Episode 5 The Beechgrove Garden

-Brilliant day.

-But still a bit cold, I think - that wind, Jim.

-We used to call it a lazy wind.

-Why's that?

It hasn't time to go round you, it goes straight through you!

Hello, there! Welcome to Beechgrove and I tell you,

it's quite good to just step inside to see my Sweetheart.

And that's not me! This is this lovely cherry called Sweetheart.

-Absolutely stunning, isn't it?

-It's laden in blossom.

-You can't see the foliage for the flowers!

-No, and I can't wait for the cherries!

There are a few of them behind the camera as well,

counting the days till they see these beautiful cherries.

Looking good.

The pollinating insects have been in about, the bumblebees

and butterflies as well.

You could use a brush if you wanted. It's self-pollinating, anyway.

-You can't say the same for this vine.

-Very slow, isn't it?

I mean, it's just starting to sprout.

I'll come back to that later.

-OK.

-In the meantime, in the rest of the programme...

I'm foraging in a fungal valley,

turning this

into this.

A shiitake mushroom.

And a chill wind, barren coast -

what do you think could possibly grow here?

Just wait and see!

Over the next three weeks, I'm going

to have a mini-series on growing a productive garden on the windowsill,

so hopefully I can inspire you, whether you've got a garden or not,

and starting off with something really simple - sprouting seeds.

And what an array of seeds you can grow,

so a mixture of grains,

you can have nuts, pulses.

For example, red clover,

alfalfa and I think this one,

lots of people will be familiar

with - mung beans - because

we very often use those in stir-fries.

Now, the thing you've got to remember is you need to soak

these seeds before you start them off and normally

for about eight hours,

but some as long as 24 hours.

So here we've got some examples again that have been soaked.

The black ones there are the sunflowers, those are chickpeas.

You don't really need fancy equipment,

so the beauty is you could just make something yourself,

because as long as you've got a jam jar, an elastic band

and some tights, this is all you need to use.

So you take that off and then you would put the seeds into there

and I would say smaller rather

than too many, because

if you overdo it, then they're going

to actually get a little bit mouldy.

Put the seed in after they've been soaked, put the lid back on and

you drain them, or put moisture into them and drain them twice a day.

That's really important, so you've got that fresh water.

If you don't want to use the jam jar,

then you can buy this, this is very similar as well

and it's got the sieve on the top, so once you've put

the seeds in there, you can pour the water in and drain it away.

But I particularly like these ones - these are tiered,

and it means you can grow three or four different types,

doesn't take up a lot of room and this is the result.

Just have a look at this.

Absolute magic.

You've got the chickpeas starting...

Just in a few days. I really like these,

these look quite dramatic - these are sunflower seeds.

The thing to remember is they are SO nutritious,

really healthy for you,

full of vitamins, full of protein

and what I particularly like is you don't necessarily have to cook them,

you can eat them fresh, put them in salads, put them in a sandwich.

Apart from growing your sprouting seeds on a windowsill,

how about mushrooms as well?

You get these little kits that you can buy,

I've got the white mushroom and the chestnut mushroom

and it's the same conditions for both of these.

So you get a little trough, a lid,

we've got a bag of compost

and then underneath here...

is the straw and THIS is the mycelium.

This is where the mushrooms will grow from.

To start off with, when you buy this, sometimes it isn't white.

What you have to do is put this in a really warm place,

around about 20 to 25 degrees Centigrade, maybe for about a week.

The compost goes somewhere a little bit cooler

and once you see all this mycelium,

the compost bag then has to

be soaked, so you pierce the bag

and half a litre of water...

Leave that for half an hour.

And then finally...

This is what you end up with.

You put the compost on top, put the lid on top and you start,

after a few days, to see the mycelium spreading into the compost.

Eventually, I think within a few weeks,

we'll start to see the little button mushrooms appearing

and the beauty is, you should be

able to crop this three times.

This is fairly simple, growing mushrooms, but Chris has got a much

bigger idea - he wants to grow them in the garden.

Three springs ago, this part of the garden was an abandoned,

somewhat neglected corner.

It was tucked away, not much happening really.

So, we decided to utilise some old tree stumps which were

actually the remnants of when this entire garden was

part of a much larger tree nursery.

And there's some wonderful results alongside this little sinuous path.

The pulmonaria, for instance.

There's little scillas peeping through and about to give us

that wonderful burst of azure blue that only those bulbs can.

It's wonderful to see how this has all settled in

and it's given us an idea for what happens next,

because immediately adjacent is another area which is much

more problematic, cos you can see under the shade of this

cypress here, what do you plant in here?

Well, taking the idea of the genteel decay of the timbers,

what I'd really like to do is to try

and utilise this not only as an ornamental area, but...

..as a productive area. How about that?

The thought of harvesting your own edible mushrooms from within

the stumpery.

So, the idea is to create, sweeping into the depths here,

a kind of sinuous, fungal valley.

Now, before we throw up our hands in horror about the idea

of fungi in the garden, many of them are considered problematic,

take a look to see how they react in the wild.

In a more wild and natural environment, the 15,000 species

or so of fungi which are resident in the UK can be easily spotted.

So, this is leaf litter.

In this particular case, it's acers and sycamore from last autumn.

And it's about an inch or so thick.

But if you delve just a little bit deeper in here,

what reveals itself, there we go,

what reveals itself is not only digested leaf litter, much smaller,

that's largely the result of the fungi, but also the fungi itself.

These very thin white strands are called mycelium.

Now, in the world of fungi, the mycelium, I suppose,

is the equivalent of a plant's stems and boughs.

It's the active growing part of the fungi itself.

Each one of those mycelium strands is able to connect in

to the roots of our plants.

And the mycelium stretches right out across the forest floor,

harvesting the cellulose and nutrient

from the detritus from the tree canopy above.

And feeding all of that nutrient back into the roots of our plants.

So, essentially, it multiplies hugely the capacity of roots

to gain moisture and nutrients.

So, fungi, the vast majority of them, are hugely beneficial.

But this white is only just one part,

because the supermarket fungi that we buy, this is the fruiting

body, it's the equivalent of, let's say, an apple from an apple tree.

So, what we're trying to do back in the garden is to replicate,

in a small way, exactly what's happening here.

This area in many ways replicates the wilder woodland environment.

So, it's quite sheltered inevitably by these trees.

There's plenty of humidity, plenty of moisture, leaf litter.

And it's got a certain amount of light coming in,

but never drying out completely.

All of that's essential to keep the mycelium alive.

It likes those moist conditions.

And when you start to think about how you can

construct your fungal valley, there are two essential components.

The first is the understory leaf litter in which the mycelium is able

to exist, and some fungi will thrive in that environment.

Others need the timbers.

So, able to rot down four more pieces of wood that have been cut like this.

And if you're thinking of creating a fungal valley like this or

even just a single log which has fungi growing out of it, the choice

of timber is pretty important, especially with the edible fungi.

You need something that's about 15 to 20 centimetres in diameter.

That means that the timber is never going to fully dry out.

And then, species-wise, well, hardwoods are by far the best.

So, like this, birch, poplar, older.

Now, what we're going to do is to start at the back of this space.

And this is going to be, in a way, the head of the valley.

We are going to start with some tall timbers standing on end,

and the fact that they are standing up means that constant

contact with the ground.

Moisture's able to keep being supplied up to the mycelium

within the timbers.

And the valley is going to open out and arch round.

So, Callum here is digging the trench to start to receive the trunks.

We'll eventually, if I just drop one in there.

We'll drop those in like that, backfill,

probably on a slight angle, like that,

and that will give us a good wash of water when it rains,

coming down here, and a good open splay.

That will give us plenty of material for our fungi,

which goes into the logs,

and then we can backfill the valley with the leaf litter.

So, I had better start digging.

Once the trenches are dug,

the logs can be arranged pretty much as you see fit.

Just bear in mind that if you want to stand them vertically

or just off of vertical, you need to bury about a quarter

of the total length, and then firm it in really heavily.

That just simply means that the moisture from the ground will

migrate up through the log, and the mycelium will be permanently wet.

And then you can shape as you see fit, in this case,

Callum with his artistic chainsaw.

The logs create one habitat for the edible mushrooms,

but the second habitat is in the understorey and, for that,

there's a recipe of growing medium.

The first is ground and, importantly, composted bark mulch.

That's the first layer. Then a layer of leaf mould.

And finally a layer of hardwood garden chippings,

straight out of your garden shredder.

The whole thing should be a minimum of 15cm deep,

and well wetted, to allow the mycelium to really take hold.

Once you've got the bed prepared,

you can start to deal with the logs, and what you have to do is to use

a special dowel, which is a piece of hardwood timber.

In fact, it's from the furniture manufacturing business,

and this has been sterilised and impregnated with the mycelium.

You can just see the white dusty mycelium on the dowel there.

These are available from both mushroom kit suppliers and also

some garden centres and nurseries too, and available online.

And the idea is that you keep these in the fridge

until you're ready to put them in. So, you drill a hole

which is one-and-a-half times the depth of your dowel.

And then simply insert...

Sometimes you just have to give it a bit of a nudge with another one,

just to make sure it's deep enough,

and then what you can do is to seal with wax, if you wish, just

to keep the moisture in that hole and help the mycelium take hold.

However, if the logs are sufficiently wet

and if the weather is really damp, you may not need to do that.

We're using three different types of mushroom,

two in the logs and one in this wonderful compost here.

The two in the logs are oyster mushrooms and shiitake mushrooms.

To all intents and purposes, at this stage of life,

they look exactly the same. The key is that

whatever comes sprouting out of the logs eventually,

if you have planted shiitake, and it comes out looking

something like that, then harvest them and enjoy.

If anything else comes out that doesn't look like a shiitake,

best not to eat it.

So, we've got shiitake, oysters

and we've also got wine caps.

Now, these are a slightly longer dowel, and the idea with these

is that this is a fungi

which enjoys foraging amongst the leaf litter,

so a jammy bar...

just inserted,

and what we are trying to do is to go through this layer of fresh

chipped cellulose here, insert the dowel,

again about one-and-a-half times the depth, firm it in.

It can take 12 to 18 months for the mycelium to really take hold,

depending on temperature and moisture levels,

and after that, you'll start to get the young mushrooms appearing,

and then, once you start harvesting,

something like this will keep harvesting for five to seven years,

so all of this investment in time is well worth it

because you'll have almost half a decade of glorious mushrooms.

Well, enough of fungal forays for the moment.

We're back to the mundane.

It is tattie-planting time, and I can tell you,

that soil thermometer is reading about 10.

By the time I've got them planted, they'll be ready for mashing!

That's tremendous. We just removed the tarpaulin this morning,

and look at the weed growth -

another indicator that the soil is warming up and, in fact,

with potatoes, we're putting them well down.

I have just finished off forking and levelling,

and the next thing is to put the fertiliser on.

Now, at one time, when you were putting in early potatoes,

you would use a fertiliser that was high in nitrogen.

I notice this one is higher in potash than it is in nitrogen,

and that's all about quality. How much to put on?

Well, it is called fertiliser placement,

you know, over the row where the potatoes are going to be planted.

About a handful to a yard is quite sufficient.

Whether it'll improve the flavour of the tatties,

I really don't know.

And of course the variety being planted today is my new favourite.

It's Casablanca,

which took over in my native Ayrshire

from the old Epicures that we used to grow.

How far apart?

Well, about a foot apart.

And you notice how nicely they've been sprouting away - slowly.

They're nice and stubby sprouts.

They're not going to fall off when I plant. So, there we go.

That's reasonable.

When you plant later-maturing, longer-season,

you can afford to give them a bit more space.

And how deep? About the depth of the blade.

Here we go.

In it goes. Pop it down in there.

Squeeze.

And we're on our way.

Well, just like Jim in the vegetable plot,

we're well on our way in the decking,

and it has had a bit of a spring clean, or a winter clean,

because the gardeners have been out with the power-washer,

they've really cleaned it up and, at the same time,

because we've been using this area for 20 years,

we've got some new planters.

The whole idea with the decking is

it's growing things in containers, it's small-space gardening.

I'll just show you one or two plants,

but these have come out of the greenhouse

and they will be going back because they're not hardened off yet.

So, we've got the climbing courgette here.

It is the first yellow climbing courgette, called Shooting Stars,

and that's going to go up the trellis.

So I'm going to be putting three plans in.

It is better if you do plant two or three

so you get that cross-pollination.

And we've got a couple of lettuce here.

This one, Warpath, is a new variety to me,

and it's meant to be really resistant to bolting.

We've got lots of other seeds that we can start to sow now,

because as Jim was saying about the temperatures, it's ideal.

Things like spring onions, we've got radish, carrots, you name it.

They're all going to go in the containers.

But, like Jim, I'm going to start off with the tatties.

I tend to use the traditional plastic pot,

but also, this year, I've got a couple of new ones,

and these bags are very similar to the things that we have been

using in the Keder for year after year, so value for money.

And also, a very new container,

which is like a pot within a pot, so the whole idea is, if you're not

quite sure if your tatties are ready for cropping, you should be able

to pull this out and be able to see whether the tubers are big enough.

I always like to go for early potatoes,

and the two varieties I'm growing this year are Pentland Javelin

and a new one called Divaa,

which is meant to taste like Pentland Javelins,

so at the time when we come to harvest, we'll have to do

a taste test and see and compare them,

see which ones we maybe prefer.

So what you have to do is put a bit of compost in the bottom.

The fertiliser has been mixed through that,

and it is exactly the same fertiliser as Jim is using,

so that's that one that's interestingly high in potassium.

And then three tubers. Don't be greedy. Don't put too many in,

because there's probably too much competition,

and after that we just cover the tubers with a bit of compost,

and we wait for the shaws to start growing up

and when they come through, you then put more and more compost in,

until you get to nearly the top of the pot.

And just remember, with earlies,

it takes about 12, 13 weeks before we can harvest.

Well, isn't that just some view?

Imagine wakening up to that every morning.

I've come down today to Dumfries and Galloway.

I'm near Kirkcudbright, and I've come to visit a garden

which was established by Alan Shamash.

It's on a very steep slope, running right down to the Dee Estuary,

which is behind me, and it has within it one of the

most amazing arrays of plants which I think I have ever seen.

It's just superb.

So, Alan, when did you start gardening? What's the history?

Well, we've been here about 35 years.

I wasn't very interested in gardening at first.

My mum insisted that I should plant stuff.

She planted them for me and when they started to die,

she got very cross with me,

and I think I started more earnestly after that.

So, what was the soil like here, for planting?

-It's pretty acid. Very thin and very patchy.

-Right.

Especially as you go down towards the sea, it's just rock.

I didn't use a spade for a long time. I used a pick.

Now, what did you start planting first?

I planted rhododendrons first.

All species at first.

I've got a few hybrids, but it was mainly species,

and I particularly like the large-leaved rhododendrons.

The site suited rhododendrons, didn't it?

Yes. It's pretty mild and we don't get real excesses of temperature,

and it's certainly not too dry.

You've got all the things that matter.

We couldn't grow big-leaved rhododendrons up at Beechgrove,

so you are lucky here.

-Let's go and have a look at some of the earlier ones you planted.

-OK.

This is Rhododendron macabeanum.

I planted it about 13 years ago to celebrate

the birth of my grandniece.

You look at the shading on the top

and the colour of these pistols there.

-These are just superb.

-Yeah.

Well, this is its first flower in 13 years so...

-It's done well.

-Maybe.

THEY CHUCKLE

That's Rhododendron calophytum.

Fabulous foliage, the way it fans out,

and then these great trusses of flower on the top.

-So, what age?

-About 24.

-Oh!

Normally, when we talk about rhodies,

we're looking at the flowers,

and if you look at the flowers on that beanianum there,

these are just wonderful, this waxy red.

But, you know, the undersides of the leaves, Alan, you'll have seen this,

they are just as magnificent.

That's indumentum on the back. It almost scrapes off.

What's that for?

There are theories about it, but they reckon it's something

which is there just to protect the plants from loss of moisture.

It helps to conserve the moisture on them.

It's the same on that one, isn't it?

And then, on this one here, look, there we have it as well,

but that's a silver indumentum which is on the back there.

Beautiful shiny silver.

So, we should look up underneath the plants as well.

But this one's good here, isn't it?

Yes. See the top of the plant there?

Even the midrib is bright yellow colour.

-We're just about rhododendron'd out, aren't we?

-Yes.

-Let's go and have a look at some exotics.

-I'd like to show you this.

So, when you got fed up planting rhododendrons,

what was the idea, then?

Well, because it's a seaside place, it's nice in the summer

and I had nothing flowering in the summer, so I went for more

exotic plants, like some of the southern hemisphere plants.

For example,

-this prostanthera here, which is an Australian plant.

-Yeah.

And then this monster here is a puya from Chile.

Now, that's good, Alan. That is something else.

Yes, it's really nice. That's Illicium simonsii.

That's from Korea, South China and Japan as well.

It's just absolutely magnificent.

So, do you think it's hardy enough?

I'll tell you in about ten years' time.

-Because it is a bit of an experiment, isn't it?

-Yes.

Yes, it is.

I've got other illiciums that are hardy just further along.

-You want to see them?

-Right.

So, this is where we've got the Illicium anisatum,

and it has also got these yellow star-shaped flowers.

This is very like star anise, and the correct name for that one

is Illicium verum, but this is definitely not that.

It is called "false anise" because, actually,

this one is very poisonous,

whereas star anise obviously isn't!

Right, so we can't use this one in cooking.

But, poisonous or not, that is still a fabulous plant.

It's beautiful, and it's hardy. That's definitely hardy.

-But you don't do all this gardening by yourself, do you?

-No.

THEY CHUCKLE

You have a wee help from who? Magnus?

Magnus Ramsay and Rob Asbridge.

I think I knew Magnus from Threave,

so I think I'll go and have a little word with him.

-I'll catch up with you later on. See you later, Alan.

-See you.

-Hi, Magnus. How are you?

-Oh, hello.

-I thought you'd retired.

-Aye, a long time ago.

-You've been helping Alan out, though?

Yes, for about ten years now I've been coming down here.

-So, what's the game here?

-Just tidying up this Wollemi pine,

the famous endangered plant that came out Australia a few years ago.

Aye, cos this is, what, Blue Mountains west of Sydney?

-Mm-hm.

-Highly endangered. Really valuable.

It was only very recently found, and only two or three small colonies

of it, so there are only a handful of trees in the world, really.

It was very badly damaged in the severe winters

we had about five, six years ago.

You can see, by looking in at the bottom here, the original stem.

-Yes, yes.

-Which is just used as a wee stake

to hold the young shoot up.

There were two or three shoots came. You see them?

It's funny, it has come from below where it was frosted

-and growing away. That's good growth, though, isn't it?

-Mm-hm.

There's not many conifers that do that.

-It seems to be back in good condition.

-Yeah.

I mean, that is just gorgeous. But so is that.

Show me what this is.

This is the finest plant in the garden at the moment.

A spectacular thing - Magnolia campbellii, Charles Raffill.

What's awkward about this is it always flowers away at the top,

so it's awkward to look at.

It's difficult to see them properly, isn't it?

It's the nature of the beast, unfortunately,

with these tree magnolias. It is just what they do.

Well, you can gaze on at that. I'm going back to see Alan.

-Catch you later. Cheers.

-Aye. Bye.

Well, Alan, that some view, isn't it?

It's magic.

Absolutely brilliant.

It goes with the garden, of course.

-What a fabulous day we have had.

-It's been a bit cold, though.

Come back in the summer.

Now, are you open at all under the Gardens Scheme?

Yes, we're open in April and September.

It has just been exceptional.

It's been really great, so thanks very much.

-It's very nice of you to come.

-It's good to share it with us.

Well, we mentioned the vine earlier, and it's very late in breaking.

I think it's a combination of a very mild winter

and not a warm enough spring, but it will come away fine.

In the meantime, however, we can still see a problem, and that is the

scale insect, which inhabits these plants, and there's one in there.

You can just see it nestling in there.

A little orange... It's a scale

and it actually attaches itself to the wood and sucks the sap,

and if you get enough of them

it will seriously affect the vigour of the plant.

We can look for an insecticide that will do it,

and I'm going to use a brush.

The insecticide has been diluted and I am just going to pop him,

and at least I know that it's been covered.

It's not a situation for spraying. A spray here,

99% of the spray will finish up on the cherry or on the glass.

And there's another one over here.

So, just every now and again, go in and catch them, like that.

The nymphs will soon start to move about

and if there's still a major population,

that will mean that we have to spray.

It was just three weeks ago that we planted some new

crowns of asparagus, and the variety is Mondeo.

Now, I am delighted - every single crown,

that's ten crowns, has started to sprout.

You can just see them coming through.

That's the good news,

but I'm afraid the bad news is, we mustn't crop it at all this year.

All we do is we let it grow, it builds up the crown

and then we should have a good crop for next year.

Well, that's been a productive day.

It has, and the sun's still shining, Jim.

It's nice here, just to stand and relax,

-and look at them tadpoles boiling that water.

-Thousands of them.

I'm not sure that I like this. It's another job in prospect.

-Another job to be done.

-Another revamp.

-But we're here to look at the skunk cabbage.

-Lysichiton.

We planted that there but we didn't plant that one over there.

-And that's the problem, isn't it?

-Mm-hm.

-Quite invasive.

-Yes, indeed.

It has just been added to the alien plant list.

And it can't be planted out. You can have it in your own garden.

Yes, you can cultivate it in your garden.

The answer really is, enjoy that lovely yellow spathe,

you get the white form as well,

but the bit in the centre, the spadix,

cut that out as soon as you can.

-So, yes, plant it in your own garden but look after it.

-Definitely.

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

of course it's all in the fact sheet,

and the easiest way to access that is online.

Next week, Chris is going to be back in the garden with us.

-Yes, Scottish gardening.

-Yep.

And myself, more windowsill gardening - herbs and salads.

-What about you?

-Maybe planting a few veg(!)

-Never(!) You'll love that.

-Until next week, bye-bye.

-Goodbye.