Episode 3 The Beechgrove Garden

Hello and welcome to Beechgrove Garden on a typical spring day,

if there is such a thing.

Back home - I live about 20 miles north of Aberdeen -

I recorded 15 in the day and last night it only dropped to 6.

In the meantime, I could be scraping the windscreen in the morning.

It's been a real mixter-maxter.

-But what are you two up to?

-Well, I'm saving the mahonia.

After all that pruning, it did flower quite nicely.

Yes, but all the flowers are at the top.

I think we should maybe give consideration to bringing it down

-a little bit.

-When? Soon?

-Some time.

I like to think you're here

because there's such a beautiful carpet of colour.

Well, they are beautiful, aren't they?

-I mean, I like this one - Jetfire.

-That's fabulous.

But that yellow one, you see, there you are, just ordinary yellow,

doesn't matter what it's called, it's still splendid, isn't it?

What about the blue anemones as well? Bonny.

These two colours set them off.

All over the place, they're blooming. Stronger sunshine and all.

But there's a lot to do, OK? So in the rest of the programme...

I'm visiting this grand old lady,

thought to be Fife's largest yew tree and, do you know what?

I might even find out how old she really is.

And this is what's left of the old Alpine Garden,

but don't worry, it's going to be recycled

because, as part of being on the site for 20 years,

we're going to create some lovely new alpine features.

Now for a little ploy to try and beat Mother Nature.

I'm usually looking for that sort of thing.

I'm going to plant some onion sets in containers here.

The soil outside is not fit to take onion sets at the moment,

it's too wet and it's too cold, but we are losing time, you see,

so if I take these onion sets, the variety is Sturon,

and I pop them in a nice wee bit of compost like so, water them in,

stick them in the cold frame - in the greenhouse if you've got one

or on a window ledge - they will start growing.

And when the soil conditions are right to be putting out

onion sets, I will put out onion sets and, beside them,

I will put out these, which, by that time, will probably be about that.

In other words, they will be ahead.

We've got a heavier crop or, in some cases, we've got an earlier crop.

And it's as simple as that.

So if you can do that with onion sets, why not take

a selection of seed-sown vegetables and do the same thing?

So we've got beetroot, turnip, carrot and radish.

What I'm doing is actually sowing them in these little pots here.

Same idea.

We'll plant them out when conditions are right for seed-sowing outside.

Now, you do see, at this time of the year and in the coming weeks,

little vegetable plugs in the garden centre for the same reason.

You're putting them out already half-grown

and that's what I'm trying to do here. Is it worth the bother?

Well, I think it would be cheaper.

It takes a wee bit of time but, you get to my age,

you've got plenty of time.

So then you cover over the top with a bit of the same compost,

press it down and Bob's your uncle.

I feel, George, at this juncture,

that I should admit to you that I have joined the no-dig brigade.

-Oh, right.

-About five years ago.

Down-sized and all my vegetables are now grown in raised beds.

And you don't really dig raised beds, you just hurtle it about.

That's right.

But the no-dig brigade are a fairly strong team

of people who don't believe in conventional cultivation

and we've set up this wee trial.

This side, it's a five-by-two plot, rotational plot, conventional.

This side, five-by-two plot.

The pieces of ground are almost identical

and we will try the old no-dig on this side.

I notice you're standing at that side at the no-dig

and I've got this one here. So this is the traditional one

and it's the way that most people do it where they dig their plot,

they put the manure or the compost underneath the soil, cover it

with a spit of fresh soil and then they grow their crops on the top.

But on this side, you don't do any of the digging at all,

so it's good for the back, you see.

But you get the organic matter on top

and a little bit of nice compost, leaf mould, et cetera,

riddled for getting your seeds into, you know.

Now, there is a wee flaw here, is there not? How do I stop weeds?

Because, look at the weeds on top of that. How do you stop weeds?

Truth to tell, the people who I've spoken to who do the no-dig

actually make very good hot compost

or they have access to very good old muck and that, I think,

is the limiting factor here

because... Getting the right kind of stuff to get the formula right.

And, of course, getting enough spare cardboard, perhaps,

to put down a layer to stop the weeds coming through.

Just as a barrier.

And then all the stuff on top should be weed-free.

Of course, we've got to take a bit of our own advice, haven't we?

We've got these tarpaulins on to keep it from getting any wetter.

It was already wet. And we'd be plowtering a bit, I think.

There are weeds that are already germinating, so the soil is warm.

It's a question we often get asked - "When do you start planting?"

Well, when you see the weeds.

-When you see the weeds.

-Things are going to grow.

-Aye.

It's the beginning of March, officially spring

and just look at it.

However, it's rather appropriate

because our project today is the Alpine Garden.

This Alpine Garden was designed and built by Lesley Watson in 1998.

Since then, it's been through a few minor modifications.

This year, as part of our 20 years in this garden,

we're going to give this area a major overhaul

and hopefully this will inspire you

to try some of these alpine features in your own garden.

For the last few years,

Beechgrove has made regular visits to Scone Palace

to see Brian Cunningham, the head gardener there.

This year, Brian, who is an alpine enthusiast, has come

to Beechgrove to take on the mission of revamping the Alpine Garden.

Well, is this perfect conditions for the alpine plants?

I feel at home today, up on the mountain tops.

Well, the gardeners have been busy, Brian,

they've actually sort of cleared out quite a few of the plants

but, obviously, we want to save one or two. What about the willow here?

It's a cracking shrub, but it's just far too out of scale now,

too big for what we're trying to recreate.

Yeah, I would agree, but there's one or two things in pots?

Yeah, without doubt. We've got a beautiful Daphne retusa,

-That's definitely going to look good.

-Lovely perfume.

And this little spring-flowering crocus in particular,

that's perfect.

You would normally find that in the damp meadows up in the alpines

and they come into flower as soon as the snow retreats,

-so it's perfect for today.

-Perfectly happy.

The picea there, I hope you're not going to touch that.

-No, definitely got to keep that one.

-OK, so what's the overall plan?

The overall plan is to try

and create as many different mountain environments in this space.

We're going to try and open it up, and to do that, it means we're going

to be taking down a couple of panels of this fence too.

Well, I think if you don't remove them, they're going to fall down.

The great thing is, Brian, that is going to open up a view,

and one of the problems we've had with the Alpine Garden

is you haven't been able to see all of it,

all the plants, so great idea there.

So what are you going to do today?

Today, we're going to make a start by clearing it all and getting it

back down to the bare bones, and then we're going to be able to see

what rock we have left, and we're going to try and re-use and recycle

as much of this material as possible to make the new Alpine Garden.

-So you've got your work cut out, haven't you?

-We sure do.

It took Brian and Callum a day to completely clear the site.

And then another day to begin the rebuild.

-What a difference a couple of days makes.

-Yeah, there we go.

Is that all right? Is that steady enough?

That's the last trough in place.

I'm trying to create a mountainside look here

and we're using the troughs to create that effect too.

And you've recycled all these stones from the original Alpine Garden?

Yep.

So the face of the mountain is going to be these beautiful faces

-here of these troughs.

-And you don't like that one, then?

That's a beautiful '70s construction that'll need a bit of disguising.

And how are you going to disguise it, then?

So, on the mountaintops, there's no soil and the plants try

and get homes in any crack or any fissure that they can find.

So what we're going to try and do is use some of these

old sandstone pieces that we recycled from earlier on,

and we're going to make a wee crevice feature in here.

And we'll use this and that should hide away this.

That should look lovely.

And the plants naturally grow in those cracks, don't they,

and the roots just go down?

I think the great thing, Brian, as well,

is you've got a bit of height now to the trough.

Cos so many of those plants are tiny and you've got to

-bend down to have a look at them.

-And they're now at eye level.

I really think this wall is brilliant.

We talked about the fact that it's going to open up the garden,

so, in other words, we can now look into the secret garden

-and vice versa.

-Yeah.

This is the only feature in the garden

that we've had to buy in soil to do.

And this is another opportunity to create a crevice feature,

but this time on a vertical level, rather than down at this level.

OK, and it's just soil, no mortar?

No mortar. We're just using sand and soil,

so the roots can go searching away for the...

And also at a bit of an angle, presumably just for stability.

Just to make sure. We don't want it collapsing on anybody.

Something else we spoke about, Brian,

was giving a bit more width here,

so that we can get round the back and, I suppose,

clamber up the mountain.

Yeah, this is what we're trying to create here.

So what we've got on here, we'll use the troughs and the crevice feature

and they'll be the home to the more true alpine plants,

Whereas what we've done here is create a more gentle,

sloping mountainside.

And this was just one of the original conifers.

-That hasn't shifted.

-No, we've just worked round that one.

This'll be a great one to link in between the two zones.

And if anything, I think before it kind of just sat on its own.

Now you've linked it in with the rocks.

Yeah, hopefully it's looking natural now.

And then what are you going to do here?

So this last piece, as we're coming down the mountainside,

once we're into the tree line, we're into a more woodland area.

And this time...

Over there we used rocks to create the terrace features.

Here we're just going to use branches and some old stumps

to create that sort of woodland feel,

and hopefully tie in with our next door neighbour's garden.

Yeah, more recycling. More recycling.

OK, well, we'd better find one or two suitable bits.

-That's quite nice. I like the piece that goes...

-That goes up?

..up in the air.

-I think that would look nice in my seaside garden.

-Ah!

It's got more of a worn look about it, hasn't it?

-Is it out again?

-Yeah, sorry.

Is this like choosing the paintwork and the curtains?

I'd better go for a cup of tea and let you...

Brian, it's definitely starting to take shape, isn't it?

Yeah, I'm really pleased. It's been a good day's work.

-Could we say, "See the wood for the trees"?

-Yes.

Anyway, what we've got is some lovely little features here,

cos we've got the alpines for a woodland theme,

then go to the mountains.

Then, of course, there's the lovely troughs, that cluster of troughs,

that are going to be planted, and just look at the crevice wall now.

Callum's made a superb job of that, and only a little way to go.

And at the top there'll just be a flat top to it.

So, at the end of the day, Brian next week is actually going to be

looking for some planting inspiration.

He's going all the way to Edinburgh to the Botanic Gardens.

Now, I'm just tidying up a couple of little dwarf cyclamen.

They've been flowering their heads off for weeks and weeks and weeks.

And I might be sounding a bit judgmental, but I reckon

probably 80% of them will get chucked in the bucket.

Well, that's not the gardener's attitude.

We're about keeping perennials going.

So, I've got them steeping in here. They're a bit dry at the moment.

Steep them in water and start to feed them,

maybe for another month or six weeks,

and then it'll start to yellow over

and it'll start to want to die off because it has a resting period.

And then, given six weeks' or eight weeks' rest,

start them all over again.

So don't throw them out. You're wasting money if you do that.

It doesn't take a lot to just keep them going.

Now then, chrysanthemums.

Here are the roots that were dug out of the ground last year

and overwintered.

We refer to these, the old root, as a chrysanthemum stool.

I don't know where it comes from but that's the story.

They've been late in sprouting, and they sprouted away like mad

when, in fact, in another few weeks,

we should be planting out young plants.

So what I intend to do is harden them off as they are,

plant them out in the cutting garden,

train them as we would want to

and get some shoots from them to make new plants,

which will be the ones we overwinter next year for flowering in 2017.

So, that's the story of the chrysanthemums.

The dahlias. They drive you up the wall, the dahlias.

Our dahlia tubers, which have been overwintered from last year,

have been kept frost-free and then brought into the heat,

but they have been so slow.

They're only just now starting to produce shoots.

Now, again, they should be cuttings.

I should have been taking cuttings from them a month ago, maybe,

to have really sonsy plants to put out.

So I think the ploy is, we plant out these roots,

we'll get a perfectly good lot of flowers,

and then next spring we'll get them started into growth

a great deal earlier.

Now, it's a very similar story in this greenhouse,

right next door to Jim's.

It's all about some of the plants that we've kept over the winter.

And a couple of weeks ago, on programme one, we were

looking at the amaryllis, and we've had several of them flowering again.

This one is a new flower spike that's come out,

which I think's absolutely gorgeous.

We've had a huge response from the viewers, yourselves,

and Sandra Jones I think should be congratulated

because she wrote to us and said that she has managed to have

an amaryllis bulb flowering every year for 20 years, which is amazing.

The other thing, though, was people wanted to know,

what am I feeding these with at the moment?

And it's a general-purpose fertiliser,

slightly high in nitrogen,

and you do that feeding every 10-14 days,

right through to midsummer, and then you change it to the high potash,

and that is what produces the flower for next year.

Anyway, what else are we keeping?

We've got things like the hot water plant and the oxalis.

We had these from last year, and I know this looks a very sorry-looking

specimen, but this is what you have to do over the winter time.

You completely neglect it, you don't water it at all,

then you knock it out the pot, and I have to say this is

when I get quite excited because what we're looking for is...

Look, this is what we're looking for, these lovely tubersols.

Because it tends to multiply, so I've got several here.

And then all I need to do is pick out three good ones

and follow that through for this year.

So we get three good little tubersols, and the hot water plant

is very similar-looking, and then just cover that in compost.

I also, of course, want to introduce a few new plants to the greenhouse.

I've got some Zantedeschias, or the common name is the calla lily,

because these ones are the frost-tender ones.

And they have lovely coloured trumpets.

These look rather strange.

They call these rhizomes.

That is actually the bottom,

so that is the bit that you put into the pot, and this is the top.

These are the tiny little eyes,

and that's where we'll get the nice leafy growth.

And you do actually expose that a little bit,

and I'm using a soil-based compost.

And then something else that I've never grown before is this.

This is the pineapple lily or pineapple flower,

is the other common name. Eucomis is the Latin name.

And it's called the pineapple flower because when it does flower,

it has leafy growth on the top,

which just looks like the pineapple fruits.

So, again, a John Innes compost, or a soil-based compost,

with some grit through it because what we want

is really quite good drainage.

This, though, because it's a bulb, I want to actually bury that.

And, again, just like the oxalis,

like the rest of the plants, we're going to start to water these off

and hopefully we're going to have flowers in the summertime.

I want to start today's garden visit with a little bit

of a history lesson.

I want to take you back to July 15th, 1815,

Napoleon has just been defeated at the Battle of Waterloo,

and he realises that his chance of remaining in France

are quite remote.

So he surrendered his sword to Royal Navy captain

and Scotsman Frederick Maitland,

whose warship had been blockading the French Atlantic coast.

This marked the end of the Napoleonic Wars

and it allowed Captain Maitland a massive pot of prize money,

with which he bought Lindores Estate here in Fife,

and then set about over the years improving the property

and the loch-side garden.

Lindores House has changed hands many times

since Captain Maitland laid the foundations.

It was bought by Robert Turcan's family in 1947

and Robert has been tending to the garden here for 40 years.

George, this is really one of the areas which

we started gardening in and we started off by digging a few things,

like these erythronium on the side of the walled garden.

-They're coming on quite nicely now.

-Look at that patch of crocus.

-They're just fabulous.

-I'm pretty thrilled with these.

They originally came from Murrayfield House,

which was my grandmother's house in Edinburgh,

where they had carpets of them.

And we, well, my parents, dug up bags and bags

and they never really worked until just the last few years.

I think feeding them with potash and things has been helping them.

Potash does help them build up,

and really then they take off. And that rhododendron is fabulous.

Yeah, it's been trying to come out since January

and it has hardly been frosted, so it's been lucky this year.

-It shows how mild it's been.

-Yeah.

-And we've still got the snowflakes.

The snowflakes. They last a bit longer than snowdrops, don't they?

They're good to have around.

This was an old Scots pine plantation.

They'd largely blown down and were covered in brambles,

and so we decided to open it up and give ourselves a sort of woodland

-and loch-side walk to connect with the house.

-Right.

This is good, this coming up, cos you get all sorts of things

-coming up once you open up the canopy, don't you?

-Yes.

I'm not that keen on it here. I'm trying to get rid of it.

-It looks much better over there.

-Yeah, this is one of the petasites.

-Comes up with these great big rhubarb-y leaves, doesn't it?

-Yes.

But look at this.

This is the one that intrigues me. This fella -

-this is, what, Nothofagus antarctica?

-Correct, yeah.

Every time I see this, it's a gnarled specimen like this.

And look at that, Robert. Isn't that just fabulous?

Betula albosinensis - it's normally white,

but look at the sun shining through these little bits of bark.

-It's almost like flames, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-Did you build this?

-Well, yes, we caused it to be built, anyway.

Well, fabulous views. And then backed by this red dogwood -

-it's just splendid, isn't it?

-Yeah, well, that's always been there.

-But I did plant these.

-Oh, right.

-Which...

-That's the Crown Imperial, isn't it? Yeah.

-Yeah.

-Commonly known as the gaswork lily.

-Ah, yes.

If you take that and smell it...

Sniff that.

It tells you why, doesn't it?

THEY LAUGH

Look at that.

Southern hemisphere - Crinodendron hookerianum.

Yes, and it was frosted and down almost to the ground

until about five years ago, and it's grown up like that. Really good.

-That's astonishing.

-Yeah.

It's quite astonishing what will grow when we get, you know,

-facing south as we are here.

-Yeah.

The heat off the building will allow anything to grow here, almost.

Yes, yes.

-Look at the quince. That's good.

-Yeah.

Well, I think I know how to prune them, you see.

THEY LAUGH

This one, of course - I mean, another southern hemisphere plant.

When I came to Fife,

I never expected to see a sophora growing outside.

All the way from New Zealand. It's only been in for about three years.

-Really?

-Yeah.

That's incredible growth for three years.

I don't know what you're doing,

-but you're doing it well, sir.

-Thank you.

-Anyway, I'm off to see your neighbour Susan now.

-Yeah, OK.

And I'll come back and meet you underneath this yew tree.

-By the yew tree, yeah.

-By the yew tree.

On the estate is a cottage rented by Susan Bradburn,

and just 12 months ago, its garden was overgrown

with thistles and nettles and brambles.

Susan has cleared a lot and created all of this from scratch.

Well, Susan, are you still working away on this?

-Cos it wasn't always like this, was it?

-No.

-No.

There were trees and bushes and muck.

I mean, so you couldn't see out of the windows at all.

And there was every form of thistle, bramble, you name it.

Did you have a plan when you started?

What were you trying to create?

The first idea was to open up the view,

-because the view, as you can see, is quite sensational.

-Absolutely.

And, secondly, I wanted something nice to look at.

Also ground cover, because there's so much muck there.

And trying to just get as much colour throughout the year.

Your plant selection - how did you go about that?

It was a question of what was available.

I mean, it started off with digging up snowdrops and aconites

and daffodils from around.

I did choose quite carefully, and I made a chart, and I made a list,

but then I've still got to remember what I've actually planted.

And hopefully it will just continue, and everything will spread

and it will cover everything.

-Well, Robert, I'm back. Is this the tree?

-Hello, George.

Yes, this is the yew.

-Gosh.

-Come inside.

-Are we going in?

-Come inside.

-Oh!

Oh, my goodness. You know, when you stand outside and you look at it,

you don't think there's all this structure in here.

What a fantastic specimen.

They reckon it's about... probably over 400 years old,

so it would have been quite a tree, even by the time Captain Maitland

-built the house here.

-Yeah.

It's said to be the largest in Fife, anyway.

Well, I'm not going to argue,

because I mean, it is enormous, isn't it?

-Have you climbed this?

-Not for a bit, no.

-HE LAUGHS

-You can go up if you like.

No, no, no, sorry. I'll leave it as well.

Do you know, we've had such fun today, haven't we? It's been great.

-I've enjoyed it.

-I've really enjoyed walking round with you.

-Thanks very much for everything.

-Well, it's been a great pleasure.

It's been good. But that is some fitting end.

Wasn't that a splendid garden?

Now, I've come down to the area,

which is where we're growing vegetables intensively.

This is the small-space garden.

And the soil here is nice and warm. It's wonderfully friable.

And we've got these slabs, which heat up during the day

and dissipate their heat at night into the soil.

So the whole thing is starting to get much, much warmer.

Much warmer than the area where Jim and I were standing talking

about the dig, no-dig situation.

So here I can actually now, with confidence, start sowing seeds.

What I want to do is to sow some seeds along the edge of the slabs.

So we'll just take a small drill out along the side here,

and what I'm going to do is to sow some lettuce seed into that,

sow it there, and I'm going to sow some lettuce seed

down in a little drill which I'll take out down there.

Now, the reason for that is,

I've talked before about this thing called the edge effect,

where when we sow at the side of a slab, or along a piece of wood,

what we do is, we get the extra heat which dissipates from the slab

and causes the seed to germinate much faster.

So I want to make use of that, and I want to show you it.

So if I sow one lot of seed there and the same lot in here,

then we can see the difference between the quick germination

and the slightly slower germination.

That will also give us some sort of succession of use

right across the whole of this little patch.

That way, intensive cultivation,

we can get lots and lots of leafy vegetables out of this.

And then when they start to slow down - because, remember,

I put a base dressing in here, it's like their breakfast.

They'll eat all that first, and then when they start to get a bit hungry,

I've got a secret up my sleeve. I can put something else on,

but you'll need to wait and see what that is.

Anyway, I'll get on with some seeds.

During our pruning frenzy last week,

we forgot about this clematis here,

and I think it was forgotten last year,

because it's in an awful mess.

If in doubt, prune it out.

So here I go. No messing, no niceties.

In with the shears. Cut it back.

And there's plenty new growth.

There's plenty vigour there. And just get...

Just make a real job of it.

Not fancy secateurs or anything at all.

Away you go.

Now, I know it's only April,

but I'm already filling the cold frames with these sweet pea plants,

because what you need to remember is these plants are fairly hardy,

so the sooner that we harden them off, we can then plant them outside.

Now, you may think it's a bit late to be pruning a gooseberry

when you see all this growth on it, but, you know,

this is a good time to do it, because you can see exactly

where you're supposed to cut.

And what you're trying to do is to produce a shoot,

a main shoot like that, which has lots of short shoots on it.

So I'm cutting back to about one or two buds.

And that means I can get my hand right round the shoot like that

when I come to pick the gooseberries,

and I don't tear myself to pieces on the thorns.

Well, I'm very glad you brought us to the orchard

for the finishing up with your wee bit of pruning.

Because just look at the promise there is there

in these flower buds in the plum.

A fortnight's time, and they will be...

Oh, just candyfloss.

I'm thinking several months ahead. THEY LAUGH

-And the cranberries, though - they look good.

-They're a bit soor.

-Are they? You been at them already?

-Aye.

THEY LAUGH

But, anyway, if you'd like any more information

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

and the easiest way to access that is online.

-What are you doing next week?

-Next week...

What am I doing next week?

-No pruning. That's for sure.

-No? Aw!

-THEY LAUGH

Well, I'm not here next week, but Chris is back,

and he'll be doing the planting,

structural planting on the pond bank.

-I'm doing a bit of fencing.

-Are you?

-Oooh!

-Till next week, bye-bye.

-Goodbye!

-Bye-bye!