Episode 19 The Beechgrove Garden

-Well, Jim. A bright morning.

-It is. Absolutely.

But there are signs of autumn.

What was the temperature in your garden this morning?

Two and a half degrees when I left this morning.

We've only had it down to about eight but we're in town.

My garden was down to five this morning.

Hello, and welcome to Beechgrove.

It does sound and feel summery but autumn's definitely in the air.

But we're still talking about summer bedding. What about it?

I think this is lovely, quite unusual though, George.

Rather unusual in that it was just a mix of some of the veg that we

had left and some of the odd bedding plants which we selected

and there's some absolute cracking things in here.

Well, you took some of my alstroemerias that were going to go

on the decking and I think they are quite amazing.

You keep looking at that one, that's a fabulous plant, isn't it?

That's this thing called Rock'n'Roll.

I don't normally like variegated plants but that's a stunner.

And that's meant to be hardy down to minus ten, Jim.

It's definitely an eye-catcher.

-And I like Indian Summer, the dark one.

-The one over there? Yes.

Let's move away from alstroemerias, though.

I think the thing that signals to me the quality of the weather in the

summer, the moisture and the heat, are the zinnias. They have done

extraordinarily well for the first time ever at Beechgrove.

That is so true. If you don't have

a good summer, they don't do well here.

So that little bit of warmth in July was just what they wanted.

-Never say never.

-Kale's brilliant.

-You can eat that, can't you?

-You can, that's why it's brilliant.

Fair enough. In the rest of the programme...

This is what happens when you harvest a kitchen garden with

eight children, and here's a clue as to where I am.

And here's an absolute belter of a Himalayan cherry.

If you want to see some more stunning plants, stick with us.

Well, I'll tell you what, George. Earlier we were talking about

the good summer we had for the zinnias, for example.

If ever proof was needed, further proof, look at these onions.

Four varieties.

-That's a cracker.

-Aren't they?

And the reds are probably the most difficult, I think,

to grow and to get a really good onion,

I've always found in the past, but there you go.

-That's absolutely splendid.

-That's Red Ray, by the way, the variety.

Right. Why have they not gone to seed?

Well, they've never had a check.

That's what would cause things to run to seed.

You get a cold night, a chilly night

when they're just becoming established, we didn't get that.

And then, secondly, moisture.

If they get run dry that would tend to cause them to run to seed.

We didn't have that either. We had these wonderful heavy showers.

-We didn't think they were good at the time.

-Not really, no.

But they were doing the crops a world of good.

Absolutely splendid.

So, I'm going to go on and get some more of these lifted

and we'll go through the varieties. That's Red Ray. This is Sturon.

This is High-Tech, and this is Snowball.

I've never grown that ever before. But there's no difference.

They are all growing well.

Now, normally I would go through the system of turning them over,

easing them out. But we've had such dodgy weather of late, and the last

thing you want is these things to start ripening and then get wetted.

What we want now is to get all the excess moisture out of them,

all surface moisture, let them colour up even further.

So, we'll put them on a rack like this

and then into a cover.

Into one of the polytunnels, or the greenhouse or even a cold frame.

Keep them dry and they'll actually firm up

and they'll keep all the way through to next spring.

-What are you up to?

-I'm going to sow some green manure here.

This was the area where the early veg were, Jim,

and there was potatoes in here as well.

The last thing we want is to leave bare soil.

Bare soil is just an anathema to me, and so what we've got to do is

-cover this, and I want to cover it with something.

-Yes.

The best thing to cover it with is other plants.

We've got a mixture. This is one of the green manures you can get from

some of the seed companies and it's got a mixture in it, you see?

We've got some mustard, we've got rye grass,

you've got clover in there as well.

And that rye grass is Italian rye grass and it makes a huge amount of

fibrous roots in the time it's going to be in here, and that's

what's going to help the structure of the soil.

It'll absorb all the nitrogen it wants.

It will just fill itself with it

and then it's still there in the spring, you see, and you dig it in.

-Yes.

-That's it.

So we don't lose any nutrients and that's what's so important.

And you don't get this compaction from constant rain.

-It's the most practical way to cover ground.

-Absolutely.

If you leave the soil bare, it will get that glazed look on the top.

And you get a crust and it's just a nuisance. Anyway...

Why did you look at me when you said glazed look?

I'm still interested.

THEY CHUCKLE

Right, we'll sow that out. It's just a reasonable sort of sprinkle.

They say that one packet will do about 20 square metres,

and then we'll just give it a rake in.

So, that's a reasonable sort of covering,

and then just a quick rake in and this should be germinated

within about two weeks because the soil is wonderfully warm

and it will come up very quickly.

Well, how about this for a wonderful collection of sweet peppers?

And I have to say, in all my time at Beechgrove, and that's

over 30 years, this is the best collection I have ever seen.

The gardeners have done an absolutely wonderful job.

They started them off early, and at that time of germination

they need really high temperatures of about 20 degrees centigrade,

and even then once you grow them on, they still need warm temperatures.

And I think that partly has to do with the fantastic summer we've had.

Really, they like a minimum overnight of around about

15 degrees C, and a maximum of 30.

Now, let's just talk through some of the collections that we've got.

The three over there, they are the Italian collection.

I'm not going to pronounce all the names but all of them

have got Russo in the name.

Then we move on to, well, similar shape to the Italian ones,

and these are called the grilling collection.

Starting off here with Black Night.

Look at the colour of that, that's absolutely fabulous.

Moving then on to Asta, wonderful yellow, and then finally this one.

Now, it's called Thor.

At the moment it's green

but that will, I believe, turn into a wonderful red.

Now, some people like really tiny ones as well.

And these are beautiful. They are Snack Bite, they're called.

Mini peppers.

And then, finally, the ones that really interest me

are these ones because they were chosen for the fact that they

were happy in cooler conditions, or northern climates.

The one here with the red is called Lipstick.

Then another red one is called King of the North.

And then how about this one here? It's called Chocolate.

Now, I love chocolate, but I have to say,

I'm not too sure about the colour,

to eat it as a pepper. So I want to open it up because

they do say, as it ripens,

it's slightly red inside.

Well, I would still say that's fairly brown,

and personally, that doesn't appeal to eat.

This is my third and final visit to Scone Palace,

where the head gardener, Brian Cunningham, has been developing

the kitchen garden with some of the local schoolchildren.

Brian, the last time we were here was May, so it's about three months,

I think, since we were here, so what's the season been like?

It's been very good. It's also been very productive as well.

We've gone through what feels like tons and tons of lettuce.

Well, they're looking good still, and the nasturtiums are great.

Does that work, for attracting the aphids?

Without a doubt, they've been a great help.

They've been absolutely covered in aphids.

And do you use the flowers as well?

Yep, we've also used them for decorating the little salad

dishes on the tables, on the plates.

Brilliant, but I think we should go and get the children

because I'm sure they're dying to see the garden.

-Whoa, what do you think? Isn't it pretty?

-This way, Cara.

CHILDREN CHATTER All right, guys?

Wow, the sweet peas.

-Did you plant those?

-Recognise all this, then?

They were just small plants.

CHILDREN CONTINUE TO CHATTER

So, who planted these?

-You sowed them?

-We sowed the ones behind.

So you sowed the dill, didn't you?

-Did you expect it to get this big?

-No.

What do you think in general of the whole garden?

It's very pretty.

-I thought it was dull.

-You thought it was dull?

-When we first came.

-And now?

And now it's nice and pretty. It's bold.

It stands out.

That's fantastic.

OK, well, I think what we're going to do now is the four of you

that were planting the herbs, you go with James to the polytunnel.

And I'm going to take the rest of you

because you were planting the tatties, so we'll go that way.

Yeah?

Right, are you excited about digging up these potatoes?

It'll be fun to see what we get.

-So can you all recognise this area?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

This is where we all did your potato planting. How many weeks ago now?

Way back in April.

-So it's a long time ago, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

Oh, look. You can already see something.

So now it's harvest time. Can I borrow this for a second?

Right, you watch what Brian's doing here.

See here, all these stalks? This is where your plant was grown.

So we want to go just a wee bit behind

because there might be potatoes under there

and we don't want to stab the potatoes and damage them.

-Don't want to kill them.

-That's right.

-Don't want to kill them!

-And you slowly work your fork down.

Prise it up.

-Potatoes!

-Oh, wow.

And we get hardly any potatoes out of that.

-That's a huge one.

-Well, come on, let's grab the fork, then.

You can have a go along there and I'll grab the bucket.

Pop them in the bucket.

There you go.

-That's a tiny one.

-I know.

Does anyone remember what was on top of the soil?

-Remember?

-Cow poo.

-Cow poo. And why did we put the cow poo on?

-It's so that it helps all the soil grow.

-That's right.

It improves the soil and that helps the potatoes grow. It gives the

potatoes their feed. And that's why we've got so many good potatoes.

Gosh, Brian. What a good crop of tomatoes, and they look so healthy.

-Yeah, we've had a good year.

-Absolutely fabulous.

-Right, how are you getting on?

-Fine.

-Do you like tomatoes? That's the big question.

-Only on pizza.

-Same here.

-So, how are you guys getting on with the basil?

-Good.

-And can you smell the basil?

-Yeah.

-It's lovely, isn't it?

It's really strong.

So what's going to happen now?

Well, these guys have done all their sowing and they've learned about

growing, and we've learned about harvesting today so we're all going

to head down to the palace kitchens and do some cooking and eating.

-Do you fancy doing that?

-Yeah.

-Do you like cooking?

-Sort of.

-I don't like cooking, I like eating.

I like both.

-You like both? Good.

-Come on, then.

Well, this looks very organised.

Jenny, you're the catering manager, so what are we going to be doing?

Well, this afternoon I thought I would show you how to use

some of the produce that you've been growing in the garden.

They've got some potato salad here.

We'll show you how to make some potato salad, some green salad,

and some beetroot and orange salad.

-And we've all washed our hands, haven't we?

-ALL:

-Yes.

OK, let's start, then.

You could easily do this at home, couldn't you?

Yes, when my potatoes are ready.

-When are you going to crop your potatoes?

-October.

-OK.

-It's all over my top!

-Whoops! Well done.

Gosh, aren't we lucky with the weather?

This is a great picnic, isn't it?

So, are you all going to get your knives and forks and plates?

And have a wee try?

What have you got out of this year, with the gardening?

What's been the best bit?

I liked planting the sweet peas.

-My favourite part was digging up the potatoes.

-Yep, that was good.

-Alistair?

-Erm, planting potatoes and digging them up.

-So would you volunteer?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-Maybe, yes? You'd come back?

-Because Brian's good to you, isn't he?

-Yeah.

And, well, I can't wait to eat these scones now.

-Let's get stuck in - I think we've earned it.

-I think so.

Well, the last time you saw this tunnel,

it didn't look quite so good...

because it's had a make-over.

Head gardener Jane and handymen Calum and Donald

set aside a day to re-skin the polytunnel.

There comes a time in every tunnel's life when its cover needs to

be renewed, and after ten years, it's certainly time now.

The team had already prepared the area by digging out

the trenches along the sides and removing the old polythene.

The next task was a little bit more difficult

and that was to remove the old protective tape from the hoops.

We've put this foamy tape on to the metal,

and it provides a buffer between the metal hoop and the polythene

so that it doesn't melt in the hot sunshine.

With the old tape off, and it's nicely sanded down,

it's time to put on the new protective tape.

Lovely.

It's finally time to wrestle with the polythene.

I chose a type of polythene that's thick and diffuse

so that it works well for our climate.

There is in fact now a wide range to choose from.

I think the important thing to bear in mind now,

looking at the instructions, is that we have to make sure the

cover's on really tightly and not be afraid of pulling it too tight.

It says it can stretch up to 500%, it says.

But then if you over-tension it, of course, it will rip,

but if it's not tight, the wind, can you see how the wind's flapping it?

Yep.

And it'll soon come apart and disintegrate.

The team suggested a handy tip

when securing the polythene is to cut out batons into small, useable

pieces rather than large ones, as you'll be able to

control the creases better.

Just tucking in the corners.

It's a tidy tunnel.

That's tight enough. It sounds like a drum.

After filling in the trenches and securing the polythene,

Calum and helper..

set to building a new door.

-Hello.

-Hello.

Well, no sooner has the tunnel been finished,

I'm ready to fill it up again.

First of all, we'll grow a range of over-wintering brassicas as we did

last year. They came through very well because we had a mild winter,

we had a super crop. Try it again this time, tempting providence,

see what they're going to be like.

But we're also adding peas and beans. Let's start with the peas.

We've got a variety that I know over-winters well,

it's called Meteor.

And the other one I don't know about. It's called Douce Provence,

which sounds to me as if it comes from a great deal further south.

Now, I'm a wee bit worried, if we put the peas into the ground

straightaway, that they will be fed on by the mice,

so what I'm doing is I'm planting them in these little trays.

So I'll plant them at this sort of density, like so.

Of course, I will fill them in.

And the reason I'm putting them in these,

we can put them up on a shelf and protect them

so that we get them up to about two or three inches tall,

and then we can plant them out without disturbing the plants.

Why? And how do we do that? Just hold on a minute.

Look.

These little trays have got a...

And I can open up a trench in the ground

and just slide the whole block out into the ground. Handy.

You can do it with a bit of ronepipe

but we just happened to have these around.

So then we press these in and we're away. It'll need watering.

Broad beans. The same sort of thing.

We've got two varieties of broad bean.

We have Aquadulce, which I've grown over winter with success,

and a new one called De Monica. I say new, new to over-wintering,

because we have grown this one

in the garden this year and it's done really quite well.

They've been soaked for an hour or two.

Pop them in, couple inches deep.

And we're away.

My first piece of advice to anybody moving into a new area who asks

about what they can grow is, "Have a look through some garden gates

"to see what's possible."

This one definitely looks possible. I'm off to meet the owner.

Hello, Nora. Nice to see you.

From what I've seen already here a few steps inside the gate,

-I'm in for some surprises and some delight as well.

-I hope so.

Where are we, let's just say roughly, in Scotland?

-Well, this is Dunnichen, in Angus.

-Yes.

-Just beside Forfar.

Yeah, OK, so we're on the east side of Scotland.

-And how long have you been here?

-40 years now.

-OK.

-Yes.

And what was it like when you came?

Well, there was virtually nothing in the garden.

It had been rotovated before I came.

Basically, anything we see, today, you're responsible for.

Below this little bit here, below the house, there was

-not a stitch in it.

-Well, let's start with some of the stunners.

-I don't know when I last saw this.

-Galtonia candicans.

-Yes.

-Comes from South Africa, called the Cape Hyacinth.

-Very happy, isn't it?

It's very happy. And they grow very easily from seed.

They do nicely with the blue next door here.

-They're good with the agapanthus. That's Midnight Blue.

-Yes.

My eye was taken to that shrub up there.

Now, it's obviously hardy enough. I'm surprised.

It grows well in the west.

Because that's the lovely... They changed it's name, didn't they?

-Crinodendron Hookeri, yes.

-Yeah, and it's quite happy there, obviously.

It's quite happy.

It does need a bit of fleece just in case you get a very bad winter.

If we stick here, we could be here all day.

Let's move and see what's on the menu.

I think this is a jackets-off job, you know?

-I think so too.

-It's getting a trifle hot.

By jingo.

-A magnolia with seed pods.

-I know.

-It likes it.

-Specially arranged.

-What species?

-Wilsonii.

-OK.

-And the some of the seeds are... You can see them, actually.

-Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

See here?

Oh, yeah. Right.

There's one with the seeds.

-Gosh.

-And some of them have already been shed.

-That's a sign of a plant that likes being where it is, isn't it?

-Yes.

When they start to settle down.

And moving on swiftly, tell me what this is. I spotted it.

That's a Saponaria Max Frei.

It's been flowering for about a month,

and it'll go right on till October.

Good ground cover.

And to think, it's great

because you can put a lot of things in underneath there

and then it covers it because it's just a wee clump in the spring.

Every step, there's something interesting.

Name that crocosmia, please.

That's called George Davison, or else Citronella.

-It's gorgeous.

-It's a lovely one, isn't it?

-Absolutely super.

Again, I'm not sure if I could grow that.

-Clematis, isn't it? What is it?

-It's Clematis rehderiana.

-Yes.

-Doing well.

-It's a beautiful thing.

It's slightly fragrant on a warm day.

This is one of these sort of things,

you can't really walk past this fellow, can you?

I think the glory of it is actually these very small, fine leaves.

We ought to put the name to it, it is a Sorbus, of course.

-Sorbus vilmorinii.

-Yes.

It's one of my favourites.

I'm sorry, I'm bouncing about like nothing else.

-Tell me about this plant here.

-Well, this comes from the Middle East.

-Bizarre thing.

-Yes, well, if you rub your hands on it,

it's very aromatic.

It's called Dictamnus albus.

Yes, it's that flaming thing, isn't it?

Well, on a very, very hot day,

if you strike a match and try to set fire to the vapour off it,

it should come alight, and I've tried it and all I've ever

got was just a pinprick of light, so it wasn't hot enough.

-So this is the burning bush?

-That's the burning bush.

Of the biblical story.

-Well, that's what they say.

-And it's quite a handsome thing.

It's a lovely thing.

Well, I'll tell you, it's one gasping view to another.

It's just amazing. I don't know when I last saw this wonderful spike.

Veratrum nigrum.

-It's stunning.

-It's good, isn't it?

-And it's shape, and that incredible colour.

-Yes.

And it's offset by this thing, which I don't know.

This is Selinum candollei.

-Which I got from a friend who'd been to Russia.

-Uh-huh.

And there are other selinums, but I think it's a lovely thing.

Well, I would be happy with it without the flowers, funnily enough,

because I think that foliage is sublime.

I think the foliage of those selinums is wonderful.

-Actaea, the berries.

-Actaea. Yes.

-Now, remind me. It's got a funny name, has it?

-Dolly's Eyes.

THEY CHUCKLE

It's a sort of oddity but it's...

-eye-catching.

-It's an oddity but it's attractive, I think.

-Yeah.

As we came down the hill to this spot, I noticed the cardiocrinums.

-I know.

-Absolutely producing seeds like nobody's business.

Aren't they wonderful? That's what is sometimes known as courgettes.

-On sticks.

-Courgettes on the top of your plants.

HE LAUGHS

Well, I suppose they are.

I've had enough of courgettes in the last two or three weeks.

I want to get to the plant of all plants up in this corner here.

This eucryphia.

-Well, well, well. You are a very lucky lady.

-Yes.

There are people I know would give their eyeteeth to have a

eucryphia like that. There's a whole range of different ones.

-This one in particular is...

-Nymansay.

Yeah, which is called after the garden in Sussex, Nyman's.

-That's right.

-Yes.

No problems with it? What about the winters of '10-'11, '11-'12?

Well, it lost all its leaves in '10-'11,

and most of its leaves the following year.

But it never stopped flowering.

Well, I bet there's a lot of people around who think that

Gentians only grow till about nine inches tall.

-This fella is a Gentian.

-This one's 4ft.

-Absolutely.

-This is the Willow Gentian.

-It's stunning.

Well, as they say, all good things must come to an end.

We could have spent twice as long and just seen half of it.

It's been a wonderful trip, and thanks to Nora for her hospitality.

Well, this is something you might like to try at home

if you've got a dyke like this.

I'm trying to establish armeria into the rocks.

These were actually sown in March, we've had some really good results.

With this number of plants, it's only worked out about 8p a plant.

Now, all I've got to do with this root ball is squeeze it in, and

if you're in an area where you have heavy rain,

rather than just putting the compost in, what you might like to do

is actually put the compost into tights.

When you're looking for late summer colour,

you can't do better than hydrangea paniculata, "Vanille Fraise".

We're so chuffed with it we've got four of them now,

instead of just the one.

And there you see older flowers turning pink, this one with just

a shade of it, and this one,

divinely cream with these little eyes in it.

Absolutely wonderful.

So, you have an interesting little story to tell us, Mr A?

Well, yes, this was our little trial of organic

and inorganic methods of killing weeds.

Now, the first inorganic method

is this one here where we've got the carpet.

-And that was five weeks ago.

-Yes.

-I'm quite impressed but

I would leave that on for the whole season

-otherwise I think it'll sprout again.

-Yeah.

Then we've got one of these ones, which is an organic

one that's got fatty acid in it, and when we sprayed this it had

an effect after about five minutes, ten minutes.

-Didn't last long though, did it?

-It didn't.

-Works by contact, doesn't it?

The same with this, this was pelargonic acid, and we did that,

and again, within quarter of an hour we could see the browning,

we could see the effect that there was on that.

-This is the one to go for.

-Look at the result there.

That's glyphosate and it just does what it says on the tin.

It doesn't immediately work, because what happens,

it goes through the foliage, down into the root system.

That's a crucial point. It does reach the roots.

The other good thing about it is about three weeks after it's

been applied and you're beginning to see that effect, you can

actually dig that and sow seeds on top.

We can do. Now, if we had a piece of land where we've just got seedlings,

annual seedlings coming through, what we could do is maybe

use the pelargonic acid or the fatty acids and spray it

because the effect would be very immediate.

Just burning it off, aren't they? And a lot safer than a flame gun.

-Absolutely.

-Yes.

-Then come back and sow into it almost immediately.

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

it's all in the factsheet,

and the easiest way to access that is online.

Now, next week, I'm actually with a special guest who is going to

show us how to keep fruit and veg fresh for longer.

George, what about you?

I'm off to a very strange sounding garden, a place called Frosty Neb.

That gives us a bit of a clue.

And I will be drawing a line under the comparison of feeding

tomatoes with comfrey liquid or a high potash feed.

We'll see which one's the winner.

-That's all the rage at the moment, of course. Till next week.

-Bye.

-Goodbye.

-Goodbye.