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  • 2 days ago
The Beechgrove Garden 2025 episode 15
Transcript
00:00Hello and welcome to Beach Grove Garden.
00:16Well, busy today and it's the big reveal today.
00:19Remember the cuttings that we took of the dahlias way back in May?
00:22Yes.
00:23Right, now it's time to see what's happened to them, OK?
00:25Oh, I'm excited.
00:26Are you?
00:27Have they worked?
00:28You know?
00:29But there you are.
00:30Look at that.
00:31Yeah?
00:32That worked.
00:33Perfect.
00:34What are you looking for?
00:35Growth on the top, but also growth in the pot.
00:37So the thing that's important is that these have actually rooted.
00:40And look at that.
00:41Eh?
00:42Beautiful.
00:43Look at that.
00:44Oh, fab.
00:45Now, all that I'm going to do with those is I'm going to take one
00:48and pot it up in an individual pot, because what I want is I want the tubers
00:53that will be on the bottom of this for storing over winter.
00:58I could plant these in the garden and I would get flowers from them, but they would be quite late.
01:03So all I'm doing is I'm going to grow these in a pot like that, and that will give me small tubers,
01:08which are much more easily stored.
01:10And you can store more of them.
01:11Correct.
01:12Hey, well done.
01:13Yeah, there you go.
01:14Here's what's coming up on the programme today.
01:19Coming up, George is harvesting in the fruit cage.
01:23We visit a green haven in the heart of Glasgow's city centre.
01:28It's time to see what's been produced in the small space garden
01:33and how to get more from your lavender.
01:37Now, George, a year ago in April, you and Carol were here at the Privet Hedge
01:43and you were doing some maintenance because it had got so leggy.
01:47Right.
01:48It was a wet day then, not a dry day like we have today.
01:51And what had happened was that we had a problem with flooding.
01:55We'd also had a problem with rabbits.
01:58And the rabbits were in and they were eating the side shoots.
02:01Immediately they came away from the base, they were eating them.
02:03And you ended up with this browse line where the rabbits had eaten stuff
02:06back to about this height.
02:07Now, we've excluded the rabbits so the hedge is able to grow.
02:12And what you want with a hedge, what I would suggest anyway,
02:15is one where the cat can lie at the bottom and there's no draught.
02:19No? Like that hedge, like that one, like this one over here.
02:22Yeah.
02:23It's clothed right to the base.
02:24Yeah, nice and pushy.
02:25So there's no draught coming through.
02:26OK?
02:27You could lie and have a sleep under there yourself if you want.
02:29Quite nice.
02:30So we're going to do two things, right?
02:32We're going to have a little bit of a comparison.
02:34That end along there, we're going to cut to about this height.
02:39OK?
02:40Right.
02:41This end is going to be different.
02:44Are you going to do a George on that?
02:47I'm going to do something quite serious.
02:49Scalpel nurse.
02:50There we are.
02:51Right.
02:52So what we're going to do here is, I'm going to take this off
02:55and I'm going to cut it back.
02:57See, there's a shoot coming there.
02:58I can take this one off here.
03:00Right?
03:01There we go.
03:02Like that.
03:03And that one is coming off right down there.
03:10Right?
03:11So that's it.
03:12Now, what we hope will happen with that, and I'm sure it will,
03:15these shoots at the base will all grow away and it will produce a nice thicket
03:19and then it will go out sideways.
03:21We'll be able to nip the tops out and make it bush out.
03:24And the other bit, you just trim lightly in comparison.
03:27Now, which one do you think is going to be more successful?
03:30Well, I would always say this one.
03:32That one will take longer.
03:34Yeah.
03:35But this one, this one's OK.
03:36And the other thing is, we've checked this for bird's nest.
03:39Yes.
03:40I've had a wee good look.
03:41Yeah.
03:42There's nothing in there.
03:43OK.
03:44Can you go for it?
03:45Oh, definitely.
03:46Got my saw.
03:47Good.
03:48Well, you are now in charge, madam.
03:49Oh, that's a bit scary.
03:51I'm going off to manipulate myself into a small space.
03:53I'm going to pick some salad leaves.
03:55Right.
03:56See you later.
03:57See you.
03:58Bye.
04:05I've come back to the small space garden.
04:07This was the little area, possibly outside your kitchen door or your
04:11kitchen window, where you could grow some crops.
04:13Don't need much space.
04:14And what we did back in April was we started the whole project.
04:17I sowed some peas, which are now, look at that.
04:20They're now ready and are ready to harvest.
04:22We've got some Swiss chard here.
04:25I'm just going to take the tops off that because I can use the stems and I can
04:29also use the leaves, just like spinach.
04:32I come down here and talking about spinach, here's spinach that we've had,
04:36what, two, three crops of.
04:38So there we are.
04:39But, you know, you might think, oh, well, that's finished.
04:41We'll just throw it out.
04:42No.
04:43Look, you can take one or two leaves off these still.
04:46I could actually pluck all the leaves off that and put them in there and I can use them.
04:51They'll steam down later.
04:52But I'm going to take that out because it's time to do some more sowing.
04:58And I'm going to sow some seed in there.
05:01But before I do, look at this.
05:02Here's a success.
05:03I'll tell you.
05:04Here's a success.
05:05Look.
05:06How's that for carrots?
05:09Now that's in a small space just outside your back door.
05:12So that's ideal.
05:13Now that may go into the basket as well.
05:16Now, if I take this area here, which has had the spinach in it, I've got to sow something
05:23which is slightly different into this.
05:25So I've got a mixture of one or two spinach seeds, but the rest of it is turnip and radish
05:33and pak choy.
05:34And all I do is just sow them into that area there, nice and thin.
05:39But remember that this area has grown a crop, so it's used a lot of nutrient.
05:44So once these things come through, I'm going to have to feed it to make sure that they grow well.
05:49That group up there was all sown last April.
05:53This area here was sown in May.
05:56Look at the results.
05:57We've got radish, we've got French beans and we've got peas coming up.
06:01So it's amazing what you can grow in a small space.
06:04But what do you do if you don't have any space and you can't grow anything?
06:09Well, there's a project in the centre of Glasgow where they've given people space to grow.
06:17Greyfriars Biophilic Garden sits just off the city's historic High Street.
06:22It opened in 2023 with 56 raised beds and a focus on sustainable, inclusive growing.
06:30The first time people come into the garden, their immediate reaction is, wow, this is an amazing space.
06:36And it's an amazing space in the middle of a city, in the middle of one of our busiest streets.
06:40So it kind of gives people a sense of how wonderful nature is and how close you can be to nature,
06:46even in a big city like this.
06:48We actually have a catchment area.
06:50And the catchment area is Merchant City and Trongate Community Council area and the Dry Grating Ladywell.
06:55So we actually get a real mix of people, both in terms of background and in terms of age as well.
07:01But the common theme is, nobody's got a garden.
07:04So the idea is that this provides people with a growing space.
07:07We grow produce, we grow food and we grow community as well.
07:10We started off down in Shuttle Street, moved up here three years ago and we're now in a much more settled place.
07:24One of my priorities about the garden is what I would call the restorative nature of it,
07:29which for me means that it's got a health benefit to being out in nature.
07:34It's really good for your mental health, your physical health and your respiration.
07:39This is an oasis in the city centre.
07:41It takes you away from all the stress and noise of the city into a beautiful natural space.
07:54It's just to frighten the beard of pigeons.
07:57I stay in the high flat, so I've got a balcony you can grow stuff out in the balcony.
08:03But other than that, I just come down here. I'm only five minutes away from here.
08:08This land lay empty for about 30 years.
08:12It used to be an old pump house.
08:15I just picked this yesterday.
08:20Fresh garlic, spaghetti bolognese, here we come.
08:24The most successful has been leeks and onions.
08:27I mean, that's a genius at work, that's me.
08:30I've been with the garden for about 10 years and I just love my wee plot here.
08:39Actually, my whole plot's just covered in flowers.
08:41I call it a bee buffet because, yeah, the bees have got to eat as well, so knock yourself out.
08:48Actually, it's one of my favourite things to do is to stand here and just watch the bees buzzing around.
08:53I pretty much visit my garden every day. Sometimes I'll come and read a book, sometimes I'll sit and do some knitting.
09:00And I just love it and I just love this community and I just can't go on about it enough.
09:05This is my little plot. There's one of 56 in the whole garden and I'm kind of in the middle of the garden.
09:17What I've got growing is I've got wonderful peas and they're absolutely delicious.
09:21I've got tomatoes growing and hidden underneath the tomatoes are some peppers which probably won't survive the shade of the tomato plants.
09:30My big, hopeful, fingers crossed, success this year is rainbow beetroot planted here.
09:35They look fantastic. My fingers are crossed that I'll actually get some beetroot and not just some good looking leaves.
09:40Mind you, you can still eat the leaves.
09:42What I've found is there's a bit of trial and error, you know, this is the third year.
09:46And every year it seemed that some things would grow well one year, next year if you planted the same thing it didn't work so well.
09:51So maybe the lesson there for us is don't keep planting the same thing over and over again in the same soil.
09:56So yeah, but I'm really chuffed with it.
09:59Originally I'm from Malawi so I was really interested in having to grow stuff that we grow back home.
10:15And so about over a year ago I requested to get an allotment here and it's been about six months of me coming.
10:21When I came earlier they needed to make some adjustments for accessibility around the garden.
10:27And they did that and it was great to feel a sense of belonging, to know that I can easily navigate the spaces here.
10:37I can come to my plot. I can take care of the plants.
10:40For instance, the bed here, the positioning is ideal for a wheelchair user.
10:46You can notice that there is spaces underneath.
10:49It just provides a better access to the bed. I think it's amazing.
10:54I've got these beans. It looked like it wasn't going to make it but it's flowering now.
10:59So I'm really excited for the beans coming out.
11:02And then I've got a few more beans down that side.
11:07I've forgotten names of some of my vegetables.
11:11So I don't know if I'm a very good veg dad.
11:14But I think from the essence that I've been able to take care of them through some harsh sunny conditions
11:20and their thriving especially the kale makes me really happy.
11:25And it's not just about the result of the vegetables.
11:28It's been more about the process for me.
11:30So back in April, I kicked off the veg pot competition that some of the presenters have been asked to do.
11:47And we were tasked to create plots that were both pretty and productive.
11:52And they're all going to be judged by Carol at the end of September.
11:56And I have to say, my plot is looking fabulous.
12:00I'm really happy with how everything is growing.
12:03We've got the beautiful peas that are going to produce those beautiful purple pods.
12:10It's a variety called Blauchalka.
12:12We've got the lovely chard in the centre here.
12:16And we've got the tromboncino that is slowly going to make its way up this arch, hopefully.
12:22But the whole point of my plot was to create something a little bit different in the way that I was growing things.
12:29I wanted it to look more like a herbaceous border.
12:33So I've planted things in clumps and in groups like you would have in a normal border.
12:39But, you know, in any sort of vegetable pot, there are always jobs that need to be done.
12:46And today I'm going to fill up this gap with some dwarf beans.
12:51They are called red swan and they produce these lovely little pinkish red pods.
12:57And if you keep picking them, they'll keep coming back.
13:00So they are a really good cropper.
13:02Now, I'm planting them about 15 centimetres apart.
13:07And the great thing about dwarf beans is that they are only going to get to about 45 to 60 centimetres tall.
13:14So there is no need for staking and tying them in.
13:18You can just plant them and let them get on with it.
13:22Now, I'm going to give these a really good watering in once I've done a few other things.
13:27Now, over here, I've got some onions that need to be planted.
13:32But before I can get them in the ground, I need to harvest some of this lovely lettuce.
13:38I've harvested some earlier on, but they were all planted in an arch that mimicked this balloon arch that we've got the beans and the tromboncino growing up.
13:49So that's what I want to create again with these onions and where I'm going to plant them.
13:56I grew these from seed back in February.
14:01They're definitely ready to be planted out.
14:04But one really good tip if you're growing onions, to save yourself some time, make sure that when you're planting them, you're giving them enough room to weed.
14:20So make sure that you have a hose width apart from anything else that is growing around your onions so that you can get a hoe in.
14:30Give it a really good weed.
14:32Otherwise, you're going to be picking out tiny little weeds in between your onions and it is going to take you forever and a day.
14:40Now, over here, I have got some celeriac that needs to be planted.
14:45Now, I've never grown celeriac before, but one of my friends who is a cook was always raving about celeriac mash and how delicious it was.
14:53So I thought I'd give it a go and plant some.
14:56Now, I planted these back in February.
14:59So it's maybe too late to start them yourself from seed, but I'm pretty sure you'd be able to get plug plants on the internet.
15:08Now, celeriac really like a moist, retentive soil.
15:12They like to be wet all the time.
15:15So I have dug in a good lot of well-rotted manure that is going to keep them really happy.
15:23Now, they take a wee while to develop, probably about six months.
15:28So hopefully by the autumn time, there'll be a nice crop of celeriac to harvest.
15:34But now we're going to catch up with a gardener we have been following throughout this season.
15:39Craig Cameron is the head gardener of the Teaser's estate in Fife and it's time for pruning.
15:44So make sure throughout the summer that you are cutting back your perennials.
15:59This will give you a much longer season of flowering.
16:02Great for the bees, they'll thank you for all that extra flower later in the year.
16:06And with the Nepeta here, it's really straightforward.
16:09We're just going to cut back these long flowering stems, just back to some new growth.
16:15And you can do this with salvias, geraniums, lots of perennials throughout the summer.
16:19If, like me, you absolutely love bearded irises, you'll know that this is the time of year, just after flowering, that we can start to take some divisions and open up our plants.
16:41Here we have a grey iris, Jane Phillips.
16:45So with this particular plant, I can see that it's become very congested.
16:49And if we look down, we can see the corms are actually piling up on top of one another.
16:54That's typical for a plant of its age.
16:56What we're going to do is we're going to use a really sharp knife and we're going to cut down around the corm, right into the ground.
17:04And we're going to cut out the corm.
17:08And there we are.
17:10And with this corm, we can take it up to the greenhouse, pot it up so it's ready for planting out in the autumn.
17:16Or if we're planting it in the border now, we'll need to make sure we give it plenty of support.
17:21Cut back the leaves and anchor the corm into the ground.
17:25There is nothing nicer than running your hands through some fresh lavender.
17:40And we are really lucky here.
17:42We have 15 varieties of lavender in our garden here.
17:46Some are pale blue, others dark blue, white and even pink.
17:52I couldn't name all of the varieties, but there are plenty more that you can pick up from your nurseries and garden centres.
17:59Lavender grows really well here.
18:01It likes a nice, gritty, free draining soil.
18:04It definitely does not want to sit in winter wet.
18:08And if it's really happy, it will produce lots of lavender seedlings.
18:13We could let these seedlings grow and fill up all these gaps.
18:16Or we can dig them up, take them back to the nursery, nurture them,
18:20and then use them to replace lavender, which goes woody or splits or just dies back.
18:26It's really straightforward.
18:27All we're doing is we're looking for plants at this time of year.
18:30They've got a couple of inches growth on them.
18:33They're nice, active, healthy plants.
18:36We know that they've already established a nice, strong root system.
18:40And we're just going to dig them up.
18:42Just get right underneath the root.
18:46Make sure you keep soil around the root ball.
18:50They'll come out in clumps, they'll come out individually.
18:53We're going to take that right back to the greenhouse and pot it on.
18:56So now we want to pot up these little lavender plants.
19:13We're picking a lovely sized pot.
19:16It's quite small, so it's not going to drown out the young plants.
19:19And we're using a really gritty seeding compost.
19:23So this is just our own mix, multipurpose compost with a good bit of vermiculite in it.
19:29That's going to open up the pores and make sure that the roots aren't going to be too waterlogged.
19:35Remember, lavender likes a really free draining soil.
19:38You could use garden grit or sand for this, but we choose vermiculite.
19:42And I've also put in the mixture some cinnamon powder.
19:45That's quite novel, but it works for us in the organic system to help deter the pests and diseases
19:52that are going to want to eat your young lavender plant roots.
19:56So I'm just going to fill up a pot.
19:58Not quite all the way.
20:00You're wanting to leave a couple of inches from the top.
20:03And one plant per pot, making sure the roots are properly spread throughout the soil.
20:11And firmed in.
20:16Give it a wee tap.
20:17And you're wanting to make sure you leave plenty of space to the top,
20:20so that when you water it, water can sit there, soak the compost,
20:25and allow those young roots to establish themselves.
20:28Now, leaving it in that pot until the autumn, it will fill up that pot pretty quickly.
20:33You could plant that straight out.
20:36That's a great size for planting out.
20:38Or you could pot it up into a bigger pot, and you would typically go two finger width bigger.
20:44So at this time of year, you should be looking at your own favourite plants throughout the summer for their seedlings.
20:51So that you can dig them up, grow them on, and then in the autumn, you can plant out your own collection of your favourites.
20:59Well, to me, July is one of the fruitiest months here at Peachgrove.
21:15And this is when we start to reap the benefits of all the work that we've done throughout the season in order to produce good crops.
21:22We're in the fruit house, and here are the bunches of grapes forming on the grapevine.
21:28But look at the growth that we've got.
21:29So what I'm going to do is go one leaf beyond the bunch.
21:34There we are. One leaf beyond the bunch.
21:36And then the side shoots I'm going to take back to one leaf as well.
21:40So that's what we're doing.
21:41And what that does is that it makes all the growth go into this bunch of grapes.
21:46So if I do the same down at the bottom here, I'll take that off there.
21:50I'll take that back to there.
21:52And just so that you can see what's happening, I'll just take that leaf off there.
21:55And there's the bunch of grapes.
21:57And it's important to let the sunshine get to the fruit because that's what makes it sweet.
22:01And the same thing here on the fig.
22:03And if we look at this fig, what's happened is that all this growth is coming out.
22:08This is what we call breastwood. This is the one that's going forward.
22:11And what we've got to do with this as well is remove a lot of this so that we can let the sunshine get into the figs.
22:19So all that's going to happen here is find out where the figs are.
22:23Take it maybe one, two leaves beyond the figs, back to there and cut that off.
22:28And that allows the sunshine to get into that.
22:30And I'll go over the whole plant and do that.
22:32And that allows the plant to put again its energy into the fruit.
22:37Now, talking about fruit, have a look at this. Look at this.
22:42Is that not just a picture of loveliness? Look at that.
22:48Cherries galore, yeah? Cherries galore.
22:51This is the result of our care and attention throughout the whole of the spring season.
22:57We were tending the plant when it had lots and lots of flour on it.
23:01We brushed it with a little brush and we managed to get the flowers to be pollinated and then fertilized.
23:07Look at that, eh?
23:09We're going to pick a lot of these cherries because I'll tell you what, they are delicious.
23:14And this is a variety Sweetheart. That's a good one to grow.
23:18Time now to come into the fruit cage and to take the bonanza, which is the harvest.
23:31And I've been harvesting one or two red currants.
23:33There they are there. Look at that.
23:35They're just almost at the point of the ripeness.
23:37One or two of which are nice and dark red.
23:39Other ones which are still a wee bit pink.
23:41I'll go into the bowl and we'll make something of that.
23:44Further along, I've got this red gooseberry.
23:47This is the variety called Ainomaka Red.
23:50And it's one of these ones which when you cook it, it goes very, very red in the jellies and things like that.
23:56So that's going in the bowl as well. One or two of those.
23:59And then further along, look at this. Here's an interesting one.
24:02This is the pink currant. These are, you know, these never get red.
24:07They stay pink. And they're absolutely delicious.
24:09They're almost, well I would say they were slightly sweeter than the normal red currant.
24:14But look at this. Look at this. Look at this.
24:16This is the one. Yeah?
24:18These are the gooseberries which I trained as cordons.
24:22And remember what I said at the time was that when you cut all the side shoots off,
24:27you put the energy into the fruit.
24:29Look at the size of the fruits that are on that.
24:31Look at those. These are fantastic fruits which we've got here.
24:35And they're just at the point where they're, you know, they're starting to become slightly soft.
24:40And they'll be just absolutely delicious when they're stewed up as well.
24:44So one or two of these into the bowl.
24:47So we've got, you know, well, that is the way to grow gooseberries.
24:51That's much easier to pick than those ones that are in a bush where everything is thick and all jumbled up.
24:56So I'd go for that way. Anyway, I'm going to pick some more fruit over here.
25:00Right.
25:01Now, we've come over into the other side of the fruit cage because I want to look at these here.
25:10These are tayberries. This is the variety Buckingham.
25:14There's a system about pruning the tayberry.
25:17What you do is the young shoots you keep to one side and the fruiting shoots to the other side.
25:22So there's the young shoots.
25:23And I've tied these in so that they grow out this way and it keeps them away from the old canes.
25:28And then we don't get any transmission of disease.
25:30One or two berries ready here.
25:32These will be picked and I'll put them in the bowl.
25:35I'm going to harvest some blackcurrants now.
25:40Now, with blackcurrants, often you're sitting out in the garden and you get a soreback picking them.
25:44You're going to be pruning the blackcurrant bush at this time of year as well.
25:47So the idea is cut off the shoots that you're going to prune.
25:52There's your harvest there. Take it inside. You don't get a soreback.
25:56Time now for some handy hints.
26:06Now, I've had some real problems with my nasturtiums this year.
26:09And I think it's because of all the dry, windy weather we've been having.
26:12And they've been just snapping off at the base.
26:15So what I've done is I've created these little U-shaped hooks that I place in the centre,
26:23stake them into the ground, just giving them a little bit extra support.
26:28And that way they stop twirling and swirling in the wind and snapping off.
26:35Not so much a handy hint, more a look-see. Have a look at this.
26:38Look at that. Look at the caterpillars on those nettles.
26:42Now, these are the caterpillars of the peacock butterfly.
26:45The adults lay their eggs on the leaves of the nettles
26:48and then the youngsters start munching away at the nettle leaves.
26:51And see, look at the mess that they've made of some of these.
26:54It's worthwhile leaving a clump of nettles in the corner of the garden
26:59so that you can help the wildlife.
27:01Magic.
27:11Well, Lizzie, what have you done?
27:13Well, I think I followed my instructions well.
27:15Well, you did. You did.
27:17The privet hedge at that end has been cut down by half.
27:21OK.
27:22Just like you wanted it.
27:23That's it.
27:24And then on this end, as a comparison, that is where you wanted it, wasn't it?
27:29That's my fault at this end.
27:31But the idea is to get it to bush up as much as possible from the base.
27:35Because we had this browse line where the rabbits had taken everything off at the bottom.
27:38Yeah.
27:39So now we've got...
27:40Well, we're starting again.
27:41And we'll see what happens in a couple of years.
27:43See whether we'll have to come back and do something else again.
27:46Because it's all chuck it in chances, isn't it?
27:48I know. Exactly.
27:49But look at your harvest.
27:50Yeah.
27:51Well, I was doing this while you were doing the hard work.
27:53You know?
27:54But, you know, so it's really, really nice.
27:56And do you know what's special about it?
27:58Is that these fruits taste so much better than anything else because they're so fresh.
28:02It spoils you.
28:03Oh, it does.
28:04Definitely does spoil you.
28:05It does.
28:06Anyway, that's it from the pair of us, isn't it?
28:08I know.
28:09Brian and Ruth are here next week and Ruth will be growing microgreens and Brian will be pruning
28:15wisteria.
28:16And I'm off to visit a royal garden.
28:18Lovely.
28:19Sounds special, but actually it's open to the public.
28:22Oh, excellent.
28:23Now you can catch all the series so far on BBC iPlayer, but from us it's Bye For Now.
28:28Bye For Now.
28:39Bye for now.
28:40Bye for now.