Episode 2 Countryfile Autumn Diaries

It's the season that brings with it a kaleidoscope of colour,

when nature puts on some of its greatest displays.

Autumn.

When our countryside is bursting with bounty.

Whilst some of us are preparing for the colder months ahead.

It's the perfect time to get your boots on, get out for a walk,

and enjoy the changing colours of the countryside.

And blow away the cobwebs in the great outdoors.

All week, we're travelling the length and breadth of the UK.

Five seconds, five seconds and we've got our first one.

Bringing the very best seasonal stories that matter to you.

If autumn continues to come later,

could that potentially wipe out the dormouse?

It could easily disappear completely from the English countryside,

which would be devastating.

Welcome to Countryfile Autumn Diaries.

And here's what we've got for you on today's programme.

With the arrival of some new piggy Mini Mes...

There you go, you're getting little grunts there,

that means they're happy.

Paul's out to discover if hogs are as smart

as dogs at the pig Olympics.

OK, come on, through here... No, we've missed that one... Over the,

over the... Come on, come on, no, no, no, no, no.

Keeley is uncovering Britain's deadliest gardens.

-It's called Ricinus communis.

-Oh, ricin, poison!

-Ricin, the deadliest poison known to man.

-Really?

And Jules takes a Halloween walk in a graveyard

to meet the creatures of the night.

Whenever you shine the torch, there are these astonishing monuments.

All this week, we're celebrating the season here in the Lake District.

And today I'm in Dodd Wood,

with its dramatic views down to Bassenthwaite Lake.

We really are spoilt for choice here in the UK

when it comes to wonderful scenery,

but to get to and from these locations, drivers often have

to tackle some of our notoriously difficult country roads,

and that can sometimes lead to tragedy.

Margherita is in West Sussex

investigating a growing and alarming trend on our rural roads.

In 2016, 1,792 people were killed on our roads.

To help improve driving standards, the government has announced that

learner drivers in 2018 will be able to have motorway driving lessons.

But dangerous as they may be,

only 5% of road deaths occur on motorways.

More than 50% happen on our rural routes.

Luckily here, both horses and riders survived,

but in another shocking statistic,

80% of those drivers killed on country roads

are aged between just 17 and 24.

So, should we be training our new drivers

on rural roads as well?

So, what is it that makes our country roads so dangerous?

To find out, I'm going for a drive with Dr Suzy Charman

from the Road Safety Foundation.

Unlike motorways and urban roads,

they haven't really evolved in a way that's suitable for the kind of

traffic that we have these days.

Originally, they might have been used by horse-drawn carriages,

and now we're in these vehicles

that can go 60mph on a national speed limit road,

and, actually, if you left this road right now at 60mph

and crashed into one of the trees at the roadside,

you might not survive that.

-And that 60mph...

-It's a limit and not a target.

And what can we as drivers do to ensure we're driving more safely?

The best drivers look ahead.

They'll be reading the road, they'll be anticipating hazards,

they'll be spotting entrances to properties and farms.

They'll be able to assess bends

and the speed that they're meant to go around bends.

Good drivers will also be really careful about overtaking.

Overtaking is one of the riskiest things we do on this kind of road.

Take your time, be patient,

and if you do encounter horses or pedestrians,

or cyclists, make sure you pass slow and wide.

It's an awareness of these potential dangers that young drivers might not

have the experience to anticipate.

So, as a driver, there are changes I can make to ensure

I'm looking after my safety, passengers, other road users -

what changes would you like to see made

in terms of the roads themselves?

Things like clearing roadside hazards, including pheasants.

Or protecting trees with crash barriers.

Another really effective thing is shoulder rumble strips

that you can put down the side of the road,

where if you go over them, they give you that rumbling feeling,

and it just alerts you to the fact that you're coming off the road.

So, there's lots that could be done?

There's a huge amount that can be done, and they are simple,

they're affordable, they're effective, they save lives.

The A285 from Petworth to Chichester in Sussex, an old Roman road,

is often dubbed Britain's most dangerous.

Impatient drivers come over the hill,

see a mile of straight road ahead

and try to overtake,

but what they miss are cars in front turning right,

straight across their speeding path.

Chris Davies has lived on this road for 17 years

and sees a couple of accidents happen every week outside his home.

But in 2006, one accident in particular

almost cost Chris and his wife their lives.

We actually had a car come through this wall behind me

and into the kitchen,

crashed all the furniture we have in here up against the far wall.

Came right into the room.

So you'd been sitting here moments before?

We'd been having our breakfast.

Just before nine o'clock, we got up and out we went and in came the car.

I can't even imagine what you must have felt.

Well, it was just an enormous noise,

obviously, we had both gone upstairs,

and we were both sort of thrown up into the air

from the shock of the car coming in. I rushed outside

and he actually managed to get out of the car.

He was staggering and he was stunned that he was actually OK.

How many accidents do you think you've witnessed,

or over the years have happened outside there?

It's probably hundreds in total.

Serious, probably 30 to 40 in the 17 years we've been here.

And I'm talking about life-threatening sort of injuries.

And you've almost become a bit of an emergency service,

this house of yours.

-Yes, had to.

-Helping people out.

Yes, had to do the kiss of life, and that sort of thing, sometimes.

-So you've actually had to resuscitate someone?

-Yes.

-Goodness.

-A couple of times, yeah.

With so many accidents,

Chris's local council has recently introduced double white lines

to the road and he feels this simple measure

has definitely reduced the number of accidents.

Given the massive dangers,

especially for young and inexperienced drivers,

is it time for a change in the law?

Road safety charity Brake want all new drivers

to have compulsory lessons on rural roads.

Jason Wakeford from the charity believes there should be

a complete overhaul in the way we learn to drive.

Well, rural roads are statistically the most dangerous in the country,

and that's why we would like to see

what's called a graduated licensing system.

It allows new drivers to build up their skills and confidence

over a much longer period of time.

This would include a minimum number of hours before you're able to pass

your first test, and then a two-year probationary period where you have

restrictions, for example, a zero drink-drive limit

and a night curfew.

And why does it seems that young people are so affected

and so vulnerable when it comes to driving on our rural roads?

Well, young drivers are more likely to take risks,

for example, drinking when driving, or taking drugs, and speeding,

particularly male drivers, unfortunately,

and that's why young people make up, unfortunately,

a large percentage of the death statistics.

And what advice would you give to, say, a young driver, 17 to 24,

to be safer on our roads?

I think my advice would be not to rush to learn to drive.

Take some time. Make sure you've had proper tuition

and you've got a lot of good hours under your belt

so you can really build your skills and your confidence over time.

Several countries have introduced a graduated driver's license,

which allows new drivers to build up their driving skills and experience

in structured stages.

So what could an overhaul of the driving test system mean for the UK?

The graduated licensing system has already been implemented

in countries like New Zealand, Australia,

and in some of the states in the US,

and they've seen massive reductions, up to a quarter,

of the number of young people dying in road crashes.

That's why we believe we could be seeing a reduction

of some 400 deaths and serious injuries on UK roads.

Whether or not those changes are brought in in the future,

it's clear to me from today

that there are small changes that each of us can make to how we drive

on these rural roads that will really help reduce

the number of injuries and fatalities that we see every year.

Worrying, indeed.

Now, you don't have to be in the open countryside

to see an abundance of wildlife. In our cities,

public cemeteries can offer peaceful places

for nature to thrive,

and across England and Wales, at least 6,000 churchyards

are now offering sanctuary to wild creatures.

And, as it's Halloween,

Jules is exploring life after death in our graveyards.

Who on Halloween would dare enter a spooky graveyard

at the witching hour?

This cemetery is where creatures of the night come out to play.

It's just as well I'm arriving in the daytime.

Large historic cemeteries like this one at Arnos Vale in Bristol

can for very obvious reasons often be quite emotional places,

but if, like me, you're interested in the social history of a town

or a city, they can be fascinating places to explore.

And sad as they are amongst the urban sprawl, well,

they're often a real haven for wildlife.

Arnos Vale is one of Britain's best examples

of a Victorian garden cemetery.

As well as 50,000 graves,

the grounds are covered with classical buildings

and historic monuments designed to echo classical Greece.

To find out more about the cemetery and the wildlife amongst the graves,

I'm meeting estates manager Nick Bull.

It was designed as a garden cemetery, so you know,

it was intended to be quite dramatic.

The variety of monuments here is absolutely staggering.

I mean, that in itself is absolutely fabulous.

It's a piece of architecture.

It's our Anglican chapel, so it had to make a big impression.

But for a more exotic aspect, look no further than this Bengali tomb,

which houses the remains of Rammohun Roy,

a revered Indian ambassador who died in Bristol in 1833.

The cemetery was built at the height of the British Empire,

but during the 20th century,

it fell into disrepair and the grounds went wild.

But, with the cemetery now restored,

needs of both wildlife and a working historical cemetery have to be met.

We're trying to strike a balance between the needs of the graves

and the needs of the wildlife.

We're slowly trying to chip away at certain areas

that have become overwhelmed, really, by the vegetation.

We're treating a lot of it as meadow because it's really important that

we allow the wild grasses and wild flowers to thrive before we go round

and cut it. If we cut it all really regularly,

then it would lose a lot of the diversity that does well here.

The cemetery still conducts burials, but Arnos Vale is so rich

in wildlife, it's now managed as a site of nature conservation.

But to get up close to that wildlife,

I'll have to wait until darkness falls.

Well, it is about six o'clock, it's getting dark,

and it's starting to rain,

and the cemetery is about to close.

Now, let's face it, being locked in a graveyard

isn't exactly everybody's cup of tea,

but this one is about to come alive with nature.

My guide for the night is ecologist Dan Flew,

a former grave-digger

who now studies the cemetery's living residents.

Now, Dan, who else shares this space?

What else shares this space?

There's a whole range of nocturnal creatures here.

We've got badgers, foxes, owls, and my favourite, which is the bats.

How do they sort of manifest themselves?

Where are they roosting at the moment?

Well, the main roost of lesser horseshoe bats

is in the West Lodge and there's a tunnel between the buildings.

There's a tunnel? What, between these two gate houses?

Yeah, and it used to be used by staff in the Victorian time

to keep the grave-diggers and the riffraff out of the way

-of the people that had the money that come in...

-The mourners?

-Yeah.

-How interesting.

I love the idea of a secret tunnel that links these two buildings.

But bats have made that their own?

Yeah, they have. They have, indeed.

How many are down there?

-Any idea?

-On the last check, there was 11 lesser horseshoe bats.

The lesser horseshoe bat is rare in the British Isles

and doesn't like disturbance,

so we're using an infrared camera to accompany Dan into the tunnel.

Lesser horseshoe bats begin hibernation in the autumn

using caves, mines, cellars and tunnels,

and unlike many bat species, they don't huddle together.

-WHISPERS:

-This is a lesser horseshoe bat.

He's very torpid at the moment

so we can't disturb him too much.

So just the heat off our body will wake him up

so we'd better move on pretty quickly.

So I've had a look about and I can see six.

-So the bats are starting to...

-INAUDIBLE

If we go out to the entrance, we will hopefully see them emerge.

With dusk falling,

we'll hopefully see these shy creatures fly out into the night.

So, Dan, you've got your bat detector out there.

What exactly's that picking up?

It's picking up the ultrasonic sounds of the bats' echo location,

and it will also play back the audible sound so we can hear it,

and it sounds a bit like a warble, from the lesser horseshoe bat.

-So it's a bit like a...

-HE WHISTLES

-Oh!

-And it's a beautiful sound.

As the dusk embraces us, we get serenaded by these bats.

But when it comes to bat song, it's not what Dan was expecting.

Oh...

A Leisler.

SQUEAKING

So a Leisler is one of our big bats,

and if you heard that, it was like a chip-chop, chip-chop,

but a bit faster.

These bats fly really high.

We've got 45 acres of habitat here,

which is what they use, and this is kind of like an island of darkness

within the city.

Apart from bats,

there are a number of other nocturnal creatures

that go bump in the night in this graveyard.

Dan is up ahead of me,

just trying to find a badger set,

where they've managed to record some of the badgers

about their nocturnal business.

Wherever you shine the torch, there are these astonishing monuments.

Any luck with the badger set?

Well, the badger set here has been protected

-by some woven fence line...

-Yeah.

And it's only a small set.

Badgers in graveyards have had a bad press,

as their digging can disturb the graves,

but this badger has been a little bit more respectful.

If you can see here, slightly,...

-Is that a run?

-Yeah.

So you can see the vegetation is slightly cleared there

and if you look closely, there is scratch marks,

and they are creatures of habit so they like to use the same path.

I mean, there's absolutely no chance we're going to see one tonight

-with our torches, is there?

-I don't think so.

But you know, urban foxes famously, of course, you know...

much on the rise.

Presumably, there are urban foxes that are using the cemetery?

Oh, yeah, yeah. If you sit down on your own long enough in the dark,

you'll see one pass you.

It's like a little nocturnal paradise for nocturnal creatures.

This place has proved to be as fascinating in the dark as it was

during daylight, and I've got a real sense not just of its history,

but also of the wildlife that like to call this place home.

Talking of which, where's the gate?

I think it's this way.

HOOTING

Now, from Victorian splendour to a much more modern fad.

In the past decade,

the sale of micro-pigs small enough to keep in your back garden,

or even in your home, has really rocketed,

and research has shown that pigs in general are far more intelligent

than we give them credit for, perhaps even rivalling dogs,

but when it comes to agility training, well,

surely dogs have their paws on the prize?

Well, perhaps not.

Paul has been to an autumn show

where hogs are trying to be top dogs.

Back in the spring, I picked some piglets

for my Wiltshire smallholding

from my neighbour Aldetha Raymond.

They've just been born, haven't they? What, three or four days?

Three or four days, yes. So they're very, very young at the moment.

Oh!

Now they've been weaned, they're ready to come home.

Well, that's it.

That's the run all sorted out.

We're getting a little pig house, got a nice little sty,

got a water trough.

I tell you what, we've got all the kit here,

we're not doing it in half measures.

We're going the whole hog.

Any moment now, Aldetha will be arriving

with our two little piggies.

-Yay!

-One for you and one for you.

And do you know what they are? They're Kunekune crosses.

So they're kind of, you know, slightly related to the wild boar.

-Yeah?

-The hairy pigs.

From New Zealand, Kunekune pigs were raised by the Maoris,

and their name literally means fat and round.

Have you thought of names yet?

-Yes.

-But I think you've got to name them when you see them, really.

-OK?

-Yeah.

That'll be the final decider.

You've got a little inkling, haven't you?

Go on, then, whisper in my ear.

You'll find out when they arrive.

In fact, I can hear Aldetha. I can hear the van now.

There it is. Come on, let's go and say hello.

-Hi, Aldetha!

-Hi, there.

-Great to see you.

-And you.

We've been looking forward to this.

-Brilliant.

-Haven't we?

-Yeah.

-Hello.

-Oh, we're very excited.

Ready? OK.

Can you see them?

-Yeah.

-Oh, aren't they cute?

What do you think?

-OK, what's their names?

-Toffee and Fudge.

-Toffee and...

-? Fudge.

Time to introduce Toffee and Fudge to their new home.

I hope they like it.

Oh, here they go... Ah!

Oh, they look so tiny now, don't they?

Kunekunes are the smallest domesticated breed of pig

in the world,

and Toffee and Fudge might only grow 24 inches high.

And how do we go about training these pigs?

Do you train them like a dog with titbits and rewards?

Yeah, they are food orientated.

Their tummy rules.

So if you give them titbits,

they're going to love it, but always feed them and talk to them.

The most important thing is to talk to them.

Pigs, whatever their size, are social, friendly animals,

and in the animal IQ stakes, they're very intelligent.

Toffee and Fudge will need feeding twice a day,

with one very important addition.

A handful of peat goes in with their food.

They will actually eat this and they will also move their noses around

-in it, and it's really good for them.

-OK.

Can you put that in for me, Meredith?

There you go. You're getting little grunts there.

That means they're happy. They're actually saying to you,

you're doing a good job with their ingredients there, you two.

Well done.

But which is which again?

This one's Toffee.

And this is Fudge.

Over the next couple of days,

Toffee and Fudge settle into the Martin family life,

but I don't want them to get bored in their enclosure

so I'm setting up objects like this to help stimulate them

and enrich their lives.

Because some scientists believe that pigs are just as intelligent

or if not more intelligent than dogs.

And to prove it, some piggies have taken over the patch

of the cleverest dogs. Yes, pig agility is now a thing.

At country shows across the land,

snout-nosed athletes are swerving through cones

and jumping through hoops,

and in this game, they start them young.

At the Malvern show in Worcestershire,

a group of young trainers

are putting their little trotters through their paces.

Including Robert,

who's training his piglets to sit when they get a treat.

Nearly. Keep going, Robert.

Look, I've got a fresh bit here.

Yeah, take that...

Fantastic!

Just look at that. Well-behaved pigs.

With time and more training,

Robert's proteges might soon be in the big pig school.

But to find out more about pig agility,

I'm meeting Hayley Simpkin from the junior pig club.

-Hayley!

-Hi, nice to meet you.

Nice to meet you as well. This looks fantastic.

I've heard of dog agility,

obstacle courses for dogs.

-Is pig agility the same thing?

-Very similar, yeah.

It's a bit of a cross between dog agility and One Man And His Dog.

But we do it with pigs.

Yeah. And are they obedient?

Generally. We'll find out shortly, won't we?

Yeah, generally speaking, they're pretty good.

Yeah. They're not too volatile.

I notice you use sticks and a whiteboard.

It sort of coaxes them in the right direction.

That's it. So the idea is they won't go anywhere they can't see...

The board says no, you can't go that way.

And the stick is just for steering, slowing down and speeding up.

Will they run off?

Will they jump a barrier?

They might. We'll see.

They may well do. Hopefully not, though.

The kids have got them under control.

I hope I don't make a pig's ear out of this.

So this is Will and this is Grace and they'll show you

-how to use the board and stick.

-Hi.

This is basically getting the pigs to walk in a straight line,

-if you can.

-Well, in a circle.

-In a circle.

-That's right.

-OK.

So when they're showing them, they go round in this direction.

-Yeah.

-So Grace will show you how to do that.

Stand by her shoulder.

-Like this?

-Keep going.

So you've got your board in your left hand

-and your stick in your right.

-So, keep their head up, yeah?

-Yeah.

-Keep them moving all the time?

Yeah. And if they stop, just hit them just behind the shoulder.

Light gentle taps with the stick encourage the pig to keep walking.

And what's this pig called?

-Olive.

-Olive! Oh, how cute!

-And what is she?

-A middle white.

A middle white.

-Is she fully grown?

-No, she's only a year old.

Middle whites have been a recognised breed since the 19th century,

and their dished face comes from a lineage

that includes imported Chinese and Siamese pigs.

-Come on.

-So, just tap her behind her shoulder...

-Just there?

-She's very doddery,

-so she's slow.

-Are you listening to me?

Come on. Let's go round this way, Olive.

Head up. Hey, you are a good girl.

-I think I got it.

-I think you have.

-You've done really well there, Paul.

-Yeah,

I learned how to drive her along and keep her in a line.

Would you like to have a go at an obstacle course?

Yeah, let's do the clever stuff.

We'll get that set up for you.

Well done, Olive.

I've had little training, but it's time to tackle the agility course.

And this is my pig, so say hello to number nine, who belongs to Oliver.

What is she, anyway?

-Pietrain.

-Pietrain?

Yeah.

Pietrains are a modern pig breed from Belgium and are considered

social and easy to train.

OK, through here, come on.

No, we missed that one. Over this...

Over the... Come on, come on.

No, no, no, no. Oh!

OK.

Oh, good girl. Good girl.

Let's try and get over the ramp.

Here we go. Come on, number nine.

She's not doing it!

Right, OK, through the cones this time.

Ready?

With a little more practice...

Through the hoop.

..number nine becomes number one.

Yay!

And, finally, we're bringing home the bacon.

There we are. And now over the ramp.

And what does a winning pig do to celebrate, I wonder?

She's a good digger. Oh, wow!

Well, that's pig agility, and it's great to see the young generation

getting involved. Hands on.

Whilst pigs might not be able to fly,

they can certainly do an obstacle course.

At four miles long,

Bassenthwaite is one of the largest lakes in the National Park.

In 2001, ospreys were reintroduced to the area

for the first time in 150 years,

and since then, more than 30 chicks have been successfully raised.

Well, I've actually stood here on a lovely summer's day and watched

the ospreys fishing out there on the lake.

A fantastic sight.

And this is also a great place to see autumn's change of colours,

and here are a few more suggestions

of where you can catch the season's palette.

Greens turn to vibrant yellows,

oranges and reds before carpeting the floor with fallen leaves.

Why not take a walk in your local woodlands or treat yourself

to a trip around Westonbirt Arboretum in Gloucestershire?

A real must-see at this time of year.

With 2,500 species from around the world,

this seasonal display lasts longer than most.

Here, the trees really are the stars of the autumn show.

And if you have the head for heights,

how about a hot-air balloon ride,

giving you the perfect view?

Another landmark location to witness the changing colours of autumn

is the New Forest.

But beware, at this time of year,

the commoners let their pigs run free.

They fatten up on the seasonal fruits of the forest,

feasting on acorns,

which can be poisonous to other livestock.

Further north, in Perthshire,

russet leaves are falling along the shoreline of Loch Dunmore,

against a backdrop of native evergreen firs and pines.

But if you're strolling through the woods here in the Lake District,

don't forget to look down to catch sight of the colourful world

in miniature all around you.

Peeping through the undergrowth and on branches,

tree trunks and dead wood, fungi is fruiting everywhere,

making this time of year feel truly magical.

So before the darkness of winter sets in,

catch a glimpse of the autumn spectacle.

It really is one of the greatest shows on Earth.

Much like your garden, places like Dodd Wood

have to be managed to make them a fruitful haven for wildlife.

And just like your garden,

not everything that grows there would be good for you.

Keeley is in Northumberland to visit a garden with a deadly difference,

and to discover which toxic nasties could be lurking in your back yard.

Like something out of a horror film,

here in the shadow of a Norman castle,

a garden that will send a shiver down the bravest spine,

its contents so potent, so deadly, that it needs 24-hour surveillance.

Behind this gate is the most dangerous garden in the UK,

filled with plants such as deadly nightshade,

which have a history of murder most foul.

The poison garden at Alnwick Castle is the brainchild

of the Duchess of Northumberland.

But it's her head gardener Trevor Jones

who has the dangerous job of looking after it.

-Hello, Trevor.

-Hi.

-Good to see you.

-Thank you.

Nice to meet you. I am a little bit nervous about going in here.

-Should I be?

-You'll be fine.

-Yeah?

-You'll be fine. Just stick with me.

But I would ask that you don't sniff anything,

you don't touch anything...

-OK.

-..you don't taste anything and you don't stand too close.

-OK.

-All these plants have the ability to kill you.

-OK.

-Ready to go in?

-You'd better lead the way.

-Come on.

-I think so.

-This is a pretty one.

-This is a really nice plant,

and a very common plant,

grown from seed every year,

it's an annual. It's called Ricinus communis.

-Ah, ricin, poison.

-Ricin, the deadliest poison known to man.

-Really?

-Yes.

Just a small dose of ricin powder

the size of a few grains of table salt

is enough to kill an adult human.

The flower, you get a castor bean,

and from castor beans, you get castor oil.

The oil's very good for you, but within that seed coat,

within that casing, you can extract ricin.

So there's something that's good for you

-and something that's bad for you?

-Correct.

How do you make sure that you can separate it without mixing the two?

Ah, nature's very, very clever.

You have quite a hard seed coat and within that hard seed coat,

you can extract the ricin,

but you need almost laboratory techniques to do that,

so your average gardener, quite safe.

It's hard to believe that is the most deadly plant on the planet.

-Isn't it?

-But beautiful.

Yes.

So this looks a rather impressive plant.

Yes. It's a Brugmansia.

It's called the angel's trumpet

and the whole of the plant is poisonous.

But if you were to put that flower to your lips,

then all your lips would start to blister because of the toxins.

The pollen is a hallucinogenic.

And it's deadly, is it?

It's deadly. It could kill.

If you start to eat the foliage,

then you start to have major problems with internal organs.

-OK. Right.

-We'll move on.

Some plants in this garden are so dangerous they're actually kept

in cages. But even the most innocent looking and common plant

has the potential to do harm.

I have to say, I'm a bit surprised to see a laurel in the corner there.

Yeah, very, very common plant,

but it's here in the poison garden because it produces cyanide.

We have met many visitors that have come through the garden

who have told us of that experience of cutting their laurel hedges,

putting their laurel hedge into the car to take it to the dump,

and as they've been driving along, they get very light-headed.

This is because the cyanide's building up in the car

-and it's starving their brain of oxygen.

-So, what should people do?

Because people will want to prune these, won't they?

They will. Ideally, you will just take the clippings,

put them into a bag, tie a knot in the top of the bag,

you're perfectly safe.

As a precaution for handling some of these poisonous plants,

garden gloves are a minimum requirement.

For others, you need a full body gardener's hazard suit.

Very glamorous.

Another beautiful plant.

This is a real stunner. This is aconitum, wolfsbane

or monkshood. It's a really common cottage garden plant.

Beautiful blue flowers,

as you see here, but the whole of the plant is deadly poisonous.

With such toxicity,

Trevor won't be dumping this plant on the compost heap.

He'll burn it instead.

And what was the reason behind the garden?

Why would someone want to create a garden like this?

I think the Duchess on her tour of Europe to get inspiration

found a garden that had been planted by the Medici family.

One of the many arts cultivated in Renaissance Italy

was the black art of poisoning

and none were more notorious than the powerful Medici family,

who poisoned their enemies using toxic plants they grew themselves.

So what kind of reaction do you get from people visiting the garden?

Well, many people can't believe how common some of these plants are,

and they are fearful then to go home and find that they're growing in

their own gardens, but some people also react by fainting.

-Really?

-We have one plant here in the garden called henbane,

and henbane has a very pungent aroma, quite a strong scent.

Only some people can actually smell that.

I'm never affected by it.

But some people will actually faint on smelling it.

-Really?

-So in the height of summer, when it's in full flower,

we'll have perhaps two or three faintings a day.

-It's very dramatic.

-You didn't warn me about this, Trevor.

The poison garden is only a small part of the 12 acres of land here

at Alnwick. And while that garden has great potential to harm,

there's something just around the corner

which has great potential to heal.

The Gentleman's Gardening Club at Alnwick Gardens was set up

to combat isolation and loneliness in the elderly.

Here, men of a stately age can grow veg and strong mental health.

For Tom, whose wife passed away,

this project has become his lifeline.

How long have you been doing this?

Well, we started off three years ago, the gentleman's gardeners,

and we started off with seven, so when we first started up,

we called ourselves the Magnificent Seven, you know?

So, why did you start coming down here in the first place?

Well, I had depression and anxiety years ago.

I had that and I was in hospital for about eight months.

-OK.

-But it sort of went away,

so I'm all right now. I feel quite happy.

The force behind this wellbeing group is Tracey Jones.

And what do you think the gents get out of it?

It just makes them socialise,

they're interacting with each other and enjoy each other's company.

How important is this kind of thing for them?

Extremely important.

Extremely important. You just see it on their faces.

The benefits of gardening for good mental health are well-known,

but something more scientific has recently been dug up.

There are microbes in our soil called mycobacterium vaccae,

which have similar properties to antidepressants,

stimulating serotonin production.

When the soil is worked,

these tiny microbes become airborne and are breathed in by gardeners.

So, it seems digging in the garden could scientifically put a smile

on your face.

The power of nature, for good or for bad,

can't be underestimated.

We can all learn from the work happening here at Alnwick,

whether it's identifying hidden killers in our garden

or enjoying nature as a place of healing and happiness.

In the autumn, birds and animals feast on the season's harvest

before the long months of winter set in.

But for many of them, a perennial favourite on their dinner menu

lives just beneath the ground.

The humble worm might be at the bottom of the food chain,

but it plays a vital part

in the health of our ecology and our gardens.

Ellie went to a strange farm in Worcestershire

growing all things wiggly.

The 19th-century naturalist Charles Darwin

is best known for his theory of evolution as set out in his book

On The Origin Of Species,

but what is less well-known is his deep admiration

for the humble earthworm.

"It may be doubted whether there are many other animals which have played

"so important a part in the history of the world

"as these lowly organised creatures."

But Darwin isn't the only person to recognise the attributes

of these humble invertebrates.

Ken Nelson is a farmer with a difference.

He farms worms.

Ken farms on a two-acre site in Worcestershire

where he breeds worms for sale,

supplying gardeners looking to improve the quality of their soil

and fishermen out for the catch of the day.

Hi, Ken.

-Hi.

-I think this must be the first worm farm I've ever been to.

Well, it's your lucky day.

It is my lucky day. What was the appeal for you with worms?

Well, worms, they do a lot for the planet.

If you love the planet, you've got to love these guys.

And they really do play an important role,

breaking down dead organic matter in a process called decomposition.

The process releases nutrients from dead plants and animals,

making them available for living plants.

And what types of worms have you got here, then?

Well, there's three types I use for composting.

This is what you call a dendrobaena veneta.

That's a big, chunky worm, isn't it?

Yeah, it likes a lot of food waste.

OK. Then eisenia fetida.

That's called the brandling or the redworm.

-And the third one?

-Eisenia andrei.

A bit smaller than the dendrobaena.

And this is what they call a tiger worm.

-It's got the stripes there.

-Yeah.

-All right.

Ken doesn't just breed worms ideal for composting,

his gardening clients are keen to get the right mix of creatures

to produce the finest soil possible.

And what other types of worms are there?

There's the longus terrestris...

I can't even... They call them the log worms.

-The log worms.

-Or some people call them the nightcrawlers.

Completely different. Wow!

-Yeah.

-These are what you call the backbone of the planet.

Their function is to aerate the soil.

Keep the water from...

the drainage and stuff like that within the soil.

The log worms are the garden worms.

When you think about their kind of function in the soil

for both creating the soil structure

and also just decomposing everything...

-Yeah.

-It starts to blow your mind a little bit about how important

-they are, how much we overlook them.

-Well... Well, I didn't.

I don't overlook them.

-You don't.

-I don't.

-The rest of us do, unfortunately.

It's one of those things. You need to be taught about it, isn't it?

Globally, there are about 3,000 species of earthworm.

They can grow up to three metres in length,

like the giant Gippsland earthworm from Australia.

In the UK, there are 26 earthworm species,

some of which Ken has here on his farm.

So these tubs are full of worms, are they?

Well, they've got loads of worms in them.

Quite a lot of worms.

What do you think you've got, hundreds of thousands here?

It's hard to say, isn't it?

I could say you would find ten or more thousand in a bin.

And the great thing about farming worms is they don't

need much looking after.

Food waste...

-In the top.

-In the top.

And then the worms...

That's remarkable. You just top that up with organic food,

-organic matter, food...

-Waste. Yes. Shredded... Shredded food waste.

Veg waste and shredded paper.

A bit of paper.

The dead matter the worms eat passes through their systems

and produces an amazing by-product.

This, the good stuff.

Worm cast, black gold, worm poo, whatever you want to call it.

-And is it worm poo?

-Well, yes, it is,

because it comes from a worm.

And this is really the good stuff for gardeners.

The best. Yeah. 100%.

100% organic.

There's ways you can use it to make just fertiliser to put over

-the plants.

-If I was a gardener, I'd be all over this.

I have terrible gardening fingers, unfortunately.

Well, trial and error.

Maybe I need more of this. That's what I need in my life.

That's it. There you go.

The importance of worms cannot be overstated in decomposition,

in the structure of our soils.

It is unlikely they're going to become the nation's favourite pet

any time soon, but really, we should cherish them and ask ourselves,

where would we be without them?

Well, sadly, that's all we've got time for today,

but please do join us again tomorrow for more entries

in our Countryfile Autumn Diaries.

Including...

Keeley, who's finding out whether hill walking

could actually damage your health.

We talk about the Ambulance Service wanting to get to casualties

within 8-12 minutes - we just can't do that.

Steve's investigating why one corner of Kent

could be harbouring dangerous creatures.

Look at that, five seconds, five seconds and we've got our first one.

Ooh!

And I'll see how my home-grown giant veg

measures up to some monster competition.

So, until then, goodbye.