Episode 6 The Beechgrove Garden

Do we have to go outside, Chris? LAUGHTER

Do you know, it is a strange time of year, isn't it?

-Normally, plants are happy to go outside to harden off.

-I think...

-This year, it's so different, isn't it?

-Yeah, so behind, I think.

Well, hello there and welcome to Beechgrove Garden

on a typical spring day.

I can tell you 20 minutes ago it was blin'-drift,

as we would call it in this part of the world.

A fine day for putting plants out, isn't it?

-Well, can I get these under cover in the cold frame?

-Sure, sure.

These are the onions. They should be fine.

A process we call hardening off -

from the hothouse to the coolhouse to the garden frame,

-then outside.

-It should be straightforward.

-Are they ready?

Look at this. Brussels sprouts, normally, the brassicas

you would expect to put in the cold frame.

They haven't done enough growing. They need to stay in the house.

And what about those in the middle there?

-MIMICS SHIVERING:

-They, they...

-would be shivering, wouldn't they?

-They shouldn't be that colour.

-No.

-That's a cold sign, isn't it?

-Yep.

-It is, indeed. But these will go.

-Looking fine.

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

Australia, Japan and Solon all together in one garden.

How does that happen? Just wait and see.

And what am I doing with pallets?

Well, they are going to be recycled into compost bays.

Of course, it's gardening on a budget.

Ooh, let's get out of this shower, Jim.

-It's absolutely freezing, isn't it?

-Yes!

But it's good there's plenty work to be done inside, isn't there?

And this is a time of year when people are getting their plants

ready to put into tubs and baskets and hanging baskets.

But keeping them still under cover,

-where they can get established.

-Yeah. Well, by the time they are

able to put them out, there will be a bit of flower and sun out.

And these plants are going in there for all summer.

And I get concerned about what goes in the baskets, the compost.

In particular, you're really concerned about

-the John Innis at the moment, aren't you?

-Well...

-The soil-based compost.

The John Innis compost is a formula which has worked for decades.

But the present type is very fine.

And, to my mind, it doesn't have a lot of fibre in it.

And so it really goes compact

and it doesn't tend to let the moisture drain through.

Well, that's the problem it kind of sets, doesn't it?

So the answer is why not 50-50

with a very organic compost, like this one?

But it, too, comes in a very strange, kind of lumpy fashion.

And you get the other problem with that one. That tends to dry out.

So, surely, the combination is making it worse?

That is what we are about to test, isn't it?

-You see. So if we then heap the lot together.

-Mix that together.

And then mix it, as if you were mixing flour, you know?

-So that's the first part of the test.

-Yeah.

The story continues, Jim, because you had a letter

from a pal of yours. Goes back a few years.

Well, it does, actually.

Anne, who lives at Shardlow in Derbyshire,

we were in the advisory service together.

Long after I left, they did some trials about whether

it was a plus or there was no difference by using these granules.

Yes, these water retention granules, which really swell up.

Is it worth spending the money?

-So we are going to have a go, aren't we?

-Yes.

-We are going to do one trough without.

-Yeah.

And another trough with.

And we will repeat that and we are just using one plant,

and I think the begonia, because it's the number-one bedding plant.

Absolutely. And, from time to time through the season,

we will report on progress.

Yeah. Quality, how much water we have to use.

At this rate, we won't have to use anything, with the weather.

But the begonias cannae go out for a while yet. That's for sure.

-LAUGHTER Definitely not.

-Eh?

They are strictly half-hardies.

So, once you put that in,

-it's roughly about a teaspoon at the most.

-Now, then...

-And then I just mix that through.

-There you go.

So I'm just going to sprinkle that on the top.

Do you not want to get your hands dirty?

I am going to get my hands dirty. Mix that through.

And then we can get the planting done.

Kirkcudbright is well-known as being the Scottish artists' home

and, in the late 19th century, it attracted many of

the most famous Scottish colourists,

one of whom was EA Hornel.

And I've come today to visit his house and garden.

Broughton House is a living museum of Hornel's life and work,

packed full of his paintings.

Behind the house, and backing onto the River Dee,

is Hornel's other great passion - his garden.

A curious and colourful mix

of Eastern and Western horticulture.

Mike Jack is the head gardener.

-Morning, Mike.

-Morning, George.

-How are you?

-Very well, thanks.

-Lovely.

-Welcome to Broughton House.

-Thank you.

Now, there's a fair bit of history attached to this house, isn't there?

There is. This was the home of the artist Edward Atkinson Hornel,

who purchased the property in 1901.

Then, in 1910, the opportunity to purchase

-the property next-door came up.

-Right.

And his main purpose behind that was to

-annexe the garden you see before you.

-Oh, right.

So, when I come through that door and look down here,

there's actually two gardens.

-It's a double garden?

-It's a double garden.

LAUGHTER

The remnants of the boundary wall are there

and this central walkway would have been the foundation

-for that boundary wall, which he removed.

-Right.

-He was a clever man, wasn't he?

-He was. Well, he was a keen gardener.

-And that just illustrates that.

-Ah, right.

What were the feature plants here when he came,

or the original plants?

The cherry at the bottom of the garden would have been original

-and predates his owning the property.

-Right.

And he then went on and planted the magnolia

-and the wisteria archway.

-This was something he did?

Yeah, he planted that.

And that would have been done after he removed

the central boundary wall between the two gardens.

-I mean, that's a fair old plant, isn't it?

-It is.

-Beautifully gnarled.

-It is. It would be well over 100 years old.

-And you can see that in the gnarly stems.

-Yeah.

Now, these, of course, wouldn't have been here at the time of Hornel.

This bright hedge.

This yew hedging replaced box that succumbed to box blight.

I think it's a great replacement for the box.

But there are some people...

don't like it. Some love it, some don't like it.

Visitors have mixed opinions.

LAUGHTER

But in the winter I think it is a great lift to the garden,

a bit of colour.

And in the summer, it provides a contrast to the lush, green borders.

Also, it takes your eye right down to the bottom of the garden.

-It's really good, in that respect.

-It does, yeah.

So how would you describe the garden?

It's in the Arts and Crafts style of the period.

There's lots of old stone features that Hornel's

introduced into the garden and it's very much garden rooms,

which, as the season goes on,

the plantings grow up and it becomes very compartmentalised.

So that's quite geometric down there, but this isn't.

-What's influenced this part?

-Japan.

It's not a classic Japanese garden,

but it's influenced by Hornel's travels to Japan.

So we've got things like the lantern and the crane and the pond.

The two ponds. We believe he planted the Hydrangea petiolaris,

the Japanese climber, on the gallery wall here.

-It's a huge plant.

-It is. It shows its age.

More recently we planted two different cultivars

of Paeonia suffruticosa.

-This is a nod to what he would have seen.

-Absolutely.

And within the book collection at Broughton House here

I have a very rare period catalogue.

I just need to be careful with this, George.

Oh, good grief, look at the colours!

He would have seen those in nurseries

and he would have been able to select them and bring them back.

This would have influenced his planting within the garden.

-Anything else to see?

-Yes, why don't we go into the glasshouse?

-Right.

Oh! It's nice in here.

Here we are in the glasshouse, George.

The plants on the centre bench are all of Australian origin

and this reflects Hornel's birthplace

-in southeastern Australia.

-Right.

So we've got a cycad,

a dianella, the bangalow palm and a bottle brush.

-All native Australian plants?

-All native Australian, yes.

-These are not native, are they?

-No, they're not.

The pelargoniums are all pre-1933.

-Right.

-Which is the date that Hornel died.

We don't actually know what was growing in the glasshouse during

Hornel's time, but this was just an idea

to reflect plants of the period.

He might have grown these.

Now I'm going off to see Sheila, the property manager, because she

is going to tell me a little bit of how the gardens here

-influenced his art. I'll see you later on.

-OK, I'll see you later.

Well, the garden was really important to Hornel because it was

another place that he painted,

but in the garden, he painted with plants.

-Right.

-He created a colour, a pattern

and a beautiful sense of place and time.

So was there anything in the garden that he particularly liked to paint?

He seems to have been really fond of magnolia, particularly,

and the Stellata, which is beautiful in this garden.

A gorgeous shape of blossoms

and it appears in the background of some of his paintings.

Hornel would have sat here in his day and looked out over this marina,

enjoying this fine view.

The whole thing about his observation of his garden

and of the plants and of the views, to me, it's been a great eye-opener.

I never realised that this garden was here

and it's such a hidden gem, it's just fabulous.

What a good day we've had, it's been brilliant.

That's very kind of you to say so, George,

and it's been a pleasure having you here today.

Now you might think we've put the shading on the greenhouse already,

but that's the snow - it's incredible for this time of year.

I'm carrying on my mini series of windowsill gardening.

It's all about productive windowsill gardening in a very,

very small space and I would always say to people it's well

worth investing in one of these propagators.

This is an electric one.

So, in other words, you can boost the heat

and make sure that you get your plants germinated.

This week I want to look at a range of herbs and salads.

Remember, in the supermarkets you very often go in there

and you can buy a pot of herbs - well, why not grow your own?

There's a wonderful range you can try.

At the moment I'm sowing some chervil and you just sprinkle it on.

Don't be too generous

because the nice thing is that you can have a succession growing.

So, you know, every two or three weeks you could keep

germinating them.

So you sow them, you cover them with compost

and you put the dome on the top and put that underneath the heat.

Other things that we can try - this is new, it's a wasabi rocket.

I've never tried it before,

so that's going to have a real tang to it.

We've got also things like parsley.

We've got chives, all kinds of things that you can try,

and they do come in kits, as well,

to encourage the children to grow them.

Some of these are so easy.

For example, you can buy this, it's a little trough.

It comes with the compost and with the herbs themselves.

No drainage holes, so a little bit of gravel in the bottom.

Then add most of the compost, leave about 10% because then you sow them.

Divide this into three sections.

You'd sow the three herbs, put a bit of compost on the top,

water it and then cover it in clingfilm

and then as soon as you see them germinating, take the clingfilm off.

Another little kit that you can buy here, it comes as these disks.

What you have to do, you have to add water to the tray

and then the disks swell up like this.

They come in different sets.

That's a vegetable one which we would start on the windowsill

and then we would plant that outside.

This one is a range of herbs so, by all means, you can

keep that on the windowsill in the house.

Very similar here. I think this one would really appeal to children.

So you get the tub, another disk again. You add 100mls of water.

That swells up and then you put the seeds into it.

It has this nice little dome and this is the result.

We've got some basil there which is doing really, really well.

Something I've never seen before and I'm quite interested in this one.

These are seed balls and I've got a collection here of herbs and salads.

So within these little,

clay granules, there is about five different herbs

and we just need to put

about three or four of these into the pot.

Again, you could sow them outside,

and they do suggest about 20 to the square metre.

You would just water that in. That's all we need to do.

We don't need to cover that at all.

It's so simple, and, again, this is so simple.

I would encourage anyone to try it.

These are the mats and here are the seeds.

We've got a range of salad leaves.

That goes on the top.

Cover it with compost again, water it, and within about ten

days you're going to get something like that, and believe you me,

I think you are going to have a windowsill full of salads and herbs.

You know, it's on days like this you really have sympathy

for anyone who tries to be a weather forecaster.

We really have, in the space of a few hours,

had the entire season and now the sun's out, which is just as well,

because the herbaceous perennials really needed that warmth to help

bring them out of the ground

And first to emerge -

well, amongst the first - the geraniums, the herbaceous geraniums.

Wonderful plants. They're so versatile.

The great thing is, once you introduce them,

they form quite dense clumps.

This is a clump I've just lifted from further down the path.

This is one of the Wargrave Pink types,

an oxonianum sprawling type.

It has incredibly fibrous roots which makes it really

good for dividing.

So take the clump.

A small knife, slice through.

You're looking for a section

of, obviously, root and shoot,

and then I'm going to pop that straight into

a leaf-mould mix.

Not compost, but leaf mould.

This is our own mix just gathered from around the garden.

Recent research has shown that leaf mould

has a wonderful array of microflora

that release enzymes that assist the plant

in developing roots and recovering from transplant shock.

So put your cuttings, or your recently divided plants,

in a small container of pure leaf mould

for about three months until they fully root

and the success rate is phenomenal.

It works for the fibrous rooted ones, and also...

this great beast here.

This is a macrorrhizum type -

just look at that.

A wonderful example of a rhizomatous geranium.

It just falls apart.

All you need to do is coil that up in the base of the pot

of leaf mould, keep it there for about three months, and you'll find

once that's popped in the ground it really can't wait to take over.

A great edging plant.

Of course, the wonderful thing about geraniums

is that as gardeners we get the chance to exploit

their innate ability to cope with the most inhospitable conditions.

For instance, for much of the day, this part of the garden is in shade.

So when you're looking for plant to really dwell in the depths in here,

how about this? One of my favourites -

Geranium nodosum.

Unusually, quite a glossy leaf.

Quite a three-lobed bit of foliage and a standard habit -

one of those plants that sprawls and mingles.

It's happy to lull and find its way amongst the canopies

of other species.

It produces pink starry blooms

in those very distinctive five-petal forms

that really signify geraniums.

If you want something for a little bit further back in the border,

then you have to move to those geraniums which really

thrive in the meadows and there is no better than this.

This is the meadow geranium, Geranium pratense.

This one being Striatum.

Principally a white bloom, it grows on quite tall stems.

It's great at jostling and competing with other herbaceous perennials.

But the Striatum form has a wonderful ink-blue splash

across each of the five petals, a beautiful specimen.

Wonderful for just creating a bit of height at the back.

At the front of the border, those ankle ticklers -

well, how about a British native?

This is Geranium sanguineum, the bloody cranesbill.

Naturally found sprawling along the limestone pavements of the UK.

It proves just how hardy it is

and how willing it is to tolerate those exposed conditions.

Edge of path, over rock pools, dry stone walls, that sort of thing.

It's a real star.

And really, I suppose,

to prove the point of just how important geraniums have been,

this is one of the earliest of the introduced flowering forms.

It's an oxonianum type,

it's a hybrid and this one is called Wargrave Pink.

It has lipstick pink looms.

It's completely unmistakable.

And the real delight about it is just how vigorous it is

and also the fact it really sprawls and lolls over walls

and down steps, so perfect as an edger.

One thing that's to be sure - once you introduce geraniums into the

garden, you'll wonder how the cottage garden ever existed without them.

They really are stars.

What a lovely, sunny day.

It's the month of May and this is the time of year

when gardeners are always busy.

The trouble is, how'd you garden without spending a fortune?

Well, the answer is, we try to garden on a budget.

Throughout this series,

I'm showing you how you can get more out of your garden for less.

Last time, we met Meike

and her family, who recently moved into a home

near Kennethmont in rural Aberdeenshire.

She told us she wanted her garden to be a place where the family

could forage and enjoy the wildlife.

I promised her a little shopping trip that wouldn't break the bank.

-Is it all right if I have a look?

-Aye.

-Now, that's for bats, isn't it?

-Bats.

-The bat climbs up there.

-Ah-ha!

And, I'll tell you what I've noticed here, because one

-of my favourite creatures in my garden are the red squirrels.

-Yes.

-They are brilliant.

-Yeah. And they are very well made.

They are well made, but you do these in flatpacks, as well?

Flatpacks, aye.

-OK, so we can save a bit of money there, Meike.

-Yes.

You could do those yourself. What a great idea.

With wildlife homes ticked off our list,

the next task is to find materials to build a compost bay.

This is what you need.

That is not going to be expensive to make with these pallets.

-I think if we do two bays, you'll need five of them.

-Yeah.

So, have you got the lolly with you?

CLEARS THROAT

-Come on!

-THEY CHUCKLE

That was a really successful shopping trip.

-Did you enjoy your shopping trip?

-It was very inspiring, yes.

I'm really surprised about value for money.

Three quid per pallet!

-It's amazing, isn't it?

-Yes!

And this is where we're going to put the compost bays, which I think

is perfect because... a little bit of shelter,

-but also really accessible for you.

-Yes.

-Because I'm sure you will have a lot of composting to do.

-Mmm.

Now, where did you get your inspiration

from for the compost bays?

Well, we've got Leith Hall around the corner,

and it's for National Trust for Scotland and, yeah,

we visited the gardens and it looks so tidy.

Then we saw the compost bays.

-I thought, "Wow, that's something for our garden."

-Absolutely perfect.

So what Callum's doing at the moment is just clearing

one or two of the branches because we need a little bit more space.

-Then he can start putting the pallets in.

-Yes.

We'll leave him to it and let's go and have a look at those flatpacks

that you've put together with the wildlife boxes.

My daughter, Lillian, is filling up the bug hotel we made.

Ah, you look like you're enjoying that.

So you're recycling the pine cones, and what else are you using?

Er, the bamboo.

Yeah, I brought the bamboo for you, that came from Beechgrove

when I thinned out some of the canes.

-Now, did you help put these flatpacks together?

-Yes.

-What did you make?

-The birds and the bats.

And we did save a bit of money.

These flatpacks were only £3.50, which I thought was brilliant.

-Really good.

-We picked up quite few tips about where to put them.

-Can you remember?

-Yes.

The robin bird house has to go below two metres.

Yes, the other ones are between sort of two and four.

I thought it was really interesting about the squirrel feeder.

Yes, it needs to be away from the birds.

Yes, so it's got its own feeding station.

I think we should grab one or two of these boxes

and find some places to put them, shall we?

-There's the last one.

-Last one, looks good

-and that's quite easy to fill it with the nuts, isn't it?

-Yes.

-Shall we go and see how the compost bays are getting on?

-Yes.

That's amazing. Callum did a really good job.

The only thing I would suggest,

though, with the pallets, is you might want to line them

with some polythene, just to protect the wood

-and the wood will maybe last a little bit longer.

-OK.

I've also got some samples here of things that you can

add to the compost. Remember, all of this is for nothing.

It's totally free. You put them into two groups.

This is like the nitrogen.

Grass clippings, annual weeds, as long as they haven't set seed.

-I'm sure you get lots of vegetable waste, don't you?

-Yes.

And, you know, I know you've got daffodils,

-so deadheading your daffodils.

-Tea, coffee filters?

Anything like that, that'll be absolutely fine.

Then we move on to the browns and you've been busy cutting back stuff.

You need to shred that down.

Cardboard, paper.

What you need to do is add it in layers

and roughly a quarter to a half needs to be the greens.

At the end of the day, you could have a lovely compost

-and again that's costing you nothing.

-Sounds good.

-I've also got some money-saving tips with some plants.

-Ah...

Now here's a classic example of plants for free.

I noticed these in flower, Meike, the last time I was here.

The winter aconites with the yellow flowers.

That's your border, the stone marking the border in there

and they've naturalised into the path.

So, you know, we could be shifting these. They are bulbous species.

So it's the right time of the year to do that?

That's quite a good point.

Many of the bulbs, you maybe shift them in the dormant season,

but things like your snowdrops and the winter aconites, when

they're in the green, it's a really good time to be shifting them.

So if we get these into the woodland, you know they're going

to be quite happy there and you'll get clothed with yellow flowers.

We also have wild garlic - can we spread that, too?

Well, absolutely. I think you've got to be a little bit careful with wild garlic

-because it's quite...

-Vigorous.

It's just nice, I love the smell when you go around the path.

You want to forage a bit, so you'll be able use it.

-Yeah. We can eat them. So...

-Perfect.

Now there's the wild garlic.

Well, I can almost smell it, actually.

And, you know how I was saying that it's quite invasive?

-Look at these little seedlings.

-It's amazing.

-It grows really quickly compared to last year already.

-Yes.

We can get some wonderful clumps up and, you know, it is another

bulbous species, like the winter aconite, so let's have a look.

-If I lift up something like that...

-Oh.

-Look, straightaway.

-Yeah.

-How many plants could we...

-Really good.

We could plant them as individuals, but I think small, little clumps.

-What's the ground like? It's not too bad, is it?

-It's nice, yes.

We get a lot of worms.

Five clumps or something in there and then we can go somewhere else.

-Yes.

-Just push it in nice and firmly.

It's nice to see another part of your garden,

-lots of fruit is going to come here.

-Yeah, it's great, absolutely great.

I'm going to set you a little bit of homework for next time,

-rather than a shopping trip.

-OK.

This is fantastic, all this elephant's ear, it is

a bit of a nursery bed, but, you know, you could transplant

-this and put this somewhere else in the garden.

-The woodland?

Well, why not? Next to the dogwood, something like that.

That's a good idea.

What I want to do is come back next time

and we'll be utilising these beds for something else.

-OK. Mm...

-I look forward to it.

-Interesting, yeah.

Money-saving tips today are...

I know I tend to go on a bit about some of these very simple

gardening jobs, but they are important.

Here we are, Narcissus making seeds that we'll never use.

We don't want.

So we want the energy to go back into the bulb for next time.

It takes seconds, doesn't it, just to nip that off.

The same applies to roses, when the time comes,

because they make big seed heads, as well.

Take them off.

You know, even if you have a small garden,

maybe just a little bit of decking, you can still grow sweet peas

because there's a number of varieties now that are quite dwarf,

only growing to about 12 inches in height.

The compost I'm using is just like those troughs,

so it's an equal mix of John Innes and an organic compost

and I've added a specialised fertiliser, as well.

High in potassium, so that's going to encourage those wonderful blooms.

Now the worst of the frosts have passed,

it's worth going around the garden and trimming out any frost damage,

like on this phlomis here, which really is starting to die back.

Catch it now and diseases won't be able to

penetrate into the parent plant.

Once you've done that, give the plant a boost

by packing the crown with free draining compost.

That will help promote fresh shoots

and the whole parent plant will bulk up later in the summer.

Well, you know, it was just two weeks ago that we were looking at this bed.

-It's changed character, hasn't it?

-We must have had some nice weather

because we've got a bit more flower and, I mean, I think

that works particularly well - the short tulip with the polyanthus.

-It's very bright, isn't it?

-It is very bright, but it's the size.

I would go more with the subtlety of something like the wallflower.

I like my bedding combinations to be slightly submissive.

I think when the tulips start to come out, I think that'll work.

Yeah, yeah. That is a stonker, that is, there's no doubt.

Can I peel back to two weeks ago?

We didn't pick on the fact that I think that little Narcissus

-is a stunner.

-She is a lovely - Tracey.

Well, I hope I'm around when it's time to lift the bulbs.

I have to say... No, it's...

-There's some good stuff here.

-Yeah, I'm really pleased with it.

But 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.

I'm still under cover next week because I've still got that

-mini series of windowsill gardening, just in case.

-Very wise!

Well, I'm venturing to the top of the garden, looking at heathers.

I'm stopping in the greenhouse next week! Without a doubt.

-Until next time...

-Goodbye.

-Bye-bye.