Episode 18 The Beechgrove Garden

-Good results, are you quite happy?

-Not bad at all, not bad.

Hello and welcome to Beechgrove on a morning that a wee bit brisk,

-a wee bit parky.

-Isn't it just?

-We've got jumpers on today.

-Yeah.

It's harvest time and, of course, for these courgettes,

-we are knee deep in them.

-We are!

-Explain yourself, madam.

-OK, it was nine varieties, wasn't it, George?

-Yes.

Because they were on this slope and we had problems with the sweet peas

not performing so well, we thought, right, one variety

starting at the top and then going all the way down

-and then doing the reverse.

-On the other side, yeah.

Then we've cropped them and been counting the numbers

and it hasn't made any difference from the two plants.

-The results?

-The results, well, this is the top one.

-49 courgettes, that's the number, not by weight.

-From two plants?

-From two plants.

-The message I get out of that, is for a family

-with a small garden, you only need one plant.

-You do, I think so.

You know, I would certainly say these top four, or five

are absolutely fantastic from 49 right down to 39.

What's interesting is the two stripy ones, they haven't performed.

Is that because they've got the marrow gene with the stripe in them?

You wonder. And, I think, lookwise, I prefer the yellow and dark green,

-rather than the pale green.

-It changes the colour of your soup!

Is there any difference in flavour between yellow and green?

-I would say...

-Or, is it all just the look of it?

I think it more is the look of it but they are far more fleshy

than the ordinary ones, you know.

In the centre, a bit softer.

I have to say, from a cooking point of view, not that I do a lot of cooking, you do.

-I think that's easier for slicing.

-Easier for slicing and frying.

The other thing, which I've seen, when you go to the show bench,

local flowers shows, what you get is they'll walk past the round ones

and they'll give all the prizes to the long, traditional ones.

-They need separate classes...

-Separate classes for them.

-Other than, OK, in a salad.

-In a salad they're really nice.

-And soup.

-Soup... Courgette cake.

-Oh, no.

-Oh, yes, come on.

-Carrot cake, courgette cake.

-Absolutely delicious.

You'll be putting it in the gin and tonic next!

-I don't know about that.

-Maybe not.

Draw the line somewhere. Meanwhile, in the rest of the programme...

Now is that not a fabulous view?

The Bass Rock, North Berwick Law...

Where am I today?

And it's a kaleidoscope of colour for this week's garden visit.

I can hardly believe that here we are well into August

and it's the first chance we've had to look at our chrysanthemums.

In the cut flower plots we have one border here, spray chrysanthemums.

In other words, the head's taken out of the plant early on

and then you get several stems that grow

and they are left as they are

and they will allow produce a nice cluster of flowers

at the top of the stem.

Incidentally, two things...

The method of staking, this netting is absolutely ideal.

The plants just grow up through it, no problem at all.

But, more importantly, there's a serious attack of capsid bug damage,

sucking the sap, causing holes and it's been bad in a lot of things

this year, you've got to spray early and keep on top of it.

You never see the capsid, they are very fast moving.

Over this side, we disbud all the stems.

We take the head out early on, get several stems growing

and disbud them, so we finish up with lovely, big flowers

at the top of the stem.

Problems here, look at this one here.

It's only happening with one or two plants.

The head is going pretty flaccid and it's discoloured.

I don't know of a pest, I don't know of a disease, either,

that does that. I wonder if it's perhaps a virus.

We'll take some samples, send them back to supplier of the cuttings

and try and find the answer to that. There we go.

Today I'm in south east Scotland at the junction between

Berwickshire and East Lothian.

I've told you before, this is God's own country.

Look at these sweet peas.

There can't possible be a problem corner here.

You know, Marion and Lex McIntyre say they have a problem

and it's a problem with a slope, let's go and find out.

Well, I was admiring your sweet peas at the front, Marion.

-I don't know how you can have a problem here.

-Well, we do.

The problem is the banking, with the slope.

All the soil, and that, running off.

-It's accumulating at the bottom, we're getting a lot of weeds.

-Yeah.

-If you want to do anything with the yard here...

-Which we want to do

but we cannae do until we get rid of this.

When you get a slope like this, the problem is an angle of repose,

where we have a slope like that which lies at a certain angle

and if you go beyond that angle and make it too steep,

everything runs off.

We'll put some battens on the top of this,

we've got some stones that will fit into the banking, as well.

Then we'll plant it up.

I've got some plants here, some of which give a nod to the fact

-that we're close to the sea.

-Right.

And others which are good, soil binding plants

-and that, hopefully, hopefully will make the banking stable.

-Yeah.

-Murray, are you related?

-It's my mother, aye.

You cannae help that you're related and get roped into this.

What I want to do then, we'll take this soil back.

What we want to do, we've got some battens and other rocks

which we're going to put into the slope.

I need to clear the top of the wall, so we can bed the other bit in.

And, if you get in amongst these, as well...

-That looks like hard work.

-It's no easy, so it must be.

Just skin these weeds off and we'll get them away, as well.

We'll clean that up and I'll go down and see what this lot's up to.

OK? Good lad.

Right, that's Murray working at the top.

So, down at this end... Marion, you were wanting to save

-one or two of these plants, weren't you?

-Yeah.

We'll dig out some of these ones that are here.

They will be rooted into the banking.

Have you got your spade? Can you get a spade in there?

Well, just leave a wee space because we're going to put a plant in-between, Murray.

What I want to do, I want a number of stones which will fit

into the banking. The idea is they're going to act as retainers

for the soil, stop the soil running down

and create little planting pockets at the back.

What you are looking for is a stone which has a reasonable face on it,

which will look out will be something reasonable to look at.

If I tilt that backwards, like that.

We've actually got a slope which is running back the way.

Do you see that?

That slope, there, will be running back into the soil.

All this when you're putting stones into a slope,

make sure that they run back in the way,

then the water that hits that goes back in.

The roots of the plants will be at the back of that stone

and they'll get all the benefit of the water

that's running through in the back. Whereas, if you plant it like that,

all the water runs off.

The plant gets dry.

Which is not what you want.

Also, the stone will fall off.

You want a small one?

THEY LAUGH

There's a bright boy, there's a bright boy.

While we're building this little corner,

the noise in the background is Callum.

He's put the posts in and he's going to pin the battens back

to the posts with some wire.

He's just stapling the wire onto the inside of the battens

so that it doesn't move out.

Some theme's running through this in that we've got

some things which are from the moorlands.

That is moor matgrass, which will actually grow well here.

It's not far away from where I've seen it already.

-The geranium...

-Mm-hm.

That's one if you go onto Dunbar golf course, for example,

-you'll see that.

-That's gorgeous.

-You like that, don't you?

-I really do like that.

-That's sea holly.

That will do you because it's dry on this banking. That loves dryness.

I've got this grass at the front here,

which is Carex prairie fire and that will go well with these.

The coppers and oranges in that go well with that.

Look, see, look at that.

-See.

-Lovely.

-Wavy hair-grass.

Right, what do you think, Marion?

-I'm quite happy.

-Happy with that?

-Mm-hm.

All we need to do is plant what's lying there

and then the stuff that's in the wheelbarrow.

-Do you remember we lifted the geraniums.

-Yeah.

You've got to put them in, just at the back the boards.

-Just so they...

-Come over the boards, aye.

-Then the final act is...

-Watering them.

Make sure they're well watered.

You'll need to water them at least three or four times

over the next fortnight, even if it rains.

-Aye, I know.

-I want you to look like and idiot and stand with a hosepipe

-when it's raining.

-It's really dry, the wall. I know it's dry.

-Anyway, we'll get the trowels and we'll get these planted.

-OK.

-Well, Marion, when we arrived this was what just a...?

-A slope.

A slope. And, I have to say, when it's just a slope

you don't really want to look after it because it's a menace,

-it's a nuisance.

-It was.

-Now we've done this, you've now got a focus,

-you've got plants in there.

-Mm-hm.

You've got stones and things that give it a little bit of character.

-Now it's worth looking after.

-It's lovely.

We've had great fun. I don't think we've stopped laughing

-all the way through.

-Is that you or me?

-What?

I think that was you. I think it's excitement! ALL LAUGH

Well, this is a time of year when a gardener's mind turns to

a bit of propagation.

I'm going to talk about propagating shrubs from cuttings

because the growth on the shrubs now is just beginning to harden up

and just to firm up - we call them semi-ripe cuttings.

Make the cuttings and put them in a sun frame.

Last year, we didn't have this fantouche affair here

and we made a sun frame out of a plastic crate.

There you see some of the cuttings that have rooted successfully

that are just looking for a home.

There are some Cotoneaster, Spirea, Berberis there.

I'm doing it again but this time we've got a really nice

piece of kit here, which is part of our cold frame system.

You rely on the fact that the walls have insulation properties

and the top, will magnify the sun's rays

and you'll get a nice sun heat in here.

It's called a sun frame, for that reason.

We have got about 20cm of compost in the bottom here

and it's made up of 50% peat,

25% perlite and 25% sand.

If you missed the first one, I was meaning peat.

It's an ideal rooting medium.

There we are, about eight inches of it, 20 cm of it in the bottom.

Now we turn to the materials themselves.

Plants that you will recognise. I've made a few here.

For example, this Weigelia, the variegated form of it.

We can make tip cuttings

and when finished they are like that,

tip cuttings.

Cut just below a node,

treat it with hormone rooting powder

and then popped into the frame.

Taking the...

I'll firm them up later.

Where'd you get the material? There's a typical branch.

Look at all that cutting material there.

You can take simple cuttings, or slightly more complicated.

For example, if I take Viburnum bodnantense Dawn.

Here we have a cutting which is what I call...

It's a heel cutting.

An old bit of wood, there's the old stuff.

It's beginning to firm up at the base

and now I just pull that off like so.

You finish up with a little tale.

Trim the tail with a sharp knife

and into the hormone rooting powder,

shake off the excess,

pop it into the frame.

Like so... There's another one.

Now then, the real ticklish one is this Berberis.

This is the way some people like to do them.

I've made one or two cuttings, as I say, they are a bit ticklish.

There it is.

A little side shoot with a bit of the old stem,

trimmed with a knife or sharp secateurs.

Clean the bottom of the stem, into the hormone powder

and pop it into the frame.

What we expect, of course,

is the sun heat will raise the temperature.

The plants, the little cuttings will heel over.

You must give it some ventilation

but you also must shade at the height of the day.

You know, from about 11 o'clock until two.

The rest of the time you need the sun heat in there.

They will callus over and they will remain quite happy over winter.

As soon as the days lengthen in the spring,

and the temperatures start to rise,

they will root and you will have a harvest of nice young plants

to plant in the garden or to give away to your friends, just like these there.

In contrast to Jim, I've actually moved under cover.

I'm going to be looking at a particular group of house plants.

It's house plants that produce plantlets and, I think,

the classic is the spider plant.

What it does, is it forms these little babies

and these are absolutely great for propagating.

Plants for free, as Jim was saying.

Very often when you read the books,

it tells you that you can plant it a little bit like a strawberry runner.

You could put that into a pot

and once you know it's rooted, you can

then detach it from the mother plant.

However, you usually find that the roots have already started to form

and, I think, it's easier just to take them off,

pop them in a pot with some nice, moist compost.

After that, once you've firmed it in,

I would then put one of these little lids on top

and you want to really keep this in the shade.

It's a good idea if you've got the vent

so once it starts to root you can open that up.

It really is simple propagation.

It's the same for this plant here.

I've already taken a few of the plantlets off.

The common name for this one, a couple of names that I know,

the Strawberry geranium and it's got a lovely pink leaves underneath

and also Mother of Thousands.

As I say, it is so simple to propagate these.

This is a plant that I absolutely adore because I love the ferns.

This one is the Mother spleenwort,

also called the chicken and hen fern.

This produces tiny little bulbules on the main fronds

and once you see it has formed,

at least let's say four or five of these tiny fronds,

that's the time to remove it.

Then just pop it into that moist compost.

Then, finally, this is a beautiful plant, as well.

It's a succulent,

it's a Ceropegia.

Hearts Entangled is one of the names.

It forms from tiny little tubers.

You can maybe just see in there.

A bit like a tuberous begonia.

Because it's a succulent, I want to use really gritty compost.

What happens is...

You see this little plantlet here.

That is where the tuber starts to form.

They haven't started yet, so my idea is to...

I've started it already, there's a little clip

that I'm going to pop on

and I'm going to wind this around the pot.

I should end up with four or five little plants here

but we have got to wait for those to finally root,

or produce those tubers and then I would detach it from the main plant.

It really is easy.

Carole has just been telling you about little plantlets in the conservatory.

We are in the show veg tent here, or tunnel,

and look at this, look at that for show leeks.

That's not too bad, is it?

That is a pot leek and that has been grown in one year.

Leeks generally are biennial plants.

They spend one year vegetative and growing

and the second year they produce a flower head.

There is the flower head of the leek.

What we do with that, however, if you're growing pot leeks or

growing some of the very long show leeks is...

There's your flower head.

You shave it. You shave it like.

What happens then is that stimulates the leek to produce

little bulbules.

It produces small plantlets on the top.

That's one which has got one or two in the top.

There is one done there, look at that.

That's just absolutely covered with hair on the top.

The bottom of each of those hairs is a little plantlet.

You take those off, you plant them into compost.

There we have them there.

We can put them into this compost and what that means is I've

got a superb start on anybody that's growing things from seed.

These will go into heat.

They will be kept warm over winter and they will start growing,

December, January, February.

By next year, we should have pot leeks like that.

Here's hoping.

How's this for a hurricane hammered garden?

Well, here's a familiar sight - the Moray Firth and the Keswick Bridge.

And I'm heading to Balloch on the outskirts of Inverness

to a wonderful garden that is owned by Billy and Linda Lowrie.

Here we are, Carole, in the garden.

Been here 29 years.

Got the garden looking more or less in a fashion

that I'm quite happy with.

Beechgrove Garden comes to visit and a hurricane descends on us!

-We've become...

-You certainly did, yes!

Well, I think it looks beautiful, really colourful.

And I think we have to mention the begonias, the Nonstops

and the semperflorens.

They don't mind these weather conditions.

No, no. I have grown them for many, many years.

For value for money, I don't think you'll get a better bedding plant.

Now, you say value for money, how do you grow your plants?

It's usually split half and half between plug plants,

which I grow on in the greenhouse,

and from whichever garden centre is offering the best deal,

basically, locally.

I will purchase and top up with that.

-But I do try and grow some myself as well.

-OK. So some from seed?

-Absolutely.

-What sort of things do you try from seed?

Try from seed is my marigolds,

which is the large-headed French variety, and my lobelia.

I sow my lobelia in March in my greenhouse.

And I've got a wee propagator that I... I take them all on from there.

I tend to plant them out in the last week in May.

-That's my planting-out week.

-Now, that's interesting.

-Cos we tend to be the first of June.

-Yes.

-And I think this area has its own little microclimate.

-Absolutely, yes.

And this little spot here is quite sheltered.

We just have to watch for the frosts but, as I say,

sometimes I'll pull it forward and maybe plant earlier.

But it's usually the last week in May

is when I like to get the bedding plants in.

It's been quite successful.

Well, apart from the great weather, look at these hanging baskets!

They are absolutely amazing!

Started off probably 15 years ago,

and myself and my neighbour, Fred, had a wee competition,

a battle of the baskets, as it were - just very friendly sort of thing.

So is that just... You've just hooked it in?

Absolutely, just hooked in, yeah.

Just attach a device through it and hook the one below it.

-What about the watering? I see you've got the tubes.

-Yes.

After many evenings standing here with an arm and watering away,

I decided that I should invest in a wee microsystem.

It's just small-bore piping.

But it is quite nice to come home from work

and just plug in the hose, go and have a cup of tea,

come back 20 minutes later and they're all watered.

I can't imagine you sitting down, actually,

cos I would imagine you're working in this garden a lot.

-Yes.

-The grass is immaculate.

-The grass is...

It's come on this year.

Every year I look at it in the spring and say,

"Oh, gosh, look, there's weeds in here."

-But like everything in life, if you water it, feed it...

-Do the edges.

-..do the edges, it will reward you.

-Absolutely.

And I think it's good to have grass, because it shows off the borders.

-A good lawn sets off the rest of the garden.

-Absolutely. Yeah.

And then the arch, I mean, it frames this garden.

Yes, it was always my intention to try and split the two,

so that you were looking through an arch.

But I actually erected it in memory of a very dear friend of mine

who passed away with cancer, so, I think about him

when I pass underneath it from time to time.

What's important to you in a garden?

Well, I think initially, it's visual impact.

Also, smell is equally important to me,

and the actual physical touching of plants.

-Mm!

-The feeliness of it.

-It's a lovely cut leaf, isn't it?

Absolutely beautiful. And just brush against you.

-And the bark as well.

-The bark is gorgeous, yes.

A lot of people don't realise how pretty they are.

I've got a few of them that I've actually stripped the branches off

just to expose the trunk... That one in particular is nice as well.

You also mentioned perfume. And you've got lilies everywhere.

Yeah, absolutely love the smell of lilies.

Er, sweet peas.

Roses.

And I've even got a lilac here,

um, which, sitting of an evening,

is absolutely wonderful.

The sweet pea scent wafts over from there,

-lilies, et cetera. Beautiful.

-Yeah.

Now, I mean, that lily there, do you know the name of it?

No, no, I don't actually.

And I don't bother too much with names, to be perfectly honest.

I class myself as a "lost label" gardener!

If I see something and I like it - take it home, plant it,

and that's it, basically.

-Yeah. And I think a lot of people are like that, quite honestly.

-Yeah.

You know, sitting here, there's a wee discovery,

-cos that's your compost area.

-It is indeed, yes.

I started the compost bins probably about four years ago.

And I leave it in for about two years - just water it,

don't do anything, don't turn it, don't mix it.

And the compost that I get out of it absolutely surprised me,

and, I must say, pleasantly surprised

at the quality of the stuff that came out.

I think the other success, Billy,

is the fact that you've screened it so well.

-Yes.

-With the bamboos and the clematis.

-I mean, that is a good idea.

-Yes.

As soon as I put any structure up,

I always see how many roses can I get, clematis, anything!

I've put the bamboos in pots to try and stop the spread of the roots

too much, and they seem happy enough.

They get very little looking after, and it works well.

You know, I also think you're a bit of a perfectionist,

because that water feature, that has got to be spot on.

It has indeed. Yes.

Or it will not flow over all sides of the thing,

so, yes, it took a bit of time to level it out.

-And I love Japanese gardens.

-Yes.

That's the feature that I put in just a couple of years ago.

Absolutely passionate about acers, as I said to you before.

And I think just the form of the leaves, the colour,

and they're all so different.

It just...just fascinates me.

They're really... They are a passion of mine, I would have to say.

And you've got a sense of humour, Billy.

-"Billy's Burn."

-Billy's Burn, yes!

There's no point in having a waterway

without having a sign on it,

and that's my wee rustic sign!

HE LAUGHS

I think it's gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous.

What makes me laugh is I'm trying to introduce moss on the bridge.

I'd never realised how difficult it is to establish moss,

cos you look around and you see moss on the walls.

So you try to actually get it to grow.

I had it established over the winter,

-and come the spring, the birds decided that...

-Nesting material!

Yes. And they took the whole lot away.

But it is establishing in little patches.

And once that sort of breaks down... It's quite nice.

I do like it, I must say.

-So you maybe do sit here with a gin and tonic or something.

-Absolutely.

Well, not gin and tonic. It's more the amber nectar

that's quite nice of an evening. Just the one or two fingers!

I'm quite happy here, you know.

THEY LAUGH

Eryngium agavifolium is one of these dry-land plants

that is loved by bees and flies and wasps.

And there's lots of it now. So it gets pollinated.

The seed then, when it's ready, falls onto the ground round about.

And because it's falling on gravel next to a path here,

these germinate, cos that's just the conditions they like.

You can lift those, pot them up...

Plants for free!

More plants for free...

If you're needing more strawberry plants

and you already have a good stock, look for these young runners here.

That's the first one out from the main plant itself.

I don't want it to go any further, so I'm going to chop that off there.

There's plenty other runners.

You take the primary young plant

and then with a wire clip - this happens to be a paperclip -

clip it down like so

into a little bit of compost.

And once it has rooted,

then you cut the umbilical cord -

new plant, ready to be planted wherever you like.

Now, some of you may remember that I was practising the "Chelsea Chop".

Now, that was back in May time,

cutting back these phlox.

And the whole idea was that I was going to end up

with more compact plants,

and it's all about extending the flowering season.

So the ones behind me, they weren't touched,

they're flowering their heads off.

And here's buds to come. So it does work.

Don't the lettuce look good? This is a second sowing.

Mm-hm. You've managed to maintain the lattice. It looks stunning.

Super. And these dark colours...

-I love that really dark one.

-Yeah.

-Taste as good?

-No. THEY LAUGH

-They're very bitter!

-They're only for show?

-Yeah.

Well, speaking about show, then,

we've lifted all our potatoes in containers,

and "Winston" is good for a show bench,

and I'm so pleased with the results there.

That is such a smooth and wonderfully consistent potato.

-Yes. 3kg.

-A decent crop.

-3kg.

-How many tubers?

-Only three tubers.

-Wow.

-So that's good. It's worth doing.

-That's right.

-Yes, indeedy.

-And then alstroemerias in pots. Beautiful.

These compact ones, these are absolutely fantastic. aren't they?

What would you pick, George?

I'd pick that one, that blush one there, "Sunlight".

-That's superb.

-Beautiful, the stripes.

I like this one, actually, the fuchsia pink one, "Machu".

I think there are more to go, more to show. I think...

-I want to see almost the foliage covered.

-How hardy do you think?

Well, when you look in the catalogue

it does actually say that you should lift them.

Personally, I'd be putting them into the greenhouse.

That's assuming that they are planted in the ground.

They're imports. I would definitely think before...

You know, the temperature in the last week or so

has been down to three in...

-OK, in the glens.

-Yes.

But it's a harbinger... It's a sign of autumn coming on.

I would put them in the greenhouse.

If you'd like any more information,

perhaps about the alstroemerias, it's all in the factsheet.

And the easiest way to access that is online.

-Next week...

-George, what are you doing?

-I am going to sow some green manure next week.

-What a good idea!

I'm starting the process all over again by sowing

and planting veg for next year.

And we didn't mention these ruddy courgettes!

THEY LAUGH

-Have you had enough today?

-Stuffed courgettes?

-Till next week. Bye-bye.

-Bye.

-Goodbye.