- 2 weeks ago
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00The Jewel Garden has had an interesting time of it this year because, like everybody else,
00:27it's had to cope with this extreme heat and drought, but on top of that it had a major revamp.
00:33It took months to take everything out and then we started to replant it this spring,
00:39but then, of course, it's had to cope with the weather and some things have done really well.
00:44Tithonia, for example, the Mexican sunflower, loved it, been completely at home.
00:49It's an annual, planted it out in June and it's just romped away, producing masses of flowers.
00:57Some things have surprised me. This is a halenium, sarhen's early.
01:02It was flowering in June and has kept on flowering without break since.
01:07It's gone from sarhen's early to sarhen's late. Maybe this is adapting to the changes really well.
01:12Climatists have surprised me. They're over now, much earlier than normal, and they've set seed,
01:17but while they were in flower, they were magnificent, even though they weren't being watered at all.
01:22And this is a plant that needs moisture because, I think, we hadn't dug it up.
01:26We'd left it in the ground.
01:27The roots were deep and it was accessing moisture further in the ground.
01:31Some plants, however well they've done, will need winter protection.
01:37And our salvias are a good example.
01:39Salvia curvy flora here, completely happy. Normally that's a bit iffy.
01:43But whatever type of salvia it is, I will have to give them winter protection.
01:47And as well as taking them in, I shall be taking cuttings.
01:51Now, coming up on today's programme.
01:55Joe visits an organic flower farm in Bristol, which is at the heart of the local community.
02:03So I'm chatting to you right now and I'm realising, I have to be picking 100 stems an hour.
02:08Come on, keep moving then.
02:09To actually get up.
02:10Just give me a pair of seconds there, they'll be joining in.
02:12We head to a garden on the south coast, built by a mother to give her children a truly intimate connection with nature.
02:21I wanted our children to have a feeling of wildness and the plants being taller than them and enveloping them in wilderness.
02:32Adam meets a ceramicist who has used her artistic eye to create a superb prairie-style garden.
02:41I focus less on colour, more on contrasting forms, daisy-like forms like the Echinacea and Hellenium,
02:49but then contrasting that with plate-like flowers like the Achillia.
02:53And we find a spiky and unusual North London garden packed with exotic plants.
03:02Although a lot of people would think that they were tender, actually about 90% of what there is here is perfectly happy to stay outside and thrives over the winter months.
03:13Ned has taken to getting up on the ball thinking that it's winsome and somehow it'll make me like him more or give him food or something like that.
03:37I don't know what it's about. What's it all about?
03:41Maybe you just think you look good.
03:44Silly boy. Come on.
03:46This is Salvia amistad.
03:55I've grown it in a pot this year, not knowing we were going to have the drought, because I could give it extra drainage.
04:01And I knew that it would cope with relative lack of water, because last summer it was very wet.
04:07And of course he's loved it. Absolutely love the summer, covered in flower, as it has been for months.
04:14And I'm really pleased. So certainly that's a win.
04:17Nevertheless, although it is robust, and although it does survive lower temperatures better than most Salvia's, it doesn't survive in this garden.
04:26A combination of wet and cold always does for it. Whenever I've tried, I've always lost the plants.
04:31So I need to take cuttings, because that ensures that whatever happens over winter, I've got a fresh supply.
04:38What you're looking for are side shoots. So you have the main stem, a leaf, and then at 45 degrees, a shoot coming out from it.
04:48And a side shoot without a bud or a flower. And that is perfect. That's absolutely perfect.
04:54Now you can cut that, but sometimes you can just peel them off, and they take a little bit with it.
05:00So that is perfect. And can you see that that's got a little bit of the main stem attached to it, which will help the development of roots.
05:10Now, as ever, when you're taking cuttings, have a polythene bag to hand, and that will buy you a little bit of time.
05:18Because the minute you take a cutting, it's a race. And it's very simple.
05:23It's a race against the plant dying, because you cut it, and creating new roots that will keep it alive.
05:30And by popping it in the bag, you're slowing down the dying process because it's going to die of dehydration.
05:36We've got another one on the other side. I can take that. Perfect.
05:42That. And these are just breaking off. I don't need succotus.
05:52Come on.
06:06So, got a pen knife to do the cuttings. Got pots. I've got perlite. You can use just any gritty mix. You can use pure sand. But drainage is key.
06:16So take them out one at a time. And then, with a knife, clean that off there.
06:25Don't worry about losing material, because all you're doing is setting this up to grow more.
06:31So that is now ready. And I find that salvias take very well, in just a pure mix like that, and pop that in the corner like that.
06:42Look at that. OK, that's one done.
06:46OK.
06:48Once you start taking cuttings, and they strike, and you grow new plants, it's so exciting and so liberating, because you suddenly realise that you can create dozens, even hundreds of plants for free.
07:03And the fact that you've done it, and you've enabled it to happen, is really empowering. I love it.
07:10Pop that in. Water them. And then, any kind of propagator where you can close the lid, even if it's just a cover over a seed tray, will help.
07:20And just mist the plant two or three times a day. And it will take about ten days, two weeks, before you start to see new growth, and that means it's got roots.
07:30Then you can pot them on into potting compost, grow them on, keep them over winter, and they'll be ready to plant out next year.
07:38Now, we're going to join Adam, as he visits a garden down in the south-east corner of the country.
07:52I've come to the Kent Sussex border, which is a part of country that is not short of glorious gardens.
07:58And today, I think we're in for a treat.
08:01We're going to meet a gardener who has transformed an old horse paddock into a big, bold garden, driven by her love of the arse.
08:10Emma Burrell is a ceramicist by trade, but her whole life changed when she laid her eyes on this piece of land.
08:26Since then, she has been transforming this space, and the result is a beautiful prairie-style garden.
08:36Emma, first of all, wow!
08:39I've walked in, and there's a certain feeling to this garden. Take me back to the beginning. How did it all start?
08:48Well, a friend of mine told me about this place coming on the market. We came and had a sneaky preview, and we thought the garden was just this section that we're standing in.
08:58And it turns out it was a lot more than that. So I was delighted. My husband was horrified. And that was it. We just sort of fell in love.
09:08So when you moved in, what was the garden like?
09:11There wasn't really a garden here. It was basically paddocks, overgrown fields, some knee-high grass.
09:18So when it came to the design, you got the main garden laid out on paper?
09:22Yes, I did. So I started to think about all my fantasy bits of a garden I ever wanted to grow.
09:28And then we just did the garden in little sections. So we did the borders one year, and we might plant two hedges another year.
09:36And then the orchard, we put that in one year. I'd say we're still doing it.
09:41I'd always wanted to divide the studio off slightly from the rest of the garden, but I didn't want a solid division.
09:56So I'd seen someone using grasses as a hedge.
10:01I planted that variety. It's Callum agrostis, Carl Forster.
10:05Carl Forster, yeah.
10:06I planted that variety because it's very upright. It's got a really long season of interest.
10:11When I'm stood here, you can see the proportions, you know, of the house against the studio.
10:17And this more or less links the two together.
10:20Yeah, yeah. I think you have to be generous sometimes.
10:22Yeah.
10:23And it's a bit scary putting in 200 grasses, all one variety.
10:29They came in quite big pots, so I could divide them in half.
10:32So I divided them all in half, so I've got twice as many plants, because I'm always one for a bargain.
10:41What I like about the way that you've set things up is that shape and form is incredibly important to you.
10:48Yeah, I think I've used, I've focused less on colour, more on contrasting forms.
10:55So I've got daisy-like forms like the Echinacea and Hellenium, but then contrasting that with more sort of plate-like flowers like the Achillea.
11:05And your eye kind of follows all the way through the border with the Achillea, because it's such an intense colour.
11:12I've mirrored the planting in both sides, so your eye gets drawn from the house through to one plant there,
11:18and then it moves over there, there, there, and then you get drawn into the landscape beyond.
11:23So what about watering?
11:25I don't water anything. I water when I'm planting, and I plant quite small plants, and then I just let them get on with it, send their roots right down.
11:34Which I think they have, and you've got some really good, strong planting, and everything's holding its form really well, isn't it?
11:41And I suppose when we talk about the form, for you, that's incredibly important.
11:45Yes, it is, yeah. And that contrast between different forms as well just keeps the interest going.
12:01And as you're walking through space to space, you come across things like this, which for me are living architecture.
12:08They connect the buildings together. They add this point of relief.
12:12They're different sizes, different shapes, forms. But Emma's created them.
12:16In reality, they are just three hedging plants that have been planted and then tailored.
12:21They're beech. And actually, as these brown, as the winter goes on, they connect beautifully with the Calamagrostis over there.
12:28Great idea.
12:35Also, I like the simplicity and the honesty of the materials.
12:39You look at the timber deck, it's textural, and the walls, they're timber.
12:44The colours are absolutely beautiful.
12:48And then look, I'm going to take you back late 60s, early 70s, council paving slabs.
12:54They are the first thing that I ever laid on the council, the old three-by-twos.
12:59And I tell you, they were really heavy.
13:02And then a concrete planter.
13:04So the whole place, there's this simplicity and then there's these strong lines.
13:09And then this is planting that just brings it all alive.
13:13It really is lovely.
13:25Oh, look.
13:33I'm going to describe this as more loveliness.
13:35Oh.
13:36So how did this part start?
13:38So this was actually a thick layer of compacted rocks, gravel, and then another thick layer of sand on top.
13:45So rather than trying to improve that, I just tried to see what would survive within those conditions.
13:53I collected together lots of North American prairie plant seeds from all over the place.
13:58I got all excited about these amazing plants.
14:00Yeah.
14:01That didn't go very well.
14:04I thought, okay, we'll have to try a different tactic.
14:06So I planted a few plants like the veronicastrum and things like the euphorbia, that pseudo-vergata, which is very invasive.
14:15And I wouldn't put it in a border, but actually in these conditions, it's done really well.
14:20Yeah, it does its job.
14:21Also, I've got a perennial sunflower, the helianthus, at the end there as well, which that is in a slightly better patch of soil.
14:29Also, it's a wonderful demonstration of how good plants are at adapting.
14:36I know they want to grow and it's amazing what they can grow in.
14:40You know, you seem to thrive on that challenge.
14:43Yeah, I'll give that a go, see how that gets on.
14:45Yeah, because then you're surprised and there's that sense of satisfaction as well.
14:49It means everything to me, this garden.
14:51I think because of all the work I've put into it, but also the pleasure that it gives me and other people.
14:57I love being in it, but I also love the evolving aspect of it and just the physical aspect of gardening.
15:04I couldn't live without that.
15:05I think this place is a great reminder that so many lowly gardens are about people.
15:19But also that constant experimenting, which guarantees you one thing.
15:25This garden will definitely not stand still.
15:28This garden will definitely have to be seen.
15:29This garden will definitely not stand still.
15:31I think this garden will definitely not do fit.
15:32But that's a good thing, and you nice to the garden will be seen before the garden.
15:34Cl tardaaaft arrive at the he'sです.
15:35Actually I prefer the garden one or two, but it'll definitely need to be a warm, other people hanging with a world.
15:36Of ours is a bad moon we are covered.
15:37What I really like from that was the brave simplicity of the design.
16:00Sometimes it's much harder to do a very simple thing like those 200 grasses than it is to
16:07chuck everything at it and have a sort of wonderful jumble of plants which can look fantastic
16:12of course, but to be pure and simple and then bring it off like that is really good.
16:20What I'm doing here is the middle process of a three part progress from seed to planting
16:28out into the garden.
16:29These are ruby streak mustard and they are one of a number of greens that I sowed just
16:36a couple of weeks ago and I love them for their peppery, hot mustardy taste in greens
16:44as part of a salad in winter and of course you can also cook with them.
16:48So I've sown them, they germinated very quickly, probably a little bit too thickly but that's
16:52okay and then just tease out individual plants with as much root as possible, always holding
16:57by a leaf because if you hold it by a leaf and the leaf breaks, it can grow another.
17:02Hold it by the stem and it breaks, that's it.
17:04That's it, you've had it.
17:06And then I've already put compost into these plugs.
17:10Just gently firm it in.
17:13All leaf crops I grow like this.
17:15And the advantages are that you can focus in on individual plants very young.
17:21So rather than thinning as they're growing you thin basically at this stage and then each
17:26of these has space to grow and become a nice strong plant.
17:30These now need a good soak and to be kept water, don't let them dry out.
17:34Put them somewhere protected until they're ready to plant out.
17:40At this time of year most salad crops take two to three weeks to establish a strong enough
17:44root system.
17:57But once a plant has grown on it's time for stage three in the process.
18:07This is rocket.
18:08Now if I take out a plug, first of all it comes out complete and it holds together in my hand
18:14and you can see the roots on the outside.
18:17It's not root bound but it's solid.
18:20Now that's the perfect moment to plant it out.
18:24So just plant that in there and push it in.
18:27Now when you sow seeds and you thin it seems incredibly radical to thin to even three inches
18:34apart.
18:35You're discarding so many plants.
18:38Whereas when you're planting out like this and especially with rocket I would recommend
18:43at least six inches and preferably more.
18:47So this sort of spacing is ideal.
18:51And the reason for that is because you will then get really big strong plants that you
18:58can repeatedly cut and harvest.
19:00And I reckon to get three good cuts from each or to just take a few leaves from each.
19:07And that means actually you get more of a harvest than if you plant them close together.
19:16There is a reason why rocket is grown either in early spring or in late summer.
19:21Because it hates hot dry weather.
19:23It just immediately bolts.
19:25Now normally if you plant it out or sow it at the end of August you can expect the weather
19:30to get a bit cooler and hopefully wetter.
19:33But if you don't have the resources to water it regularly don't plant it.
19:38Just wait till it cools down even if that means waiting for another two or three weeks.
19:42However with any luck if you do and you can water it make sure it doesn't dry out.
19:47It will grow well, lots of lovely tender leaves, delicious eaten raw, really good cook by the
19:53way.
19:54Rocket pesto is fantastic and you use walnuts rather than pine nuts and maybe even cheddar
19:59rather than parmesan and it's really good.
20:17Okay, they're watered in.
20:20And we're off now to Crouch End in North London to visit the garden of Steve Buckley and Liz Roberts.
20:34I'm Liz and this is our garden in North London where we've been for the past 15 years.
20:39I'm Steve.
20:40I'm a sculptor by trade and I work at a bench down the garden.
20:46Bit of an obsession with geology, hence the rocks everywhere.
20:52I'd say the garden is Mediterranean, exotic, spiky, lush, evergreen.
21:00Mediterranean planting is increasingly viable in this country because the climate is changing.
21:08Generally it's a negative effect of course.
21:11And the way we plant, what we can plant is changing definitely too.
21:15Most of the plants you see here, although a lot of people would think that they were tender
21:21and they did need to come in for the winter, actually about 90% of what there is here
21:26is perfectly happy to stay outside and thrives over the winter months.
21:35Some people are surprised by exactly how much is hardy and does stay out.
21:39So for instance, that big puya in the curvy pot is happy outside all the year.
21:44That Yucca Rostrata would be happy to minus 10 or more.
21:49And so is this Dioune Edgile, which I absolutely love.
21:54Beautiful sculptural plan.
21:56Doesn't look hardy, looks like a house plan.
21:59It's tough.
22:00It's been out here over last winter, no problem.
22:07Cycads for instance, the common one, Cycas Revoluta,
22:11is available everywhere as a house plant.
22:14But there's one down there that's been there for about 10 years outside
22:17and it's now a wingspan of six or eight feet.
22:22There are other Cycads here which we really love.
22:25For instance, one called Encephalatus Laemanii, a blue, glaucus blue thing.
22:30I occasionally think I should risk that over the winter outside,
22:35but I love it so much I'm a bit twitchy about trying it so it comes in.
22:39The garden's full of palm trees of various types.
22:46This is possibly my favourite.
22:49It's a Trachycarpus princeps and it has this secret of having blue undersides.
22:56I just love the structural shape, the architectural shape of it.
23:03Tough as old boots, planted straight in the ground,
23:06possibly with a bit of extra drainage, some grit.
23:09I can't remember the last time I fed it
23:11and I can't remember the last time I watered it.
23:13And it's happy as Larry in semi-shade.
23:17This garden looks great, looks the same all year.
23:27It doesn't go into hiding for the winter.
23:32Mahonia soft caress is one of my favourite plants,
23:35one that I think more people should know about.
23:38It's great in shade.
23:40It's got these lovely delicate leaves,
23:42much softer foliage than some Mahonias.
23:45This will get big blushes of small yellow flowers
23:49along with a beautiful scent in late winter.
23:52Very easy to grow, very tough as well.
23:56I mean people are always looking for something that's good in shade
23:59and I think this really has a lot to give in that respect.
24:06The fact that these plants thrive is partly to do with where we live
24:11but it's also to do with the drainage.
24:13I think drainage is more important than position to be honest.
24:17We're very careful to give them conditions that they like
24:21and it's not that difficult really.
24:25I love the agaves that we've got in this garden.
24:28I think my favourite has to be the agave americana.
24:32It's absolutely stunning colour and gorgeous leaf shapes,
24:35really, really big and amazing plant.
24:38This plant is absolutely hardy, it needs no protection
24:41and it's withstood everything that's been thrown at it for years.
24:45There's a lot in common, I would say, between sculpting and pruning.
24:51I do think that the act of pruning, maybe taking a bay tree, which I've topiorised actually into a roof above my bench,
25:02it's the same kind of skill really.
25:10My love of exotic plants has extended into the fruit and vegetable area.
25:16For example, this Shih Tzu, which is used in Japanese cookery.
25:20We've got pineapple sage and then we've got this beautiful Szechuan pepper tree,
25:25which is totally hardy.
25:27It has very fragrant leaves, big spines and then it has all these wonderful peppercorns.
25:33Now, these can be made into a pepper and they also give a very unique sensation of tongue tingling.
25:45This sometimes surprises me how much Exotica grows in the dark, almost,
25:51or at least semi-shade, like this Pidosporum tibira.
25:56And this gorgeous, I think, Daphnifilum macropodum with the blue underside to the leaves.
26:04This Fatsia spider's web, I think really works in the dark
26:09because the definition given by the variegation shines out of the darkness at you.
26:18Plants like to grow outside, even proper houseplants.
26:21They weren't evolved in houses and they prefer to be in the sun and the rain,
26:25given half a chance.
26:27That saguaro cactus is actually planted on a little mountain of old bricks,
26:33shingle, grit, topped off with heavy rocks and facing south.
26:40So it kind of thinks it's in Arizona.
26:43Some people see the garden and ask, is it high maintenance?
26:47I have a couple of thoughts on that.
26:48One is, I don't really regard it as work.
26:51It feels like fun.
26:53The other is, it's definitely not low maintenance,
26:57but it's not as hard as it looks either.
26:59Most of it doesn't need much help at all.
27:01I always marvel at the differences in growing conditions.
27:03It doesn't need much help at all.
27:04It doesn't need much help at all.
27:06It doesn't need much help.
27:08It's a great place.
27:09It doesn't need much help at all.
27:12I always marvel at the differences in growing conditions on this small island because there you have Crouchan, which is only 150 miles away from here,
27:22I always marvel at the differences in growing conditions on this small island because there
27:32you have Crouch End which is only 150 miles away from here but another world when it comes to
27:37growing. I could keep almost none of those plants outside here at Longmeadow. The Aeoniums for
27:43example had to go in in about six weeks time and it's the combination of cold and wet which does
27:50for most of those plants. The key thing is to try avoiding that combination of wet and cold. If you
27:56can increase the drainage a lot of plants particularly Mediterranean ones will survive
28:02quite cold weather. I'm improving the drainage of the compost here by adding a lot of grit to my
28:08normal compost mix which is a mix. It's peat-free compost that I buy in which is bark based and
28:14then we add our own garden compost, leaf mold and perlote. The reason I'm doing this is because I
28:18want to plant out some Amarines. Amarines are a cross between Nerines which are wonderful elegant
28:26South African autumn bulbs with spidery petals on a long stem and Amaryllis which we all know and love
28:36and the Amaryllis gives the Nerine a little bit more oomph and substance and they're at their best in
28:43October. It's a very much an autumnal thing and they share the same characteristic whether it is an
28:49Amarine or a Nerine of having a distinct nose on the bulb a long proboscis that sticks up above
28:59the main body of the bulb and whereas most bulbs you plant deep usually twice the depth of the bulb
29:05like that. These need to stick out of the soil so you want to bury them only to about that depth
29:11which means you can use a shallower bowl. Always use terracotta for this type of thing because this
29:16is really decorative. This is an autumnal joy so use the best pots you possibly can. Croc in the bottom
29:23we'll put a layer of the gritty mix. So now I've got three here. They don't need too much space
29:32they will flower better if they are crammed in to a certain extent. Right now we will put some more
29:39compost around them. Keeping those noses sticking out the ground and then I'm going to dress these
29:49with a surface of grit. The main reason is because it looks better but also it does stop compost splashing
29:58up when you water them. This is a variety called Aphrodite, wonderful candy pink spider-like flowers.
30:10These are now ready. Now the important thing is to give them as much heat and light as you can. These
30:16are plants that if you plant them outside must have really good drainage in the sunniest spot that you
30:21possess. I'm going to put these in the greenhouse and then when they start to grow then they can go
30:26outside just on the point of flowering to give them every chance of success.
30:45We're going to join Joe now. He has been going around the country visiting gardens that have
30:51one particular characteristic because they are created and looked after by people who not only
30:58can make a lovely garden but also can simultaneously nurture their community.
31:13I just love to meet horticultural heroes. Those people who fly under the radar. You know those
31:21rare individuals who are doing great things but don't make a song and dance about it and that's
31:27why I've come to this flower farm on the outskirts of Bristol. It's called Heart of BS 13 and they grow
31:37beautiful flowers for the local community and beyond. But here's the best bit. Through their social
31:45enterprise work they also offer people mental health and well-being support.
31:52To find out more I'm meeting manager Sol Harmsworth.
31:56Hello Sol. Hi Joe. So you're picking annual deadheading as you go through. So there's some good ones here.
32:01I know. Come on. Off of their heads.
32:04It's a beautiful cosmos isn't it? It's gorgeous. It's stunning. This is our apricotta. It's like a rusty orange.
32:09Yeah. Florists love it. But we have to get the cosmos when they are so fresh. When these buds
32:17haven't pollinated they're barely open. So tell me about the setup because there's a whole ethos.
32:23Yeah. So we're a social enterprise which means we're part of a charity that is tackling health
32:29inequality in this postcode. This postcode is in the top 10% of multiple deprivation.
32:34Right. Wow. Which means a lot of people have much more disadvantage into education, into employment, into nutrition.
32:43We can offer volunteer programs, trainee programs and employability skills. The exciting thing is the
32:49wholesale industry want to buy our flowers. However, we have to work at a pace. I'm chatting to you right now
32:55and I'm realising I have to be picking a hundred stems. Keep moving then. I feel like just getting a pair of
33:01secretary joining in.
33:09Jill Carpenter is a volunteer who grew up in the area and today she's one of a team preparing
33:15these wonderful Rebecca for a wedding tomorrow. So if you've always been local, Jill, I'm interested to
33:22find out how you think this project has affected the local community.
33:29I think it's affected them greatly because this is the green space that we've got left.
33:36All the building work going on, you need something like this. It's great for the youngsters from the
33:40schools coming up. And you're not just stuck in house. Yeah.
33:43You know, if you're retired, some people just sit there, don't they, you know, watching TV.
33:48That's when your mental state gets worse, I think. If people can come out and do this,
33:53even a couple of hours a day, would improve the situation so much and save the NHS a lot of money.
34:00Vicky is from Hong Kong and for her, the flower farm is a place to connect with people and nature.
34:08I'm in here to make so many friends and they are very lovely and nice. When you look in the forest,
34:17you will be happy and enjoy and the sun's shining. And Jack is the farm's most recent recruit.
34:25So you're the newbie then? Yes, yes. So I've only been here for two weeks now, so can't claim any
34:30credit for any of the hard work everyone else has done so far. What made you want to get involved then?
34:36Um, so, uh, recently I've sort of been having a few sort of, um, wellbeing issues. So this was, um,
34:42first and foremost, excellent for my mental health. Um, and to be honest, um, it's sort of,
34:50I realised recently that I really wanted to make horticulture my career, um, and sort of make that jump
34:55over to, um, yeah, just sort of actually make that change in my life, um, positive change. Um, and it's
35:02fantastic. I mean, being mentored by the guys here, um, it's amazing. And, uh, yeah, I mean,
35:08who couldn't love it up here?
35:12As well as offering the local community life-changing opportunities, the team here are intent on
35:18nurturing the soil and the wider environment, which means they're completely off-grid.
35:24They're low impact, they're incredibly resourceful, and always thinking of ways to develop what they've
35:33got here. So the polytunnel is about 300 square metres of roof. Now, when it rains, they can capture
35:41a lot of that rainwater by using this gutter. It goes down into the tank here, but because they're
35:47off-grid, they've got a solar panel, which powers around the back here, a solar pump. And that solar
35:56pump goes into this drip feed system and irrigates the whole of this polytunnel, which is just fabulous.
36:03And when it comes to compost, there's compost heaps everywhere here. They're trying out different blends,
36:10they're finessing it, just getting it right for seedlings and for planting out. So resourceful. In fact,
36:16they're actually going out into the community out there as well and asking them for their food waste
36:22to bring it into the site to compost that too.
36:26Food waste is collected from local schools and businesses by Electric Bike,
36:31operated by another horticultural hero, head of compost, Jen Liggett. Back at base,
36:38she can start the process of turning it into high-grade material for the growing beds.
36:42Right, so the food waste has gone in there and then you're going to chuck some of these woodchips
36:48in? The woodchip in so it doesn't get a big smelly mess. Okay. Proportions? So we'll do that now.
36:53What's the proportions? So it's the same amount of food waste to woodchip. We're just creating an
36:58environment, a bit like a stomach really, where all the bacteria can just have the perfect
37:03environment to grow really. As the mixer is turned, internal blades break down the waste.
37:11Everything coming out yet? Yeah, it's all coming out. And after around 10 days,
37:15it's ejected from the other end as a starter compost. Yeah, that is, that's hot, isn't it?
37:22The temperature was checked today by Ben and it was over 60 degrees and that's literally just the
37:27bacteria. It's just like loads of people going into a nightclub, it just gets hot. Steamy.
37:33Once collected, the fresh compost is transferred to large, well-ventilated maturation vats,
37:40and from there to the finishing bays, turning food waste into flowers.
37:49It's really inspiring to spend time here where plants, nature and people are encouraged to thrive.
37:57In the hands of the farm's florist Clem Richards, it's an ethos which delivers on pure beauty too.
38:04So, when you're creating something, do you tune in to where it's going, who it's for?
38:13That emotional connection, I guess, is quite important. I want people to know that when they
38:18see their flowers, that they know that a lot of heart and soul has gone into every piece.
38:23The fact that they've been grown with all this love and care, care for the planet, care for the soil,
38:29I think what we're doing here with the volunteers, with the environment, it sits well within this acre
38:37and a half that we have here. It's just fabulous. It shows it can be done, you're proving it can be
38:43done. A model that hopefully others can follow too.
38:55I think it's interesting and really good news that more and more people are buying British-grown
39:20flowers that aren't having to traverse across the world to reach us and let's hope that's a trend
39:26that continues. Now certainly more and more people are buying and consuming blueberries,
39:33but it is something that we tend to think of of not part of our garden fruit vocabulary,
39:38but that's wrong. They're really not difficult to grow at all as long as you follow one or two
39:45basic requirements. And the first is they really need an ericaceous soil.
40:00Now this is a bought ericaceous mix. It's actually made up of a mixture of coir and bark. Just remember,
40:08an ericaceous compost is acidic. It's for plants that need acidic soil and that is non-negotiable.
40:18So you can buy it. You can also make it. So for example, leaf mould, which I've got here,
40:24does very well as an ericaceous compost. It also improves soil structure, which means it retains water.
40:32So I will be adding it to my bought compost. The second thing is choosing your variety. Now I've got
40:40three varieties here. I've got this one, which is blue crop. It will harvest about July, August,
40:47good berries. A plant will grow to about four or five foot tall, very reliable, pretty hardy. Not all
40:55blueberries are completely hardy. So that's a good place to start if you've got the room.
41:00I've also got a much smaller variety here called Top Hat. This is designed to be grown in small pots,
41:09very productive, brilliant, if limited on space. And finally, I've got this one, which is one of the
41:15oldest varieties, which is called Jersey, and it's fairly large. It will grow to seven foot. Now,
41:21it doesn't matter how big they are, they all need to be grown in the same way. So we start off
41:25with ericaceous compost. Right. I think I want a bigger pot for this one.
41:34They're going to spend their lives in a pot, so you don't want to be repotting them endlessly. And
41:39this is a plant that likes lots and lots of water. I've got my leaf mold and I've got the mix and I'm
41:46going to mix it up. So let's put some of that in the bottom. I don't need to put crocks in the bottom
41:55because the drainage holes are to one side. And anyway, I don't want this to drain too much. A
42:02little bit of my leaf mold, mix that in. There we go.
42:10I gave this a really good soak. I'm going to pop that in there and hold it. A leaf mold around the
42:19outside. A little bit more around there.
42:23I'm leaving an inch or so at the top for water. These are plants that should never dry out. Also,
42:34they are plants, because they're ericaceous, that should be watered with rainwater if at all possible.
42:40Because if you've got hard water, if you've got limey water, you're adding lime in quite
42:46noticeable quantities to the compost and that will affect the plant. So if you are growing blueberries on
42:52anything other than the smallest scale, just think about where you're going to get your rainwater
42:57from. It may be the incentive you need to install a water bud. Some varieties are not self-fertile.
43:03All these three varieties are. But all of them will crop more heavily and better if you have two to
43:09cross-pollinate. And of course, they don't have to be of the same variety in order to pollinate each
43:15other, as long as you've got two plants that are flowering at the same time. Okay, that's set up there.
43:20So I'll give this a good soak and put it somewhere warm. Now in winter, I have lost blueberries,
43:26but I've found that if you put them in an unheated greenhouse or if you've got a conservatory or a
43:30porch, that will protect them from the worst of the weather. And that's it. Easy. Grow your own blueberries.
43:37I will now give these a good soak and enjoy the autumn colour when it comes, which it will,
43:49and hopefully, fingers crossed, be enjoying the fruit this time next year. Now blueberries are a
43:57plant that need a lot of control, a lot of gardening, very specific conditions. But we went to visit a garden
44:04on the south coast where the whole point of it was to be free, to create an atmosphere that encouraged
44:11wildness, not just of nature, but of human spirit too.
44:15We moved to this garden in 2017 after we had been living in London for about six years. We had two
44:32children and we're in quite a small flat looking to live somewhere a little bit more rural.
44:36My name is Flo and this is my garden in Deel in Kent.
44:51I grew up in Amsterdam in the city centre. The area we used to play in was in an area in Amsterdam
44:56called Joseveld and the island we used to play on translates in English as the rough reed.
45:03Every morning we'd wake up early and we'd climb across on our little raft and we'd go to the
45:09island and we'd climb through all the weeds and the brambles. And I wanted our children to have
45:15a feeling of wildness and the plants being taller than them and enveloping them in wilderness.
45:24I wanted them to remember this garden as a big garden, even though it's such a small space,
45:29but by making everything so tall, by putting different paths through it, they could have it
45:34sort of almost fall over them. You have to sometimes fight your way through it,
45:38especially later in the year as things start to fall over.
45:43Do you like playing hide and seek in here?
45:45Yeah, it's quite tall grasses which make it easier.
45:48Make it good for hiding.
45:50Yeah, when you walk down the path the bees go all over you.
45:54Yeah. So there's lots of wildlife, isn't there?
45:56Yeah.
45:57Yeah.
45:59Do you remember when we had baby blue tits in the garden?
46:01Oh yeah!
46:01Lots of the plants in this garden are grown from seeds that I've collected and then
46:12sow them, sometimes in pots, sometimes direct, to see if they'll come up and if they'll be happy here.
46:18But I take a lot of their behaviour from how they behave in a natural space to try and get a
46:24similar natural feel in this garden.
46:33This area, I would say, is about 80% self-seeded. There are the sea holly. This comes from the beach.
46:41And then in there we've got the purple toad flax, the linaria. The seed heads are so pretty and they
46:47stay all winter. And then we've got teasel which is also from the beach and from the fields around
46:54here which the goldfinches love. And it's very much a garden that I hope supports wildlife.
47:01There used to be a concrete slab here and we removed it and I piled the concrete into little mounds
47:07over there so that we've got little mounds of rubble and sand for the bees to nest in and the ants
47:12like to nest in there.
47:13When we moved there I had no idea of what to do with gardens. I knew nothing of plants. So it was
47:21all quite a big learning curve. The garden was done in a very sort of traditional way. There was a lawn
47:28and on the edge were two long borders and the house also being quite long it made it feel like a bit more
47:33of a runway. So by taking those out and giving it more of a width and then cutting the path at an angle
47:41we tried to create a little bit more of different movement for your eye to wander through.
47:47As you move through the garden here it gets even taller and it sort of moves a lot so it gives you
47:54a sort of a multi-sensory feeling. You get lots of the noise from the birch tree from the leaves rustling.
47:59Because we're on the coast you get lots of wind so there's movement and sound as you walk through this.
48:06This is the Kalamogrotis grass. It's a real Dutch sort of almost like a national grass now.
48:11I love it for its movement this time of the year but I also love particularly how it behaves in the
48:17winter. It goes really pale and golden and it stands up straight. It adds structure to the garden.
48:22So through here next to the Kalamogrotis we've got lots of beautiful fennel all from the beach
48:31and these were all tiny seeds I collected about six years ago and it started to drift through the
48:36garden but this is the original batch and it grows every year bigger and stronger and it really reminds
48:43me of Greece and the scent of it is really nice and it's filled with pollinators and it stands beautifully
48:48in the winter. The last few years I've noticed we get more extremes. We either get extreme rainfall
48:59and then we get such long periods of drought so it's it's garden that can be resilient because it's
49:05got the prairie style planting but it also has the Mediterranean planting and because the soil is quite
49:11poor and quite dusty almost because of where we are those plants cope really well.
49:20This is a lazy person's garden I do very very little I let things do its own thing
49:27I spend about a weekend in March cutting everything back packing up and tidying it and then I might spend
49:35a couple of Saturdays just pulling out anything that I think is growing too intensely too close to not
49:41a plant that I'm keen to give a bit of space but other than that it does its own thing I'm happy
49:47with the slight messy look of it I prefer it
49:53I think because so little money has been spent on any other plants so much has been grown from seed
49:59or has just arrived in it means I'm less precious about changing things if something doesn't work or we
50:05need to change the shape or something else is needed I'm quite happy every year in the winter to plan
50:10work out what everybody wants and then adjust the plants accordingly.
50:18When we kind of finished with this space I realized I also really enjoyed growing fruit and vegetables
50:24and there wasn't any space here and I didn't want to put anything in here because this is a different
50:29type of environment it's more meadow like but the parking area is also south-facing and is ideal
50:36to grow vegetables so but a bit of convincing my husband we decided to park the car on the street
50:42and to put vegetable beds in there see what's in there shall we my favorite thing to go and harvest
50:48is potatoes because it's like an easter egg hunt what have we got here
50:55well done yeah it's a bit hairy this one isn't it it's a different variety
50:59that's all right I like it because uh it keeps my mum busy
51:06you can just pick them and eat them and then it's just an easy snack
51:12is it good yeah there you go is it
51:18I think through doing this garden I've learned lots about plants and horticulture which has been
51:24amazing to learn about but more than anything it's been just a joy to have this space with the
51:30family to share it with the kids and my husband and to have this space to invite friends over
51:34and also a space to come at the end of the day and relax
51:39I think the kids enjoy the space but I hope that they look back on it and they know what it feels like
51:45to walk through a space that is buzzing I hope that they have an experience of the natural world
51:51that as they grow older will recognize in other spaces
52:05I think of that style of gardening as being essentially dutch and obviously it's spread right across europe has been hugely influential in the last 20 years
52:20and clearly as you see in Flo's garden it works on any scale at all now this is the exact opposite of that
52:40whereas Flo's garden is loose and free and has this sense of being growing and self-sown this
52:49uh completely artificial shape growing as something that is highly manicured and man-made and doing
52:57exactly what I wanted to do here in the writing garden because these privet lollipops I planted to pick up and mimic
53:04and mimic the round shapes of the alliums that flower here in May and June and they do that beautifully
53:13and also the other thing that I found it does beautifully is give it structure in winter so
53:17it's doing a double job for me and that works right let's just clip that off
53:21the reason why I haven't been giving these their due attention is partly because of the drought they
53:33haven't grown very much but also because I have totally ignored the writing garden for the last three
53:40months and there is a good reason for that because I have planned and have known that I need to change the
53:47shed in the writing garden and I have changed it in quite a dramatic way because now this has replaced
53:55the writing shed and this is the dog house that I had on my dog garden at RHS Chelsea back in May
54:04the story of this building began last February when I designed it from scratch using reclaimed
54:19materials that we salvaged from all over the country bits and pieces it was never a building
54:26and it was designed completely to fit in the space at RHS Chelsea now it was offered to
54:32Battersea dog and cat's home along with the rest of the garden and they decided not to take it
54:37I then discovered it was going to sit in a builder's yard and be plundered bits and pieces used for
54:42different project over the coming years and I thought that was really sad now we've changed it slightly
54:48we've added the sliding doors we're going to line the inside with old scaffolding planks because this
54:53is going to be a working building this is going to be a potting shed for the really big pots that we
54:59use right across the garden and I have to say that as a memento of that extraordinary experience of
55:06making an RHS Chelsea show garden it's great I'm really glad to have it here and now that it's up
55:14it means that I can turn my attention to the poor old writing garden that's been neglected
55:19and get on with jobs here well that's my work cut out for me here are your jobs for the weekend
55:39if you're growing tomatoes particularly out of doors you have to cut your losses
55:43and remove any trusses with fruit smaller than a marble because the whole object is to put the
55:51energy into ripening existing fruit take off the tops of the plants and then remove the bottom half
55:58of the foliage and this will expose fruits to as much light and heat as possible
56:03if you grow rhododendrons azaleas or camellias it's important to make sure that they are watered
56:17regularly now and for the next month or so this is because next year's flowers are forming and if
56:25they're dry at this time of year the buds are very likely to drop off before the flowers open next spring
56:38although some seed heads should be left because they look great in winter and also supply food
56:43for birds others do need to be removed such as these lilies lilies have finished flowering remove
56:50the seed heads because they're taking energy away from the bulb and therefore next year's flowers
56:55and with new foffia when they've finished cut them right back at the base of the stem
57:00and that will encourage more flowering this autumn
57:25and that will be the best for the garden for the garden for the garden for the garden for all the work
57:40that there is to do in the garden and all the jobs there's one thing i hardly ever do and that's sit
57:47and certainly not sit here in the jewel garden it's nice i've forgotten what it's like
57:54and it's a good time of year to sit and take stock because however we look at it it's the end of summer
58:01and there's a new season coming up and that's full of all kinds of interesting things
58:06and i love the september light and there's lots of jobs to do but right now it feels like the door
58:13is closing on summer i don't feel sad about that it's worth taking stock and surrounded by the
58:20flowers of the jewel garden is a good place to do it
58:26but i'm afraid that's it for today i'll see you back here at long meadow in a couple of weeks time
58:33so until then bye
58:45so
59:03You
Recommended
4:58
58:53
59:07
22:27
21:25
58:57
43:21
59:59
49:35
57:30
1:08:45
3:22
14:40
1:06:15
1:22:30
1:12:02
1:14:33
1:37:39
3:24:52
2:18:25
1:34:10
50:32
1:36:08
2:13:17
Be the first to comment