Episode 10 The Beechgrove Garden

Hello, and welcome to Beechgrove.

And, by jingo, there's a change in the weather

since we were in the garden last.

In fact, I've been doing some raking this morning before I came out.

Raking out the old winter woollies, cos it is a bit cool, is it not?

-It is, definitely.

-Oh, what a difference.

Yeah, we talk about "ne'er cast a clout till May's out."

Well, the May is in full flower now,

and you should be thinking about, you know, reducing,

but I've been ADDING layers!

-So it's time for a changeover?

-It is. But it's so typical, isn't it?

Temperature drops and we wanted to put out the summer bedding.

-Here we go.

-Time to change the duvet.

The winter weather doesn't matter, we're now into summer.

-You'll be keeping some of this?

-Yes, I'll talk a bit about that

-in a minute or two.

-Yeah, yeah, that's splendid.

Well, in the meantime in the rest of the programme...

Well, I'm following this bedding plant theme

because I've been back to Aden Country Park,

where they're producing all these bedding plants for the community.

And I'll be looking at those plants that are sometimes just

far too boisterous for their own good in our borders,

becoming weeds.

But it's those very plants that can solve problems

in the most difficult areas of our garden.

Well, as you can see, I've been left by myself here,

and I'm doing a bit of clearing out.

So, what are we going to keep? What's going to go?

Well, I think the only thing that's going to go on the compost heap

is the forget-me-not, the myosotis there.

Everything else at the moment, I'm going to try and keep it

for another year.

The hyacinths,

they give beautiful flowers in the first year.

And what we did last year, cos we grew some,

is we actually naturalised them in the wild flower area,

and they did produce flowers,

not as wonderful blooms but at least they did produce something.

So these are going to go into the wild flower area as well.

Violas - well, normally we compost those,

but I'm thinking about keeping them this year.

And what I want to do is just give them a bit of a trim.

I know it seems a bit of a shame that we're trimming off all these

lovely flowers but that's to encourage some nice new foliage,

and not only can we maybe keep the main plant

but if it puts on new growth, we can take one or two cuttings as well.

Now, the polyanthus, I never throw these out.

These are great perennial plants.

And if you take a look at this, I've got two rosettes there.

So, to me, that is two plants.

Just got to try and tease them apart.

And then, it's a little bit like we do with the leeks,

we do a bit of topping and tailing.

So, starting off with the roots...

I'll just cut these in half,

and then the actual top,

I'm changing my hand, cut that off in half...

And I know that looks pretty awful,

but if we line that out in the nursery,

and by the autumn time we're going to have a lovely plant to put out

again for our bedding displays for over the winter and spring again.

The tulips, little bit dicey here

about whether you keep tulips or not.

We don't have very long, hot summers,

and most of the tulips don't particularly perform well

for a second year.

However, species tulips are good, greigii hybrids.

And if you do want to try

and save some of your tulips, well, then what you must do is heel

those in, let the foliage die down,

and then actually, you need to lift them and store them

somewhere dark and warm with plenty of ventilation.

Now, moving on.

Here are some of the plants that we're going to try for the summer.

And it's a range of half-hardy and hardy annuals,

things that we haven't grown before and things

that are new in the catalogues.

The bed's been nicely prepared, and a bit of fertiliser put down.

So we've just got to do the planting.

Well, it's great to see the vegetable plot filling up gradually,

and looking really good.

So I'm just having a quick look,

checking up on the cabbage spacing observation.

Close spacing, wide spacing, see how they do.

And they're coming away quite nicely.

There's a bit of a gap here in the brassica plot,

and that's going to be filled any time now

with a whole range of kales,

different types of kale.

And, George, if people haven't got plants at this stage

when would you say that they could go on sowing?

Well, you can sow right on till...what, the end of August.

-Yes, all right.

-We used to reckon 23rd August

was the last date for us in East Lothian but, you know.

-But the job in hand today is actually planting leeks.

-Yes.

But first and foremost, and I'm not pulling your leg,

that is poetry in motion...

-HE LAUGHS

-..watching you raking.

-Right.

And there's a lesson in that, because what does that hand do

when you're raking?

This one guides it, keeps it on the top of the ground,

and this one here is providing the power...

So often I see gardeners who'll go "bang", and then pull it.

You know, as if they're raking... I'm sorry.

I've spotted a puncture.

-You know what? You take the weight on that front.

-Yes, yeah.

-The weight's held on that one there.

-Yeah,

-you don't just let it do its own thing, do you?

-No.

-Anyway.

-Anyway.

-That's that bit done.

-That's that bit...

-Now,

-you wanted me to take out drills for these leeks.

-Yeah.

We're going to compare a drill with just...on the flat.

-Right.

-And the first thing we're going to do,

and before you tramp them, I'll just lift these...these leeks here.

These are the variety Musselburgh.

Now, you must have been weaned on Musselburgh leeks

-because that's where you come from.

-That's right,

-we're not far from Musselburgh.

-Yes.

And it was one of the most important leeks in Scotland for a long,

-long time.

-Absolutely.

-This is what they call a true breeding line.

You pick the seeds off the mature plants and you sow them,

and you go on and on. How many sowings of Musselburgh leeks

have been made since you were born?

I would say 21, but I think that's wrong.

I think it's... be nearer about 60-odd.

My point is that with time, they deteriorate in terms of

they've got minor viruses and things,

and the selection of the seed is maybe not the same.

Well, yeah, so the variety of which they had

in the 18 or early 1900s will be different to the one we have now.

-Well, that's the whole...

-It's the same name.

-But to prove it

we've got another couple of varieties there

that are modern varieties, which presumably are more vibrant

and basically should give us a heavier crop.

-Well, this is Cairngorm.

-Uh-huh.

-Good name.

-This is Northern Lights. Good name for us this far north.

-Yes.

So they must be hardy. And we'll see what they like.

All sown at the same time, and there is a difference in the vigour,

even already.

-Now, Carole's just used that phrase "topped and tailed"...

-Mm-hm.

..with our polyanthus.

I've always topped and tailed leaks.

-Yes, well, just a wee bit off the roots.

-Yes.

-Just to tidy them up.

-Yes.

-And the same with the top. The same with the tops.

-Yes, yes.

-We've done these before but...

-Now, technically,

I don't suppose it's necessary.

-Makes it easier to handle, though.

-That's...that is the point.

-It's the whole point. It's commercial.

-That's right.

You will see the difference when you start to do that...

-Because you can separate them.

-Yes.

Now, I make holes in the bottom of a...drill and drop them down

into the hole, like so.

And the holes are about four inches apart.

The point being that, you know, you just whack along there,

and they separate easily and you can do the job quickly.

-Don't fill the hole, fill it with water...

-Yeah.

..and it carries enough soil down to...

-Your own piecework here.

-Yes. You get so much per mile.

That's right.

-JIM LAUGHS

-Let's get on with it.

This is the busiest end of the garden at Beechgrove.

The glasshouses, the polytunnels,

all full of crops waiting to be planted out.

Similarly, the cold frames here are absolutely packed.

And an area of the garden which is key, the nursery beds,

any plant which hasn't yet found a home or is being relocated

spends a short amount of time just here.

But, in any garden, no matter how good, how well-planned...

Sorry, Jane, treading on your stones.

..there is always a space where you don't

really know what to do, and this is the area that we've been

averting our eyes from here in the garden.

It's not best placed

because we've got the overshadowing carpinus hedge behind,

so it's very dry underneath that.

We've got the rather ugly shed, which is the irrigation pump house,

a self-set sambucus,

which is raiding soil, nutrients and moisture,

as well as drains and various stumps and stones.

And in fact the only thing that thrives in this space is weeds.

And in order to deal with this, it's the weeds

which give us inspiration.

So for instance, plants like rosebay willowherb,

a really good, effective self-seeder produces massive seeds

and just finds a home wherever it can.

Plants like the meadow buttercup, this rhizomatous habit,

scavenging and spreading, looking for that essential niche.

And we all know of course how voracious brambles are

at just clothing and covering a site.

They may not be glamorous but what they do is give you

a hint as to how to solve a challenge like this.

And that's to go for the adventurous and gregarious, the aggressive

nature of these weeds, but using altogether more glamorous plants.

So, while the girls carry on weeding and stone picking...

I'm going in search of glamour.

In this border we're not improving the soil with fertiliser

or organic matter,

we're just relying on the plant's resilience.

But what we are doing is creating a margin,

a border, out of stones salvaged from elsewhere.

Oops.

I haven't even touched them... It was him!

That doyenne of horticulture, Gertrude Jekyll,

of course so famed for her herbaceous borders,

told us that weeds are just a plant in the wrong place,

something which is a little overexuberant.

And there's nothing that proves the point better than anthriscus,

the "Ravenswing" here.

We planted one or two specimens.

And just look at the way they've self-seeded.

I've managed to scavenge one or two others too.

Geranium macrorrhizum, very good for the sunshine.

But when you scavenge around at the roots,

you realise why it's such a good coloniser. Look at that.

These wonderful rhizomes forming a fabulous mat for sun.

And doing a very similar job in the shade is

Pulmonaria saccharata.

Again, look at that congested mat of roots and stems.

So I've got shade, I've got sun,

and I've got more glamorous anthriscus.

It's a great start.

The woody structural plants in this part of the garden

are going to mimic very much the habit of the brambles that were

so at home here until we cleared the site.

And prime candidate, of course, the roses.

This one is maigold, one of the old-fashioned climbing roses,

very thorny. And it's so rampant,

it will easily clothe and disguise the shed,

and also go into the hedge and just run through the hedge

covering this in the most vibrant colours.

But you don't have to use rambling and climbing roses

up a vertical support.

This is "Rambling Rector", which is one of the most vigorous,

and it has to be said,

one of the most glamorous of all of this style of rose.

Instead of planting it vertically, lay it down on an angle.

And that means that these shoots, they arch,

and as soon as they're just tipping over the top of that arch,

you peg them back into the ground.

It allows them to root and run across the border,

just like a briar would,

but you're controlling this

wonderful fan of foliage and flowers.

And then you can interplant bulbs or herbaceous to your heart's content.

Yeah, I think the geum can run off of the Geranium macrorrhizums here.

OK. Great, thank you.

You look to what we had before, and it didn't make any sense.

You walked past and didn't pay any attention.

Then as soon as you dot a few plants in...

"Actually, that's kind of working," you know?

You can see how it's knitting together.

One of the things about using plants in this sort of environment is

you have to go for the ones that are real brutes.

And Clematis montana is certainly a good example of that.

But just like the rose, if you take away its support

it's got nowhere to go.

And so clematis

can be allowed to sprawl around in the bank.

Remember to put them low on the bank and allow them to sprawl up,

because they'll naturally want to go uphill, gathering towards the light.

They think they're chasing something to climb up. But of course,

there is nothing here which is going to support them.

Now the border's planted it looks less like a derelict area

of the garden and more like, well, a border.

And remember, the core of this solution

relies on the inspiration you gain from weeds.

The roses and clematis very much mimicking that bramble

that was bouncing around and colonising.

And then we've got the self-seeding plants

like the digitalis and angelicas.

And amongst that we've then got the mercurial plants, the spreaders.

Things like the wall valerians, the goldenrod, the solidago,

and the geums. These are plants that,

given good garden soil and an ideal position, just take over.

And we call them weeds, we dig them up and try and give them away,

but in this situation, where the soil and site are challenged,

it's exactly what we need to solve the problem.

Plant them densely and let them fight it out amongst themselves.

So, something different for bedding.

What I've done is I've brought together a whole range

of plants which you wouldn't normally associate with a bedding scheme.

There are things in here which have come from all over the garden,

there are perennials, there are annuals, there are biennials.

And we're going to put them together and make something which is

very similar to a formal, traditional bedding scheme.

But the colour scheme may be slightly zany but slightly different.

There will be different textures of foliage which we'll use as well.

That will all come out in the mix.

This one that's here is Lysimachia "Firecracker".

And it's the one which you would normally see as a plant

in a herbaceous border, it's a perennial,

has yellow flowers, but I don't want the yellow flowers

so I'm going to keep cutting it back so I just get the foliage.

Now, purple is difficult in a garden sometimes,

it absorbs the light, it disappears, you don't really see it.

And so what I want to do is lighten that,

and in order to lighten it I've got this one here, which is felicia.

And that's a little variegated plant with blue flowers.

Now, I'm not sure whether blue goes with purple but we'll see.

Some people wear purple ties with blue spots, you've seen it.

So that's what we'll have in there.

That will lighten it, and variegated plants

are things which really lighten the textural quality of the foliage.

Next to that we've got at the back here

a line which is a sort of definition line.

And that is pennisetum, one of the hare-tail grasses

which has got very, very fine textural qualities

in the flower heads.

And I want to use that, the light will play on that.

It'll be at its best at the back end, right into September,

maybe even October.

Now, to continue the purple theme forward, we've got

two vegetables which were left over from the veg plot.

This is a kale called Bolshoi,

and I love the cut foliage on this

and the great mix that we've got of purples and greens.

That's good there. It will be mixed through some of these plants here,

through some of these zinnias and things of that sort.

And then this one here, redbor,

I mean, I think that's magnificent, look at that.

Look at the colour that's on there. That's superb.

But it's maybe just too dull, too dark.

And if I put it in this corner it's just going to disappear,

so I'm going to put a contrast with it.

This is a lupin,

a little dwarf lupin. It'll have white flowers on it,

and they'll come up through the middle of it

cos I'm going to plant the two together.

It's companion planting.

And maybe actually if I plant them together

the pigeons won't see that purple foliage and think that

that is a cabbage, because sometimes they're quite clever and they do.

Now, behind us we've got some quite familiar plants.

The one that I was holding right at the very beginning was

this, which is the spider plant.

And that is one which we can use at the front,

and allow to spill over the edge.

We can do that with lobelia. We've got some little sweet peas here

as well, which we could use.

These ones which were leftover from other jobs in the garden.

But in front of it, our burst of sunshine.

Look at that. That's a fuchsia.

That's a trailing fuchsia which we normally see in our hanging basket,

but Chris used roses and clematis as a ground cover.

I want to use this ground-hugging fuchsia as a ground cover here,

and one which will then give us this wonderful uplift,

this ray of sunshine within the whole thing.

So, different plants from different parts of the garden,

all brought together to try and create a traditional bedding scheme.

We'll see if it works.

Well, I hope you agree with me

that you can see quite a transformation here.

I mean, that bed's been cleared and it's been lined out with

loads of different plants, but I want to start here with this one.

And it's going to be absolutely full of dahlias.

And, first of all, I would really like to compliment the gardeners

because these are fantastic plants.

These ones in this section are dahlias grown from seed,

and they were started off in March.

But the ones right in the corner, well,

those were little plugs that came in.

I think it's a lovely variety, a variety called "Dreamy",

and there's one already in flower.

That one's "Dreamy Nights", and I think it looks superb.

So these ones are nice and compact,

but even smaller, are the ones in the hanging baskets there.

Again, those were grown from seed, and that's a variety called

"Fireworks", only growing to ten inches in height.

And then we go to the other extreme, the ones that are still in pots.

These are the show dahlias, grown from tubers,

and they will grow anything from three to five feet in height,

so they will need staking.

And some of the names, I think, gives away the size of them.

Some of them are called dinner plates, there's going to be

a range of colours, and it really will be a splash of colour.

And then we move on to the display here

which is all about cut flowers.

And one of our gardeners actually grows a lot of cut flowers,

and she gave me a list, and I decided to choose 12 of them,

and put them to the test.

So, you know, we've got things like the cosmos,

there's an ageratum over there. That one grows to 2ft 6.

I mean, we tend to think of the dwarf varieties.

And what we'll do is once they start to flower, we will cut them

and see how long they last.

It was late March when I last came to Aden Country Park

here in North Aberdeenshire.

I came to check out a brand-new allotment setup.

And before we left the park we crossed to the other side

to the local authority nursery,

where they were starting the process of creating and producing

bedding plants for communities across the land.

It's now late May, let's see what progress has been made.

Well, the fact is, of course, that this is the 50th anniversary

of Britain In Bloom,

so communities across the whole breadth of the United Kingdom

are actually in the process of doing this.

The first part of the job is done by the professionals in this

part of the world, and then finally, of course, it's a

bunch of volunteers that will put all these lovely plants out in situ,

and look after them through the entire summer.

Last time we were here, Jack, you did tell me

how many plants you produced. Remind me.

-300,000 - bedding plants.

-Wow!

To how many communities?

Probably about 180 communities now, villages and big towns getting...

-Across the length and breadth of Aberdeenshire.

-Yeah.

Are they limited to how many plants they can have?

They were originally limited to 1,500 plants

but some of the bigger villages have increased that

to 3,000 plants, maybe 4,000 in the bigger ones, so...

-And who pays for all this?

-The council does.

So that's the council commitment to this whole scheme...

-Yeah.

-..is they produce the plants. Now, we're in a...a tunnel here

-which is predominantly petunias.

-Mm-hm.

But what are your most favourite,

and what are the most popular plants?

-Geraniums, begonias, petunias.

-Yes.

-That's probably your biggest ones...

-These are by far the biggest.

Now, tell me about the selections, because, do the communities,

these 180 communities, send you in a wish list for which you

compile your orders for seeds and things like that?

No, I actually produce the wish list.

I go through and pick everything out.

That goes out to the community councils in about July, August...

-Uh-huh.

-..for next summer.

So, the fact of the matter is,

-they might not always get what they're looking for?

-No.

THEY LAUGH

But what they've asked for, they do get.

It's absolutely brilliant because at the end of the day, you know,

there's another bunch of folk that's going to take these on and grow them

on, and then finally, of course, the volunteers are going

to look after them through that, as I said earlier.

Yeah, they do. They look after them all summer.

Wonderful job. What do you do, then? Do you go on holiday?

No, I start again for next year.

Plus I've got all the winter stuff to look after.

At the end of May, the 300,000 plants

are packed up and leave Aden Nursery

to be distributed all over Aberdeenshire.

Pitscurry gardening charity, near Pitcaple

is one of the groups that takes these plants.

They carry on the process by planting them up

into hanging baskets.

Well, we've now come 30 miles south from Aden Country Park.

We're at Pitscurry Project,

and I have with me Ann Bisset, who is boss lady.

Tell me, what is The Pitscurry Project?

-The Pitscurry Project is a centre for adults with disabilities.

-Uh-huh.

And it's run by...is it the council?

It's run by Aberdeenshire Council

in partnership with Pitcaple Environmental Project.

That's when we come to the environment, plants and everything.

-Yeah.

-And your clients are looking after these plants...

-Yes.

-..that have come down from Aden Country Park.

They plant them onto the hanging baskets,

-and then they go out to Inverurie from here.

-Right.

-So who should we speak with when we're there?

-Round here...

-Yeah.

-..is Mike Mair, our day centre officer.

-Good stuff.

-Here you go.

-Well, then, Mike, you've got a good team going here.

-Yes, indeed.

-Aye, aye.

-So there's a job for everybody?

-There's a job for everyone.

As you can see, we're doing the baskets for Inverurie...

-Yeah.

-..and it's a nice job that we can break into bite-sized chunks.

-Yes, yes.

-Obviously putting the compost in the baskets...

-Aye, aye.

-..that's the first stage of the process.

-And then we go...

-And then we go round here.

-This way.

-Yeah.

And, I mean, not only have you got clients

but you've got quite a few volunteers come and help you too,

-don't they?

-We do. We've got a lot of volunteers

but we're always looking for more.

There's plenty of work here, plenty of weeds to be done.

That's true. Well, here we go.

-The boys are actually filling the baskets.

-Yes.

We've got Alan here who's been doing it for a number of years,

I think you can see, he's quite good at it.

-Alan knows what he's doing.

-Hiya.

-You're becoming an expert, Alan, eh?

-Yeah.

-Good man.

There you go, you see? Tremendous.

And of course, how long have you these to look after?

-We've got them between two to three weeks.

-Yes, yes.

Once they're filled, they go into the next tunnel.

So you've got another member of the team

who'll be doing the bits, running back and forward with a barrel?

-Yes, and he's able to fill it with water.

-Oh, I see. OK.

And that's a good way for hanging baskets...

is to have the water being fed through the bottom with a wick.

-Cos as you know...

-Yes.

..like everybody else, I'm the same,

if you leave your hanging basket, it goes like a road

-and the water just runs over...

-So that's a reservoir here.

-Yep.

And that of course takes us onto the next stage,

because from your greenhouses where they're being sat out,

and you're getting them settled and rooted into the compost...

-Yeah.

-..they will then go down into Inverurie...

-That's right.

-..and the local guys from the rotary club hang them up.

That's right. They look after them.

-They have to look after them on a weekly basis.

-That's right.

-It's quite a commitment.

-Oh, it is, isn't it?

The fact of the matter is that that cycle

that started away up there in Aden,

and it's happening all over the country.

Finally,

beautifies all our towns, and streets, and communities and so on.

It's a great sense of satisfaction and wellbeing.

-It is, it is.

-Absolutely.

-..when you see them hanging up...

-You were part of that.

-Yeah.

-The boys can say, "I was part of that."

-That's right, that's correct.

-That's good.

-Super.

For everything in horticulture and gardening, there's a technique.

And the technique for picking rhubarb is to twist...

..and pull. And it comes away easily.

Look at that, wonderful, succulent petioles of rhubarb.

Stems, if you want to call them that.

What's happening now is the plant's in full growth,

it's starting to run to seed.

And if we leave these seed heads and flower heads on it,

it will reduce the crop.

So what I'm going to do is remove this as well, then the plant

will go back into the vegetative state and produce bigger crops.

There we go.

This is the perfect tree for a small garden.

It's the Siberian pea tree with these delightful yellow flowers.

However, some of you may have a problem with sycamore seedlings.

They have germinated this season so much.

This is a picture in my own garden,

and I think there's literally hundreds there.

And the trouble is it gets to a huge tree.

These are some of the seedlings I've lifted, and quite honestly,

you want to take them out as soon as possible,

otherwise you'll have trouble.

Here we are in one of the original parts of the garden planted up

in the late '90s.

Not here to look at the azaleas, commonplace things like that.

I just want to ogle this and enjoy this Viburnum plicatum "Mariesii".

Isn't it absolutely stunning?

Jim, I'm fascinated with all the sand and all the patterns -

what's going on?

Hardy annuals...

sown this far north in Scotland.

By the time the soil is warm enough to germinate them and get them

going, it's halfway through July and we still haven't seen a flower.

-That's true.

-So, a year or two ago I tried out this system.

Sow them in cells, or prick them out into cells,

-in little plugs that size.

-Nice size.

And they can go out at the same time as the seed goes in the ground.

-OK, so is that the repeat?

-That is the repeat.

They're going to be side by side. That was sown...

-Yeah.

-..and they're only just germinating. And in the meantime

they'll be flowering...oh, in a couple of weeks.

-They'll be well ahead.

-The other thing is,

it's not all that much more work to do that because if you pick a dibber

the same size as the plug, look at this.

Pop that in there. Look at that now.

It fits. They were made for each other.

-Perfect.

-Well, it's no slower than doing it the other way.

Bob's your uncle.

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

and there will be a lot of information

about all these bedding plants, you'll find it in the factsheet.

And the easiest way to access that is online.

And next week I'm in the fruit house,

and it's figs and cherries and apples.

Wow. Well, it is a fruity programme,

because I shall also be in the fruit cage

as long as I've got the key to get out in my pocket.

-Till next time...

-ALL:

-Bye.