Pensioner's spectacular 'four seasons' garden bursts into autumnal colour

BirminghamWorld

'John's Garden' in Autumn at Astwood Nurseries in Staffordshire. Nursery owner John Massey is passionate about nature. A pensioner has spent 27 years turning his home into a spectacular ‘four seasons’ garden - and it's now brimming with autumnal colour. John, 76, has spent 27 years creating his dream greenspace which features over 20,000 plants, trees and shrubs over 10 acres. The four-time Chelsea Flower Show winner spends as many as 15 hours a day tending his flowers and reveals it's a seven day-a-week job. His garden oasis, on the edge of the industrial heartlands of Dudley in the Black Country, is widely regarded as one of Britain's best private gardens.

Transcript

00:00Hello, my name is John Massey. I've been a nurseryman for 57 years and still find there's

00:09so much to learn and to find out and here we're trying in the garden a trial of hardy croissants

00:18and we're basically looking for the ones which are going to be in flower for October and November.

00:25Some of them as you can see have started a bit earlier but we're deadheading them, Heather's

00:31deadheading them here to see if they will continue through into October and November as well.

00:38We've got over 100 in the bed here, all planted far too close but the wonderful thing is they're

00:45holding everything up and someone said that it'll be a danger to planes flying into Birmingham

00:53airport because they'll wonder what this tremendous splash of colour is.

00:59I just love this Japanese shrub but you see how this fantastic intense orangey red

01:06gradually creeps into the centre of the leaf and I actually love them when you've still got that

01:12little bit of green and because of the intense heat we've had this year we've had fruit for the

01:18first time so I'm hoping we can grow some seedlings from this magnificent plant.

01:26This is another fantastic reliable autumn colour shrub it's Cotinus flame and this is a hybrid between

01:35the American species Obavatus and Cogigrea which grows through Europe and into Asia. Growing in the

01:44Mediterranean they're quite used to a hot dry summer and I've seen them growing throughout Greece and

01:54looking absolutely fabulous. My tips for autumn is to make sure you get out in the garden every day

02:05because it changes all the colours change so rapidly and you can miss so much. Cut down on the watering,

02:13have as much light as you possibly can have in there and the air, remember the ventilation.

02:21Ventilation is so so important but the main thing is have fun, enjoy your garden.

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