Episode 8 The Beechgrove Garden

Hello there.

And welcome to Costa Beechgrove!

What a stunning day it is.

I've chosen it to be planting some sweet corn,

and I just had to go from my favourite kneeler.

I can't do the job without a kneeler, nowadays.

The story of the sweet corn is they are going this bed,

which has been prepared, fertilised and everything else,

and was covered with black polythene.

We are now ready to start planting, so we turn the polythene over

because the other side is white. Black polythene helps to warm it up.

White polythene reflects the light.

We've grown sweet corn before at Beechgrove, several years ago.

We've always grown it in a tunnel, because it does need a good start.

So I reckoned that if we planted them this way

and then put a big cloche over the top of them,

we can get them off to a real whale of a start.

We'll take the cloche off end of June, something like that,

when they are beginning to touch the roof.

And away they go. We've got three varieties.

We've planted quite close and grown them in root trainers.

Look at these. Aren't they stunning? Beautiful plants.

The reason for planting them close is these plants are wind pollinated.

They have male and female flowers on the same plant.

If you've got them close together, the wind blowing through,

you get nice pollination and you get full cobs at the end of the day.

That's why they're planted as close as this.

Now, the big problem, of course, is watering,

especially on a slope,

where the water landing on the polythene would run to the bottom.

But before we put the polythene down, we have a seep hose there

and it goes down the bottom going back up

and we make sure they're well irrigated, so it's all go.

It's time I got on. Now, in the rest of the programme...

Six weeks ago, I met two families trying to salvage

something from the rubble they found in their back yard.

And, this week, I'm returning to see how they getting on.

And I'm 25 miles north of Glasgow.

With a setting like this, just wait till you see the garden.

This is our last chance to admire the spring bedding display,

because soon that is going to have to come out

and summer bedding going in.

Look at that white tulip there, it is called White Marvel.

I think it is really lovely.

I'm going under cover, into the polytunnel,

cos there's lots going on here, and starting off with a plant

that Jim was planting up for us to start off with.

This is the New Zealand yam.

I wanted to show you this house plant,

which is a purple-leaved Oxalis.

You can see the leaves are exactly the same.

It is related, because oca is also Oxalis.

But this one is edible

and what we're doing is we're treating it like a potato,

so as the foliage starts to grow, we're gradually earthing it up.

You don't necessarily have to do that,

but I am hoping, by earthing it up, we will actually get more of a crop.

And that is half hardy,

so I'm going to put it outside on the decking in a couple of weeks.

Then what I have here, something ornamental,

is the Tennessee spinning gourd.

Never grown it before. Quite tiny gourds.

As I say, they are ornamental, so you pick them

and dry them off for decoration.

Then we've got Little Lanterns - Cape gooseberry - a small plant

and you get those lovely orange fruits from them.

Quite a tang to them.

Then we are going on to the pattypans, or summer squashes,

and I've got four varieties.

There are some that are green, some will be yellow, some will be white.

And then do you remember I grew cucamelons last year?

What it said was to overwinter the roots

and, by doing that, you'd maybe get an earlier crop.

Well, I'm afraid it's a bit of a disaster.

If we try and find the roots here, nothing is happening.

A little bit like the story with our chillies -

overwintering those plants. It didn't work for us.

My suggestion again is try and grow them from seed

and you get these lovely fruits that have a taste of lime to them.

As usual, we like to grow the cucumbers,

and they do need fairly warm temperatures,

especially when you start to germinate them from seed.

And it's quite important you quite have high humidity

when you're growing them.

I'm using the usual technique of strings.

What I like to do is put the string in the bottom.

Pull out one of the plants, and this is a variety called Mini Munch.

Basically, you put it underneath and, as the roots grow,

that will keep the string in place.

The other thing I like to do is plunge a pot right next to it.

Because what happens, if you actually water

around the neck of the plant, especially if it is cold water,

the plant itself can rot.

So, instead, water into the pot.

The other thing is I'm going to do a little bit of a trial

with this variety, Mini Munch.

I'm going to grow one lot in a peat-free compost

and the other in a peat-based compost,

a bit like I'm doing with the potatoes on the decking,

and we'll have a comparison.

The other thing is it is called Mini Munch, the name gives

it away, because the cucumbers are only three inches in size.

We're up in the show veg tunnel, where we've been growing show veg

to put on the bench and, last year, we had a problem with our beetroot.

It was too big.

What we're doing is we're going to show this variety,

which is, I think, called Pablo,

and I'm going to sow it now, so it doesn't get to big.

You want beetroot about the size of a tennis ball when you pull it.

That's it there.

We've got little seeds which are blue in colour,

and makes it absolutely brilliant, so you can see them.

We'll thin these out later on, one per station,

and that's going to be ideal.

Now, this thinning has got to be done to this lot in here as well.

These are carrots, a variety called Sweet Candle,

which is a stump-rooted carrot. Brilliant for the show bench.

And we've got quite a number sown at each station

and I want to thin these out to one per station,

so we get carrots about that round at the top and about that length.

That's the idea.

So what I'm going to do is hold one carrot to the side like that,

so that we can pull all these out.

There's only one carrot left.

And that will grow into a show-bench winner.

At least, I hope so.

-OK then, Jim, organised?

-I'm glad to see you, my dear boy.

In a manner of speaking, I don't know what the dickens I'm doing,

apart from drawing drills for seeds.

I've just come from a place where we're growing conventional veg.

This is uncommon veggies.

You will recognise these as flowers that you'd normally grow in beds.

I have to say, it's a kind of wacky arrange!

I mean, it's all over the place. Yes, these are bedding plants.

Normally, it's a bedding plant. This is called a Perilla.

It's got this wonderful purple on the reverse of the leaf.

I see it as a wonderful plant - big purple leaves, marvellous thing.

-Are we supposed to eat that?

-We eat the leaves of that.

We can use it in stir-fries or we can use it in salads.

-I say "we" - people who like it can.

-This is true, yes.

We've got things like the Electric Daisy,

-where we'll eat the flowers of that.

-Oh, really?

And we've got things like yacon, where we eat the roots, or the tuber.

It's like a dahlia. We've got these unusual things.

Somebody wrote to us about growing something unusual,

we're ahead of the game!

I recognise this - it's sea kale. It's going in a pot.

That's going in a pot, because we're going to have to move that.

Look at this thing here, this is an unusual one.

-Yes, indeed.

-If I can read it off the label,

it's Wa Wa Cai Choi' Zha Cai.

-We're off!

-Like a Hawaiian song.

That is a brassica.

The leaves will taste like cabbage leaves

and you can use them in stir-fries.

-What is that in the wee tray there?

-Isn't that lovely?

Look at the colours in that.

That is what we would call sweet corn, Jim, or popcorn.

And it's the coloured variety.

-Cabbage.

-The one at the end... Ah, but it's not just any cabbage.

-That's the...

-Walking Stick.

-..Walking Stick cabbage.

That's going to get up to there. That's why it's at the end.

In this ground, boy, they'll be like fence posts by next year!

We better get on with it.

-You take the drills out and I will sow the seeds.

-OK, OK.

Now then, it's time to try and catch up with that young Mr Beardshaw.

He's away again to see his new clients down the coast.

The new gardeners.

It was just six weeks ago

that I first met my first met my two new-build families,

who had both taken on plots in new-build estates

that were largely built on this, the remains of rubble

and all sorts of debris that developers leave behind.

And, after a lot of hard labour and moving of all of the detritus,

well, they're beginning to experience the fruits of their labours.

Anna and Andrew Robertson and son Fergus were keen

to have a productive garden in their 10 by 10 plot in Portlethen.

The original soil, well, it was soggy and boggy

and the only way of solving the problem was to build raised beds.

We could then start planting the trees

and those initial sowings of vegetables.

-This is starting to look like a proper growing garden.

-Isn't it just?

I'm very impressed at how well we are doing.

There's some young beetroot coming through.

-A little bit of lettuce under here. What's under that one?

-Rocket.

And leaving the cloches on to get them to germinate

and get the plants to fill out is a good idea,

because, on a day like today, even if it's 10, 12 degrees outside,

inside here, it could be 15 to 18 degrees,

-which is exactly what they need.

-It's a big difference.

The strawberries look good.

Peas are almost ready for those wonderful nests of pea sticks

-you can put over the top.

-Just a little bit of support.

-Yep.

Now, apples. This is Scrumptious. It's a real winner.

It's very sweet, very succulent, and a good, rosy flesh to it, too.

When it comes into flower,

the beauty of this plant is it is considered to be partly self-fertile.

-OK.

-The pollen will be transferred from one flower to another

-and, therefore, you'll get fruits.

-With our abundance of bees.

With your abundance of bees.

That's the problem in an estate like this - complete absence of insects.

Ordinarily, the bees would do the job

and, in time, they will, once everyone else plants their gardens.

However, in the short-term, it's a little bit of a make-up brush.

Go into the ripe flower. You can see the ripe one there.

The anthers, really a nice, golden colour.

Give them a dust and go on to the other flowers

and just go round and touch.

-You're doing the job of the bee. Really important.

-OK.

But, not all apples are created equal.

Because, over there, we have a small bush tree, that's Egremont Russet.

It is a really good, old variety. Very disease-resistant.

But it needs the pollen from this one.

It needs two plants in order to pollinate.

This is where you have to simulate the bee.

You have to collect pollen on this,

run over there when the flowers are open and put it on that one.

And similarly collect pollen on that one and bring it back to this one.

OK. The neighbours are going to be entertained.

The neighbours will think you've completely lost the plot.

Even more so when you then dash into that corner,

because, over there you've got your Bramley,

which is the best of those traditional cookers.

-Really big, very juicy fruit.

-Yeah, we're quite excited.

There's so much you can do with it.

Bramley, just for the sake of confusion, is known as a triploid.

You need two other plants, plus the Bramley, in order to get the apples.

-That's why we have the combination.

-Exactly.

-Only then will you get your Bramley fruits.

-OK.

'Susan and Brian Duthie had dreamt of an ornamental garden

'to go with their new home in Cove.

'Brian was keen to get building a deck, as well as pergolas

'and some seats. Meanwhile, Susan and I cleared the garden

'of what seemed like tons of stone, laid out the structure of trees

'and hedges, and cracked on with the ornamental beds.'

-Look at this. Colour.

-Isn't it great?!

-It looks fantastic.

-You need a sign hanging on the gate - "open to the public".

-£2 a view.

-£2?!

-It's getting better.

-THEY LAUGH

You're allowed to walk on the decking now, Chris. It's good,

because we've had two coats of paint, so it's much better.

I'm too nervous to tread on the deck after last time!

After being told off, I want to stay on the grass.

How are the plants coming on? How are you living with them?

I think the plants are great.

I can see... We've got the higher ones, the lower ones,

the ones that are spreading out a bit. Most of them look happy.

One or two I'm concerned about.

And Brian has done a fabulous job with the pergolas.

I think that works really well. Which ones aren't you sure about?

I'm not very happy about this little poppy here.

-He doesn't look very happy at all.

-Yeah, I agree with you.

Because this is a plant that should be, at this stage, full of life.

At the moment, we're seeing nothing,

it is falling away in my hand where it was falling out the pot.

I think we need to nurse it, take it out the ground,

put it back into a pot, put it in a nursery bed and talk to it nicely.

-It may well come back.

-OK.

Generally speaking. if it's only a couple of plants,

that's not bad going in a full-sized garden. That's not bad.

What's the next in the plan of action?

I've got some sprockets to put in the top of the pergolas.

Once that's done, you can get your climbers up through the pergolas.

-Perfect.

-Sounds good.

-Can I finish my coffee first?

-OK, then.

-Might be a bit cold now.

-SHE CHUCKLES

Doing a grand job there, Brian.

There is nothing that makes people work in a more self-conscious way

-than having an audience.

-Yup. That's why I've got my tape measure out,

make sure I get them in the right place.

What is governing the way we put our climbers out at the moment -

the first thing is we want to make sure both sides of the pergola,

and the top, are clothed and, hopefully, clothed equally.

Also, we want a long season of flowering.

For instance, on this side, we have Belgian honeysuckle,

which you can see by the way it's growing in the pot,

it's quite vigorous and, therefore,

will easily fill one side of the pergola.

But on this side, we've got a relatively small clematis,

Clematis Pixie, and then we've got a little Chaenomeles,

commonly called the quince.

This is spring and autumn on this side.

-This one is summer.

-OK.

That means there is always something of interest happening on the pergola.

This one over here, same sort of principle,

we have a vigorous honeysuckle on that side,

which will entwine Callum if he doesn't keep moving around!

Again, summer flowering,

but also we have early-season colour with Clematis armandii.

And winter flowering with the winter-flowering jasmine,

-Jasminum nudiflorum.

-But each of the plants is quite different,

so how are we going to get them to climb nicely over the pergola

to give them a bit of clothing?

-You discipline them.

-You discipline them! OK.

You are right, they are all different and they climb in different ways.

For instance, something like a honeysuckle,

you can see from the stems it has slightly wayward, rambling stems.

Need to be brought in line!

It's what is technically known as a weaver.

It goes through and round and through and round,

so perfect for going through these gaps in the trellis.

-It will loll against the trellis.

-That's lounging!

That one is definitely a weaver. Then you have the Clematis Pixie.

This is quite a good climber.

It has little leaf petioles,

the stem attaching the leaf to the stalk will twist.

When it comes into contact with anything,

it will twist its way around, but it needs quite fine support,

so we will have to put some wires in on the trellis

to allow that to twist around.

It won't be able to make a twist around the individual timber.

It needs fine mesh or fine wires. And then we have these sorts of things.

So, for instance,

We've got Hydrangea petiolaris.

This is a good climber, first-class climber,

especially for a shady position, because it has these on it.

These are adventitious roots, which is a root where you don't

normally expect a root, in this case, coming straight off a stem.

-It is a bit cheeky.

-This then glues itself to the wall.

The root will root into the wall and glue itself to a freestanding wall.

You wouldn't put it against your house,

because it causes problems with your damp proof.

-Perfect for a freestanding wall like that.

-It's a Spider-Man plant.

Definitely. The important thing is to get not just your season of interest,

but to match that with

how is the plant going to attach itself to the pergola, to the wall?

-OK, well we better get going, then.

-OK?

With all the climbing plants positioned

and tied to their supports appropriately,

I can leave Brian and Susan discussing the merits

of how to position annual bedding.

Oh! No, it's very straight.

I won't make you take it off and start all over again.

You've done a good job.

These are our single-cordon sweet peas.

A little bit of work needing to be done to them.

You will see they were originally stalked,

this one was stalked just there,

and it has produced other shoots.

Now I pick the best one, which is this fella here,

and I actually take this one out.

Like that.

Having singled it, I don't want it to break,

so I put a little wire around it.

And as I am handing over to Carole and George,

there is a little bit of pea and bean weevil on these

and you have a control for that, haven't you?

Yes, the late James Bruce, who was my tutor at college,

used to suggest that one of the best ways of getting rid of it

was to keep hoeing, because they don't like the disturbance.

It also exposes them to the birds. That's important.

Even with your peas and beans in the veg patch,

-keep hoeing between them and you'll get rid of it.

-Yep.

Anyway, Carole, what's on?

Lots of courgettes, but different ones, this time,

because they're all round courgettes.

-We have nine different varieties.

-Oh, right.

Vigorous feeders, aren't they?

We will need some compost in the bottom.

I've put compost in the bottom and I put a bit of fertiliser in.

Mixed it in, because you've got to watch it for burning the roots,

-haven't you?

-How deep are you going to plant these?

They like their necks to be dry, don't they?

Slightly mounding them up, because, otherwise,

you've got to be careful,

because they do rot a bit, like cucumbers.

-And you know about cucumbers, the number you've planted!

-That's true.

The other thing is, we've got two plants of each variety.

If you remember, last year, the sweet peas on the slope...

They were taller at that end.

Was it that end, or that end? I can't remember.

-But it was the slope effect.

-Yes.

So we have Baseball here and Baseball at the top, just to see.

-So the varieties are reversed in each row?

-Yeah. And different colours.

Yellows, some striped ones and dark green ones.

Seems to be a spherical theme, though!

I'm just north of Glasgow, beyond Aberfoyle,

on the banks of Loch Ard,

and I'm here to meet a good friend of mine, Callum Pirnie.

Callum was head gardener at Crathes Castle for 15 years.

He has spent the last four years restoring

and developing this beautiful lochside garden.

Here we are coming down into the azalea collection at Dun Dubh

and there's a wonderful range

of different old hybrids and species in here.

And with the climate and humidity, they just thrive.

We have the beautiful perfume with the luteum. Look at this one.

That's right. One of the old hybrids.

You can see, old plants, we had we do a lot of restoration pruning,

but they do come back. They respond to it

and you get that beautiful tone of colour.

And the scent of the luteum behind it is spot-on.

This looks like one of your projects,

because it's fairly newly planted.

This was a blank canvas when I came four years ago.

Essentially, it was the bare ground.

So we came up with a theme for the upper terrace

to become a gold and purple and blue theme.

I love gold, because,

whatever the weather, it's always bright and cheerful.

That's right. And it lifts.

You get a lot of dull days here

and on the dull days, the gold lifts the whole garden.

There is a distraction.

-Look at that beyond. It's absolutely amazing.

-You can't go wrong.

And we did open up the view slightly,

so you get that into the, basically, borrowed landscape beyond.

Absolutely stunning.

The glasshouse was built

to replace an old glasshouse that had been there,

which we identified from photos from the 1940s.

It is in the Victorian style.

It looks beautiful and it is really set off by these beautiful dykes.

Who's been building those?

That's right, we had to do a major restoration

and rebuild of many of the retaining walls and terraces.

Duncan Mackintosh came down with his team and did a stupendous job,

both of what you would call the formal walls,

which were done and cement-pointed, and the dry stone walls.

It's an absolute skill, isn't it? But back to the plants.

What about the fruit trees?

That's right, we have got our orchard here, which we are improving.

We developed the fruit garden, as was, from the old photographs.

The wall holding up the veg garden terrace had to be rebuilt.

As a result, we had to bring in about 60 tonnes of topsoil.

This is like being in Japan - a natural moss garden.

That's right, the moss has come in here

and it's in its natural environment,

it's happy and, as a result, it just thrives.

We decided to enhance it and make it a feature of the garden.

OK. You say enhance it,

have you had to do a little bit of work to encourage it?

Essentially, yeah.

The key is first getting any rhododendron

and all the vegetation off the top, which then lets the light in.

And from there, keeping the leaf litter off it,

because, essentially, it's a seedbed and if we left the seedlings

of the young trees and rhododendron and everything else,

it would regenerate quickly.

In probably ten years, it would be back to semi-woodland scrub again.

Yes. So it isn't no maintenance to get it looking like this?

No, it's just an ongoing, very intricate maintenance, very detailed.

Very therapeutic.

Callum, I know you are passionate about plants,

but, in particular, the Japanese maples.

When I came to Dun Dubh, I had the chance to develop the collection.

I've introduced one or two of the Japanese maples

and one here, this is Orange Dream,

which has the vivid foliage in the springtime. Very orange

-and one of the newer cultivars.

-It is a stunning colour.

And then such a contrast to the one next to it.

This is what you call the deep-red varieties,

an Acer palmatum "Yubae", and it is a very, very striking maple.

When you see this one from a distance, it's like a beacon.

Well, this is a really impressive rock garden.

Yes, well, this is a talking point on Dun Dubh.

Basically, the idea was that there was a bank in here

and we decided to put in a rock garden, brand new. It is brand new.

It looks so natural.

It looks like the rocks have been here a long time.

We've managed to source rock that was well weathered

and that has been the key to it.

The thinking was that, probably, as the house dates to late Victorian,

there may have been intentions at that time,

given the trends at that time,

to put in a rock garden and crag. So this was our chance to put back

something that we thought might have been here originally.

It's a beautiful feature, but really set off by the pine on top.

The pine on the top was the final, I think...

Just finishes off and brings that Japanese element to the crag

and we'll keep it pretty much in that shape and size

to give scale to the feature.

Callum, I have to say, it's an absolute credit to you,

and the rest of your team, and I've had a fantastic day.

Can we go and look around the corner now?

We certainly can. Thank you.

Last year, we planted two roses - Maigold and Seagull -

and the idea is we want them

to climb up through the branches of the tree

and out they come.

If you are pruning or training woody plants,

you've got to be on the ball. Look at this one here.

It has been trained to go around the stem

and it's heading up there.

This one is going to need a little bit of direction,

because it's trailing on the ground.

Do it when the growth is still pliable and soft.

Don't wait until it is woody,

because, try and bend them and they'll break.

Here is something you might like to try at home.

I have a collection of rapid salads -

things like lettuce, rocket,

and I'm sowing here mustard.

What it says in the catalogue is that they mature within 21 days.

So I'm going to put that to the test.

The last time we were in the Secret Garden,

we had a yellow theme going on, but, today, it is a purple theme.

We've got purple apple, the purple of the honesty

and down in the foreground, purple of the Bergenia.

Again, bouncing the colours around

so that your eye looks at the whole garden.

-Hasn't it been a cracking year from rhododendrons?

-Wonderful!

Superb, yes. No frost, you see?

Aye, well, I lost one or two flowers with frost,

-but no, they're good.

-That's lovely, isn't it?

-That one is a variety called Viscy.

-We'll write that down!

Fair enough, it doesn't matter what it's called,

-it still looks good, doesn't it?

-It is superb.

And this Ravenswing, this Anthriscus, it's absolutely superb.

Although, it's spreading, bit like a weed.

There are seedlings at this side as well,

-it's getting out it and about.

-Taking over!

-Well...

But if you would like any more information

about this week's programme, it's all in the fact sheet

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

Well, next week, we're not here. We are at Gardening Scotland.

We're going to have a unique preview and sample a little bit

of that special atmosphere at Gardening Scotland.

Until then...

-Bye!

-Goodbye!