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00:11You coming? Come on then.
00:17Come on then.
00:25Come on then.
00:26Come on.
00:28Good boy, you are. Good boy.
00:35Hello. Welcome to Gardener's World.
00:44And welcome to a lovely spring day here at Longmeadow.
00:48And a brand new piece of the garden.
00:50This used to be one side of the copse.
00:53And I planted it over 30 years ago from hazelnuts that I gathered.
00:58I planted some trees in here and underplanted it with all the lovely primroses and bluebells that you get in
01:03coppice woodland.
01:04But the trees grew very big and they sucked all the moisture from the soil, blocked all the light.
01:10And for the last five years it really hasn't been very good on any level.
01:15But no longer.
01:16Because I have begun the transformation into making this area into a really beautiful woodland garden.
01:44Now the essence of any woodland garden is shade of some sort.
01:48but shade is not a problem you will find plants that will thrive in almost every variation of
01:56the shade theme whoa hang on a minute that's Ned Ned what are you doing come on come here okay
02:06good
02:07boy would you like a little something would that make you feel better now please don't bark when
02:12we're filming right what I'm going to plant today are two modest plants but they are charming they
02:20will grow in shade and they spread really easily but not out of control so what's not to like now
02:28first one is tiarella this is tiarella spring symphony and tiarella has these tiny white little
02:37starbursts of flower carried on long stems and flower from now through till May and they are
02:44happiest with dappled shade that doesn't dry out too much this is telema telema grandiflora and you can
02:53see the foliage is quite similar but the flowers are rather different because they are born on long
02:58thin stems but they're pale primrose yellow tiny little bells I love them they'll last into June
03:03and they are the perfect ground cover woodland plant that also looks really good they're not
03:10just filling a space they're performing as well both these plants come from the damp woodlands or
03:18forest of the west of America so don't stick it in very dry shade it's gardening convention the
03:32plants look better placed in odd numbers than even if you plant in threes five sevens even nines
03:40it tends to look more natural than if you do it in twos or fours or sixes so I tend
03:47to plant in triangles
03:48in groups of three if you want a mass defect of any kind it's nearly always more economic and more
03:58successful to buy lots of small plants than a few really big ones small plants established much more
04:06easily and they're much cheaper although I absolutely love the creativity of making a new garden the thing I
04:23love most in the world is actually planting on a spring day with the sun shining the birds are
04:30selling putting plants in the ground knowing that they're going to grow that sense of hope and
04:36satisfaction all comes together and it's just as joyous now as it ever has been in my life
04:43now we're going to visit Mary Keane now Mary Keane over a long period of time has been one of
04:48our our best known
04:50garden designers and writers and she's made gardens all over the world but Joe has been to see her in
04:57her own garden at home when I think of gardening royalty Mary Keane is right up there and what sets
05:08her
05:08apart is her instinct for planting from Grand British Gardens to designs across the world Mary's work is
05:18about atmosphere and emotion and she designs gardens that are to be loved lived in and feel truly alive
05:26but down this path is something even more personal it's her own sanctuary and it's not somewhere that she
05:34shares very often so this is a real treat so Mary you design gardens for oh the rich and famous
05:47royalty
05:47some very high-profile clients quite high-profile I'm not allowed to talk about any of them I know
05:53we're not going to talk about any of them but what I'm interested in is how different it is designing
05:59their
05:59gardens and designing your own garden it's completely different I like small flowered plants that you see
06:06through and that are ephemeral I'm not doing display I'm doing atmosphere and it's for me to Potter and
06:13wander about in the morning in the evening and the middle of the day it's just a lovely place to
06:19be
06:19not a place to look at not a place to show off and the actual layout did you draw it
06:24out on piece of paper
06:25no I didn't it's two rectangles like two tennis courts end on end and I knew I wanted some flower
06:33beds for conventional plants and then I wanted two-thirds which we're in now to be wild with
06:41wildflowers all year and I made this s line of beauty path through it to make the garden seem longer
06:48and
06:48more mysterious if you've got a small garden you want to be able to walk around it and to feel
06:54like
06:54a sort of adventure oh this is energizing Mary I gotta say what style of planting would you call
07:05this border then mixed can we call it mixed it sounds a bit boring it's got lots of stuff in
07:11like
07:11snowdrops and hellebores underneath so it goes on all the time and then these sort of bursts of color
07:18like the Henry Lily and the agapanthus don't ask me I think it's a head-borne hybrid but it's just
07:24a
07:24good dark form yeah I love the Ori some people don't like orange I love orange I love it there
07:30really is a lot to see because you're planting in small groups here like you said not a large
07:36brushstrokes no and it's got a sort of wild feel and the more you look the more you see you
07:41can stand
07:41here for hours and just look at the detail a plants woman at her core Mary has filled her garden
07:51with
07:51plants that bring her joy not as you might expect in the usual arrangements of threes or fives more
07:58like an artist playing with color on a canvas Mary's really got me thinking because I've been reticent to
08:08use purple foliage plants in my garden mainly going for greens but she inherited that purple
08:15berberis which is on the boundary and she's picked it up in colors and stems of other plants like the
08:21thalictrum there has got dark stems we've got the hollyhock with those purple flowers really deep colors
08:27and over here we've got the foliage of the dahlias and that red sanguissorba in the back there as well
08:34and it's really got me thinking it has a lovely depth to the planting color-wise and a nice rhythm
08:40as
08:40well I have to use it
08:50so this border got a name well that border beyond that we've just looked at is wild and high and
08:58shrubby
08:58and this one is the transition between wild and high and shrubby not totally working and a much more
09:06gardened flowery look against the wall so that's the floweriest traddest bed catchy names you got there
09:14for them I love the hollyhocks I love the heights because a lot of people think oh tall plants you've
09:20got to put them at the back of the border but you're bringing them to the foreground and you're looking
09:24through them well I love the looking through tall plants that's my aim always to look through
09:30I love this euphorbia it's seguiriana what is it you love about euphorbias mary oh well I like their
09:38greenness you like euphorbias too don't you love them I love their leaves I love the fact that they
09:44perform all year it's the zinginess isn't it they say they set off other plants in the garden so well
09:51and the dianthus carthusian aurum that is my favorite plant your favorite plant of all time
09:58i've got a lot of favorite plants but that is currently my favorite plant yeah okay
10:03desert island plants desert island i'm allowed eight no that's records okay no but it's fabulous
10:10thing about it is it grows in shade it grows in gravel it grows in the border and it flowers
10:15for a long
10:16long time i mean it's just a brilliant brilliant airy graceful lovely plant
10:26as well as being a great designer she obviously loves her plants too does mary because look from
10:32the front of the garden all you see is plants you've got an apple tree with planting all the way
10:37around
10:37it no voids whatsoever and before i came i thought oh there's going to be some unusual stuff some rare
10:43things i better gem up a little bit but actually what's lovely is they're mainly cottage garden
10:49style plants and things that we can all get our hands on nurseries and garden centers things like the
10:55pinks the oregano there we've got crocosmere here peonies iris fennel agapanthus and it's all put
11:06together so effortlessly too this is idyllic this courtyard it's beautiful well i rather love it
11:16because it's got a lot of rarities you said there weren't any rarities in the rest of the garden
11:20this is rarity corner here well i can see this is more unusual it's more exotic yeah i like a
11:26challenge
11:27i've got the fuchsia climbing lady boothby that's lovely and melianthus which joe likes i like well
11:34i think he looks great there yeah i think it's lovely actually and what about the one by the door
11:39over there oh that's begonia albopictorosia it'll stay out all summer and then it'll go in the kitchen
11:46in the winter so of all the gardens that you've created how does this one rate when people ask me
11:53what's my favorite garden i always say mine of course and they're quite surprised but of course
11:59it's your isn't yours your favorite garden most definitely because that's where you can garden and
12:04that's what we want to do it just is the place where i feel completely at home and myself the
12:11passion
12:11comes across from you so strongly oh joe thank you so much this has been amazing seeing it was lovely
12:19having you here thank you for coming thanks for inviting us
12:40come on
12:51many many years ago i visited mary keen's previous garden in berkshire it was wonderful
12:57and she was the very first person to come and see my garden in london 43 years ago and she
13:04wrote an
13:04article about it and arguably started my career as a garden writer and broadcaster so it's fascinating to
13:12see her garden now now i'm just gathering one or two of these scented leaf pelargoniums which i'm going
13:19to take down to the end because it's time to give them a bit of attention
13:30come on panty boy hot panty boy
13:39the thing about these scented leaf pelargoniums
13:42it's obviously as the name suggests the fragrance now this is tormentosum and you rub the leaf and it
13:51releases this strong odor of peppermint it's really powerful now this is a new variety called torrento
13:59which rather weirdly smells of those little cola sweets
14:05it is slightly weird i have to confess but interesting and there are lots and lots of fragrances
14:12from the slightly weird to the absolutely delicious but whatever type of pelargonium you
14:19have now is the time to get them ready for spring
14:27this is a much more familiar zonal pelargonium it comes from south africa and rather than these
14:35relatively compact plants with big flowers when you see them growing wild they are they can be big
14:42shrubs big woody shrubs sort of six foot tall with smaller flowers
14:48which are then pruned by fire but from it they regrow and i don't necessarily suggest getting a blow
14:56torch to prune this but prune it you must if you don't want it to get really leggy these have
15:02been
15:02in the greenhouse all winter so they've flowered all winter however you've got to be bold and cut
15:09them off now or else you won't have any in summer it's exhausted and it needs a rest so if
15:14we take off
15:15those flowers and cut back refresh the compost water it feed it we'll get vigorous new growth and that
15:22will give us a really good display later on in summer you can cut these really hard or if you
15:29like a
15:29little bit of a little bit of legginess and i do then you include that so what i'm going to
15:34do
15:35is just cut here which leaves a bit of stem and then here
15:44and that can come off there
15:49now this one the one that smells of cola bottles i'm going to be much more ruthless
15:58take that off that there now can you see there is new growth right at the base
16:05and that's where i'm going back to now that is radical but because it's a young plant
16:12i'm doing that to really encourage a fresh flush of growth from the base
16:19and finally this one tormentosum i like the way that it spills down i don't really want to reduce
16:26this at all all i'm going to do is take off any spent leaves however this one here this zonal
16:35pelargonium
16:36needs repotting and i'll show you how to do that so i'm going to take it out of the pot
16:40like this
16:45and what i'm going to do is take off the bottom third so we're taking off quite a lot of
16:52the compost there
16:58i've put the crocks back in the bottom
17:04and i've got some fresh compost here now this is
17:08a wood-based compost a little bit of garden compost added and quite a lot of grit
17:15just look at the roots on that great in you
17:27and i'm going to wiggle it to work the soil around the roots and then address that with some grit
17:35which just makes it look better
17:40give it a drink but make sure it drains thoroughly
17:48and then feed it liquid seaweed once a week and you should start to see healthy new growth and keep
17:55feeding it until it starts flowering
17:59so i will go through all the pelargoniums particularly the zonal ones and set them up
18:04for fresh growth and of course a really fresh good display in the summer months
18:14now last september we went to visit karim habibi in his nursery in kent
18:20and his incredible collection of heritage apples
18:30we have 700 varieties of apples what i'm doing is actually preserving lots of the old varieties
18:37it's important that these are available for people to grow in their gardens because they're not
18:42available in shops and people forget what very nice heirloom varieties taste like
18:48each apple is like rehearing a song you've not heard for a while
18:52because i'll instantly remember the other times i've tried that apple
18:56so i'm quite passionate to keep these apples going
19:00i'm very glad when people do come to the nursery
19:02try an apple for the first time and they say goodness i never knew apples could taste like this
19:13this is sweet society it's a lovely dessert apple with quite an intense flavor quite crisp as well
19:25this is jumbo one of my favorite cooking apples and it cooks down to a lovely apple
19:30sauce very very easily
19:36this is captain kid a lovely sweet apple with a pear drops flavor
19:45caring for all these trees is a huge operation i'll be producing 7 000 or so new trees a year
19:52i am obsessed with the apples i'm obsessed with looking after fruit trees and maintaining the
19:58collection it is a sort of labor of love
20:03right now we're amongst the mother trees so there's about a thousand trees here and every
20:07single tree is actually a different variety and that's essential to have so that i can harvest
20:12cyan wood and cyan wood is essentially new growth on that tree which i can use for cloning
20:19just above each leaf stalk there is a bud and each one of these buds has the potential to produce
20:26a new
20:26tree if you look at older growth on a tree those active buds aren't there so that's why you can't
20:31use
20:32older wood and you need new growth
20:36so right now i'm taking the leaves off the cyan wood so that it doesn't actually dry out i'll also
20:44take the top off because that is actually too thin to work with
20:48so now that's ready and the next stage is to graft this onto some rootstock
20:59right now we're amongst the rootstocks the rootstock obviously determines the vigor of the tree
21:05and so every apple tree that is in this country is actually made in this way where it's actually
21:12made up of two parts the rootstock and the cyan which is above that and you can usually see the
21:17graft
21:17union where it's actually going to have different bark it's going to look quite different so that's
21:22the part where you know that any flowers on that top part of the tree will produce let's say your
21:28bramleys or your cox's orange pippins so this cyan wood that i collected from the mother tree i'm going
21:34to graft this onto this rootstock right here using a technique called chip budding i'm making a shallow cut
21:41on the cyan wood
21:45the next stage is to make the exact same incision on the rootstock
21:55i'll then tape this up
22:02and that's now done so that bud that is now on there that will fuse to the rootstock and next
22:09year and next
22:09season's growth that will grow into a one-year maiden so it might put five six foot of growth on
22:22so every summer i'll be out here chip budding in late july through till august it's a lot of work
22:28i will probably be spending the best part of 10 12 hours a day both collecting cyan wood and chip
22:33budding
22:35i'll probably aim to do 500 of these a day i'll work well into the night some nights with a
22:40head torch
22:41on and that's just because there is a shortish period where you have to get quite a lot of work
22:46done
22:50once you grow an old variety like ashmead's kernel for example it's such an unforgettable variety that you
22:58become quite excited and passionate about preserving more and more old varieties because you realize
23:03that these apples are some of the best fruits in the world you can go back through time and see
23:10how
23:10important a certain apple was to a certain area because that apple is cloned you can actually taste
23:17exactly what people were tasting sort of 200 300 400 years ago and you can't really do that with a
23:23lot of
23:27other fruits in the early 90s when my parents started things here britain was actually losing
23:32lots of its old orchards my parents were quite passionate about actually sourcing old material
23:38and creating a collection things like margill or pitmast and pineapple these old varieties which
23:45were such lovely apples to actually grow and try yourself they really wanted you know everyone to have
23:53that experience
23:56i really wanted to experiment and try and create my own varieties eventually i persuaded my dad to let me
24:04have
24:04a sort of a small nook of the nursery where i actually sort of planted seedling varieties grafted those
24:11out and eventually i have actually produced some of my own varieties unfortunately my father passed away
24:17before trying any of the seedling apples and one of the first apples which was an exceptional apple
24:23i've actually now named that variety after my father i've called it hamid's red pippin
24:28i think he would have been very interested to try that it's quite sad he never did but it's it's
24:33very nice
24:34that's every time i see the apple to sort of think of my dad
24:40right now we're amongst the maidens in the nursery to get to the point where your one-year-old
24:46tree is going to start to thrive and produce apples firstly you want to plant the tree in the
24:50winter time and let the tree establish so that means plant the tree well so the roots are happy
24:55and water the tree quite a lot so in that very first winter time whilst it's dormant you probably
25:01want to cut some branches off lower down so these lower branches in the long term are not going to
25:06be very useful perhaps if you are going to sort of try and train in espalier or step over but
25:11for a
25:11freestanding tree which generally is what most people plant you really want a clear trunk lower
25:16down so that maintenance is quite easy and then at the top of the tree most people actually want
25:21quite a sort of three-dimensional crown so imagine a goblet-shaped tree and those are where you want
25:26your fruit so that the tree is able to sort of hold itself up whilst carrying heavy fruits you can
25:32essentially choose where you want the crown of the tree to be by cutting the leader off at a certain
25:38point because what happens is if you cut the leader off all the buds below the certain point where you
25:43cut the tree they're going to compete for apical dominance which means they're going to try and
25:48grow as much as they can so you end up with a large sort of cluster of branches coming out
25:55and from
25:55that you can actually select some that will form a balanced crown of about sort of four branches
26:00five branches i would like to think that in a few hundred years time people might have a hamid's red
26:08pippin tree in their garden and they will look up who was this person where did this apple come from
26:14oh i live in kent oh okay i know where that you know where that town is it's something that
26:20i'm very
26:21fortunate to be able to do and i certainly would love it if one day one of my children wants
26:26to
26:27continue this i can't think of anything nicer than working alongside one of them or all of them if
26:34they all want to join in so many apples yummy
26:52when i planted this orchard so many years ago i carefully hunted out and chose heritage local
27:00varieties i wanted to build up something that could only represent this area so therefore of
27:06course i really admire what kareem is doing and he's doing it so well it wouldn't be marvelous if
27:12his children carried that on his grandchildren what a fantastic project now it's time to visit one of
27:19your gardens we're going down to dorset to visit the garden of james baker hello i'm james off of the
27:28traders welcome to weymouth i do this for a living gardening so i thought i'd show you my humble abode
27:34this is like a patio area obviously it's a bit early in the year but your tulips are coming up
27:39now
27:39it's constantly experimenting daily i might move something around whatever tickles my fancy that's
27:44part of the fun of gardening you know you're never right and you're never wrong everyone's a busker me
27:49included structurally functional down the middle i have a family i don't have any please keep off the
27:57grass business i just like to fill the beds with everything just go wild and i like to let the
28:02periwinkle cascade down a bit like a waterfall the hebe just goes wild and what i love about this you
28:09get the purple and i've got a climbing rose that comes through and the pink and purple intertwine
28:15beautiful now this is my pièce de résistance my favorite bit of the garden this pear tree so basically
28:20this pear tree was swamped with ivy and it was on its last legs i had one little pear on
28:25it we
28:25replanted that seed and that is growing down there that scraping sound you hear in the background is
28:32uh my son hello raking up the leaves good man and i let the kids do what i used to
28:37do in my granddad's
28:38garden is just learn on the spot watch learn experiment trial and error my great granddad was
28:43an incredible gardener lived to 102 uh so you know there's something to be said to be outdoors you know
28:49breathing in the air it's good for the soul gardening master and apprentice i think you're
28:55the master there in this area i'm gonna put onions down here carrots in the front row radishes lettuce
29:03plants uh potentially a cucumber plant running up that you've got the job now it's yours
29:10so this little area i salvaged what i could from the wreckage of a hedgerow this bay was put in
29:15and it was a twig when we cut it back but it's you know been shaped now no edward scissorhands
29:20but
29:20you know good enough the little hack i've got is sedum stone crop it's good ground cover it's great
29:25weed suppressor this came from one clipping i got which is incredible they're up there with periwinkle
29:31for me for beautiful almost like forest floor carpet coverage here's my bravery award for gardening
29:37this aeonium was left out all year kind of as an experiment really it was a success story so i
29:44will be
29:44trying that again i hate to chatter the illusion it is trial and error gardening gardening adds years to
29:50your life and life to your years and that is like the best quote i think i've ever heard i
29:54want that on
29:55a t-shirt that's my garden thank you for watching
30:24i like the fact that james's son was growing vegetables
30:30well it's time that i started to sow some vegetables too long meadow had such a soaking
30:36all winter now the raised beds make a difference and actually now they're not too bad they're ready
30:42the rule of thumb if you're sowing seeds or indeed planting anything out is if the soil feels cold to
30:49your hand don't do it but if it doesn't feel cold doesn't feel warm it just doesn't feel cold then
30:54you're
30:55away and you can get going and what i'm actually going to put in here is for me a bit
31:00unusual
31:02this is garlic and nine years out of ten i plant garlic directly into the bed usually in september but
31:11certainly no later than october but i couldn't get the bulbs to plant until october late october and by
31:18then the ground was too wet so what i did is i planted them up into these plugs i brought
31:24them
31:24on in the greenhouse for about the first month and then they've been outside all winter because for
31:29garlic to form cloves rather than just a single bulb it needs a period of cold weather
31:41if you've planted bulbs and they've rotted in the wet or if you've just got ground that stays wet all
31:46winter this system of planting the garlic in deep plugs or three inch pots and then planting out when
31:52the ground is ready i think can work very well now last august carol went to rhs rosemore
32:09to see their vegetable garden and potager and of course i'm sure they produce delicious food
32:15and i'm pretty sure that all of it gets eaten but it also looks fantastic
32:25as far as i'm concerned nothing beats growing your own fruit and veg and eating it
32:33here there's so much to inspire you to grow your own
32:41this is a huge space the sort we might all dream of mind you with a veg garden this big
32:47we'd have to
32:48feed the whole street there are so many ideas here we can take away and use in any size garden
32:54or even
32:56without one there are examples all around of veg herbs and fruit growing in containers there are tomatoes
33:03chilis aubergines basil parsley an array of herbs and even a glorious apple tree traditionally in larger
33:14gardens fruit and veg are separated from flower borders to be more productive but that's not practical in
33:22smaller spaces so if you want to grow a bit of both and have limited space there's a perfect solution
33:32well this is another of rosemore's beautiful gardens this one is called the potager there are vegetables
33:39galore here but it has a whole different aesthetic from the vegetable garden in the vegetable garden
33:45everything's grown in serried ranks here everything's grown because it looks beautiful next to its
33:53neighbor the whole idea is about design using vegetables ornamentally and making them look utterly beautiful
34:04the overall design in this garden is important it's based on a circle there's a circular herb garden
34:11in the center and around it are arranged four symmetrical beds although everything's edible it's all about
34:19what plants look like together so you've got beautiful chard here with these pink stems but over there
34:27another swiss chard but this time with golden stems with the sunlight streaming through it it's usually
34:34versatile and what's more you can eat it right the way through the year it'll overwinter wonderfully it's
34:41very very hardy i love the addition of these tagetes all around the edge of this bed there's the tall
34:49one
34:49here which is one called cinnamon but the point is it's single which means it's hugely attractive to
34:56pollinating insects and of course that's just what you need to pollinate your beans and lots of your other
35:02flowering plants and then for a bit of drama in the background we've got this amaranth this is one called
35:10red army with these very dark stems and dark flowers and seed heads amaranth is a wonderful vegetable
35:17it's grown all around the world for its leaves here it's grown both to eat but also decoratively now
35:25everything's set against each other here to give interest in texture and colour but also there's height
35:32from these beans growing up an obelisk in the corner and next door to them another vertical emphasis
35:39that great big orac looking gorgeous in seed against the blue sky and then right in the middle these
35:47two sentinels these great big plants of bronze fennel another interesting texture to add to what
35:55already exists right the way through the bed and in fact right the way through the garden
36:02how about this for a novel idea if you've got a fence separating one bit of the garden from the
36:08other
36:08don't just leave it grow something up it grow something like this beautiful plant this is an
36:15ornamental good and it's just using the fence as support all along these stems flowers are produced
36:22both male and female and when the bees have moved the pollen onto the female flowers they'll turn into fruit
36:29now on this plant they're ornamental good so they're not edible but there are so many members of the
36:36corcorbit family that grow in exactly the same way that are utterly delicious squash and pumpkins for a
36:43start all they need to grow successfully is loads of sun and lots of water beautiful
36:56not only is this garden packed with beautiful vegetables but there are so many fruit trees too and
37:04so many good examples of how to grow them here's a step over apple the whole idea is it makes
37:11a really
37:11really low plant and yet it's extremely productive just look at the apples here and all that happens
37:19is as the apple comes up two big shoots are trained horizontally along wires the wires are just a couple
37:27of feet off the ground and it's tied in and keeps making progress all the time and each time it
37:33sends
37:33out a side shoot that's cut back to a couple of buds which is when it makes these fruiting spurs
37:40and
37:40eventually these lovely delicious apples too but another wonderful way of training apples is this this is
37:49an espalier and it's a beautiful example of this technique so here's the central trunk and this time
37:57these branches have been trained out horizontally these ones first obviously the plant has grown
38:04up a couple of feet and then two more are trained out sideways again that happens third one and probably
38:13you'd end up with a fourth one you have here and all the way up you've got this bountiful crop
38:18of apples
38:19so even in a tiny space or on a flat wall or in between two parts of the garden you
38:27can produce a plant
38:28which gives you loads and loads of fruit
38:34throughout the veg garden there are glorious examples of companion planting as here with this
38:40wonderful archway full of fig leaf gourds look at those beautiful fruits but at their feet are growing
38:48contagities and they are supposed to deter white flies and other kinds of apis they've got a really
38:55strong pungent smell and they bring in all sorts of pollinating insects the potager and the vegetable
39:03garden show us all that with a little bit of creativity we can put vegetables and flowers together
39:10to produce something which is just as beautiful as any bed or border
39:16as well as a river
39:40now here's another change that we made over the winter this is the mound
39:45and for the last six or seven years these have been big beds on either side of the path
39:51with roses and quite big planting but the space was awkward so taking them out and this has been laid
40:02as a terrace here you're raised up i'm looking down on the new woodland garden which is pleasing
40:08and so i'm very happy with the result
40:22this has proved to be the perfect place to keep house plants and they're happy in
40:27here for three reasons the first is the light is good it's bright but it's not glaring it's never very
40:36direct sunlight the second reason is that the temperature in here is pretty constant and house
40:42plants like that whereas in the modern centrally heated house the temperature can fluctuate by 20
40:47degrees and thirdly the reason why they're happy in here because they're neglected
40:52and neglect is the secret of the happy house plant
41:07when i say they thrive on neglect what i mean is is that you can really damage them
41:13by too much of anything too much watering too much feeding too much warmth too much light
41:19is going to do far more damage to house plants than a bit of benign neglect
41:25i'm going to go through each of these and do what i would do in spring as we enter the
41:31growing season
41:31i'm going to start with the cheese plant because this poor thing is not in a good state look it's
41:36fallen completely over it's lost its support and if i put it on the table for a minute you can
41:43see
41:43what's happened this here has broken away so the first thing to do is to prune it now now is
41:50the time
41:51to prune a cheese plant too big reduce it in size if it's damaged take off the damaged part
42:00by and large it's actually not at all unhealthy can you see me through the leaves
42:06it's looking quite happy so the first thing i need to do is to support it
42:12make sure they're strong and make sure they're tied in well when you're tying up any plant
42:17always use soft twine so it doesn't damage the plant
42:24there we go if the leaves get at all dusty just wipe them with a damp cloth
42:32with your fingers just remove some of the compost maybe the top inch and then top it up so a
42:41soil
42:41based compost or a bark based compost with plenty of drainage this just gives it a little bit of
42:49extra goodness to kick off this fresh growing season the next thing to do is to give this a good
42:56drink
42:57what i have is a very weak solution of seaweed feed and i'm going to water that in until it's
43:03running
43:03out of the bottom
43:06let it be sodden and then let it really drain well
43:12now this spider plant is moderately happy and spider plants are one of the few house plants actually
43:20can be a bit wetter than most because they're very forgiving so if you do over water them you're
43:25unlikely to kill them but once a week is plenty with house plants you may experience little flies
43:33these are fungus gnats and they are living off decaying organic matter in the compost and one of the
43:40reasons why it's decaying is because it's too wet so the quickest way to get rid of it is take
43:45off the
43:45top layer of compost replace it with fresh give it a soak and then only water it again when it's
43:51bone dry
43:52what i'm going to do with this now is give it an immersive soak hold it down until it stays
43:59under
43:59the water can you see the bubbles coming up there it's bubbling like a man who's had jerusalem artichokes
44:06before his bar you've got a good way of watering house plants that have become so dry that the water
44:13just seems to bounce off the top now while that's having a soak i'm going to deal with the chinese
44:19money plant and what i'm going to do with this is re-pot it that's pretty firmly in there a
44:26little
44:26trick is to use a cane in the bottom and just push like that now you can see that that
44:33is essentially
44:33pot bound if you can see more roots than compost it needs repotting now i'm going to put it back
44:40in
44:40the same pot rather than putting it in a bigger pot so i'm going to remove some of the existing
44:46roots and compost and i'm just going to use my fingers i'm just going to scrape away a bit like
44:51this creating room for some fresh compost and therefore fresh roots to grow into
45:01we'll put a little bit of compost in the bottom
45:08push that down in having repotted i will give this a water and a feed let it drain thoroughly
45:16and then put it back now your best friend with any house plant is this a mister if you're not
45:23sure how
45:24much to water or when to water you can never go wrong by increasing the humidity so place them somewhere
45:32where you can spray them so their leaves are distinctly damp and sometimes running with water
45:36without damaging carpets or curtains or cushions and having watered them if any has accumulated
45:43in the saucer that's beneath them throw that away don't let them sit in the wet and that will do
45:49for most house plants of course it doesn't apply to cacti or succulents which are another whole thing
45:57all together now the whole point of house plants is that they deliver all the year around but out in
46:06the garden there are some plants that are absolutely of the season and only perform for a few brief bright
46:14weeks but are really special when they do and we went down to cornwall to visit a grower of camellias
46:22which of course are at their best now and i think you might truly say that he does love a
46:29camellia
46:39i'm described by my missus as a serial obsessive and my current obsessions are camellias
46:46really in it deep with camellias the italians used to call them perfecters there's a perfection
46:54in the arrangement of the flower that is pretty much unrivalled
47:05my name is jim stevens i've been in professional horticulture all my life this is my garden in
47:10dog wolves in southeast cornwall and we've been here for about 35 years now camellias give me
47:18interest in the garden from late autumn right through to spring when not much else is happening
47:23being evergreen shrubs providing greenery through the winter and form a background
47:28for everything else that's going on they're beautiful
47:32look at that
47:38there are over 30 000 varieties of camellias there's about 300 species
47:44there are camellias with beautiful foliage right through to the other extreme where you've got flowers
47:51six inches diameter in vivid pink and everything in between you've got perfume you've got big growers
47:57you've got small growers there's got to be a camellia for everybody i've got a couple of dozen here
48:03when i'm showing you them all i want you to put your hand on your heart and say you don't
48:07like any of them
48:11this is uh camellia annette carroll which has long been one of my favorites
48:14it always performs really well every year i love the way it opens from a fairly deep pink
48:19bud and then fades so at any one time you've got a sort of range of different colors across the
48:24bush
48:29this is one called uh camellia japonica bob hope as good a deep rich red camellia as you'll get but
48:37a very typical japonica type camellia so it's a fairly solid presence in the garden this one has
48:43been here probably 12 or 15 years and i've kept it around about the same size by taking a couple
48:49of
48:49years growth off every second year
48:53when you read gardening books they'll often tell you that camellias don't need pruning but if you
48:59don't prune them they'll grow into small trees and are much too big for a small garden and you can
49:05prune them they respond extremely well to pruning
49:13so if you're wanting a really good starter camellia i've got a variety called debbie
49:18this is a williamsii camellia it's a good rigorous grower has lots and lots of flowers over a long
49:25period of time one of the characteristics of the williamsii is that they generally speaking drop
49:30the flowers before they go brown one of the reasons that they're so popular the japonica varieties which
49:37comprise the majority tend to hold on to the flowers and they go brown on the bush
49:43this one's one called minato no acibono which means harbor at dawn and this is a luchuensis hybrid
49:51which means that it's beautifully perfumed right beside that towering above it is camellia reticulata
49:58mystique which is very very different a very blousy pretty pink thing
50:06camellia reticulata is the prima donna of the camellia world and this i guess is what most people
50:11would associate with camellias this is what they would be thinking of beauty is in the eyes of the
50:16beholder that to me is beautiful at the other extreme are things like this this is camellia luchuensis
50:24which is a species such as you'd find growing in the world so the flowers are tiny they're single
50:29flowers they're quite sweetly perfumed which the vast majority of camellias are not and then the
50:35third one that i've got here is a variety called koto no kaori which is a hybrid between luchuensis
50:42and a japonica variety and this to my mind combines the best of both worlds you've got the color you've
50:48got the floriferousness of it plus you've got the perfume
50:57this is my propagator and i took this batch of cuttings very late july early august last year
51:03they've been pretty much undisturbed since then just water them occasionally
51:08and it'll be interesting to see whether they've got any roots on them
51:12ah look at that a little root system oh you're looking at a happy man here terrific
51:20when i take them in the cuttings that i took i cut that off right at the base
51:26wounded it slightly with a very sharp knife i just pair the bark off just down one side
51:32which is just enough wounding to to stimulate rooting a bit and stuck it in the propagator
51:38so that needs to be potted up now into a little individual pot and lots and lots of new plants
51:53here we've got another species camellia this one's one called trans noquensis with tiny little white
52:00flowers very very strong contrast with this and the debbie behind it the typical what people would
52:06think of as camellias perhaps wouldn't even recognize this as a camellia at all but it has a
52:11much more natural relaxed habit of growth a very thin twiggy upright habit of growth that might be
52:18much more appropriate to a lot of people's more natural type gardeners than the traditional camellia
52:30people who don't like camellias are not amenable to reason are they for heaven's sake
52:35how could you not like camellias make any sense
52:55well it's hard to say this jim but you may notice i don't have a single camellia in this garden
53:01because i'm one of those terrible people that has not yet learned to love them but maybe it will
53:07come to me but i do love hydrangeas and i've got some here in the writing garden you may notice
53:13that
53:14we've made some changes over winter because when we put the doghouse up last summer we put a path in
53:20front of it and it was a bit narrow so we widened the path to make a terraced area now
53:26there is space
53:27to put big pots i've got two and i'm putting in hydrangea paniculata hydrangeas cope well in light
53:35shade and they need relatively good drainage and the great thing about paniculata they can be pruned
53:43hard every year so therefore you can grow them in a pot without them getting too big first things first
53:50it
53:50needs a crock in the bottom it's not so much to improve the drainage but it's to stop the compost
53:56falling out the bottom of the pot i've already mixed up a mixture of grit plenty of our homemade
54:04leaf mold and the rest is peat-free compost
54:18right now that obviously gives lots of room for growth and because this is a great big pot
54:24i do want it to be dramatic this is a hydrangea paniculata kayushu
54:30and it carries conical white flowers june july august a lot of hydrangeas you think of
54:37as being september coming in for their best later in summer and into autumn also the critical thing
54:43about them is they flower on new wood right let's take it out the pot
54:52as a rule of thumb when you're planting anything in a pot leave at least an inch for watering
55:10perfect
55:11now as always particularly at this time of year when you plant anything water it in
55:19give it a good soak as well as watering it and giving it moisture it's moving the soil around the
55:27roots
55:28and i will water this weekly now what you see will carry no flowers at all so these stems will
55:36be bare the new growth will carry the flowers eventually what i want is a plant that is about
55:42seven foot tall festooned with white conical flowers
55:51now i've got some jobs you could do this weekend
56:04buddlia can be pruned now
56:23buddlia can be pruned now
56:24or maybe about two or three foot but be brave and cut hard
56:37now is a great time to soak cosmos for a really good late summer display
56:43fill a seed tray with peat-free compost and carefully sprinkle the seeds so they're evenly placed across
56:50it cover them over water them and the best way to do this is to dip it in a tray
56:55of water for about
56:5610 minutes and then put them somewhere warm to germinate and they should be ready to prick out in a
57:02few weeks time
57:07if you've got hyacinths that you've grown for an indoor display over winter
57:12or any other bulbs that you've grown in containers you can plant them out into the garden when they've
57:19finished flowering put the whole thing untidied up leaves stems and all into the soil bury them
57:29and let them die back naturally and they will flower next year
58:03i will take these buddlia cuttings and put them through a shredder
58:07and then that will go onto paths and that way everything gets recycled
58:14well that's it for today it's been a beautiful spring day here at long meadow
58:20and i do hope that you can get out into your garden and enjoy some spring sunshine and just this
58:27sense of the world breaking free from winter and coming alive again i'll see you back here at long
58:34there next time so until then bye
58:36Thank you very much.
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