00:14Well hello and welcome to Beechgrove Gardens.
00:17And we're starting the programme in the main veg plot today
00:19because it's looking really good today now, but George, especially the lettuce.
00:22That's fantastic. You know, if you had that in your front garden as a bedding scheme, you couldn't have beat it.
00:29No, and it's tasty. You can eat it as well. Yeah, that's it.
00:33Now, this is interesting, Callum, because all these lettuce were sown round about the same time
00:39and they've all been planted out and they're now coming to the point where you think,
00:42oh, well, some of them are now bolting, as we call it, running to seed.
00:47So there's the, that's the bit that will go up like that and become a flower head.
00:51Yes. But then if we cut this, see if I harvest this, I'll cut it down at the bottom there.
00:56Just like that, oh, there we go. Now, see that there?
00:59Mm-hm.
01:00All these leaves which are there, if we just take that off, I mean, look what's in that.
01:04I know.
01:05I mean, that's full of goodness and full of water.
01:07How do you taste it? Go on.
01:08Oh, go on, thank you.
01:09You take that. So that's a, I mean, that's a cracker. That's an absolute belter, isn't it?
01:12That is very nice. But if you do have one that's maybe bolted a wee bit,
01:15if you use more of the central leaves, they're going to be the freshest.
01:18That's right. That's right. Before it really goes to seed.
01:20Yes. Now, George is going to be back up in the main vegetable doing some harvesting later on.
01:25But in the meantime, here's what's in the rest of the programme.
01:28Planning for autumn colour or sowing violas.
01:33Club Root has struck at Beechgrove. What is the disease and how to deal with it?
01:39Potting up succulents in the sunshine and more tips from Colin Crosby.
01:52Up in the driveway garden, we have a planting of Trillium chloropetalum.
01:58And one of the wonderful scenes we had earlier in the spring was when Kirsty was sitting in amongst that
02:04and explaining just what a wonderful plant it is.
02:07It flourishes early in the spring, comes through early in the spring.
02:10It's one of the first to come through. And it does its business.
02:13So it grows, flowers and produces seed before the leaves come out.
02:18And then the seed pods lie for a while and then they mature.
02:22And that's what's happened to these. These are ones which I've brought up from my own garden.
02:26Now look, they look a little bit mucky, don't they?
02:28And they look as though they've got something attached to them.
02:31And if I put these onto my hand, you'll see exactly what I mean.
02:35These seeds then have got this sticky mucilage on them.
02:39And mucilage is sweet and what happens is that the wasps and the ants are attracted to that.
02:46And they take it away and then it gets dropped and so your plant seeds get distributed.
02:51So what I'm going to do with this one is I'm just going to sprinkle them loosely over the top of the container like that.
02:58Now this is just ordinary compost with a little bit of extra perlite in it.
03:04And it's also got some leaf mold in it.
03:06So it's not a rich compost. It's one which will just provide lots of moisture for the seeds.
03:12I'm only going to sow half of this so that you can see exactly what depth these seeds are at.
03:17So I'm just covering it with grit.
03:19I prefer to cover these things with grit because then it keeps a clean surface and you can actually see what is happening when the seeds start to germinate.
03:28But the problem with this trillium is we're going to have no sign of anything on here until next year at this time.
03:37When we might get one or two little leaves coming through because the first year that seed stays in there and all it does is produces a root.
03:45So that you've got to have patience with. So let's put that to the side.
03:49The second one that I'm going to sow is, this is our garden favourite.
03:53This is Cyclamen Hederifolium. Hederifolium, foliage like an ivy.
03:58So that one again, just sprinkling it on the surface.
04:01And what's interesting about this one is that when the flowers have been pollinated, it's like a spring.
04:07It coils up and it pulls this rounded ovary back into where the centre of the plant is.
04:13And then as it ripens over the summer, what happens is it turns around and it ends up as a cup like that.
04:20And then you get water splash into it and that distributes the seed.
04:24Or you get ants coming and taking the seeds out.
04:26So ants are quite important.
04:28So again, just sprinkling that over the top of the compass.
04:31And again, I will just cover that with some grit.
04:34So all it's being, you know, all they're getting covered with is what?
04:38Somewhere about, well, it might be about half a centimetre of grit over the top.
04:45And all that that's for is just to be able to make sure that the seeds are kept in contact with the soil.
04:51Because I'm going to water these in a minute.
04:54This is Mechanopsis.
04:55This one here is a yellow puppy.
04:58And it's Mechanopsis complexus.
05:01And what I want to do with this is something completely different.
05:04So I'm going to put the grit on the top first.
05:07And it doesn't matter what the depth is at all here.
05:10So that's just covered up, leveled with the top of the tray.
05:13And then there's the seed capsules.
05:15And if I take one of these seed capsules and just do that in my hand, it looks like dust.
05:20Indeed, it will blow away like dust.
05:23And you're left with some of the viable seeds.
05:25So these viable seeds that are here, I'll just put into my hand.
05:33Like that.
05:35Don't do this on a windy day because they'll all blow away.
05:37Right, so what you do is just take that and sprinkle it lightly on the top of the gravel that I've put over the compost.
05:43I mean, this is the reverse way that I did the other ones.
05:46And then when I water this, the seeds will fall right down through in the crevices of the compost.
05:52And that's what happens in nature.
05:54They will fall onto the soil and then the first shower of rain will just wash the seeds down.
05:58This one will germinate possibly by September, early October.
06:03And they'll be tiny, tiny plants.
06:05So you'll need to keep them in a cold frame over winter or somewhere sheltered.
06:09The cyclamen will germinate next spring.
06:14And the trillium, remember what I said, you'll get nothing the first year.
06:18And the second year, you will get a green shoot coming up.
06:22And that is why it's important to put the date on the back of the label so that you know when you sowed it.
06:29And you know that there's going to be something coming up and you don't throw it away.
06:33Well, Callum, you're looking kind of depressed.
06:44I am, George, because we've discovered that my competition bed has some club root.
06:50Yeah. Now that's quite serious, isn't it?
06:52It is.
06:53It's a slime mould.
06:54It's a disease which attacks all members of the cabbage family.
06:58And it's one of these things which exists in the soil as very, very small spores.
07:04So you might have it already, but you don't know.
07:06So, and then immediately you plant a cabbage.
07:08The root exudate, or the chemical that the roots give off when they're growing, causes the spores to germinate.
07:15And they germinate, and they then start to infect all the very small hairs.
07:20You know, the root hairs, which are the first roots to appear on plants.
07:24They affect those, they go in through the air, and then they start to expand the cells.
07:28So you end up with a thing that looks like that, like a couple of fists.
07:32Now, as I say, this is the first time I've experienced this, and what a time to experience it for the first time.
07:38So, first of all, how do you think it's got in here?
07:41Well, that's a mystery, really, because you don't know.
07:44It could have come in on somebody's feet.
07:46Right.
07:47It could have come in on a compost that we were using.
07:49It could have come in on plants, if we'd imported plants from somewhere else.
07:53It could also have come in on a mulch that we were using,
07:56because maybe the mulch which we buy hadn't been grown,
08:00or hadn't been produced under high enough temperature,
08:04so it wasn't really, really sterile.
08:06It's a silent thing.
08:07You don't know that it's there until it strikes,
08:10and then your cabbage wilt, and you think, oh, what's happening here?
08:13And we are taking measures now at the garden in the trials bed.
08:16Yeah.
08:17At both entrances, we've got some sort of sterilising our feet.
08:19Yeah, yeah.
08:20We're making sure not to walk on the beds.
08:21Yeah, yeah.
08:22And if we're using tools, we're giving them a good clean.
08:24But the other thing you can do is grow resistant varieties.
08:28Mm-hmm.
08:29So grow resistant varieties of cabbage, cabbage, cauliflower, sprouts, and calabrese.
08:35Okay.
08:36You can get them, no bother, and you can grow these.
08:38Because this, the spores can exist in the soil for anything up to seven, ten years.
08:43So you've got to think of a long-term rotation.
08:46Yes.
08:47You know?
08:48And that's, that really shows how important crop rotation is in your plots.
08:51Yeah.
08:52And the other thing is, when you are cultivating them, if you find anything like this, dig up the root.
08:59And don't put the root on the compost heap.
09:01Put it on the burning pile, or put it in the black bucket for landfill.
09:05Oh, okay.
09:06So that's it.
09:07Yeah.
09:08Well, while I go back to the drawing board to try and get back in the competition,
09:11you're heading to Edinburgh to go and see a great garden that just shows what you could do with some pass and a pocket of planting.
09:19It's hard to believe this fantastic plot used to be just grass and goalposts.
09:24But when Karen and Carson Ralton's circumstances changed, so eventually did the garden.
09:30Well, I was diagnosed with MS 24 years ago.
09:35And I wasn't, I've not been in a wheelchair for that long, really, considering the length of time.
09:41MS is like lesions in your brain or on your spinal cord.
09:46It's impacted my life considerably, actually.
09:49Little things that you want to do, you can't do.
09:51However, I've got a very supportive family and husband.
09:54With Karen being in a wheelchair, she really needed access round the garden.
09:59Because originally, Karen could go from the back door, five metres down, in a straight line, and that was it.
10:05She couldn't go any further.
10:06It was all gravel after that.
10:07Yeah, it was, it was.
10:08It was all gravel.
10:09So that's not really wheelchair friendly.
10:12Yeah.
10:13Yeah.
10:14Yeah.
10:15So it was really built round the paths and the planting pockets that, that allowed us to have, and basically all the other plantings just taking its course from there.
10:24But also because of COVID, once people could go out, it was, we just went to garden centres.
10:30That's right.
10:31Anyway, that was our go to places.
10:33We went to all, loads of garden centres, and we always came back with plants.
10:36So that's how a lot of them started, because of COVID, isn't it?
10:40That's right.
10:41Karen likes shopping, and even if that's for plants, you know, so.
10:45Just coming over to one of the water features in the garden.
11:00It's been made out of a central heating water tank.
11:04Not that you can see any of it, but it's, that's what's holding the water.
11:08There's a pump in it, which is pumping the water around and through that container at the back.
11:13To get to the pond, we just come down this boardwalk, which we put in last year, so that Karen could get down to the pond and watch the frogs.
11:24It's a timber boardwalk, but it's actually built on top of plastic foundations, and it's a fantastic material.
11:33I mean, really good for the environment as well, because it's all from recycled plastics.
11:38And the timber itself, I cut all the timber so that we could get round that bend so that Karen could get to the pond.
11:48I love the water feature, because I love the sound of water. It's very soothing.
11:52And the fact that I've got the boardwalk, I can actually access it any time I want.
11:56I'm not relying on somebody taking me to it. I can come myself.
12:00And obviously we've got resident frogs. I've got quite a few of them, which is quite nice to see them sunbathing on the slabs.
12:08I've actually got a lot of succulents from my father-in-law who grows them from babies.
12:25So this is my job today, is to put the succulents into a permanent home.
12:30So here we go. Right, get your bowl.
12:33Get a metal crock to put over the hole in the bottom.
12:36Succulents like pre-draining, so there's a lot of grit and sand in here to make it pre-draining.
12:43It's essential. So anyone who doesn't garden, or have never gardened before, getting succulents is an easy starter for 10.
12:51Right, I'm actually using some curtains at the same size as the plants I'm going to plant.
12:58I've placed the number of curtains in my bowl, and then I'm going to put the earth round it,
13:04so that I don't have to do this when the plant's actually in situ.
13:08Right, now here we go.
13:15It's not a job if you don't like your hands getting dirty.
13:18Now that's what left me with the shape of the carton, which is brilliant.
13:30Oh, I've just knocked off a couple of babies.
13:39Right, number four.
13:42One thing I've got to do is you need to put some gravel or sand on top of the earth, just so the plants have got drainage,
13:58and also the leaves don't hit the damp earth because they'll rot.
14:03So just get a wee spoon.
14:05This is just a little grit.
14:06You could actually put sand in as well if you wanted, but I prefer the grit.
14:12And there's your succulents.
14:13Fantastic.
14:19Before the paths were in, we still had plants around the garden.
14:24I would take photographs on my phone to show Carm, which wasn't exactly the same,
14:30but it was the best we could do at that point.
14:33So I don't need to do that any more.
14:35I don't have to take photographs, especially for Carm to see.
14:37You can go and see yourself, so that makes a huge difference.
14:41It does.
14:42It's brilliant.
14:53We might be in the heart of the summer, but it's time now to start thinking about autumn colour.
14:57And today we're going to be sowing some violas to brighten up the dark days.
15:01So we've got our own seed sowing compost here.
15:06I'm just going to put that in the tray.
15:07I don't want to fill the tray right full.
15:11If we do see any big twigs, I'll just take them out, give that a slight tap.
15:17Now viola seeds are very fine.
15:18So what I want to do, so the seeds don't wash away,
15:22I'm just going to give that a bit of a light water so the soil's already moist.
15:27The variety I've got here is red tiger eye.
15:32And what's really nice about that is a red background with sort of black veins throughout it.
15:36So it's really going to be something interesting to look at.
15:40We'll just take the seed and then just now that the water has settled into compost,
15:46we'll just scatter these over the top.
15:49You want to do this about 10 to 12 weeks before the first frost.
15:53Now I'm not going to sow all of the seeds the now.
15:57We'll sow about half the now and half later.
15:59Because the ones I'm sowing will be for autumn colour
16:02and the ones that the gardeners do, maybe in about 6 weeks time they'll be for spring colour.
16:07There we go, that should be enough.
16:09Now the packet of seed cost us £3 for 25 seeds.
16:13If you were to go and buy a tray of plants, you'd get about 6 in there,
16:16that cost you about £4 to £9.
16:18So it's going to be more plants, it's cheaper and a real sense of achievement going,
16:22I grew them for seed.
16:24Now I've got vermiculite here that I'm just going to scatter over the top.
16:29That'll hold in the moisture and also exclude the seed from the light.
16:36So we ensure good germination.
16:37Just till you can't see any of the compost.
16:43There we go.
16:44We tap.
16:45Then, don't forget your label.
16:48Now at this time of year, you could put this on a sunny windowsill or in a cold propagator.
16:54You don't need to put it in a heated propagator.
16:57These should germinate when two to three weeks,
16:59then by the time they're big enough to handle,
17:02get a seed tray with cells,
17:04thin them out, prick them out into each individual cell,
17:08grow them on.
17:09And I think if we could get these planted up in our pots by mid-September,
17:14allow them to establish themselves before the weather gets really cool,
17:17we should have an abundance of violas and colour in this part of the garden.
17:23But time now for you to go visit one of the garden experts
17:26we've been catching up right throughout the series.
17:28Here's Colin Crosby with some tips just outside Dumfries.
17:34Now one of the most important jobs to do in a garden
17:44is to actually sit down and have a wee look at your own garden.
17:49You can see what's working, what isn't working.
17:52Too often we're so busy doing the jobs
17:55that we actually don't really look at our own garden.
17:58And of course, sometimes people think gardeners hibernate during the wintertime.
18:03Now is the time that we see the jobs that we could actually be doing during the autumn and the winter months.
18:09And I've seen something that's caught my eye down at the bottom of the garden.
18:13Now when I was sitting at the top of the garden, I noticed just how effective these yellows and gold colours were at the end of the pathway.
18:33And I actually need more of them.
18:36So I'll have to dig these up and divide them and bulk them up so there'll be a much more impressive display of yellow and gold next year.
18:45And this is when I use the mobile phone.
18:47A mobile phone, it can't weed, it can't prune, it can't do anything like that.
18:52But it is great at taking photographs.
18:55And I've just got to step away in landscape and take a photograph of what I need to be doing.
19:03And this will remind me in the wintertime, in the autumn time, of what I need to do.
19:08Lift, divide and bulk up.
19:11We need more yellow.
19:12We need more gold here.
19:22Now here we are with the hellenium cuttings that we took earlier in the year.
19:26And I'm really pleased with how they've grown.
19:29Just look at them.
19:30And look at the roots coming out of the bottom of the pot.
19:34That's a great sign.
19:35But let's see what it's like inside the pot.
19:38Give it a tap.
19:39A pot full of roots.
19:42That's just what we want.
19:44Great.
19:45I'm really excited, really happy with that.
19:48And even the pot, which had two cuttings on it.
19:51You can see it here.
19:52They're flowering already.
19:54Sometimes when you put two cuttings into a pot, they actually grow away better because the roots produce a hormone.
20:01And the hormone is shared across with the other cutting in there.
20:04And you can see how they're flowering at the present moment.
20:08And let's just check what the roots are like in there.
20:11Again, a pot full of roots.
20:13These are ready to be planted in the garden.
20:15So let's go and find the space in the garden and we'll get these wonderful little plants planted.
20:22So this is the part of the garden where I am now going to get these planted.
20:29Now there's eight plants in there.
20:31I am going to put them in a drift flowing through here because I think that will give greater impact.
20:36But first of all, just need to give it a little tidy up.
20:40So I'm just going through, making sure I've got the worst of the weeds out the way.
20:46And then the next thing I need to do is I have to space the plants out.
20:51So there's eight plants.
20:54And let's see how they will look in a nice drift.
20:58About 18 inches apart.
21:00And let's see, I might actually put one here.
21:03And final one there.
21:06So that's the plant spaced out.
21:09I'm not going to add any fertiliser to the ground.
21:13Because I actually believe in growing plants hard.
21:17You know, they don't really need fertiliser.
21:19There will be enough naturally in the ground.
21:22But let's get started planting them.
21:25You can see my ground here full of stones.
21:28But don't worry about that.
21:30Just move the stone to the side.
21:32Lots of stones there.
21:33But look at the soil.
21:34Great soil.
21:35And lots of moisture in it.
21:37Which is wonderful for planting.
21:40And then we've got the plant.
21:42We start just opening it, teasing the roots a little bit.
21:46It might seem cruel, but it will actually establish.
21:49Because you want the roots to move into the soil which they're going into.
21:53So let's get them planted.
21:55I'm actually going to do something which might sound a little bit harsh.
22:02Yes, they're flowering.
22:04I'm going to cut the flowers off.
22:07And there's a reason for that.
22:09I want the energy to go into forming new roots and a bigger base.
22:14So eventually I will get better plants.
22:17It's not being cruel.
22:19It's actually being kind to the plant.
22:21So here I am, these flower buds.
22:24I'm just taking them off.
22:26It's next year I actually want them to be flowering really well.
22:31And subsequent years after that.
22:33So don't be scared to do it.
22:35Just take the flowers off and then all the energy goes down into the roots.
22:41Giving you a much better plant in the long run.
22:54Well I'm back in the main veg plot and I've been doing some harvesting.
22:57And what I want to do now, to add to this basket of goodies, I'm going to lift some spring onions.
23:03Now this is an interesting ploy this one.
23:05We've got this variety here which is called Kyoto Market.
23:09And what the gardeners did was they sowed them in a clump.
23:13So they didn't sow a complete row where it's continuous.
23:16They've been sown either in pots.
23:18I sometimes do it in pots and then plant them out.
23:20But here they've just sowed them directly into the plot.
23:23So what you can do with this is then you can harvest this lot as a one-er.
23:29Try not to disturb the label.
23:31There we are.
23:32Now look how clean these are.
23:34We've got one, two, three, four onions in there.
23:38Spring onions there.
23:39And these will be ideal in stir fries or in salads, nicely chopped up.
23:43Now if this was sown as a complete row, if this one got disease at this end,
23:48then that disease could spread all the way along the row.
23:51However, when you sow them in clumps like this, if that one gets disease,
23:56you just dig it out and it doesn't spread along the row.
23:59See, so there's method in the madness.
24:01Now that goes into the basket as well.
24:03And then we come to the onions.
24:05And I'm going to harvest this one here.
24:07Just give it a wee twist and pull that out.
24:10There we are.
24:11Now look at that.
24:12That's brilliantly clean.
24:14When do you harvest onions?
24:16When they're big enough for you to use in the kitchen.
24:19Normally I would want to have an onion which is about the size of a tennis ball.
24:22That means that I can half it and use half and keep the other half.
24:26Or I can get this dried out completely and store it in the shed
24:30and it will remain as hard as a bullet right through until next spring.
24:34You're looking for an onion which has a clean base.
24:37And if I just nip off that there and give it a wee wipe, look how shiny that is on the end.
24:41That's a perfect onion.
24:43So that's going to go in the basket.
24:45Now what happens at this time of year when the onion starts to go yellow on the edges of the leaves.
24:51See that there?
24:52That is a sign that the leaves are maturing and they're starting to die back.
24:56So what many growers will do, what many allotment holders will do,
24:59you'll see they'll take the onion and they just bend it down like that.
25:03Right?
25:04So you've got this restriction or constriction in the stem.
25:09And that slows the sap flow to the foliage, puts the energy into the bulb
25:15and you get a much better, firmer bulb and it matures because it now can see the sun much better.
25:21So that's what you do with that.
25:22Anyway, I've got some other things to harvest.
25:28I've come over here to where the broad beans are
25:30and this is a variety called Bunyard's Exhibition, which is a long podded bean.
25:34And I love these because there's lots of pods and there's lots of big beans in the pods.
25:38Now what you have to do at this time of year, in order to get them to ripen properly from the base up,
25:43you just take your knife and you take the tops out.
25:46Now you could throw these on the composite because they're full of nitrogen
25:49or you could take the freshest leaves and you can steam those and use them in the kitchen.
25:54So that's one thing.
25:55Now the other one is to have a look at the beans down at the bottom here.
25:59How do you know? People ask us, how do you know when the broad beans are ready?
26:03Well, I like to see a shiny pod like that and then when I feel up it,
26:07you end up by having all these lumpy bits quite solid.
26:11Pull it down the way. See, don't pull it up because you'll rip everything.
26:15Pull it down the way, it comes off.
26:17And then if I open that for you, hey, look at that.
26:20And these are a good size and they're just at that stage.
26:24Now, my granddaughter will eat them when they're like that, you know, still with the skin on them.
26:29I prefer, because I'm fussy, I prefer that I take the outer shell off like that.
26:35And that's what we call double podding.
26:38And that piece there, then, honestly, that tastes like a garden pea.
26:44Anyway, that's the broad beans. So that's Bunyard's exhibition.
26:48And then finally, around here, if you remember back to May, Callum and I planted out two rows of French beans.
26:58One was the variety Mascot, another one was the variety Safari.
27:02And the Safari that we planted at that end, they're ready now.
27:05And I picked this earlier, there you are.
27:07Now, look at that. Look at the beans that are on there.
27:10And these are just at the right stage. There's no stringiness in them, nothing like that.
27:14They're absolutely ideal, stir-fried or just even cut up with a little bit of vinegar and mayonnaise.
27:20Brilliant. So, in the basket and off we go for lunch.
27:23Well, Callum, that's just about all the time we've got for this week.
27:35Anyway, look at that over there.
27:37Stunner.
27:38Absolute stunner. That is Hydrangea paniculata limelight.
27:41And on this side, we've got funny frez.
27:44And that is one which has this little bit of pink over the top of it.
27:48And it's just absolutely brilliant.
27:49And what I like about them is that they're easy to prune, right?
27:52That's important. So, you can cut them back to the same level every year.
27:56Almost the same way as you do with Buddleia.
27:58And the harder you prune them, the bigger the flower.
28:02So, that's quite important.
28:03Well, next week, Brian and Roos here.
28:05And they're going to be thinning out the biennials that they sowed back in June.
28:09And also, there's news from a garden that started at the Chelsea Flower Show
28:12and is now rooted in Cumbernauld.
28:14And if you want to catch up with any of the programmes so far, go on to iPlayer.
28:18They're all there and you can catch up with whatever programme you like
28:22and see what we've been doing throughout the series.
