Episode 2 Countryfile Winter Diaries

This is the toughest time of year.

But it can also be the most spectacular season

in the entire calendar.

Winter is upon us.

It's a time when days are short and temperatures can plunge.

But there are still plenty of ways

growers can make the most of the season.

It's the time when the British weather throws everything it's got at us.

And while some animals are hibernating,

others are bringing new life into the world.

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

And what a great space! It's huge.

..bringing the very best seasonal stories that matter to you.

Right, you lead the way.

THEY GASP AND LAUGH

The very warmest of welcomes. This is Countryfile Winter Diaries.

And this is what we've got coming up on today's programme.

Jules is on the trail of a woodland menace

that's causing thousands of pounds' worth of damage.

They weigh more than you do, can run faster than you.

I'd get rid of all of them if I could.

Keeley finds out how orphaned seal pups survive the extremes of winter.

She's really piled on the pounds in the last few weeks.

Has she made the grade?

And I'm showing you how you can grow some of your five a day

with some of this smelly stuff.

We're spending all this week in Scotland,

in the wonderful surroundings of Loch Lomond

and the Trossachs National Park.

It's got 720 square miles of coastline, mountains,

lochs, of course,

and the odd waterfall.

Like wildlife all over Britain, animals here in Scotland face

an uphill struggle at this, our harshest time of year.

There aren't many creatures brave enough to have their young

in winter time. Grey seals do, but how do they cope with

sea temperatures as low as six degrees Celsius?

Keeley has a new angle on their story.

Grey seal watching has gone sci-fi,

and sky-high.

Using the tracking tool of the future...

drones.

An incredible 38% of the world's grey seal population lives

in the UK's chilly waters.

As winter bites, these giants of the sea come ashore to give birth

and nurture their young.

So can aerial surveys really help us understand them better?

On windswept beaches and inlets across the British Isles,

vulnerable grey seal pups are taking

their first tentative steps into the world.

South Walney Nature Reserve in Cumbria boasts probably the newest

breeding colony in the UK,

so it's a really exciting time for the monitoring team,

including trainee conservation officer Jade Chenery.

So how long have the seals been here, then?

In the scheme of things they're quite a new population,

so the first records of seals around South Walney were in the '80s,

but this was just the odd one or two

and was mostly by visitors and people walking around the reserve.

Why do you think they've chosen this spot?

I think because the beach itself where they haul out is

inaccessible to the public, so they have a real minimum disturbance,

and they have Morecambe Bay on their doorstep,

so when the tide comes in they obviously go out and feed.

Female seals spend the summer

fattening up in preparation for giving birth in early winter.

Sensitive creatures at the best of times,

they're easily disturbed during pupping season.

It's important for humans to keep their distance,

so monitoring them from ground level is tricky.

The solution - getting airborne.

It does tickle me that something

so hi-tech and science-fiction looking is monitoring nature.

Yeah, so, back in February of 2016,

a drone was bought and trialled over the seals,

and from the count, we had over 235 seals

and that is way more than we've ever counted before through

our kind of traditional surveys.

'Operators like Jade are trained to fly the drone

'without disturbing the seals, and from their new vantage point,

'they've captured some pretty special moments.'

Beforehand we just thought we were a non-breeding population and then

last year we had two pups born and then this year we've had five.

And have you picked them all up by using the drone?

We've been able to monitor them, obviously, with the use of the drone

but actually the birth of number five was picked up

from the images using the drone.

Wow! That's incredible.

'With the drone at its survey altitude of around 400 feet,

'we might just spot that newest pup.'

Let's just angle that camera.

So that is kind of an overview of the seal colony.

How on earth do you count all them?

They're tiny little grains of sand there.

All I do is take a screenshot and just apply dots to them.

And once you've taken a screenshot, can you then zoom in

and get a bit more information from those pictures?

Yeah, so the males tend to be a little bit larger than the females.

There is quite a few there.

-I thought that one was moving. That's a bird.

-That's a bird.

-Seals don't move that fast.

-No, that's a bird.

'OK, so my seal spotting skills need work,

'but I really hope we can find the newest addition.'

So let's see if we can...

..see any pups that are potentially away from the main colony.

Pup number five is about three weeks old, so he'll be a little bit white

but he'll be moulting now, but he should still be pretty obvious.

So we've got... We had a couple of seals in the water there.

-It's hard to tell what's...

-What's that one there?

That might be driftwood. I think that's driftwood.

-Could be baby, could be driftwood.

-Could be baby, could be driftwood.

We've had a couple of false alarms.

'Counting seals is clearly a tricky business,

'even with cutting-edge tech on your side,

'so Jade also uses more traditional monitoring methods.

'Time to pack up the new toy

'and get up close and personal to the colony.'

-Yeah!

-Let's go.

'Tracking the seals at close quarters makes monitoring

'more accurate because information collected from on high

'can be cross-referenced with the data from ground level.

'But it's crucial that we don't disturb them,

'so that means lying down out of sight.'

So a few of them are looking round at us.

Are they OK with us being here?

Yeah, I mean, they're aware we're here.

They can probably hear us, they can probably smell us,

but the key is, it's only a couple of them

and if they were really alarmed by us,

they would begin to move into the water.

I can see why you use the drone.

-It's impossible to see how many there is.

-Yeah.

So, earlier in the season,

they were not in these numbers at all and it was fairly easy to count,

and now it's becoming more apparent that, you know,

the drone is needed to get a very accurate number.

'Let's hope we're not rumbled before we get the newest pup in our sights.'

That one's scratching his tummy.

I can't obviously see it at the minute.

-I've come all this way to see babies...

-I know!

-To see pups.

I was hoping we were going to have another one born,

but that's not how it goes.

'But just when we'd given up on our baby seal...'

(Got our first pup.)

JADE LAUGHS

I can't believe we've been laid there, looking for it all that time

and it's in there. That is typical.

But it does look different to the others.

Yeah, so it's just shedding that sort of white coat

and beginning to moult,

but it is obviously quite smaller than anything else

and it would make sense for that to be potentially pup number five.

'This little fella is just one of a growing number of new additions

'to the colony here.

'Jade's drone footage showed a record 259 on the beach,

'so it looks like the seals of South Walney are flying high.'

You know what, I'm really chuffed that I got to see one of the pups

today, and the fact that they're now being born here

just shows what an ideal environment South Walney is.

Later, we'll be finding out just how hard life can be for baby seals.

And it's make or break for two rescued pups as they return

to life in the open sea.

Great to see that such a new colony is doing so well.

The landscape here is truly breathtaking,

and now that we're in the depths of winter,

there's also a hint of romance to the snow-capped peaks.

Today, of course, is St Valentine's Day,

one of the highlights of the year for the romantics amongst us,

but sadly, divorce is rising amongst older people

and for the younger ones, is true romance getting harder to find?

Well, Cupid's arrow can strike in the most surprising of settings,

as Margherita has been finding out.

According to a survey by the Office for National Statistics,

we Britons are a lonely bunch, with over half of us being single.

And with the shops full of lovey-dovey gifts for

the happily hitched, St Valentine's Day can feel particularly lonely

if you're looking for love.

Small wonder, then, that in the midst of our busy lives,

so many of us go online in search of the one.

Oh. "Tall, dark, handsome, good sense of humour,

"would like to meet nice lady for a bright future."

Sounds good, but I don't know about you, I still like to meet someone

the old-fashioned way, which is why I've teamed up with

a group of people who might have just found the answer

to that age-old question - how do you meet that special someone?

I've got a hot date in the Chilterns with the Metropolitan Walkers.

-Hi. Morning.

-ALL: Morning!

On this beautiful bright morning, where are we off to today?

'This hardy bunch has discovered

'that rambling and romance make perfect bedfellows.'

Smiling through the sleet and snow!

LAUGHTER

'Group organiser and accidental matchmaker Gemma Butchart

'is keeping me company.'

You walk in all weathers?

We do walk in all weathers, as we can prove today!

This time of year we do try and plan it where there might be a pub,

but if it's raining no-one wants to leave the pub again.

THEY LAUGH

'The group has more than 800 members of all walking abilities,

'with an average of 25 showing up for hikes, but are they motivated

'by something more than a virtuous love of the countryside?'

What is it about being part of the group that people love?

They very much like the social aspect of it.

I think people who enjoy walking have similar interests in...

There's a lot of other activities that I've got involved in

due to people I've met through the group, so I've been sailing,

skiing, kayaking.

And is it also about meeting a partner on these walks too?

Various... There have been lots of examples of people meeting partners

through the Metropolitan Walkers.

Very close, I went to my very first ever Met Walker wedding this year.

In fact, more than one pair of loved-up ramblers has found that

a bracing hike is the perfect prelude to a trip down the aisle.

And one of those happy couples is here today.

-Sarah, Sean, you met...

-We did.

-On a Metropolitan Walkers walk.

Yeah, and are now married?

-We are married. We have two children.

-Wow.

Life is slightly different, yeah.

And did you join the club in order to meet someone?

I'm never going to say that that was the intention but it was

certainly in the back of my mind as a nice possibility, shall we say.

I hadn't at the time but I just thought of doing it

-because it's a fun thing to do.

-And how did romance blossom?

I think, I actually met Sean on my second ever walk

and then over the course of the next few months,

we bumped into each other on walks and we got talking

and what are we now? Six, seven years later, here we are.

It's a really easy way to meet people because you're side-by-side,

-you're not having to...

-There's no pressure when you're doing it

-so it's really nice.

-Yeah, and also, you turn up dressed like this,

there's no... There's no image here, like, you're very much,

"Take me as you find me. This is who I am and what I actually look like."

'I can see how a brisk walk might well get the pulse racing in

'more ways than one, but the group's habit of holing up in a cosy pub

'afterwards must surely have helped one or two budding romances.'

And have you all dated people you've met? If I can ask that?

LAUGHTER

That you can tell me about?

-My girlfriend and I joined the club together.

-OK.

We've got a joint membership.

In our world, that is the ultimate commitment,

when you move from single membership to joint membership.

LAUGHTER

-For better, for worse, and for joint membership.

-Yeah.

So how many weddings have there been in the group?

We know of at least a good half a dozen weddings.

We were bridesmaids for one, actually.

Right before Christmas, actually, the three of us.

And the cake was made by a fellow Met Walker.

-It was made by the mum of a fellow Met Walker.

-There you go.

So this is a real family affair in terms of not only people

getting together but then being part of each other's weddings,

and how many babies from the group?

There's at least a dozen that we know of. And the thing is,

you don't know who's doing what behind closed doors.

Whether or not you're on the lookout for the love of your life

or just fancy getting out in the fresh air,

walking is a great way to meet new people,

and if it does all end in hearts and flowers, well, all the better.

WEDDING MARCH PLAYS

What a lovely St Valentine's Day story to warm the heart,

even here in wintry Scotland.

Let's move swiftly now from love to a kind of war -

to the battle against that fearsome creature of the forest,

the wild boar.

Unlike some of our other native species, the boar is thriving,

and it certainly makes its presence felt,

so who is going to win the struggle between man and boar?

Jules is on the front line in Gloucestershire.

MUSIC: The Wild Boys by Duran Duran

I'd get rid of all of them if I could.

The impact and damage has been profound.

People's gardens have been just ripped to pieces by these animals.

The 200 square miles of the Forest of Dean is home to 1,500 wild boar.

And they've been causing a lot of trouble.

They do charge at you and I've been charged three or four times.

They weigh more than you do, can run faster than you.

For some, the boars are proving to be the neighbours from hell,

and this winter, locals are bracing themselves

for more encounters than ever.

I'm hoping Kevin Stannard from the Forestry Commission

can tell me what's going on.

This is some evidence of the boar we've got here at the moment.

Look at that, there's a print.

There's a print. All the way through here

you can see the ground's been disturbed by the boar.

I mean, it looks as if an army of boar have been through here.

'Wild boar dig up the ground to forage for roots, worms and insects,

'and with food scarcer over winter,

'they're increasingly coming out of the forest

'and into the local villages.'

The Forest of Dean has a history of boar going back to the medieval period,

after which time they were then hunted to extinction,

so what brought them back here relatively recently?

There were certainly some accidentally released from

a wild boar farm near Ross-on-Wye,

but more recently there were around 50 to 60 animals around a decade ago

dumped on a public highway near Staunton above the Wye Valley.

Now, the population is famously on the rise.

I mean, the numbers are staggering, from that initial 50 or 60 that

you talk about a decade ago,

we're now up to, what - 1,500, is that right?

That's right, and the population growth now is very significant,

so in the last year we had another 400 to 500 animals on the forest.

Next year, if we don't get on top of the problem, it could be even more.

With no natural predators to keep them in check, in another ten years,

there could be 10,000 of these bristly troublemakers

roaming the forest and clashing with the locals, so what's the solution?

It must be very difficult to cull any number of boar here,

simply because of the area that you've got

and the way the animals behave.

Yes, we use professional wildlife rangers but even so, it's not just

a case of going out with a gun and bringing back a truckload of boar.

It's a skill to know where the boar are likely to be.

Last year the Forestry Commission culled almost 550 of them,

but their numbers are still growing.

But it's not just a case of saying, "Increase the cull"

because they're shooting pretty much at capacity at the moment.

Despite their increasing numbers and menacing reputation,

I still haven't managed to spot a single boar.

But I've heard they've been causing trouble down the local pub.

Look at what's happened to the ground underneath my feet!

It's been absolutely devastated by wild boar.

That can't be good for business.

So let's see what the owners make of it.

'Landlady Nicky Roach has been doing battle with the boar

'for the last four years.'

-Hello, Nicky.

-Hello.

-How are you?

-I'm very well, thank you.

-Oh, that's a welcome thing.

-There you go.

-It's absolutely freezing out there.

Now, it is perfectly obvious to anybody walking into your pub

just how much devastation those boar have caused you.

Yes, around where people are sitting and trying to eat or drink,

then we have to obviously repair and keep repairing and keep repairing

and get that back to pristine again.

Does your heart sink in the morning when you go out there and think,

-"Oh, no"?

-Yeah.

-"They've been again."

-Yeah.

Very often.

But despite the thousands of pounds' worth of damage they've caused,

Nicky admits to a sneaking fondness for these snub-nosed vandals.

It's quite a controversial issue locally because you have got

both sides of the fence. A lot of people love them

and love seeing them, and me included. I think...

I think it's lovely to be out in the forest and see the deer,

the boar, the sheep. It's a wonderful...

We're very lucky, but I know there are too many of them now.

-So, wild boar on the menu?

-Maybe.

Maybe!

However, local farmer Alistair Fraser is hoping

he may have come up with an answer to their increasing numbers,

and at last, I get a chance to see the scallywags close up.

Alistair, it's a terrific treat to see some wild boar up close today.

They are enormous animals, aren't they?

They are quite big and they're very heavy.

-You wouldn't want to try and stop them.

-You couldn't.

They're highly intelligent and they're very, very fast.

With help from vet John Horlock, Alistair has been trialling

a vaccine which switches off the hormones

controlling the breeding cycle.

But does it risk putting wild boar off the British menu?

There's no fear of us eating wild boar that's been injected with that?

There's no problem with the food chain, it is a vaccine

and therefore we have antibodies, we haven't got chemicals.

And it is remarkably potent and remarkably effective.

It sounds like a winner.

But how do you give a contraceptive to a wild boar?

Enter Phil Yorke, who's an expert with a dart gun.

So, it's as simple as that. In the butt, and then you're good to go.

OK.

I'm going to fire away from them,

but you'll note that they pretty much don't move.

As you can see, it's very, very quiet.

The boar took no notice.

I think in a lot of cases they simply think

that another one had bitten them and they carry on eating.

Now, since these animals have all been given contraceptive,

has it worked?

It most certainly has.

They were darted last year and we haven't had any young.

And we should have had if it hadn't worked.

Has it altered their behaviour in any way?

I think it quietens the males down. It did quieten them down a bit.

And the same with the females that have been done.

And how long does a dose of that last for?

We've shown that in the female boar, it is effective for up to six years.

-One shot.

-Six years?

That would certainly put a dent in the numbers.

It would take, I think, probably four years to get them

-down to the numbers we want.

-Very interesting, guys.

I'm quite proud of our little herd here

because I think that they could be the solution.

There's still a way to go

before this plan is given the green light nationally or even locally.

But in the meantime, Kevin's got a few pointers

to help man and beast rub along more harmoniously.

If you've got a dog, put it on a lead because we have had many dogs

injured by the feral wild boar.

If a wild boar has stopped in the track ahead of you,

and he's got quite an aggressive pose,

you might be better off retreating back down the way you've come.

The other key message we want to give people is

absolutely do not feed the boar.

-They're not cute and cuddly.

-No, absolutely not.

The larger animals, the larger females,

the larger males, are very big, very strong animals.

But for all the issues that surround the wild boar, Kevin,

I suppose for anybody lucky enough to see one,

-it's still a treat you should take home and cherish.

-Absolutely.

The wild boar, like any wild animal in its native habitat,

native surroundings, is a joy to behold.

We just don't want quite as many of them as we've got at the moment.

Like many of our more photogenic creatures,

the boar's charm does hide an aggressive nature.

And for all the austere winter beauty on display here,

this season has a darker side too.

Who can forget the devastation wrought on Dawlish in Devon in 2014?

Anita went back there to see how well the town has recovered.

February the 4th, 2014 began like any other morning.

People getting ready for work,

kids going to school and trains on this rural stretch of rail network

were business as usual.

And then, within 24 hours, everything had changed.

Countryfile film crews had been scattered

across the south of the country covering the impact of the weather.

One of our cameramen, Dawlish resident Steve Briers,

had been filming the floods with Tom Heap in Somerset,

completely unaware of what was about to hit his idyllic seaside home.

You couldn't be much closer to the sea here, could you?

I mean this is - house, railway line, sea.

You are in the line of fire.

Yes, very much so.

By the time Steve got home from his shoot,

winds of up to 91mph were creating 9-metre-high waves

heading straight for land and Steve's house.

The waves were just landing, literally dumping themselves

on top of the car. The car would sit down on its springs,

you obviously had to stop, the wipers were doing ten to the dozen

and it's just like being in a washing machine on a really fast spin.

The dramatic footage that Steve filmed the next day

shows the aftermath of just what he was experiencing.

At that point I knew it was something exceptional happening.

And obviously, being a cameraman, I was slightly aware

that I really should be trying to record it and get some pictures.

So I went to set up a light, of all things, to actually point down

into what I now knew was a whole developing in front of the house.

-Yes.

-Literally put the light stand up, bang! The power went.

-And that's when you dialled 999.

-Yeah. That's when I hit 999.

-'Caller, go ahead.

-We're at Riviera Terrace in Dawlish.

'It's been washed away into the sea.

'The sea wall is gone

'and there's no sea defences.

'The railway line is suspended in the air.

'They're in the air by about, I'd imagine, about 10 or 15 feet.

'Deary me!'

I realise that my utilities had gone out into the English Channel.

My gas main had split, I didn't have any water, no electricity.

And at that point it really was getting quite exciting down here.

Then there was a knock at the door.

Yeah, shortly after that, there was a knock at the door.

Obviously pitch blackness.

A torch shone in my eyes

and a chap in full rescue kit, hard hat and the rest of it,

just literally said, "You've got two minutes.

"This is a life-or-death situation.

"You've got two minutes, you've got to get out."

Were you scared?

I don't think there was time to be scared really.

I was certainly confused.

The amazing thing through all of this is that no-one was injured.

OK, Steve, back to the day job. Are you ready?

The next day, Dawlish was thrown into chaos.

This railway line is vital,

as it connects the south-west to the rest of the country.

So something had to be done, and fast.

A 300-strong fleet of engineers swept into action.

Operated by Network Rail,

they became known locally as the Orange Army.

Within two months, the railway line was rebuilt and back in action.

But it wasn't the only part of the town affected.

Mike Gallop is from Network Rail

and has been involved in the work here since day one.

So, tell me what you're doing now to reinforce these walls.

We're improving and raising the height of the wall

over a 300-metre stretch, and we're raising it by about four metres.

What we're doing is we're putting in foundations that you can see

stretching all the way along there.

Then we're putting in some big concrete blocks,

and behind those, we're going to fill it all with mass concrete,

so effectively you're going to have

a 300-metre-long block of concrete to keep the sea back.

The sea wall wasn't the only part of the town affected.

Dawlish Station was also battered by the February storms.

This platform had practically been destroyed.

But thanks to a group of passionate locals,

it's back to looking its best.

I'm meeting Margaret Swift,

who's a member of the Friends of Dawlish Station.

Don't think I need my hard hat for this type of work.

-Hello, Margaret.

-Hello, Anita, nice to see you.

-You too.

-I come bearing gifts.

-What a beautiful plant! That's wonderful.

Yes, I think it's called a Cordyline "Torbay red".

-So very appropriate. We've got just the spot for it.

-Perfect.

Come with me.

How did everyone feel when it happened

and the disaster that took place

and the fact that you just didn't have this line to commute?

It was devastating. It was devastating for the town,

it was devastating for the whole south-west,

for the economy, for businesses, for everything.

I know that the railway line is a lifeline for the community.

-Yes, it is, absolutely.

-What's so special?

When the wind's blowing in the right direction and you get that whistle

blowing through the town, I don't think you could find

a better place to live, to be honest with you.

Thanks to the Orange Army, Margaret and her team,

hundreds of thousands of passengers living in rural communities

in the south-west have got their lives back on track.

And Steve, well, he's got his road back.

Well, that's an experience that Steve will certainly never forget.

Thankfully, such severe weather events are relatively rare.

But there's no way of avoiding those short, sharp winter days,

especially here in Scotland.

One consequence is that British-grown produce is

in short supply at this time of year

and a significant proportion of the veg we eat is imported.

Paul has been looking at some ingenious solutions

in his ongoing quest to live the good life.

Well, it's the middle of winter and there's not a lot going on

in my vegetable patch, as you can see.

That's looking very sorry for itself.

No cauliflowers, no carrots, not even any Brussels.

Like Tom and Barbara, I'm struggling to live the good life.

But, unlike Tom and Barbara,

I've got a neighbour who's not sniffy about growing your own.

-Hiya, Kate.

-Hiya, Paul, how are you doing?

-You're working hard. I'm all right, thank you.

'Kate Collins runs a thriving market garden not far from me in Wiltshire.'

It started off just with a small plot

with a couple of polytunnels and a small field, and then,

over the last few years we've been gradually building it,

adding more tunnels and more space,

so now in total it's about 3½ acres.

What does grow well outside this time of the year?

I can see you're surrounded by leeks.

-Leeks are my least favourite vegetable.

-Everything but leeks.

-Everything but leeks.

-Yeah.

But is it a good time of year to put anything in the garden?

Maybe a few rooty things.

New potatoes and broad beans, that kind of thing.

But nothing leafy really, cos the cold will just explode the leaves.

-Frost.

-Exactly.

-So I need a polytunnel.

Yes, and you can make them yourself or you can buy the frames.

-I'll make my own.

-Yeah, you can do a bit of recycling as well.

-Can we go inside one and have a look?

-Yeah, let's have a look around.

Kate has seven polytunnels of various sizes.

The huge ones cost more than £1,000,

but she's also built smaller versions for as little as £200.

And I can't wait to see inside.

-This is one of the...

-It's a lot warmer in here.

-Yes.

And what a great space. It's huge.

It feels a bit bigger inside, actually.

It's about 15 degrees in here,

whereas it's only about six or seven outside.

So it's ten degrees warmer and out of the wind, more importantly.

Positively balmy. Talk me through. What have we got over there?

This is all Oriental salads. So there's mibuna,

-which is slightly spicy. Some mustard.

-Can I have a taste?

Yes, come and have a little piece.

This is called "Red Frills" mustard.

It's just a little bit of pepper.

And then this one is a little bit stronger.

That's delicious, that's really warm, isn't it?

-Yeah. That warms you up on a cold day.

-I'm loving it.

This is the good life, isn't it? I mean, it really is.

I'm determined to make my own polytunnel.

But it's a job for the spring.

In the meantime, Kate's got an idea

that could help keep my veg patch productive over winter.

-I don't know if you've heard of hot beds before.

-No.

So, it's a bed that's hot.

-So they've got this frame made from old pallets.

-Yeah.

At the least a metre cubed, ideally. Fill it with fresh horse manure,

lots of straw and bedding and pack it down nice and wet.

And then, as that breaks down, because it's fresh,

you'll get a lot of heat released.

You can then either cover the manure and straw mixture

with compost or put a lid on the box.

After about three days,

you'll get temperatures of up to about 70 degrees C.

So it can get really hot.

-Yeah, horse poo is hot. It steams all the time.

-Yes, exactly.

You can imagine all that heat's going to waste at the moment.

So the idea is to use the heat to get some propagation going.

But 70 degrees is far too hot,

so you need to leave the poo and straw to cool down

for another three to four days.

By which time it should be around 20 degrees,

and then you're ready to start growing.

Once the seed trays are on there, do you cover it?

Yes, so these little bits of tube,

you can run a water pipe over the tubes,

make a little frame and then you can put fleece over the top of that,

horticultural fleece, and that helps keep the heat in when it gets really cold.

-So it's like a mini polytunnel.

-Exactly.

-Yeah.

-Hey, I CAN get started this winter.

-Exactly.

-Brilliant.

-Thank you very much, Kate.

-Get stuck in now.

-Thank you so much.

-No problem.

Kate has certainly inspired me to make the most of my horse poo.

Time for some quickfire carpentry.

I've got some old pallets, that's a good start.

That is my pallet turned into my first hot bed.

Now I've just got to fill it full of poo.

But with the light fading fast, that's a job for another day.

And believe me, nothing wakes you up

quite like shovelling barrowloads of horse poo.

Still, once it's up and running, my hot beds should generate

enough heat to the keep my plants toasty for three to four weeks.

I'm ever so proud of this and I can't wait to see it in action.

Obviously, that's going to be really hot in there.

Once it drops down to 20, it'll be safe to put my seedlings on.

And in this cold weather, with the help of this hot horse manure,

it's going to let them grow strong and healthy.

And that's what it's all about. Dead chuffed.

Well, Tom and Barbara WOULD be impressed.

Now, earlier, Keeley saw how technology is helping to monitor

a seal colony in Cumbria.

But with numbers on the rise in our coastal waters,

keeping the seal population healthy is a bigger challenge than ever.

Keeley is in Lincolnshire, where,

for abandoned seal pups on the chilly shore of the North Sea,

it's a matter of life or death.

We're in the midst of a seal baby boom.

The breeding colony at Donna Nook in Lincolnshire has already seen

around 2,000 pups this season.

And numbers have doubled in the last ten years.

Tragically, many of those pups are separated from their mums

during severe winter weather.

The consequences can be devastating.

But, for a lucky few, there's a second chance.

Every year, between 40 and 50 underweight or injured baby seals

are rescued by the seal sanctuary in Skegness.

But with no guarantee the pups will make it

once released back to the wild,

caring for them is a delicate job for Richard Yeadon.

-Hello.

-All right, yeah.

-Who's this little guy?

This is a grey seal that we've had in for about two or three weeks now.

It's been through its initial treatment in the hospital here,

so we'll try moving it outside today

for its first taste of life in a bit of water again.

And how do the seals come in here?

Members of the public or the coastguard or the police

report them to us, we'll go down, assess the situation,

and if necessary, bring them back here.

They aren't like other baby animals where you can bottle-feed them, are they?

No, they're not natural sucklers.

They're not like a lamb, for instance.

They wouldn't use a teat on a bottle.

We get them straight on to fish,

no matter how old they are when they come in.

Which is what they would be doing

after about four weeks in the wild anyway.

-Do they take to that quite easily?

-Some easier than others.

-This one picked it up remarkably quickly.

-Well done, you.

One of the quickest we've ever had.

I think he's moaning because he's hungry,

-he's ready for his breakfast.

-Shall we try?

-Yeah.

What's this? There you go.

It's great to see him feeding like that,

that's a major step in the right direction.

They don't chew the food, do they?

Grey and common seals are native to British shores,

and both species are regular guests at the sanctuary.

Once they've settled in and mastered the all-important art of eating...

He looks rather hesitant. Hasn't he been in water before?

Probably not, they get born on the beaches.

..pups are slowly acclimatised to water.

It took some encouragement, but he's really at home in there now.

He's doing really well now, so that's a great sign.

I'm sure he will go from strength to strength.

They then move to a larger pool to fatten up.

And for two of the sanctuary's chubbiest residents,

it's time to take the final nerve-racking plunge.

So, Richard, what are we going to do today?

Hopefully we're going to release two seals back to the wild.

We've got Delia and we've got Darryl that we're hoping are up to weight.

We're draining the pool now and we'll weigh the seals one last time

and then, if everything's good,

we'll transfer them to the release crates and go down onto the beach.

These were two quite sickly seals, especially Darryl.

-What went on with her?

-Well, Darryl was...

She must have been separated from her mum at a very, very early age.

And she was just dehydrated and starving on the beach.

So she needed very special and very gentle care in hospital.

So she's taken a lot longer to go through the process, so it's great

to see her fit and well again and ready to have her second chance.

This is a big day for both them and you.

How do you feel when you send little ones back in?

Well, mixed emotions really.

Sometimes you get a real little character

or a special story, like Darryl. So it's great to see her go back.

We've released over 750 back to the wild now, so it's a good day.

And look at their little faces. Do they know something's going on?

-Who knows?

-It's a big day for you, girls.

-Yeah, get your wellies on and let's crack on.

-OK.

On average, baby seals spend three months at the sanctuary,

but it can take titchy pups up to five months to build up the blubber.

What a clever girl. There you go.

This is Darryl, isn't it?

This is Darryl, the one that came in at only 6.5kg,

one of the smallest seals we've ever rescued.

So it's great to see her in this sort of shape,

she's really piled on the pounds in the last few weeks

and I'm sure she'll be ready to go.

Most girls don't like to hear that, Darryl,

but I think it's probably good news for you.

Seals need two or three inches of blubber

to insulate them in our chilly winter seas.

If Darryl's managed that,

she should be tipping the scales at around 30 kilos today.

Fingers crossed.

'After a technical hitch or two...'

She's so heavy, you've broken the scales, Darryl.

'..it's the moment of truth.'

-Has she made the grade? Is she heavy enough to be released?

-Fantastic.

Excellent, well done, you. Well done, you!

So it's off to the beach with Darryl and her friend Delia.

Let's hope the water looks inviting.

It's a lovely day today,

but I bet you've been down here in all weathers.

We've seen all sorts down here,

but we do try to pick a calm day because if it's too rough,

the seals just don't want to go past the first breakers

and it defeats the whole object of the exercise, really.

So today is absolutely ideal.

They don't know what's about to happen and I don't either.

What's their journey going to be from here on in?

Once they're released from here, they'll either

go and join the seal colony between here and Norfolk.

But, from their tags, we know that they have gone far and wide.

They've been up to Scotland, Isle of Wight,

-across in Holland and Germany.

-So they don't stay locally necessarily.

-Not necessarily. No.

-And how do you think they are feeling?

They look pretty calm, don't they?

Yeah, they'll be looking out there

thinking that's the biggest pool I've seen for quite some weeks.

-But, yeah, I'm sure they'll be OK.

-Right, let's get to it then.

-The big moment.

-OK, if you want to lift those up, Keeley.

-You can stick them on the back of the crates there.

-Come on, girls.

-Hopefully they'll turn round...

-There you go.

..and waddle out to sea. Here we go.

-Quick.

-Come on, girls.

-We need to catch it, quick.

I really thought that we would struggle to capture this

and they'd be off before we even see it,

-but they don't seem to be moving at all.

-Come on, Darryl, that's it.

-There you go.

-There you go.

-Freedom.

-Go on, Darryl.

This isn't quite going as expected.

-There you go.

-There you go.

Go on, follow your mate.

-She's off, look.

-There we go.

-Come on, Darryl.

-Catch her up.

Darryl doesn't seem convinced just yet.

-Oh!

-Nearly there.

Go on, you're nearly in the water.

Good luck, girls!

To help release some pups back in the wild has just been fantastic.

And what an adventure they've got ahead of them.

Little does Darryl know just how exciting life is about to get.

Seals being released into the wild.

A really uplifting way to end today's programme.

And here's what's to come tomorrow.

Keeley will be down a drain, discovering that our love of

a Sunday roast could be making winter floods worse.

I can't smell anything yet.

There are some bits further down that smell worse than this.

OK, right, you lead the way.

Margherita will be seeing how getting stuck in down at the farm

could help children avoid being excluded from school.

We believe there are 30,000 children out there

who could really benefit at this moment in time.

And I'll be joining in a race against time to investigate

a now submerged and fragile prehistoric landscape

that is at the mercy of the sea.

Until then, goodbye.