Episode 7 The Beechgrove Garden

Well, this is quite stony ground.

I hadn't realised it so much.

Yeah, fairly old, big stones.

Hello and welcome to Beechgrove Garden on a gorgeous spring day

and we're going to crack on the work

because we've been very unlucky in recent weeks with the weather

and this is the day of the big Beechgrove challenge

for hardy annual growing. Yes, hardy annuals,

because, last year, we had such success with that one there.

It's like a watering can. Yes.

Nearly 30 varieties but six tended to dominate it and it was beautiful.

So we had a conversation about that and we decided...

We decided that each presenter would select six hardy annuals

to sew in their specific scatter mix, so that's what we're doing.

And see what we come up with. Right.

I got mine for under a tenner.

Oh, right. OK?

How many seeds? 800.

But it's all about quality. Sad, isn't it?

OK. ?9.73 and over 3,000 seeds.

Sad, isn't it? You growing weeds? The only reason I agreed

is I thought I was going to get one of these distributor things.

We're not letting on at the moment about our mix. No, this is true.

Chris has got one, Brian's got one. And that's the control.

That's the control. And I've mixed mine with sand.

I think you've done the same. Yes. So we'll see what happens.

We'll see what's going on.

In the meantime, the rest of the programme.

And Chris... Well, he's revamping our 20-year-old heather garden

and he's out with those loppers again.

And my friend and colleague Mr George Anderson here

is a noted grower of narcissus and shower of narcissus

but I just wanted him to see

that there are other bulbous flowers in the world.

Eh? What? Absolutely.

So where are we? And how much did it cost you to get me here?

Well, to prove a point.

Well, I'm continuing my windowsill gardening.

This is my third week and it's incredible what you can grow,

all productive.

Now, last week, I actually looked at a little windowsill propagator

where you needed electricity.

Well, that's not always very handy for people

so what you can do is just buy these little trays

and a lid, which you can then vent if you want to

or you can close it right up,

and, as soon as things have germinated, you can take it off.

Now, this week, I want to look at microgreens,

which is all the rage for lots of the chefs.

They're very attractive, they're very nutritious

and, again, very easy to grow.

So, what I have here is radish and what you do is...

It's nothing to do with like sprouting seeds

where you eat the seeds as well,

you wait for them to grow to seedling stage

and then you cut them off with scissors.

So those are sown. I'd put a little bit of compost on the top,

water it in and then the lid would go on top.

But, if you're not too sure about doing that,

it's very easy, you can buy kits, as well.

And this one I think is really interesting. This is pea shoots.

They've been sown for a couple of weeks

and I think we're going to have to wait for another three or four weeks

before you can clip them, and you'll have a lovely pea flavour.

So, what comes in the kit?

You get three of these mats.

So, the mat goes into the bottom and that's just soaked in moisture.

And then, after that, you just have to put some peas on the mat itself,

and don't be too generous because, if they start to touch,

they may actually go mouldy.

And you just have to keep the moisture there

and put the lid on the top.

And, again, as soon as that germinates, you take it off.

Now, this kit I particularly like

because the good thing about this one

is that that can go in the dishwasher

so we can use it over and over again.

So, water in the base.

Then, that goes in and then you need just a little bit of kitchen roll,

which you mist, and then you sow the seeds on the top

and that's the result.

But take a look into the water

and you can see that the roots have grown through,

so what you have to remember, until they've actually grown through,

it's a little bit fiddly, but you've got to mist them

at least two or three times a day,

otherwise, I'm afraid, they will die.

So, you really can fill your windowsill with all kinds of things.

Microgreens, as I said,

we've got the sprouting seeds, we've done herbs,

we've done salads, mushrooms, there's a whole lot more,

so do have a go.

So, from indoor gardening,

now we're going outside with Chris with the heather garden

and he's had sunshine as well as snow.

You know, there is a sense,

when you arrive in a garden with a load of pruning equipment,

all the plants start to quiver

and this is definitely one section of the garden

where the plants deserve to quiver,

the heather and conifer garden, dating back...

Well, over 20 years.

It's the head of the stream

that spills right through the centre of the garden.

And, after 20 years or so of really good service,

a lot of the heathers and the duboisias, the ericas

have all become a little bit threadbare

and the dwarf conifers... Well, no longer dwarf.

In fact, this a great example, Thuja Rheingold,

they just become great dumplings.

Something drastic really needs to be done.

But it's not all bad news

because some of the ericas are spilling through

exactly as we want them.

The idea is to create the sense of a mountain hillside

where seedling pines are seizing their opportunity

to thrive in small spots of light

amongst some of these majestic specimens.

And the heathers are used with confidence

and spill through the site like great snowdrifts.

So, while Marie and Ford attack the threadbare sections at the back,

I'm going to attack the Rheingold

and see what magic we can weave.

One of the lovely things about Thuja

is that it has this wonderful ability to root and send out boughs

in an ever-expanding sort of bowl,

and you can actually see that if I pull this plant apart.

Look at that. You can see there's a mass, maybe 50 or 60 stems in there,

but they've all become so congested that all you see from the outside

is just this great dumpling

so what I'd like to try and do is to expose all of these legs

and get the sense that, from down here,

we're looking up through a forest canopy

and that really just involves pulling out an individual stem

and then thinning it out,

taking off all those side shoots.

So you can pretty much prune off as much as you like.

Of course, it's always good sense to stand back,

take a view of the overall effect

and then you can go back in and do a little bit more pruning.

You can see just how much material you can extract

from a mature dwarf conifer like this,

and what's wonderful is that, the legs being exposed,

the views of the rest of the garden are suddenly revealed.

So, after a bit of confidence with this one, it's the juniper,

which is a little bit more of a prickly affair, next door.

Well, on a day when we discover yet again the vagaries of the weather,

here's another discovery.

The old path

that used to run through this area of the garden.

And, in fact, it's a good example of what happens

if you put a thug next to the path,

but look at what you can do with it.

Horticultural hoodlum to something of a sculptural specimen.

Just going in with confidence is the key.

Given that this part of the garden

is all about creating a kind of wild, windswept

and interesting look,

not just amongst gardeners but also amongst the plant material,

and, given that we've already got some wind-manipulated trees,

not just young ones but also older ones, too,

I thought it would be interesting to play around

with this little self-set picea here,

a little Christmas tree that's coming in from the woods behind,

and it's ripe for a bit of torture.

The tissues are nice and soft.

The sap is starting to flow, which means that it's pretty malleable.

Tie one end of a piece of... This is hop string.

To the trunk in several places,

so there's not too much pressure, the other end to a rock

and then bending the plant gently...

..put the rock in the pond.

Now, it looks a bit odd at the moment

but, within a few days, each needle will start to turn skyward

and then, within a few weeks, the tip will start to go up like that.

So, after a season or so,

the plant will become woody

and will become permanently fixed in this wonderful arching mechanism,

casting fantastic shadows across the water.

Well, whilst the demolition derby continues

in that part of the garden...

There is a logical approach to what's going on up there,

believe it or not.

I thought I'd escape to the relative serenity of this end of the garden

and do some planting.

And there's few finer specimen trees to plant than the sorbus.

Beautiful specimens, a range of foliage

but it's the flowers we grow them for the most.

Of course, a little bit later on in spring,

foaming blooms which are perfect for pollinating insects,

followed by berries and a whole array of colours.

This one's Joseph Rock,

so a fiery, real incident in the garden in late autumn.

And, of course, it suits the mountaintop theme,

common name mountain ash,

so it shows you the sort of conditions that it loves being in.

And we've improved the ground in this area with ericaceous compost.

It helps to not only retain the moisture

but also, of course, to increase the acidity,

which will be perfect for the replanting of heathers.

And then one or two other structure shrubs.

Salix, perfect specimens,

latana here with its yellow stems

and, down that side of the garden, we've got boydiae,

which has got almost black stems.

That's rescued from elsewhere in the garden.

And both of these, of course, produce

those wonderful foaming, catkin-like buds in spring.

This is the path, the new path that will go through

and link the sections of the garden together,

so we'll be able to walk underneath the pines,

round the back of the pool

and then through where Marie is currently demolishing the fence

into the secret garden.

And back here...

Well, another wonderful specimen, a sorbus.

This one is sorbus hupehensis,

introduced by that extraordinary plant hunter George Forrest

from central China, and it's a fine specimen.

It has pinnate leaves, so very much like an ash tree,

foaming blooms, very large white flowers,

and then berries which form white

and, as you emerge into the autumn garden,

it's as if they blush in front of you.

Shades of pink.

It's a really, really beautiful tree to include.

And then, of course, the next step is to roll out that carpet of ericas

and callunas and duboisias

to replace those threadbare specimens that we removed earlier.

Now, a week or two ago,

you would have seen me sowing seeds in these little peat pots.

I've chosen a range of root crops.

The idea came from the fact that you see it in the garden centres,

little plugs with plants with a few seedlings in,

meant to be planted straight into the ground,

so you don't need to thin them out or anything, pop them in there.

And I want to compare that with direct sown

because the conditions are just now right for planting out.

So, I'm back onto my old theme of trying to extend the season

by being able to do this. Now, where have I put my...

The ground was prepared in the usual way,

with a bit of Growmore fertiliser,

raked in, firmed, and there we go.

So, what I'm going to do there is...

This is a turnip sweetbell.

The peat pot, of course, will just break down.

Not a problem there.

So, I've got turnip sweetbell, we've got carrot,

we've got radish and we've got beetroot,

and then sturon onion sets.

Each one is partnered by direct sown.

The same variety direct sown.

There you are. A little drill has been scraped out.

And some people sow direct from the packet like so,

other people, like me, prefer to put the seeds into my hand,

sometimes doing that...

..but I much prefer to do it this way.

Once they start dribbling in your hand,

just keep moving.

Now, this will be covered over, seeds will be firmed in.

There you go, like that, you see?

And then see these little blue pieces here?

We'll put hoops over and a bit of fleece just to keep the vermin out

and, of course, the birds as well because they would be picking.

So, there's an idea.

There's our plants and seed, plant-seed, plant-seed.

We'll see how they go later on in the season.

George, we're doing something very similar to Jim.

You know, he was sowing seeds and he was planting plants or vegetables.

We're doing the same kind of thing with peas. How many peas?

14 different varieties.

And, I mean, that's just a wee selection.

And we've got purple ones, we've got yellow potted peas,

we've got mushy peas.

I mean, you name it! We're going to have a real taste test, aren't we?

I look forward to that, I tell you. I hope you like peas.

So, look, starting off with the plants,

I think this is a great system for growing them in, like an open book,

and they're just ready, aren't they, to go out.

When were these sown? First of April. Oh, well. Hey-ho.

And only grow to nine inches in height.

Whereas you're doing the direct sowing. There's different methods.

Certainly different. And two methods here,

you can either do it in a V-trench

where you take it out with a drawhole

and you've got a very narrow trench or I prefer this one way

where you take it out with a spade,

two inches, an inch and a half to two inches deep in old money.

And I'm going to do a double row along there.

Just spacing them out at about an inch, as well.

So that you get this thick row of peas.

And very quickly, these will go on to these supports.

Well, the other thing I would say,

is you don't want to sow your peas too early.

You really want to make sure that the ground is warm.

They're going to germinate quickly,

otherwise the mice go in, don't they? Yeah.

And we've got all different types of support systems here, George.

You know, the brushwood, which costs nothing,

to that huge frame at the back.

Custom made at the back.

Now, I hope the peas see how high they've got to go there,

but there's that one

and then there's this one here with the black hoops

and the jute fillis netting. I mean, that's going to become interesting.

Well, we'll come back

and have a look at the different types of support

and hopefully we've got the right height of support

with the right height with the pea, as well. I hope so.

But enough of all these vegetables,

I really think you need your sunglasses for the next piece,

because wait and see where Jim and George have been.

Now then, George Anderson, this is what I would call going Dutch.

This is something else, isn't it?

No guesses as to where we are. Well, of course it's the Keukenhof.

Yeah. Now that was the kitchen garden of the old castle. Oh, right.

And they decided that they would create what was going to be

a shop window for the Dutch-bulb industry.

And just look at that. You've been swotting. I have been.

So, how many varieties?

Oh, 800.

And over what sort of acreage?

About 80 acres.

And how many bulbs?

7 million planted by hand. By hand.

100%.

I could get to hate bulbs if I had to do that every year, I tell you.

But not with a show place like this.

We better do some exploring.

Superb. On we go. You go that way, I'll go this way. OK.

This is the 67th time Keukenhof has opened.

And it only does so for eight weeks of the year.

With the tulip the country's distinctive icon,

it naturally takes centre stage in this glorious garden.

Andre Beijk is the man who gets them in the ground.

He's been a gardener here at Keukenhof for over 30 years.

What sort of preparation do you make

to the soil before you start planting?

Well, the preparation starts already in summertime, of course.

OK. As soon as the park closes we get them all out. Oh, really?

And then we start preparation already

by digging up the soil, upside-down.

Yeah. And put some compost in to keep the soil alive. Yes, yes.

And if it's getting really dry, we water, of course.

And we start with the new big bulbs, you know.

Mhm. Mhm. And they have all the things in it. Yes.

To make nice plants. Yes, yes, yes.

So, we don't need all too much fertiliser. Just the compost.

The three principal genera we've got here is tulip,

hyacinth and Narcissus. Yeah, yeah.

Is the preparation for them just the same?

Just the same. The preparation is the same.

Because this year we have tulips in.

Yeah. But also next year,

maybe they'll be hyacinths, or other things, you know?

That brings in an interesting point because we keep preaching to people

that they should rotate their crops in the vegetable garden.

If you grow something in the same ground year after year

you're going to get some pests and diseases. Do you have a problem?

And how do you cope? Well, we have a problem.

I mean, but in small orders.

When we find a spot of disease, we mark on a map, on a drawing. Yes.

And then again, when we close the park,

we get rid of the soil by digging out.

OK. And replace new soil.

When do you start planting? We start in October. Mm-hm.

October/November. Yep. A little bit in December.

And, well, we find out that the last year's October is very warm.

Still. Yes, yes. The soil.

And for the tulip,

it's best when the soil is just going down by 10/11 degrees.

Yes, yes, yes.

And with all this strange weather,

the soil is just a little bit too warm in the beginning of October.

One last question, Andre.

Why can we no longer get these big Hyacinth bulbs,

that grow huge spikes of flowers?

Yeah, that's right.

Those big hyacinths, they are difficult to transport

and things like that.

They also use the big hyacinths to make new bulbs.

You know, we call that the work bulbs. Yes, yes, yes.

You make a little cut on the bottom and you put them in the ground

and they grow new bulbs from them. Yes, right.

And you don't want to sell your big hyacinths.

Because you need them.

I have a suspicion that we Scots don't

because it would cost us too much.

Well, those are your words.

But I guess you're right.

That's brilliant, thanks so much.

This takes me right back to a border town.

1960s was when I first saw this tulip.

This tulip originates from 1750.

It's a thing called Kaiser Kroon.

And I remember seeing it in a bed of wallflowers,

sticking its head up,

in amongst the traffic that was going through the town.

Absolutely splendid. And there it is. It's still here.

We still have it, in amongst all the other tulips in this place,

we've still got Kaiser Kroon.

At the beginning of the 17th century,

tulips were an exclusive and rare status symbol in the Netherlands.

Demand was so great, prices exploded,

with some bulbs literally worth their weight in gold.

Patricia is a Keukenhof guide and knows the story well.

So, Patricia, what was the social impact of tulip mania?

Well, the tulips... the bulbs at that time were extremely expensive.

The Dutch really wanted to earn a lot of money

and one bulb which was called the Semper Augustus cost

at that time 5,000 florins, which would be nowadays 2,200 euros.

Right. Now, as a gardener,

what would I have been earning at that time?

Well, in that time you would earn approximately 300 florins a year.

So, comparing to the 5,000, it's out of proportion.

Hugely. So, what happened then? Why did it all collapse?

It collapsed because the rumour passed that there was a virus

and so the whole trade collapsed.

Right.

So, there was a whispering campaign... Yes.

..which said these bulbs are all diseased.

The rumour passed along and when that was heard

then the whole trade collapsed.

Within a week or two.

But when you see the variety of tulips that we've got

and the colours that we've got...

And to think that they came from some of these

old species that we see in the garden over there,

it's astonishing what we've done to them, isn't it?

It certainly is.

And the old species, they were the ancestors

of the flowers we have nowadays.

Of this, yes.

Tulips originate from the Middle East and Central Asia.

And eventually they found their way through the various trade routes

to Europe and to Holland.

These species are the ancestors of many, if not all,

of the cultivars we grow today.

The undoubted stars of the show are the tulips.

But I'd like to talk about some of the bit players

that provide the background under which these tulips grow so well.

And most notably the trees.

Like these wonderful dawn redwoods.

A deciduous conifer, a little bit like larch.

It was thought to be extinct until the mid-'40s.

Look at the bark. How interesting that is, as well.

But not all the flowers are outside in the Keukenhof.

In some of the pavilions, this is where the growers,

possibly about 500 of them, bring their flowers for display.

Now, when I display plants in pots and on the show bench,

I try to get them as perfect as possible.

Look at that. Is that not just perfection?

Level on the top, masses of flower -

the Dutch have got it in absolute bucketfuls.

I can't do it like that.

The Dutch are well-known for their innovation and great ideas

and this is another one. Here we have Amaryllis bulbs covered in wax.

What does that mean?

They don't need to be watered, they don't need to have any soil,

you don't need any pots - you put them on a windowsill

and within three to five weeks they'll be in full bloom.

Might take some back to Carole.

The art of good planting is to make sure that there's no ground showing,

no bare ground, and this is a classic example.

This bed is wonderful.

It's got tulips - been talking about tulips all day -

but it's got other things, as well.

It's got the lovely, little summer snowflake,

it's got a marvellous pale blue muscari.

It's got this fella here - a fritillaria - this one is persica.

One that we find difficult to grow in northern Aberdeenshire.

But it's stunning here and so too is its cousin the Crown Imperial

there up through the middle.

And it gives that variety, but most importantly of all,

it covers the ground.

It's absolutely stunning, there's no room for weeds.

And earlier, I was talking about avenue trees,

but where better to have a nice specimen tree

in the middle of this lovely parkland area here.

And we're looking at a gorgeous cherry.

It's the variety Yukon, I think. You see that lovely lemon yellow in the petal.

Absolutely finishes the job off.

Boo! Oh!

HE LAUGHS

You were in a trance there. A wee dwam, I was in. Yes, indeed.

This was where I got the inspiration when I was here once before for our

river of gentians, which may be a wee trickle at the moment, but that's it.

Look at it, it's absolutely fabulous. Isn't it?

I'm not taking any more photographs,

but I'd love to just walk this river.

Isn't it just fabulous? It's just brilliant. It's fantastic.

Well, George, I honestly believe it's one of the best trips

I've ever been on. It's been phenomenal, hasn't it?

The stuff we've seen, Jim. We've been kind of over-tuliped!

I think that's the word for it. Fantastic, isn't it?

Absolutely brilliant. Now, to think that this is only for what?

Eight weeks in the year. And one million visitors.

Yeah, so it's absolutely got to be spot on. So, what do we do?

All the best. Hats off to Keukenhof.

I still haven't got that Keukenhof thing out of my head.

I'm back at bulbs again.

I wanted to just draw attention to the relationship of the primulas,

to the double early tulip.

Just look how they work, that particular one is Monte Carlo.

The same applies here, primulas - right height - and that single early tulip.

This one is Showwinner. Absolutely stunning mixture.

I think that's all I'm going to say about it.

Now, some of you may remember that Jim and myself

were in the conservatory three weeks ago

and taking cuttings of this tradescantia.

And the wonders of nature, it's already rooted in the water,

so now it's ready to be potted up

and I've put a little bit of gravel in the bottom of this pot

and I'll get half a dozen cuttings and have a brand-new house plant.

Right, more peas!

But here, what I'm doing is, I'm setting them out at about an inch apart, or thereabouts.

This is in the area where we're doing our intensive gardening,

gardening in a small space. These are not going to have any stakes

put in them at all, because when they're about that height,

I'm going to be harvesting the leaves and putting them into a salad.

You know, apart from all those wonderful tulips that you saw

at Keukenhof, it's all about peas in this programme.

Sweet peas, this time. This time, yes. And the last kick of the ball today, of course,

is getting them into the ground, because they're really ready for it.

Just look at the roots on these wonderful plants. Absolutely screaming to get more space.

And what we've done as well is we've put down a special sweet pea fertiliser -

high in potassium, which is just like the tatty fertiliser -

so hopefully we'll have a good quality flower.

What's the story about the flower?

The story is we've got eight different varieties,

of which seven are new in the catalogues.

Things like Route 66, Emilia Fox - I think she'll be a stunner. Yes.

She will be. And then we've got an old-fashioned variety, as well.

Just to compare. That's the whole idea.

OK. So, George, what are you doing next week? I'm going to turn blue next week.

Might be with the cold, but hopefully it's just meconopsis I'm planting. Yes.

What about you, Jim? Well, I have a suspicion it might be wet,

so I've arranged to be in the tomato house.

THEY LAUGH

That's a good idea. That's a very good idea.

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

especially all these pea varieties,

whether the sweet ones or the edible ones - it's all in the fact sheet

and the easiest way to access that is online.

That's it for this time, goodbye. Goodbye. Goodbye.