Episode 5 The Beechgrove Garden

It's nice, isn't it?

When the sun comes out you really get some warmth, don't you?

Need a bit of shelter, too.

-Get out of the wind.

-In the right place, Jim.

Hello, guys. It's a bit cold although it's bright.

-It's cold enough. Cold wind.

-Yes, yes.

Hello and welcome to yet another saga in the Beechgrove story.

I've been trying to solve a problem here. People have a dilemma.

I sowed some broad beans a week or two ago.

Some on their side, some upside down,

some on their flat, some on their end.

Because everybody has their favourite way of doing it -

which is the best?

-Eeny, meeny, miny, moe.

-Doesn't matter, does it?

It's the depth that's more important, rather than orientation.

Absolutely.

We did something like this with the daffodil bulbs, didn't we?

-That's right.

-They've got to work a bit harder to get up, don't they?

That's the saga finished. We're not going to deal with that story again.

Meanwhile, in the rest of the programme...

I'm here to see how one man

has tamed his woodland wilderness.

And a recent allotment survey

has proved that you can save

a huge amount of money by growing

your own delicious fruit and veg.

So this week I'm starting

vegetable gardening on a budget.

Well, a few minutes ago we were talking about how to sow

-broad beans.

-Yes.

-Now we're really down to the business itself.

Actually, I'm planting and you're sowing in the same spot.

Yeah, so we're going to get the succession because those were

started off at the beginning of March so we've got a least

-six weeks between them.

-Yes.

It will be interesting to see if that's the same when they mature.

What about varieties?

I'm going to be planting here in front of me The Sutton which has

been, for many years, our choice of variety because it's not too tall.

And it's a good crop.

It's quite an old-fashioned variety, it's a dwarf one.

-We've got Robin Hood.

-Another dwarf one.

-And Oscar.

-What's the story about Oscar?

-That's a new one, probably slightly taller than The Sutton.

-Yeah.

But the story there is when it matures hopefully you should

be able to crop all the pods at the same time.

On a wet day you can go, chop them off at the ground,

-take them inside and...

-Should be able to, yes.

And evidently you can eat them as a sort of mangetout.

Yes, that's right. I noticed that.

-Who wants to?

-We want broad beans, don't we?

It's time we got them planted.

The other thing is, a little bit of an insurance policy

because I'm direct

sowing so I'm putting two broad beans in at roughly the same space.

-Oh, ye of little faith.

-We've got spare ones so...

-Look at the lovely root system on that.

-Fabulous, aren't they?

Absolutely fabulous.

They won't need staking just because they are so compact.

And they're great for the decking, in a container,

-if you've got a small garden.

-That's very true.

Love my broad beans.

Funnily enough, talking to somebody the other day,

I love them with white sauce.

-Oh, yes.

-Someone said, "Eugh"!

You'll be able to try it later on.

That's what makes the world go round.

Spring is really epitomised by the energy with which plants burst

out of the ground.

And whilst as a gardener you look back and think, "Actually, this

"bed is looking rather fabulous with these promising mounds of

"herbaceous perennials and grasses,"

you look at it with a different eye and think, "Can I propagate?"

And there are some that are well worth propagating right now.

This bed was originally received as a tapestry of herbaceous perennials.

Some very early-flowering like our geraniums

but also quite late-flowering

as in the case with this Eryngium eberneum.

The late-flowering forms like the

eryngium here are perfect for

propagating now.

Precisely because they have all summer in which to put on

extra root and extra shoots and they'll still perform really

well later on for a flowering session.

And when you're lifting them out of the ground it's best to fork

around the base of the plant.

Simply because that will damage less of the root structure.

You can see it comes out rather handsomely and then you get

a real sense of just how many potential plants there are here.

At least three or four if you were greedy.

I'm not going to be quite that greedy because I'll probably just

split it into two and the easiest way of doing that...

..is...to just make a rough assessment of where you can make...

..a cut or a slice.

And that's a pretty good spot straight through there.

With a sharp knife...

You could do it with a spade if you wanted,

it's just a bit more controlled with a knife.

Just rock it through.

There we go. You can see just how thick

that rhizomatous root is there.

All of this fibrous root around the edges, of course,

absolutely key to the plant's survival.

But this is what's providing the energy right now -

it's the sort of inherent battery pack of the plant.

And that means that I've got one good section to go back in

the garden here and another one which I can move to somewhere else.

And instead of just potting this straight in to soil or

compost or something like that, what I want to try is to see just

how effective the recent research on leaf mould is.

Getting plants to root effectively.

This is our home-made leaf mould so it really is just as dug.

A couple of seasons of deciduous leaves rotted away in

a chicken wire enclosure.

And all of the research suggests that plants potted straight

into pure leaf mould will survive, and in fact thrive,

much better than just about any other growing medium.

So we'll give this maybe just a season in the pot here,

nurse it through and then it will be ready for planting back in

the sunshine as a good, strong, healthy specimen.

These hellebores are gorgeous plants but they can be fairly expensive.

If you collect the seed, sow it straight away,

look at all these seedlings that you can get.

I always love a gardening bargain.

Last year, you may remember, I concentrated on gardening on

a budget.

As part of that we met Mari Reid who lives and gardens in Ardersier.

Mari's garden exemplifies how to garden on a tiny budget,

but with huge style.

Mari's garden, as you can see,

is absolutely packed full of ornamental plants.

She has little space for growing her own fruit and veg

to feed her young and hungry family.

A recent allotment survey has actually shown you can save about

£1,500 if you grow your own over buying them from the supermarket.

So Mari and myself, we're going to see how much we can save by

vegetable gardening on a budget.

The problem is, like many,

Mari doesn't have an allotment or indeed space to grow vegetables.

In an enterprising and clever community-spirited initiative,

Mari is sharing land and gardens with neighbours and friends

so that they can all benefit from the produce.

Rosemarie Sharp was finding her beautifully positioned but

exposed garden a little too much for her.

Mari stepped in and offered to garden and share.

Mari was coming to help me in the garden sometimes and one day

last spring she noticed in this neglected bit of garden over

here that I'd abandoned there was a potato plant coming up.

And I'd been doing some work for some time with

a Christian charity and that was taking up more and more of my time.

But it was the garden that was suffering - I couldn't do both.

Mari said to me, "How would it be if I grew potatoes in your

"garden and then we could share the garden?"

-That was it?

-What could possibly be better than that?

Mari was going to do the work and my husband and I were going to

help eat it so...

Fantastic. OK, Mari, what did you actually grow last year?

Potatoes, beetroot, carrots, sprouting broccoli.

What was the star of the show? Cos you can see straightaway

we're right by the water's edge. I mean, really exposed.

You've got the salt problems. What did best?

Beetroot was definitely a winner. It was fabulous.

Really nice. I tried some sprouting broccoli and that was really good.

-I can still see you've got some there.

-I had about seven plants.

It was so much.

OK, so obviously we've got something planned for this year.

-Let's go and have a look.

-Why not?

It's great that we've got Callum giving us a hand, as well.

-Very handy, yes.

-Lots of couch grass here.

-I know! Yes.

But you know, Mari,

when you get here you really do notice how exposed this site is.

Hence why I put this here.

Last year I also had a hedge of flowers growing along here, as well.

To protect a little bit...

-So it's pretty and productive but it filtered the wind.

-Yeah.

The leeks, although they're a little bit wind-burned they've done OK.

-Done OK, yeah.

-Have you gradually extended the plot?

Yes, last year it was covered with the black polythene and then

in the spring I took it up and put it on this bit here.

Then by December it was ready to dig so I dug this bit.

-It's a great method of clearing the weeds and no weed cover.

-Yes.

With the philosophy of, "We're gardening on a budget,"

-you're using the seaweed. Costing you nothing.

-I am.

-Nothing, just from over there.

-How long do you leave it on the top?

Just a couple of weeks. Depending on when I have time to dig it in.

It's a brilliant fertiliser cos it's not only got the main

nutrients but it's got the trace elements, as well.

You're also using your creative skills like you do in your

own garden with the driftwood.

Yes, I did collect a little bit of driftwood and I'm hoping to make a

wee fence around and hopefully that will protect the plants

a little bit from the...

OK, I think we should think about getting some of the plants in.

I think that would be really good to do, yes.

Mari, tell us a little bit about this garlic cos it's rather special.

It is, this garlic is coming from my mum in Romania.

And it's a softneck garlic,

it's a summer garlic and it's planted in the spring.

So it's a perfect time to plant.

-This isn't one you put in in the winter.

-This is a spring one.

I just use my fingers to space them.

-Working on the board so you have a straight edge?

-That's the idea.

You also don't stand on the ground too much.

Potatoes are going in. Adam's busy with that. Callum's helping him.

Fantastic to see him doing a little gardening.

Start them young, start them young.

I've brought a couple of plants I brought for you, as well.

-Oyster plant, have you ever grown that?

-Nope.

-First of all you want to make sure it's really got good drainage.

-OK.

So you might even want to try that in amongst the stones.

And you can use the leaves, they're quite succulent.

-They're meant to taste like oysters.

-OK, well...

-Let's get the garlic in.

Garlic in.

A few miles inland from Ardersier, Mary Lindsey and young family

would like to know how to grow their own.

Mari stepped in and this time they have taken

a piece of Mary's land and created a small productive garden.

I know, Mary, that you're friends with Mari.

But how did this come about?

I was very keen to grow vegetables somewhere but was slightly

concerned about the time that I had

and also my knowledge about it.

So you've got this good relationship where you are going to share

the veg between the families.

But you're going to get the knowledge from Mari.

Yes, how to grow them.

-What about the design?

-I was keen to have something that was organised

and contained.

I like these raised beds because I think they're really good to

work with. The fact that you have got the rotation but I think for

yourself, as a novice, and for the children, the size of a plot,

-if it's just one big bed, that can be quite daunting.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Whereas if you're dealing with one little bed like this, that's great.

-Your idea with cardboard?

-We put the cardboard down to suppress the weeds

and then we put the horse manure, which is free.

Bit like the seaweed, then,

-but we've got horse manure.

-We have two ponies

on site and we're very lucky that we can use that manure and then

we barrel it all in.

-That's going to work for you.

-Yeah, hopefully.

We should have a look at the kind of things you're going to grow.

I think Mary and Mari are going to have

a bumper crop of summer fruiting raspberries.

All of these canes have come from Mari's garden and

a very small space. Now they've got room.

They were lifted in the dormant season.

They're gross feeders so there was lots of horse manure put

underneath the ground to start off with.

They've all been tied in and they're ready to go.

I tell you, this looks a very well-prepared carrot bed.

I learned a couple of things from Mari.

How first of all we mustn't put manure on carrot beds.

And also we riddled all the soil to make sure it was very fine

-so we could have straight carrots.

-Long, straight carrots.

I knew carrots liked fine soil but I didn't realise it was to make

-them straight.

-Anything else you're going to do?

We're going to water really well and then cover it with black

polythene to keep it warm and keep the moisture in.

We have to keep a close eye on them and as soon

as they start germinating,

lift the polythene up and cover them with fleece to keep

the cattle fly out.

And there is a little bit of a budget because I want this site to

be pretty and productive and see if you can be creative.

Maybe you're going to do a little bit of recycling and see what

-you come up with and I'll be back in a couple of months' time.

-Great.

Look forward to it.

Despite it being the end of April, our osmanthus here

is doing us proud. Just about hanging on to flower.

When you bear in mind this has been in flower right from winter

through... Well, it's nearly summer, isn't it? Just about hanging on.

Wisps of beautifully fragrant sweet foliage

still wafting across the garden.

And it does demonstrate just how important

having structural evergreens in a border is.

It provides a skeleton, a building block, if you like,

on a large scale, or a smaller scale, like the Ilex here,

which is essentially doing exactly the same job. Or the next step

down, the Olearia here. But these three do demonstrate one of

the challenges of using evergreens - and that is that they tend to grow

relatively slowly. And they just suddenly...

You look out of the window one morning,

and think it's occupying an enormous amount of space, and it

becomes an amorphous blob, just something which is in the way,

really. Nothing demonstrates that principle more

than our Mahonia down here. This is Mahonia media Charity,

typically planted around about a couple of feet high,

and then within a few years, it starts to become much more grand.

And, quite frankly, it really has become a bit of a thug, and

pruning is really the only option, but before you get the saw out,

just stand back and have a look, because you need to look at

the structure and define, "What can I do with this particular plant?

"What is going to be left, and what am I aiming for?" And then,

you get in, and have a look at some of the stems.

Just look at that - deeply fissured bark,

wonderful craggy nature, it's got real personality and character.

It would be such a shame to take out this central stem,

which you could easily do here to rejuvenate from the base,

but it means you would be missing out on all of this tree-like canopy.

So, I think what we need to do is probably start at the bottom,

and thin out and then choose just how far we go with it.

One of the things which is slightly unusual about pruning at this

time of their year is that you can prune evergreens,

because they've finished their principal flush of flowers -

you can see the berries being formed here -

and they've started their flush of growth, and that means the sap is

rising, the plant is an action, and as a consequence,

it's safe to prune.

If you prune this in autumn, then of course, what you do is you

prune out all the flowers, you miss out on the berries,

but also the plant tends to go into something of a downward spiral,

into something of a sulk, so much better to wait until

you see the first signs of growth.

So, the second step, really,

once you have got rid of all of the frass at the bottom,

is to them strategically go through and take out anything which

is dead or crossing a little bit further up.

The third way of pruning it is to think about reducing the height,

otherwise all of your flowers will just go skyward,

you will never see them again. And in order to do that,

if you take one of these stems which is going skyward,

you can see immediately it has got a collection of these younger

branches off of here, and then the main stem continues to go upwards,

so if you can take out that top stem,

you still end up with the potential for flower here,

but it stops the plant being super vigorous and just going skyward.

From thuggish shrub to an elegant, if somewhat prickly, star performer.

You get a sense of just how four-dimensional this plant is now.

Look at the fissures in the bark - just beautiful.

A bit of feed around this, it would be perfect in winter.

As you must know by now, I'm a bit of a creature of habit,

and so if I go looking for seeds of salad turnips,

I look for varieties like Snowball, which have been with us for yonks.

I was surprised last year when I started this project that

there was a whole range of new ones that I've missed completely.

So compared with Snowball, how, for example, will this wee cracker do?

Eh? Tiny pal.

Looks as if it is just ready to eat there.

We are looking for some other varieties that surprise us.

And we are sowing them in a double row of each variety,

with a slight gap in between.

And we will see in due time just how good these new ones compare

with the old Snowball.

They will be covered with fleece because, as you know,

we've got some...flipping... rabbits about the place,

and they will just make mischief of these wee neeps as they come

through the ground, so we will protect them.

Today, I'm in East Lothian, near the village of Humbie,

600 feet above sea level,

just at the bottom of the Lammermoor Hills.

Now, this is a landscape which inspired Sir Walter Scott to write

his novel on that ill-fated Jacobite love affair,

The Bride Of Lammermoor.

But I'm not here to talk about literature,

I'm here to visit a garden.

Well, one man's romantic novel is another man's sheer graft

against the elements and the landscape.

It is the story of Frank Kirwan's single-handed battle to tame

his little bit of wilderness.

You came here eight years ago, Frank. What was it like then?

It was dominated by a line of leylandii,

about 25 to 30 feet tall, which ran from the very mature ash there

to the far corner of the house, and they blocked out all the light,

and beyond them, I had no idea, there was wilderness.

I knew I had bought two acres, but I did not know what.

I inherited some mature rhododendrons,

such as the ones behind us, and some fine mature shrubs,

but there wasn't a garden to speak of.

The beech wasn't here, the birch wasn't here,

the views weren't here.

Because this view now is just fantastic, this is right out onto

the Lammermoor Hills, and this wonderful, rural landscape

-which we've got.

-And we revealed it with some regret last autumn,

because there were two very fine Crytomeria japonica just sitting up

here, they came out last autumn,

and they are now the mulch on the herbaceous border there.

Great conservation move, isn't it?

It is also done to reduce the amount of time I spend weeding,

which I consider the greatest waste of time in the garden.

There are some super things here.

Look at that, that is just the ordinarily flowering currant,

but so valuable at this time of the year, isn't it?

Yes, completely unpretentious.

Now, that's sticking out like a Belisha beacon, isn't it?

-What's that?

-It is. That is Rhododendron barbatum,

one of the rhododendrons we put in in probably 2009.

There are three of them there. It provides a wonderful

splash of colour, seen from the road in spring.

Watch, you've got a barrier up here. What's this?

I have a barrier because this is a wild orchid Dactylorrhiza.

-Right.

-They grow in the wood mulch, and they are absolutely beautiful.

Spontaneous eruption.

Indeed.

Now, this was the line of stumps, wasn't it? From the leylands.

This was the line of the leylandii.

And the initial edges of the paths are formed off the

bits of leylandii which were too big to shred,

and which I had run out of energy to actually saw up,

and the first covering on the paths was the shredded foliage

and the smaller branches of the leylandii.

And then the network of paths simply evolved from there.

It's quite steep, Frank.

Yeah, I'm afraid it is.

Now, what was this like before?

It was a mass of mature and semi-mature trees,

and I have taken some out, the great landscaper in the sky has taken

some out, and what is left is wild raspberry, wild cherry, and so on.

So this is what happens once you take stuff out?

You get one or two of these suckers coming up,

and seedlings coming up, and that is phase one?

-That is phase one.

-And then this is phase two,

so what are the favourite plants for in here?

Well, the things that are doing well in here are things

like the Bergenia, different types of Bergenia, the Hellebores,

the Geranium maccrorhizum, the Aquilegia,

some of the simple ferns like Matteucia.

That's it, it's a limited palette - what works ends up being repeated.

Which is good, though, because if it does work, why change it?

This is really something else, because normally,

when we look at Hellebores, they are looking down.

They're all drooping their heads. There they are, further up the hill.

The thinking was that if you saw them as you came up steps,

saw them from below on the slope,

you would appreciate them in a way you would not otherwise.

This is the creme de la creme.

This is Erythronium Pagoda.

Dirt cheap, bought them £8 for 100.

You just stick them in,

and they key thing is get them when they're fresh.

You have to plant them almost immediately, but if you haven't

got them in by the end of August, I find they don't take.

-So it is all about fresh?

-It is. It really is with them.

-And these are superb.

-Those are in probably three or four years.

They bulk up very, very quickly here.

You are so lucky.

We're right down at the bottom of the garden now, Frank.

This is where two streams meet.

The property is shaped almost like a wedge of French cheese.

A wedge of Brie, and we are at the very bottom,

where it is dribbling away into two streams.

So, that Brunnera is just... Look how vibrant that blue is!

It meets my criteria of providing interest and smothering the weeds.

And then this Euphorbia robbiae,

with this wonderful lime-green flower, that is just superb.

-That's thriving.

-And it looks good,

because I've taken out all of last year's dead stalks.

That's the trick, that's the trick.

Everywhere we look, there is bundles of this and bundles of that.

There is more Erythroniums up there.

Look at that little white one.

Yes, this is Erythronium haupt, and again, it bulks up pretty quickly,

-and it is pretty cheap.

-You're all into this cheap stuff, aren't you?

I am, because I can't afford to do it otherwise.

But it is important, isn't it?

It is, I need large numbers to make an impact,

otherwise things disappear without trace.

And this is the meadow.

This is just fantastic.

Well, I wish I could claim credit for it.

Most of these daffodils were here before I came.

I have added maybe 1,000 more, but there are what? 5,000, 10,000?

Yes, easily. Hosts of golden daffodils.

Absolutely.

Now, this is looking down onto the meeting of the rivers, as it were.

That is just a fabulous view all the way through there,

but do you know, are you looking for anything to do?

-Well, the remaining project is the far corner.

-Right, well,

there is an archway made by a half fallen tree down there,

and when you look through underneath it, it frames a view,

but there is nothing at the end.

You know these Rhododendron barbatum you've got back there?

I think if you took one of those and planted it,

put it in the back there, and your eye will be drawn right down

the river, down to that there. What a wonderful ending.

It's enough energy to plant just one, but maybe two or three.

The odd clump of daffodils, the odd wild hellebore,

why stick with just one? GEORGE LAUGHS

We are into scale here.

I guess there will be many of you out there like me,

who have one or two shrubs or conifers in big pots, in particular

parts of the garden, just beside a door or beside a gate or whatever.

I find them very attractive, and sometimes they get forgotten

when it comes to feeding, just like this fellow -

Griselinia littoralis.

Gorgeous plant, makes a great hedge by the seaside, by the way.

But it has gone a bit pale, it has got its tongue hanging out,

it is needing fed, so I am putting in a mixture of blood,

fish and bone, mixed with some old compost, giving it a top dressing.

And you can see from the shape of these things,

sometimes they catch the rain,

so after I've got this finished, it will be getting a real good soak.

Isn't this a great plant? It's Pulsatilla rubra,

or the common name is a Pasqueflower.

Not only is the flower gorgeous, but also the foliage -

lots of hair on there - and it produces these fluffy seed heads,

and if you want to propagate it, remember to sow the seed fresh.

Earlier in the programme, I was talking about the benefits of

pruning evergreens at this time of year when they are in full growth.

But, as ever, there are some exceptions, and our Pieris here

is demonstrating exactly why there is an exception.

This was looking fabulous last week with fresh shoots.

Now it has been frosted, and that means you would never

carry out any pruning until the plant has corrected itself.

All of these will fall away, you will get fresh shoots,

and only then think about pruning.

I'll tell you what. As you go round the garden,

we're constantly reminded that this is still spring,

and plants can still be damaged by frost.

Look at that poor old rhodie there.

Such a shame, isn't it? Such a shame.

And we have waited all winter to see these buds burst out.

And you can't cover everything, can you? That's the thing.

-You can't sheet over everything.

-No, absolutely right.

-That's true.

-Anyway, on a positive note,

if you want any more information about this week's programme,

it is all in the fact sheet,

and the easiest way to access that is online.

What are you doing next week, Chris?

Next week, I am attempting to come up smelling of roses.

-Ooh, nice.

-We'll see how that goes.

-And Jim?

I am not fancying my chances outside -

I will be in a glasshouse somewhere.

-Until next time...

-Goodbye.

-Bye.

-..bye-bye.