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Gardeners World 2025 Episode 21 (S58E21)
# Bill Duncalf
#David Leighton
#Gardeners World - Season 58
#Geoff Hamilton
#Percy Thrower
#Peter Seabrook
# Bill Duncalf
#David Leighton
#Gardeners World - Season 58
#Geoff Hamilton
#Percy Thrower
#Peter Seabrook
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TVTranskript
00:00This is a rose called Chevy Chase, and between about the middle of June and right up to a week
00:25or so ago, it was flowering gloriously. It's smothered with small cherry red flowers, multi-petalled,
00:32and they last for ages. But now they've done their stuff. So I am deadheading it to tidy it up. And by
00:41the way, when you're deadheading, you actually need to cut back to something, to the first point where
00:46there are no spent flowers coming from it, which means that in a rose like this, it means taking
00:53off quite a lot. If you do that when it's flowering, that will promote more flowers. However, this is
01:00part of the long-term pruning process, because this is a rambler, and ramblers are different to climbers.
01:05Climbers produce their flowers on new growth, but ramblers do the exact opposite. They flower on old
01:13growth. So the new shoots, and this is a really good example, doesn't bear flowers. And you can see
01:19these great arching new shoots, and there are some up in the sky, without any flowers on at all. But if I
01:25leave them, next year, they will have flowers. So that really dictates how you prune it. So what I'm
01:30going to do is deadhead it so it looks better. And then this sort of thing, I will wrap it round the
01:36support in a sort of crisscross way. And that way, you have a good structure of new growth, nice,
01:41flexible shoots that hopefully next year will be covered in flower. Now, coming up on today's programme.
01:54Joe explores a distinctive allotment site in Nottingham, which has been restored into a beautiful
02:00and productive oasis. Wow. Your plot is brilliant. I love it. The wild backdrop. You've got a pond.
02:09The pond actually is a legacy from my mum, and it's just created this really beautiful, tranquil space.
02:18We meet a landscape architect in Sheffield whose love of plants has transformed his life and his home.
02:24I like to grow anywhere and everywhere. I think from my childhood, I love growing plants. So I've
02:31really followed my passion, and I'm so proud about it. As Carol's garden moves into late summer,
02:38she creates an inspirational new planting plan, using the season's colours. Again, you've got that
02:46orange and blue, that real zinginess from there. I love it. And we visit a designer in Keithley, near
02:53Bradford, the 2025 UK City of Culture, whose garden is as edible as it is beautiful.
03:01There are some of the most beautiful plants that are also edible, and you can combine them in ways
03:08that look absolutely stunning.
03:20I'm doing a little bit of cutting back here in the cottage garden, because however
03:50carefully you plan it, there will come a point when the flowers that perform the best in high
03:55summer have done their stuff. They've got nothing more to give, and so they are dying back. Now,
04:01some plants die back very gracefully and beautifully, and you want to keep them. Their seed heads are
04:05lovely, they're great for wildlife, their foliage looks good, but quite a few don't. Quite a few just
04:11look brown and sort of washed up in the border, and that detracts from the display in late summer.
04:18So what I like to do is to go around and cut them back. And so things like this agastature,
04:22which is lovely, and it's perfectly healthy, if I cut that back now, that's doing no harm,
04:29the roots will be fine, it'll come back next year and do its stuff. But it does leave a little bit of
04:35space, and you don't really want too much bare soil this time of year. But if you go and shop around,
04:41you're bound to find some annuals for sale with the right sort of colour that you want for the garden.
04:47You can just pop in to fill gaps. And if you're prepared, you can sow your own annuals. If you
04:53sow them in spring, and they will grow on. And I've got some Nicotiana Silvestris,
04:57precise for that purpose, that will perform at their best from now through till autumn.
05:04Of course, the ground is hard and dry.
05:10But we've had some rain, so not too bad. Now, this is a Nicotiana, Nicotiana Silvestris,
05:17tobacco plant, really tall, with lovely sort of white flower, with really intoxicating musky scent.
05:25It's one of those plants that is designed to release its fragrance at night, attracting moths
05:31as pollinators. And I put this on the corner because it will grow really quite tall. It's late-ish
05:38in the year to be planting out, so probably will only reach about four foot. But if you plant these
05:42in July, beginning of July, they can reach six foot tall. Really statuesque plants. But as I get in
05:49under the rose, I need something that is a little bit smaller. I also want to pick up
05:54some of the pinks that we've got in the gods. So I've got these cosmos. They're not specifically
06:02named, they're just a mix. But I like the pink, and they will not grow so tall. These will stay
06:09about two to three foot, so therefore can go a little bit closer underneath the rose.
06:13And having cut back, I've got the space to do this. That goes in there like that. This one can go here.
06:23Plants like the cosmos will respond to warmth. So as long as it stays above about five degrees,
06:35they will go on flowering. And keep deadheading them. That will encourage more flowers. And I've
06:41known cosmos flowering here in a sheltered place at Christmas time. So that's really good long-term autumn colours.
06:47Now, Joe has been to Nottingham to visit an allotment. Well, so far so ordinary.
07:06There are lots of allotments all over the country, except that this particular allotment site is not ordinary at all.
07:14Two miles from Nottingham city centre lies a hidden slice of horticultural history.
07:26Victorian-era allotments known as Bagthorpe Gardens.
07:32These allotments are nearly 200 years old. And if you didn't know where they were,
07:37you wouldn't have a clue how to find them. I've been told to look for a cave.
07:40I think it's up here. I'm scrambling up.
07:50Tucked away behind these rows of houses are around six acres of Grade II listed gardening heritage.
08:01Ooh. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we're in allotment territory.
08:06Of which 37 of the original 65 plots remain. It's not like a normal allotment, I've got to say.
08:14There's sort of gates and rooms and sections and beautiful hedges, though. Fantastic for wildlife.
08:20Wow. Lovely, colourful, live honeybees.
08:29All this may have easily been lost if it wasn't for a charity called the Bagthorpe Gardeners,
08:34set up 28 years ago by founder Paul Saxton.
08:38Hello, Paul. Hiya, Joe.
08:42This place is amazing. It's pretty good. It's enormous. I got lost. It's pretty good.
08:47I've seen a lot of allotments in my time, I've got to say, but this place is special.
08:51What's the history of it? It's all to do with the Industrial Revolution.
08:54You know, most people before the Industrial Revolution lived in the countryside, but things were changing rapidly.
09:00The enclosure acts happened that people couldn't use the common land anymore.
09:04Yeah.
09:04And then new mills were opening with new machinery.
09:07So the whole way of life changed. People had to move into the mill towns.
09:11They came into very substandard houses, you know, back-to-back houses, poor sanitation.
09:17Then there was a big trade slump, 1830s into the 1840s, known as the Hungry Fortis.
09:23The newly formed Labourers' Friends Society had workers' welfare at their heart,
09:28and their leader wanted to tackle food poverty with allotments.
09:35They had an idea of a quarter of an acre per plot with a little hut.
09:39So, I mean, a quarter of an acre, you can grow a lot of food on that sort of family.
09:42Yeah, that's right. That's definitely, yeah.
09:44I mean, it was intended to see a family through a shortage of work and wages for about 13 weeks of a year.
09:51Plus the fact that the state of, you know, where people were living was terrible.
09:55Sort of slums.
09:55It was back-to-back houses. So to get a place to come like this, this was the vision.
10:01You can grow your own food, you could be independent, and you'd have a higher moral sense, really.
10:07So any idea of what they would have been growing here back then?
10:11I mean, this is quite sandy ground here. Basically, I think it was root crops.
10:15You know, things like carrots and lots of things that we'd be growing today, I think, would be similar.
10:19So far snips, you know, cabbages, all the basics, I think, they would be growing.
10:26And it seems the vision for people to independently grow their food has lasted to this day.
10:33Hello, Aaron. Nice to meet you.
10:35Oh, you've got a nice bounty.
10:37Yeah, I like to grow what I eat, as it were.
10:40I don't grow unusual things. I just grow what I can cook.
10:45How long have you had to plot here?
10:4720 years.
10:4820 years.
10:49And it's an amazing sight, isn't it?
10:51Fabulous.
10:51It's really a special place, isn't it?
10:53Yeah, yeah. It's great.
10:54What does it mean to you?
10:55Well, it's such a good community here.
10:58Lots of lovely birds, particularly robins, who follow you around as you're gardening and digging.
11:03And you turn around and there's a robin about one foot away from you.
11:06Yeah.
11:06So that's really, really nice.
11:10But it wasn't plain sailing for these garden allotments.
11:15After nearly 150 years of use, they fell into neglect, becoming completely unusable.
11:22Until 1997, when Paul came to the rescue.
11:28So, Paul, how did you get involved in the first place?
11:30I used to be a paint and decorator at one time.
11:33And I had a young family, two girls.
11:36And I wasn't really that interested in gardening at all.
11:39And once one of my customers asked me if I could dig potatoes up.
11:44It was just an amazing experience, really.
11:46It was like switched on a light in my brain.
11:49And so I thought, I've got to have an allotment.
11:54An opportunity arose for Paul to buy a house adjoining these derelict allotment gardens.
11:59And what he saw propelled him into action.
12:03When I got inside the gardens, I realised how many of them were totally abandoned.
12:09Literally wastelands.
12:11And I thought it was just wrong.
12:14And then that's how we formed the Bagthorpe Gardeners Group.
12:17The charity set about restoring plots that were almost lost to land developers a decade earlier.
12:24There was about 36, 37 plots on here now.
12:28Got over 100 members.
12:30It's a break away, you know, from their everyday lives.
12:34It's an oasis, really.
12:37One of the distinguishing features people have cherished here are the garden outhouses,
12:42lovingly known as bothies.
12:45Roger, I have got bothy envy.
12:47I've got to say, your bothy is just beautiful.
12:51Well, what's interesting is when I first came here, I saw it as a ruin which was covered in creepers.
12:59It was clearly one of the historic buildings.
13:02And I was very fortunate to have a friend who was a retired builder.
13:07We were able to be able to turn it into what we have today.
13:10So most plots have a bothy?
13:13Because people had a very large plot, they would come to the bothy to stay over the weekend.
13:19What would have been in these bothies originally? Do you know?
13:22There might have been a bed and it wouldn't have been very sophisticated.
13:27And definitely around the fire, you know, they'd have made a cup of tea.
13:31And a few tools and things like that.
13:32Lots of, yeah, tools are in there.
13:34And I think overall that would have been a valuable function for making this a place
13:40that you could spend the whole day working hard.
13:43Yeah.
13:43And the hard work still continues.
13:48With such a big sight, some plots are still being restored today.
13:53Hello, Val.
13:53Hi, Jo. Welcome.
13:55Your plot is brilliant. I love it. The wild backdrop.
13:58You've got a pond down there. Your blueberries are incredible.
14:01Yeah. Fantastic.
14:03How long have you had it?
14:04I've had it since January 2020.
14:06OK. What was it like when you first came here?
14:08It was completely derelict.
14:10It took three months to just flatten everything to make space for some new beds.
14:16So what are you growing? Are you trying anything new this year?
14:18I'm growing cauliflowers, which are new to me. I'm quite a new grower.
14:22Yeah.
14:22So I'm growing cauliflowers for the first time.
14:24But there's also quite a lot of ornamental action down the end and somewhere to sit.
14:28You've got a destination point, as a designer would say.
14:32Yeah, the pond actually is a legacy from my mum who passed away in December.
14:39And she loved to see videos and photos of the allotment.
14:43And it's just created this really beautiful, tranquil space.
14:47A lovely place for reflection and for remembering mum.
14:51And, you know, it's definitely her legacy to this allotment.
14:54Wow. Well, having spent some time here, you start to realise how special this place is.
15:08It's got a very strong atmosphere. And I think that's down to the history, the people,
15:13the work that they've put into this place and that emotional connection with their plots too.
15:19And just to think, we are right in the middle of a city here.
15:23And it's not just a haven for people, but for wildlife too.
15:27It's fabulous.
15:30And you are right in the middle of a city here.
15:32And I think that it's not just a good time there.
15:33It's like, the old line is so beautiful, you know, you might ride it in the middle of a city.
15:36And I think what we've got, we got out of the city here.
15:41And I think this is something that's really important.
15:44It's really important.
15:46You know, I think it's all about how special it is.
15:48And I think this is what are the best.
15:51Like, the best, how special it is, it's a great position.
15:53We're used to thinking of as allotments as being these open sites growing mainly edible plants,
16:06but they were intended, or at least many of them were, as gardens for people that didn't have gardens,
16:13with lawns and trees and little houses, and they're disappearing, and it takes the passion
16:19and the commitment of individuals to reverse that and restore them and treasure them.
16:27What I'm doing here is planting out a series of rosemary bushes that I took as cuttings this time last year.
16:35And the great thing about rosemary is it thrives in poor soil with good drainage and full sun.
16:42And you can see this soil here is really, really powdery and thin and a stone underneath,
16:49and not much wants to grow on it, but the rosemary should be happy.
16:58You can see I'm planting this quite high, I'm not sinking it down, so it's not going to sit in water.
17:04There we go.
17:07And they will flower in late winter, these lovely pale blue flowers, from February through to April.
17:15And then if you clip them immediately after they flower, they will hold their shape pretty well.
17:22Just because these are plants that love hot sunshine, poor soil and good drainage,
17:28it doesn't mean that they don't need any water.
17:31So I will water these in well, and if it doesn't rain, I should water them at least once a fortnight.
17:38I've got the same amount of cuttings which I'm going to put on the other side of the path,
17:41but before I do that, there are some sage cuttings that I want to take while I'm here.
17:58Come on. Good boy. In you come.
18:05Having taken the sage, put them in a polythene bag, because it means that you restrict the moisture loss.
18:13Now, with any cutting, you don't want anything like that amount of leaves,
18:16because the leaves are all transpiring, they're losing moisture, and there are no roots to feed it back in.
18:21So the first thing to do is just pull the extra foliage off.
18:24And because it's a sage plant, I can use that in the kitchen.
18:29What I have here is perlite.
18:31Perlite does very well for cuttings, but you could also use grit.
18:35You can use any gritty mix of compost.
18:38You can take cuttings in pure sand.
18:40The point being is they don't need nutrition to form roots.
18:44They need water and they need air.
18:47And then push them into the corner.
18:51So that's one there. We've got a couple more that I can take.
18:56Take the leaves off.
19:00There are different types of sage, but they all work in the same way.
19:03And this summer year, until the beginning of October, is absolutely the best time to take these semi-ripe cuttings.
19:12So this is new wood, but it's had a chance just to harden off a bit.
19:16And it's really the easiest type of cutting to take.
19:20I'm just going to cut that back a little bit, below a node, like that, and push this into the other corner.
19:27And when you see new growth, you see new leaves form, you know there will be roots and they'll be ready to pot on.
19:33So the next stage is water it and put it somewhere that is sunny, but not in bright sunlight.
19:40A west-facing windowsill is perfectly good.
19:43If you've got a greenhouse, just make sure it's slightly shaded.
19:46If you've got a propagator, that's great, but if you haven't, just simply put one of these bags over the top, close it up, and that will keep the moisture in.
19:55And it actually works incredibly well.
19:58And I would expect to have two new plants from that in about three to four weeks' time, then pot them on, and then grow them on for a year.
20:06And they'll be the size of the rosemary and be ready to plant out here this time next year.
20:11We're off to Sheffield now to meet Gokul Azarkan, who is a landscape architect and doesn't have his own garden.
20:19And yet that certainly hasn't stopped him gardening.
20:27I'm originally from Tamil Nadu, south of India.
20:31I came here to do my master's and I'm working as a landscape architect.
20:36At the moment I live in an apartment.
20:39I don't have a garden, but I have gardens.
20:43I like to grow anywhere and everywhere.
20:54This is my bedroom and I grow plants here as well.
20:57So I've got a little corner of a house plant next to the east-facing window.
21:03And outside the window in the cell, I've started growing the bonsais.
21:11I love to surround myself with the plants.
21:13It's sort of like a naturalistic feel to your room.
21:17People might think I'm so obsessed or crazy.
21:20So this is our launch window.
21:28So I tend to group my plants because that's good for their health.
21:32They tend to make a microclimate in them by increasing their humidity.
21:37And I feel that kind of potentially make them to grow better.
21:41Over here, I've got a mini holster.
21:44So basically in the UK, holsters are grown as outdoor plants,
21:47but I've made it as a nice indoor plant or house plant.
21:52This plant, I got it in a garden centre for a pound.
21:55This is called Oxalis Sunset.
21:57I've taken a propagation through cuttings and offered it to many people.
22:01And they all love this plant.
22:07It all started when my friend gifted me a small plant cutting from age of five.
22:12And then my fashion grow from there.
22:15Gardening was a coping mechanism for me.
22:18When I see plants, when I nurture them,
22:20and then it rewards back with the blooms and things.
22:22It is really rewarding and amazing.
22:25Me and my older brother are the first generation to go to school and university.
22:30My parents were not keen on me growing plants
22:34because they thought I might get devoted in my career goals.
22:39But then eventually, I educated them and they got to know
22:42there is a career with horticulture and landscaping design.
22:48As a landscape architect, I view these urban green spaces
22:51as a really important feature.
22:54These spaces help to purify air.
22:57They reduce the rise in temperature.
22:59And they also helps in the drainage system, like rainwater runoff.
23:06Back in India, I don't really see these kind of spaces.
23:09I think there should be more of these spaces in India,
23:11especially where there's a flood prone, more frequent of floods.
23:16Sheffield is really a place where one could indulge in nature.
23:27Over here, we've got a patio space that I've made a good use of it as my container garden.
23:33So initially, I started this to grow plants that I use in my profession to kind of like experiment.
23:40So this is basically an experimental garden.
23:43In India, we love roses.
23:45I love the old rose varieties, but I also love to collect the unusual color roses.
23:51The one that I've got here is kind of like a light lilac shade.
23:57And over here, I've got another unusual color rose.
24:01This is called hot chocolate rose.
24:04So I suggest everybody should have a little pond in their garden.
24:08It's so essential for the wildlife.
24:13Yeah, cool.
24:14Over here, I've got a cool little funky plant.
24:16It's called persicaria purple fantasy.
24:19And they are really cool plant to add in the shady gardens because they love shade.
24:24Cool, funky patterns on the leaves.
24:31This space downstairs used to be a space for storing bins and quite secluded area.
24:37So there was more anti-social behavior when I moved here.
24:40So I thought to add a lot of plants.
24:42Now it's not much of anti-social behavior now.
24:45Over here, I've got a really nice black wall.
24:48And the thing I like about the black wall is like the plant that is against the black wall really pop out.
24:54It boosts the color of the plant.
24:56I've got a sporty photo film.
24:59Look at the color with the black wall.
25:02These inflorescence and the white hairy stems kind of like pop out really well.
25:09I've got a strawberry.
25:12And the banana plant here that I got from the clearance sale for a pound, I'm putting here.
25:21So you can see how the black wall kind of like make the plant really pop out.
25:26I love to propagate my own plants.
25:32Got a cutting of roses.
25:44This is my little greenhouse sort of thing.
25:46So basically a plastic container.
25:48So when you put the lid on, it acts like a mini greenhouse capturing all the moisture inside,
25:54which is nice for all the cuttings to grow.
25:57So this is a rose cutting that I propagated last year.
26:00And now you can see the lovely growth on this two little cutting.
26:03And here I've got a little cutting of a salvia hot lips.
26:09It's just growing at the moment.
26:11You can see the little shoots coming up.
26:14I think from my childhood, I love growing plants.
26:17So it is something in my blood or gene.
26:20No matter you have a garden or ground space, still you can just grow plants wherever you can.
26:26I've really followed my passion and I'm so proud about it.
26:45I love the way that Gokul has been able to take his love of plants as a landscape architect
26:52from a big level, on a street, in a big garden,
26:56and yet bring it to the intimacy and the privacy of his room, of the backyard.
27:02And it shows you that actually gardens live within you as much as they do outside.
27:09And it's that connection between the two that matters.
27:11There's something that happens in that magic.
27:15Here in the paradise garden, it's become more than my idea.
27:19More than just the plants.
27:21It's become a place in its own right.
27:23And I often come here and sit and just look out on the world.
27:27And I deliberately tried around Longmeadow to create spots that are just good for stopping him.
27:34Letting the garden exist around you and not really thinking about anything at all.
27:39Just being.
27:40And that can be powerful magic and at times, powerful medicine.
27:46And that can be powerful medicine.
27:49scholar
27:50scholar
27:53Very much into tomato season now.
28:21And it is important to keep harvesting them.
28:23It encourages more fruit to develop.
28:28This is a variety of tomato called Sun Gold.
28:31Cherry tomato.
28:33And it's a particularly good one to grow for instant eating
28:37because it's very sweet.
28:39It's pretty reliable.
28:40You can grow it indoors or outdoors
28:43and lipens to this distinctly orange rather than red colour.
28:48And at this stage of the tomato season,
28:52a good tip is to start lifting the plant.
28:56What that means is taking off the lower leaves.
28:58If you just take about a third of the foliage off, then that's fine.
29:01And the reason for doing that is to let more air flow in.
29:08If you get ventilation, that helps with tomato blight.
29:11It helps with whitefly.
29:13And also means that more light can get on trusses,
29:17particularly low down on the plant, and they'll ripen better.
29:20These are tomato called Black Crim or Black Crimean,
29:34sometimes called Black Russian.
29:36And it looks sort of unripe.
29:51It's got a greeny, almost a brown sort of chocolatey colour.
29:55Absolutely delicious.
29:57One of my favourite tomatoes of all.
29:59I have a bed of outdoor tomatoes,
30:24which you can see are way behind the indoor ones,
30:28but completely normal in terms of what you would expect
30:32from a British summer, and it's been a good summer.
30:34They will be ripening in September,
30:36which is normal for outdoor tomatoes.
30:38Now, this is a variety called Gardener's Delight,
30:41and it's a really good doer.
30:43If you've never grown tomatoes before,
30:45it's definitely the first one I would start with.
30:48They're robust, and they're heavy croppers too.
30:51And I always grow some.
31:00Now, it's time to pay another visit to Carol's garden,
31:04where she is celebrating and sharing the joys
31:08of her late summer borders.
31:10Planting a bed or a border can seem a really daunting sort of prospect.
31:23I mean, which plants do you choose?
31:25Well, when I'm planting, first of all,
31:28I think about things that are going to go on
31:31right the way through the seasons,
31:33going to look good all year round.
31:35But then there are the shooting stars,
31:40those plants who only have a sort of ephemeral presence,
31:44and yet they lend a certain sort of pizzazz
31:47to any planting you've got.
31:49Throughout my garden, there are lots and lots of smaller gardens,
32:06separate spaces, which have their own kind of personality,
32:10and their own kind of planting.
32:13This garden is predominantly white.
32:15It's absolutely glowing.
32:17This flat tapaster here,
32:21with its sort of misty wistfulness,
32:24it just gives a sort of air of contentment and happiness.
32:29The first thing you come to when you look into this
32:32very special little corner is the cosmos.
32:35It's over the top, not physically,
32:38but in that it just overlooks everything
32:41and it kind of sets the mood too.
32:44It's not just its beautiful big white flowers,
32:47but it's also its feathery foliage.
32:50And whenever you're thinking about putting plants together,
32:53I'm looking not just at the flower colour,
32:56but its shape, the whole form of the plant,
32:59its texture, the foliage,
33:01and it's accompanying this white phlox.
33:04And this has to be just about my favourite humble of all time.
33:09I mean, I love cow parsley.
33:11All the rest of the family.
33:12But this is Selenum Wallachianum.
33:15This is its moment.
33:17And yet, it's been a beautiful plant
33:19right the way through from the spring.
33:21What I love about it is its flowers now
33:24in these great plateau, tiny little florets,
33:28but also this filigree foliage.
33:30And in the spring, that foliage is even better.
33:34It's like great big green doilies spread across the ground.
33:39It's an absolute delight.
33:41I think the whole thing works together really quite well.
33:45Lots of it by accident, but lots of it is by design.
33:49Well, how about this for a complete contrast?
34:06Up there, it was white and peaceful and quiet.
34:10But here, it's alive.
34:12It's really, really zingy.
34:14And most of the effect is created by these two plants.
34:19This glorious crocosmia with the glowing orange flowers.
34:24And then below it and mingling with it,
34:27this big blue geranium.
34:29This is geranium roseanne.
34:31It's been in flower since early summer, May, June.
34:35And it will go on flowering right the way through the season,
34:39simply because it doesn't set any seed.
34:42It's a sterile hybrid.
34:43So it's got no reason to stop flowering.
34:46It's worth its weight in gold in any planting.
34:50And look at the bees in here.
34:52They absolutely adore this crocosmia.
34:55I really think it works beautifully.
34:57What I want to do next is put some of these wonderful late summer flowering perennials together
35:12to make something truly exciting and hopefully inspirational.
35:18What I want to start with is some structure in here.
35:27And for that, I'm going to use this plant.
35:30This is an Actaea.
35:32And when these flowers are open, there'll be tall spires of white, beautifully scented.
35:38But for now, it's just the foliage I want to admire.
35:42And I want it to be a real centrepiece.
35:45I should explain this.
35:48I'm planting up this great big trough.
35:51And it approximates to the sort of bed or border that any of us might have in our gardens.
35:57In here is some really, really good compost.
36:01Absolutely ideal.
36:02Now, one of the plants that immediately springs to mind to combine with that Actaea is this lovely salvia.
36:17Now, I always wanted to call it Maradona, but it's called Caradona.
36:21I think I've got it the right way round.
36:23This is a totally hardy salvia.
36:26And one of its enormous benefits, apart from the fact that the bees adore it, is that even when these flowers have finished, it leaves behind it these beautiful dark brats, which I think are going to tone perfectly with the Actaea.
36:44Now, this is a Helenium.
36:47I usually like big, tall Heleniums, but in this planting, this short variety is absolutely ideal.
36:54I love purple and orange together.
36:57There's something about it.
36:58It's really, really good.
37:00And if you look at the middle of these, I always think they're like sort of bronze doorknobs, the centre of Heleniums.
37:07And they, of course, pick up the colour of the leaves here and the brats in the salvia.
37:14Isn't it lovely?
37:15It was meant to be, wasn't it?
37:17Let's get a bit of movement into the whole thing.
37:21It's just wonderful to see these lovely, soft, wafty things.
37:25This is a beautiful Pennisetum.
37:28I think it's a total delight.
37:33Now, I've got my stalwart Salinum that we've seen down the garden.
37:37It's absolutely lovely.
37:39And look at that fine foliage.
37:41And how about this?
37:42This is an accident.
37:44This lovely purple stem just picks up on the leaves of the Actaea.
37:49Look at that.
37:50And then, when you mix in this Estrantia, which is one of them,
37:54my all-time favourites.
37:56I think one of the reasons I love this is that colour is so subtle.
38:01A mixture of pink and white and green.
38:04But if I were to put something like this with it, rather than looking subtle now,
38:11it just looks dingy.
38:13It's definitely a no-no.
38:15I think the same goes for this.
38:18Not as bad, but still a bit much.
38:23But I know where this is going to go.
38:26Down this end, I've got different plants.
38:30The Nifofia is ideal here, I think.
38:33And it picks up the orange from the Hellenium.
38:36But look at it with the centre of this Stalia.
38:39Just bring this Stalia head down.
38:42And put it next door to the Nifofia.
38:45Look at the similarity between those oranges.
38:47It's just right, isn't it?
38:49But the reason I want this here is I've used this Geranium.
38:54This is Roseanne, the same one that we saw down the garden.
38:58This time, instead of being with a Cricosmia, with a Nifofia.
39:02So again, you've got that orange and blue, that real zinginess from there.
39:07And it's a low plant, this.
39:09And it's also a scrambler.
39:11Got this sort of river that runs right through.
39:14I love it. I love it.
39:24You know what?
39:29I'm really pleased with it.
39:31I mean, I'm not pleased with myself.
39:33It's the plants that do it.
39:35All those elements that I was talking about before.
39:38We've got real stalwarts here.
39:41We've got things that lend a bit of ephemerality.
39:45We've got real structure.
39:48And things that are going to go on looking good for ages and ages.
39:53Right now, I'm just going to enjoy late summer.
39:57Well, I think the great thing about late summer is it's getting later.
40:22And so not all of us can have such wonderful plants as Carol.
40:26But there is a chance for all of us to enjoy summer stretching out nowadays well into October.
40:34It's been a really good year for figs.
40:37And they ripen almost overnight.
40:40And when they do, the birds love them. Look at that.
40:42That looked perfect.
40:44You reach up, turn it round, and the birds have been at them.
40:48So this is something that I'm now harvesting every single day.
40:52And I'm not exaggerating when I say that this one tree has given us over 100 figs.
40:58All of them delicious.
40:59It's very much a figgy year.
41:01And to grow good figs, you don't need a lot of space.
41:06You don't even need a garden.
41:08Because they grow really well in a pot.
41:17Now's a really good time to plant a fig.
41:19And they're easy to grow.
41:21And if you plant one now, you could have a decent sized fig tree in five years' time.
41:27And they grow very happily in a pot.
41:30I've got one here, which I'm going to pot up.
41:32This is a brown turkey.
41:34And if you want a regular supply of figs, I would advise getting brown turkey.
41:39So, you need to get yourself some decent compost.
41:42What I have here is basic peat-free bark-based compost.
41:48That is sieved garden compost.
41:51And then this is horticultural grit.
41:57Because the one thing they do need is drainage.
41:59So, whether it's grit or even sand, you will need to add drainage to whatever compost you use.
42:06In order to give it goodness, I'm going to add the garden compost to the potting compost.
42:15And just mix that in a little bit.
42:22And the grit, I'm going to add all of this.
42:29Like that.
42:30And then mix this up thoroughly.
42:39I'm using a recycled plastic pot.
42:41But it doesn't want to be, at this stage, any bigger than this.
42:44I may well, when the roots are filling this, pot this on into a really nice terracotta pot.
42:50But that's a few years down the line.
42:52We'll put a decent layer of compost in the bottom.
42:56Yeah, that's about right.
43:05Now, if I take it out, you can see that there's a good root system and it's a little bit root bound at the bottom.
43:13Nothing to worry about at all.
43:15In this case, don't try and untangle roots.
43:18Just simply, gently break them.
43:22And the reason you do that is because that will stimulate the roots to grow new roots from the broken point.
43:29And they will grow out into the soil rather than round and round at the base of the plant.
43:34Right.
43:35Hold that in place.
43:40And fill around it.
43:47Just firm it down lightly.
43:52Now, that's all you need to do except for a regular water.
43:57This will need watering once a week.
44:00However, if you go away and for any reason can't water it for two, three or even four weeks, it will survive.
44:06So it does make it the ideal plant to grow in our increasingly hot, dry summers, whether you do so on a balcony, outside a back door.
44:15But wherever you put it, put it somewhere sunny, because that's what's going to ripen the fruits.
44:21Now, just to be clear about the fruits, they can bear three crops at once, and never less than two.
44:29If a fig is going to be ripe, it will be full-sized by now, and then will ripen over the next month or two.
44:37If it is half-sized, like these here, they're not going to grow sufficiently in order to ripen before the weather changes.
44:45These are geared to ripen round about the new year.
44:47And if you live in central Spain or Greece or south of France, they'll be delicious.
44:52But unfortunately, our weather is not like this, so they'll be no good.
44:55And these are the ones that stay on over winter, turn brown, and eventually fall off.
45:01However, there is another crop emerging.
45:04Now, you can see here a tiny little fig.
45:06And you go into winter and they're pea-sized.
45:08That is giving you next year's harvest.
45:11We're going up to Yorkshire now, just outside Bradford, which, by the way, is this year's UK City of Culture.
45:23To Keithley, where Pippa Chapman has a permaculture gun.
45:27Hi, I'm Pippa, and welcome to my permaculture garden.
45:44Permaculture is very much about gardening in tune with nature.
45:49Food forests and forest gardening is very much a specific technique within that.
45:55So it's about growing multiple layers.
45:58It's about designing a kind of intentional edible ecosystem that's very wild,
46:04but the plants are very carefully selected.
46:06And it's managed in a way that really takes into account biodiversity
46:11and trying to help wildlife to thrive within your food-growing space.
46:18I think when people think about permaculture gardens and food forests,
46:22they quite often think it has to be messy and totally wild.
46:27It's about looking at how nature grows and creating communities of plants
46:34that are all growing together and all the plants are useful in some way.
46:39So it's different from a herbaceous border in that when you're doing a purely ornamental garden,
46:44you're just looking, you're just thinking about how things look.
46:47We're wanting to think about how we're going to use those plants.
46:50What are their function within the ecosystem?
46:53So some plants are great for pollinators to bring in insects for natural pest management.
47:00Some plants are great at covering the ground to prevent weeds from coming up.
47:05And many of the plants are edible as well, so they're providing food for us.
47:10I mean, it's hugely satisfying to be able to grow your own food,
47:15just to know that you know exactly what's gone into the soil,
47:19exactly how that plant's been treated,
47:22to know that it's grown just, you know, a few metres from your kitchen.
47:27There's a large canopy layer in food forest, but in a small garden,
47:37obviously we can't fit in a giant tree.
47:40So we look at smaller trees like this is a plum tree here.
47:44It's about maximising that vertical space.
47:47And then under that, some of the herbaceous layers in.
47:50And you can see here these Welsh onions have this adjuga around the base,
47:55which is acting as a really effective ground cover.
48:01I think one of the most important things when trying to garden with nature
48:05and attract wildlife into your garden is just not being too tidy.
48:09The more that we sort of leave things and the more relaxed we become,
48:13the more that we leave space and habitat for the wildlife to come in.
48:21This pile here was not meant to be here.
48:24This was a temporary pile of garden branches and brash that we piled here.
48:30But when we actually started to clear it away,
48:33we were suddenly met by a swarm of bees, bumble bees,
48:38and realised that they'd made a nest in here.
48:41It made us realise how important the piles of brash are like this to have in the garden.
48:56Food forest is a really low maintenance way to grow food,
48:59but it's not a zero maintenance way to grow food.
49:01It's not as high maintenance as annual beds,
49:04where you're constantly weeding and watering,
49:07because those plants really don't like competition.
49:09But the maintenance in a food forest is more about stopping plants
49:13from out-competing each other.
49:15But the great thing is, say my kale is getting too big
49:18and it's swamping out my blackcurrant,
49:20the leaves that I'm cutting off the kale to reduce its size,
49:24I can then eat those for tea.
49:26So it's this idea of harvest as maintenance is a really great way to think about it.
49:32Particularly in a small-scale garden, it's in your own garden,
49:36you want it to look really beautiful
49:38and there's absolutely no reason why you have to compromise on that
49:41in order to have a food forest.
49:43There are some of the most beautiful plants that are also edible,
49:46perennial vegetables,
49:48and you can combine them in ways that look absolutely stunning.
49:59People seek us out because we feel as strongly and passionately as they do
50:03about permaculture and ecological gardening.
50:08For about seven years now I've been developing this garden,
50:12designing it and managing it.
50:14There's many businesses and organisations and private clients
50:20that we've worked for over the years in the Bradford District
50:23who have all embraced this way of growing
50:25and I think the more that I've been able to show them
50:28how beautiful and alive it can be,
50:31the more people have been convinced and asked for this kind of garden.
50:44The challenging thing about permaculture for a conventional gardener like myself
50:57is this mixing in of edible and decorative plants side by side in a border.
51:03It looks great, it can taste wonderful,
51:05but it's still quite a leap for someone like me
51:08who's always had a vegetable garden or a decorative garden,
51:11but really inspiring.
51:14Now some big, big changes here at the end of the writing garden.
51:18You can see that what we have here are the footings for a new building.
51:23There was the writing shed there, but that had got very rotten
51:26and needed replacing anyway.
51:28And the reason for this goes back to RHS Chelsea.
51:32If you remember, I did a dog garden there.
51:34And all the dog garden was relocated to Bassistic Dogs and Cats Home.
51:39And they've taken an awful lot of it, but they said very early on
51:42they didn't want the building.
51:43And I thought about this.
51:45So, I'm paying for it to be put up in Longmeadow
51:49as a memorial to that mad, weird and wonderful time
51:55when I got talked into doing a Chelsea garden.
51:58And I promise you, the only Chelsea garden I will ever do.
52:01And we'll use it as a garden glorified potting shed for years to come.
52:25The reason why I'm fondling the leaves of these pelargoniums
52:31is because they are all scented-leaf pelargoniums.
52:35And some of them have lovely flowers, like Cidoides here
52:39has the most exquisite, tiny but intense flower.
52:43But all of them have a particular scent and fragrance.
52:47Now I bought this collection at Gardeners World Live.
52:51They were healthy but small plants.
52:53I've potted them up into terracotta pots,
52:55which is a good idea for pelargoniums
52:57because they breathe a little bit more.
52:59I haven't fed them at all.
53:01And as a rule, pelargoniums do not need over-watering.
53:05Certainly during the summer, they cope very well
53:07if they're watered, say, once a week.
53:09In winter, not watered at all.
53:11I'm really happy they're here. These seem really healthy.
53:14Now, I tend to bring my aeoniums indoors round about October time.
53:19They're much better outside from about May through to September.
53:22Because to give them some fresh air, some light,
53:24a little bit of rain doesn't hurt them at all.
53:26I put one in here to show you.
53:28Now you can take cuttings, if you get a nice straight stem.
53:32If I take that like that, you can see that it's very green.
53:38Now we want that green to go.
53:40So simply leave it on the side.
53:42And I'll leave it in here like that for ten days, two weeks,
53:46until that green has disappeared and you have this kind of grey callus.
53:50And that will stop it rotting as the roots form.
53:54Now, these are a number of cuttings that I took about a month ago.
53:59Sometimes aeoniums can take three months to root.
54:03So this is early days.
54:05But let's just check them to see.
54:07Because if they have got roots, they can be potted on.
54:15Tangled up in amongst the perlite are fresh roots growing.
54:19And that means I can pot them on.
54:22Mix the perlite that they were in into some ordinary peat-free compost.
54:28So it's really well-drained.
54:30That's important.
54:32The one thing that will destroy any succulent is being too wet.
54:37And I'm burying the stem.
54:40Nothing else to give it a bit of stability.
54:42And I will dress that with grit.
54:45Keep it in a greenhouse until next May.
54:48And by which time the roots will have grown out, secured in the pot,
54:52and it will grow.
54:57OK.
54:58That's enough of watching me working.
55:00Here's some jobs for you this weekend.
55:14Now is a good time to sow greens
55:17for an autumn and winter harvest.
55:19And they give a deliciously spicy choice of leaves, both eaten raw and cooked.
55:26Sprinkle the seed thinly on a peat-free compost.
55:29Cover them over lightly.
55:30Water them.
55:31And put them somewhere warm to germinate.
55:34They'll need pricking out and then they can be planted out into their final position in about six weeks' time.
55:39It's a really good idea to mulch your tomatoes at this time of year.
55:51There's lots of things you can use, but I find that simply raw comfrey leaves do the job very well.
55:57Whatever you decide to use, water your tomatoes first.
56:01Cut the comfrey leaves and then just spread them around each plant.
56:05As well as reducing the loss of moisture from the soil, they very quickly decompose and feed goodness into the soil and therefore into the plant.
56:16If you grow lavender either as bushes or as a hedge, the chances are it will have finished flowering by now and it needs cutting back.
56:27Although, if you live in a very cold part of the country, you might consider leaving it over winter to add an extra layer of protection and then cutting it back in spring.
56:36But, for most of us, if you clip it back now, removing all the spent flower heads and stems, it will look sharper and smarter all winter long.
56:46Sometimes we can get so involved in the process of gardening and other jobs we have to do and the hard work and forget what it's for.
57:15We grow flowers for our delight. We create spaces that make us feel better as people. And we grow food to eat.
57:25And the first rule is, I would say, never grow anything that you don't love to eat.
57:30So, I've chopped the tomatoes that I just picked, completely fresh. A little bit of elephant garlic that I harvested a few weeks ago.
57:39Don't de-skin tomatoes. You lose a lot of their flavour.
57:43The only point in doing that, if you buy supermarket ones with very thick skins, you may want to.
57:48And I've added butter, a bit of olive oil. The whole point of this is to get the freshness of the tomatoes from your garden and make it into a sauce.
57:59And you have the taste of summer. I've got some thyme here that I can just sprinkle that on. And that is ready.
58:09It's really simple, this. It takes ten minutes to cook, two or three minutes to prepare. But what that has is an incredible freshness from your tomatoes, from your garden.
58:24And trust me, that is what gardening is all about.
58:28Well, that's it for today. You're with Adam next week in his garden. And I'll see you back here at Longmeadow in a couple of weeks' time.
58:34So, until then, bye-bye.
58:36Bye-bye.
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