Episode 17 The Beechgrove Garden

Hello, and welcome to Beechgrove

-and today we're seeing a deluge of dahlias, are we not?

-We are!

Rather than a deluge of rain,

like it's been this last two or three days.

-But they've come through the rain.

-They have indeed. Explain yourself.

OK, this is all about the range of dahlias,

so in other words, ones you can grow for show from tubers,

ones you can grow from seed and

we've even brought in some from little plants.

-Don't fancy these.

-Do you not?

-No, I never think of dahlias as basket plants.

-But they...

I can think of so many other things to put in baskets.

They've flowered their heads off. I think they've done quite well.

-It's fireworks. Then you move on...

-Anything but!

Fireworks(!) Let's move on...

OK, these are the ones that some people would disbud these

and get big flowers for showing.

But if you don't, they're great as a cut flower.

Yes, and you're going to give us a piece next about cut flowers.

These must be one of the best ever because they keep on flowering.

I love this one - Bishop of Dover, the dark foliage

and then obviously the White Cliffs of Dover, the white flowers there.

-That's nice. It must be a cousin of Llandaff, mustn't it?

-It must be.

But we move from these wonderful colours to another set

all based on this dark foliage and

I must admit I LOVE these things.

They're so easy to look after.

They are brilliant and that is covering the soil,

so you haven't got to do any weeding and that variety is Redskin Mix.

-I think that's a beauty.

-Great colour mixes.

-Mm!

But what about this little lot here

in the corner? Now, then...

These were the ones that were

-brought in as little plug plants.

-OK.

A new variety, the Dreamy series.

Well, I think these are a dream, absolutely stunning.

That is gorgeous, isn't it?

Slightly disappointed with this one - the Starlight series.

I picked them because they should be compact.

That should only be 16 inches in height.

Well, apart from that one...!

-They're a bit strange.

-Don't believe all you read in the catalogue!

Finally in the corner there, Reggae.

-Do you like that?

-It's not bad.

-Doesn't strike, doesn't make me stop.

-No, but...

This makes me stop and think and look

and the bees love it, look at that.

Don't they? Absolutely love it.

Meanwhile, on the rest of the programme...

Eupatorium purpureum, a fine plant for the back of the border.

But that's not why it's here -

it's in a border marked...

Do you want to know more? Keep watching.

And later in the programme, I'm returning to Speyside,

this time to a garden that lies at 800 feet above sea level -

just to see what can be done.

Well, right next door to our dahlia bed, we have our cut flower plot.

Here I'm growing 12 different varieties that are meant to

be fairly good for cutting.

Some I'm slightly disappointed with,

others I think are absolutely great.

The orlaya, we've grown this one before - it has peaked

and it did look really nice,

but this is a compact variety called Snowballs

and I think we're better off with the straight species

which is a lot taller and therefore better as a cut flower.

I think this is really nice, the cornflower.

Normally we think of the blue one, more traditional,

but this one's called Black Ball. I think Nigella here, she's lovely.

The white and black on the top, lovely contrast

and that one's called African Bride.

But I think my favourite corner is just round here.

Starting off with this plant, which is related to the carrot,

and I think that's absolutely gorgeous,

the lovely flat head to it.

That one is called daucas.

Next door reminds me a bit of dill.

Again, these lovely umbels of flowers.

Never grown this one before - ridolfia.

Then, finally, we move on to this ageratum.

Now, we tend to think of the bedding ageratums and the fairly

compact ones, but this is a new variety called Blue Planet

and it grows fairly tall and it's absolutely perfect for cutting.

We're doing a bit of an experiment here

and what we're doing is putting them

straight in water. With the ageratum here,

that's been in water and that's

actually been there for 12 days.

We're also using these sachets

that you can buy and again,

that's on 12 days.

And then we've also got a recipe

that we took off the website,

an RHS one

and it's really disappointing!

That's on 12 days and it's gone over.

Now, this recipe is made up of vinegar, sugar,

some bleach and water.

What we've done is separated them out and you can see

this one is just water and vinegar

and look how that's gone over.

So we decided to reduce

the amount of vinegar, so in a litre

of water, instead of a tablespoon,

we've just put a teaspoon,

along with the other ingredients

and that seems to be working really well.

So I think from now on, we will try our own home-made recipe

and we'll continue this trial, but at the moment, that ageratum

is absolutely wonderful.

About a year ago, we came here to the Old Woollen Mill at Knockando

in Speyside to help the community restore the garden.

So I'm having a wee sneaky, just to see how it's doing.

I have to say, they've done well.

But the real reason for the call is to pick up some woollen scraps

to use as a mulch in the garden

that we're going to sort out this morning.

Joanne, Nathaniel and new arrival Martha Havinden have been

renovating an old estate cottage high in the hills above Knockando.

Joanne has ambitions to make them as self-sufficient as possible,

but on an exposed site and altitude of 800 feet, and with a garden

she's been trying to create out of an old field, she's been struggling.

I tell you what, as you get over this far,

-the view just gets better and better, doesn't it?

-It's glorious.

Absolutely wonderful. And behind this?

-A great belt of trees giving you shelter - which you love.

-Yes!

-But it denudes the soil.

-It does, very dry.

The competition that these plants are getting is

a bit of a problem, too. How long has this fellow been in?

-Not more than five years.

-It hasnae made much of it.

-No.

No, it's still quite wee!

So you put the dryness from the trees,

the altitude of 800 feet and

the competition from these weeds all around,

I think we've got to sort that.

-Yes. Please!

-Let's do it.

So, I've cleared this one.

Just look at... What did you say

the weather was like on Saturday?

Absolutely torrential, it was.

Look at that soil, it's powder.

Yes, very dry!

So the rain is not getting through and neither of course is

the nutrient working because it needs to be diluted, doesn't it?

-Sure.

-What we have to do now

is to jazz this up by putting on some compost...

You do that - that's the heavy one!

SHE LAUGHS

Put on the compost.

A really good layer of it.

You've got some Grow More there,

how about just a sprinkle of that, as well.

These trees will think it's Christmas!

Just a nice sprinkling

as if you were putting hundreds and thousands on top of your cake.

-We're building up a fertile layer here.

-I see.

-We don't want the competition to come back, so we put on a mulch.

-OK.

That's why we went to the woollen mill.

This is the recycling job.

You could use leaf mould if you had it. Or other organic materials.

But this is a nice idea, to make use of the waste stuff.

Be sure that you don't, when you're putting these mulches on,

just leave the bare stem there, because that's meant to be

above ground and not covered by wet soil or material or it will rot.

This is landscape fabric - porous - lets the rain through.

You might need a few stones if you can find them!

I'm sure we can!

And it will also keep the pheasants

-and all the rest of it from scraping it out.

-Which has been a problem.

Now you can do the 150 that you've still got!

I picked this one out because...

Nothing to do with the fact that I don't like parsnips and you do...

I love parsnips!

That's the poorest growth and you've got to question why.

If you don't know what the soil is,

then you're starting with your hands tied behind your back.

I have a suspicion that maybe this is needing nutrient

and it may be too acid.

-OK.

-So, I have with me...

-the little soil test.

-Ah!

-How long have I got to shake this blinking thing?

-It doesn't say!

If I put the chart in behind and see that that colour is

-approximately pH 6...

-OK.

-Which is acid, but it's absolutely spot-on for vegetables.

-Great.

So we've taken one point of the mystery out of the equation.

It's not pH.

They're either starved or the condition of the soil is not

conducive to good root, whilst these have done all right.

So what we'll do is give it some nice compost.

But for that, we've got to (lose your parsnips...)

My poor parsnips!

Oh, dear. Oh, no, that bit's going to be really fertile.

That's it, ready to go.

Some late veg and you may have to cover them

over the winter in this area.

That takes me neatly to the next wee project.

It's amazing what Callum gets up to when we're away,

he's rearranged the border, put twice as many leaks into the

space, shifted the cauliflowers to make room for some courgettes.

Courgettes in particular need shelter

and I think you will progress if we put a big cloche over this.

What we'll do is put some hoops over

and then Envirofleece which is probably the best material for them.

But if you get to a stage where you don't need the Envirofleece

you're into the middle of summer, they're growing like the clappers

and all the rest of it, but there are pigeons around...

So you take the Envirofleece off,

and put a net on and leave the hoops there.

-So this is the fruit garden.

-Yes!

-Wow!

And I'm absolutely certain that what you want to know about is pruning.

-It is.

-Cos it's the thing that gets missed so often.

So, right, madam - weapons.

The blackcurrant is probably easiest to understand.

Let's take this long shoot here.

The colour of the wood, that's brand-new

and that wood was made last year.

-Right.

-So where's all the fruit?

-On last year's.

-That's the story.

So you want to encourage nice,

long stems coming from low down in the bush.

The blackcurrant bush in itself grows like a thicket,

lots of branches coming out and can initiate buds on the roots

and you finish up with a whole pile of them here.

When you've cut them back,

what it encourages is new shoots to come from the base.

You don't tolerate any thin things.

Whack them out, because you want to encourage nice, strong growth.

Gooseberries, entirely different.

This one's got a nice crop on it

and it's got the makings of a good shape.

But you will notice where the fruit is here - it's got

the fruit on the old wood - look, right down to the bottom.

All the way up. Look what's happened with the weight of the fruit...

-It's pulling it down.

-You're never

going to manage the bush at all.

The bud at the end of the stem has apical dominance,

in other words, everything comes up there first

and if you let it go, it'll just keep on going

and it has no incentive to send out side shoots.

-It's side shoots you need to build the weight...

-Like this one?

Like that, there, absolutely spot-on.

Well, you know they say that time goes swiftly

when you're enjoying yourself and today has just flown by.

-We've really enjoyed ourselves. It's been great.

-Good fun.

-And we've passed on a few tips.

-Oh, yes, absolutely.

Hopefully gardening will be a little bit easier for you.

Yes, fingers crossed!

Thank you to you and Martha and Nathaniel for looking after us

-so well.

-Our pleasure.

It is that time of year again - we start the round of hedge clipping.

The girls are up there doing our suspended hedge

which of course is the silver lime.

In case you hadn't noticed, the silver bit comes from it waving

in the breeze and you see that lovely silver reverse to the leaf.

You don't have to use lime,

you could be using crab apple or beech or hornbeam, whatever.

The facility however I think could be used a great deal more.

You haven't lost the ground underneath you can wander about either side of

but, if you've got nosy neighbours upstairs next door,

it hides you if you're doing a wee bit of sunbathing.

Now then, to another hedge which I can handle.

It marks the division between the silver garden

and our little trials area.

There's a change of level, we thought to mark it properly,

we ought to have a little hedge in here.

We've chosen this silver-leafed lonicera

and I'm expecting the sides to be on a batter,

a slight batter up to about this height, flat across the top

and that's the reason for the batter,

because if it's flat, snow lying on it tends to push the sides out.

Always remember that. That's what that'll be.

Then we come to the hollies, the silver hollies.

The idea is that we should grow them as pillars.

Absolutely parallel sided, so what we want to do at the present time

is nip the tops out of the side shoots.

That encourages them to fill in and thicken up.

So we'll do that and once the hedge is in place

and it's up to its right height, we can trim

the branches of the holly away and it will appear above the hedge.

But it's on to the actual job of clipping the hedge.

I've got an absolute super marker in the wall,

the little wooden wall here.

And it's... It's a simple job.

Take it easy, you cannae put it back once you've cut it!

So don't go into the wood,

into the bone too soon,

until you've got it...

..shaping up nicely.

The one drawback there is with this lovely variegated hedge is

that it tends to revert to type every now and again

and here's a good example of it. Look at that.

All the growth up to here, right past there, is retaining

this lovely variegation.

Then it will throw out a shoot like that

and because it's just a plain green

and it's got all its chlorophyll,

it will take over and it gets worse.

So you've got to be very vigilant

when you're getting this going

and the idea is that you tear it out.

Don't prune it.

If you prune it, it will come up from buds below.

So a bit of vandalism is not amiss.

Tear it out.

And be vigilant, as I say. Keep your hedge nice and clean.

Well, it's more hedging for me as well,

but I'm going to be looking at the conifers.

And this one I think is absolutely superb.

It's Thuja occidentalis "Holmstrup",

and this was planted in 2009

so that's really had five years to grow,

and you can see now that it's kind of knitted together

and you've got these lovely sort of contours.

And I want to leave it like that so it is slow growing,

at the moment we don't need to do anything,

and if it starts to get too large

then, as I say, a little bit of a trim, just to keep those contours.

As for the height at the moment I still think

we want it to grow a little bit more, and then

when it gets to that height we'll do a little bit of trimming at the top.

And then moving on,

here we actually had another type of Lawson's cypress,

it was Grayswood Feather, and it didn't do well at all,

so we had to change the soil, and last year we put in this one

called Stardust, and I think it's a lovely colour.

And at the moment the only thing I want to do is you'll notice

that this side shoot

is really pointing out,

so again you don't touch the top,

but I'm just going to clip the side here

because we want that to push out and I think that looks a lot better.

Then we've got yew - now, yew is a great conifer

because actually you can prune it quite hard, it will regenerate.

It's doing fine at the side.

We've decided, because it's fairly slow-growing,

this is the height that we want to stop it at.

So the tops have grown above that,

so now is the time that I can take off the top.

Just going along like this...

and I just need to go right across.

And then finally - now, I think this is the type of hedging

that people could use a little bit more.

Instead of leylandii, this is the Western hemlock.

Beautiful conifer.

Again, five years, and this has created a really good hedge.

We've already topped it, and I need to top it again,

I need to sort of take off the top

if I can just about reach...

And I think that's quite important as well, try and make a hedge

that's easy to maintain, you don't have to go up the ladder.

And Jim was talking about the shape, with the lonicera,

and again, the bamboo canes here are shaped like an A

so slightly going in,

and so I've got my work cut out here

because I'm going to now have to take the shears

and start to shape this.

It's on days like this I realise I'm a really lucky chap.

Beautiful weather. A gorgeous garden situated just outside Kirriemuir.

The plants are looking wonderful, the perfume's there,

it's absolutely stunning.

But we're going to take it a bit further this time.

A fascinating visit ahead, because our host is a medical herbalist.

Terrill, we met last a couple of years ago, Dundee?

-We did, at the Ninewells Garden.

-Yes.

And you were involved then with a little part of it, weren't you?

-I helped design the physic garden.

-Yeah.

That's where we're heading, because we're going from sort of lovely

herbaceous borders into an area where the beds are regulated.

So we're entering my medicinal herb garden here

and it's divided into eight rectangles,

and they're organised by systems.

So here for example are herbs for the heart, and here are herbs for women.

Well, I just recognise plants, I mean... Cimicifuga.

That's right, black cohosh.

A lot of women use black cohosh for menopausal flushing.

-HE CHUCKLES

-Let's move on, swiftly.

-It earns its corn in MY herbaceous border...

-Yes.

-..and it's one of the key ones in your border.

-It is mine,

to help people learn what it looks like.

And I recognise this fella.

Does it deserve to be here?

-Of course it does. This is Southernwood.

-Yeah.

Just smell that, it's wonderful, it's one of the artemisias...

-That's as far as I take it, you see.

-OK!

Well, the artemisias traditionally have been used as insect repellents

or for worms, with children.

And when you say they use them,

I mean, are they taking them - not as a pill...?

Well, sometimes they take them as a pill,

I tend to treat using something called a tincture, which is

an alcohol-based liquid that has the important ingredients.

-This I recognise, yarrow.

-You see a lot of yarrow around in the garden.

It helps relax the digestive tract, that's why it's here.

It also helps lower blood pressure.

But behind it, rosebay willowherb. Do you find a use for that as well?

You probably find that a bit appalling to be in my garden.

Well, it jars a bit.

Yeah. Well, it's useful for things like diarrhoea.

Again, I don't tend to use that in my own practice, but

I like people to understand there are good uses for some of our weeds.

-And I recognise the echinacea.

-Absolutely.

We have marshmallow there.

This is urinary-kidney-bladder area,

-and if you...

-I think we should move on.

-OK!

THEY LAUGH

Well, we've come from very obvious display beds to

much more of a sort of production unit -

but there is still much of the same.

This is my kitchen garden,

and in the kitchen garden I do have a few raised beds also for the herbs,

like here our camomile bed that I harvest from.

-Yes.

-Picking the camomile heads.

So is there a specific time when things should be harvested,

or can you actually just go there

and find what you're looking for any old time?

Well, the best time, and when the plants

are really their strongest, is when they're just blooming.

-Yes.

-And that's why production beds,

cos I don't want to cut my beautiful beds

just when they're flowering.

-No, because you want people to see them in their full...

-I do.

Well, that's good thinking, Batman.

Here is our lovely Scotch marigold.

Beautiful calendula.

What part does this play in the scheme of things?

Well, we would be taking the petals here, the flowers,

and we'd be making infused oils or calendula cream,

a lot of people are familiar with calendula cream as something healing

for sores... External cream.

So, there is a little bit of a production unit going on behind us.

-There is one going on.

-These things are available.

-Definitely.

-That's brilliant news.

Now, the magic veg,

which everybody has now discovered has got wonderful properties. Kale.

Exactly. It's one of my favourites.

Well, it's a staple diet of Scots, isn't it,

and it's got significant properties we now discover.

Well, it's full of excellent vitamins and minerals.

Antioxidants?

Full of antioxidants, for those free radicals.

All of the stuff we have seen is looking in good heart, good nick,

but it's all hardy.

There are many herbs that are maybe marginal for hardiness.

Well, obviously there are some things I could never grow here

but the things that are marginal I tend to grow in the greenhouse,

so I do have a few things there.

Well! This is a first for me.

I've never seen a set-up like this.

-Explain yourself, madam.

-Oh, my goodness. I guess I made this up.

-Well, these are the plants that need their feet wet.

-OK.

So I created this little space.

It also brings a nice sound of water,

and my clinic is next door so I can hear it.

That's wonderful. But I take it they also need a bit of protection,

-they're not entirely hardy.

-Exactly.

So here as an example is cardamon.

-Cardamon is definitely a warm climate plant.

-Yes.

-So it's here in the greenhouse.

-They are very happy. Aren't they?

-Yeah. Yeah.

-Looking good.

Iris...

Flags - as well, like their feet wet.

-Gypsywort.

-Gypsywort.

-Now...

It's calming, but sort of directed

towards the heart, lungs and also the thyroid.

OK.

And that again would be a tincture, would it?

It could be a tincture. Exactly.

I recognise this fella.

Bogbean, that was one of the most used plants

in the Highlands and Islands.

-Really?

-As a medicine.

That was the number one used herb in the Highlands and Islands.

-I'm frightened to ask(!)

-SHE LAUGHS

-It is a very, bitter herb.

-Uh-huh.

So it really gets that liver sort of moving and cleansing

-and cleaning.

-OK.

Absolutely stunning.

It's been a fascinating trip.

I thought it was going to be a learning curve

-and it's a steep learning curve. I must thank you so much.

-Absolutely.

-Never had a visit like this before.

-Good.

Well, I found that piece absolutely fascinating,

but you know, our herb garden is far more traditional.

It's all about herbs that you can use in cooking.

And this herb garden was just planted up last year,

it looks really established, and I'm ever so pleased with it.

But I think we have got one mistake, and it's this plant here,

the Himalayan strawberry. It's been far too vigorous

and it's tended to smother other plants.

So what we're going to do, not throw it away

but lift it, and we'll put one or two in nice containers.

But of course that gives us a lovely opportunity to put something

else in, and I'm going to put this allium in here,

Allium "Quattro".

So of course it is part of the onion family,

and it has four attributes.

So, what we have is it's evergreen,

secondly the actual leaves have a lovely flavour of garlic.

When you eat it it helps to reduce cholesterol,

and then finally these wonderful flowers, they make good cut flowers.

Now, we also have a lovely collection of basils

in the barrel greenhouse here.

Four different varieties, I can't mention them all.

The small one there is Aristotle,

the purple, which I think is amazing, Summer Surprise,

and then this one here,

this one is called British Basil,

and it's been specially bred because it's meant to be

a little bit hardier,

and you should be able to grow it outdoors.

Well, we've tried it here,

and look, that's gone really woody.

So I have to say we would be better off growing it under cover.

Looking at the dahlias with Carole, I noticed a couple of problems -

on this plant here, could be slugs but it's more likely to be earwigs

and the best way to trap them -

pot on the top of the cane, on the top of the post there

with some dry grass or straw inside -

they crawl up there at night.

Be sure to examine them in the morning

and deal with them as you will.

Now, here's a plant we often associate with yew hedging.

The common name is the Scottish flame flower, lovely red flowers.

The Latin name is Tropaeolum speciosum,

and it's actually related to the nasturtium.

When I knock it out the pot, you can see these white fleshy roots.

And I have to say it's one of these plants

that it either takes off

and becomes a bit of a weed,

or you have a problem with it. We can't get it established.

So we're going to just have to wait and see.

Jim, we've had a lot of flower colour on the programme, haven't we?

Yes, indeed. So we're finishing as we started.

Yes. This is another little trial,

looking at hardy and half-hardy annuals that are new to us.

-Yes, OK.

-Starting off with the sunflower Chocolate.

I'll tell you what I like about it, apart from the flower,

-it's the stem.

-Mm.

-That marking on the stem's very attractive.

It is, it's a nice, sturdy plant

but I'm not so sure - I think I like the yellow ones.

-I mean, look at this chrysanthemum.

-Stunning.

-Eastern Star.

It's a mix.

What do you think of that one?

-Oh, I prefer that one, funnily enough.

-It's lovely.

And I know it's not commonplace, but I love that combination.

-Now then, where else are you going?

-And then this here...

-The lavatera.

-Isn't it gorgeous?

-Stunning.

-Pink Blush.

-It's enjoyed this weather up till now.

And they've done well in the pots.

And then finally we've got a larkspur.

I was looking at cut flowers -

that would make a wonderful cut flower, Cannes White,

cos it's such a tall plant.

Always has been a good cut flower.

If you'd like any more information about these plants

it's all in the factsheet,

and the easiest way to access that is online.

What are you doing next week?

A bit of seasonal propagation,

and I think it's about time

we looked at the lawn and made it ready for the winter.

Oh, I don't want to think about the winter!

Until next time...

-Goodbye!

-Goodbye.