Episode 2 The Beechgrove Garden

I see a bit of a change of temperature since last week.

-No half.

-Aye, but, you know, this hedge is doing rather well,

having been thumped over the winter.

Yes, the hornbeam hedge, this side was cut back this winter

and the winter before it was that side.

Yeah, so people shouldn't be afraid to do that.

-Don't do it all at once, though.

-This is true.

Oh, hello, welcome to Beechgrove.

As I say, there's a lot to talk about.

Temperature yesterday was 18, the day before it was 19,

but I reckon it's not 10 at the moment.

No, I know, but it has been beautiful and of course

that's brought out all the flowers, which has been superb.

But I've got my eye inside on the cherry.

THEY LAUGH

-It's doing well.

-Over there, that peach is just superb.

-Look at the colour on that.

-Yeah.

-Just from the blossom alone.

-Yeah.

I would grow it for that.

Later in the programme we've got Chris with us,

and he is redoing a job that I remember from about 30,

40 years ago - island borders -

and that's precisely what Chris is bringing back up there.

-But we must get to our stations, must we not?

-Off we go.

And evergreens can create interest in the garden for 12 months

of the year, but they can also be living works of art.

Well, it's time to catch up with one or two ongoing jobs

in the greenhouse and this kind of weather

is the right time to be doing it.

Let me start off with onion sets.

I'm busily putting onion sets into cells like that,

just pushing them in like so.

At the same time, I want to scotch a bit of a myth

that onions from sets don't keep.

If you want to keep onions all winter,

they have to be grown from seeds.

Rubbish.

My onions, I've still got several left,

these are always grown from sets

started at this time of the year just like that.

The secret in keeping them and getting them like this

all winter is driving off all the moisture,

the excess moisture in the bulb at the time when they're maturing,

because I think that a lot of people

would grow better onions if they did this

because getting young seedlings started -

whether it's sowing them direct or sowing them in trays and so on -

is much more difficult than this simple wee job.

There you are. Now, then, next thing.

A lot of people are using plugs,

they're buying them through the post.

These salvias, it's a new variety

which I haven't seen before - Vista Red.

They just come through the post, they're nicely moist,

they're in good nick, and what would you put them into from here?

Well, at one time you would put them into little pots,

but nowadays we much prefer using trays, handling like so.

Make a hole, drop it in.

These little plugs are quite moist so they'll sit like that

for a day or two before they need watering.

And in the greenhouse, on the shelf, plenty light.

Salvias love good light, that's the important thing.

So, that's the salvias, and you'll be doing that with lots of plugs,

different things at this time.

Here's a bit of nonsense - when I come to plant my broad beans,

people say to me, "Do you put them on the flat?

"Do you put them on the side? Do you put them on their end?"

We're going to test it out.

Does it make any difference? I don't think so.

But anyway, that wee tray there, they're on their end,

all of them in that, they're in their end.

That, they're the other way round - they're still on their end,

the other end, all right? That one there.

And then we've got this one which is on the flat, yeah?

And this one, there you go, it's on its side.

It'll not make any difference, but at least we'll prove it, perhaps.

George, I think we need to go back about five or six months

when we were in the fruit cage, worried about some of the fruit,

-and decided to dig some of these pits.

-That's right.

Well, we dug four pits - two at this end, two at that end.

What we found over the winter as we watched them was that

one of them was extremely slow at draining.

The other ones drained reasonably well...

Not too bad, but the one over there by the blackcurrant

was holding the water for much longer.

Now, the site, as a general rule,

we do have a bit of a problem with drainage with water.

So, you know, one way round it is putting in proper drainage.

Oh, but that would be very expensive and, you know, let's not go there.

Now, the other solution would be if we built up raised beds.

OK, drainage problems...

-Drainage problems, but there are other problems, too.

-Look at this!

-This is rabbits, isn't it?

-That's your furry little friends.

They got in one night, or two nights, perhaps.

How they got in we don't know, and they've ringbarked the apples.

Now, when you look at this plant you think,

"It's fine cos there's buds coming." Will it come back?

So, we put clingfilm round them and that actually acted as a greenhouse.

Even although they were damaged, they act as a greenhouse...

So it stops it drying out.

Stops it drying out, gives it the chance to callus through underneath.

And what we'll do, we'll put the clingfilm

back on those ones and see if that works.

-So it's fingers crossed.

-OK, third problem - that one's dead.

-This one is dead.

-And that wasn't a rabbit, probably.

No, this wasn't a rabbit problem at all.

I think it's a canker problem.

There's good roots on that.

Yeah, the roots aren't bad.

So, I'm going to plant another one back in its place.

So, you've got to think about...

You know, we talk about rosemary plant disease.

If we're planting in the same place...

Because there is a problem when we plant back in a hole where

something from the rose family has been, like an apple, a pear,

a plum, a cherry or a rose,

and so we're going to put some mycorrhiza into the hole there.

That will then affect... You know, it gets right on to the roots.

-Look at the root system on that.

-It's absolutely fine.

-Good system.

-Shall I hold that?

-Yeah.

-Are you going to trim some of the roots?

-I'm going to trim some of the top back, OK?

-OK.

Just taking some of these off.

I should really hold these in my hand like that.

It's a typical Beechgrove pruning, where we're taking them back

because we want to have a column just like these ones there.

So, you've got two columns.

We've got different types of rootstock.

-These are the extremely dwarf ones.

-Yes.

This one is dwarfing, but we're going to complicate things

by putting in what is a slightly more vigorous form.

They are all the same varieties, new rootstock,

and we'll be able to work out what the vigour is

with all the different rootstocks but the same cultivars.

That's fingers crossed, as long as the rabbits don't get in!

You know, there's a real chill to the breeze

on these early spring days -

not that anyone has told our plant material - and, actually,

the little stream that we created through the refurbed bog garden here

is already full of frogspawn.

The pond has settled in well -

this is its second season after having been completely cleared,

and our young plantation of pines waiting to be pruned

after they've put on a spring flush.

And the carnivorous plants -

they're much happier here, free of congestion and in the sunshine,

but plenty of moisture at the root.

This terrace, well,

it's going to be the focus of our exotic planting this year,

anything which looks tropical and rather sort of glamorous,

because this is the warmest section of the garden.

Which leaves this bed up here,

and that requires something a bit different.

Let me explain why this bed has to be so different.

The big vision for it is that it becomes a harmoniser,

an area of planting that unifies not only what is down the garden

but is also up the garden.

So it has to work aesthetically in many different ways.

And it also needs to be herbaceous and grasses,

to give us that season-long effect.

Now, if you take herbaceous planting,

traditionally you would produce these scallops that I've marked out

in sand here, and you'd have your tallest plant at the back

and you'd gradually tier down to the smallest plants at the front.

And that's perfect, if you're viewing the border

from effectively where you are, it's a one-sided border.

You've got a hedge, the wall or a fence, perhaps, at the back.

Now, as you can see, in this scenario we are viewing

not only from the path down by the pond

but also at that end of the garden,

the conifers and rhodies at that end,

and also from the conservatory up here.

So it needs to be a much more dynamic and fluent approach

and that's why, in our new ribbon planting,

we're going to start with the plants at the back

and we're going to allow that ribbon to come right to the front.

Now, there's one other important difference between

this ribbon style and the scallop

and that's that in this particular approach,

traditionally you would have one cultivar, or variety, per scallop,

and then that would be a different plant

and this again would be a different plant.

In this ribbon planting,

what we're going to do is to take three, four or five

different cultivars of plants within any one ribbon,

and that means they need to work hard as a community,

and therefore there's some horticultural juggling to do.

Of course, there's no trickery involved -

it's all about the plants that you select.

Now, within this ribbon plantation

we're going to have eight different ribbons.

Each one is characterised by one of these eight trays

and within each tray is my community of plants.

And the important thing is that that community comprises plants

that will all work together,

they all bring something slightly different to the mix,

they're not going to compete and threaten one another.

So, as a summary,

what we've got is a grass to give us something willowy and airy,

a structural plant that may well stand through winter,

a sort of rounded herbaceous

and then a mercurial herbaceous that will flow through and mingle.

First thing to do is just roughly mark your area out.

A bit of dry sand, hosepipe

or even just scuffing with your boot will do it.

It's just to get an idea of the types of shapes you want

for the ribbons,

so you get a sort of sinuous, contour-like movement

into which you can place your plants.

And then, round about three to five plants per square metre of planting.

That means, with the vigour of these guys,

they'll very quickly knit together

so you don't have to wait a lifetime to get the effect.

Start with the grasses -

in this case the molinia.

Give a bit of space between them.

And then your structural plants, your eryngiums.

Maybe one in the middle there so that will erupt through the grasses.

One to mark the edge of the ribbon.

And then, be brave -

put large structural plants right on the edges,

exactly the opposite of how you'd arrange

your traditional herbaceous border.

But then, this is adopting a very different theme.

Then you want your mound-forming herbaceous.

Monarda is a great example of that.

And Scorpion, with its good purple flowers,

will start to mingle with the purple blooms of the eryngium.

And the saponaria...

..will allow them to hop and skip between.

And then finally your mercurial little candidate,

the trifolium,

will just scavenge around on ground level.

There we go.

That's a good drift through there. Let's try the next one.

With such an enormous collection of plants to choose from,

one of the challenges of creating a garden like this

is to contain your enthusiasm.

But if I had to choose my favourites in each of the categories,

well, how about this for the grasses?

This is Jarava ichu, the Peruvian feather grass,

and you can see it's got good presentation

even at this early point in spring.

And it has the most fabulous - as the name suggests -

feathery plumes which emerge in summer and then last

right the way through the winter months.

So a really cracking plant.

You do have to search around for it, but well worth grabbing a hold of.

And then another super plant

that's straight out of the American prairies -

Echinacea pallida.

The picture on the card sells it, really.

It stands really tall, it's got a good,

solid basal rosette of leaves,

and the blooms, when they emerge,

those pendant petals are just to die for.

It's a delight to grow in the garden.

And it's also a good example of the fact that,

in this style of garden, if you can opt for species

or as close as possible to species,

then you tend to get plans which have smaller flowers,

which means they blend better with all of the others,

less clashing going on.

But also, they're resilient, they're tough.

In terms of more mound-forming herbaceous,

this would have to be certainly top of my list - Gaura Rosyjane.

Now, the reason we choose this one is because

it's very scandent in the way it grows,

so it's brilliant at mingling as well as producing

a bounty of white but then flushed apple blossom pink blooms.

And don't be afraid to buy them in small sizes -

this is a P9, a 9cm container -

because at this time of the year, if you knock them out of the pot -

look at that, a real zest for life.

That is going to go in the ground and just burst into life.

And for an edger, or a ground cover, how about Stachys Hummelo?

Fantastic little dark green, glossy, mound-forming,

but then, later in the summer,

it has spikes coming out of the ground with whirls of blooms

in a sort of rosy purple that the insects just go crazy for.

Of course, with such a bevy of planting,

all I've got to do now is get them in the ground.

And it means that we can then be a little bit patient,

wait for them to mature, come back in the summer,

and hopefully all of these communities,

all of these ribbons have knitted together,

and no matter where you stand in the garden

they're really sitting up and performing for us.

Well, these plants after the winter look a little bit sad,

but I want to take you back to the summertime when this whole bed

was full of colour, it was full of half-hardy perennials.

And the reason that I left these plants in,

it's a Verbena Endurascape,

it said in the catalogues that it was hardy down to -10.

Now, the garden temperatures here only went down to -6.

I don't think there's really any life in them,

but what I will do is cut them fairly hard back

and you never know, they may shoot out from the base.

But I did take an insurance policy,

because I've actually got a stock plant in the polytunnel.

And here's the plant, with lots of healthy green foliage on it.

And I've got a range of stock plants here, the half-hardy perennials -

we've got the osteospermum with lovely daisy-like flowers,

geraniums, argyranthemums.

And what do I mean by half-hardy perennials?

Well, half-hardy means that they are frost tender,

and we've been keeping these plants in the polytunnel

at around about 5-7 degrees centigrade.

And perennial, well, that does mean that they should come up every year,

but what I want to do is actually take some cuttings,

softwood cuttings.

And again, softwood cuttings have the ability to root really,

really quickly, but at the same time they lose the moisture quickly.

So the best thing is to take cuttings first thing in the morning,

making sure that plant has been well watered,

and then as soon as you pop them into the pot

you should put them into a propagator

or a poly bag over them.

So, I've got some lovely material here that I can take a cutting from.

They're roughly 1-2 inches in length.

I then want to strip off about two thirds of the foliage,

being a bit careful not to damage the stem.

And the potting mixture that I'm using

is just cutting compost, and I've added 50% of sharp sand

so it will keep it with good drainage.

Pop that then into the rooting hormone powder,

just tapping on the side.

Make a little hole, I think, you know, round the edge of the pot,

and I could get maybe half a dozen of those into that pot,

and then it will go straight into the propagator.

And I've already got some half-hardy perennials here -

there's a lobelia and a helichrysum.

So, those have taken about five weeks to root.

So there's a job for us now, to pot those on,

and we're going to have lovely big plants by the summertime.

Well, I'm back in the winter stem garden and, if you remember,

we planted this last spring.

The idea was to produce lots and lots of young shoots

which would give us great colour over the winter period.

Now, this one was planted at a strange angle.

This is Salix medemii and I planted it really flat on the ground.

What I'm going to do now is...

Some of these shoots which have arisen from this -

what we would call the crown shoots, which are the ones that arise

at the corners like that and come straight up -

these are going to be tied down, I'll tie lots of these down there,

and then the small shoots I'll just trim back.

And the idea is to get a hedge here which will divide

that portion of the garden from this bit behind.

The whole idea here was to produce a series of winter stems

which would give us colour in the garden and interest

right throughout the drab winter period.

We planted it on a banking where it's going to get the afternoon sun,

where the yellows and oranges of the sun as it's setting

will accentuate the natural colours on the stems.

And here we've got an absolute cracker of a plant.

This is a thing called Salix alba Chermesina.

It's one of the best ones for winter stem colour.

Now, look at that. That is really shining and glossy.

But it's done its job now.

Winter's over, it's now spring, so what was going to happen here

is you want to get the Anderson treatment -

it's going to get pruned back.

We're going to take many of these shoots back like that,

and I'll go right round the plant and do that.

But I won't throw these away -

these are going to be used as cuttings.

What I'll do is I'll take them roughly about 100mm,

200mm long, something like that,

and these will be stuck in round the plant,

or maybe even make a new planting at the front there.

So they'll go in as hardwood cuttings and that will, you know,

just increase the volume of that brilliant stem colour.

Now, also on the banking here we're planting one or two ivies

to cascade down here, create ground cover and stop us

having to do maintenance in here, weeding and things like that.

But really, watch out for these stems next year.

So, from winter stems to winter shapes.

Carole visited a garden last autumn which is full of interest.

Wait and see what she saw.

Sharks and boats and the types of bunnies that are welcome.

It's not what you'd expect to see in your average garden,

but this isn't your average garden.

Artist David Hawson thinks outside the box.

For 40 years, he's tamed and trimmed his garden at Monymusk

in Aberdeenshire to create his very own living artwork.

This is the yew hedge that we planted about 40 years ago.

We did it then because we needed some border against the road,

so it's right at the end of the garden.

And we have the maritime section of the hedge here

with Captain Ahab chasing Moby Dick.

Yes, I was going to say, that must be Moby Dick.

And you've got this great sense of movement with it,

because I feel like that fish wants to just jump over the archway.

It does work, doesn't it?

A kind of a sense of rhythm with it reflecting the arch.

So, how did you go about forming this arch?

I let the pillars grow up straight

until they were about eight feet high

and then I attached a piece of fencing wire to the main stems

on either side and just pulled it together so it bent over like that.

So you have to be careful that the wire isn't ringing the bark.

Yes. So I've put it around spirally,

so it's held firmly, but you're still going to get

the nutrients going up to the leaves.

Now, you said the hedge is about 40 years old,

but how long did it take you to form the arch?

Oh, I would guess probably about 20 years or thereabouts.

A lot of patience, then - a lot of patience!

And then we change to the bird theme.

This is the avian side, all British species, some in development.

-This is just out of the nest.

-OK, that's the owl.

And a pheasant. Here's an osprey...

-Oh, absolutely amazing.

-..as we've got ospreys nesting.

You might enjoy these two here, Carole...

..because these demonstrate nicely my principal, at any rate,

of topiary, which is to allow nature to take its course

and suggest shapes, and then I help it on its way.

-Hence the unlikely pairing - the pig and salmon.

-Definitely.

It's wonderful, though.

-Now, David, this time we're looking at box rather than yew.

-Yes.

When we arrived here, we discovered that we'd got

probably a 100-year-old box which had been used to section off

the garden, and it had been left to grow long and leggy.

Didn't want to take it out, didn't want to remove it,

so I wove it, or a lot of it, into shapes.

And are you having to still put in some wires?

-Because, I mean, the winters, you must get a lot of snow.

-Yes.

I mean, once it had formed, then,

because it's so squashy and doesn't have much strength,

then I put a bit of fencing wire round the inside,

holding the stems together to stop the snow squashing it.

So, yes, it is quite leggy, quite open inside.

-Does that help against box blight?

-Well, I suspect it does.

It will allow the air to flow in.

-Do you take cuttings?

-Lots of cuttings.

The best way is to where the box has touched the ground

and perhaps been covered with soil

and you get these little roots coming off it.

And if you just break those off and stick them in a pot...

-That gives you another project.

-Absolutely!

-I've got a few more up here.

-OK, what else shall we look at?

Let's go and have a look at the railway carriage.

Most people, David, would have a summerhouse,

but you've got this lovely railway carriage which you do use.

Oh, yes, certainly.

Other than being a sitootery where we just sit out of an evening,

-it's also a cinema.

-Mm-hmm.

Children love it because there's a train that runs round the inside.

So it's a little delight.

And you've got a signal.

-Oh, yes, have a look at this.

-Does it work?

If you look up there...

How unnecessary is that?

But as you say, the children must love it and I think, well,

adults, as well, loving your garden.

But, I mean, it is great fun,

and as an artist you've got other bit of art in the garden too.

We've got a pair of blue mountain hare

and a wire man.

There's also a bicycle. Did you see the bicycle?

-Yeah, down the bottom.

-That's right.

If you look at the relationship between the tree and the bicycle,

you'll see that that bicycle can never move again.

Very clever, very clever.

Bit of an optical illusion.

And do you do anything else with the topiary?

Well, over Christmas we decorated so that each of the topiary animals

-has got a red ribbon round its neck.

-Oh, gorgeous.

And I've also done some time-lapse photography using the autumn leaves.

How long does that take you?

Well, each one is only about a couple of hours or so.

If you wanted to inspire somebody to start off with topiary,

what would you suggest? What would you say to them?

Oh, you can't really do anything wrong, give it a go,

because if you've got a block of granite or marble to sculpt

then your mistake are a disaster.

But the great thing about plants is that if you're trimming it

and you chop off something, it will grow again.

They're all self-healing.

Anyway, I've had a great time, it's been great fun,

-quite inspirational, and maybe I'll give it a go myself.

-I do hope so.

It's been such fun having you. Thank you ever so much for coming.

Well, it's time for me to remind you once again

that we should be pruning our buddleias.

This is Buddleia fallowiana.

It's still a butterfly bush but it's not nearly as vigorous

as some of the others. Nonetheless, if it's going to suit

a small garden you want to keep it down,

so you've got to prune back to these buds at this time of year.

And we just work systematically through it.

Two things I like about this job -

one, I'm standing up, I don't have to bend,

and secondly, I don't really have to put a lot of thought into it.

Last week I was looking at the crocus that have been

naturalised in the lawn and, well, with three days of sunshine

they started to go over.

But what it has done is brought out the lovely Scilla siberica,

my favourite colour, blue.

And doesn't it go well with the yellow daffodils that are

starting to flower, as well?

I'm back in the small space garden

and I'm going to be sowing seeds today.

I've measured them out with that piece of wood and just making

little trenches, and there we are, sowing the seeds along there.

I like putting the seeds into my hands so that I know exactly

what I'm doing and I can feed them out and kind of space through them.

That's beetroot that we're sowing there.

But the next lot of seeds that I want to sow is peas,

and that's going to be done with knuckle planting.

There you are. Set the seeds out in a grid

and then just press them into the soil up to the first knuckle.

As Tommy Cooper used to say, "Just like that."

We thought we would give you what Jim would call

a pigeon's-eye view of the Beechgrove Garden.

The garden is divided into distinct areas.

Starting off is the engine room with the greenhouses and potting shed.

Moving on to the productive area, with vegetable plots,

polytunnels and a fruit cage.

As you can see, the main focus of the ornamental area is the pond,

with all the little themed gardens around it.

It may seem a little brown at the moment,

but we'll return over the seasons to see the changes.

Do you fancy a piece of salad?

Well, is this better than last week's weed salad?

-I don't know, that's it.

-Let me try some of this.

This is continuing the salad theme. There you go, Jim.

-Any particular...? That looks a bit like pak choi.

-That's pak choi.

-You could try some of my asparagus, George.

-Is this yours? Oh!

-Yeah.

I've chopped it up because I picked my first spears on Mother's Day.

-It's not too bad.

-That's good.

-That is nice.

-That is so sweet, isn't it?

Really scrumptious.

And of course we've got some flowers in here, as well,

-which you can't eat.

-Well, it looks pretty, it looks pretty.

But if you'd like any more information

about this week's programme it's all in the factsheet -

especially what's in the salad -

and the easiest way to access that is online.

Next week, what are we doing?

Glasshouse, I think, again, but I will turn up anyway.

-Yes, I think we're both in the glasshouse.

-Oh, really?

And Brian, bless his socks,

is trying to grow plants which are resistant to rabbits.

-Good luck to him.

-That pak choi is soor.

-Until next week, bye-bye.

-Goodbye.

-Bye.