Episode 14 The Beechgrove Garden

Hello and welcome to Beechgrove on a rather sultry summer day.

-It is, but it's quite nice that it's warm, isn't it, Jim?

-Indeed.

Here we are, right into the potato howking.

Some of them have already been lifted

-and we're working away. How do you tell if they're ready?

-I know.

You can cheat a little bit

because you can take the soil back a little bit and look.

-Have a furtle.

-These are rather disappointing, Arran Pilots.

Well, that also makes the point, you see.

You can check whether to leave them a bit longer

if you're looking for a heavier yield.

-This is the variety Casablanca.

-And that's really good.

Which is producing some really very, very nice...

But usually you can tell by the flowering.

As soon as they stop flowering they start to bulk up.

-But some varieties don't produce a flower.

-I know.

And earlies, you tend to say, well, 12 weeks,

and it was 14 weeks to the day that we put these in.

I'm impressed with those but Arran Pilot I'm not so sure about.

Much to be done, much to be done.

And in the rest of the programme?

For a start I travel to the far south-west of Scotland, about

as far as I could go, to the Mull of Galloway, to visit Logan Gardens.

I could well have been in the Mediterranean or in Australia!

Wonderful!

Three months is a long time in gardening circles,

especially if you're new to the subject.

This week it's time to return to my new-build families who,

in that period, have seen their gardens transformed,

I hope, from mud bath to fruit basket and flower bowl.

And meanwhile we kept on digging potatoes.

And here we have some of the results of the very early crops.

First of all, with Casablanca, the first early.

Grew it last year for the first time, absolute topper.

Here we have the product of six tubers on a ridge.

Not looking too bad at all, are they? Planted at the same time.

12 tubers on the flat and covered with black polythene.

Here we have them, here.

But occupying the same space so, for the sake of six extra tubers,

I think we, arguably, have a heavier yield.

The individual size of the potatoes might be slightly smaller,

but that's a moot point.

Some people like wee tatties, don't they?

So, on the flat, if you're not fit to ridge the crops,

on the flat with a bit of black polythene works a treat.

Incidentally, at home, what I do with mine

is to put a bit of Layflat polythene tube under the polythene to be

able to water them, and that I think will increase the yield

significantly over the seasons.

Now, this is another interesting question that we get asked -

should you plant non-chitted seed or not?

Here we have Foremost, one of the great favourites of all time,

an early potato.

Here we have Foremost that has actually been planted, not chitted.

It was kept in the cold and the dark so the sprouts wouldn't develop,

planted at the same time as the conventional ones,

which were allowed to be chitted and all planted on the same day.

And the difference is self-evident.

We weighed it - five kilos versus three kilos.

Which means you chit your potatoes and plant them.

Just what we keep telling you.

Now, let's have a wee look at the cabbages.

We've just been talking about polythene

and one of the bonuses there is you don't have to do any weeding.

The same applies with the onions, coming on beautifully,

loving this heat. They are under cornstarch - no weeding.

Undisturbed, they are growing like the clappers. Good brassicas.

They've lapped up the weather. We'll come back to the kale later.

We've got a nice selection of kale

and it's a super veg at the moment, isn't it?

But earlier in the season we planted the cabbage.

I know that the more room you give cabbage the bigger they get.

And for a modern family you don't need a huge, big cabbage.

So I set out to prove it. And here we've got the variety Minicole.

And at this end we planted 25 in a square metre.

And in the middle, 13 in a square metre.

And at the far end, nine in a square metre.

And here we have them, here - Mummy Bear, Daddy Bear and Baby Bear.

This is Mummy Bear. This is from the middle.

This is from 13 plants to the square metre.

Really solid-looking cabbage, ready for harvesting.

It's going to fall off... Here's Daddy Bear.

Absolutely massive and got a long way to go

if you want a cabbage that size.

But for me, Baby Bear will do. Minicole.

25 to the square metre. That's a lot of cabbage.

Look at that, enough for a family for one boiling. Beautiful variety.

Well, we've got some good news and some bad news in this poly tunnel

and I want to start with the good news.

And it's all about the cucumbers.

You might remember I was comparing a variety - it's Mini Munch,

so it's small cucumbers, an all-female one.

In a bag with a peat-based compost.

And the other is a peat-free compost.

And the gardeners, well,

they've been keeping a record of the number of cucumbers and the weight,

and I think the results, well, it's no surprise,

the peat-based one is much better.

Twice the number of cucumbers so far.

We've had 70 from four plants

and 35 from four plants in the peat-free one.

But weight-wise, it's not quite the same.

About one and a half times the weight in the peat-based one.

But it does seem to me that at the moment

we don't have a good substitute for a peat-based compost.

So, moving on, we've got these summer squashes, or the patty pans.

And they are lovely.

This is a variety called Polo - lovely scalloped edge to it.

You use them a bit like courgettes,

although when they are really tiny you can eat them raw in salads.

But you can also stir-fry them,

put them in casseroles, a whole variety of things.

However, I'm so disappointed,

and this is something you're going to see inside and outside in the garden

at the moment.

We've got a terrible case of powdery mildew.

It's very obvious and what we need to do, basically,

is some of the worst leaves, I'm just cutting them off.

If you're using a knife or secateurs, make sure you disinfect them

afterwards because you don't want to spread that onto healthy plants.

And I think the reason, quite honestly - and again this is going

to come up several times in the programme - it's all about watering.

Not enough watering. And also it's the ventilation in here.

The combination, if you don't have enough ventilation

and enough watering, then I'm afraid you do get this powdery mildew.

And it's the same with petritus as well.

See there, the grey mould? That's coming in, too. A big problem.

But then, we have had some nice weather.

And I want to finish on a high note.

This is a lovely little gourd here. It's the Tennessee Spinning Gourd.

Never grown it before. It's not edible, it's purely ornamental.

And in a few weeks' time we are going to crop these

and you dry them off and you can use them in your home.

Three months in the garden can see tremendous change,

especially in the veggie plots.

And Anna and Andrew, my new-build family, from Portlethen,

have witnessed a huge change from sodden clay

and builders' rubble to now a garden which is bearing fruit.

-So, three months into this crazy experiment...

-What a difference.

It looks amazing, doesn't it?

We started out with a site that would barely grow grass.

-Compacted, waterlogged. Really awful. And yet...

-Look at it, yeah!

-It's a harvest bowl.

-It's really good.

-What has worked for you?

Among things we'll keep going and have again is strawberries.

They are so easy and it's exciting to see what is going to appear.

The peas and beans are just amazing.

They are really easy, straightforward.

We've had a crop really quickly already. You can see them appearing.

The favourites, apples. We have lots of apples.

One of the things with the apples,

-not only was your bumblebee hand pollination...

-It worked.

I was sceptical, but it worked.

It worked and you've got a great crop.

It's partially about the variety. Scrumptious, a good one.

It's against the fence, espaliered, you gave it every opportunity.

The beans, when they get up to around about three feet, pinch the tip out.

That will encourage extra flowering further down,

so you get a second flush of flowering.

And don't throw the tips away. You can use them.

-Strawberry crops, wonderful.

-Yeah.

What about the things that didn't do so well,

or that you're troubled about?

Things that we are a little bit worried about is the beetroot.

It's tiny little bulbs and it's a big, long top to it.

The roots are starting to fill out, aren't they?

But I think the fact it's running to seed,

and you can tell it's running to seed because the flower's forming there.

It's a classic sign that the plant is being threatened

in some environmental way.

Cold will do it, so put a cloche on them after you sow them.

-Don't sow them too densely, or if you do have to, thin them out.

-OK.

And regular watering.

The roots are fine.

You'll still be able to harvest those and use the foliage, too.

-And then we can plant again, keep going?

-Yeah. What else?

-The other thing, obviously, is the apple tree.

-OK, the Egremont russet.

We've got really good apples growing on one side

and on the other side our little tree seems to be dying.

There's a couple of issues with this. If you roll the leaf back,

you can see on the underside remnants of aphids.

It's the carcass of an aphid.

They've now moved on, but that's what's causing the leaf to curl.

And the discolouration on the leaf and this dieback that you see here

is apple scab, which is a fungal complaint.

The thing to do, well, if it occurs early next spring,

prune out the young shoots and that will get rid of it.

Or, at this time of the year, to stop it developing spores

and affecting anything else, you can spray.

-There's plenty of fungicides.

-OK.

-And then we've got the wild flowers.

-Yes, it's gone crazy.

Which is great. My concern is there are gooseberries in there.

-What should we be doing care-wise?

-The gooseberries are doing fine.

They are still there. Gooseberries don't mind competition.

So clear a little bit of space around them.

Give them two or three feet around the bole of each plant.

And also, the meadow...

All of these wild flowers, it was all about generating some interest

for insects, to bring them into the garden.

You'll be bringing beneficial insects in which will be coping with

any pests that arise next year. So it's a short-term stop, really.

-And it's worked.

-It's starting to flower. It's bringing insects in.

We've got loads - bumblebees, caterpillars, everything.

Butterflies. And it's starting to look really nice, with the flowers.

Yeah, the next few weeks it will bounce through.

Once they finish flowering and before they set seed,

come in with a hand fork and fork them all out.

You've enjoyed the flowers, they've done their job. Take them out.

This will be next year's cropping.

Yeah, start planning already for what we can grow.

More vegetables, more fruit, yeah, carry on.

That's a sign that you're hooked. You're planning ahead.

You want more space and you've got ambitions for next year.

While Anna plans for next year, Susan, my other new-build novice,

over at nearby Cove, is out admiring her garden.

Three months ago we started out with the remnants of a building site.

Are we a happy gardener now?

A very, very happy gardener. I'm just loving how it's all evolving.

If we look at the three geraniums there, I'm absolutely amazed

how much better it looks having three of something.

I would never have done that before.

I would just have bought one because I would be too nervous in case

it didn't grow or didn't look nice or whatever.

But not everything's been doing terrifically well.

This pulmonaria here isn't looking too happy.

No, he's looking a bit mouldy.

The flowers did come, but then this mould arrived...

It's a fungal complaint. It's mildew.

Pulmonarias are, unfortunately, prone to it.

But I think it's been exacerbated by the fact that these are new plants.

They've been struggling a bit.

It's interesting when you compare the pulmonaria with the geraniums here.

And again, with the hypericum over there,

they are all looking a bit drought.

-Drought, in Aberdeen?!

-I know!

You never thought you'd say it, but the way that the foliage is

just curling, and I think this is an issue with new soil

and the fact that it's just a very light, open, fluffy texture.

And when you water, make sure that you water heavily enough,

so after a couple of days without any rain,

with new plants, because the roots haven't had a chance to get

out into the soil, get the sprinkler on or the hosepipe

and drench the plant. But look at the hedge, this side and that side!

After you made me cut them down and they were so baldy, I didn't believe

you that they were going to survive and they would get so lovely.

-But look at them! Great!

-I'd like to say that I'm not smug...

-You are!

-I know you are.

-We'll just move on, shall we?

It's all about getting it to bush out from just about ground level,

because that will ensure a nice, thick hedge

-and then you can carry out pruning at the top.

-I'm looking forward to...

I'm looking forward to seeing how the flowers come in

the hedge as well.

I think that's part of the amazement to me about the garden,

because I can see your skill,

how wonderful you are at how you've chosen the flowers...

-Steady, steady! It's not an advert for me.

-Well...

-But carry on.

I think the thing is that I'm amazed at how the flowers...

It's like an ebb and a flow.

Some of them are just coming into flower and some are dying off,

so there's always something to look at walking round the garden.

I would never have had that idea.

I would have had a blast of flowers for about six weeks

in the summer and then nothing, just green.

And I just love the fact that there are

-so many things to look at all the time. It's great.

-That is the trick.

-You've done well!

-Well, thank you! I'll take that as a compliment.

-I would!

-It is about just getting that longevity.

And not thinking of the garden

just when you're buying plants in the nursery, but thinking about what

the plant is going to provide for you throughout the season.

-Yeah.

-Remember that choreography we were talking about?

-That's what you're doing. It's that constant...

-Orchestrating.

-Orchestrating - I like it.

-And I think the piece de resistance...

Brian's handiwork frames the picture perfectly.

It draws the eye in and takes away from the boring garage. The hanging gardens of Cove.

-I quite like that.

-So do I.

-When are you opening it?

-Very soon.

It'll be very expensive, though.

Well, it's been a bit of a testing time for the tomatoes

in our glasshouse here.

The tropical weather has meant that we've had very high temperatures.

Very difficult to manage the crop in these conditions.

And the results are that some of the plants are struggling a little bit.

To remind you what we've got here, it's a set of varieties this side,

all being fed with a commercial tomato fertiliser.

All in the same compost.

Same compost this side, but they are being fed with comfrey.

The fact of the matter is, they look in a pretty sad state

because of the problems we've had with the weather.

And I would put it down to the fact that we chose the same compost

all the way through - a growbag compost - and we put them in pots.

And I think the pots are too small. They dry out far too quickly.

As a result, the soup in there is too strong

and the plants can't suck it in and we are getting this death

of the tips of some of the plants,

but with some of the others they are beginning to recover.

The most important thing is we are going to get a crop,

so the result will be relative to the season.

It might just not be as good as I hoped it would be.

I don't think we've been in a seaside garden for quite a while

and this is one of the gardens that I designed.

And there was a bit of a colour theme, with grey, yellow and blue.

And I'm going to add a new addition here.

It's an alpine trough and keeping to that same colour theme.

So to start off with, crocks in the bottom.

There's a drainage hole and you don't want that to be blocked up.

And then you fill it with compost.

And this compost has got to be well drained.

And it's a 50-50 mix,

a 50-50 mix of alpine grit

and a soil-based compost.

So that's it filled with the compost

and these alpines do like good drainage.

And my first plant is the oyster plant.

This is a lovely plant that trails over the edge and the foliage is

a lovely bluey colour, but it also bears really nice blue flowers, too.

I'm keeping that fairly proud because I'm going to top-dress it afterwards.

So that's the first one.

Then I'm going to go for this beautiful saxifrage.

This grows to about a foot in height,

so I'm going to put it at the back here.

And that has white flowers.

Then, on this edge, I'm going to put this lovely little aquilegia.

We've got aquilegias in the garden and they grow 2-3 feet in height.

This is a really compact one, just a few inches,

with blue and white flowers.

Celmisias, I love these ones.

Daisy-like flowers. Yellow and white.

It's going to make a nice centrepiece.

Then the sea thrift. This is a white form.

Tease out the roots on this one.

And then it's always nice to maybe have a bit of a surprise as well,

so...

the last addition is a little bulb I'm going to put in.

It's Sternbergia.

And it has yellow flowers, yellow crocus-like flowers, in the autumn.

So that's planted in there.

And now I'm going to top-dress it with some crushed shells,

to keep to that seaside theme.

And then finally...

a little bit of beachcombing.

But you don't just have to have alpine troughs in a seaside garden.

I've another one in the woodland garden.

In contrast to our seaside garden,

which is very open and exposed, the woodland is sheltered and shady.

And I've planted up a little trough at the end with some absolute gems.

They are tiny plants.

Here's a dwarf willow, which is going to creep over the edge.

A little astilbe, with white flowers.

Another white flowering plant here is a maianthemum. Really tiny.

And that one we spotted at Gardening Scotland.

Now, all these plants, the whole detail of them will be

in the fact sheet.

It's been top-dressed with gravel and we've used the pine cones.

The compost is slightly different, though,

because they like a moisture-retentive soil.

So one part alpine grit, two parts soil-based compost

and two parts soilless compost.

I tell you, you're in for a treat today,

because I've travelled from the north-east of Scotland

to the south-west corner, to the Rhins of Galloway, to be precise,

to visit Scotland's most exotic garden. Five-star status, indeed.

I mean Logan, of course,

which is one of the outstations of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

First, let's meet the curator, Richard Baines.

-I used the word "exotic" there. Is it justified?

-Absolutely.

Logan is all about growing on the edge.

It's about growing plants which we shouldn't be growing in Scotland,

plants from the southern hemisphere,

places like the Atlantic islands, Chile, South Africa, New Zealand.

Plants you wouldn't expect to see.

But it's nice to see a familiar old friend now and again,

something people recognise.

Yeah, geraniums. Great plants for growing near the sea.

They really do well here.

Yes, but the vistas in this garden are so extraordinary

because you don't see them anywhere else.

Yeah, we are very fortunate in that the garden has been going

a number of years and we have a really good structure of planting.

Lots of palms, cabbage palms etc.

But here we've got lots of half-hardy perennials.

It's kind of a bedding scheme, isn't it?

Yeah, we've got some lovely plants.

This is Senecio "Candicans", which comes from the high mountains of Ecuador.

-And it's really unusual.

-It's shining! It's like silver metal.

Magic. Every day is a school day.

HE CHUCKLES

Now, you sort of paused here, Richard. Nondescript rhododendron.

Past flowering. What's the story?

Yeah, this is rhododendron kanehirai, from northern Taiwan.

In a piece of recent research it was found that there are only four

plants of this left in the world,

two here at Logan and two at the Botanic in Edinburgh.

And here we see one of the classic remits of a botanic garden -

-plant conservation.

-Absolutely. But that's what underpins your work.

Very much so.

-There are some glorious pieces for us to admire visually as well.

-Yeah.

Well, on the greater landscape, these are peat walls,

which were developed in 1926, by the McDouall brothers,

the first of the kind to be developed anywhere in the world.

And even today we continue to replant plants which are ericaceous plants,

which love nice, moist, peaty soils.

What a beautiful sight here with these candelabra primulas.

Aren't they wonderful? A great range.

So many different colours and great for Scottish gardeners.

Funnily enough, they are juxtaposed

by these old dinosaurs from way back.

These are classical. 150 years old, these Dicksonia Antarcticas.

-Really?

-Amazing.

These plants actually came from the original

exhibition at the Crystal Palace.

They grow approximately one centimetre each year

and if you think of all the hard winters we've experienced

over the last century and these are still living...

Well, we are on to a terrace. Different characteristics?

Yeah, quite different. Very good drainage. Hottest part of the garden.

All these plants from South Africa love lots of sunshine.

We see here phygelius.

Even plants like dianella,

-which produce lovely magenta-coloured berries later on.

-Stunning thing.

-The last time I saw this chap was in Madeira.

-Madeira, the Canaries...

It's echium, isn't it?

These are echium pininana and this is a new hybrid,

which we've grown here for the first time.

This is a cross between the wildpretii and pininana

and a stunning colour.

Most people will know the little ones that we use in annual borders

-and again wonderful colour.

-Great colour, nice easy plants to grow.

Everywhere you turn there are incredible views

either of individual plants or...

That vista there, just look at that.

-Yeah, you wouldn't believe you were in Scotland, Jim.

-No!

That's for sure.

I guess the most comments will come about these gunneras.

-Yeah, amazing plants. Absolutely amazing.

-Stunning.

-You wouldn't imagine it was from Brazil, would you?

-This is true.

I'll tell you what, Richard, these tree ferns do remarkably well here.

-Stunning.

-Yeah, really at home. Good Atlantic maritime conditions.

-Yes.

Really thrive.

Autumn, the spores reproduce on-site, which is great.

Do they benefit from the shelter of the eucalyptus?

-I imagine they do, the canopy.

-Yeah, both in summer and winter.

In winter, to keep the worst of the frost off them,

and during the summer to protect them from strong winds.

-So there's dual benefits.

-Bignonia's a nice happenstance, isn't it?

-Yeah, and melaleuca.

-Isn't it gorgeous?

Member of the Myrtaceae family.

You've got a fair selection of eucalyptus.

Yeah, we've got 40 different species, all fast-growing from seed.

-I wish I hadn't asked! 40 different species!

-40 species, yeah.

Looking up there, stonking.

-New facility?

-Yeah, we just finished this these last few weeks.

-And you're growing heathers?

-Yeah, tree heathers from South Africa.

-Fascinating plant. So showy.

-Uh-huh. And a pelargonium collection.

-Large collection of pelargonium species.

-What have we got here?

-Lots of aeoniums from the Canary Islands.

-Good stuff.

-But tell me about this house, because it's a bit special.

-It's very special.

It's a new generation of self-sufficient greenhouses,

which are carbon neutral.

They are powered by green energy, solar PV and S4C pumps.

HE CHUCKLES

I'm frightened to death of that sort of thing!

Let's get back to the plants. Protea.

Yeah, absolutely exquisite plants.

-Gorgeous.

-Leucospermum cordifolium. Just amazing.

Do you fancy trying that outside?

I've got a very similar one, protea cynaroides,

one of the finest proteas,

flowering probably for the first time ever in Scotland.

Come to Logan and see it.

Congratulations! What a way to stop.

-Wonderful and thanks for a wonderful day.

-Enjoyed it.

Jim briefly mentioned onions in the main vegetable plot,

and they were sown back in springtime.

These are our overwinter onions, so these were planted in autumn

and they are ready for lifting. The foliage has died down.

In the past, it used to say to bend over the foliage,

slightly lift it up to help them ripen off.

But it's decided nowadays you don't need to do that,

so I'm going to lift them, dry them,

and next week we are going to compare these with ones that

George has grown in his allotment in Edinburgh.

We are always trying to pass on a few tips and here is one on how

to manage the bramble or blackberry, which is known to be very vigorous.

When you're managing them,

you take all the young growth up the vertical and you put the fruiting

canes along parallel wires in the light, and ripening up beautifully.

This one happens to be particularly easy to manage

because it's thornless and the variety is Helen.

Just look at the crop in prospect.

Jim, we started the programme with tatties

and we are going to finish with tatties on the decking.

-Are you happy with progress on the decking?

-Not at all, not at all.

Let's just start off with what you lifted, three tubers of Casablanca.

-In the open ground.

-In the open ground. And the weight?

-2.5kg.

OK, then we've got the peat-based, in a pot, three tubers.

1.6.

I've had a lot more than that before.

In old money I've had as much as 5lbs or 6lbs

and I think that's just over 3lbs.

Peat-free, even worse - 1.2kg.

-We won't try that again.

-No, I think we would know that, wouldn't we?

-I think so.

-What are you doing next week?

-Next week, in amongst the sweet peas.

-Jolly good.

-Which is one of my favourite cut flowers.

-Indeed.

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

in the fact sheet, and the easiest way to access that is on the website.

And I shall be looking at progress on the sweet peppers

and I've been out to Aden see how the allotments are getting on.

-You've been busy!

-Super! Until next time, goodbye.

-Goodbye.