through the season -

are going to get about eight, nine, ten sowings of this.

And I'm really hoping that within a couple of weeks' time,

we are going to start cropping.

It's time to have a wee look around our fruit house, and at the moment,

I'm tidying up the strawberries, taking off the dead leaves.

We don't have any ripe fruit yet, but they're coming.

And we can sort of smack our lips and hope for the best.

Up above us here, we've got peaches,

and we've got a lovely crop in prospect,

but where there's two, take one away, just leave one.

Where's there's two, take one away and leave one.

And we might even come back and do another thinning.

You don't want to be too greedy if you want to get decent sized fruits.

They're looking fine, and you'll notice this peach has actually been tied back to a wire mesh.

That's one of the problems with the fig,

which George has been battling with.

Last time, we've seen him tying these up with bits of string.

That's just to get the plant to take up a nice shape here.

Look how it's developing.

We've got some - these are the older crop that might just about make it in the late summer -

and this is the new crop that we'll get well into the autumn,

with a bit of luck.

Now, round the other side, the vine. Suddenly it's burst.

Suddenly it's going like the clappers.

And the job at the moment, of course,

is to reduce the number of shoots on any one spur to one.

It's a bit like cording tomatoes, cording fruit trees,

cording sweet peas, and so on.

You want all the energy to develop into here,

and that's where we'll get all the flowers,

and you get better bunches if you reduce the competition.

So, where you've got more than one shoot at a spur,

keep the best one, and take the others off.

And then just a little ogle at our cherries.

Er, there's a point here, though. They're looking good.

If they were outside, all the old petals and everything

would get blown away by the wind,

so it doesn't do any harm to just get that off.

Dead foliage, accumulated like that,

if we've got a bit of a dull period, could cause botrytis.

Shake that off and get them clean.

But what a taste there is in these! I'm salivating already.

Isn't that an amazing glass house?

You know, gardening isn't just about the plants.

It's about the structures as well.

I'm about to meet Alpine supervisor, John Mitchell,

and he's involved in a brand-new project.

Well, what a great day to come round the garden.

It's lovely, Carole, yes.

Here we are at the Alpine frames,

and what we're doing here is showing the public

a different range of Alpine plants which can be grown.

We have saxifrages, we have plants from New Zealand,

and it just shows the public a different range of plants.

They don't like the winter wet, do they?

No, they can withstand summer wet, but in the winter time,

we put lights on top of them and that protects them from the winter wet.

Now, this is your typical, traditional Alpine house, isn't it?

We've been growing plants like this for the last hundred years.

Botanists like George Forest, who worked at the garden, was sent to China to bring plant material back.

All the Alpine plants that he brought back were put into clay pots,

and plunged in sand.

Good drainage, very good ventilation - that's important.

And this side are the specialist plants, the cushion plants.

This side is permanent, all year round.

This side is the tip of the iceberg.

When the plants are in flower,

we move them from the back into this section here

so the public can see different plants.

Now I have to mention the trillium -

this double-flowered trillium - it's beautiful!

It's gorgeous, isn't it? Other plants which are quite nice are some of the irises.

Iris camellia, and also iris acutiloba,

subspecies lineolata, from Iran.

I'm glad you said that! What a mouthful!

-Anyway, this is a bit of the past - take me to the future.

-Certainly.

Before we go to the future, this is our trough garden.

This is a good way of growing Alpine plants.

If you have the same soil type and drainage,

and gravel round the top, you can grow Alpines anywhere.

-And you don't need a huge space, do you?

-No, just a trough.

The best way to do it is to take some slabs out and then plant round about

-so it makes it look more naturalistic.

-Lovely idea.

-So, here it is.

-That is amazing-looking!

A beautiful looking structure. It looks like a wing, doesn't it?

It's ideal for growing Alpine plants. What we're trying to achieve is...

Cushion plants like protection from the winter,

so the top is like a giant cloche. It acts as our snow cover.

We then have the stainless steel mesh

which allows as much air movement as possible.

And when it rains we collect the water from the roof

and we use it to recycle to water the plants.

-So it's very much a 21st century structure, isn't it?

-Yes.

This is the first botanical garden to have a whole house dedicated to tufa,

and that itself is a type of limestone which is laid down by mineral springs.

And this is its raw state, but most people know it

as limestone for showers and bathrooms and for cladding buildings.

-It's been quarried, then?

-Yes, this came all the way from Bavaria.

What we've tried to do is cut the back of the tufa,

to make it flat against the wall. We've got sand and clay granules behind to hold the moisture.

We've also got a drip irrigation system at the top which keeps the sand moist.

That's very clever, so the watering's from behind.

Now look, I am struggling a little bit. These plants are really tiny!

The plants are very small,

but these plants will establish far better when they're smaller.

With a small hole, you have to go for a small plant!

-OK, but in a few years' time?

-This is like a living wall.

This will change over the next five years. These plants will colonise the tufa,

and here we have Dionysius from Afghanistan,

we have corallodiscus and primulas.

It's amazing-looking and it will be looking absolutely stunning, but show us how it's done.

OK, before we do that, Carole, I just want to mention this part here. We're going to put in a crevice garden.

And on top of that will be an Alpine meadow.

-When are you doing that?

-That will hopefully be late summer time.

Also on this side, we're going to plant up with plants

that can withstand the wet weather, so more saxifrages.

-I've got to use my imagination a bit!

-Yes!

So, here we're going to show you how to plant up a tufa,

and here's one that we put in earlier.

So, what I'm going to do is... Here we have Daphne arbuscula.

-I'm going to wash all the soil off the roots.

-And it's in flower!

And it's in flower, yes!

I'm then going to put some soil into the hole.

-So, what we're...

-I like this tool - a little pipe!

A little plastic pipe.

We've filled the hole with soil.

I'm going to give it a little bit of water.

We then make a hole so we can get the roots right against the tufa.

We then plant... Try and get all the roots down as far as we can.

-With a pair of tweezers?

-Pair of tweezers!

-And you want it, sort of, hanging over the edge.

-OK.

We then have some more soil.

And you can use your finger to get it quite tight.

So, you don't want too many, sort of, air pockets?

No, the idea is to get all the soil round the roots.

Will those roots go into the tufa?

They'll go into the soil first,

and then once it establishes itself, it will go into the tufa.

So, now we've got the soil all round the plant,

I'm going to give it a slight water

just to make sure there's no more air pockets.

-It's fascinating.

-Perfect. And now I'm going to get some clay.

And what we do now, we make this into a small ball,

and then we place it round the neck of the plant.

So that acts like a bit of a mulch, does it?

It stops the plant drying out and it keeps the moisture in the soil.

And then just to finish off, we just take a little bit of tufa

and stick it in the hole, and it takes away the harshness.

And then just a wee water just to take the soil away.

You know, John, that's absolutely brilliant.

-How many more have you got to plant?

-300!

-That'll keep you busy.

-I think I should come back in about five years' time.

-I think so.

-Thank you.

-You're welcome.

Well, I'm really pleased that our decking garden is looking quite productive now

and I'm just putting in four courgette plants.

They're nice and compact so they're ideal for the patio situation.

I've got two which are a green variety called Alexander,

and then this is a new one called Gold Star.

As I say, they are compact plants so they should be fine in this trough.

Although I've got the cloches on hand because if it gets cold, we need to protect them.

We have got so much lettuce this year!

More about successional sowing.

This is a little Cos lettuce called Dazzle,

and at the youngest stage, it's still fairly green.

But look, because as it starts to mature,

it's a real sort of beetroot colour.

I think that's absolutely fantastic.

We've got a few varieties here of radish, and one that's slightly different -

a variety called Munchen Bier -

and you don't eat the roots, it's actually the seed pods.

So, that'll be interesting to taste later on.

Our little carrots - these little, round carrots growing in the window boxes - they're doing quite well.

I did have slight concern about the drainage,

so I've actually put them on bricks.

And our tatties - looking really healthy.

Now I know Jim was earthing up the tatties in the main plot.

Here, what we have to do is get a bit more compost,

and start to cover up the foliage,

and in about 12 weeks time,

I reckon we'll be having a look to see if we've got a harvest.

Now around at the front, here with the raised beds,

I'm still going edible, but it's going to be ornamental.

-And here, I think it's going to look really colourful, don't you, Carolyn?

-It's lovely.

You've got nice little clumps of different things.

You've got some plants that we've grown on in cells -

things like calendula with orange and yellow flowers. Nasturtiums, which are gorgeous.

-They have a peppery taste.

-They do!

They are hardy annuals, so we could have done direct sowing,

but very often we like to get slightly ahead of the time.

But you're doing some direct sowing of some of the hardy, annual herbs.

I've got some cumin, with beautiful, white flowers.

We've laid out the areas with sand

so we can see where we're going to plant or sow.

And I've made little drills - about 15cm apart -

and then I'll just sow the seeds nice and thinly into there and then cover them up.

-And then we've got a different angle this way?

-Yeah.

So that it means, eventually, it won't look too formal.

And if you do this, then you can see where the actual seedlings are, and you can weed in-between.

A thing that's in a row is not going to be a weed!

So it makes it a wee bit easier.

Yeah, what else have we got? Some borage,

and it's quite interesting that the white borage didn't germinate.

-Normally, that germinates easily.

-I know!

-We'll try that one again.

-We'll direct-sow that.

-I think it will look colourful, but tasty as well.

-It'll be gorgeous!

But we can't eat your border!

A wee while ago, Lynn did a lovely arrangement for our 35th anniversary,

so I thought we'd take that a step further,

so I'll do a bedding plant display with the same theme.

OK, so the colours, for our 35th anniversary,

are coral, emerald and jade.

I've included all that, and it's nice to have a real theme,

because otherwise you get a bit carried away and all the colours come in.

It's quite unusual, but I think it's fantastic!

Well what I've tried to do is make it quite contemporary,

so block planting unusual plants you might not have seen before.

I've never seen this one - this foliage plant - what's that?

That's duranta, so basically, it does what it's doing, but it gets bigger.

-Half-hardy?

-Yeah.

-I think you could take cuttings, though.

-I'm sure you will!

-Over the winter time!

-And this coleus?

-There's some gorgeous, new varieties of coleus.

This one, with this sort of crinkly leaf, this is papaya,

and the one across there is raspberry, so unusual.

OK, added in a bit of raspberry,

but coral, the geranium definitely is coral colour.

It's a hard colour, because it's not pink and it's not orange - it's in the middle, so geraniums.

Beside that, some little dianthus Oscar.

That's got the bonus of being really scented, it's beautiful. And that glaucous, jade leaf.

And then at this side for colour, I've got some petunia.

-It's an upright, pot-growing one.

-And the variety?

-Potunia. And it's papaya!

-All the Ps!

Keep dead-heading it.

And then you've added a hint of white.

It's quite nice just to give it a bit of a lift,

so at the back, some iberis.

And these small, midi-sized dahlias - look at the flowers on them!

They're well on already, aren't they?

And then you've got the number one bedding plant, the begonia.

Well, do you know, in Scotland it's going to rain at some point,

so begonia semperflorens with a green leaf,

-and this is lovely, with a dark leaf.

-Yes, I like that combination.

A spider plant?!

Well, there's no reason why they won't grow outside in summer.

-Stick it in the bathroom in the winter.

-It's different.

And this little thing in the corner, this is sagina lime moss.

So, little limey coloured foliage and teeny tiny white flowers.

-It's beautiful.

-It's nice, isn't it?

-And then some hanging baskets.

I've got two planted up there already and I've got two more to do,

so I'm going to add in some slow-release fertiliser,

just to make sure that everything is nice and fed.

That's controlled, isn't it, by temperature? It gradually releases.

Yes, and because, you never know,

we might get a hot, sunny summer, some water-retaining granules.

Well, you can't go wrong with this plant for our theme, can you?

No, this is dichondra Emerald Falls.

-I think I prefer the silver one, but you know, it's got the name, so we've got to use it.

-It has.

It's perfect for this theme.

-What else? How about this one? That's got the coral.

-Diascia.

That's going to have a nice coral flower and just flop over the edge.

-Lapita, that's got a nice perfume.

-Yes.

-And it's got the jade, glaucous-coloured leaf.

-That has a big, long trail as well.

-There's so many colours of green.

I know, I know. And what else have we got here?

A little white bacopa, just to give a hint of white.

-That'll be a little bit of a highlight, won't it?

-It'll just trail over the side.

And I've got another one of these potunias to sit in the centre.

A real ray of sunshine, I think.

I think that'll look nice all summer long.

One of the bonuses of my job

is that I get to visit some absolutely lovely places,

and I'm in the wee Perthshire town of Comrie.

It's a great delight.

I've come to the school to meet some young gardeners

and help them with a problem.

The school's newly-refurbished quiet garden

is a project tended to by Primary 5s,

and they make up the gardening group who meet once a week.

Well then, troops, it's nice to be back here.

Explain to me why we're here and what we're going to do.

-Sam.

-We're going to be trying to get rid of our creeping buttercup.

OK. You could go to the garden centre,

get a little sachet of chemicals,

put it in a watering can, stir it up and pour it over the leaves and it will kill it - why not?

-We don't want to do it because we're an eco-school.

-I like that.

You are an eco-school and you've got a very good reputation - you don't want to spoil it.

As long as you accept that it's a lot more hard work,

because we have to dig them out.

In that border there, the creeping buttercup is a weed.

What is a weed?

-A plant in the wrong place.

-A plant in the wrong place - absolutely right.

Because for some people, they might love to have a border of creeping buttercup.

I don't know why, but they might.

You don't want to have it, so it's in the wrong place.

We've got to get rid of it, but there are other weeds in the border.

See the little white-flowered one? Can anybody tell me what that one is?

-Is it hairy bitter...

-Cress.

Well done, yes. Hairy bittercress.

Now, it's flowering at the moment, so what happens after it flowers?

It spreads its seeds.

And what are they going to do?

They're going to grow and make an even bigger mess, aren't they?

So, how would you get rid of it?

-Dig it out?

-Dig it out.

There's an old saying that says,

"One year's seeds is seven years' weeds,"

so it pays not to allow these annuals to flower.

You have a difficult job to do, ladies and gentlemen.

We're going to clear this border, but first of all,

we'll take out the plants that are going to be kept.

-Should we get started?

-Yes!

Do we know what this one is, here? It's what's known as groundsel.

-What are these?

-Um, buds. Flowers.

Yes, and so what do you do with this kind?

Don't let them spread.

Compost heap.

-Now, this is the one we were talking about earlier.

-Hairy bittercress.

This is the one, and it is very prolific.

-That goes in the compost heap.

-Why's it called hairy bittercress?

Don't ask silly questions. I don't know the answer.

They're all silly if I don't know the answer.

Here's another one,

and it's called shepherd's purse, and do you know why?

When the flowers fade,

the little seed pocket is slightly heart-shaped

and it looks like a purse.

-What's this chap?

-Sticky Willie.

Sticky Willie. How did it get that name?

Because it's sticky?

The seeds, again. How does it spread?

The seeds attach themselves to your socks or your trousers,

to a sheep's wool, and it gets spread all over the place.

In the garden, Sticky Willie - or cleavers, as it's known -

is going out.

Look for the heart of a plant.

Just look for how the leaves are spread

and there'll be a fresh, young leaf in the middle.

Right. Get your weapons and let me see you do it.

Let's have a wee wander and see what else you've got.

Jenna, my eye was drawn to this comfrey. Tell me about it.

It was on the roadside to Cultybraggan, and Isabelle,

the person who comes to help us garden every Monday,

she cuts it off and brings it to the school.

And what are we going to do with it, Sam?

-We're going to put it in our comfrey bucket, here.

-What happens?

It breaks the comfrey down

and turns it into this lovely, organic comfrey plant food.

You reckon it works?

-Yep.

-Good stuff.

-We've seen it in action.

-Elaine, you are in charge of P5, are you?

-That's right, yes.

You happen to be quite keen on the garden yourself, I believe?

Yes, I'm learning a few tricks as we go along too.

Tell me, is it true that these P5 youngsters

get a complete year in the garden?

They start at the beginning of Primary 5

and they get to see the gardening calendar throughout the year

and watch the plants grow from seeds right through to harvest, which is wonderful.

That's quite a commitment, and you're to be congratulated on that,

because you can see the results of it all around.

Good luck to you, keep up the good work. Thank you.

We've picked out a couple of the plants that have been dug out of the border,

and when the border's nice and clean they can go back in again,

so what do we do with them in the meantime?

-Plant them?

-Put them in these pots.

So what I want you to do is put some compost in the bottom.

What you want to do is stand the plant in.

This one is about the right height.

OK? You can now take some soil...

and percolate it down the sides.

-Good.

-All done.

Now, that's too low. You see, if you filled the soil up,

it would be up over the stems, so take it out and put in more soil.

Take your time, take your time.

Treat it like a baby.

Alice, you've got compost in your hair!

SHE LAUGHS

Now then, guys. I think you have done a fantastic job.

What a difference you've made to this bit of border here.

Clean as a whistle, all that dreaded buttercup has gone.

I want you to keep it like that.

And if anything pops its head up, do you know what to do with it?

ALL: Dig it up!

I think you've got the message.

But what's going to happen when you all swan off

for your six or eight weeks' holiday?

-Do you think the plants will stop growing?

-No.

So, what I'm suggesting is you get some black polythene,

or even an old carpet or something like that,

and lay it over the surface so that nothing will grow

because it will blank out the light. It'll smother them.

When you come back, beautifully tanned from your holiday in Tenerife or wherever you go,

strip all that away and have a look at it and I bet it's just lovely.

And if you're confident

that there's no more of that awful weed comes through,

then the plants that have been sitting in pots

can go back in again.

Well done, Comrie Primary School.

-Three cheers. Hip-hip...

-Hooray!

-Hip-hip...

-Hooray!

-Hip-hip...

-Hooray!

These Portuguese laurel are a fantastic feature,

but they're getting a bit shaggy and scruffy

so now's the perfect time to give them a trim.

So all you need to do is take a pair of secateurs, not hedge trimmers,

otherwise you'll cut the leaves in half and damage them.

A pair of secateurs, and just cut above a leaf node

to keep it nice and tidy, and work your way around like that.

Then, give them a top dress with a high nitrogen fertiliser

to keep the leaves glossy and green.

Well, one of my favourite cut flowers is the sweet pea,

and in this part of the garden, we grow them as single stem cordons.

That makes for lovely, long stems

and great bunches of flowers at the top.

But we've got to train them, so first and foremost,

we pick the strongest shoot - that's patently the strongest shoot here,

there are some subsidiaries down there we don't want -

and we tie it to the cane

using a piece of wire, like so.

Sweet pea rings, they're called.

There we go, round there,

and it'll slide down as far as the nearest joint.

Then the next one will go up there.

I think this is a superb plant -

it's a polygala chamaebuxus grandiflora,

but a new variety called Purple Passion.

We have got the species already growing in the garden,

and it really spreads and it flowers for months.

It doesn't mind a little bit of shade

and it doesn't mind if it's slightly dry.

So hopefully I've found the perfect place for it

underneath this conifer.

Now then, Miss Baxter, here we are, all hugging our favourite marrows.

Recap - what's it all about?

I suppose I am responsible for this -

a little bit of a competition.

The five of us have now picked our two marrows

-out of, what, five plants that we grew.

-Yep.

One of them is going to go into the border,

the other one into a whisky barrel. Do you like that?

-Mm-hmm.

-And I've already got my secret ingredient,

which is not a secret any more.

-No!

-The neighbour's horse manure.

The rules are all over the place.

Madam, here, is responsible for all of them.

-So, it's all about money!

-Yes, and you need to whisper in my ear.

Oh, yes, yes. Anyway, what are we doing next week?

Next week, Chris is back in the garden with us and he's in amongst the herbaceous.

-What about you, Jim?

-I'm starting working in the compost heap

because it's beginning to build up now so it's time we did some of that.

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

it's all in the fact sheet.

The easiest way to access that is online.

And of course, you can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

That's all till next week. Bye-bye.

Goodbye!

Grow, grow!