Episode 8 The Beechgrove Garden

-Well, I tell you what, we made the right choice today.

-It's lovely.

Sat in the sun.

But the temperature in the shade is probably just about seven!

It's still a bit cool.

Welcome to Beechgrove Garden on a stonking day, absolutely,

and what a display of flowers we've got in front of us.

We're going to discuss this at length, aren't we?

Well, it's really colourful at the moment and I think you were

looking at that one down there in the corner, Jim, that daffodil.

I've got the bulbs counted.

That is Prototype.

Now, I asked you guys, you experts,

is that Prototype with a small P or large P?

LAUGHTER

Because I couldn't imagine that it would be a proper name.

I would like to be called Prototype McColl.

Do you know what I mean? Is it just a prototype?

-That's the name.

-That is the real name of it.

I think it's a lovely colour combination.

-It's like apricot, the trumpet in the centre.

-Yeah.

And then, do you know what I'm amazed at, is the violas.

-So, next to the Prototype...

-Underneath. The ground cover.

..is Orange Duet, I think it's called.

But, you know, they were looking awful a few weeks ago.

It's amazing how they've come through.

Then I would also pick out the little one there

which is Pink Wing.

The violas have come really on in the last few days.

I can't go past that myosotis. That is one of the best blues I've seen.

-It's just called Blue.

-It's lovely. It really is.

You can't go past the name!

But the Sinopel is the narcissuses in the middle.

Now, that's really unusual.

It's a very late flowering one and it's got this green eye in it.

I don't like it as a daffodil

but I think it looks good with the myosotis.

Then we come to these tulips which are absolutely stonking, aren't they?

Well, if I was to pick one here at the moment, I like the lily ones.

The shape is very elegant. I mean, that's extremely upright.

White Triumphator. Beautiful.

Yes, yes. They are brilliant.

But, you know, we refer to this as a trial plot or an observation plot.

We're looking at combinations for our gardens

and to give people ideas.

There's not one of these combinations

-that I would plant at home.

-Not one?

-No.

-No?

-Well, for a start, I would never use daffodils.

They're all usually too early before the other things have come on.

Yes, but I'm going to argue with you,

like, Thalia at the moment, that's a late flowering daffodil.

Yeah, but it's insipid.

And funnily enough, that pink-and-white tulip in there,

absolutely stunning thing.

I would use that with the myosotis. Absolutely.

-My old dad would be jumping for joy if he saw that combination.

-Yes.

-I don't like mixes.

-You don't like this then?

-No.

I mean, the tulip, it calls itself

Bleu Aimable, and it's no more blue

than a fly in the air.

But then you look at the mix underneath and it just

-distracts you from the whole thing, doesn't it?

-Yeah.

I'm definitely with you. I think single colours.

That needed a lemon yellow something around it, wouldn't it?

But, Jim, I think maybe you should choose the combinations next year.

I'll sharpen my pencil right now then.

And we haven't mentioned the perfume, have we,

-of the wall flowers?

-It's good.

-Lovely.

Anyway...

In the rest of the programme, well,

I know I'm off to Motherwell again cos I loved that first visit

and I'm back now, following a trail, which says "from seed to plate".

And any idea of what this is?

We'll find out in my garden visit

this week, cos it's full of surprises.

Now, Jim, it was just a few weeks ago that we were

admiring these camellias in flower in the conservatory.

Then you said, once they'd finished flowering, we need to repot them.

The fact of the matter is that they've been in these pots for five years.

Same compost, getting difficult to water, you know, it's so dense,

so it's time to give them a bit of rejuvenation.

First of all, you've got well ahead of me

cos you've got that plant out of its pot

and you just lifted it straight out the pot.

Well, I did have help, actually. Mairi helped me.

Doing it on your tod, this is the way to do it.

Get it down on its side and then ease the plant out that way.

It doesn't really do it any harm.

-You only need the one person to do that.

-Well, yes.

The crucial point is we don't want to put them into a bigger pot.

-No.

-I mean, with pot plants and things,

gets too big for the pot, you put it into a bigger one.

You can't do that with this. It's this semi-bonsai, as I keep saying,

you know, where you want to keep them compact...

-Well, because it's manageable then, isn't it?

-Well, exactly.

So, the other thing that you want to introduce...

I think if I turn this one round...

I found a hole here. Because a hole watering system,

you want to try this out.

Yes. It makes it easier to get a distribution of water into the...

That goes right down to the bottom and I think, Jim, look,

that's going to maybe fit like so, and if I left that up,

-the whole idea is that you can water through that.

-Sure.

But we are reducing the root ball somewhat.

We're encouraging, by this kind of root pruning, really,

we're introducing some fresh compost.

We have, each of us, a bucket full of this stuff

and it's absolutely marvellous.

It's commercial ericaceous compost and our own leaf mould, 50-50.

Something for nothing, the leaf mould, Jim.

-Gardening on a budget again.

-Now, steady up.

You'll be getting a reputation.

And, of course, that compost will feed the plant for a few weeks.

-Oh, aye.

-So we don't need to feed it.

-No. Exactly.

Crocks.

I like to put crocks in the bottom cos there's quite big holes.

Yeah. I'm a bit of an old crock myself right at the minute.

I quite agree.

Some people argue that it's not necessary but the fact is,

that drainage hole could get easily blocked up

-by a rather stout root.

-Yeah.

And it also means that the drainage, if you excessively water,

the drainage can get away.

So this is not a job you do in a hurry.

I know cos I think this is going to be the fun bit,

trying to fit that in there.

I'll just try and slip that in.

-Oh.

-Oh.

-You'd think you'd done that before.

-Made-to-measure. Not bad.

Just another few more to do.

How much compost are you going to get in and round it?

Not much. I've got quite a bit in the bottom.

Get the fresh one, not the old.

Now, obviously, this is giving them a real bit of a doing, isn't it?

Keep them cool until they get over the operation.

This is a fairly major operation, this is.

This is the second part of a trip we made to Motherwell

to Firpark Secondary School and Bothwellpark Secondary School,

both of them absolute stunners in their own way.

This week, we're following the team from seed to plate.

Taking the pupils through the process

of cooking and serving the food they grow

has been the brainchild of headteacher John Morley.

We're producing so much crop here that we had to do something with it,

so we opened a bistro within the school.

That's a partnership with New College Lanarkshire.

So the concept in here is from seed to plate.

So we've got pupils who are planting the seeds

and they're nurturing them and they're growing them

and they're harvesting them.

And I've got another group of pupils

who on a Friday are cooking them

and they're preparing wonderful meals.

They're serving them to the public.

At each stage within that, they're getting national qualifications,

and I've got a source of revenue for the school, Jim,

so it's all winning.

Now, then, guys, it's harvest time,

-obviously, isn't it?

-Hello. Yes, it is.

We've got Chloe, here, and Liam. Am I right?

-Yes, that's right.

-Yes.

-Good stuff. So what are we harvesting?

-We're harvesting rhubarb.

-Rhubarb.

We'll take it to the other kids at the bistro for the chefs.

All the kids at the bistro.

-To have lunch.

-To have lunch.

-So it's going to be good.

-It's going to be good.

-I'm going to lunch.

-So, we're going to get rhubarb?

-Rhubarb.

-Yes.

I love it. Do you like rhubarb?

-Yes!

-What about yourself?

-I do, yes. Sometimes.

Yeah. Good.

So, the story is, you're just pulling the stalks out.

Let me see what you're doing, then.

-Yeah. So, we cut the leaves...

-Yeah, on you go.

Cut it just under there.

It's that stalk we're looking for,

and the rubbish wee bit at the bottom as well.

-Yeah.

-And what do we do with all that stuff going in the bucket?

I'll take that to the compost heap.

-So, we're recycling.

-Recycling, yes.

-That's good gardening practice.

-It is, yes.

And then, if you then give that a bit of fertiliser,

a nice bit of watering and...

Wow.

They're actually quite nice. Do you want to try a wee bit?

-Do you like it?

-It's actually really nice.

That's your lettuce.

Thank you very much. Some lovely lettuce.

In the bistro kitchen,

pupils are learning food preparation skills under the stewardship

of head chef and hospitality lecturer Tony Mott.

Hi, Chloe!

-Is that my rhubarb?

-Rhubarb.

Wow. Looks terrific. Did you pick that out of the garden this morning?

Yeah.

This is quite young rhubarb, yeah?

And if it's old,

it's thicker like my thumb and you probably need to peel it,

but we don't need to peel this rhubarb

-because it's quite thin, all right?

-Yes.

It's young, so it will be nice and tender,

but what we do need to do

is we need to take the top and tail off, OK?

And we need to wash it.

So what we're going to do, we'll do it between us,

we'll take the tops and the tails off, put it in there

-and give it a wash. OK?

-Mm-hm.

You and I are going to be busy for a wee while.

That's good. Excellent work.

Right, Chloe, put them up there with the rest of it.

-What are we going to do with it now?

-We're going to wash it.

That's it. Let's take it over to the sink. Great stuff.

In the Firpark bistro,

the young gardeners are now training as waiters,

and setting up for the imminent arrival of hungry customers.

-Looking forward to the public coming in?

-Absolutely. It's exciting.

-It is, isn't it?

-Quite exciting, aye.

Oh, have you heard Jim from the Beechgrove Garden is coming in?

-Is he? I didn't hear that.

-Yes.

-Fantastic!

-I know.

So, what's the story? What's that stuff?

-It's pastry.

-Uh-huh.

-Is that glue you're putting on the sides?

-No. It's egg.

-Oh, right.

-Egg.

-Uh-huh.

Well, don't let me keep you back.

SHE LAUGHS

-What have you done with the rhubarb?

-I chopped it up.

And did you mix it? What did you put in, sugar...?

Sugar and...

..the cinnamon stuff.

Oh, right. Crikey. This is going to be tasty.

Remember, what we do is we just put it in the middle,

then we fold it halfway

and then we fold that one back towards you.

-There you go.

-That's it.

Make a little parcel at the ends. Fold the ends up that way,

-and that one towards you again...

-Oh, I see.

..then turn the whole thing upside down and put it on the tray.

-Fantastic.

-Wow.

-Bit of eggwash on the top, Chloe. Don't forget.

-Mm-hm.

Absolutely splendid.

At 12 noon, the paying public arrive for lunch.

-Would you like some menus?

-Yes. Thank you.

Here are the boys. Here are the chaps.

There we go.

Thank you very much, chaps.

No problem.

My lunch guest is Sam, who first started gardening

as a pupil here at Firpark.

Sam's now working full-time with Coatbridge Community Gardening.

He's now got a pound in his pocket and he's a happy chappie.

It's all from the garden. Yes, it is.

-Thank you.

-Hope you enjoy.

-Thank you.

Leek and potato. That's quite nice.

At this time of year, you would be starting to cut a lot of grass.

Cutting grass, aye.

-Have you got a nice mower?

-I've got the push one.

That's because you're the newest, you've got to work the push one.

And the other boy, he's got the one that goes itself.

But life is like that, you see,

he's not going to push it if he can get somebody else to do it.

I wish you well, cos if you're like me, you'll enjoy every minute of it.

Uh-huh.

-Here we are, Jim.

-Now, then, Matthew, what have you got?

There's apple and rhubarb strudel,

with strudel we picked this morning.

Oh, you beauty.

I'm so glad I came! Thank you.

-Enjoy your meal.

-I will indeed.

Well, I'm going to take the opportunity

to have a look at one or two house plants

because you can buy these fairly cheaply

in the supermarkets and the garden centres.

And starting off, I have this one. £1.50.

Flaming Katy is the common name, or a kalanchoe.

And if you look after this one well,

it can flower for a couple of months.

Basically, once some of the flowers go over, deadhead them

and then you get some new ones sprouting.

But, personally, I would say, once it's finished, I would discard it,

maybe put it on the compost heap.

However, that's not the case with the cyclamen.

I'd want to keep this for year after year.

When you buy this one, the nice thing is there's a pot

within the pot.

That suits me fine because that is grown from a corm.

When you're watering it, it's far better that you water it from below.

You don't want to rot the corm itself.

So put it in a sink with half an inch of water,

let it soak up and then you can put it back in that pod.

Moving on, we've got the rather strange bromeliads.

This particular one is called Guzmania, or the Scarlet Star.

I think we've got a typical example of what happens

if it's really bright sunlight.

Look at the edges of these ones -

absolutely been scorched.

What I want to say with all three of these plants is, really,

they like a bit of sunlight, but not direct sunlight.

Now, once that has finished flowering,

you can cut it right back

and what it will encourage is lots of little babies,

lots of little rosettes around the edge of it

and so you can propagate from it.

But, again, that is in a pot that I don't particularly like

because the bromeliads really like a humid atmosphere, really warm.

So I've got some gravel in the bottom,

a little bit of moisture so it's not sitting in the water,

but that will give a beautiful humid atmosphere

and that should thrive for quite a while.

Echeveria, a succulent that's quite happy in direct sun,

but I certainly want to repot this one

because how on earth do you water that?

There isn't another pot in there.

They are fairly shallow rooting.

Tease that out.

It's not much better when it's in a smaller pot,

and a clay pan is absolutely ideal.

Use a compost that's a mixture of

50% soil-based and 50% grit.

I won't finish that off because that's going to take quite a while,

but then I would decorate it with grit.

You can water, again, like the cyclamen, from underneath.

Now, those are the ones that like the sun a little bit.

These are house plants.

They are all foliage ones and they enjoy the shade.

And again, this is in a gravel tray

with a lot of moisture

because that helps against things like brown tips

on the ends of the leaves and, with the ficus for example,

the leaves may drop in a really dry atmosphere.

So, lots of plants that you can try at home.

Five weeks ago, we started the process of propagating this fig.

We were going to do it by air layering.

So, we put on this little gadget here, filled it with moss,

damaged the stem and put some rooting hormone on it

with the hope that it would then root.

Now, it will be about eight weeks before that happens,

so that's going to take a little while.

Talking about a little while,

here is something that takes a little while.

This is Trillium chloropetalum.

That is two years from seed sowing,

this pot is three years from seed sowing,

and this one here is four years from seed sowing.

And just now, it's started to do what we would expect

a trillium to do, where it's got three leaves like that.

Now, this one is ready to be planted out.

We'll possibly split this pot and put that out as well.

We'll also have to label it to make sure we know where it is.

Anyway, I'll put these down...

..because I want to do something which is a bit quicker as far

as propagation is concerned, and that is with this gentian.

This is a gentian called Gentiana Oban

and it is one which is white.

I'm going to just take this

and I can split this up.

What is delightful about gentians is

that they have these wonderful thong-like roots.

Now, if you just tease that out gently,

you get these wonderful roots like that. See, look at the buds on top.

These are just waiting to grow like fury.

This thong here is full of starch, full of food and that's really

going to motor on, particularly if we split them up and pot them on.

We're going to pot them on into an ericaceous compost

and there it is, mixed with some of our own very magic...

They say it's magic anyway, it's a magic leaf mould.

..and that will give us a lot faster growth.

What a glorious spring day in sunny Aberdeenshire,

and the garden I'm visiting is just bursting full of surprises.

Laundry Cottage Garden near Gartly

belongs to professional gardener Simon McPhun and his wife Judith

and they really have made the most

of the natural features of the landscape here.

So, this gives you a really good idea of the site that we're on,

-Carole.

-It's quite amazing.

We're right at the bottom of Strathbogie.

The wind roars up the valley.

It's pretty warm on a day like today but in the middle of winter,

that wind can be absolutely bitter.

Completely different.

Can you tell us a little bit about the geology of the site?

We're very lucky that there's actually an igneous extrusion,

-a marvellous geological term...

-Sounds good.

..here, of something called andesite, which is this stuff here.

Volcanic rock. It's a purply brown rock and it breaks down

to this fantastic fertile soil.

Now, the hawthorn hedge,

I'm assuming this must have been here when you came to the garden.

The hawthorn hedge has been here for at least 120 years.

This was way out of control.

It was tall, spindly, didn't really do anything.

We've layered it partially...

Layering, you mean pulling down some of the branches.

Pulled down some of the branches.

There weren't many to choose from but we pulled down what we could.

Then it's been trimmed to mirror the shape of the hills.

Not perfectly, but to be in sympathy.

It's great. I think it's beautiful.

And then you filled in the gaps with some box.

So the box plants underneath...

We're very lucky, so far we haven't got box blight here.

And the box is filling in the underneath, the thin bit,

and of course it's evergreen

so even in the spring when the plants are coming up,

the little bulbs and things, they're sheltered.

-It's a good filter for the wind, isn't it?

-Yeah, it's great.

Now, you found the perfect spot for the pear, south-facing wall.

The pear is in the only place where we'd get fruit, basically.

If you're in Huntly, just down the road,

you can grow freestanding pears.

But here, where it's colder,

has to be against the wall to get any amount of fruit.

That's a Conference. It does really well.

It produces heaps of fruit almost every year.

Now, I know that you absolutely love your hedges,

-so let's go and have a look at one or two more.

-OK.

Simon, a southern beech hedge, is this not quite unique?

I've never seen a hedge of this in this area before.

Well, I'm going to risk saying

that I think this is the only hedge of southern beech,

Nothofagus antarctica,

which comes from Tierra del Fuego,

an incredibly windy spot in the tip of South America.

I don't think you would find another hedge of it.

You'd find plenty of specimen plants, but no hedge.

I'd like to pretend it was all part of the planning

but really it came about because I went in a friend's nursery

and they had a whole heap of these plants going very cheaply.

We just wanted something to slow the wind down.

You've obviously shaped the top of it again,

a bit like the hawthorn.

Yeah, like most of the hedges around the garden, it's shaped,

A - to slow the wind down,

and B - to fit in with the surrounding landscape.

Then you've made a bit of a moon gate.

Here we've got the moon gate.

My wife Judith had this idea when she saw the full moon rising

across there one day.

When we took out the old elm that was here,

we could open a hole up to reveal the full moon.

That's only going to work in October.

THEY CHUCKLE

Now, I would really like to go down now to the River Bogie

-and just see a different landscape down there.

-OK.

So, this is Sauchiehall Street here, Carole.

Bit cheeky but "sauchiehall" apparently in Gaelic

means "alley of the willows".

So we've got willows on both sides.

Now, this is a very different way of training the willows,

you're pollarding.

It's pollarded for two reasons really.

One is to stop the deer eating the new shoots,

and just visually it was more attractive like that.

So these would look absolutely fantastic in the winter time.

They have bright orange stems. Really bright orange stems.

Salix alba Britzensis.

The birds love nesting in these twigs here.

Because you like the wildlife in the garden as well, don't you?

We want to encourage the birds as much as possible.

Presumably the river occasionally floods, but the willows are

perfectly happy.

Yeah, but the willows are fine.

They can have their feet in water for a long time, basically.

So it's another plant in the right place, isn't it?

It's a plant in the right place.

What on earth is going on here?

THEY LAUGH

This is a puffball installation.

These all got washed up in a storm last autumn.

-I thought I would use a few of them in the trees.

-Can I touch it?

-Yeah.

-You can touch them, you can poke them,

you can do what you like with them.

Gosh, that's amazing, the spores, and it's so soft. Fantastic.

-A bit of art in the garden.

-It's art in the garden.

Judith, this is a lovely display of white tulips, white hellebores.

This is lovely. I really like white.

-So, white is one of your favourite colours?

-Definitely.

It's not so much that it's a favourite colour,

I think it's very important in the garden

to bring out the other colours and to lighten everything up.

These tulips are looking beautiful at the moment.

They're really wonderful. It's Exotic Emperor.

We've only had it a little while and it's a variety of Purissima,

the very hardy, tough one that goes on and on in the garden.

And another beauty of a white plant, the exochorda.

I really love that. I've loved it always.

I've passed one of your slate sculptures

-and that is your work, isn't it?

-Yes.

The slate comes originally from the hill,

the Findon Quarry, which is very near to here.

Then it was buried in the garden for some time, you know,

just tipped from an old roof, perhaps from our own house.

And then we discovered it. We're digging it up all the time.

So I started to think about shape and form,

and sculpture's something I've always been very interested in

so I really enjoyed doing it.

Now, Judith, we have a slightly different colour theme going on

-here with the red tulips.

-It's great, isn't it? It's Apeldoorn.

This is Apeldoorn. Very tough.

We add to it every three years to keep the continuance

and we hope that the dandelions don't come in too dominantly

because we love the red and the green together.

It has this almost poppy-like appearance.

I think you need to explain what's going on here with the stumps.

This is steps which roughly symbolise

the journey through life,

starting as a baby on the easy steps

and then you get to middle age, where it wobbles a bit.

The point is, well, doesn't need any explanation.

That's the end, isn't it?

But you know, I have to say,

you've taken me on a wonderful journey today.

Not just all the sculptures but all your beautiful plants.

I think it's a spectacular garden, so, thank you so much.

-I really enjoyed it.

-Thank you.

-Thank you.

This is a job that you don't say to yourself,

"Well, I'll do that tomorrow."

When you see bishop's weed growing in a small patch like this,

do it now, because it spreads like crazy and very quickly.

Using glyphosate, this little formulation of it

is in a sort of glucose...

Coming out the bottom there, look.

All you need to do is paint the green surface

and it will translocate the chemical through to the roots

and kill the root system

without harming anything else around about it.

Just give it a dusting and that will do the business.

You will have nailed it.

The damage on these redcurrant leaves is caused

by the currant blister aphid.

There's the damage it creates on the top.

And often when you see that damage, it's too late

because the aphids have gone.

This doesn't really cause any harm to the plant at all.

They will grow quite happily.

They'll crop quite well

even though they've got that marking on the leaf.

So, all you need to do is just pinch out the tips.

This is just a timely reminder to deadhead your daffodil bulbs.

Basically, you're taking off this whole seed head here.

You don't want it to make seed,

you want the energy to go back into the bulb itself.

Also, don't be too much of a tidy gardener.

You know, don't tie the foliage into knots.

You want the foliage to just naturally die back

and then you'll have good flowers for next year.

Well, that's just about it

and I'm not going to enjoy the ending of this programme,

so let's have the medicine first, shall we?

-Right, here we are.

-He's back.

OK. Right. Some miner's lettuce in there. A piece of radish.

And a viola.

And a viola. He's taken all the violas.

-OK.

-But that was that little one that you liked.

-Orange Duet, wasn't it?

-Yeah, yeah.

-I'll take the radish then.

-Taste all right?

-That's quite a nice mixture.

It's not bad.

But the reason I'm not going to enjoy it, what a mess!

This hebe collection is rubbish.

It's really rather sad. Planted in September.

Now, two variegated ones have gone.

They are meant to be a bit more on the tender side,

but that one over there, Jim, that variety...

That's Carl Teschner. I've grown that all over the place.

It started to die in November. That's not right.

This Midnight Sky which is here, that's very, very dark.

It is, as the name suggests, dark. Why did you put that?

Because I quite like it and it's a little bit of an observation.

-But that would go nice with a golden leaf plant.

-Yes, it would.

It's a survivor.

And that one. Albicans.

The real story, I think, is that we planted hebes in September,

we went into a very wet autumn,

they didn't get a chance to get established

and they just have not survived.

If we were to take the same range of plants now,

fresh, new plants in pots, put them in, they'd grow like the clappers.

We need to try that then, definitely.

Anyway, if you'd like any more information

about this week's programme,

including that lovely garden at Simon and Judith McPhun's,

it's all in the fact sheet.

The easiest way to access that is online.

-Next week...

-We're back with the bedding plants. But this time,

it's summer bedding plants. So, until then...

-ALL:

-Goodbye!