Episode 12 The Beechgrove Garden

Hello and welcome to the Beechgrove quorum...

or maybe it should be forum cos there's four of us!

It's all about questions today, is it not?

It is, very much so.

We take it as a huge compliment when people refer to the Beechgrove

as the Gardeners' Question Time on television.

And, well, this week we're actually embarking on

a mammoth Q&A session because

we're going to be joined by the real Gardeners' Question Time team.

And so we're going to join forces

and answer as many questions as we can,

both on radio and television.

But of course we've got a member of the Gardeners' Question team

here in our midst, our very own Mr B!

Now, don't you go asking me awkward questions.

I know what you're like!

And as well as hosting the GQT panel

we also have invited guests, too.

There's my new build families and Jim's Aden allotmenteers.

And as well as that we're going to dip into the post bag,

answer some of the viewers' queries

and finally we're ending up on the Gardeners' Question Time panel

and, again, hopefully answering all those questions!

It was ever thus.

-But the first question, Jim, I think goes to you.

-Yes.

-How are your tomatoes?

-They're doing fine.

It's time I was there!

And the first question relating to tomatoes

is when do you start feeding them?

Well, I can tell you - right now.

Because these plants have now been in for five weeks.

They're running out of steam.

Their heads are getting a bit thin

and some of you who saw the start of this whole story

will know that we're going to test two different types of tomato feed.

One is a commercial high potash,

the other is our very own comfrey liquor.

So one half will be done with one, then the other

and we'll compare the results a bit later on in the season.

Now then, sweet peppers and how to train them.

Now, the question is, how do you train these things?

Because they're a peculiar shape.

They grow like a triangle on its point.

That being the point, there.

Every time it produces a flower, it produces two shoots.

So these produce two and these produce two

and so you get something that's top-heavy.

It's a bit of a problem.

So what you do is you remove that shoot, there.

And you're going to have one fruit on that joint.

Now, see what happens when you come to the next one.

There's the flower.

One shoot, two shoot.

You remove one of the shoots...

and they break out quite nicely.

And you grow it, as it were,

at a single cordon all the way up the string

with a fruit at each leaf joint. And that's plenty for most people.

Well, Gardeners' Question Time, they're on their way.

But before they arrive, we thought we'd invite some people

that have been involved with Beechgrove this year

to have a look round the garden

and of course also ask us some questions.

Now, we're going to start off with Anna, who is one of the new builds.

And you might remember that Chris has been helping Anna and Andrew

to create a productive garden.

And you know, I think we might find them in the veggie plot.

In a way, this is how you expect your veggies to be growing -

on a much more extensive scale in the traditional rows.

You know, very allotment-like in a series of beds

-and you're rotating around.

-Yeah.

-Your style is slightly different.

-It's much more ornamental, more garden-style.

-It is.

And it's got a kind of nice... Yeah, it works both ways.

We've got the nice plant side that we're going to get some veggies,

-but it still looks really good. Filling the garden well!

-Yeah.

What's interesting is...

How does your crop compare - with something like the cabbages,

-for instance?

-Well, I've got some that are bigger than that!

OK, well, let's move on!

So this is on a completely different scale.

-All about getting the most crop from the smallest space.

-OK.

Yeah, this is really good.

This idea would work really well in our garden,

the idea of a raised, contained garden

that we can just keep eating.

Really it's all about selecting the right depth of pot

for the type of plant you're trying to grow.

So for instance with a table, like this,

we've got baby beet on the edges

and then spinach running down the middle.

And the reason for that is that the shallowest soil is here.

If you look at the bottom,

you can see there's a sloping base to it

so the spinach is in the deeper rooting zone

and the baby beet,

where you're just harvesting the leaves when they're very young,

is on the edges.

-And another good example is the carrots.

-Yeah, I love those.

You don't need a huge amount of space for carrots,

especially the round forms, the dwarfing forms.

-Pack them into a container like that but look at the depth of it.

-OK.

-Yeah.

-Nearly a foot deep so they can run those roots down

and then you're sure of getting not just good roots

but also, once you thin out, you've got the foliage as well

to throw in the salad.

Meanwhile, Jim is with Jack from the new Aden allotmenteers group

that Jim has been visiting on a regular basis this year.

Well, Jack, you never had any difficulty getting here, did you?

-No, I used to work here in 1978/79.

-It's changed a bit.

-It sure has!

This used to be one slope all the way up.

-Trees up in here, cold frames down the bottom.

-Aye.

With semi-hardwood cuttings over the winter time.

-Well, we've been busy since you left!

-You sure have!

It's been a big change since I seen it.

Well, Jack, I've brought you round to what we call Compost City.

And you see the compost of all stages

because one of the great features at Aden Country Park...

when you set up these allotments, every one of them has a compost bin.

-That's correct, yeah.

-And they're using them.

They're using them. The idea is to put all their compost in here

-and dig it back in at the end of the year.

-Yeah,

well, we like this style because it's easy to open up

and turn it, and fork it into another one. It's a great system.

-But you've also come up with a problem.

-Yes, pig manure.

-I've got a wee bag of it here.

-Oh, right!

We got this from a local pig farmer

and some of the allotments

have been digging it straight into the ground

to grow their vegetables this year on it.

And we've actually banned it

because there's a bit of a health issue, we think, with it.

I would have thought that's entirely possible if you're using it,

as it were, fresh on the place.

Always, in my estimation and in my experience,

you're offered pig manure, you compost it with something else

-and you leave the compost making for maybe six months...

-Aye.

-..and then you bury it.

-And then bury it, dig it in.

-You wouldn't put it on the surface - use it as mulch or anything.

-No.

And back to Chris again with Susan and Brian from the new-builds.

And, in their case,

Chris has been helping them create a new ornamental garden.

One of the great things about looking at other people's gardens

is just to look at the different ways in which they solve problems.

This is a seaside garden

and it has much more generous borders than the borders that you have.

And so we apply a slightly different planting technique.

So in your garden we're using individual plants

and knitting a tapestry together with quite fine threads.

Whereas here it's big, broad brush approach

with things like the Artemisia there, with the silvery leaf,

with others swathing through

and the Stachys coming through here.

This is great when you've got a bigger space

or where you want a low-maintenance solution.

So for instance, outside of the confines of the garden,

street-side planting.

If you think about seaside plants - very poor soil is what they enjoy.

Lots of sunshine and free-draining soil.

And all these plants will do well... and very low-maintenance.

Just cut them down at the end of the year

and they look after themselves.

-And what kind of colour is this - yellow or white, these ones?

-Mauve.

-That's a surprise for me!

-It'll suit the gable end of the house!

I didn't think it would be that.

And this is a slightly different style

but don't worry about where you tread here.

This is thyme as a basic bed running through,

not only on the horizontal but also as a waterfall -

a horticultural waterfall just dripping over the rock work.

Different way of covering space in a low serviced area

but it gives you that floral reward.

Do the flowers need a lot of soil to bed into?

It just looks like they're growing on the rocks.

No, these are plants which are used to

growing in just a centimetre or so of earth on top of rock

and they'll thrive.

No, it's a wonderful way of just employing

a slightly different style of planting.

They even attract the bees and we like the bees.

-That's one of the joys.

-There's lots of them. Lovely!

Meanwhile, George is with Willy from Aden Allotments,

in about the rhubarb.

Well, Willy, our rhubarb looks reasonable,

-but there's a story about this.

-Yeah.

This is a sample from my allotment, and pretty much the same

story across everyone else that's trying to grow rhubarb as well.

We've got these holes,

-and it's really been holding back the growth, we've noticed.

-OK.

If you turn it over - cos these holes are made by an insect -

-there are the eggs.

-Oh, right, yeah. I've seen them.

-The orange eggs.

-And if you look back here, look at that.

-Oh, yeah!

-Right?

-So we've got little nymphal stages there.

-Uh-huh.

And I reckon that that's the nymphal stage of, possibly, a flea beetle,

-and that eats holes in the leaves and, as you say, holds it back.

-Yeah.

Eventually, the plant will grow out of it.

-Not a serious problem.

-Excellent.

Well, more question and answers,

and we're going to be dipping into the postbag, Facebook and Twitter.

So, George, what have we got first?

Well, the first question is from Sheena Swanston,

who is from the Isle of Islay, and she thinks she's got a problem

because her cherry tree is laden with cherries,

so I think to keep the birds off,

-a good piece of netting over the top of it.

-Absolutely.

But also, she has a problem with her apple,

and she's complaining about blackness on the leaves.

Now, I think that's scab coming in already.

You now, humid conditions, warm weather -

-so the best way, really, is spraying...

-Sure.

..but use it as a preventative rather than a cure, I think.

-That's it.

-Then we move on to one - now, Joe Blackwell,

and I definitely think this is one for you,

-cos you've got the same problem.

-This is it. Look at that.

There's the mycelium of the problem.

-There is...a slightly out of focus one, but this one...

-That's good.

That is good. That is garlic, and that garlic has got white rot.

-And you have that in your allotment.

-I have it.

-So, what to do?

-Well, cry a lot.

But the other thing is, I've tried taking out a trench

and putting fresh compost in and growing it -

-and that hasn't made a difference.

-Not a lot.

-But, rotation.

Because this will persist in the soil for up to five years.

-Or even a raised bed, maybe.

-Yes, well, that would do.

OK, I like this question from Caroline Renner, here.

"Can you grow tomatoes and cucumbers in the same greenhouse?

"I'm getting a mixed response."

-I'd say yes.

-I would say yes as well.

If you've got just one small greenhouse, that's not a problem.

I know they need slightly different growing conditions, but have a go.

That's right. Maybe put the cucumber in a corner, where you isolate it.

This is a flower which was sent in, and you know, it's interesting

when we get sent flowers - we can say, "Oh, yes, that's such and such."

-That's an iris.

-It's an iris. But which one?

-I know.

This is Iris xiphium, which is the Spanish or the Dutch iris.

-It's the one we see in the florist shops.

-But we had to look it up.

-We had to look it up.

-We have to admit it!

-Yeah.

And then the last one here is this funny thing

that I actually dug up in my garden.

-What's this?

-And it's a stinkhorn fungi. Very, very strange.

-This is just the fruiting body just starting.

-That's right.

And there's no smell at the moment.

Because when this grows it come out and it's like a great big horn,

I mean, the Latin name is Phallus impudicus, and that's what it is!

-And it absolutely honks!

-It's horrible!

-It's terrible.

-So, if you have it, dig it out.

-I mean, it normally grows on rotten wood.

-Yeah.

It's essential in nature to rot timber that's lying in the forest.

Evidently you can eat that. I wouldn't like to.

Not today!

And yet more questions and answers about Gardeners' Question Time

and Beechgrove as the team arrive and take a tour round the garden.

I want to turn the tables on you,

because you've asked us lots of questions about the history

of Beechgrove Garden.

I'd like to know a little bit, you know -

how long have you been involved in Gardeners' Question Time?

Well, you see, Beechgrove is a babe in arms.

-THEY LAUGH

-Yes, it probably is!

-I mean, it's only been going since 1978, as opposed to 1947.

-Wow!

-But you didn't start on it then.

-No, it's as old as me.

-OK!

-But I haven't been doing it from the beginning.

No, I've done 20 years before the mast, as chairman.

-I think I'm the seventh or eighth chairman.

-Wow.

But the amazing thing about this programme

is that it started off as a six-week experiment -

a young BBC producer called Bob Stead.

And his bosses were a bit taken aback by this idea,

-because at a time when radio was scripted...

-Yes.

..what he was proposing was that he let ordinary bog-standard gardeners

loose on a microphone with no script.

I mean... What could they say?

I know, well, that's another interesting question,

because the panel, they don't know what the questions are, do they?

-No, no.

-You choose them.

-They always used to.

I mean, for the first 30 years of the programme's life,

they needed three weeks' notice and a course of pills, you know?

But we insisted on stopping that, because it just allows them

-to be more spontaneous.

-You put us on the spot, that's the trouble.

-Absolutely! Absolutely.

-But then that's quite nice as well.

Because as I think Jim would say, every day is a school day,

and we don't necessarily always know the answers,

but perhaps the audience like that.

It just - you're allowed to say, "I don't know."

Yeah, you are, aren't you?

It's absolutely brilliant,

I mean, it's obviously been going for a long, long time,

-and long may it continue.

-Let's hope so.

And that's us off to get ready for the Q&A session this evening.

And you can see that a bit later in the programme.

Never let it be said that gardening isn't competitive.

In the world of creating melons,

well, we've not had much success in 30-odd years of Beechgrove.

So I thought I'd give it a go in a hotbed.

This is a bed made of straw, newspaper, urine, dung,

and just about anything else that's going to create heat and rot down,

covered in a polythene sheet and nice and moist.

Dark polythene to absorb the sun's rays.

The temperature in here when it's all closed down -

57 degrees.

The soil temperature is stable at 27 degrees.

If we can't grow melons in those conditions,

we may as well all just give up.

But we're not finished yet,

because selection of the particular variety is important.

In a confined space like this,

you want something which is really quite compact,

and is going to deliver a real punch.

So two varieties which are well worth exploring, both from the '60s,

bred in America specifically for northern climes and small gardens.

This one's Minnesota Midget.

It produces a cantaloupe-like melon.

Not huge, but still, it's a melon.

And just be careful when you transplant -

they don't like root disturbance,

they certainly don't like being squeezed around the collar.

So leaving a watering gap, and then...

..just an added little bit of espionage -

the black polythene around is absorbing the heat

and pumping that down into the soil,

but the white collar that then slips over the top

reflects the sun's rays back up onto the underside of the leaf,

so it gets not only the first hit of sunshine

as the rays travel through the leaf,

but then a second hit as it bounces back through.

So, Minnesota Midget is one,

and the other one that's well worth trying

is a plant called Sweet Granite.

It's slightly larger, takes a bit more space,

but is equally promising.

Well, from the frantic to a slightly cooler approach.

And I'm going to take a tip from my dear old dad,

who was gardener many, many moons ago.

When his cold frames were emptied of bedding plants,

what was he going to do with them for the rest of the summer?

Grow melons.

So, first of all, he dug a huge hole, put in a pot, bottomless pot.

We're using landscape fabric.

Fill the bottom half with good old well-rotted manure -

and it really is well-rotted, it's breaking up beautifully.

Bottom half. And then in goes the compost.

Top it up.

And we've got three varieties of melon.

Going in this one is the Minnesota Midget.

HE CHUCKLES

I imagine they'll be about the size of oranges or something like that.

And here we have the plant ready to go.

Then we've got Sweet Granite, little bit bigger.

And at the far end there's one called Five Desserts -

in other words, one melon to five people, I suppose.

But there we go. Nice root system.

They do need to be cosseted, so the frames will be closed up.

Ventilated daily.

Nice, humid atmosphere,

but much steadier growth.

Absolutely super.

Well, Carol, it hardly seems like five weeks ago that we were

pulling out the spring bedding.

-We're starting all over again, aren't we?

-Yeah.

So we've got a range flowers here that will flower in the springtime,

so things like the pansy, violas -

I mean, there's some beautiful ones there.

Myosotis, wallflower, Bellis.

These can all be sown directly outside, just in rows.

Now, if you sow them in a row, you remember that that's them,

and you don't hoe them out.

I've got foxgloves here.

I could sow them in a row outside, or just scatter them

where I wanted them to flower next summer,

because these are summer flowerers.

But I'm going to take the chance of sowing them into cells.

-I made a little indentation on top.

-They're very fine, aren't they?

Don't do it on a windy day.

-You know? There they are, in there.

-And in cells because...?

Well, because then I can transplant them into pots,

I can grow them on as bigger plants. But I'm going to cover this.

-I've got my make-up brush.

-I thought that for me!

-No!

Isn't it amazing what us gentlemen use?

Now, I may be a little bit luckier here with the Sweet William,

cos it's slightly bigger seed,

and, again, this flowers in the summer time.

And I'm just sprinkling them on.

You know, be careful, don't put too many seeds in the pot.

If you've got lots of seeds, put it in another pot.

And then you'll just sprinkle compost on the top,

give it a good soaking of water,

and we should have a great display next year.

But you need to hurry up.

We're off to Banchory now,

for a Beechgrove meets Gardeners' Question Time special.

Mobile phones... Do you have your mobile phone on?

If your mobile phone goes off, we do have to punish you.

LAUGHTER

This is Woodend Barn near Banchory,

and it's the venue for tonight's Gardeners' Question Time,

the Q&A session.

Now, Jim, Chris and myself are going to be joining Matthew Wilson

on the panel, and, as ever, it's going to be chaired by Eric Robson.

So, fingers crossed,

we're going to be able to answer all the questions.

Your Gardeners' Question Time panel.

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

This week we've headed to Aberdeen

to meet up with our colleagues

on Scotland's longest-running and most popular

television gardening programme.

Who's got our first question, please?

Good afternoon, panel.

My name is Michael Williamson.

How does one get rid of voles in one's vegetable patch?

Michael, is it the fact the voles - are they eating the seeds?

Yeah - well, it's much more that they go inside the bulbs

-and eat the soft juicy bits in the centre of the bulbs.

-Yes.

OK, well, the one thing that I would suggest is

if you can get some gorse. That's quite good.

-So, when you're planting things, you know, whether it's...

-Ah!

-Is that a good one?

-I like it.

-Good!

-LAUGHTER

Need I say any more? It's prickly, they don't like it.

Which, actually, brings me onto another way of doing it,

which is - and my father found this,

my family have a great tradition of finding treatments for rodents,

and my father raided my mother's perfume cabinet,

-and used to use Chanel No 5.

-Thank the Lord for that!

LAUGHTER

Er, and tip that down the hole, and that works too.

-Right. Thank you, panel.

-Great stuff.

Lady, next.

Good afternoon.

Freda Emry, from Westhill Gardening Club.

I made the basic mistake of planting these Antirrhinum seed

without my glasses.

I now have a thicket.

Can I winkle out some seedlings,

or should the whole lot go on the compost heap?

May I give those to you, Mr Beardshaw?

-You say you did this without your spectacles...

-I did.

Did you also do it after dark?

LAUGHTER

I'll just hold this up for the benefit of everyone else.

LAUGHTER

Less a seed tray, more a square of turf.

The problem is going to be extracting them

without ripping the whole thing to pieces,

and I think the way of doing it

is to soak the whole thing in a bowl of water

and leave it there for an hour or so.

And you'll find it's then very easy to gently pick out

an individual leaf, give it a bit of a tease -

you might even want to use a pencil or a skewer to just tickle the roots,

and you'll be able to extract, you know, a reasonable amount.

To be honest, you're going to be there forever

if you try and plant them all.

But certainly you'll get, you know, several thousand out.

LAUGHTER

You can throw the rest away, I think it's safe to say.

But, yes, I mean, just a little bit of patience with it, really.

I may say, they are for a very special occasion.

My son wants to have some of his wedding photos

taken in the garden, and these ones will match the bridesmaids' frocks.

-OK.

-So I really do need one or two to survive.

-And when is the wedding?

-August.

Right. OK.

Pushing it, yes. Uh-huh.

Um, if you talk to us afterwards, we'll give you the name

of a very good bedding plant grower down the road.

LAUGHTER

Um...

I'd like to congratulate you for the germination rate.

Normally at occasions like this,

we have to deal with non-germination or very poor germination,

because sometimes home gardeners with a little greenhouse at the back

maybe just don't have the best of facilities

to germinate things like Antirrhinums.

Or they all damp off. But this is as you say, like a box of cress.

And I hope you get them to flower for August,

but I was thinking of August 2015.

Freda, it's great that you've actually put on the label

the date that you've sown them - so it was the 25th of April.

-Mm-hm.

-So, if you're going to grow Antirrhinums again,

and you really want them to flower quite early, you know, July, August,

really you need to sow them towards the end of February or into March.

-She might not have a wedding in 2015, so...

-But, you know,

for anyone who wants to grow them

and get the flowers, you have got to sow them a little bit earlier.

And just a little tip for people,

cos I know there's always this temptation

when you have a seed packet and you want to sow them all,

well, if you do, and they're very tiny seeds,

add a little bit of sand, and it spreads them out a bit more,

and you'll end up with not just one tray, one ice cream tray,

but about six.

I'll do my best.

Thank you very much for your question.

Yes, gentleman here.

Yes, good afternoon. Jock Grant, from Ellon.

What's the panel's view when it comes to planting trees?

Square holes or round holes?

LAUGHTER

Carole Baxter.

Well, I know Chris was talking about squares,

but I'm quite happy to go for round.

Just make sure it's big enough to start off with.

-I think that's really important.

-Yep.

The round holes are great,

as long as they're sort of angular round holes.

LAUGHTER

I like angular round holes.

The reason - the thought process behind the angular approach,

creating a square and steep-sided hole, is that the root -

if it's a pot-grown plant,

and I think this is where the difference between

open-ground plants, which have been grown in a field and then lifted

and sold on bare-root,

and those that are grown permanently in a pot is that those

that are grown permanent in a pot, most pots are round,

and therefore there's a tendency for those soft roots to lignify,

to become woody,

and for the process of this circular root motion to be determined,

and it's very difficult to break the plant out of that,

and the idea behind the square hole is that the circulating root

hits the corner of the hole, can no longer circulate,

and then penetrates off -

as long as you've dug the ground beyond the square hole.

So, I think there are all sorts of theories out there.

You'll find the one that works for you,

but be sure to have a defence ready in case it doesn't work.

What size of hole would you prefer?

LAUGHTER

What, to jump into?!

And that's it for this visit to Beechgrove.

Jim, Carole, thank you very much for being with us.

From me, Eric Robson, it's goodbye and good gardening.

APPLAUSE

Wow, what a marathon!

That's it all over, and some more questions answered.

And now back to the garden for some hints and tips.

I think it must be question 92 - "When do I prune my Clematis?"

Well, this one, Clematis montana "Alba",

flowering at this time of year

can be pruned immediately after flowering.

Take the hedge clippers to it. No finesse needed.

Whack it back to wherever, because it's so vigorous.

And this is the result. Absolutely stunning.

And whilst we're here, do you deadhead rhododendrons?

Only in their young and formative years,

because if you remove these flowers, look...

Take the flower out, just look.

There are the new shoots,

and the sooner you get this out the way in the seed head development,

the sooner that will start to grow properly.

Well, you know, I just had to come back

and have a look at these rapid salads from last week.

Last week was the 21 days, when we should have had baby leaves,

and some of them were quite tiny.

But now, haven't they grown?

And we're going to have a wonderful, fresh salad.

What a difference a week makes.

Buxus specimens, whether they're hedges or topiary, like this,

should be pruned ...

certainly before the end of June.

The reason for doing that

is that you're trying to catch that fresh growth

before it becomes too woody.

You're also pruning out any box aphid,

which will exist within the curled leaves and stems.

Prune them out, and then you won't have an infection later on.

And once you've carried out a light prune,

you can then water with a seaweed extract

right into the heart of the plant,

and that will help to revitalise the plant

and, it's said, deter box blight.

Just as Chris was cutting the boxwood

when the shoots were nice and soft, so it is with this pine,

and a bit of cloud pruning.

So, we're going to prune back the candles in this.

-CHUCKLES:

-There's more than "four candles" here, aren't there?

Nice and soft wood, prune them back, pretend you're a rabbit.

Get them cut off and make it into a nice tight ball.

I reckon this is coming on rather nicely, this area,

-and we should give it a little bit of a higher profile.

-We should.

-I mean, look at those orchids, they're beautiful.

-Spreading.

-Yeah.

-I think maybe one or two wee bits of clover, the big red clover,

or something like that would look quite well in here.

-It goes with the grass.

-Yeah, just to punch a bit of colour in.

-Yeah.

Add a little bit of extra texture. But the colonies of plants.

-Up at the top.

-All the yellow and orange Fox-And-Cubs tumbling down,

-keeping it all natural, just moving around.

-Super.

I would like to reduce the Lady's Mantle a bit, Alchemilla.

It's very invasive at the expense of other things.

Cut the heads off or just chop bits out.

-Controlled.

-Controlled.

Well, if you'd like any more information

about this week's programme,

and there will be lots of questions and answers there,

it's all in the factsheet,

and the easiest way to access that is on the website.

Well, we're off on holiday, aren't we?

-Away down the Angus coast.

-Yes, yes.

-Down to Carnoustie.

-Get a bit of a...

-Get the golf clubs out.

-Mm-hm, possibly.

-Which leaves these pair.

-It's just you and me in the garden.

-It is! Gosh.

-That means we can get up to mischief.

-We can.

Don't tell them what we're going to do, though.

-We can go anywhere we like.

-Anything could happen.

But you're on the community garden.

-We are.

-Yes, yes.

The less said about that, the better.

We're off for a fortnight

because dear old Wimbledon will be whacking the ball back and forward.

We'll be checking up on what the lawn's like down there.

It won't be as good as ours. Until next time.

-Bye!

-Goodbye!