Episode 4 The Beechgrove Garden

Hello and welcome to Beechgrove Garden.

I'm in the fruit house. Isn't that peach blossom stunning?

The bees are a-buzzing, so we can look forward to a decent crop.

But all is not well with our peach tree. The variety is Peregrine, by the way.

We're cutting out quite a lot of dead wood

and here's one of the last ones to go.

Absolutely dead.

The problem is over the last year or two

it's been in decline this plant. It's about 15 to 20 years old, of course.

And it's been cropping regularly since way back when.

But in recent times we've had red spider mite, which has been obdurate. We can't get rid of it.

And secondly we've got scale.

Scale is insidious. We don't see it, but it's sucking the energy out of the plant.

So we've got to the stage where there's a lot of dead, all down there on the floor.

But there's a cracking crop in prospect

because isn't that blossom gorgeous?

To my mind, I've got this to argue with my colleagues just yet.

But to my mind, we take the crop and by that time we decide, we move it, take it out, start all over again

and do something else with this piece of the greenhouse.

We will see in due course.

I'm going to win the argument about keeping it.

We don't want to be a year without peaches cos they're lovely.

And on the other side, incidentally, we've got a wonderful cherry,

just coming into blossom now.

And that, since it was planted four or five years ago,

has been cropping regularly.

And that's a very good link because I want to take us now

up into the fruit cage.

The fruit cage has quite a range of soft fruits and top fruits in it.

I want to draw your attention to one or two elements of it.

Here we have a gooseberry, but it's trained as a fan.

And the big benefit of that is

you don't get your fingers all scratched when you're picking the fruit.

But there is a bit of pruning to be done

and at this time of year, when most of the frosts have gone,

we can take these young shoots back,

oh, to about there,

because it's in the bottom part of that branch

that next year's fruit buds and it will force the fruit buds out here.

And a similar attitude can be taken

with redcurrants.

Because here we see a range of redcurrants

grown as upright cordons.

Look at that. They're quite close together.

So in a small garden you can accommodate quite a range of soft fruits.

They're really nice columnar in shape

and they can become a landscape feature within the garden.

Across the other side here, plum trees.

Now it is said, every time you pick up a text book,

it says, "Don't prune them in the winter."

The reason being that they are prone to two really deadly diseases.

Bacterial canker and silver leaf.

And if you cut branches in the winter,

these cuts will remain bare and unhealed,

and that's how the fungus gets in.

Or the bacteria can get in.

But you come to this time of the year,

about flowering time, a wee bit late of course, this time,

you can start to shape up the bush if you want to.

And the crucial thing for these is to keep a nice open centre.

So like George was doing with his clippers last week,

I am going to suggest that we could take that one out there,

if I can get at it.

And...it opens it up.

The other problem with plums in particular

people have these great long bare shoots that go on and on and on.

And they're not inclined to produce fruit bud at all because they're too long.

So you do need to look for the opportunity.

And this is a job that's best done in the summer.

That is to cut them back. Because the act of doing that

will cause them to break below. You get small branches there and a better balanced bush.

I've a sad story to tell, however, round the back here.

It's taking up the point about the peach tree in the glass house.

This is a Doyenne du Comice espalier pear.

It really isn't looking very well at all.

Lots of the spurs are broken

and they're rotting.

I don't think there's much life in this thing.

But look, I'll do the test.

It is green.

But it's very dry, you know?

So I'm going to leave it till it leafs out

and if it's pretty sparse, I think this one's finished.

We'll dig it up and start all over again.

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

What a place for a day out!

Szechuan Province? No, Castle Stirling!

Isn't that a lovely view behind me?

You can still see the snow on the mountains.

I'm in the Highlands this week

and I'm helping a viewer with her productive garden.

This is our decking garden and it's all about growing plants in pots.

And in particular productive plants.

This year we're always thinking about ringing the changes

and so in the beds behind me, I'm going to grow a range of annual herbs

and some edible flowers.

So it's going to look really, really attractive.

We're lucky because we've got the greenhouses, so we like to stay slightly ahead of the game.

Already we've sown a few things.

The date on these, just the end of February

so they've had a few weeks.

But actually I've taken these out of the cold frames

and they're going to go back there.

We need to harden them off so in a couple of weeks' time

we can plant them out.

And this is our range of annual herbs.

We've got some parsley, a couple of varieties of rocket

and the one at the back maybe looks like parsley, but that's actually chervil.

When it comes to the edible flowers,

we'll have things like pot marigolds, nasturtiums, borage.

So lovely colours.

But I'm delighted to say it is warm enough

and we can plant our potatoes.

This year - I'm always looking for different varieties -

I've got a couple of varieties here that are described as mini tubers.

The claim is that they're a bit like salad potatoes, baby salad potatoes,

but I should be able to produce twice as many as the crop.

Normally, I put three tubers in a pot.

I'm going to do that, but I'm also going to try four as well.

So we will see if we get 25% more potatoes

or is there too much competition.

So in the pot itself, a bit of gravel.

Then a little bit of compost.

And then on top of that I can put three of the tubers

which have already been chitted.

And then on top of the tubers themselves

another layer of compost

and then as they start to sprout

you gradually earth them up.

So, of course, it'll be 12 to 14 weeks before we see the results.

Well, the main course on my menu today is rhododendron.

But first, let's establish where I am.

Stirling Castle five miles that way,

Loch Lomond about 15 miles that way.

I'm at Gargunnock House.

Before we get to the rhododendrons, I'm going to meet head gardener Willie Campbell

to talk about these magnificent trees that I'm surrounded by.

Hello, Willie. How are you?

-Jim. Welcome.

-Good to see you. You're admiring one of your trees.

-They're stunning.

-Yes, Sequoiadendron.

-Probably one of the first introductions.

-Planted when?

-About 1865.

-Quite a feature as we enter here.

-They certainly are.

They're quite a feature up the drive, here.

-So, too are the snowdrops.

-The snowdrops, yes. At this time.

Tell me a wee bit about the house, Willie.

Well, Jim, the house started off in 1580 as an L-shaped keep.

Obviously different families have added different parts to the house

ending up probably about 1800 the Georgian front was put on as we see here.

-And who owns it?

-It's owned by Gargunnock Trust.

The last laird died in 1989

and there's been a trust set up since then.

And they run the estate.

Well, let's go and look at rhododendrons.

Gargunnock has quite a reputation for rhododendrons. When did it all start?

It all started after the war when the late laird came back in the 1950s.

She had built up a wonderful hybrid collection

-of rhododendrons then.

-Right.

But this is one of the problems here

that I always get asked in Gardening Scotland.

-I should say ditto! "How hard can I cut my rhododendrons back?"

-That's right.

You can see. You can cut it right back.

-We've got one branch coming away fine, and the other one, we'll have to cut it off.

-Indeed.

Let's go and look at some of the other ones.

Jim, this is a border we've grown just to show rhododendrons in foliage.

As you see, they're all different shapes, all different leaf shapes.

And different colours. In fact, this one here

you can see - look at this indumentum.

Yes, indeed. It's a strange phrase, isn't it, indumentum?

-Absolutely gorgeous.

-It's just a woolly coating.

What we're also seeing is tiny wee ones suitable for a small garden,

and great tall things you can get where there's plenty of space.

I think that's why they're universally popular.

-So long as the conditions are right for them.

-Right.

-Let's get to the business, dear boy.

-Let's get to the poly-tunnel.

This is the... This is the business end, is it?

This is the business end. This is where we grow on a lot of our plants.

Who's the "we"?

-It's the Rhododendron Species Conservation Group.

-OK.

-Which I'm a member of.

-Yes.

I'm very well aware that there's about 1,100 species of rhododendrons worldwide.

Of which 250 are threatened.

We're looking at these species and looking to propagate them here

-so we can either manage them in other gardens, or put them back in the wild if we have to.

-Yes, yes.

-Coals to Newcastle!

-Absolutely!

Wow! I see what you mean here about the centre of activity.

Glad to see you don't have to do it all on your own.

No, this is Wendy. She's helping me to take the project forwards.

Splendid!

Now, then, where did you start?

We started by identifying 80 species-rich gardens in Scotland.

In which some of these threatened species exist.

-We then bring them back here to do the propagation.

-Right.

-How are you propagating?

-We're propagating by grafts,

-seed and micro-propagation.

-Wow.

-Which is quite new to us.

-So you're quite into the modern era.

-Into the modern era.

-Seed we all know about.

Grafting. What do you graft them onto?

We're grafting onto Cunningham's White.

-Not rhododendron ponticum?

-Certainly not!

-Rhododendron ponticum is, you know...

-..is a sweary word!

It is, absolutely.

But let's face it, we wouldn't have some wonderful west coast gardens

if it wasn't for the wind-break qualities of rhododendron ponticum.

-Right.

-It's only when you turn your back on it that it goes daft!

It grows in hooligan proportions.

But it's still a good stock. But you don't use it now?

-No, we use Cunningham's White now.

-How do you produce it?

We produce it from cuttings. This is a typical box of cuttings.

-Growing in what medium?

-Well, it's Perlite and peat! Would you believe it?

-I just wanted you to say that.

-I know.

-We're still allowed to do it.

It's still the best medium, isn't it?

So, let's see the graft.

Well, this... This is the graft here, Jim.

As you can see. And this is a cutting and it's just grafted on.

-That was done last year.

-Yes.

What are these fancy-looking ones? They're really smart.

This are micro-propped

at the Duchy College in Cornwall.

-That's from a tiny little bit of...

-From a tiny bud scale.

-Yes.

-And that will speed the job up as well.

-That speeds the job up.

So once you've got the established plants, what do you do with them then?

We've got a garden on the west coast of Scotland which we'll put the tender plants in.

And the hardier plants to a garden in the Highlands.

-And the final phase?

-Is to see some of the plants from here

going back to the wild.

Going back to China and the Himalayas.

Yes. I hope I live to see that day. I wish you well.

-Thank you.

-Thank you very much.

All gardens, no matter how well tended and loved,

have an area which is a bit tucked away,

a little hidden, a backwater,

where you don't know what to do with it.

And this is the Beechgrove example.

Overshadowed by looming Landeii,

the ivy creeping in over the hedge and clothing everything that's planted here.

And the girls are digging up a few old shrubs.

Can you manage? Which are just losing their form.

And it's what to do in these areas which is the real challenge.

Well, we have a solution.

Because, originally, running across this site,

was a huge wind-break.

40 or 50-feet-tall conifers.

They've been felled over the years and the stumps kept.

With a little bit of pressure washing, cleaning,

and they can have a new lease of life.

Because this is the essential ingredient for a Victorian stumpery.

And in fact,

now the girls have started to clear,

you get an impression of the stumps cascading down here,

a new path through,

and the whole area enlivened with ferns and primulas.

The principle behind a stumpery goes back to Biddulph Grange,

when the gardeners in the late 1800s were looking for an opportunity

to exhibit woodland dwelling, moisture-loving plants.

This is our version of Biddulph Grange.

The idea is to take all of the stumps and to bury them in the ground

and create planting pockets with a sort of river running through.

This will be a pathway and the idea is that all these little nodules,

all these spaces, will be filled with those woodland-loving perennials,

the ferns, the hostas, the primulas.

And then, as you walk through,

you push them out of the way to explore the winding path

through the native hedge at the bottom.

Well, it's been quite a slog to get all the stumps in the ground.

But it's well worth it, because as soon as the plants start to take their place,

the whole thing suddenly starts to make sense.

And what's worth remembering, is that when you pack the stumps with soil,

incorporate as much organic matter as possible.

Because if you use half organic matter and half soil,

the water-holding capacity of that medium is doubled.

And that's exactly what these plants need.

At this end of the garden, we've gone for the real shade-lovers,

the Dryopteris erythrosora with its bronze leaves.

Hedera Helix, Asplenium scolopendrium,

they're really hard-core woodland plants.

But at this end of the garden, there's more light coming through.

See the afternoon sunshine spilling through.

You can really afford to go to town with a woodland edge plants.

Like scilla and cowslips.

And what this garden needs now to really encourage it to settle,

and no-one's going to thank me for saying this, is a lot of rain!

Regular viewers will know

that for the last three weeks, I've been aiming to get our early potatoes in.

They're going in today, even if the heavens open.

But I think we'll manage it just before that happens.

Now, the ground has been prepared for three weeks or more

and it's gone down quite flat.

So what I've done is to fork it up.

I've put on some fertiliser down the length of the row

just a few inches either side.

You don't need to spread it over the whole place.

I'm titivating it, getting that in there like so.

I've checked the thermometer again.

The temperature's up to 11, would you believe?

So they'll really fly once they go in the ground.

So that's the pre-preparation.

The ground's nice and bouncy

ready for these tubers.

The standard variety that we use in the north-east for early potatoes

is Duke of York, or Red Duke of York.

So we may try all sorts of other varieties that come on the market and are suggested to us,

but we always put in Red Duke of York, or Duke of York

because it's only then we can measure how well the others are doing.

This variety, going in this half of the row, is rocket.

We'll carry on going through more earlies, second earlies and so on.

Ready to plant, they're spaced out,

the seed potatoes, nicely chitted,

are spaced at about 30cm apart.

Some people use a trowel,

some people use a bulb planter.

My old man used to dig a trench, put well-rotted manure in the bottom,

and then I got to place the potatoes on the top of the manure.

On the west coast, the boys will put well-rotted seaweed in the trench.

Here, this ground has been well mucked over the years.

It's in good nick. We don't need to do that.

So, we're ready to plant. About the depth of the trowel. In it goes.

Nestling in there.

Absolutely super-duper.

I'm almost salivating

at the thought of new tatties!

Wonderful!

This week, I'm in the Highlands,

near the village of Strathpeffer, at the garden of Muriel Coburn,

which at 520 feet above sea level is not the most hospitable of sites.

We've been trying to do this for five years.

That's incredible. Only five years.

I think it's amazing how you've coped with a sloping site.

It's a very difficult site. It's very rocky

and the soil conditions are very variable.

But this, through the gate here,

is the most important part.

This is the productive part of the garden here.

I'm trying to create this here. But we've had problems.

What kind of problems have you had?

Last year was a particularly bad year.

I had no raspberries. My fruit was a problem.

It wasn't a good year for a lot of people!

Well, yes, but I was disappointed

and I think my inexperience and poor gardening technique has not helped!

When I look around here, I think it looks superb.

What I do notice is I don't see a compost bin here at all.

-Do you make your own garden compost?

-No, I don't.

-I admire people that do!

-You did say it's quite stony ground,

so even though we had a wet season last year, the ground can dry out.

We get an amazing drying effect here, particularly in May

because we've got a big wind problem.

Back to the compost bins. By making your own garden compost,

you can use that as a mulch and that's good for A, keeping down the maintenance

and suppressing weeds, and it helps to maintain the moisture.

-Yes.

-So what we'll do is get Callum to start building some compost bins.

Muriel, all the raspberries you're growing are autumn fruiting?

-Yes, that was recommended because of the height and the short season that we've got.

-OK.

-Is this the way you prune your autumn fruiting?

-Yes, it is.

I've tried to prune correctly

but I believe that I've been wrong.

-It's very confusing.

-There are two schools of thought.

The trouble is, you've got a very short growing season here.

And I think what you're trying to do,

-is these are the canes from last year.

-Yes.

-I see that you've topped them a little bit.

-Yes.

And they do say that sometimes you can take off about two foot.

And then what happens is you get these side shoots

and that will produce a small crop for you over the summer time.

But the main crop is produced down here.

So in other words, you get these canes coming up over the season.

That's the difference between summer and autumn

because the summer ones have those canes produced the year before.

That's what you keep.

But what I'd say is because you are quite north,

and we've got a short growing season,

I'm going to recommend that you don't want to be greedy

-in getting these two crops.

-Right.

What you want to concentrate on is the canes that are coming up for the autumn.

And I want to prune these right down to the ground,

so that's what we should do.

That's all the canes cut back.

Now what we want to do is a bit of feeding.

I want to give it a slow-release fertiliser.

-This is fish, blood and bone.

-OK.

And it's good for helping to produce the fruits.

-Which is what you want, isn't it?

-Absolutely.

The flowers and the fruit. So about a handful.

So this goes on, sprinkle it on.

Roughly a handful to the square yard or the square metre.

-Can you do that right the way down?

-Great. Thank you.

Then what I'm going to do is put a mulch on top.

Because Muriel, you did say about keeping those weeds down.

Yes, that's very important.

And also the moisture in.

To make the compost bins, we've used five old pallets of the same size.

This is a two-man job, so Muriel's dad, David, is helping Callum.

To keep them upright, we're driving in stakes to the corner of each pallet.

And to keep them firmly in place,

screwing the side of the pallet into the stake.

And then to tidy it up,

we've sawn off the tops of the stakes.

We've made two bays, so that when the first one is full

the compost can be turned over into the second one.

I really like what you've done with the vegetable beds here.

They're like deep beds and slightly raised

so they're easy to work with.

Yes, one of my problems is the amount of weeds

and it's really, really difficult to manage everything.

And also the weather. We need to protect the soil cos it's so late.

I thought I'd show you some mulches to put on the surface here.

This one is polypropylene.

It should last about five years

and the great thing about this one is it doesn't fray.

Some of them do and that can be a bit messy.

And it is porous, so it will let the moisture through.

What about this one?

What do you think this is made of?

It seems like a polythene bag.

It's made out of corn starch.

We've used this before at Beechgrove

and this one will degrade within the season.

You then have to dispose of it. But put it into your new compost bays!

And that will help with your garden compost.

And the last one, which is the one I think we'll use,

this is a paper one.

And that again will degrade by the end of the season.

Or if it hasn't totally degraded, just put it in the compost heap.

This is a fan-trained Victoria plum.

I personally feel fan-trained is probably better in this situation.

We haven't had any wind today but by seeing the fence with the wires on it,

-it does get very windy.

-Very much so.

So you've got the protection of the fence. Callum has put in the wires.

Six inches apart.

And eventually, not necessarily this year you're not going to get fruit,

-but eventually I'm sure you will.

-Have plums!

So I really hope, Muriel, we've set you up for the growing season.

I hope those raspberries fruit for you

and I hope you don't get any weeds.

Wonderful! I'll be delighted!

So what we'll do now is take these ties off and get it trained in.

Thank you so much.

Up here in Strathpeffer, in another part of the garden,

I've found a whole forest of seedlings.

These are actually rowan seedlings.

Because we're still in the bare roots season,

we could think about lifting some of these

and transplanting them into another part of the garden.

How about these lovely little cabbage plants

and broccoli plants coming out of the heated greenhouse

and coming into a cold greenhouse.

A process we know as hardening them on,

getting them ready for being planted outdoors in another two or three weeks.

This time of year is perfect for embracing the enthusiasm your plants have

to regenerate themselves.

You can propagate from them so easily.

One of the finest is this wonderful ground cover fern,

Blechnum penna-marina from the mountains of Chile and Argentina.

In a north-facing, shady, damp position,

this is the perfect ground cover.

And to harvest it, just pull a piece up.

Just look at the rhizomes.

Horizontal rhizomes, plenty of evergreen foliage.

Pop that in a pot and you've got the potential for a wonderful ground cover.

Most people know that I really enjoy a competition.

-So what's going on here, Jane?

-Marrows!

-All growing the same one?

-Yes, all the same one.

Two plants each. We'll see who can grow the biggest one.

Biggest diameter, length, weight?

We'll have several prizes!

-Give us all a chance!

-Make it up as you go along!

-And you're representing Mr Anderson?

-I'm fighting George's corner.

-You're growing them?

-Yes, I will.

-How many plants?

-Two plants each.

One in a half whisky barrel, an empty one!

-And one in the ground.

-In whatever compost we like?

-However you like.

-Tend them how we wish.

-Yes.

-OK.

-We shall see.

-What are you doing next week, Jim?

I'm giving the lawn a bit of attention next week.

And George and I are going to be sowing some more vegetables,

but this time it's all to do with the RHS and the award of Garden Merit.

And I'll be looking to see how to grow the champion marrow!

And also popping to Dundee to bring a semblance of order to a garden.

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

it's all in the factsheet,

including all those fancy plant names.

And you can find us on Twitter and Facebook as well.

That'll be right. See you next week!

-Goodbye!

-Goodbye!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd