Episode 8 The Beechgrove Garden

Well, hello, and welcome to Beechgrove Garden

and the only comment I going to make about the weather today

is I've got on my sun hat and my anorak - enough!

We're in the Driveway Garden where we have a raised bed.

I'm going to be planting hardy annuals.

No fertiliser, ideal conditions for putting in hardy annuals.

Now, I'm planting them, as I say - why not sowing them?

Well, the soil conditions are only just ready for sowing

but, having sown these at the beginning of April,

they are now ready to plant out.

So, I'm really on about, again, this shortness of the growing season.

These things will be flowering about a month before direct sowing

and I equate the bit of bother to get them to this stage

with the bit of bother when you have two start thinning the sown ones.

It's all eeksy-peeksy, you see?

So, we're going to put in Scotch marigold, in here.

This is a new variety called Kablouna. Never seen it before.

So, there's a bit of something new, something old -

here's a Nemophila, I've been using that for about 60 years, I think!

So, we keep changing. The details will be in the fact sheet

and we'll be back to look at them when they really look splendid.

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

I'm in Kincardineshire helping to put the finishing touches

to a garden that is opening for the first time under Scotland's Gardens.

And here we have a lovely patch of ground cover,

provided by a variety of dicentra eximia.

Just one of many lovely, lovely plants were going to see today.

We are in the show veg tunnel.

I think these pot leeks are going to take a fair bit of water.

They are growing well and, look,

they're just about needing scaffolding to hold them up!

And that's the idea, we've got to keep the things upright.

So, with these fellows in the corner, here,

we're going to just get a bit of string and put around these,

just in order to keep them upright.

Now, make sure, at this particular stage,

that you don't destroy any of the leaves.

Now, the other thing which is important here

is you can go out and buy specialist supports for these.

This is Scotland, we're just going to use canes and string.

Other side we've got what is the main run of show vegetables.

These are the ones which last year we grew to a fair length

and this year we want to try and do better.

We got parsnips and long beet, and carrots.

Now, if you remember,

right at the very beginning, when we sowed these,

we were sowing the beetroot in the compost filled holes

within these sand filled buckets and we dropped this,

we dropped this string down the middle.

And then, once we'd put the compost in,

we pulled it out rapidly so that the compost all slumped,

and it lost its spiral effects because somebody told me that

that spiral effect creates spiralled roots on the beetroot.

So, we want to avoid that and we know where he lives,

and we'll get back to him if it's wrong!

Now, when we come to thinning,

the thing that's important is we want to leave one seedling

at each one of the stations all the way round these pots.

What is important is that we select the best seedling.

Now, when you start selecting seedlings,

you're looking for something which is quite strong growing

and pretty disease-free.

So, keeping our finger, or our thumb,

on top of the seedling that we've selected

and we're going to pull out the other ones.

If you don't keep your thumb or finger on it, what happens?

The whole shooting match comes out and you end up crying.

So, you don't want to do that.

So, one seedling - this lot will take a wee while to do,

and we'll get on with that a bit later.

The other thing which I'm going to do today

is I'm going to sow some more peas.

I'm going to sow a thing called Show Perfection

but I'm also going to plant out these broad beans.

Now, the these were the ones I challenged you to grow last year,

can you remember?

I had this little variety

and then we saw these huge ones that came from the show bench.

This lot are going to be planted out, hopefully,

hopefully, and, of course, we'll manage, won't we?

We'll get good ones, about a foot long, and lots of beans in them.

They're going to be planted in a secret location,

up near the other leeks.

Another day, another garden, we make a return visit to the West Coast.

That's Loch Melfort out there - the highlanders have come to greet us.

And, of course, I'm at Arduaine Garden

and I'm away to meet Morris Wilkins, the head gardener.

Well, it's lovely to meet up with you again.

How long have you been here?

For 21 years. I don't know where it's all gone to.

People often say to me, they often comment on the fact that,

"You're always going to these big gardens,

"what relevance today have to our little plot, you know, in suburbia?"

Well, apart from the inspiration you get, you get ideas.

Now, there's a cracking little bit of plant association, isn't it?

I mean, I don't think I designed that,

I bought the hellebore and wanted somewhere to put it,

and having seen what it looked like, I went out and bought a couple more.

-That's a hellebore called "Pink Frost".

-Uh-huh.

But, yeah, it's a nice combination

and it could work well in somebody's smaller garden

because the whole of this garden, although it is big,

it's really made up of a sequence of tiny little associations.

Yes, all leading one into the other.

I think it's time for a few statistics, Morris -

-size of the garden?

-20 acres, or thereabouts.

-Yes, eight hectares, I think.

-And how many staff?

-Not many.

Two and a half, if you count me as the half.

One of the things I wanted to establish, also,

was the rainfall here. You are right out on the West Coast.

Yes, you've got some. OK. So, what's the rainfall?

Well, it goes between about 60 and 90 inches per annum.

-About 75 inches per year.

-That's an awful lot of water!

-And here we have cordyline and...

-Trachycarpus.

-Trachycarpus.

Now, in the last two winters people lost these things

and they wondered why. Even that, they wondered why.

I mean, it's like with New Zealand flax and so many things

in the very severe winters. Looking great here.

Well, we have lost some of them but cordylines are not hardy everywhere.

I mean, a lot of the plants in Glasgow have died

but that is probably quite a tall one,

it probably helps, quite a mature one.

-Yes, yes.

-But trachycarpus, these are true palms.

The cabbage palm, so-called, is not a palm and is not a cabbage, obviously!

The trachycarpus are true palms from China and they're tough enough.

-You could grow those in Aberdeen, Jim.

-Mmm.

-Yeah, I'm sure you could.

In a big pot! I'm not saying anything.

Again, we can't go past the old skunk cabbage here.

-It's taking over, dear boy!

-It is!

And I was saying the other week, you know,

-it's now one of the alien plants.

-It's something you have to watch.

I mean, we deadhead all of these plants every year, when they flower.

There are hundreds of them so it's a big job but I think we have to do it.

Because there are examples in the country

where it has seriously taken over.

Well, I think down at West Loch Tarbert it's filling a field.

Quite an impressive sight!

So, if you're going to deadhead it you need a combine harvester!

-You do.

-Which way? This way now?

-This way, yeah.

I'm just thinking, this part of the garden

has quite a different character. Tall trees.

That means it's rich soil and all the rest of it.

Not really, some of the soil, in patches, is good

but a lot of it is very shallow

and I think the reason these trees are so tall

is they were planted very close together and draw each other up.

And are they getting to the stage where...?

Well, I mean, thin soil, I mean, that thing, there,

that's coming down, hasn't got much of a root ball at all.

It's got a very small root ball. This came down a couple of weeks ago

and it's just landed on the top of this rhododendron.

These trees are getting so tall now,

they are poking their heads up and they're getting blown down.

I thought you were going to have to knock them all down anyway?

Well, we were asked by the Forestry Commission to take down all

the larches in this garden because we had a couple of infections

of Phytophthora or "Sudden Oak Death," as it's called.

Because we had a couple of infections,

-they wanted us to remove all 1,000 of them to contain the disease.

-Oh!

But they've now allowed us to monitor the trees very carefully.

Anything we see we will deal with on the spot.

So, instead of having to completely wreck the garden,

we'll be doing it over a period, as and when they become infected,

if they do. It's taken a great burden off.

I don't know how many species of rhododendrons we've seen today

-but it's a hell of a lot!

-It is a lot.

I think we probably have or have had at least 400 distinct species here.

Really? Some of these plants are getting quite old.

Are you preparing to replace them by propagating new stock?

Well, we try not to lose anything unique.

If there is something which occurs here that occurs nowhere else

then, obviously, we try to propagate it but that's not always the case.

We can buy species elsewhere

but if they have some particular characteristic we'd like to keep

we would try to propagate them.

We're also trying to bring in new species and new cultivars.

Do you exchange them with other gardens?

Because the more replicates there are, the safer they are.

Well, unfortunately, we can't do that just at the moment

-because of our Phytophthora.

-Yes, yes.

So, we can't give plant material out of this garden to anyone else

but we're happy to receive it, of course!

I'm beginning to see what this is, more or less.

I had my eye on it when we came round the corner, there.

That must be one of the most successful introductions

-in many a long year?

-Well, it's certainly done well here.

It was a smaller plan that was moved from across there some years ago,

when it was about three feet high.

-And it's really done very well indeed.

-We'd better give it a name.

-Pittosporum?

-Pittosporum tenuifolium "Tom Thumb".

-"Tom Thumb."

Though I've never seen anything less like a thumb.

But it's particularly good because it's green inside

and the new foliage comes out green and then turns purple.

-You'd think every leaf had been burnished.

-Yeah.

Well, just the last of a whole range of cracking plants we've seen

-and I must thank you very much for it.

-Enjoyed having you here, Jim.

-Take me to the car!

-OK. Very well, James.

At the beginning of the programme

we actually saw Jim planting hardy annuals.

Now, not everybody has the facilities to do that

and so what I'm doing is direct sowing the hardy annuals

and, of course, what Jim made the point is the fact that

when you sow seeds because they are direct in the soil

we might be three or four weeks behind with the time

but it's easy to do and, of course, you don't need a greenhouse.

Now, actually, here I have a mixture of hardy annuals

and also the half hardy ones.

The half hardy ones are going to go back in the cold frame,

they've got to be hardened off for a couple of weeks.

And, here, I have a couple of collections.

They are bee friendly seeds. These are collections that you can buy.

They'd make nice gifts, I think, to people

and also we have the gardener's collection.

And we're speaking about plants that are blues and yellows

that really attract the bees.

And, of course, bees are vitally important

for pollinating our plants and our crops.

I'm going to find out a little more about that.

Well, Annie Robinson has joined us here, in the garden,

and she's from dot.rural, Aberdeen University

and is involved in a project with the Bumblebee Conservation Trust.

So, first of all, how many species of bumblebee

do we have in this country?

There are 24 species of bumblebee in the UK and they are really

important as pollinators of our crops and wildflowers.

Unfortunately, two species have already become extinct since 1940

and many of our remaining bumblebees are in decline,

in terms of abundance and distribution.

So, how can we encourage bumblebees into our garden?

Well, doing like what you've done this morning,

planting bee-friendly plants,

is really important to provide a source of pollen and nectar

from early spring right through to the autumn for our bumblebees.

So, that's the annual plants but, I mean, things like this,

one or two bumblebees are enjoying the pulmonaria.

So, are you looking for certain sorts of garden plants?

Yes, a real mix of different species and there's a tool called Bee Kind

on the Bumblebee Conservation Trust website,

and you can enter what flowering plants you have in your garden,

and it will give you a score as to how bee-friendly those plans are.

And it will also give suggestions as to different plants you might

want to consider planting as well.

So, apart from using that tool,

you'd like people to take photographs of bumblebees?

Yeah, ideally. Not always easy to take a photo of

but if you see bumblebees in your garden or in your parks

please do take a photo.

You can submit the photo to us at BeeWatch.

There is an online tool

which will help you to identify the photo of the bumblebee

plus we'll get back to you with the identification

and further information.

And it's really important to us

to help plot the distribution of bumblebees in the UK.

And there's one in particular that you're looking for in Scotland?

Yeah, the tree bumblebee has not yet been sighted in Scotland.

It came into the UK in 2001, arrived in Hampshire,

and it's spread throughout England and Wales

but we're fully expecting it to arrive in Scotland in the next year.

What is it that like?

Some people say it looks a bit like a muddy penguin.

So, it has an orange thorax on the top and black-and-white for the tail.

It's really distinct. It doesn't look like any of our other bumblebees.

-Well, let's hope somebody finds it.

-Yes, keep an eye out in your gardens.

From bumblebees to honeybees. Thanks to Alec Innes, here.

Thank you, Alec, for bringing up a couple of hives, here.

-We're going to watch this through the season.

-Very good, Jim.

How have they come through the winter?

-Nae bad, I'm real pleased with it.

-Uh-huh.

-I did lose one.

But that's the story across the countryside

and there's a lot of talk about the bees dying out to diseases

and failures, and chemicals,

and all the rest of it but what about the effect of the weather?

Weather has a big effect on them, and that.

Last year, like last year, was wet through.

In fact, it's been two years in one, more or less.

Are you saying that wet is worse than cold?

-Definitely, without a doubt.

-Really?

-Damp's the bees' biggest enemy.

And when they start working in the spring, here,

you've been coming back in for it, here, what's their first attraction?

-Snowdrops.

-Really?!

-Snowdrops.

-What about Crocus?

-Crocus, yes, definitely.

-Daffys?

-Daffys are nae used to honeybees.

-Their tongue's too short.

-Uh-er! So, we'll leave that to the bumbles.

Aye. Bumble, it's a bumblebees thing.

-There is surely enough for everybody? That right?

-Oh, yes, aye.

Now, in the summer, of course, they do pollinate a lot of farm crops

and horticultural crops, and is that what keeps them going?

Oh, aye.

Will you do any feeding of these guys, here?

-Been feeding, practically, all winter.

-OK.

-Just to keep the colony alive?

-Yes, oh, aye.

Well, I'm hoping that we're going to have a real bumper crop this year.

Can we have a wee look and see how they're doing?

Yes, just be careful, eh? And...

-Have a lookie.

-There they are, working away.

-They're coming up.

I would expect mere bees up and out.

-Now, then, are you going to lift the next one?

-I'll just lift this.

Steady now. Oh, there we are. And what's this fancy piece here?

That's the queen excluder, which prevents the queen going up.

Now, they're getting a wee bitty edgy so we'll put this back on here.

That'll be enough.

Well, I think it's time to leave, Alec, don't you think so?

Well, you please yourself, Jim!

-But dinnae run because they'll follow.

-No, no, I'm nae feart.

I'm just being, trying to be sensible about it.

Just time to stop with them because they are getting a wee bitty crabbit.

-They dinnae like it, it's nae sunny enough for them.

-No, no.

Need to hae the sun shining.

Right, so, we're in the polytunnel, what's the game today?

Well, we're setting up here with a cucumber trial or an observation.

We've got a variety called Socrates.

These plants, which I think look really healthy,

they've been grown from seed, good germination,

and we're waiting for some grafted plants. Same variety.

Right, now, you did a trial

-with grafted tomatoes last year, didn't you?

-Yes.

What was the results there?

Well, again, it was grafted tomato plants and non-grafted,

and the grafted ones were so much better.

Even though they're more expensive, George!

Is there a difference in price? With the grafted and non-grafted?

There is. I mean, quite a bit of a difference.

Sowing from seed, and we have had really good germination,

-so, about 55 pence a plant.

-That's reasonable.

Grafted plants £3.30. So, we'll need a lot of cucumbers!

You do, you do!

Anyway, enough of the chat,

I want to know what you're doing with these strings

because I'm really impressed. THEY LAUGH

Don't be too impressed!

We used to, when I was in a nursery in Lanarkshire,

used to grow tomatoes. Lots and lots of tomatoes. 135,000 tomatoes.

Yeah, one-handed?

-One hand and just, like that.

-Aye, and you're not even looking.

No, you don't need to, cos you could always chat to your friends.

-That's great.

-And all the strings were pre-cut

so it was the correct length

but what we used to do was we used to tie them to the tomato plant,

at the bottom first.

You'd use a bowline and tie them to the tomato plant at the bottom.

But surely, then, you may at the damage the plant?

If you go over exuberant and you went, whoosh,

and you ripped all the leaves off it, you got a terrible row for that.

-Well, what I like to do.

-You've a different scheme.

Yes, this is something we've been doing for quite a few years,

-it's just put the string in the hole.

-Plant the string and then...?

-And then you plant the cucumber on top of it.

-God, these are good roots!

-They're lovely roots, aren't they?

-Yeah.

And then you see the roots will grow around that and it will stay there.

And as long as you've got enough at the top you can, you know, loosen it.

You can adjust it when you're twisting the string around.

The other thing that I like to do is plant a pot.

God, you're good at the rabbit work there!

And I would do the watering through there because, you know,

the cucumbers very often rot at the neck, don't they? Cold water.

Very, very prone to neck rot.

And I think it's good in grow bags as well

because the water goes everywhere.

Och, it can be a right sluice, it really can, when you're watering.

Now, these fellows are going to take a long time

-before they can climb up the string!

-Yes, they are!

-A bit small.

It's a new plant to me, George, called a Cucamelon.

OK, so is that a cross between a melon and a cucumber

or a cucumber and a melon, or what?

Yes, bite-size fruits.

Meant to taste between a sort of cucumber and a hint of lime.

-Are you pulling my leg?

-No, I'm not pulling your leg at all

but, anyway, back to your party trick.

I like to see you doing the strings.

I'll see if I can do it again because, you know,

sometimes it doesn't work the second time!

Back in 2004 we came to do some problem-solving in the garden

of Rebeccah Stripling, in Banchory.

At that time she was starting out with her new garden

but, nine years on, it's looking fantastic.

This is the first year, I would say, it actually looks really mature.

The trees and the shrubs are a decent size and it's looking good.

-It is. I mean, these were the three trees we put in nine years ago.

-Yeah!

-It's tremendous how they've grown.

-They look great, don't they?

And we've designed the border around them, and then the paths through.

Now, this is so colourful.

The Primula denticulata, one of my favourites.

Did you just start off with a few plants?

Yeah, we had about six to start with

and then we've just gradually lifted and split them,

and spread them around, and I think they look fantastic now.

And then there's other things coming through for later interest?

Yes, uh-huh, there's rodgersia, there's more primulas, hostas.

Fantastic. I mean, the great news is that you are now opening

under Scotland's Gardens. So, how did that come about?

We've wanted to do it for years and last year we phoned them up

to see if they would like to come and see the garden.

And they came, and we were expecting them to say,

"Well, maybe in two years' time you could open,"

and they liked the garden.

I think the reason they wanted us was because,

although there is a lot of interest in the garden already,

there's still a lot of things to be done.

So, people would see new things when they came.

If they're looking for new gardens

-and they're quite happy that it's a garden in the making.

-Yes.

Of course, it's important that it's fairly weed free.

Weed free and the grass has to be tidy, and the edges done,

and, of course, the garden owner has to want to do it

-cos it is quite a lot of work.

-Well, that's great news.

Keeping down the weeds, you're using this mulch, where's that from?

Yeah, it's from a local farmer.

He grows the seed for potatoes and when he's finished with the compost

-we use it in local gardens as mulch.

-Any tatties?

-The odd one!

Anyway, it's two months that you're opening

so we're going to give you a bit of a hand with one or two small problems.

Thanks.

The first problem that we've really got is these three shrubs, here.

We've got two Deutzias and a Prunus.

When I put them in seven years ago they were in smaller tubs

and there seems to be plenty of space between them

but now, of course, they've grown.

What I'd ideally like to do is take this Deutzia out

and move it elsewhere in the garden, and moved Prunus forward

but I don't actually know if I can do it,

especially at this time of year, and how I would do it.

Well, it is possible. I mean, it is a bit of a risk

and, personally, I would say let's move the Deutzia,

we'll leave the Prunus

cos, I mean, at the moment, that is in full flower.

The Deutzia is just beginning to sprout

and I think we can take the risk with that one.

So, what we should do is give it a right good soak with water.

-Normally, I would say to people soak it the night before.

-OK.

But if we soak it now, with several gallons of water,

it's a chance for the root ball to take up that moisture

-and it will help with lifting the root ball as well.

-Yes.

-So, about four or five gallons of water, I would think.

-OK.

We'll leave that shrub to soak for a few hours

before we attempt to move it. Now, what's going on here?

Well, this border is the last border that needs to be done

before the open day.

There's meadowsweet that's self seeded itself and the lysimachia.

It's very pretty but it's gone a bit wild.

So, I'd like to contain that a bit.

OK, so you'll still keep that as, sort of, clumps,

going along the border.

Yes, the foliage is very pretty and the colour but, yes, less of it.

And then have we got more plants to put into the border?

We have, there's a few plants within the garden

that need lifting and splitting.

-So, I thought we could use those.

-Good cost saving exercise.

Right, we'd better start weeding.

This iris is one of the ones that needs to be split

-and moved up into the black border.

-It's a perfect example, isn't it?

Because what you've got is the centre,

which is the older part of the plant, has started to die out

and, in fact, there's one or two weeds coming in!

Then you've got the fresh growth, here.

So, I reckon we're going to get at least half a dozen plants with this.

Now, this is a real problem weed, the ground elder or bishop weed.

Yeah, it's a nightmare.

This hemerocallis came in from a friend,

who very kindly gave me it but I didn't quarantine it.

I just put it straight in the garden

and, as you can see, the weed's gone right from the plant,

under the hedge and into various other plants.

What I suggest, Rebeccah, is you know we've been lifting and dividing

and, you know, things like the iris and the geranium,

I would lift these two clumps.

I would really divide them up into really small plants

and try and tease out the ground elder but I would quarantine them.

I would put them into pots.

You've got a good seven-eight weeks before your open day

and then, if you don't see any sign of the weed,

then you can actually put them back into this border.

Yeah, that's an idea.

But we can't do that with it underneath the box hedge.

We don't want to live the box!

So, we've got this gel form of glyphosate,

which I know you will know is a systemic weedkiller.

So, that's going down into the root system.

It takes rather a long time -

we've got to paint it on, got to wear gloves

and, you know, you want to keep pets and children inside until it dries.

Well, I think the deutzia has been soaked long enough

and the root ball is quite good, actually. Nice fibrous root system.

So I think, Calum, if you can help us

to just, like, put it onto this fabric

because it will help to keep the root ball intact.

And we'll get it straight into the barrow.

Right, well, we've already got the hole prepared.

-I hope it's big enough!

-So do I.

-So, let's just put this on to the path.

And, hopefully, Calum, can you just slip that across?

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

-Not bad! Made-to-measure.

Now, the thing is...

we want to make sure that that is well watered,

-well watered in, in the next few weeks.

-OK.

-Especially if it gets really, really dry.

-Yeah, which, hopefully, it will.

So, what else we've done is we've finished that border.

So, we lifted the iris and the geranium,

and then added a little bit of evergreen interest there

because I think you need a bit of structure.

So, we've got the holly and we've got the elaeagnus.

-So, when's your open day?

-28th of July.

-And time?

-One till five.

-Best of luck!

-Thanks very much.

Last week I mentioned that when you're lifting bedding plants,

if you got primulas and so on, this is the time to split them up.

Here we have the white form of the drumstick primula.

We had one big clump of it, this was all one bit

until I started pulling it apart.

There's one has come away and I can pull it apart again.

I can get another one. Look like that. Then, trim the roots.

You can be fairly brutal. Take these dead bits and half the leaf as well.

Certainly because it will reduce the stress

and you finish up with little plantlets, like that.

Now, you come plant them out if you have a shady piece of the garden.

If you got some nice light soil.

But for ease of moving them about later, and so on, bit of compost...

..pot them up. Stand in a cold frame or a shady place.

That's the important thing. Give them a real good soak.

By the autumn you will have enough plants

to give you a really nice display.

Well, what a difference a week makes.

Last week they were in bud, these tulips, now, lovely flower colours.

This is a red variety...

and lovely tall, erect stems.

But I like the combination just right in front, there,

Apricots Beauty with that lovely blue Myosotis.

You might want to make a note of the names

and then you'll be planting them September-October time.

-Isn't it very pleasant in this corner? Isn't it?

-It's lovely.

-Lovely, aye.

-And so colourful. Look at these erythroniums.

Isn't that gorgeous?

-Reliable sort of thing.

-"Dog's tooth violet," I think.

Absolutely.

Now, that's the epimedium that I cut down earlier in the season.

I'd taken all the old foliage off

-and what a difference it's made, hasn't it?

-It's gorgeous.

Really fresh, the foliage, isn't it?

Interestingly, earlier on the bees were at that.

-Now, this is the blue one around the corner?

-Round here?

-Anemone nemorosa.

-It's an absolute cracker.

-Rather nice, isn't it?

-Superb.

-Glad you said that!

THEY LAUGH

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

it's all in the factsheet and the easiest way to access that is online.

And, of course, new to us, as well, Twitter and Facebook.

And next week, I can't believe it,

but we're actually coming from Gardening Scotland.

-We won't be here in the garden.

-Indeed, this is true.

The programme will be on Friday night, the 31st, at 7.30.

-See you then!

-Bye-bye.

-Goodbye!

-Bye.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd