Episode 1 The Big Allotment Challenge

The Big Allotment Challenge is back,

celebrating Britain's love of gardening.

Whether it's in window boxes, back gardens,

or allotments, we love to grow our own.

These nine hand-picked individuals think they have what it takes

to be crowned to be this year's champion.

-Oh, it's beautiful.

-Oh, my God.

In early spring, they were each given a plot of bare earth

and a list of 22 different vegetables,

fruit and flowers to grow.

That's the sound of someone else's peas being gobbled.

For 12 weeks, they've been raking, staking and

cultivating their patch of our beautiful walled garden.

And now it's time to show off the fruits of their labour.

Loving the care.

I don't even give my kids this much pampering.

Each week, they'll face a series of challenges.

Grow, overseen by former royal gardener, Jim Buttress.

God, he's going to be looking at everything I've grown, isn't he?

Oh, my goodness, I'm panicking now.

Look at that great big whopper. Not a blemish in sight.

Make, where they'll have to impress international floral expert,

-Jonathan Moseley.

-He doesn't know what it is. Neither do I.

And eat, under the watchful eye of food author and preserves

queen, Thane Prince.

It's not really sharp enough, it's not really sweet,

it's just not good enough.

Thane's a tough cookie, isn't she? She's scary.

It's the two-handed stir. Disaster looms.

Fun, fun, fun.

Who will dig their way to victory and be named the winner of

The Big Allotment Challenge?

Welcome back to The Big Allotment Challenge.

It's spring here in our beautiful walled garden,

and the earth is bare, ready for a brand-new set of amateur gardeners.

We scoured the country, and have brought together these nine

allotmenteers who all hope they have the horticultural know-how

and experience to impress our experts.

They have each been given a plot, a heated greenhouse, and access

to tools and equipment to help them grow.

Here we go.

Oh, there, look.

What they do with their 125 square metre plot of land

is entirely up to them.

I want to see how much space I've got once I've put this down,

because it's such a blank canvas.

I've, sort of, got an idea in my head,

how I want to divide the plot up so that it's easier to get around,

so I'm going to mark it out, and divide the beds.

Er, I'm not sure even what I'm doing.

Jo Jo works in the financial sector, and uses gardening as an

escape from the stress of city life.

I may not have as much practical experience of gardening as the

others, but I reckon I make up for it with all the research I've done.

I've tried to, sort of, plan things out so it makes it easy for me

to control, so I'm going to have a big cross right across the plot,

which is where I'm going to grow all the flowers.

And then that gives me four neat growing areas

for growing all the veg.

It's nice to see what everyone else has got.

Have a little look at the competition already.

26-year-old classics scholar, Alexandra, has only had a

garden of her own for two years.

When I got married, I said to my husband, "All I want is to

"live in the country and have a garden and a puppy."

So it's a dream come true.

I think I'm going to try to fork over as much as possible.

For the first Grow challenge, the gardeners have been asked to

produce new potatoes, a family favourite that former royal

gardener and grow expert, Jim Buttress, is very familiar with.

The first thing I grew as a five-year-old was potatoes.

They are the basics.

I tell you what, if they can't get that right,

they might as well go home now.

New potatoes are grown from seed potatoes, which look like

ordinary potatoes, but are in fact specially grown tubers from

which a new plant can grow.

Here's Jim's guide to growing new potatoes.

The process starts early in the year, with chitting,

putting your seed potatoes upright in a tray and placing them

in the light where it's dry, and free from frost.

It'll take four to six weeks for the potatoes to sprout, and then they'll

be ready to go in the open ground, usually around the end of April.

Potatoes should be planted in trenches 45 centimetres deep,

lined with compost or shredded newspaper.

Before planting, rub off all

but the strongest two or three shoots from each potato,

and place them in the bottom of the trench, about 30 centimetres apart.

Keep them well watered,

but too much can exacerbate diseases like blight, or blackleg, and

too little may encourage scab, all of which could wipe out your crop.

Once they start to grow, begin to earth them up, which means

covering the stems with soil, leaving just the tops of the leaves.

The big mistake that people make is, they don't leave enough room

to earth them up, and if you don't earth them up properly,

that could end up with green potatoes, which are inedible.

Keep them well watered while they are growing,

and continue the earthing up process.

Your potatoes will be ready for harvest

when the flowers are fully open.

Having only been on the allotment for a few hours, the

gardeners' thoughts quickly turn to their first challenge, new potatoes.

This is the first time I've actually grown potatoes.

Whole family's, like, rice eaters, so, no potato growers in my family.

New potatoes can be grown in bags, as well as in the ground, and

painter decorator, Lena, is the first to get hers started.

So, you just pick up one potato, you have them

little bits poking to the top, and then just push it down.

I live on a boat, it's not a posh one, though,

but that doesn't stop me gardening.

I love nature, and I love getting my hands dirty.

So that's it.

People keep saying to me, "You're a very girlie girl,"

or, "You're very glam," and I'm going, "Am I?"

And I find it really odd that people think of me like that,

because I would much rather have my hands in muck.

I made a trench here, and I just filled it up with, like, manure.

And hopefully it should be successful.

I'm literally just ripping up some comfrey,

just to put on top of my potatoes.

It's going to form, like, a barrier, if we do get a bit of frost

and they stick their head through the soil.

Rob's long haul cabin crew job takes him all over the world, but he still

finds time to tend to one and a half allotments at home in Sheffield.

I can get totally obsessed with gardening.

In the summer, my partner calls himself the allotment widow.

It's free, that's what gardeners like.

Something that's free, or cheap, and good for your plants.

Are you going to come and help me dig?

Alexandra is hoping her dog, Saffy, will shoulder some of the hard work.

She's my constant companion and at home, extremely keen garden helper.

Come on, madam, I need your paws.

This is what happens with gardening, is that you can't rely on anyone,

and you just have to get on with things yourself.

With nine weeks until show day, the gardeners begin

the earthing up process.

It's lovely to do something physical.

It's good at relieving stress, it keeps me relatively fit,

it means I can be outdoors, I enjoy it.

This is how I used to do it on the boat,

cos, you know, we ain't got a garden,

so we used to have it, just a few little bags on the deck and stuff.

And I want to see the difference, see why people do grow in bags,

and why you grow in the ground.

21-year-old engineering student and technology lover, Matt, is the

youngest gardener.

He's had an allotment from the age of 13.

I'm an engineer, and if I can put a bit of science into gardening

to cheat nature, then I'm all for it.

Just looking for my potatoes.

I've bought too many, so I've got to, kind of, prioritise,

so I get, like, at least a few of each.

My laptop, it's quite important also.

It's kind of handy like this.

I put some gravel on top of these potatoes,

cos I'm really keen to try and keep the soil moist,

cos, ideally, it would be good to just water them with rainwater,

rather than tap water, cos the limey tap water does encourage scab.

Scab is a bacterial disease which causes rough patches on the

surface of the potatoes.

It can be caused if the soil is too alkaline, or is too dry.

Engineer, Matt, is using a scientific gadget

to help him measure the alkalinity of his soil.

I've got, like, a little, kind of, meter, pH meter.

I want to see what the pH is doing.

It's off the scale. It's, like, eight plus.

Most plants like soil to be, on the scale of one to 14,

about seven.

If it's eight, it's a bit on the high side,

so I'll be adding some, probably, ericaceous compost

or something. It should be, like, really acidic, so if I apply it,

hopefully it's going to balance out to make

a soil which is cool for growing potatoes.

Can I come and nose at your potatoes?

Yours are way ahead of mine.

Blimey, they're big, aren't they?

OK, that's quite a good result, so I've got 100%. Whoo hoo!

I haven't noticed what other people are doing, I don't want to see

someone else and then panic, why they're doing it that way.

That's their style of working, this is my style of working.

And it's not just the competition that's heating up.

Ah, that's really nice.

Oh, my God, it's like some dirty movie!

With just six weeks until show day, grow expert, Jim, decides to

make a surprise visit to the allotment.

-Hello.

-I'm Jim.

-Hi, I'm Sandra.

You know, it's good that he's come, just not ready for it, you know?

I'm not ready.

-God, I'm in shock.

-Get away.

-I know.

Get away. We'll see you later.

God, he's going to be looking at everything I've grown, isn't he?

Oh my goodness, I'm panicking now.

They're making some good growth, they're starting to show

flower in certain place, so that's a good sign.

There's a real mixed bag out there.

Several of them have got 'em far too close together, which means

they can't, in actual fact, get any more earth around them.

The whole purpose of having the soil, is to make the potato work

that bit harder.

When it's working that hard, it's forming the spuds under the ground.

One month until show day, and Jo Jo can't resist taking a sneak

peek at her potatoes.

I need to see what's underneath, I know, I think they call it tickling.

If you tickle the potatoes, then you'll see what's underneath.

Maybe I'm not tickling them enough. There's one, there.

There's one.

With just a matter of days until show day, Lena has discovered

a dreaded bacterial disease called blackleg, which can appear in

warm, damp conditions, and can wipe out a crop.

It just destroys the potato, it makes it all go black.

And Lena isn't the only one who's found a problem.

I'm having a little dig to see if I can find any potatoes,

see how they're doing.

Looks like I've got rats in my potatoes.

Oh, and he's nibbled the potato.

Oh, is that another hole there, as well?

Yes. Marvellous(!)

After 12 weeks of hard work and worry over their new potatoes,

it's time for the gardeners' first show day.

Well, welcome, gardeners.

You have been working so hard,

all ready for this first day of judgment.

The experts have arrived. Jim, Thane and Jonathan.

Now, our first challenge, of course, is Grow,

and that is in the capable hands of Jim.

Nice to see you again, gardeners.

Today's challenge for you is to pick five perfectly,

equally sized new potatoes.

So off you go to the allotments, and get digging.

OK, good luck.

Oh, it's not bad, this sack, at all.

OK, sorry, careful.

I've got one really beautiful potato. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, I've got quite a few that have been nibbled by rats,

and these are the ones that I did want to show.

So I've gone for one of my backups, which is the Arran Pilot one.

With their new potatoes picked, it's time to get them ready for

the show bench.

I'm a bit frightened of washing them too much,

cos what if I wash all the skin off?

It's funny, cos I dug up, like, 50 potatoes,

and they weren't all very good.

It's harder than it looks.

Uniformity is essential for the show bench, as it demonstrates the

gardeners have been consistent with their growing methods.

It's difficult to get the same sizes,

because I want them exactly to be perfect.

Yeah, I'm just going to go for these, probably.

The gardeners have to present five equally sized new potatoes

that are clean, clear skinned, free from blemishes and greening,

and any eyes should be few, and shallow.

Time's up, gardeners.

Come and bring your potatoes to the show bench.

Rekha, you're first.

These are fairly small potato, and looking at them,

just tiny little bit of scab showing through here.

You haven't brushed any of the skins off, you've been very careful.

Yeah, I've been trying.

One of the trademarks of Casablanca is it's got shallow eyes,

and this certainly has.

What we're looking for is uniformity,

and the first thing I look at is possibly one, two, three that

are reasonably uniform, but these two actually let the side down.

We're looking at Casablanca, we're looking at Casablanca,

and I have to say, this is what I'd be expecting to see.

I understand you tickled these.

Yeah. I...

How do you tickle a potato?

I was just wanting to see how big they were,

so I tickled them to see what size they were.

People have their own little ways of doing things and everything,

but I've got to say, you're the first person I've ever met

that's tickled her potatoes.

And the variety that you brought to the table?

Rubesse.

That's a fairly modern variety, and naturally it has a red skin.

We make a lot of reference to the eye, the eye is where, possibly,

when they've been around for a while, they start to side shoot out.

Yes, there's a little bit of marking, you see some marking,

and the eyes are a bit deep there.

Never mind, you produced five at the end of the day.

Now, a lot of people will look at this and say,

"Well, that's not really an early potato."

But this is perfectly acceptable.

It's what the variety should be.

They are, you know, virtually perfect.

There's just a slight little bit of marking on there

-but, nevertheless, that's a cracking display of spuds, well done.

-Great.

Again, we're looking at that uniformity,

and certainly the first four fit the bill.

But this one, unfortunately, if you compare it with that one,

you can see the difference.

And, sadly, there's a little bit of marking on that one, that's why

you tucked it up the other way and hoped I wouldn't look at it, yeah.

This particular variety, Arran Pilot, has been

around for a long, long time.

Good old, solid potato.

The skin is fairly blemish free, very clean,

there doesn't appear to be any marking on 'em, which is

another first that we look for as a judge.

Pentland Javelin's been around a long, long time,

and it's a much bigger spud than this.

This is a tiny little Pentland Javelin.

But they're almost the size of a quail egg,

they are tiny little potatoes.

But at least you brought something to the table.

-They're very tasty, to be fair.

-I'm sure they will be.

What variety have you brought along?

Same as Matt. Pentland Javelin.

-Pentland Javelin?

-Yeah.

And although they're a nice shaped spud so far,

and they're pretty blemish-free,

to the variety it's not quite what I'd expect.

But, nevertheless, you're better than his.

Potatoes judged, it's time for Jim to award the very first

Best In Show of the competition.

In the end it came down to two particular sets.

First of all I looked at Tony's Nicola,

and the other one I looked at was Jo Jo's.

So, at the end of the day, is it Jo Jo, or is it Tony?

All I can say is, the tickling paid off.

Well done, Jo Jo. CHEERING

Congratulations, that is very precious.

'I had no idea that I would even come close to winning.'

All that hard work, I think, paid off.

And I won!

I was surprised by Jo Jo's performance.

I was surprised she won, actually,

cos I thought her spuds were a bit small for that variety.

I had loads of large ones, I didn't really, kind of, pick out.

In terms of uniformity, which is what I really went for,

those were the ones which were all the same size.

Only two challenges remain before the experts must decide

who will be leaving.

In this next challenge, the gardeners will be judged

on their flower growing and arranging abilities.

It's time for Make.

Jonathan, of course, heads up this particular challenge.

He wants you, this week, to present three perfect zinnia stems.

But what are you going to have to do with them afterwards?

Well, Jonathan wants you to make a floral basket.

For the basket, gardeners, I'm looking for the perfect balance

of flowers and foliage, remembering zinnia has to be the star player.

You have 45 minutes for this challenge and the clock will start

as soon as you all get into the greenhouse with everything you need.

Are you ready? Get picking.

That's not easy, Jonathan.

Zinnias originally come from Mexico,

and came to Europe in the 18th century.

The only problem is, there's a little bit of pest damage on them.

Zinnias are quite needy.

They can be a little bit high maintenance because, sadly,

our climate is not always conducive to the needs of a zinnia.

Here's Jonathan's guide to growing zinnias.

For the perfect zinnias,

wait until the last frosts are almost over

before sewing the seeds directly into the soil

in a well-drained, sunny position.

Water well, but not too much,

as this can cause diseases like botrytis.

When seedlings appear, lay gravel to deter slugs and snails.

The seedlings grow fast, so start thinning out after a few days,

and keep doing this until there is around 30 centimetres

between plants, to prevent overcrowding and poor growth.

Feed weekly with tomato food or seaweed.

Once in flower, keep picking them.

This will stop the zinnias from setting seed,

which will otherwise be the end of the zinnias for the year.

Ten weeks ago, the gardeners began to grow their zinnias.

Some have more experience of growing flowers than others.

I'm quite laid back for gardening.

I don't have to have everything just so.

I really don't like going round anywhere where you see

everything is just so, it really puts me off.

Sandra's been gardening for over 30 years

and has vast experience growing flowers.

Gardening is addictive, and I love growing flowers,

but I don't do perfect.

Bish, bash, bosh, that's me.

I've never really grown, apart from dahlias, big plants for cutting,

so I'm really excited to see what these come up like.

Tony is a semi-retired schoolteacher and grandad of two.

I'm a practical gardener.

I don't get fazed, but I'm quietly competitive.

I just hope the birds don't come pecking them too much.

I was told by a gardener once,

"Always sow enough for the birds, as well."

From what I've heard, Sandra has really,

really good knowledge of flowers, and what to do with them.

How to grow them, what to grow with them.

They do call me the flower lady, which I keep saying to 'em,

"I'm not the flower lady!"

Now, that's the Purple Prince,

and now we've got the Zinnia Zahara.

Alan has his own marketing company and rows and runs in his spare time.

I've been growing for years, I love competition,

and I'm in this to win it.

And I suppose the job I do, as well, is very competitive,

cos you're trying to win deals, and win bids all the time.

You end up being quite thick-skinned about losing,

but you don't like it, and you want to come back and have another go

and make sure you win next time.

I've never done zinnias before,

so I'm not sure how long they take to come up.

Don't know if they will come up,

I don't know what they look like, apart from that on the packet.

I have no experience with zinnias. I don't do flowers.

I find bigger the seed, better the plant.

Company director, Rekha, grows to feed her family.

I'm a busy mum, a businesswoman, I've got an allotment,

so I have to stay focused and organised.

Gardening is my me time.

I don't do a gym, I don't do saunas.

Many of the gardeners have chosen to grow plug plants.

These are young plants with well established,

complete, independent root systems.

If I just plonk that in the soil, it'll just stay like that and it'll

struggle to stretch its roots out and get any water or anything,

so I just open it up a little bit, like that,

to give it a bit of a chance.

Now the zinnias have been growing for a few weeks,

it's time to prick them out.

This is the process of moving them to a bigger space, to help

them establish strong root systems.

This is my favourite tool for potting on things.

It's nice and smooth, it's nice and round.

You've got eight weeks, zinnias, come on.

All the gardeners have had their zinnias planted for a few weeks,

with one exception.

It's a bit late, but I'm putting my zinnia in now.

I was just, kind of, caught up with exams,

and it kind of delayed me a little bit with these.

Just getting them in as soon as possible,

and hopefully they'll be doing something.

Matt, he's quite interesting, Matt.

I think there's quite a sort of original mind down there,

and it's going to be really interesting to see

what comes up on that plot, I think.

With just five weeks until show day, there are problems on the plots.

There were eight zinnias in here,

and they've been had by slugs or snails.

Definitely slugs, cos they start from the outside.

It's disheartening that they've been eaten and they've gone,

cos that's one, two, three, about five less that I've got.

My zinnias have actually got botrytis, and you can see that

their leaves are all, like, going all brown, and yellow, and horrible.

We've been having a lot of rain, and I think the rain,

it makes the zinnias get botrytis.

Botrytis is a fungal disease which is usually

a result of consistently wet or humid conditions.

Jo Jo is spraying her zinnias with an organic fungicide

to try to prevent the botrytis from spreading.

With show day fast approaching,

some gardeners are getting protective about their plots.

You know you use the hose and pull it down here?

How are you going to avoid hitting my flowers,

and hitting my plot with the hosepipe?

I don't want anything damaging.

Oh, yeah, sorry about that.

I'm always having to tell him about different things,

and I like him, you know, I've not got anything against him.

But why should I have to mollycoddle him,

and have to flipping pick up the pieces?

I'm not having it, no!

Two weeks until they have to present their zinnias,

and the gardeners are doing all they can to encourage growth.

Tomato food today. They don't know they're not tomatoes.

Should get 'em going.

Engineer Matt was late planting out his zinnias

and is concerned that they won't be ready for show day,

so he's embarking on an experiment

which he hopes will encourage them to grow.

I've got one last trick with my zinnias,

and that is just to reduce the daylight hours they have.

If you reduce the daylight hours to less than 14,

on average, you increase the amount of flowering.

Going to basically put them in this big box.

This is really quite unconventional,

I've never done this kind of thing before.

Fingers crossed they'll do something.

Zinnias need sunlight to help them bloom,

but 24 hours before show day

and the weather is letting some of the gardeners down.

I'm a bit disappointed that not more of them have flowered.

Seems to have been a bit of a cool week, er,

not a great deal of sunshine.

I've not got as many to select from as I was hoping.

It is D-Day for the zinnias tomorrow,

so what I'm doing is just putting cloches

over the ones that are in bud now.

It might encourage them to open up a bit for tomorrow.

It's kind of a last ditch, desperate attempt, really.

After 12 weeks of hard work, it's finally time

for the gardeners to select their very best zinnias.

I see some colour.

Yes! Yes!

Ha-ha, yes! Yes! Oh!

The floral basket isn't exactly the simple start we were hoping for.

Well, I was hoping for, anyway.

Nothing like throwing us in at the deep end, is there?

Yeah, my zinnias haven't flowered, but I'm just picking the buds

so I have something to show.

Yeah, I'm very disappointed, so I'm just going to do what I can

and try to get the most and the best flowers

to try and make something beautiful in that basket.

'Flowers picked, it's time for the gardeners

'to head into the greenhouse to face their first Make challenge -

'the floral baskets.'

You've got your flowers, the challenge is about to begin.

But there's one more skill that Jonathan wants to talk you through.

Today, gardeners, I want to see you working with chicken wire,

and I want you to use the chicken wire to fill the basket

to feed and anchor the flowers into position with.

But, once you've done that,

I don't want to see any chicken wire at the end.

Good luck, everybody.

You have 45 minutes, and your time starts now.

Before they get to get to grips with the chicken wire for the basket,

the allotmenteers must select their three best zinnias

for Jonathan to judge.

I'm just trying to look at the ones that look nicest, I suppose.

These are the best three I could find.

They're a little bit...slightly over.

I'm sure Jonathan will pick up on that one.

Stems chosen, it's on to the floral basket.

Oh, I don't like this chicken wire, it's mean old stuff.

I didn't even have time to put my gloves on.

I want it to be, like, half a football.

Have I made a basket before? Short answer to that is no.

I do up old cars now and again, but I don't profess to be

a flower arranger and I'm bound to learn something, at the very least.

It's important that the chicken wire is securely fastened to the basket

but doesn't puncture the waterproof lining.

I'm not a flipping floral arranger.

All I do is grow flowers for my garden, put them in a vase.

It's leaking!

It's hard work, this chicken wire.

Gardeners, you've had 20 minutes.

THEY GASP AND GROAN

Foliage should be added first to help cover 75% of the basket.

I'm trying to get the ivy to stay around the actual basket,

and then it's going to actually stop

Jonathan being able to see the chicken wire from the outside,

unless he's got really beady eyes.

Really just stuffing leaves desperately into chicken wire,

is the plan at the moment.

Flowers that are added to the arrangement need to have

clean stems to avoid leaves rotting in the water.

I have no plan.

It's the first time I actually have no plan.

Hi, Rekha, how's it going?

I don't know. I don't know.

We're on a panic state.

And you're not a flower person, Rekha, if I remember correctly.

-Yeah, I'm not.

-So my challenges are a challenge for you.

Oh, they're totally a challenge.

Well, my plan of attack is, as with most things,

to listen to my grandmother, and she said,

"You want to build from the bottom, layer your greenery.

"You want different textures," so I've gone for one very soft, fluffy,

and then a much kind of firmer leaf, as well, just to give contrast.

-I think I need some more zinnias for my...

-OK.

I've underestimated how big it was.

I think you're going to have to move quickly.

-Right.

-Good luck, Tony.

The zinnias should be added last, as they should be

the focal point of the arrangement.

-Hey, Matt.

-Hey, hi.

-Got a beautiful rose there.

Yeah, gorgeous rose, but I'm looking for a zinnia.

Have we got a zinnia anywhere up to now?

That's my one thing, I haven't got any zinnias, to be honest.

It's zinnia surprise. There is no zinnia.

-Surprise, there's no zinnia.

-Yes.

I've got some dahlias, which is kind of all I'm kind of going for,

cos they're quite similar plants.

That's a tenuous link there, Matt, I have to say.

You're good, you're fine, you're fine, you're fine.

Life in the old dog yet.

11 minutes, gardeners. You have 11 minutes.

'The basket will be judged from 360 degrees,

'so it needs to look good from all angles.'

Lena. I know we're short of time.

-Do you do flower arranging?

-No.

-Is this the first one?

-I think so.

-Yeah, you've got an interesting mixture going on there.

-OK.

Be interesting to see the finishing touch

-that you're going to add to it.

-Oh! That's worried me.

SHE WHISPERS: Oh, Jesus, man.

11 minutes.

Disaster strikes.

Probably could do with a bit more height in the middle,

but the stems of the plants weren't long enough.

Gardeners, one minute left.

Your time is up. That's it.

Stop what you're doing.

Matt.

The basket should have a mix of open, semi and closed flowers,

and should feel sturdy and safe when held.

The zinnias should be full of colour and have strong,

poker straight stems.

They should also be uniform in size and height, with no blemishes.

Foliage looks good. Nice dark, green leaves.

Can't see any insect damage or any fungal attack on there.

Looking at this basket,

I know one fundamental thing has gone drastically wrong.

You've placed the chicken wire in,

-and it's ripped the lining of the basket...

-I know.

..and it's leaked.

It's already starting to go limp, and wilt a little bit,

and, sadly, that's going to be dead,

because there's no water-retaining material in there.

You've got good, straight stems on here.

Ooh, that's not quite such a stately stem.

And if I lift this up, because I am judging it from 360 degrees,

it's quite a good attempt at a balanced basket arrangement.

I can't really judge that. Although there's zinnias here,

the criteria was for a zinnia flower, and that isn't there.

Let's have a look at this basket.

It's a good, all round design.

It's balanced, you've got plenty of flowers in there

but, sadly, Matt, again, it's lacking that elusive zinnia.

Not much of a showy stem.

Sadly, on this one, I can see a little bit of petal damage.

I like the way it's got this sort of loose,

rather open formation of the flowers around this outer edge.

And the repetition of the echinops there against the cornflower,

lovely harmony.

We're looking for poker straight.

That's not a bad attempt.

I think it's extremely creative how you've got the cornflower stems

just softening the handle of the basket, yet I can still pick it up.

It's firm, I can give it a shake, nothing's dropping out.

That's rather a nice flower on there.

Now, if I hold those two together, they are pretty balanced.

There's just one single layer of chicken wire to anchor all

these stems in place, because it's very easy to pull these out.

Look at those little, classy flowers.

But, sadly, they're not very uniform.

-They're not, I'm afraid.

-That's a delightful basket.

-Thank you very much.

-Well arranged, excellent balance,

creative use of flower, foliage and colour and form.

When I touch these petals they're very plump and almost

felt-like to the touch, which is a good indication of freshness.

And, I have to say with this basket, how beautiful is this fragrance?

These wonderful scented geraniums.

We've got good zinnias, and a very creative basket.

Sadly, we've got quite a disparity of length.

It would be far better to cut them all to the same length,

to get them even.

You've got gorgeous rough achillea,

you've got the spikes of the lavender,

and then you've got zinnias in here.

Quite flamboyant, it looks good from all angles.

Possibly choice of bow could have been toned down a little bit.

With just one Best In Show up for grabs, Jonathan will be

looking at both the cut flowers and the basket arrangement.

It came down to just two.

Alexandra's basket, excellent.

Sadly, zinnias slightly disappointing.

And Rob.

Your zinnias, fairly well balanced,

strong stems,

and very creative basket

with gorgeous summer flowers.

Rob, you're Best In Show. APPLAUSE

Congratulations, Rob, and well done, everybody.

You've had an incredible day.

I suggest that you all go and have a good night's sleep.

See you in the morning.

I don't think today's gone the best, to be honest.

It could have gone better. I tried my best.

Hopefully, tomorrow will be better.

Bit on a high, can't believe it, actually,

looking round at some of the other arrangements.

Can't believe mine won. But it did, so, yeah, well chuffed.

Just one challenge remains before experts Jim, Jonathan and Thane

must decide which gardener will be the first to leave the allotment.

Adrenaline is pumping, and I'm, you know,

ready to get in that tent and do some cooking.

I'm just going to do my best today and just cook what I've practised,

and hopefully it'll be OK and not too offensive for Thane.

-Good morning.

-ALL: Morning.

Your third and final challenge is the Eat challenge,

presided over, of course, by Thane Prince,

and today Thane's challenge is this -

it is to make two sauces suitable to accompany a Sunday roast.

One of them must be a mustard, the other one is up to you,

and you are to serve them with the new potatoes that you grew for Jim.

And the clock will start as soon as you've arrived

in the greenhouse with everything you need.

Get picking.

The Eat challenge sees the gardeners' freshly picked produce

being brought into the kitchen, where their preserving skills

will be put to the test.

This is the first Eat challenge.

Really important, the first time

I get to see our gardeners in the kitchen, and they're tackling

something that's close to all our hearts - the Sunday roast.

For this challenge, gardeners can use any produce they've grown

on their allotment, along with items from the pantry,

such as dried spices, flour, and sugar.

This is, erm...

Oh, I pronounce this wrong. Karobi... Horobi, I call it!

It's from the brassica family.

Well, he's impressive.

With their ingredients freshly picked, the gardeners

head to the greenhouse for their final challenge, Eat.

Gardeners, I hope you've got everything you need

for this next challenge.

You have an hour-and-a-half to achieve this.

If you're ready, let's start the clock now.

The gardeners begin by preparing their new potatoes

from the Grow challenge that will be tasted with their two sauces.

Well, I'm starting off the sauteed potatoes.

Look at them, they're beautiful. I should have won.

This was my nan's. My little old crinkler.

That's years and years and years and years old.

It'll be good for when you put the herbs on it,

cos they'll get all stuck in the little grooves.

The first sauce they all make is their mustard.

Mustard is an accompaniment that can be used to enhance most meals.

If stored correctly, it can keep for months.

What makes a good mustard for you, Thane?

Well, I think you have to remember that mustard's about heat.

It's going to pop with flavours, but that heat has to be controlled,

so you've got to think about balance.

How are you going to make that heat into a rounded flavour?

I'm making a Sunday paper mustard.

I like to do something that's really simple.

Make a nice mustard, some nice gammon with it,

maybe a few fresh peas and, well, get one of these out, then.

In traditional Indian cooking we don't use mustard as a sauce,

we use it to temper the oil with.

Not as a sauce, we don't make a sauce out of it.

Mustard seeds have hard skins and need to be pre-soaked

to make them easier to grind.

I'm doing a herb crunch,

so it's like a traditional French herb mustard.

I haven't soaked my mustard seeds.

It could go a little bit thick, so it needs time to rest.

So I may need to add a bit more liquid at the end.

I do like cooking,

but cooking under pressure is a whole different experience.

I'm making a beetroot mustard.

I'm making the mustard sauce for the first time.

I've called my mustard sauce Old Gold, after one of the best

clubs in the world, which is Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Wolves play in a strip which is called old gold.

Tony's Old Gold mustard is a loose sauce,

rather than a traditional thick mustard condiment.

I've tried it. Not sure I liked it.

Oh, I'm making my mustard. It's called Lena's Hot Knockin' Mustard.

So I'm just peeling all the outer skin off,

and then I'm going to chop it up to put unique flavour into it.

Hi, Alexandra.

Saluete, magistrar!

Tutti frutti, dos beer, s'il vous plait.

You're a classics scholar, aren't you?

I am, yes, it's my passion, apart from gardening and cooking.

I've gone on a bit of a classical bender with both my recipes,

researching the origin of mustard,

and I got back to the Romans and must ardens.

Who's a must arden?

Must ardens means "hot must".

Romans were very into their sauces, loved their condiments

and it was something they took all over the Empire,

incorporating different elements.

Meanwhile, Matt is flavouring his mustard

with rose petals and lavender.

Lavender's a tricky one.

It's quite an antiseptic flavour.

Now, he may have chosen it because it's powerful

and mustard's powerful,

so we're going to be talking balance with that one.

Once the gardeners have prepared the seeds and vegetables,

their mustards are now blitzed to form a thick paste.

More like a mustard now.

If I never see another jar of mustard in my life,

I'll probably be quite happy.

With their mustards nearly ready,

it's time to get to work on their other Sunday roast sauce.

This is my That Shallot Sauce, which is, basically,

shallot, mushroom and parsley sauce.

My sauce is Great Granny Kate's mint and apple sauce.

But I've changed it a little bit, I've revamped it.

I've put some rhubarb in it.

Rekha is making a traditional white sauce, including onions.

It's a classic recipe, but I'm going to add

the onions back into the sauce.

It might be a bit too simple, but I find that when you have a roast

it's the king on the table and all the vegetables

and the sauces are the subjects.

Now, the thing about an onion sauce is that it's common,

people do make it a lot, but there is a...

You can tell the difference between one that's been roughly made

and one that's been classically made.

Absolutely. I'm looking for a smooth sauce.

It may have pieces of vegetable in, but I don't want floury lumps.

Well, I'm just getting my redcurrants and my raspberries

and chillies boiling, to try and release

some of the flavour in the lemons.

Sort of trying to sort of multitask.

When making a sauce, consistency is key,

especially when it comes to making a tricky mayonnaise.

If you just put oil onto egg it will split,

so you add the oil very gradually to start off with, drop by drop,

and whisk it in thoroughly.

Ten minutes, gardeners. Ten minutes left.

I'm trying to get my juice through here.

It's an impossible task.

This is ridiculous.

Bit stressed at the moment. I really have no time, unfortunately,

cos I don't want to burn anything.

I've got five minutes spare.

LAUGHTER

Wa-hey!

Shut up, Alan.

Well, that ain't bad.

I feel like my peppers have deceived me,

because I don't know what's happened,

but I seem to be a little bit short of sauce right now.

Gardeners, this is your two-minute warning. Two minutes.

Just got to get it in the jar.

Done.

That's it! Gardeners, time is up.

If you haven't done your labelling, it's too late.

Matt, again. Thank you.

We did it.

To be awarded Best In Show,

the mustard must reflect all the key flavours used.

The fruit, vegetables and spices should be evenly distributed

throughout, and it must look visually appealing.

The sauce should have a fresh and well-balanced flavour

and must not taste greasy.

It should be free from seeds, skins and hard spices.

These will be served with the new potatoes from the Grow challenge.

First to be judged is Alexandra

with her Apicius Roman mustard and fennel sauce.

The texture's a little awkward.

Mmm. The Romans obviously liked quite powerful flavours.

I think it's got potential,

but I wonder if it shouldn't have been a little bit thinner.

-Potatoes taste delicious.

-Are they good?

-Very good.

So now we've got your fennel mayonnaise.

Good texture to your sauce.

Lovely look, nice feeling.

Not a huge amount of fennel flavour.

Lena has made a kohlrabi mustard

and Great Granny Kate's apple and rhubarb sauce.

I love the crinkle cut on these potatoes.

Fantastic.

-Yes, I like this.

-Oh!

It's really quite nicely balanced.

It is a little sharp, but it's a really nice mustard, I enjoyed it.

And this is an apple sauce with rhubarb.

Let's have a look here.

It's a nice, fruity sauce.

It's obviously been tried and tested, so well done.

Next to be judged is Alan's Sunday Paper mustard

and That Shallot sauce.

Right, let's have a look at this, then.

It's possibly not quite fiery enough.

I think you could have added more mustard to it,

just to give it a little bit more heat.

So this is a take on parsley sauce, is it?

Yes, it's got parsley, shallot and mushroom.

Did you grow those on your plot?

No, but I quite like mushrooms in sauces, as well.

I think the challenge was to sort of go to your plot

bringing me things that you've grown yourself.

-No, I don't like that at all.

-Aww.

It's just slimy.

I'm afraid the mushrooms have a tendency to be quite slimy,

and with the onion, which again is a kind of a slippery vegetable,

in a sort of fairly loose sauce,

it doesn't enhance what I'm eating.

-Sorry.

-Fair enough.

Sandra has made a dill and honey mustard and a picante berry sauce.

We're going to start with your mustard,

which is a dill and honey mustard.

Did you grow a lot of dill on your plot?

I tried to grow dill and my dill died,

so I had to actually get some in.

That's a shame, because I went and had a look at your plot, and you've

got lots of herbs there that you could have used instead of the dill.

I like the little squares of potato.

I'm afraid it's bitter.

Didn't come from the plot, is a bit too thick.

Now this is your picante berry sauce.

-Is it meant to separate?

-No.

It is definitely a separated sauce.

I'm sorry, it's separated out again on the plate.

The problem is that I can't really taste it.

-It's too thin to stick to the potato.

-Yeah.

Jo Jo has created a beetroot and Vietnamese mint mustard

and a red pepper, lemon grass and coriander sauce.

Mmm, it's a bit of an empty jar.

You know, the jar should be packed and full to the shoulder.

I'm going to just test a little bit of this prizewinning potato

with some beetroot mustard.

I'm not really sure I'm getting the mustard,

there's a bit more beetroot than I think there should be.

I don't think the two flavours work well together.

But your prizewinning potatoes are delicious.

We seem to have another little problem filling your bottles up here.

A droppy, droppy sauce there, that's good.

The slight problem I have with it is that it's not powerful enough.

It looks very nice, but it doesn't taste very nice.

Next up is Matt with his blossomed mustard and white onion sauce.

You brought your things to me in a box, you're the only one who did.

-Can you explain?

-It's just to give it a bit of character, I think.

It's a good colour.

Surprisingly, to me, the lavender does work quite well.

All in all that's not a bad mustard.

This is your white onion sauce.

Now, this has split a little bit, there's a little separation.

Mmm, that I find much more disappointing than your mustard.

I'm afraid this really doesn't work for me.

Rob has made a herb mustard and a chimichurri sauce.

I'm just going to comment on how nice and clean the jar is

and how perfectly it's filled. Well done.

Yes. It's hot, but it has a rounded sweetness to it

and I think you've balanced the flavours very well.

I like that. Now, your sauce, Rob, is chimichurri.

It's fairly evenly chopped.

It's not really sharp enough, it's not really sweet,

it's not really herby enough, it's not really hot enough.

It's just not good enough.

Rekha has created a simple mustard and an onion sauce.

It's a lovely texture.

It's, at first taste, quite mild

but it's a flavour that grows and rounds out.

It's a pleasant mustard.

And this is a classic onion sauce.

It looks quite good, I'm hoping...

Yes, that's a piece of onion, not a lump.

That's very well made. I can't taste the flour.

Finally, Tony has made an Old Gold mustard sauce

and a parsley, bread and onion sauce.

Why haven't you brought me a mustard?

Right, OK, well, I interpreted the brief as two sauces.

-This is a very, very runny sauce.

-Yeah, sure.

I am searching for something nice to say about this

and I'm not finding anything.

It's really just not worked on any level.

Now this sauce, of course, is a completely different texture.

Much, much better sauce than the other one. Much, much better.

Lovely, creamy texture. I quite like it.

Now Thane has tasted all the mustard and sauces,

she must decide who will win Best In Show.

There were two clear gardeners that stood out for me.

Rekha, you made two very well made, classic sauces.

And, Lena, you made two that were based in your family history,

that were tried and tested over generations.

I looked at everything and I thought to myself,

"Which one excited me most?"

And so Lena, Best In Show.

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

You've all done brilliantly, well done.

Thane, Jim and Jonathan have now got to make the very tough decision

of which one of you has to leave for good.

Would you please go back to your allotments

while they make their decision.

Winning best in show has made me feel now that,

yes, Lena, you can do it. Stop listening to your negative side

and be more positive about yourself,

cos I have created a beautiful, wonderful garden

and I am very, very proud of myself.

Well done, girl.

I think Thane's quite a tough judge, actually.

I didn't think she was overly glowing about ANY of our sauces.

I was really quite pleased with my mustard, and with my sauce

I think it's something that I need to kind of work on.

So looking forward to kind of trying to tinker about with that.

We're surrounded by everything they've produced this week.

Let's start with the Grow challenge.

Who was the best? Who was the most disappointing?

Well, the best was Jo Jo.

She had the five most evenly-matched potatoes.

On the bad side, I'm afraid Matt...

Well, as I said, I've seen bigger quail eggs.

And zinnias, for Matt, non-existent.

Matt's mustard was interesting, he put lavender in it.

I wasn't sure it was going to work, but it actually did.

I would quite like that again.

Sandra, she punctured that lining with that chicken wire,

she overcomplicated it.

-She did really do badly in my challenge.

-Yeah.

Neither of the things she gave me you could eat.

-I tell you, she's a good gardener...

-Yes.

..and she works jolly hard at it, never stops.

Well, it's the end of the first week

and you have to make that horrible decision -

who are we going to say goodbye to?

Gardeners, thank you so much for all your hard work,

not just over the last two days, but the last 12 weeks.

You only have to look around this fabulous garden,

which is testament to the hard work that you've put in.

The person who is leaving tonight is...

It's Matt.

You have been our youngest contestant so far

on The Big Allotment Challenge,

and will you promise us you will keep gardening?

Yeah, it was great fun, like, and, yeah,

thank you very much for the opportunity.

It's something I really enjoyed.

It's really instilled the fact that I want to kind of stay in that realm

and just continue with food, or growing - all of it together.

Yeah, I'm not going to ever forget it, it was really great.

Next time on The Big Allotment Challenge,

the gardeners will be judged on their cucumbers...

That looks like some green dog has laid it.

That's really horrible.

..their larkspur...

I have no vision, I have no plan.

I'm going straight off the cuff.

..and lollies and syrups.

There's nothing wrong with it,

there's not quite enough right with it.

It's just a little ordinary.

Who will dig their way to victory and be named the winner

of The Big Allotment Challenge?