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Gardeners World S59E02
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00:11You coming? Come on then.
00:24Come on then.
00:26Come on.
00:28Good boy.
00:29Hello. Welcome to Gardener's World.
00:45And 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 cots.
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.
01:23And for the last five years it's been very good.
01:48And for the last five years it's been very good.
01:53And for the last five years it's been very good in almost every variation of the shade theme.
01:59Oh, hang on a minute.
02:00That's Ned. Ned, what are you doing?
02:02Come on.
02:04Come here.
02:06Okay, good boy.
02:07Would you like a little something?
02:09Would that make you feel better?
02:11Now please don't bark when we're filming.
02:13Right.
02:14What I'm going to plant today are two modest plants, but they are charming.
02:20They all grow in shade and they spread really easily but not out of control.
02:26So what's not to like?
02:27Now, first one is Tiarella.
02:30This is Tiarella spring symphony.
02:33And Tiarella has these tiny white little starbursts of flower carried on long stems and flower from now through till
02:42May.
02:43And they are happiest with dappled shade that doesn't dry out too much.
02:50This is Telema, Telema grandiflora.
02:53And you can see the foliage is quite similar, but the firs are rather different because they are born on
02:57long thin stems,
02:58but they're pale primrose yellow, tiny little bells.
03:02I love them.
03:02They'll last into June.
03:04And they are the perfect ground cover woodland plant that also looks really good.
03:09They're not just filling a space, they're performing as well.
03:14Both these plants come from the damp woodlands or forest of the west of America.
03:21So don't stick it in very dry shade.
03:30It's gardening convention that plants look better placed in odd numbers than even.
03:37If you plant in threes, fives, sevens, even nines, it tends to look more natural than if you do it
03:44in twos or fours or sixes.
03:46So I tend to plant in triangles in groups of three.
03:53If you want a mass defect of any kind, it's nearly always more economic and more successful to buy lots
04:00of small plants than a few really big ones.
04:04Small plants establish much more easily and they're much cheaper.
04:08Small plants grow.
04:17Although I absolutely love the creativity of making a new garden, the thing I love most in the world is
04:25actually planting.
04:27On a spring day, with the sun shining, the birds are sitting, putting plants in the ground, knowing that they're
04:33going to grow.
04:34That sense of hope and satisfaction all comes together and it's just as joyous now as it ever has been
04:41in my life.
04:43Now we're going to visit Mary Keene.
04:45Now Mary Keene, over a long period of time, has been one of our best known garden designers and writers
04:52and she's made gardens all over the world.
04:55But Jo has been to see her in her own garden at home.
05:02When I think of gardening royalty, Mary Keene is right up there.
05:07And what sets her apart is her instinct for planting.
05:13From Grand British Gardens to designs across the world, Mary's work is about atmosphere and emotion.
05:20And she designs gardens that are to be loved, lived in and feel truly alive.
05:27But down this path is something even more personal.
05:30It's her own sanctuary and it's not somewhere that she shares very often.
05:35So this is a real treat.
05:42So Mary, you design gardens for, well, the rich and famous royalty.
05:48Some very high profile clients.
05:50Quite high profile.
05:51I'm not allowed to talk about any of them.
05:52I know, we're not going to talk about any of them.
05:54OK, Jo.
05:55But what I'm interested in is how different it is designing their gardens and designing your own garden.
06:01It's completely different.
06:02I like small flowered plants that you see through and that are ephemeral.
06:08I'm not doing display, I'm doing atmosphere.
06:11And it's for me to potter and wander about in the morning and in the evening and in the middle
06:16of the day.
06:17It's just a lovely place to be, not a place to look at, not a place to show off.
06:22And the actual layout, did you draw it out on piece of paper?
06:25No, I didn't.
06:26It's two rectangles, like two tennis courts, end on end.
06:31And I knew I wanted some flower beds for conventional plants.
06:35And then I wanted two thirds, which we're in now, to be wild with wildflowers all year.
06:42And I made this S line of beauty path through it to make the garden seem longer and more mysterious.
06:50If you've got a small garden, you want to be able to walk around it and to feel like a
06:54sort of adventure.
07:00Oh, this is energising, Mary.
07:02I've got to say, what style of planting would you call this border then?
07:06Mixed?
07:07Can we call it mixed?
07:08It sounds a bit boring.
07:10It's got lots of stuff in like snowdrops and hellebores underneath, so it goes on all the time.
07:15And then these sort of bursts of colour like the Henry Lily and the Agapanthus, don't ask me.
07:22I think it's a head-borne hybrid, but it's just a good dark form.
07:25Yeah.
07:26I love the orange.
07:26Some people don't like orange.
07:28I love orange.
07:29I like it.
07:30I love it.
07:30There really is a lot to see because you're planting in small groups here, like you said, not large brushstrokes.
07:37No.
07:37And it's got a sort of wild feel and the more you look, the more you see.
07:41You could stand here for hours and just look at the detail.
07:47A plantswoman at her core, Mary has filled her garden with plants that bring her joy.
07:53Not as you might expect in the usual arrangements of threes or fives, more like an artist playing with colour
08:00on a canvas.
08:04Mary's really got me thinking because I've been reticent to use purple foliage plants in my garden, mainly going for
08:12greens.
08:12But she inherited that purple berberis, which is on the boundary, and she's picked it up in colours and stems
08:19of other plants.
08:20Like the thalictrum there has got dark stems.
08:23We've got the hollyhop with those purple flowers, really deep colours.
08:28And 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.
08:35It has a lovely depth to the planting colour-wise and a nice rhythm as well.
08:41I might have to use it.
08:50So has this border got a name?
08:52Well, that border beyond that we've just looked at is wild and high and shrubby.
08:59And this one is the transition between wild and high and shrubby not totally working and a much more gardened
09:07flowery look against the wall.
09:09So that's the floweriest, chaddest bed.
09:13Catchy names you've got there for them.
09:16I love the hollyhocks.
09:17I love the height because a lot of people think, oh, tall plants, you've got to put them at the
09:20back of the border.
09:21But you're bringing them to the foreground and you're looking through them.
09:24Well, I love the looking through tall plants.
09:27That's my aim always, to look through.
09:30I love this euphorbia.
09:33It's Segueriana.
09:34What is it you love about euphorbias, Mary?
09:37Oh, well, I like their greenness.
09:39You like euphorbias too, don't you?
09:40Love them.
09:41I love their leaves.
09:43I love the fact that they perform all year.
09:46It's the zinginess, isn't it?
09:48It's the zinginess.
09:48They set off other plants in the garden so well.
09:52And the Dianthus carthusian aurum.
09:54That is my favourite plant.
09:56Your favourite plant of all time?
09:58Mm.
09:59I've got a lot of favourite plants but that is currently my favourite plant.
10:02Yeah, OK.
10:04Desert Island plants.
10:05Desert Island, I'm allowed eight.
10:07No, that's records.
10:08OK.
10:10No, but it's fabulous.
10:10The thing about it is it grows in shade, it grows in gravel, it grows in the border
10:14and it flowers for a long, long time.
10:17I 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.
10:31Because look, from the front of the garden, all you see is plants.
10:35You've got an apple tree, we're planting all the way around it.
10:37No voids whatsoever.
10:40And before I came, I thought, oh, there's going to be some unusual stuff,
10:43some rare things.
10:44I'd better gem up a little bit.
10:46But actually, what's lovely is they're mainly cottage garden-style plants
10:50and things that we can all get our hands on in nurseries and garden centres.
10:54Things like the pinks, the oregano there, we've got crocosmere here,
11:01peonies, iris, fennel, agapanthus, and it's all put together so effortlessly too.
11:12This is idyllic, this courtyard, it's beautiful.
11:15Well, I rather love it because it's got a lot of rarities.
11:18You said there weren't any rarities in the rest of the garden.
11:20This is a rarity corner here.
11:23Well, I can see this is more unusual, it's more exotic.
11:26Yeah, I like a challenge.
11:27I've got the fuchsia, climbing Lady Boothby.
11:30That's lovely.
11:31And melianthus major.
11:32Melianthus, which Joe likes.
11:34I like it.
11:34Well, I think it looks great there.
11:36Yeah, I know, I think it's lovely, actually.
11:38And what about the one by the door over there?
11:40Oh, that's Begonia albopictorosia.
11:44It'll stay out all summer and then it'll go in the kitchen in the winter.
11:48So, of all the gardens that you've created, how does this one rate?
11:52When people ask me what's my favourite garden, I always say mine, of course, and they're quite surprised.
11:58But of course, isn't yours your favourite garden?
12:01Most definitely.
12:01Because that's where you can garden and that's what we want to do.
12:05It just is the place where I feel completely at home and myself.
12:11The passion comes across from you so strongly.
12:15Oh, Joe.
12:16Thank you so much.
12:16This has been amazing seeing your garden.
12:18It was lovely having you here.
12:19Thank you for coming.
12:21Thanks for inviting us.
12:40Come on.
12:51Many, many years ago, I visited Mary Keane's previous garden in Berkshire.
12:56It was wonderful.
12:57And she was the very first person to come and see my garden in London 43 years ago.
13:04And she wrote an article about it and arguably started my career as a garden writer and broadcaster.
13:11So, it's fascinating to see her garden now.
13:14Now, I'm just gathering one or two of these scented leaf pelargoniums,
13:18which I'm going to take down to the end because it's time to give them a bit of attention.
13:30Come on, panty boy.
13:32Hot panty boy.
13:39The thing about these scented leaf pelargoniums is obviously, as the name suggests, they're fragrance.
13:46Now, this is Tormentosum, and you rub the leaf and it releases this strong odour of peppermint.
13:55It's really powerful.
13:56Now, this is a new variety called Torrento, which rather weirdly smells of those little cola sweets.
14:05It is slightly weird, I have to confess, but interesting.
14:10And there are lots and lots of fragrances, from the slightly weird to the absolutely delicious.
14:17But whatever type of pelargonium you have, now is the time to get them ready for spring.
14:27This is a much more familiar zonal pelargonium.
14:31It comes from South Africa, and rather than these relatively compact plants with big flowers,
14:39when you see them growing wild, they can be big shrubs, big woody shrubs, sort of six foot tall,
14:45with smaller flowers, which are then pruned by fire, but from it they regrow.
14:53And I don't necessarily suggest getting a blowtorch to prune this,
14:57but prune it you must if you don't want it to get really leggy.
15:01These have been in the greenhouse all winter, so they've flowered all winter.
15:06However, you've got to be bold and cut them off now, or else you won't have any in the summer.
15:11It's exhausted, and it needs a rest.
15:14So if we take off those flowers and cut back, refresh the compost, water it, feed it,
15:20we'll get vigorous new growth, and that will give us a really good display later on in summer.
15:25You can cut these really hard, or if you like a little bit of legginess, and I do, then you
15:33include that.
15:34So what I'm going to do is just cut here, which leaves a bit of stem, and then here.
15:45And 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.
16:00That there.
16:01Now, can you see there is new growth right at the base?
16:05And that's where I'm going back to.
16:07Now, 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.
16:25I don't really want to reduce this at all.
16:27All I'm going to do is take off any spent leaves.
16:33However, this one here, this zonal pelargonium, needs repotting, and I'll show you how to do that.
16:38So, I'm going to take it out of the pot like this.
16:46And what I'm going to do is take off the bottom third.
16:49So, we're taking off quite a lot of the compost there.
16:58I've put the crocks back in the bottom.
17:04And I've got some fresh compost here.
17:06Now, this is a wood-based compost, a little bit of garden compost added, and quite a lot of grit.
17:15Just look at the roots on that.
17:19Great. In you go.
17:28And I'm going to wiggle it to work the soil around the roots.
17:33And then I'll dress that with some grit, which 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.
17:55And keep feeding it until it starts flowering.
17:59I will go through all the pelargoniums, particularly the zonal ones, and set them up for fresh growth and, of
18:06course, a really fresh, good display in the summer months.
18:14Now, last September, we went to visit Karim Habibi in his nursery in Kent, and his incredible collection of heritage
18:24apples.
18:31We have 700 varieties of apples.
18:34What I'm doing is actually preserving lots of the old varieties.
18:38It's important that these are available for people to grow in their gardens, because they're not available in shops.
18:44And 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, try an apple for the first time, and they say,
19:05My goodness, I never knew apples could taste like this.
19:13This is Sweet Society.
19:15It's a lovely dessert apple with quite an intense flavor, quite crisp as well.
19:26This is Jombo, one of my favorite cooking apples, and it cooks down to a lovely applesauce very, very easily.
19:36This is Captain Kidd, a lovely sweet apple with a pear-dropped flavor.
19:45Caring for all these trees is a huge operation.
19:48I'll be producing 7,000 or so new trees a year.
19:52I am obsessed with the apples.
19:55I'm obsessed with looking after fruit trees and maintaining the collection.
19:58It 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 single tree is actually
20:09a different variety.
20:10And that's essential to have, so that I can harvest Cyan wood.
20:13And 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 tree.
20:27If you look at older growth on a tree, those active buds aren't there, so that's why you can't use
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.
20:42I'll also take 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.
21:02The rootstock obviously determines the vigor of the tree, and so every apple tree that is in this country is
21:09actually made in this way, where it's actually made up of two parts, the rootstock and the Cyan, which is
21:15above that.
21:15And you can usually see the graft union where it's actually going to have different bark, it's going to look
21:20quite different.
21:21So that's the part where you know that any flowers on that top part of the tree will produce, let's
21:28say, your Bramleys or your Cox's Orange Pippins.
21:31So this Cyan wood that I collected from the mother tree, I'm going to graft this onto this rootstock right
21:36here using a technique called chip budding.
21:38I'm making a shallow cut on the Cyan wood.
21:45The next stage is to make the exact same incision on the rootstock.
21:56I'll then tape this up.
22:02And that's now done.
22:04So that bud that is now on there, that will fuse to the rootstock and next year and next season's
22:10growth, that will grow into a one year maiden.
22:12So 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.
22:27It's a lot of work. I will probably be spending the best part of 10, 12 hours a day, both
22:32collecting Cyan wood and chip budding.
22:34I'll probably aim to do 500 of these a day.
22:38I'll work well into the night, some nights with a head torch on.
22:42And that's just because there is a shortish period where you have to get quite a lot of work done.
22:50Once you grow an old variety like Ashmead's Kernel, for example, it's such an unforgettable variety that you become quite
22:58excited and passionate about preserving more and more old varieties.
23:02Because you realize that these apples are some of the best fruits in the world.
23:08And you can go back through time and see how important a certain apple was to a certain area.
23:14Because that apple is cloned, you can actually taste exactly what people were tasting sort of 200, 300, 400 years
23:21ago.
23:21And you can't really do that with a lot of other fruits.
23:28In the early 90s, when my parents started things here, Britain was actually losing lots of its old orchards.
23:34My parents were quite passionate about actually sourcing old material and creating a collection, things like margill or pitmast and
23:43pineapple.
23:43These old varieties, which were such lovely apples to actually grow and try yourself, they really wanted everyone to have
23:53that experience.
23:56I really wanted to experiment and try and create my own varieties.
24:01Eventually, I persuaded my dad to let me have a sort of small nook of the nursery where I actually
24:07sort of planted seedling varieties, grafted those out.
24:11And eventually, I have actually produced some of my own varieties.
24:15Unfortunately, my father passed away before trying any of the seedling apples.
24:19And one of the first apples, which was an exceptional apple, I've actually now named that variety after my father.
24:26I've called it Hamid's red pippin.
24:28I think he would have been very interested to try that and it's quite sad he never did.
24:32But it's very nice every time I see that apple to sort of think of my dad.
24:40Right now, we're amongst the maidens in the nursery.
24:43To get to the point where your one-year-old tree is going to start to thrive and produce apples.
24:49Firstly, you want to plant the tree in the wintertime and let the tree establish.
24:53So that means plant the tree well so the roots are happy and water the tree quite a lot.
24:58So in that very first wintertime, whilst it's dormant, you probably want to cut some branches off lower down.
25:04So these lower branches in the long term are not going to be very useful.
25:07Perhaps if you are going to sort of try and train in espalier or step over.
25:11But for a freestanding tree, which generally is what most people plant, you really want a clear trunk lower down
25:16so that maintenance is quite easy.
25:18And then at the top of the tree, most people actually want quite a sort of three-dimensional crown.
25:23So imagine a goblet-shaped tree.
25:25And those are where you want your fruit so that the tree is able to sort of hold itself up
25:30whilst carrying heavy fruits.
25:32You can essentially choose where you want the crown of the tree to be by cutting the leader off at
25:37a certain point.
25:38Because what happens is if you cut the leader off, all the buds below the certain point where you cut
25:44the tree, they're going to compete for apical dominance, which means they're going to try and grow as much as
25:49they can.
25:50So you end up with a large sort of cluster of branches coming out.
25:55And from that, you can actually select some that will form a balanced crown of about sort of four branches,
26:01five branches.
26:03I would like to think that in a few hundred years' time, people might have a Hamid's red pippin tree
26:09in their garden and they will look up, who was this person?
26:13Where did this apple come from?
26:14Oh, I live in Kent.
26:16Oh, okay. I know where that, you know, where that town is.
26:19It's something that I'm very fortunate to be able to do, and I certainly would love it if one day
26:25one of my children wants to continue this.
26:29I can't think of anything nicer than working alongside one of them, or all of them, if they all want
26:35to join in.
26:35So many apples.
26:37Yummy.
26:52When I planted this orchard so many years ago, I carefully hunted out and chose heritage local varieties.
27:01I wanted to build up something that could only represent this area.
27:05So therefore, of course, I really admire what Karim is doing, and he's doing it so well.
27:11It wouldn't be marvellous if his children carried that on and his grandchildren.
27:14What a fantastic project.
27:17Now, it's time to visit one of your gardens.
27:20We're going down to Dorset to visit the garden of James Baker.
27:26Hello.
27:27I'm James off of The Traitors.
27:29Welcome to Weymouth.
27:30I do this for a living, gardening, so I thought I'd show you my humble abode.
27:34This is like a patio area.
27:36Obviously, it's a bit early in the year, but your tulips are coming up now.
27:39It's constantly experimenting.
27:41Daily, I might move something around, whatever tickles my fancy.
27:44That's part of the fun of gardening, you know.
27:46You're never right and you're never wrong.
27:48Everyone's a busker, me included.
27:52Structurally, functional down the middle.
27:54I have a family.
27:55I don't have any, please keep off the grass business.
27:58I just like to fill the beds with everything, just go wild.
28:01And I like to let the periwinkle cascade down a bit like a waterfall.
28:05The hebe just goes wild.
28:07And what I love about this, you get the purple.
28:10And I've got a climbing rose that comes through and the pink and purple intertwine.
28:14Beautiful.
28:15Now, this is my piece de resistance, my favourite bit of the garden.
28:19This pear tree.
28:20So, basically, this pear tree was swamped with ivy and it was on its last legs.
28:24It had one little pear on it.
28:25We replanted that seed and that is growing down there.
28:30That scraping sound you hear in the background is my son.
28:33Hello, Noah.
28:34Hello.
28:34Raking up the leaves, good man.
28:35And I let the kids do what I used to do in my granddad's garden is just learn on the
28:39spot.
28:39Watch, learn, experiment, trial and error.
28:42My great granddad was an incredible gardener, lived to 102.
28:46So, you know, there's something to be said to be outdoors, you know, breathing in the air.
28:51It's good for the soul gardening.
28:53Master and apprentice.
28:54I think you're the master there.
28:56In this area, I'm going to put onions down here, carrots in the front row, radishes, lettuce plants,
29:05potentially a cucumber plant running up that.
29:08You've got the job, Noah.
29:09It's yours.
29:10So, this little area, I salvaged what I could from the wreckage of a hedgerow.
29:14This bay was put in and it was a twig when we cut it back, but it's, you know, been
29:18shaped now.
29:19No Edward Scissorhands, but, you know, good enough.
29:21The little hack I've got is sedum stone crop.
29:24It's good ground cover.
29:25It's great weed suppressor.
29:26This came from one clipping I got, which is incredible.
29:29They're up there with periwinkle for me for beautiful, almost like forest floor carpet coverage.
29:35Here's my bravery award for gardening.
29:38This aeonium was left out all year, kind of as an experiment really.
29:42It was a success story, so I will be trying that again.
29:45I hate to chatter the illusion.
29:46It is trial and error gardening.
29:48Gardening adds years to your life and life to your years.
29:52And that is like the best quote I think I've ever heard.
29:54I want that on a t-shirt.
29:56That's my garden.
30:24I like the fact that James' son was growing vegetables.
30:30Well, it's time that I started to sow some vegetables too.
30:34Longmeadow had such a soaking all winter.
30:38Now the raised beds make a difference.
30:40And actually now they're not too bad.
30:42They're ready.
30:43The rule of thumb if you're sowing seeds or indeed planting anything out,
30:46is if the soil feels cold to your hand, don't do it.
30:50But if it doesn't feel cold, it doesn't have to feel warm,
30:53it just doesn't feel cold, then you're away and you can get going.
30:56And what I'm actually going to put in here is, for me, a bit unusual.
31:02This is garlic.
31:04And nine years out of ten, I plant garlic directly into the bed,
31:09usually in September, but certainly no later than October.
31:12But I couldn't get the bulbs to plant until October, late October,
31:18and by then the ground was too wet.
31:21So what I did is I planted them up into these plugs.
31:23I bought them on in the greenhouse for about the first month,
31:26and then they've been outside all winter.
31:28Because for garlic to form cloves, rather than just a single bulb,
31:33it needs a period of cold weather.
31:41If you've planted bulbs and they've rotted in the wet,
31:44or if you've just got ground that stays wet all winter,
31:46this system of planting the garlic in deep plugs or pre-inch pots
31:50and then planting out when the ground is ready,
31:53I think can work very well.
32:05Now, last August, Carol went to RHS Rosemore
32:09to see their vegetable garden and potagee.
32:12And of course, I'm sure they produce delicious food
32:15and I'm pretty sure that all of it gets eaten.
32:18But it also looks fantastic.
32:25As far as I'm concerned, nothing beats growing your own fruit and veg
32:31and 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.
32:45Mind you, with a veg garden this big, we'd have to feed the whole street.
32:50There are so many ideas here we can take away and use in any size garden,
32:55or even without one.
32:57There are examples all around of veg, herbs and fruit growing in containers.
33:02There are tomatoes, chillies, aubergines, basil, parsley, an array of herbs,
33:08and even a glorious apple tree.
33:12Traditionally, in larger gardens, fruit and veg are separated from flower borders
33:18to be more productive.
33:20But that's not practical in smaller spaces.
33:24So, 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.
33:35This one is called the Potager.
33:37There are vegetables galore here, but it has a whole different aesthetic from the vegetable garden.
33:44In the vegetable garden, everything's grown in serried ranks.
33:48Here, everything's grown because it looks beautiful next to its neighbour.
33:53The whole idea is about design, using vegetables ornamentally
33:59and making them look utterly beautiful.
34:04The overall design in this garden is important.
34:07It's based on a circle.
34:09There's a circular herb garden in the centre, and around it are arranged four symmetrical beds.
34:15Although everything's edible, it's all about what plants look like together.
34:21So, you've got beautiful chard here, with these pink stems.
34:26But over there, another Swiss chard, but this time with golden stems,
34:31with the sunlight streaming through it.
34:33It's hugely versatile.
34:35And what's more, you can eat it right the way through the year.
34:39It'll overwinter wonderfully.
34:41It's very, very hardy.
34:43I love the addition of these tagetes all around the edge of this bed.
34:48There's the tall one here, which is one called cinnamon.
34:51But the point is, it's single, which means it's hugely attractive to pollinating insects.
34:57And of course, that's just what you need to pollinate your beans and lots of your other flowering plants.
35:03And then, for a bit of drama in the background, we've got this amaranth.
35:08This is one called red army, with these very dark stems and dark flowers and seed heads.
35:15Amaranth is a wonderful vegetable.
35:17It's grown all around the world for its leaves.
35:20Here, it's grown both to eat, but also decoratively.
35:24Now everything's set against each other here to give interest in texture and colour.
35:30But also, there's height from these beans growing up an obelisk in the corner.
35:35And next door to them, another vertical emphasis, that great big orac looking gorgeous in seed against the blue sky.
35:44And then, right in the middle, these two sentinels, these great big plants of bronze fennel.
35:51Another interesting texture to add to what already exists right the way through the bed.
35:58And in fact, right the way through the garden.
36:02How about this for a novel idea?
36:04If you've got a fence separating one bit of the garden from the other, don't just leave it.
36:10Grow something up it. Grow something like this beautiful plant.
36:14This is an ornamental gourd.
36:16And it's just using the fence as support.
36:19All along these stems, flowers are produced, both male and female.
36:24And when the bees have moved the pollen onto the female flowers, they'll turn into fruit.
36:29Now, on this plant, they're ornamental gourd, so they're not edible.
36:34But there are so many members of the Cucurbit family that grow in exactly the same way,
36:39that are utterly delicious.
36:41Squash and pumpkins for a start.
36:44All they need to grow successfully is loads of sun and lots of water.
36:50Beautiful.
36:56Not only is this garden packed with beautiful vegetables, but there are so many fruit trees too.
37:03And so many good examples of how to grow them.
37:06Here's a step over apple.
37:09The whole idea is it makes a really, really low plant.
37:12And yet, it's extremely productive.
37:15Just look at the apples here.
37:18And all that happens is, as the apple comes up, two big shoots are trained horizontally along wires.
37:25The wires are just a couple of feet off the ground.
37:28And it's tied in and keeps making progress all the time.
37:32And each time it sends out a side shoot, that's cut back to a couple of buds,
37:37which is when it makes these fruiting spurs and eventually these lovely, delicious apples too.
37:44But another wonderful way of training apples is this.
37:48This is an espalier and it's a beautiful example of this technique.
37:53So here's the central trunk.
37:56And this time, these branches have been trained out horizontally.
38:00These ones first, obviously, the plant has grown up a couple of feet
38:05and then two more are trained out sideways.
38:09Again, that happens.
38:10Third one, and probably you'd end up with a fourth one you have here.
38:15And all the way up, you've got this bountiful crop of apples.
38:19So even in a tiny space or on a flat wall or in between two parts of a garden,
38:27you can produce a plant which gives you loads and loads of fruit.
38:34Throughout the veg garden, there are glorious examples of companion planting.
38:38As here, with this wonderful archway full of fig leaf gourds.
38:44Look at those beautiful fruits.
38:47But at their feet are growing tagetes and they are supposed to deter whiteflies and other kinds of apis.
38:54They've got a really strong, pungent smell and they bring in all sorts of pollinating insects.
39:01The potager and the vegetable garden show us all that with a little bit of creativity,
39:07we can put vegetables and flowers together to produce something which is just as beautiful as any bed or border.
39:40Now here's another change that we made over the winter.
39:43This is the mound and for the last six or seven years, these have been big beds on either side
39:51of the path with roses and quite big planting.
39:55But the space was awkward.
39:57So I've taken them out and this has been laid as a terrace.
40:03Here you're raised up, I'm looking down on the new woodland garden, which is pleasing and so I'm very happy
40:10with the result.
40:22This has proved to be the perfect place to keep house plants.
40:26And they're happy in here for three reasons.
40:29The first is the light is good.
40:32It's bright, but it's not glaring.
40:35It's never very direct sunlight.
40:38The second reason is that the temperature in here is pretty good.
40:41It's pretty constant.
40:42And house plants like that, whereas in a modern centrally heated house, the temperature can fluctuate by 20 degrees.
40:48And thirdly, the reason why they're happy in here, because they're neglected.
40:53And neglect is the secret of the happy house plant.
41:07When I say they eat tribal neglect, what I mean is, is that you can really damage them by too
41:14much of anything, too much watering, too much feeding, too much warmth, too much light is going to do far
41:21more 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.
41:32I'm going to start with the cheese plant because this poor thing is not in a good state.
41:36Look, it's fallen completely over.
41:38It's lost its support.
41:40It's lost its support.
41:40And if I put it on the table for a minute, you can see what's happened.
41:44This here has broken away.
41:47So the first thing to do is to prune it.
41:50Now, now is the time to prune a cheese plant.
41:54Too big, reduce it in size.
41:56If it's damaged, take off the damaged part.
41:59But by and large, it's actually not at all unhealthy.
42:03Can you see me through the leaves?
42:06It's looking quite happy.
42:07So 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.
42:15When you're tying up any plant, always use soft twine so it doesn't damage the plant.
42:24There we go.
42:27If 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.
42:40So a soil-based compost or a bark-based compost with plenty of drainage.
42:47This just gives it a little bit of extra goodness to kick off this fresh growing season.
42:54The next thing to do is to give this a good drink.
42:58What I have is a very weak solution of seaweed feed.
43:01And I'm going to water that in until it's running out of the bottom.
43:06Let it be sodden and then let it really drain well.
43:12Now this spider plant is moderately happy.
43:17And spider plants are one of the few house plants that actually can be a bit wetter than most.
43:22Because they're very forgiving.
43:23So if you do overwater them, you're unlikely to kill them.
43:27But once a week is plenty.
43:29With house plants, you may experience little flies.
43:32These are fungus mats, and they are living off decaying organic matter in the compost.
43:39And one of the reasons why it's decaying is because it's too wet.
43:42So the quickest way to get rid of it is take off the top layer of compost,
43:46replace it with fresh, give it a soak, and then only water it again when it's bone dry.
43:52What I'm going to do with this now is give it an immersive soak.
43:57Hold it down until it stays under the water.
43:59Can you see the bubbles coming up there?
44:02It's bubbling like a man who's had Jerusalem artichokes before his bath.
44:09You've got a good way of watering house plants that have become so dry that the water just seems to
44:14bounce off the top.
44:16Now, while that's having a soak, I'm going to deal with the Chinese money plant.
44:21And what I'm going to do with this is repot it.
44:24That's pretty firmly in there.
44:26A little trick is to use a cane in the bottom and just push like that.
44:30Now you can see that that is essentially pot bound.
44:34If you can see more roots than compost, it needs repotting.
44:39Now, I'm going to put it back in the same pot rather than putting it in a bigger pot.
44:43So I'm going to remove some of the existing roots and compost.
44:47And I'm just going to use my fingers.
44:49I'm just going to scrape away a bit like this, creating room for some fresh compost and therefore fresh roots
44:57to grow into.
45:01We'll put a little bit of compost in the bottom.
45:08Push that down in.
45:10Having repotted, I will give this a water and a feed.
45:14Let it drain thoroughly and then put it back.
45:18Now, your best friend with any houseplant is this, a mister.
45:23If you're not sure how much to water or when to water,
45:26you can never go wrong by increasing the humidity.
45:30So place them somewhere where you can spray them so their leaves are distinctly damp and sometimes running with water
45:36without damaging carpets or curtains or cushions.
45:41And having watered them, if any is accumulated in the saucer that's beneath them, throw that away.
45:46Don't let them sit in the wet.
45:48And that will do for most houseplants.
45:51Of course, it doesn't apply to cacti or succulents, which are another whole thing altogether.
45:58Now, the whole point of houseplants is that they deliver all the year round.
46:05But out in the garden, there are some plants that are absolutely of the season
46:10and only perform for a few brief, bright weeks, but are really special when they do.
46:17And we went down to Cornwall to visit a grower of camellias, which of course are at their best now.
46:24And I think you might truly say that he does love a camellia.
46:38I'm described by my missus as a serial obsessive and my current obsessions are camellias.
46:46Really in it deep with camellias.
46:51The Italians used to call them perfecters.
46:54There's a perfection in the arrangement of the flower that is pretty much unrivalled.
47:05My name is Jim Stevens.
47:07I've been in professional waterculture all my life.
47:09This is my garden in Dobwells in south-east Cornwall.
47:13And we've been here for about 35 years now.
47:17Camellias give me interest in the garden from late autumn right through to spring,
47:22when not much else is happening.
47:24Being evergreen shrubs, they're providing greenery through the winter
47:27and form a background for everything else that's going on.
47:29They're beautiful.
47:32Look at that.
47:39There are over 30,000 varieties of camellias.
47:42There's about 300 species.
47:43There are camellias with beautiful foliage,
47:47right through to the other extreme,
47:49where you've got flowers six inches diameter in vivid pink,
47:53and everything in between.
47:55You've got perfume.
47:56You've got big growers.
47:57You've got small growers.
47:58There's got to be a camellia for everybody.
48:01I've got a couple of dozen here.
48:03When I've shown you them all,
48:04I want you to put your hand on your heart and say you don't like any of them.
48:11This is Camellia Annette Carol,
48:13which has long been one of my favourites.
48:15It always performs really well every year.
48:17I love the way it opens from its really deep pink bud and then fades,
48:21so at any one time you've got a range of different colours across the bush.
48:29This is one called Camellia Japonica Bob Hope.
48:33As good a deep rich red camellia as you'll get,
48:37but a very typical Japonica type camellia,
48:40so it's a fairly solid presence in the garden.
48:43This one has been here probably 12 or 15 years,
48:45and I've kept it around about the same size
48:48by taking a couple of years' growth off every second year.
48:54When you read gardening books,
48:55they'll often tell you that camellias don't need pruning,
48:58but if you don't prune them, they'll grow into small trees
49:01and are much too big for a small garden.
49:04And you can prune them.
49:06They respond extremely well to pruning.
49:13So if you're wanting a really good starter camellia,
49:16I've got a variety called Debbie.
49:18This is a Williamsii camellia.
49:21It's a good vigorous grower,
49:23has lots and lots of flowers over a long period of time.
49:26One of the characteristics of the Williamsii is that they,
49:29generally speaking, drop the flowers before they go brown.
49:32One of the reasons that they're so popular.
49:35The Japonica varieties, which comprise the majority,
49:38tend to hold onto the flowers and they go brown on the bush.
49:43This one's one called Minato no Acibono,
49:46which means harbour at dawn.
49:49And this is a Lutransis hybrid,
49:51which means that it's beautifully perfumed.
49:54Right beside that, towering above it,
49:56is Camellia reticulata mystique,
49:59which is very, very different.
50:01It's a very blousy, pretty pink thing.
50:05Camellia reticulata is the prima donna of the camellia world.
50:10And this, I guess, is what most people would associate with Camellias.
50:13This is what they would be thinking of.
50:15Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.
50:17That, to me, is beautiful.
50:20At the other extreme are things like this.
50:23This is Camellia luchuensis, which is a species,
50:25such as you'd find growing in the wild.
50:27So the flowers are tiny, they're single flowers.
50:30They're quite sweetly perfumed,
50:32which the vast majority of Camellias are not.
50:35And then the third one that I've got here
50:36is a variety called Koto no Kaori,
50:39which is a hybrid between luchuensis and a japonica variety.
50:44And this, to my mind, combines the best of both worlds.
50:48You've got the colour, you've got the floriferousness of it,
50:50plus you've got the perfume.
50:57This is my propagator, and I took this batch of cuttings
51:01very late July, early August last year.
51:04They've been pretty much undisturbed since then,
51:06just watered them occasionally.
51:08And it'll be interesting to see
51:09whether they've got any roots on them.
51:12Ah, look at that, a little root system.
51:17Ah, you're looking at a happy man here.
51:19Terrific.
51:21When I take them in the cuttings that I took,
51:23I cut that off right at the base,
51:26wounded it slightly.
51:27With a very sharp knife,
51:29I just pare the bark off just down one side,
51:32which is just enough wounding to stimulate rooting a bit,
51:35and stuck it in the propagator.
51:38So that needs to be potted up now into a little individual pot,
51:42and lots and lots of new plants.
51:53Here we've got another species camellia.
51:56This one's one called Transnocoensis,
51:58with tiny little white flowers.
52:01Very, very strong contrast with this and the debbie behind it,
52:05the typical, what people would think of as camellias.
52:07Perhaps wouldn't even recognise this as a camellia at all.
52:10But it has a much more natural, relaxed habit of growth,
52:14so a very thin, twiggy, upright habit of growth
52:17that might be much more appropriate
52:19to a lot of people's more natural-type gardeners
52:22than the traditional camellia.
52:30People who don't like camellias are not amenable to reason,
52:33aren't they, for heaven's sake?
52:35How could you not like camellias?
52:55Well, it's hard to say this, Jim, but you may notice I don't have a single camellia in this garden,
53:00because I'm one of those terrible people that has not yet learnt to love them.
53:06But maybe it will come to me.
53:08But I do love hydrangeas.
53:10And I've got some here in the writing garden.
53:13You may notice that we've made some changes over winter,
53:16because when we put the doghouse up last summer,
53:19we put a path in front of it, and it was a bit narrow.
53:22So we widened the path to make a terraced area,
53:25and now there is space to put big pots.
53:28I've got two, and I'm putting in hydrangea paniculata.
53:33Hydrangeas cope well in light shade, and they need relatively good drainage.
53:38And the great thing about paniculata, they can be pruned hard every year.
53:44So therefore, you can grow them in a pot without them getting too big.
53:49First things first, it needs a crock in the bottom.
53:52It's not so much to improve the drainage,
53:54but it's to stop the compost falling out the bottom of the pot.
53:59I've already mixed up a mixture of grit,
54:02plenty of our homemade leaf mould, and the rest is peep-free compost.
54:17Right.
54:18Now that, obviously, gives lots of room for growth.
54:23And because this is a great big pot, I do want it to be dramatic.
54:26This is a hydrangea paniculata cayushu,
54:30and it carries conical white flowers, June, July, August.
54:35A lot of hydrangeas you think of as being September,
54:39coming in for their best later in summer and into autumn.
54:42Also, the critical thing about them is they flower on new wood.
54:48Right, let's take it out of the pot.
54:52As a rule of thumb, when you're planting anything in a pot, leave at least an inch for watering.
55:00Perfect.
55:11Now, as always, particularly at this time of year, when you plant anything, water it in.
55:19Give it a good soak.
55:22As well as watering it and giving it moisture, it's moving the soil around the roots.
55:28And I will water this weakly.
55:30Now, what you see will carry no flowers at all, so these stems will be bare.
55:36The new growth will carry the flowers.
55:40Eventually, what I want is a plant that is about seven foot tall, festooned with white conical flowers.
55:51Now, I've got some jobs that you could do this weekend.
56:04Buddlea can be pruned now.
56:07It flowers on new growth.
56:10So everything that is on the plant now will produce no flowers.
56:15So you need to cut hard.
56:17If you go down to two buds from the base of the plant, that's about as low as you need
56:23go.
56:23Or maybe about two or three foot.
56:27But be brave.
56:29And cut hard.
56:37Now is a great time to sow cosmos for a really good late summer display.
56:43Fill a seed tray with peat-free compost.
56:46And carefully sprinkle the seeds so they're evenly placed across it.
56:51Cover them over.
56:52Water them.
56:53And the best way to do this is to dip it in a tray of water for about ten minutes.
56:57And then put them somewhere warm to germinate.
57:00And they should be ready to prick out in a few weeks time.
57:08If you've got hyacinths that you've grown for an indoor display over winter.
57:13Or any other bulbs that you've grown in containers.
57:16You can plant them out into the garden when they've finished flowering.
57:22Put the whole thing, untidied up, leaves, stems and all, into the soil.
57:28Bury them and let them die back naturally.
57:31And they will flower next year.
57:38Don't you get a new environment?
57:39You're not going to be free?
57:41Oh, yeah.
57:44Go.
57:46What?
57:51There are three of those days you invite them to grab you.
57:51How's my hybrid?
57:51You're on the top if you want to grab you.
57:54You're calling your hybrid.
57:54Mohammed, you're on the top of my pocket, you're on the top.
57:54You're on the top of my pocket.
57:56You're on the top of my pocket before you go.
57:59The first thing they need to be with me.에서
57:59check it out. You're
58:00on the bottom of my pocket.
58:03I will take these buddlier cuttings and put them through a shredder.
58:08And then that will go onto paths, and that way everything gets recycled.
58:14Well, that's it for today.
58:16It's been a beautiful spring day here at Longmeadow.
58:20And I do hope that you can get out into your garden and enjoy some spring sunshine
58:27and just this sense of the world breaking free from winter and coming alive again.
58:32I'll see you back here at Longmeadow next time.
58:35So until then, bye-bye.
59:04Longmeadow
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