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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,
00:33and they last for ages, but now they've done their stuff. So I am deadheading it to tidy it up.
00:40And by the way, when you're deadheading, you actually need to cut back to something, to the
00:46first point where there are no spent flowers coming from it, which means that in a rose like this,
00:52it means taking off quite a lot. If you do that when it's flowering, that will promote more flowers.
00:59However, this is part of the long-term pruning process, because this is a rambler, and ramblers
01:04are different to climbers. Climbers produce their flowers on new growth, but ramblers do the exact
01:11opposite. They flower on old growth. So the new shoots, and this is a really good example,
01:17doesn't bear flowers. And you can see these great arching new shoots, and there are some
01:21up in the sky, without any flowers on at all. But if I leave them, next year, they will have
01:27flowers. So that really dictates how you prune it. So what I'm going to do is deadhead it
01:32so it looks better, and then this sort of thing, I will wrap it round the support in a sort of
01:37crisscross way. And that way you have a good structure of new growth, nice flexible shoots,
01:42that 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
02:00beautiful and productive oasis. Wow. Your plot is... I love it. The wild backdrop. You've
02:08got a pond. The pond actually is a... a legacy from my mum, and it's just created this really
02:15beautiful, tranquil space. We meet a landscape architect in Sheffield whose love of plants
02:21has transformed his life and his home. I like to grow anywhere and everywhere. I think from
02:28my childhood, I love growing plants. So I've really followed my passion, and I'm so proud
02:34about it. As Carol's garden moves into late summer, she creates an inspirational new planting
02:41plan using the season's colours. Again, you've got that orange and blue, that real zinginess
02:48from there. I love it. And we visit a designer in Keithley, near Bradford, the 2025 UK City of
02:56Culture, whose garden is as edible as it is beautiful. There are some of the most beautiful plants that
03:04are also edible, and you can combine them in ways that look absolutely stunning.
03:34I'm doing a little bit of cutting back here in the cottage garden, because however carefully
03:51you plant it, there will come a point when the flowers that perform the best in high summer
03:56have 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. The seed heads are
04:05lovely, they're great for wildlife, the foliage looks good. But quite a few don't. Quite a few
04:10just look brown and sort of washed up in the border, and that detracts from the display in late summer.
04:17So what I like to do is to go around and cut them back. And so things like this, I guess, actually,
04:21which is lovely, and it's perfectly healthy. If I cut that back now, that's doing no harm. The roots will be fine.
04:30It will come back next year and do its stuff. But it does leave a little bit of space, and you don't
04:35really want too much bare soil this time of year. But if you go and shop around, you're bound to find
04:42some annuals for sale with the right sort of colour that you want for the garden. You can just pop in to fill gaps.
04:49And if you're prepared, you can sow your own annuals. If you sow them in spring, and they will grow on.
04:55And I've got some Nicotiana sylvestris, precisely for that purpose, that will perform at their best from now
05:01through till autumn. Of course, the ground is hard and dry. But we've had some rain, so not too bad. Now, this is a
05:14Nicotiana sylvestris tobacco plant, really tall, with lovely sort of white flower, with really intoxicating musky scent.
05:26It's one of those plants that is designed to release its fragrance at night, attracting moths as pollinators.
05:32And I'll put this on the corner, because it will grow really quite tall. It's late-ish in the year to be planting
05:39out, so probably will only reach about four foot. But if you plant these in July, beginning of July, they can
05:44reach six foot tall. Really statuesque plants. But as I get in under the rose, I need something that is a
05:51little bit smaller. I also want to pick up some of the pinks that we've got in the garden. So I've got these
05:58flowers, Cosmos. They're not specifically named, they're just a mix. But I like the pink, and they will not
06:07gross at all. These will stay about two to three foot, so therefore can go a little bit closer underneath
06:13the rose. And having cut back, I've got the space to do this. That goes in there like that. This one can go here.
06:28Plants 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 known
06:41Cosmos flowering here in a sheltered place at Christmas time. So that's really good long-term autumn colours.
06:58Now, Joe has been to Nottingham to visit an allotment. Well, so far so ordinary. There are lots of
07:07allotments all over the country. Except that this particular allotment site is not ordinary
07:13at all.
07:15Two miles from Nottingham city centre lies a hidden slice of horticultural history.
07:26Victorian-era allotments known as Bagthorpe Gardens.
07:30These allotments are nearly 200 years old. And if you didn't know where they were, you
07:37wouldn't have a clue how to find them. I've been told to look for a gate. I think it's up
07:42here. Or scrambling up.
07:45Tucked away behind these rows of houses are around six acres of Grade II listed gardening
07:58heritage.
08:02Ooh. Oh, yeah. Yeah. We're in allotment territory.
08:07Of which 37 of the original 65 plots remain.
08:11It's not like a normal allotment, I've got to say. There's sort of gates and rooms and sections
08:17and beautiful hedges, though. Fantastic for wildlife.
08:22Wow. 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.
08:41Hello, Paul. Hi, Joe. This place is amazing.
08:44It's pretty good. It's enormous. I got lost.
08:46It'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?
08:52It's all to do with the Industrial Revolution. You know, most people before the Industrial Revolution
08:56lived in the countryside. But things were changing rapidly.
09:00The enclosure acts happened that people couldn't use the common land anymore.
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 40s.
09:23The newly formed Labourers' Friends Society had workers' welfare at their heart.
09:29And 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.
09:39I mean, a quarter of an acre, you can grow a lot of food on that sort of family.
09:42Yeah, that's right. 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.
09:55It was back-to-back houses. So to get a place to come like this.
09:59This was the vision. You can grow your own food.
10:02You could be independent and you'd have a higher moral sense, really.
10:06So any idea of what they would have been growing here back then?
10:10I mean, this is quite sandy ground here.
10:12Basically, I think it was root crops.
10:14You know, things like carrots and lots of things that we'd be growing today, I think, would be similar.
10:19Parsnips.
10:20Parsnips, you know, cabbages, all the basics, I think, they would be growing.
10:25And it seems a vision for people to independently grow their food has lasted to this day.
10:33Hello, Anne. Nice to meet you.
10:35Oh, you've got a nice bounty.
10:37Yeah, I like to grow what I eat, as it were.
10:40OK.
10:41I 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.
10:52It'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.
11:07That's really, really nice.
11:08But it wasn't plain sailing for these garden allotments.
11:14After nearly 150 years of use, they fell into neglect, becoming completely unusable.
11:21Until 1997, when Paul came to the rescue.
11:26So, Paul, how did you get involved in the first place?
11:30I used to be a paint decorator at one time.
11:32Yeah.
11:33And I had a young family, two girls.
11:35And I wasn't really that interested in gardening at all.
11:38And once one of my customers asked me if I could dig her potatoes up.
11:43It was just an amazing experience, really.
11:45It was like switched on a light in my brain, really.
11:49And so I thought, I've got to have an allotment.
11:53An opportunity arose for Paul to buy a house adjoining these derelict allotment gardens.
11:58And what he saw propelled him into action.
12:03When I got inside the gardens, I realised how many of them were totally abandoned.
12:08Literally wastelands.
12:10And I thought it was just wrong.
12:13And then that's how we formed the Bagthorpe Gardeners Group.
12:17The charity set about restoring plots that were almost lost to land developers
12:22a decade earlier.
12:24There is about 36, 37 plots on here now.
12:28We've got 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
12:40are the garden outhouses lovingly 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
12:56which 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.
13:06We were able to be able to turn it into what we have today.
13:10So most plots have a bothy?
13:12Because 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?
13:21There might have been a bed and it wouldn't have been very sophisticated.
13:27Definitely around the fire, you know, they'd 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.
13:38Yeah.
13:39For making this a place that you could spend the whole day working hard.
13:42Yeah.
13:43And the hard work still continues.
13:47With such a big sight, some plots are still being restored today.
13:52Hello Val.
13:53Hi Joe, welcome.
13:54Wow.
13:55Your plot is, I love it, the wild backdrop, you've got a pond down there.
13:59Yeah.
14:00Your blueberries are incredible.
14:01Yeah.
14:02Fantastic.
14:04How long have you had it?
14:05Yeah, I've got a place in January 2020.
14:06Okay, 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?
14:17Are you trying anything new this year?
14:18I'm growing cauliflowers, which are new to me.
14:20I'm quite a new grower.
14:21Yeah.
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.
14:28Yeah.
14:29You've got a destination point as a designer would say.
14:31Yeah, absolutely.
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.
14:55Wow.
14:56Well, having spent some time here, you start to realise how special this place is.
15:08It's got a very strong atmosphere.
15:10And I think that's down to the history, the people, the work that they've put into this place.
15:15And that emotional connection with their plots too.
15:19And just to think, we are right in the middle of a city here.
15:22And it's not just a haven for people, but for wildlife too.
15:26It's fabulous.
15:33So we're used to thinking of it allotments.
15:42We're used to thinking of the 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.
16:17And it takes the passion and 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.
16:54You 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.
17:06And 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.
17:37I'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.
17:45Come 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.
18:12Now, with any cutting, you don't want anything like that amount of leaves,
18:16because the leaves are all transpiring, they're losing moisture,
18:19and there are no roots to feed it back in.
18:21So the first thing you can do is just pull the extra foliage off.
18:25And because it's a sage plant, I can use that in the kitchen.
18:30What I have here is perlite.
18:32Perlite does very well for cuttings, but you could also use grit.
18:36You can use any gritty mix of compost.
18:39You can take cuttings in pure sand.
18:41The point being is they don't need nutrition to form roots.
18:45They need water and they need air.
18:48And then push them into the corner.
18:51So that's one there. We've got a couple more.
18:54All that I can take.
18:56Take the leaves off.
18:58There are different types of sage, but they all work in the same way.
19:04And this time of 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.
19:41A 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.
19:48But if you haven't, just simply put one of these bags over the top, close it up, and that will keep the moisture in.
19:56And 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 Azwakan, who is a landscape architect and doesn't have his own garden.
20:19And yet that certainly hasn't stopped him gardening.
20:28I'm originally from Tamil Nadu, south of India.
20:32I came here to do my masters 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.
20:42I like to grow anywhere and everywhere.
20:46This is my bedroom and I grow plants here as well.
20:57So I've got a little corner of a houseplants next to the east-facing window.
21:03And outside the window in the cell, I've started growing the bonsais.
21:07So I love to surround myself with the plants.
21:12It's sort of like a naturalistic feel to your room.
21:17People might think I'm so obsessed or crazy.
21:21So this is our launch window.
21:28So I tend to group my plants because that's good for their health.
21:33They tend to make a microclimate in them by increasing their humidity.
21:38And I feel that kind of potentially make them to grow better.
21:43Over here I've got a mini holster.
21:45So basically in the UK, holsters are grown as outdoor plants.
21:48But I've made it as a nice indoor plant or houseplant.
21:52This plant, I got it in a garden centre for a pound.
21:56This is called Oxalis Sunset.
21:58I've taken a propagation through cuttings and offered it to many people.
22:02And they all love this plant.
22:04It all started when my friend gifted me a small plant cutting from age of five.
22:13And then my passion grow from there.
22:16Gardening was a coping mechanism for me.
22:19When I see plants, when I nurture them, and then it rewards back with the blooms and things.
22:23It is really rewarding and amazing.
22:26Me and my older brother are the first generation to go to school and university.
22:32My parents were not keen on me growing plants because they thought I might get devoted in my career goals.
22:39But then eventually I educated them and they got to know there is a career with horticulture and landscaping design.
22:49As a landscape architect, I view these urban green spaces as a really important feature.
22:54These spaces help to purify air.
22:57They reduce the rise in temperature.
23:00And they also help in the drainage system, like rainwater runoff.
23:05Back in India, I don't really see these kind of spaces.
23:09I think there should be more of these spaces in India, especially where there's a flood prone, more frequent of floods.
23:16Sheffield is really a place where one could indulge in nature.
23:23Over 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.
23:41So 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.
23:58And over here, I've got another initial 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.
24:11How are you?
24:13Cool.
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 antisocial behavior when I moved here.
24:40So I thought to add a lot of plants.
24:42Now it's not much of antisocial 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.
25:02With the black wall is these inflorescence and the white hairy stems kind of like pop out really well.
25:11It's called the strawberry.
25:15And 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.
25:30I love to propagate my own plants.
25:38Got a cutting of roses.
25:40This is my little greenhouse sort of thing.
25:46So basically a plastic container.
25:49So when you put the lid on, it acts like a mini greenhouse capturing all the moisture inside, which 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 these two little cuttings.
26:04And 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 a dream.
26:21No matter you have a garden or a ground space, still you can just grow plants wherever you can.
26:27I'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 from 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.
27:13Here in the paradise garden, it's become more than my idea, more than just the plants.
27:20It'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 Normal Meadow 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, just being.
27:40And that can be powerful magic and at times powerful medicine.
27:47Letting the garden rise
27:58Very much into tomato season now, and it is important to keep harvesting them.
28:24It encourages more fruit to develop.
28:28This is a variety of tomato called sun gold, cherry tomato, and it's a particularly good
28:35one to grow for instant eating because it's very sweet, it's pretty reliable, can grow
28:42it indoors or outdoors, and lipens to this distinctly orange rather than red colour.
28:50And at this stage of the tomato season, a good tip is to start lifting the plant.
28:57What that means is taking off the lower leaves.
28:59If you just take about a third of the foliage off, then that's fine.
29:05And the reason for doing that is to let more air flow in.
29:08If you get ventilation, that helps with tomato blight, it helps with whitefly, and also
29:15means that more light can get on trusses, particularly low down on the plant, and they'll ripen better.
29:22These are tomato called black crim or black crimean, sometimes called black Russian.
29:49And it looks sort of unripe.
29:51It's got a greeny, almost a brown sort of chocolatey colour.
29:56Absolutely delicious.
29:57One of my favourite tomatoes of all.
29:58I have a bed of outdoor tomatoes, which you can see are way behind me.
30:05the indoor ones, but completely normal in terms of what you would expect from a British summer,
30:12and it's been a good summer.
30:13They will be ripening in September, which is normal for outdoor tomatoes.
30:19Now, this is a variety called Gardener's Delight, and it's a really good doer.
30:26If you've never grown tomatoes before, it's definitely the first one I would start with.
30:31They're robust, and they're heavy croppers too, and I always grow some.
30:38Now, it's time to pay another visit to Carol's Garden, where she is celebrating and sharing the joys of the winter.
30:45It's time to pay another visit to Carol's Garden, where she is celebrating and sharing the joys of the winter.
30:50And I'm going to show you all the time.
30:53It's time to pay another visit to Carol's Garden, where she is celebrating and sharing the joys of her late summer borders.
31:18Wanting a bed or a border can't seem a really daunting sort of prospect.
31:22I mean, which plants do you choose?
31:25Well, when I'm planting, first of all, I think about things that are going to go on right the way through the season.
31:33It's going to look good all year round.
31:37But then there are the shooting stars, those plants who only have a sort of ephemeral presence,
31:44and yet they lend a certain sort of pizzazz to any planting you've got.
31:52Throughout my garden, there are lots and lots of smaller gardens, separate spaces, which have their own kind of personality and their own kind of planting.
32:13This garden is predominantly white. It's absolutely glowing.
32:19This flat tapasta here, with its sort of misty wistfulness, it just gives a sort of air of contentment and happiness.
32:29The first thing you come to when you look into this very special little corner is the cosmos.
32:36It's over the top, not physically, but in that it just overlooks everything and it kind of sets the mood too.
32:43It's not just its beautiful big white flowers, but it's also its feathery foliage.
32:50And whenever you're thinking about putting plants together, I'm looking not just at the flower colour, but its shape, the whole form of the plant, its texture, the foliage.
33:01And it's accompanying this white phlox, and this has to be just about my favourite humble of all time.
33:09I mean, I love cow parsley, all the rest of the family.
33:12But this is Selenum Wallachianum. This is its moment.
33:17And yet, it's been a beautiful plant right the way through from the spring.
33:22What I love about it is its flowers now in these great plateau, tiny little florets, but 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. It's an absolute delight.
33:41I think the whole thing works together really quite well.
33:46Lots of it by accident, but lots of it is by design.
34:03Well, how about this for a complete contrast?
34:06Up there, it was white and peaceful and quiet.
34:10But here, it's alive. It's really, really thingy.
34:15And 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, this 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.
35:24What 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 centerpiece.
35:47I should explain this.
35:49I'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.
36:01Just absolutely ideal.
36:10Now, one of the plants that immediately springs to mind to combine with that Actaea is this lovely salvia.
36:18I always want to call it Maradona, but it's called Caradona.
36:21I think I've got it the right way around.
36:23This is a totally hardy salvia.
36:26And one of its enormous benefits, apart from the fact that the bees adore it,
36:30is that even when these flowers have finished, it leaves behind it these beautiful dark brats,
36:38which I think are going to tone perfectly with the Actaea.
36:43Now, this is a Hellenium.
36:44I usually like big, tall Helleniums, but in this planting, this short variety is absolutely ideal.
36:54I love purple and orange together.
36:56There'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,
37:05the centre of Helleniums.
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.
37:26This is a beautiful pennisetum.
37:28I think it's a total delight.
37:33Now, I've got my stalwart Salenium that we've seen down the garden.
37:38It's absolutely lovely.
37:40And look at that fine foliage.
37:41And how about this?
37:43This is an accident.
37:44This lovely purple stem just picks up on the leaves of the Actaea.
37:49Look at that.
37:51And then, when you mix in this Estrantia, which is one of my 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,
38:08rather than looking subtle now, it just looks dingy.
38:12It's definitely a no-no.
38:15I think the same goes for this.
38:20Not as bad, but still a bit much.
38:23But I know where this is going to go.
38:27Down 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 Estalia.
38:39Just bring this Estalia head down and put it next door to the Nifofia.
38:44Look 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 in the garden.
38:58This time, instead of being with a Cracosmia, 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, and 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.
39:52Right now, I'm just going to enjoy late summer.
40:16Well, I think the great thing about late summer
40:20is it's getting later.
40:22And so, not all of us can have such wonderful plants as Carol,
40:25but there is a chance for all of us to enjoy summer stretching out,
40:30nowadays, well into October.
40:35It's been a really good year for figs.
40:37And they ripen almost overnight.
40:40And when they do, the birds love them.
40:41Look 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.
40:51And I'm not exaggerating when I say that this one tree
40:55has given us over a hundred figs.
40:57All 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.
41:05You don't even need a garden.
41:07Because 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.
41:20And if you plant one now,
41:22you could have a decent-sized fig tree in five years' time.
41:27And they grow very happily in a pot.
41:29I'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,
41:36I would advise getting brown turkey.
41:38So, 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.
42:00So, whether it's grit or even sand,
42:02you will need to add drainage to whatever compost you use.
42:06In order to give it goodness,
42:08I'm going to add the garden compost
42:14to the potting compost.
42:16And just mix that in a little bit.
42:21And 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,
42:46pot 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.
43:04Yeah, it's about right.
43:05Now, if I take it out.
43:08You can see that there's a good root system.
43:10And it's a little bit root bound at the bottom.
43:13Nothing to worry about at all.
43:14In this case, don't try and untangle roots.
43:17Just simply gently break them.
43:21And the reason you do that is because that will stimulate the roots to grow new roots from the broken point.
43:28And they will grow out into the soil rather than round and round at the base of the plant.
43:33Right.
43:35Hold that in place.
43:41And fill around it.
43:47Just firm it down lightly.
43:49Now, that's all you need to do except for a regular water.
43:58This 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.
44:28If 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.
44:48And if you live in the central Spain or Greece or south of France, they'll be delicious.
44:52But unfortunately, our weather is not like this.
44:54So they'll be no good. And 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.
45:09That is giving you next year's harvest.
45:15We're going up to Yorkshire now, just outside Bradford, which, by the way, is this year's UK city of culture.
45:22To Keithley, where Pippa Chapman has a permaculture garden.
45:39Hi, I'm Pippa and welcome to my permaculture garden.
45:42Permaculture is very much about gardening in tune with nature.
45:49Food forests and forest gardening is very much a specific technique within that.
45:54So it's about growing multiple layers.
45:57It's about designing a kind of intentional edible ecosystem that's very wild, but the plants are very carefully selected.
46:06And it's managed in a way that really takes into account biodiversity and trying to help wildlife to thrive within your food growing space.
46:16I think when people think about permaculture gardens and food forests, they quite often think it has to be messy and totally wild.
46:26It's about looking at how nature grows and creating communities of plants that are all growing together.
46:35And 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, you're just looking.
46:45You'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?
46:52So 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.
47:12I mean, it's hugely satisfying to be able to grow your own food, just to know that you know exactly what's gone into the soil,
47:20exactly how that plant's been treated, to know that it's grown just, you know, a few metres from your kitchen.
47:34There's a large canopy layer in food forests, but in a small garden, obviously we can't fit in a giant tree.
47:41So 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 and attract wildlife into your garden
48:07is just not being too tidy.
48:09The more that we sort of leave things and the more relaxed we become,
48:12the 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 brush that we piled here.
48:30But when we actually started to clear it away, we 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.
48:46Food forest is a really low maintenance way to grow food, but it's not a zero maintenance way to grow food.
49:01It's not as high maintenance as annual beds where you're constantly weeding and watering
49:06because those plants really don't like competition.
49:09But the maintenance in a food forest is more about stopping plants from out-competing each other.
49:15But the great thing is, say my kale is getting too big and it's swamping out my blackcurrant,
49:20the leaves that I'm cutting off the kale to reduce its size, I 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, you want it to look really beautiful
49:38and there's absolutely no reason why you have to compromise on that in order to have a food forest.
49:43There are some of the most beautiful plants that are also edible, perennial vegetables,
49:48and you can combine them in ways that look absolutely stunning.
49:53People seek us out because we feel as strongly and passionately as they do about permaculture and ecological gardening.
50:07For about seven years now I've been developing this garden, designing it and managing it.
50:14There's, you know, many businesses and organisations and private clients that we've worked for over the years in the Bradford District,
50:23who have all embraced this way of growing and I think the more that I've been able to show them how beautiful and alive it can be,
50:31the more people have been convinced and asked for this kind of garden.
50:35The challenging thing about permaculture for a conventional gardener like myself is this mixing in of edible and decorative plants side by side in a border.
51:02It looks great, it can taste wonderful, but it's still quite a leap for someone like me who's always had a vegetable garden or a decorative garden,
51:11but really inspiring.
51:13Now 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 and 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 they didn't want the building.
51:43And I thought about this.
51:45So I'm paying for it to be put up in Longmeadow as a memorial to that mad, weird and wonderful time when I got talked into doing a Chelsea garden.
51:57And 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.
52:06The reason why I'm fondling the leaves of these pelargoniums is because they are all scented leaf pelargoniums.
52:35And some of them have lovely flowers, like Cidoides here has 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 Garner's World Live.
52:51They were healthy but small plants.
52:53I've potted them up into terracotta pots, which is a good idea for pelargoniums because they breathe a little bit more.
52:59I haven't fed them at all.
53:00And as a rule, pelargoniums do not need overwatering.
53:05Certainly during the summer, they cope very well if 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 because to give them some fresh air, some light, a little bit of rain doesn't hurt them at all.
53:27I've put one in here to show you.
53:29Now, you can take cuttings if you get a nice, straight stem.
53:33If I take that like that, you can see that it's very green.
53:38Now, we want that green to go.
53:41So, simply leave it on the side, and I'll leave it in here like that for ten days, two weeks, until that green has disappeared,
53:48and you have this kind of grey callus, and 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.
54:04So, this is early days, but let's just check them to see, because if they have got roots, they can be potted on.
54:15Tangled up in amongst the perlite are fresh roots growing, and that means I can pot them on.
54:22Mix the perlite that they were in into some ordinary peat-free compost, so it's really well-drained.
54:31That'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.
54:43And I will dress that with grit, keep it in a greenhouse until next May,
54:48and by which time the roots will have grown out, secured in the pot, and it will grow.
54:53OK, that's enough of watching me working. Here's some jobs for you this weekend.
55:02Now is a good time to sow greens for an autumn and winter harvest, and they give a deliciously spicy choice of leaves both eaten raw and cooked.
55:24Sprinkle the seeds thinly on a peat-free compost, cover them over lightly, water them, and 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.
55:50There'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.
56:21If 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.
57:05We grow flowers for our delight. We create spaces that make us feel better as people. And we grow food to eat.
57:24And 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. The only point in doing that is if you buy supermarket ones with very thick skins, you may want to.
57:47And 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.
58:22From your tomatoes, from your garden. And 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 in a couple of weeks' time.
58:34So, until then, bye-bye.
59:04Bye-bye.
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