Episode 15 The Beechgrove Garden

Well, hello and welcome to Beechgrove Garden.

This is a day for the beach, isn't it?

We can't be there but we've got the next best thing, haven't we?

-We are by the pond.

-Clear blue sky, clear water.

Now, how did that happen? When you think what it was like.

If we go back...

Jane, our head gardener, found this magic ingredient,

it's all to do with microbes, you just add it to water.

That was in May, I did another one in June because it seems to work

better with higher temperatures, around about 13 degrees C.

You'd have to wait until the temperature came up, wouldn't you?

Yes, and it's absolutely cleared that blanket weed, it's fantastic.

-Astonishing, it really is, not a sign.

-Wonderful.

Look at the hardy annuals as well, looking bonnie at the moment.

Everywhere! We'll be coming back to that, I think.

Well, I'm off to look at some sweet peppers.

Meanwhile, in the rest of the programme...

In this week's garden visit, I'm meeting a gardener who is

particularly passionate about plants,

but her real love is wild flowers.

And you might think you were in the middle of a farmer's park here

but no, there's more, much more. Keep watching.

Well, it's time for a wee bit of an update on our sweet peppers

although I know some of you call them bell peppers,

I've always known them as sweet peppers.

This plant, if you let it be,

will grow in a sort of triangular fashion.

It starts from one point there at the top of the pot

and it keeps going and keeps going and keeps going

because every shoot, when it reaches its maturity, divides into two

and it's 2+2+2 and so it goes on.

And my view of the way to train them

is to remove one of these shoots every time at the top and you

finish up therefore with a single stem, although it's a bit zigzag.

Going down the same theme, you'll notice that here we've got two

peppers at one leaf joint. We've got another two at one leaf joint.

What we're going to finish up with, if they all do the same, is a glut.

Meantime, the plant is actually stymieing

because it can't produce enough energy to extend.

Far better that you actually remove,

and I'm going to be a bit of a vandal here,

I'm going to remove one there and one there.

One...and so you then get a progression.

You release the plant from that burden

and so it will keep on going up the way.

That's the important point

and gives you a nice succession as I keep saying.

I noticed in our Letter Digest this week, one that was

talking about the sweet peppers being grown in this fashion

but the flowers were dropping off. It's what we call dry set.

It happens with tomatoes as well and it's

because you've got an arid, dry atmosphere, so you must keep a

certain amount of humidity for these flowers to set and stay there.

George, this is great, we're harvesting our onions

and these were actually planted back in September last year.

So, it's our overwinter onions and shallots.

And we grew them at Beechgrove, that's this lot here

-and also in your allotment at the front here.

-That's right.

And what I did in my allotment, because I am

so full of onion white rot, the soil is contaminated with it,

I grew some in the soil and that's the ones along the front

and I grew some in a compost. So, I took out a trench

and I filled it with multipurpose compost and I planted them in that,

thinking that I'd be able to solve the problem.

-And did it?

-No.

There was so much in the soil that it's leached into this compost

and all of the crop has been infected.

-And it was quite a wet winter as well, wasn't it?

-Really wet, yes.

OK, so this is why we've set it up here, because you've still got

the white rot and we don't want it in the garden.

-I don't want it back there!

-Right, what are we looking at?

We're looking at an onion which can often look quite fresh on the outside

but what we've got here is this really soft growth there.

-Pretty awful, isn't it?

-Really awful.

And that will eventually crinkle right down really

and it becomes small black spots and these are what

are called sclerotia, and these sclerotia then go into the soil

and they can stay in the soil for anything up to, what, seven years.

So the answer for you really is not to grow onions for at least

-seven years.

-Go to the supermarket.

-Well, or come to Beechgrove.

-Cos these are brilliant!

-They are really good.

So, the front of these trays, these were the ones that were grown

outside and at the back, the same variety were grown under cover.

Like a giant cloche, open doors, and I have to say,

the ones under cover are the best

-and in particular...

-That's a cracker!

Shakespeare. Look right across the board here, these are the winners.

It's a new variety, British bred and I think because they're under cover

as well, they're already fairly dry, they're absolutely fantastic.

And it fills the gap, doesn't it?

Yes, because these are the ones which are mature, what, end of June,

beginning of July

and the other ones that we've planted conventionally in May and June,

they're not going to be ready until September, so it fills a gap.

It's worth doing it. Worth doing it.

SHE GIGGLES

Back in March I made my first visit to the Aden allotmenteers.

This is the first year of productive gardening for the group.

Four months on, I'm back to see progress and it's pretty impressive.

Well, you know how first impressions are so important?

Well, after my last visit here I went away

and thought, "How successful are these guys going to be?"

Wow.

I tell you what, there's beautiful crops all over this place.

OK, some are maybe falling behind, but I tell you what,

they've cracked it.

In March, Josh had only had his allotment for a few days.

-Well, hi there, Josh.

-Hello, Jim.

Things have moved on a bit since you...since I saw you last.

Nice onions.

-Thank you very much.

-Yeah, good.

And I did want to pick up on your wee story about the raspberries.

That intrigued me when we were here last.

How did you plant them and where does the idea come from?

Dug a trench and filled it with manure.

Planted it on top of the manure.

Back-filled it all in and put a four-inch layer of wood chips.

As a horticultural student, you will know that wood chips,

in breaking down, tend to rob the soil of nitrogen,

so how do you compensate?

So, you constantly top up with more manure and then rake it in.

OK, and where does this idea come from again?

-It came from a documentary I saw based in North USA.

-OK, OK.

Now, they've got a longer growing season, colder winters,

-hotter summers, although it's hot today, isn't it?

-Oh, yes.

Do you think it will work here? I mean, are you quite confident?

-Well, it's an experiment, so we will see.

-Well, be assured,

we will follow this experiment. I look forward to it.

Well, this looked like a load of pallets had been dumped off

the last time I saw it, so we've moved on reasonably well...

raised beds indeed!

Gordon is only just starting work on his new allotment

and he's building it up on No Dig principles.

Took a back injury a couple of years ago or so.

And I was just forced to come up with a new method of growing

and I wish I did find the No Dig years ago. It's a lot easier.

Supposing we were going to tackle this bit,

make a bit of vegetable garden.

You would do nothing with this, just start on top of what you've got?

Yeah, pick your area, cardboard is usually the first layer.

It's very popular, it disintegrates.

And then you just layer up brown and green

-until you get to the height you desire.

-What sort of depth?

Minimum four inches.

So, well, let's take tatties for example,

they are all around us here, potatoes.

You scrape away the top and you lay the potatoes on the top

of the cardboard and then you turn that over the top.

Are the tatties not going to go down the way?

No, they tend to grow on the surface.

You might get one or two that'll go a little bit lower

but they tend to grow on the surface and the compost is

so soft you can just pull them out with your hands.

Would you put any feed on before or subsequently?

I've never found the need to feed. The compost does everything.

Well, I shall follow your progress.

We'll be back in September and it's been a fascinating chat

and I've learned quite a lot.

Thanks.

Now then, Sandy and Donald, you've strayed away from your own plots.

Tell me the story of these glasshouses here,

the frames here...Donald?

Well, we were gifted this one from an old gentleman in Hatton who

was no longer able to use it, so this one and this was something similar.

And the poly tunnels?

The poly tunnel came from a community project that folded.

-OK, so, a bit of recycling.

-Recycling, yes.

And what's the purpose? Because this is for the whole community?

Well, for the whole...the whole community, all the plot holders here

-to use for whatever they want, really.

-That's terrific.

They'll get plants raised early and nicely protected.

-And Sandy, how's your allotment doing?

-Coming along nicely,

you ken, a big difference in it.

-Do you think we should do a wee bit of a mid-term?

-Aye, have a look.

I went down to the supermarket this morning, got some veggies to show you!

-THEY LAUGH

-Come on!

Well, this is brilliant, Sandy, let's get it out

so that we can see the stuff properly.

-Now, is this beyond your expectation?

-Much.

Absolutely fantastic.

We've seen the potatoes before.

Well, I have anyway, you were very kind

and you gave me some away with me.

These are Red Dukes. But carrots, ready, parsnips.

-Parsnips, hardly ready, but...

-Hardly ready but fine.

-Fine size.

Brilliant broccoli and cauliflower.

They're ready, yes. In fact, they're offering to shoot a wee bit.

-Yes, I almost said, are you surprised?

-I am.

I was shocked when I saw the cauliflower.

I wasn't expecting them that size, the cauliflower!

This was agricultural land. You guys have been working it since winter.

I think the results are absolutely fantastic.

I think they are because, I mean, there was a lot of work put into it.

Any problems?

Nay... Well, just bolting a wee bit, some of the stuff.

That, I think, is a weather thing.

Some of my onions have bolted at home and I think it's dry.

You know, if they get a check not long after they're planted out,

so we've aye something to complain about!

We've aye got something to moan about. I'm happy with this.

-Well done.

-Very happy.

Jim, that's absolutely tremendous.

The progress they've made at Aden Country Park!

It's a great encouragement to people

when they see that that was just a ploughed field and, you know,

they've progressed at different levels.

-It's all about how much time they can put in and so on.

-Parsnips?

-In the middle of July.

-Absolutely amazing.

And you are going back.

We will go back and we will be able to compare

and we'll have a look at the harvest that's gone.

What I love about the place is you meet the old stagers

who've been at it for a very long time

and the youngsters and the families.

New ideas.

This time we're looking at what is perma-culture as

-we tried several years ago.

-Absolutely fantastic.

-Magic.

Now, back to my favourite cut flower as a hardy annual, sweet peas.

-I would have to agree with you.

-Can't beat them. And the perfume...

Now that was one of the reasons that you chose this collection.

Yes, one of the seed companies offered a collection

and the important thing was that all of them had a nice perfume.

-Wafting out, isn't it?

-There is one or two that are quite outstanding.

This one has taken quite a long while to recognise this man,

Robert Uvedale, who was one of the people who helped introduce

and popularise sweet peas way back, three centuries ago.

-Well, it's taken a long while to recognise him.

-Amazing colour.

It's a tremendously strong grower as well.

I mean, if we go round, that's my favourite this time

and that is very delicate and it's April In Paris.

-That's a nice name, quite subtle.

-Mustn't forget dear old Percy.

-Percy Thrower there.

-And I like that one there. Almost black.

-It's got to be seen with others.

-Yes.

-Hasn't it?

-Yes, it does.

-To...

-And the flower's a bit smaller.

Now, the system you're using, it's quite intense really, isn't it?

Well, it is intense and it's meant to be for cut flower,

not for garden display and of course what you're doing is a single cordon

and removing all the spare growth and everything else.

And you've got to work hard at it

whereas this is garden display as well as providing cut flower.

Yeah, but I'm really quite impressed with the results

so using a garden mesh...

You had three or four different meshes last year.

-We had four different systems.

-This is the one that works.

This is the one that came up trumps.

Was sort of middle of the range price-wise

and, I mean, basically, they just cling to it.

You haven't got to take out the tendrils or anything

-and we've got lovely straight stems.

-Without a doubt.

Now, my collection was all about going for mainly bi colours.

Slightly different and I'm going to pick this one.

I think that's my favourite, which is Wiltshire Ripple.

-I think that's absolutely gorgeous. Just veining.

-Freckly effect.

Quite sort of wavy on the edge, it's one of the Spencer's

which tends to be, the Spencer types are more wavy.

And then I'm torn because look at this one, too - Nimbus.

Almost a sort of bluey, purple tinge to it.

I thought you might pick out your friend Sir Jimmy Shand.

Of course, yes, dear old James, yes.

Isn't it funny that that's a man's name

and this one is a lovely delicate, and that's a man's name?

-I know.

-There seems to be no correlation, does there?

There doesn't. And I'm not so sure about this one. Slightly different colour.

What's that one? That's Geoff Hughes,

more sort of an orange flake, I think they describe that one as.

In terms of value for money, they crop over a very, very long period

and that's one of the things about this kind.

If you keep on picking them,

not allow them to run to seed, then they keep on going

and maintain the quality and they last well in a vase.

-I would grow them every year.

-Absolutely.

Well, after my disaster with the onions, I'm off to kill some weeds.

I'm going to show you, what is it, three different organic methods

of killing weeds and one inorganic method.

Now, often on allotments we would actually use black polythene,

black matting, you can buy things like weed fabric,

weed barrier to put on the ground or you can use carpet

and here is the right sort of carpet to use, I would suggest to you.

This is the one which has the woven back.

I would prefer not to use the one which has the foam back

because there are one or two noxious chemicals in those foams

which can go into the soil and can cause problems later.

What that does is, it cuts out the sunlight,

and plants need sunlight, so it's going to kill the weeds

by smothering them.

But it'll take a little while to do it.

This product is one which has, as its active ingredient, a fatty acid,

and the fatty acid sprayed on to the foliage of the plant

will kill anything it touches, so this is going to kill

all green matter, and that is something which you have to remember.

So watch, be careful when you're spraying it.

So the fatty acid sprayed on this,

and we'll see just exactly what effect that will have.

Pelargonic acid is the one that is the active ingredient in this fellow.

Now, pelargonic - Pelargonium. That's where it comes from,

so it's an organic product, you see.

This sprayed onto the foliage will, again, kill the weeds.

Now, I sprayed this little bit here. Look at that.

I sprayed that ten minutes, quarter of an hour ago

and already it's having an effect.

How long-lasting will it be?

Don't know, we'll have to come back and see later on.

Next to that we've got the control.

This is the one where we'll do absolutely nothing,

we'll let the weeds grow and see how they come through it.

At the bottom we have one of the chemical inorganic herbicides,

and this is glyphosate.

It's one which we often use, and we're going to spray

the whole of that area with this.

This will then kill all the green vegetation, as it does,

so you've got to be careful how you use this, as well.

Once we've finished with it,

make sure you dispose of this container carefully and properly.

Well, we'll see how they work and we'll come back later on

and note the way that it has worked.

This week I'm just outside Muir of Ord in Ross-Shire,

and this is an 18th-century converted watermill.

Now, John and Rosanna Clegg moved here eight years ago.

When we first came here I didn't know where to start my planting

because there were so many different areas to manage.

So I thought I would have a colour scheme.

So this is the yellow,

and those are the pinks but, unfortunately,

even though I love growing things from seeds,

sometimes you get a surprise.

-You do, don't you? And you get the wrong colours.

-Yes!

Cos there's a lovely terracotta one.

Beautiful terracotta colours, and yellow,

and I put these out as seedlings

and this year they flowered for the first time

and, guess what? They're pink.

Well, you've so much space, you're going to find somewhere else for it.

Yes, so what I would like to do is to move them all

over into the pink border, which is over here.

Which is looking really nice at the moment.

Yes, this one is the one that I established first.

It's a complete mixture

but, of course, we're within the colour frame of being pink.

This is lovely, very delicate colour.

This is Cannon Went, a Linaria.

It's very easy to grow from seed.

I have quite a number of other plants in here

that I've grown from seed, including a wild flower.

That is hedge parsley, which is about to come out,

-and that gives a lovely airy feel.

-It's quite delicate, isn't it?

But I like the way you've packed the border,

-because that keeps down the weeds, doesn't it?

-It certainly does!

And this - just three plants, but doesn't it work well?

Yes, this is because I was trying to follow one of my garden principles,

-which is to have a large-leaf plant...

-That's the hosta.

..the Hosta halcyon,

and then the strappy-leaved plant next to it or near it,

and that's the iris Jane Phillips,

-which does very well up here.

-She's nice.

And this is the rose, which gives an airy feel.

This rose is called Mortimer Sackler,

and it's a very tough rose.

It will take the wind from the West - there's no house

between here and the West Coast, it's all mountains.

And it does get cold, doesn't it, in the winter?

Very cold, because we have a bit of frost pocket.

The frost comes off the hills and sits here near the river.

This is my latest project, which is the blue and white border.

I'm working on this at the moment.

I find that the beautiful bright light in Scotland

can make it look a bit flat, so I thought of introducing some yellow

and I'm trying some yellow marigolds.

I also think the trees maybe make it look a little bit flat.

And that feverfew's got the yellow centre, which is good.

Yes, that really helps.

This border is slightly different, cos there's not a flower in sight.

That's true, this is a no-flower zone.

I've chosen plants for shade.

The hostas were chosen to be particularly slug free, if possible.

They have the thickest of leaves.

I don't have to water it

because we laid the paving stones on top of the grid...

-So the water can drip through?

-And the water just drips through.

That's really clever.

The other interesting point is the fact,

thanks to Prince Charles,

he has a pyramid of wire in one of his glades,

full of compost and planted with ferns,

so I've had a wire round the concrete base there,

put compost in and put the periwinkle in,

and I've hidden my concrete lumps.

Another good idea.

This is a shrub planting, which is of low height

so it doesn't block the view

but, again, I followed one of my principles,

which is one third evergreen to two thirds deciduous.

Because we have a long winter, don't we?

-And you don't want to look at a load of sticks!

-No!

To give it structure

I've planted three arches in box which will make a solid hedge.

It will soon knit together and, again,

-that's an evergreen plant, isn't it?

-Yes.

Now, it's obvious to me that you are so passionate about plants,

but it's not just about the cultivated ones.

-Wild flowers, as well.

-Yes, wild flowers are my first love.

Why in particular?

Because they are getting scarcer in the countryside

and the insect life they support is getting scarcer, too.

I think it's quite complicated

if you want to grow a wild-flower meadow

-cos there's so many different types.

-Yes, there are.

I feel that there are three basic types.

One is the cornfield type, which are annuals with the poppies

and the cornflowers and a great splash of colour.

The second type is where there's about 20% of grass

and you have a wild flower seed mix and it's a gorgeous display.

And that's this one here?

This sort of one here, yes.

And I increase it by the seedlings and by plug plants.

But, even before I plant them,

I grow them on in the vegetable patch to make them

as large a plant as possible so that they can fight

this already established community.

So you're managing it and you would say bigger is better,

-introducing the plants?

-Yes, on the whole it is

when you're going into an already established group.

And the third type?

The third type is a hay meadow, which I'd like to show you now.

This, Carole, is our hay meadow.

It's unimproved grassland

and really now a rare thing in this country.

It is actually a crop, and so it is cut and it's cut fairly soon,

otherwise the nutrients go out of the grass,

and it is fed to the animals.

So the wild flowers are what you see in the grass.

But you find one or two gems, don't you, as you're looking down?

Yes, there are quite a few little flowers at the moment

that you can see, but it is quite different.

I like it, actually, when you get a bit of a breeze

and the grass seed heads look absolutely beautiful.

I'm enjoying it at the moment but, you know, other people can, too,

because you're opening under Scotland's Gardens.

That's right. On Sunday the 10th of August

we're opening at one o'clock

and we would be delighted to welcome visitors.

We'll put all the information in the fact sheet.

-Thank you so much.

-Thank you, Carole.

This is a wee reminder that the feed in these baskets is beginning

to run out so we must do a little liquid feeding now

if they're going to continue to produce the goods.

And aren't they just?

These calibrachoas here are looking absolutely stunning.

They're loving the warm weather.

In Flanders Field the poppies blow

between the crosses row on row

that mark the places where we lie.

That was the poem which I recited when I sowed these pots and plots

of poppies earlier in the season.

Now, the pots, once we'd sown them, we tended them,

we gave them lots of water and they've looked after themselves.

Look at that, there is the ladybird poppy, which is absolutely stunning,

this one with the little black dots in the middle.

This one over there, which is Papaver somniferum,

one with the great big seed pods on it like that.

The ones which we sowed out into the plots have not had any tending.

They've hardly had any rain since they were sown,

so the growth is a bit different.

We've got tall ones and short ones, depending on the water in the soil.

What also has happened here is we have things which are different.

These were sold to us as Flanders poppies

but there's one with a white centre,

there's one here with a black centre

and there's even a pink one.

I don't think that grew in Flanders Field.

Well, George, I'm really sorry,

but how about this for a display of poppies?

These are my scatter mixes, and we looked at them two weeks ago.

This particular plot then was dominated by the sweet rocket.

That's disappeared and now we've got these wonderful poppies.

I think it's really good, but for me, this is definitely the winner.

We've got the Californian poppies, they are so vibrant,

and now what's popping up, as well, is the Sileni here

with the pink flowers, and,

as you start to look around, what a variety!

In particular, I love this convolvulus Blue Ensign.

This is the one I would grow again, it had the compost

and it had a wonderful shake, very easy to grow.

Well, Jim, annuals are looking good.

They're all right, but we misfired ever so slightly cos,

if you recall, we planted plug plants

on the same day as we sowed seed.

In fact, yes, the plug plants did flower earlier but I don't how much.

They've all caught up with one another now.

What would be your favourite?

I think the echium at the end, I like that, the old viper's bugloss.

Yeah, the bees like it, as well.

I quite like the one behind you, George,

the daisy-like flower, dimorphotheca.

That's the one, and next to it is the Californian poppy,

that one just going over but it's been stunning

and I've got that one at home and it's doing very well indeed.

But that's a bit of a low. I think we should finish on a high.

I was going to maybe mention one more hardy annual if I can,

cos I was looking at new varieties

and there's a flax, Linum grandiflorum, "Salmon Charmer"

and it looks gorgeous.

I could do with that, a salmon charmer!

But it might go over, I don't know.

I don't know how long it holds flowers

but it's a cracking colour, isn't it?

Yeah, so that's a high, and so is this.

-This is definitely high.

-Isn't that just splendid? Isn't it?

All that hard work done by the team and this is what we get.

So, blackcurrants graded in size? Big Ben?

That's Big Ben, that's a Baldwin,

that's an old one, that's a new one,

and Ben Connan is one of the Scottish varieties.

-What's this?

-It's a Japanese variety, I think it must be,

it's something like hinomayo, yellow.

-It's huge!

-It is very sweet.

-I also have my eye on the cherries.

-But of course.

I think you've had more than your eye on the cherries, my dear -

-that was a full punnet a wee while ago.

-They're lovely and sweet.

But if you'd like any more information about

this week's programme, lots on the hardy annuals,

it's all in the fact sheet

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

And next week we're down at Dunlop, helping the really enthusiastic

community there to redevelop a municipal park.

-Just the two of us?

-You and I.

That's true. And young Mr B

will be pushing my wheelchair around in the garden next week.

THEY LAUGH

And I think melons might be on the menu.

-Until then, goodbye.

-Goodbye.

-Bye.