Gardeners' World Season 59 Episode 4

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Transcript

00:21Right now, come on. Good boy.

00:44Hello, welcome to an Easter gardener's world. And it's that first moment in the year for

00:53many people when you can get outside and really appreciate the garden as something to offer

00:58you delight, rather than a series of jobs that need to be done. And the cottage garden

01:04here at Longmeadow is beginning to be delightful. It's just starting to show its colours, but

01:10those colours are very much geared towards pastels, obviously pinks, and then lilacs and

01:17mauves. And, when I can get it, my favourite colour of all in the garden, which is apricot.

01:26Now, there are very, very few flowers that are naturally apricot. They tend to be bred

01:32from a combination of pink and orange. Sometimes you have too much pink, sometimes too much orange,

01:38and occasionally they just hit the sweet spot, but then another one of the same variety doesn't.

01:44It's my obsession. But it is good fun working on a colour theme. And what I have here is a

01:51geom. This is geom Mai Tai. It's from the cocktail series. It's not true apricot, but it's touched

01:58with it. It's got a base of a soft yellow and then flushed with a very orangey pink. The cocktail

02:06series

02:06are particularly low, so great for the front of a border or in a pot, but they flower from, depending

02:12where you are, mid-April right the way through till June. And if you keep deadheading, they will keep

02:17on flowering. That one has got flowers on it. When you're buying a plant from a garden centre, tend to

02:25those that don't have flowers on it, because it's used up the energy of the plant to produce flowers,

02:30and you want that energy going into your garden. So, check out the flowers, make sure it's the colour

02:35you want, and then choose plants that are not yet flowering.

02:41OK, we can get one in here. And I think another over here. Right, that will do for this bit.

02:47Now, the foxclubs. I want to plant those now, because they're bare root. And if you're moving plants

02:52in the garden, move them quickly. The quicker you move them, the less they'll mind being moved.

03:01I've got here some foxclubs called Apricot Delight. Never grown it before. I've grown

03:06from seed. They look as though they could be wonderful. And foxclubs are either a biennial

03:11or a short-lived perennial. And what that means is, they will not flower in their first

03:16year. They flower in their second year. And some won't flower again. They'll set seed

03:21and die back. Quite a few will reappear the next year, maybe even as many as four years.

03:27But by and large, their best performance is in the year after sowing.

03:34Right, I'm going to get this in the ground. And these are in the ground.

03:52It's brilliant planting weather. Over Easter is a really good time. Perfect for herbaceous

03:59perennials or biennials, or even annuals for that matter. Get them in the ground, because

04:04the sooner the roots can get in, the better they're going to cope with summer heat. And

04:08this relates to geoms in particular, because geoms are a plant that really don't like to

04:13be dry. They do their best in moisture-retentive ground. So that's not a bog. They're not a

04:18water plant, but they're not good in very light sand or pure chalk or anything like that.

04:23But they really like soil that can retain moisture. And, of course, you can always improve the

04:30water retention of your soil by adding organic matter.

04:40Now, Ashley went down to Leonard's Lee garden in West Sussex to celebrate spring by looking

04:47at it in detail.

04:54For me, early spring carries a quiet magic. The natural world is awakening, and there's

05:00a thrilling sense of possibility in the air. Colour is returning, buds are swelling, and plant

05:08life unfolds a little more each day.

05:12The garden may seem calm, but that stillness can be deceptive. There's a world of excitement

05:18waiting if you just slow down and look closely.

05:29Magnolias are the real stars of early spring. While most trees wait for their leaves to appear

05:36before flowering, with magnolias, the flowers come first.

05:41I've just noticed this. This is Magnolia Leonard Messel, and it's a really delicate form of

05:48magnolia. There's so many different varieties. What I love about this one is it's got this

05:52two-tone colour to the petals. The outside a lot more of a pastel pink, and the inside this

05:58lovely pale pink. So when you're looking at it from different angles, you get those different

06:02colours. When you look really closely at the buds, you can see they're really fuzzy. They're

06:07almost like little rabbit feet, and this fur actually protects them from cold weather, meaning

06:12that they can flower earlier in the year.

06:15Magnolia flowers are monoecious, and this means that both male and female reproductive organs

06:20are on the same plant. Magnolias evolved nearly a hundred million years ago when bees didn't

06:26exist and dinosaurs still roamed the earth. So they relied on beetles to pollinate them.

06:31So lots of magnolias have robust anthers and stigmas to support these large insects. And

06:37you can see this in some of these flowers here. They're almost like plastic. They're so tough.

06:43Once you start to notice the little details like these buds, you realise that the garden

06:48is full of the promise of spring.

07:01Wow. This is Katsura tree, or Circedophyllum japonicum, also sometimes called the toffee apple tree, because

07:09it has this really sugary scent when the leaves drop in autumn. But I've never noticed the flowers

07:14before, and they're like little flames or tentacles. These are the male flowers of this tree.

07:19There's such a small window of opportunity to see this, so I feel really lucky to be here

07:24just at the right time.

07:33This area of the garden is famous for its rhododendrons, many of which are hybrids that were bred here more

07:40than a century ago. And this one is just starting to show its full colour. But if you look closely,

07:45you can see the different stages we're at now. So you've got the closed bud here, and you can tell

07:51it's a flower bud because it's really fat and juicy. And it also has these really beautiful scales.

07:56Some rhododendron buds have a sticky resin, and this helps to protect it from insect attack,

08:01and also from any wet weather. On this one you can see the flower petals just emerging,

08:07and this is beautiful in its own right. They look like little tongues to me. And then these ones are

08:11in full colour now, and that just shows how you've got these stages, this progression of flowering on this plant.

08:30This is a great example of layering in the garden. You've got your large shrubs and trees like this

08:36pyris above me, and it's been crown lifted, so it opens up opportunity for planting underneath.

08:42So you have your second layer of smaller shrubs and herbaceous plants like these beautiful

08:46hellebores, which are in full flower now. So it provides that early season colour and interest.

08:52And then you've got ground cover like this pakisandra here, which provides a lovely foliage for the

08:57forest floor. And this is something you can apply to any garden, doesn't matter what size you've got.

09:02You could even do it in a container. So you could have a large shrub with smaller filler plants like

09:07hellebores, and then something that trails like vinca. It's a great way to make the most of your space,

09:13and it also means that when these early flowering plants are finished,

09:18you still have all that texture to see throughout the year.

09:30Some shrubs really come into their own in early spring, when colour and fragrance can still be a

09:37little thin on the ground. One of my favourites is this. It's Edgeworthia chrysantha grandiflora,

09:44and it has these amazing ball-shaped flowers. The flowers also appear before the leaves, so it means that

09:50they really stand out, and it packs such a powerful scent. And this acts as a signal. Insects are waking

09:56up from hibernation this time of year. So by putting this scent out there, it says,

09:59I'm open for business. Come and get some nectar.

10:04Planting nectar-rich plants doesn't just give you a beautiful garden, but it also gives wildlife a head

10:10start. Over here we have Coriolopsis porciflora, and it has these delicate pendant-like yellow flowers,

10:17which look like little lanterns. The great thing about this is you could have it in a small garden.

10:22It stays compact, and it has this really nice arching habit to it. If you want to prune your

10:28spring flowering shrubs, the best time to do it is straight after they finish flowering,

10:31because they soon start to produce the growth that will have next year's flowers on.

10:42Once you tune into the season, the signs of spring are everywhere. I've just spotted this, and it's

10:49a emerging leaf bud. And I can tell this because they are very narrow, and you can just make out

10:55the

10:55little fingers of the emerging leaves. And this one has emerged a bit more, and you can see this beautiful

11:01pink hue that it has. It's a type of chestnut, and it will also flower later in the year. But

11:07now,

11:07we can appreciate the foliage. Spotting signs like these is a great way to read your garden,

11:13and it gives you an idea of things to come.

11:28These lakes are stunningly beautiful. And in these cooler temperatures, the surface of the water is

11:34calmer, and it creates this mirrored effect. I can see the trees reflected in the surface, and also the

11:40golden hues of the daffodils in the distance. It's something you could even try at home. You don't

11:47need a massive lake. You could have your own container with water in it to reflect angles from

11:52your garden. It's a great way to add a sense of serene calm into your space.

12:11The soundscape is a huge part of spring for me, and if you listen closely, it tells a story. The

12:17garden

12:18is waking up again, and we too are part of that quiet renewal.

12:27Simply spending time outdoors and noticing those small changes can be surprisingly restorative.

12:33Spring is such a short season, but that's what makes it so special. It's a reminder to slow down,

12:38notice the changes, and really savour the season, because before you know it, it's past.

13:06The thing that I love about spring more than any other season is that it has shifts and changes

13:12over at least two, if not three months. There's an awful lot going on. And one of the things at

13:17the

13:17moment on the mound that really appeals to me is this. It's a Forsythia. Now, Forsythia is as common as

13:24muck.

13:24I mean, there must be hundreds of thousands, if not millions of them around the country.

13:28But this particular one is a bit more unusual. It's Forsythia suspensa nimans. And I've chosen it because

13:37it's got this pale yellow and this quite loose structure and form, and works perfectly with the

13:43daffodils that we have here on the mound. Now, this combination will only last a week at the most,

13:47and then it'll move on and other things will take their place. And I think that's the joy of spring.

14:05Okay?

14:07Good boy. Come on.

14:29I've added a bit of compost to this raised bed because I'm about to plant up a bed for cut

14:36flowers,

14:37and I'm adding in some ranunculus, ranunculus asiaticus, or sometimes called the Persian

14:42buttercup. But unlike the buttercups you see in fields where they're sort of open, simple petals,

14:47these have a mass of petals that form a kind of globe. These will flower hopefully from about the

14:56end of May into June, planted in December, and then kept in the greenhouse and gradually hardened off.

15:04Or you could plant the tubers now, and they would flower later in summer.

15:14I'm going to space these out about six inches apart. And the thing about cut flowers is that you can

15:21plant them closer together than you otherwise would in the border. There are two reasons for that. One,

15:25they're not going to be there for as long. And two, you want the stems to grow tall. You almost

15:31want to

15:31force them up so you get decent stumbling. Choose a spot that's relatively shady and soil that is well-drained

15:41but enriched.

15:54The thing to remember when you're growing ranunculus is that they're half hardy. So if you live in a very

16:00sheltered area that hardly ever gets frost, and if it does it's just a touch of it, they may well

16:05overwinter,

16:06and they're a perennial, and they will come back. But anywhere that reliably gets two or three degrees of

16:14frost or more, they're very unlikely to survive that. So treat them as annuals.

16:34I will need to water these in. It's really important that this time of year water everything

16:39you plant thoroughly. I will also have to have a bit of fleece handy for the next month,

16:45just in case we get some late frost, which we can do here. And if a bit of fleece covering

16:50them

16:50overnight should be enough. So that bed is sorted. The two back beds have got tulips in them, and these

16:57are tulips that I'm trialing. And the ones I like, and maybe only one or two, I will then order

17:02more

17:03next year, and they can graduate to the garden proper. Now this bed, last autumn, I sowed with

17:11hardy annuals, particularly amy, amy magus and amy visnaga, and a bit of wild carrot. However, we had a

17:19really cold snap for a few days in November, followed by one of the wettest winters ever. And I'm afraid

17:26that

17:26I did for them, because if that wasn't enough, we've had a mass of rabbits this winter. And rabbits

17:32love amy more than anything else. So we lost a lot. Doesn't matter. I've now got a free bed,

17:37and I want to use it for cut flowers again. And I'm going to sow scabious. I love scabious. It

17:43makes a

17:43brilliant cut flower, makes a brilliant border flower. And I love the dark colours. Now I've got a

17:48variety here called Black Knight, which is really deep, rich burgundy speckled with white.

17:57Put them into your hand. Probably best not to do this on a windy day. And just sprinkle thinly.

18:09I'll show you a tip for sowing any kind of seed outside in the garden that I was shown when

18:14I was

18:14a boy. And it works. Draw a drill with your hand. And sow your seeds. And then just simply put

18:25your

18:25thumb and your fingers either side of the drill, and run down either side of it like that. And it

18:31pushes the soil up over the seeds, works a treat. Now, I grow cut flowers in these few special beds,

18:39and they're brilliant for the house. However, you don't need special beds. Just to pick a small

18:44bunch of flowers from your garden is an utter joy. But for some people, it's more than a joy. It

18:50becomes

18:50transformative. It changes their lives. And I think that's absolutely the case for Hattie Colvin.

18:55And we went to visit her at her home in Carmarthenshire.

19:04Flowers are a passion of mine. And I think the more I grow, the more obsessed I become.

19:10I don't think I'll ever have enough.

19:15Just seeing something go from nothing through to a huge display of wondrous colour, I think,

19:23is just something really special.

19:31My name's Hattie, and this is my flower farm in Clondilo, Wales.

19:39I'm unapologetically in love with flowers. I could not be without dahlias. So this flower is one of my

19:49favourites. I can never pick an actual favourite. It's called Dunaj or Dunay, depending on how you

19:55pronounce it. It's a pom-pom variety. I love the kind of intensity of the pink colour on the very

20:02small

20:03sort of ball-shaped form and the incredible formation of petals. The pom-pom shape is better

20:09for cutting because they tend to have a bit of a longer vase life cut at the right stage. You

20:14cut

20:14before the centre opens, and then it'll last a lot longer.

20:24This one is preference. Preference is incredibly prolific. It does need quite a lot of food and

20:32nutrition, mostly because it produces so many flowers. It just gets a bit tired by the end of

20:38the season if you don't keep it topped up. So our soil here is very clay, so I spend a

20:45lot of time

20:45making sure that the soil is looked after. I use lots of different types of farmyard manure to mulch

20:53the beds. Every time I plant, I make sure that I replenish some of the goodness back into the soil.

21:00When I start seedlings, I use a seaweed feed as well when they're in their trays. Again,

21:08just to make sure that they have a really great start to life. And I find that keeping the plants

21:13as healthy as they can possibly be means that they're more resistant to pests.

21:26I used to live and work in London as an accountant. I did get a lot of joy out of

21:31what I did, but it

21:32wasn't for me. My partner was in Wales, and I felt very much the pull towards being here in somewhere

21:39that was back to nature and slower paced. I was commuting back and forwards to London,

21:46and so had a lot of thinking time in the car. I had a few dahlias. I found them just

21:54so exciting

21:56and loved all the different shapes and the colours and the kind of flounciness. And I decided that I

22:02wanted more dahlias. So that kind of formed the idea for, oh, what if I could grow cut flowers?

22:12In three years, I've ended up with 27 20-metre beds and polytunnels as well. So yeah, it escalated fairly

22:23quickly.

22:29You don't need a huge amount of space to get started with a cutting garden. And actually, if you choose

22:35carefully what you grow, you could have quite a few vases of flowers throughout the summer to enjoy.

22:45So I very quickly learned in my journey of growing that some flowers are much easier to grow than others.

22:52One that is generally pretty steadfast is Cosmos. It comes in some really beautiful shades.

22:59It's easy to germinate. And then they're fairly indestructible, I find.

23:06This is a really good example of a Cosmos that's actually been pollinated already by the bees.

23:12So you see it's gone quite fuzzy on the inside. And that sadly means that I can't use it as

23:18a cut flower

23:19because it won't really last and it'll drop its petals. But it does mean that the bees have had a

23:24lovely time.

23:33Scabias are really lovely at cut flower. They're very generous with how many stems you get.

23:40This is called Black Knight. And I did once have somebody ask me if I could give them the flower

23:45with the hundreds and thousands on it because it's got the white little sprinkles on the top.

23:50You also get these lovely seed heads, which you can either dry or actually use in an arrangement as well.

24:04For anybody that's thinking about starting up their own cutting garden, I'd probably recommend

24:09snapdragons. I think they're really majestic looking and always have a really amazing scent.

24:15A perennial option, I would definitely go for a geom, something like totally tangerine,

24:21which is lovely, beautiful colour, and it actually keeps flowering from May.

24:25It slows down as it gets to later in the summer, but you do still keep getting flowers.

24:30And I think, obviously, you'd have to have some dahlias.

24:38As a flower grower, you're very much hailed as living the dream and wafting about in the field

24:44with a trug and a floaty dress, gathering flowers. One thing that I have definitely learnt is doing this

24:52is a tough, tough job. All of the critters want to get to your flowers before you do.

24:58The weather wants to destroy things. It is not all glamour.

25:09When I'm arranging with flowers, I would tend to find something in the field that does really inspire me

25:15to want to show that off. And then everything else kind of gets built around that.

25:24I just slowly keep building the bouquet. I want different heights. I've already got some scented

25:31pelargonium. This is a lemon basil and some pennycrest thlaspie to add some green,

25:37some different textures with different foliages. And also, that is a delightful smell.

25:45There is definitely a huge sense of pride when you're working with flowers that you've grown yourself

25:52and seeing them all kind of come together like little friends and having a little flower party.

25:59I'm going to try and add this one in. It's quite nice and upward facing,

26:02which this variety isn't normally.

26:08This feels like a really, really lovely representation of what's flowering right now

26:13in the field. It's all of my favourite colour palettes.

26:25It feels like a huge privilege to get to do what I do for a living. I often find it

26:31really hard to

26:32believe that my slightly random dream that came to me on the motorway is actually now a very beautiful reality.

27:19I think it's really encouraging that there are more and more people like Hattu that are local,

27:24that have got a wide variety of really interesting plants, something I would suggest we all support.

27:30Now it's Easter and traditionally the main Easter job in the garden was planting potatoes.

27:36You get your potatoes in the ground now. First early should be ready to harvest around about June.

27:42Second early is July, a main crop in the early autumn.

27:47This is a variety called Charlotte. It's a second early and these have chitted.

27:53And you can see, look, that's a really good example of a chitted potato.

27:57You get this knobbly growth and it speeds up the growth and therefore the harvest.

28:02Now, how you grow them depends on how much space you've got. If you've got plenty of space,

28:07you've got an allotment, it's a brilliant idea to dig a furrow or a trench, put them in the bottom

28:12and then heat the soil back up to make a ridge over them. If you're shorter space or you're growing

28:18in raised beds like I am,

28:20it couldn't be easier. All you do is simply make a hole, stick them in. With the chitted chute at

28:28the top,

28:28you want to bury it ideally its own depth below the ground.

28:41I get three across here. Give it at least a foot or so. If you're growing them in a raised

28:45bed,

28:45you can grow them much closer together than you would in rows.

28:51Potatoes really respond to feeding. So, if you've got any compost or any manure, anything,

28:59any soil improver, it's really worth adding to the soil and that will definitely increase the harvest.

29:11Here. Here. No, Ned. Come here. Come here. Look. Put them. Good boy.

29:23Break over to cover them.

29:29Hopefully, when I come to harvest them,

29:32we shall have a whole mass of new potatoes and, for Ned, a whole mass of new balls to harvest

29:39come July.

29:41At least, that's what he thinks. Right. I'm going to use this ground because nothing will appear

29:50for a few weeks' time. But I'm going to grow a catch crop and the fastest growing crop to grow

29:56at this time of year is radish. And radish will germinate within a week and be ready to harvest

30:03within six weeks before they get crowded out by the foliage of potatoes. Broadcast over the surface,

30:11it just means sprinkle them widely. Try and do it reasonably evenly.

30:19Put the rake over them again to slightly lightly cover them.

30:30I've got these extra sea potatoes, but I'm not going to waste them because I want to grow some in

30:33pots.

30:41This is a recycled container. You can see I've drilled holes in the bottom. You need peat-free compost.

30:49Put it in the bottom, not right full up.

30:55That will do to start with. What you need is at most three, and to be honest, two will be

31:04plenty in there.

31:05But the truth is, three wouldn't give me any bigger harvest. The more you put in,

31:10the smaller potatoes you'll get. And that should produce you between about 10 and 20 potatoes.

31:19Enough for a couple of meals. A treat. Just cover them up. Put a little bit over the top of

31:25them.

31:26Don't fill it to the top. As the new growth comes, fill on top of it. That means roots will

31:33grow from

31:33the stems and you'll get more potatoes. Keep it well watered. Make sure it's not sitting in a puddle,

31:38so maybe lift it a little bit off the ground. And if you can give it a little bit of

31:42shelter,

31:42they'll grow even better. And this is a perfect way to grow potatoes if you're very short of space.

31:51The beauty of this, of course, is that you can grow potatoes, whether you want them as a treat

31:57or just because you like spuds, even if you've got very limited space. Now, we went to see Tom Stimpson.

32:04I don't know if he grows potatoes, but I do know that everything else he grows is in pots.

32:15When you get home from work, it's quite nice to unwind out of the garden, surrounded by nature

32:20and beautiful flowers. Just perfect.

32:29Hi, I'm Tom, and this is my small town garden in Ely in Cambridgeshire, and it's all about pots.

32:44I think very often there's a misconception that if you have a small space, you should have just

32:49small pots and that's not true. It's amazing how many pots you can fit into a relatively tiny,

32:56tiny space. One of my favourite things to do is build up displays of pots on tabletops. And I've

33:05got four or five tabletops that I sort of rotate and use in different areas of the garden at different

33:11times of the year. So I do that by looking at the size of the pots, the shapes of them.

33:17So some taller

33:19terracotta, some squat ones, and then some little tiny ones as well to slot in amongst the bigger ones.

33:26Because that means you can create great floral displays and a little bit of structure and drama.

33:39This is Muscari Armeniacum, which is a Muscari I grow every single year. It's super reliable,

33:49easy to grow, and I love the intensity of the blue colour. They require minimal water, bulbs on the whole,

33:56tend to prefer it to be on the dry side. So planted it in the autumn into really free draining

34:02compost.

34:03Once we get into February, green shoots start to appear. And then with a little bit of sunshine,

34:08once we get into March, an eruption of blue. One of the ways to keep your pots of Muscari flowering

34:13longer is to deadhead. And it's really important not just to pinch here, but to pinch right down at the

34:20base, remove the stem, just discard it. And you'll find that will encourage all the flower buds to keep

34:26coming and for it to flower for a longer period of time.

34:38So growing in pots is really straightforward. So all starts with what's at the bottom of the pot first.

34:45So to make sure you've got some crocs. And I then put a small layer of grit just over that.

34:51Then it's

34:52about the potting medium. So I use a peat-free, general purpose potting compost, nothing too fancy.

34:58But I'll always add a little bit of grit. So if I'm using it for pots of bulbs, like this

35:03one here,

35:04I will probably add around 60% compost to 40% grit. And I think that's absolutely key because

35:13the importance of drainage for the bulbs is so important. And you'll have much better results

35:18if the compost can remain just moist rather than sodden. For other varieties of plants, violas, primulas,

35:25I won't add so much grit, probably about just 10%, just to aid that drainage a little bit. But they're

35:30much more tolerant to wet conditions. And then as we get into them growing in the spring is when you

35:37tend to look at the moisture levels a little bit more closely. And then as things start to grow and

35:42start to bud up, I'll then start twice fortnightly feed with some liquid seaweed, just to give a little

35:48bit of goodness back into the compost and support the flowers.

36:04So this is Ifean and a variety called Alberto Castile. I have to say they're one of my new faves.

36:11I just love them.

36:13They have this wonderful sort of grass-like foliage. And I love the chaos of the stems really,

36:18how they grow in whichever way they choose really. And I love the fact that they move and sway in

36:25the

36:25breeze. And one of my absolute favourite things about it is the reverse of the petals have a gorgeous

36:31stripe down the reverse of each flower petal.

36:43It's important to raise the pod off the table as otherwise, when it rains, the compost just remains

36:49wet. It never drains away totally. There's always a little puddle of water underneath the bottom of the pot.

36:56I found over the years, one of the best things to use is just tile spaces. So when you place

37:03your pot

37:04on them, you can't see them. But it just allows a few millimetres of air between the surface of the

37:10table and the bottom of the pot. And it just means the water can drain away. And that's the one

37:14way I get

37:14them through the winter. This is a variety of Narcissae called Polar Hunter. A relatively new variety,

37:30but rapidly becoming one of my favourite ones to grow. It has the wonderful fruity fragrance,

37:36quite unlike any other scented variety of Narcissae. And it's a beautiful colour. It starts off a liney,

37:44cream colour as it opens, and then gradually fades to a creamy white. I very often cut a few stems

37:51and just have by the side of my bed because I love waking up to the gorgeous scent in the

37:56morning.

37:57It's a brilliant one for pots, but to give it a little bit of extra support, I just add a

38:02few

38:02hazel twigs in. I love doing that because it looks natural. It's absolutely gorgeous. What do you say to

38:08people who don't like ephodils? They should go and get a life.

38:16So as we come into mid-spring, I start to think about what's going in the pots for the summer.

38:22And a key variety for me are dahlias. I absolutely love them. They're brilliant for providing colour

38:28from mid-summer through to the first frost. So great value. The tubers are nice and big,

38:34so I'm planting into quite a big pot. If your tubers are a little bit smaller, so they're fresh stock,

38:40then I'd probably say plant them in a three-litre-sized pot and get them to grow and shoot

38:44in there before planting out into a bigger pot or into the border. Peat-free compost. I've added a bit

38:51of grit for extra drainage. And it's important with dahlias that the crown sits just above the soil surface.

39:00Pots for me are a key element to my gardening life. When you have a small space, and if you

39:07love plants,

39:08pots are essential to add interest, drama, impact, colour, abundance.

39:28Pots for me are a key element to my plants.

39:38Like Tom, I grow masses of spring bulbs in pots.

39:43This time of year, mainly full of narcissi and tulips. And the great thing about them is you have

39:49these splashes of colour that you can move around and assemble. And by the way, if you've not seen

39:54this daffodil before, it's called Rip Van Winkle, with this great sort of splay of flower, which is a

40:00little bit heavy for the stem, so it's not so much drooping as sprawling in an elegant way. And certainly

40:08it looks fantastic when grown in a pot like this. And it's not just spring bulbs that look good. We've

40:15got bay here with rosemary. I've got pots in shady areas with ivy and ferns. Right across the year

40:22and right across the garden, there's always a place for pot.

40:34Go on.

40:42Aha! You got it. You got it.

40:56Now, this was where we had soft root until this winter, because I've brought into here

41:03most of the yew cuttings that I took about ten years ago.

41:07The reason I took the yew cuttings were partly to replace the box that got box blight,

41:13and I wanted an evergreen, dense hedge,

41:16and partly because yew makes wonderful topiary, and I love topiary.

41:20So this gives me the raw material for hedges and topiary,

41:24and even clip shrubs which I've got in the woodland border.

41:28And if you had to buy them, they're really expensive.

41:31So to grow your own is saving you a lot of money.

41:34It's really interesting, and I think good fun.

41:37This is a yew cutting I took certainly no more than ten years ago.

41:41But you can see it's got a lovely straight stem,

41:43and this lends itself to a standard.

41:45A standard is anything that is grown on a bare, clean, straight trunk.

41:50It could be a ball, it could be a box, it could be a dancing bear or a kangaroo.

41:59To create a standard, the first thing I'm going to do is clean off that trunk.

42:08I want it to be a ball on an upright, and I want that to be the bottom of the

42:12ball,

42:13and that's the top.

42:15So the first thing I'm going to do is take this top off.

42:22Obviously that doesn't look anything like a globe,

42:27but these shoots here, these little ones, as they grow out,

42:31then we get the outside, and the harder we clip the final shape, the denser it will be.

42:36And it doesn't matter if it's empty on the inside, which it will be,

42:39because the light will be stopped.

42:41Actually that's not bad to begin with.

42:43So the next stage for that is to put into a pot, or into the ground,

42:47give it light, feed it, and encourage it to grow.

42:55Yew, along with box and holly, regenerates from old wood.

42:59So you can cut it back as hard as you like, and it will regrow successfully.

43:05Now I've chosen this because it wouldn't be hard to make this into a ball.

43:09And you can see, because other plants have been around it,

43:12it's even started to grow inwards a bit.

43:13So rather than cut it back very hard, I'm going to use shears and clip it.

43:26In this case, I don't need to go right back to the old wood,

43:30because the basic shape is there.

43:38Right.

43:39You can see that I've put all these into bags.

43:42Plants in a bag will keep perfectly well,

43:44but for growing things on, they either have to be in the ground or in a pot.

43:49You want a pot that's big enough for it to grow into.

43:52So something like that, really good drainage holes.

43:56Yew is tough.

43:58Yew will take light.

43:59Yew will take shade.

44:00It will grow in almost any soil, although it's happiest in lime.

44:04So if you've got chalk or limestone, that's great.

44:07But it will not take sitting in damp.

44:11It must drain.

44:12So this is a very, very gritty mix.

44:16So we'll put this in here like that.

44:24Take this out.

44:28OK, that's good.

44:30There.

44:40Now, those roots aren't anchored in the pot,

44:43and all those tiny little new roots will break if it moves.

44:47And so we need to put a cane in there like that.

44:51And throughout the rest of this year,

44:53this will need watering and feeding weekly.

44:56But in order to get really good topiary shape, it does need light.

45:04This should create the shape I want in about three to five years,

45:09and it will get better and better.

45:12Now, go into one of your gardens.

45:14It belongs to the Driscoll family, and they live in Cheshire.

45:20Hi.

45:21I'm Owen.

45:21I'm Emily.

45:22And I'm Liam.

45:23Welcome to our garden in Macclesfield.

45:26It's a relatively small space, maybe ten by five metres,

45:30and enclosed by tall fences and rows of terrace housing.

45:34With young kids, it was a place to play and have fun.

45:38As the kids got older, and I got the bug for gardening,

45:41it increasingly became a place for flowers and colour,

45:44though it was still a little untidy.

45:47We paid attention to making space for wildlife,

45:50creating lots of interest for Emily and Leo.

45:53We have a little wildlife pond.

45:55It has shallow edges to allow any animals that might fall in to climb out.

46:00We have been impressed by the variety of different visitors to our garden.

46:11But there was one visitor that we never thought we'd see in our garden,

46:14with it being all fenced up and barricaded by rows of houses.

46:21Then, one night, we spotted this on our security camera at the front of our house.

46:28A hedgehog! Could it get round the back to the garden?

46:34Dad made a couple of openings in the fence.

46:38One day, this summer, in the middle of the day, we saw this.

46:43We didn't know what it was doing.

46:47Turns out it was building a nest.

46:53There was more than one hedgehog in the nest, which meant hoglets.

46:58We started putting out hedgehog food in a feeding station

47:02to keep the cats from eating it.

47:11We think they appreciate it.

47:18We hope you enjoyed your visit to our garden, too.

47:48How exciting it is to have hedgehogs in the garden, and it is.

47:51It's fantastic.

47:53Hedgehogs are very much nocturnal animals.

47:56So, if you see them during the day, and if they're feeding and drinking during the day,

48:00it normally is an indication that they are in distress.

48:03And last summer, we saw a lot of that because it was so hot and dry.

48:07So, ideally, put out food and water at dusk, and it should be gone by the morning.

48:12OK. At this time of year, we sow a lot of seeds, they germinate,

48:18and then the next stage of the process is pricking out.

48:21And what I thought I'd do is make it really clear what pricking out is,

48:26why you do it, and when you do it.

48:29First thing is, what it is, is you take a seedling,

48:33and you move it on to the next stage.

48:35Because if you have a mass of seedlings in a seed tray like this,

48:38these are tythonias, they're all competing for space and nutrition,

48:42and they would never develop into good plants.

48:45Now, pricking out shouldn't take place until you can see the true leaves.

48:50So, when a seed germinates, it produces what's called a seed leaf.

48:57And you can see here, this is a tray of cosmos.

49:00These very strappy leaves look absolutely nothing like cosmos.

49:05They are just to give the plant enough energy for the roots to develop.

49:10Once the roots have got established, you then get the next stage, which is a true leaf.

49:15And if you look very closely, you can see the true leaves are just beginning to appear.

49:21And even when they're tiny, absolutely minute, they look like the parent leaves.

49:27You can see it actually better here on this parsley.

49:30The difference between the seed leaves, which are here, which basically are strappy and simple,

49:36and the true leaf, which looks like a flat leaf parsley, is there.

49:41Finally, tythonia.

49:42You've got these spatulate seed leaves, and then the pointed parent leaf.

49:48And again, it means it's got roots.

49:50So, these two trays are ready for pricking out, and that one is not.

49:54So, you need something to put them in, and you need something to carefully tease them out with.

50:00In the past, I've used a pen knife, I've used a pencil, whatever works.

50:05Take hold of the seedling by a leaf.

50:10Never hold it by the stem.

50:11It's very easy to crush it or break it, whereas if you damage the leaf, it can grow another one.

50:18There you go.

50:20It's got quite a good root system.

50:22It's always quite a surprise that they have so many roots.

50:26Now, I've prepared individual plugs for this, and I'm just going to pop that in there like that.

50:32I'm not going to brutally press it down, and it means that each individual seedling gets a real chance to

50:38grow.

50:40Now, what I'm pricking them out into is a compost mix that has a little bit more goodness in it

50:45than the seed mix.

50:46You could just use a peat-free compost on its own.

50:49I tend to add some sieved garden compost, a little bit of leaf mold, and some sieved garden soil.

50:57Not a lot, no more than about 5% of the mix.

51:00But the bacteria and the fungi in that will start interacting with the roots.

51:04So, when I plant it out into my garden, already there is that symbiosis between the two, and they tend

51:11to grow away better.

51:13Sometimes, say for example with tomatoes, I prick out into a small pot straight away, because they're going to be

51:19quite big plants and they grow fast.

51:21But there is no perfect way, as long as each individual seedling has room to develop into a nice strong

51:28plant.

51:30Don't try and rush it, regard it as something that is part of the process of the life of the

51:35plant, and you are almost privileged to be part of that too.

51:41And to me, that's the essence of gardening. That's really what gardening is all about.

52:09I know a lot of people get confused about pruning hydrangeas.

52:16The most common type of hydrangea that you see is hydrangea macrophylla, with mop heads, great big round heads, or

52:24lace caps, which are more open, with masses of petals, but with always a touch of elegance.

52:31Now, this is a lace cap variety called Lanarth white, and will give you a display from late summer into

52:38autumn.

52:39Now, the first thing is, do not prune off the spent flowers in autumn, because they trap warmer air inside

52:46and they just slightly protect the plant, particularly in very early spring from frost.

52:53But now we're coming to April, as soon as you get vigorous new growth, you can prune them back.

52:57So, at very least, take off the spent flowers from last year.

53:04However, it's not a bad idea, while you're doing this, to take a look and say, OK, am I happy

53:09with it?

53:09Am I happy with the shape, the size?

53:12For example, this here is growing out over the border, and I don't really want that, so I'm going to

53:17cut it back.

53:19Now, when you're pruning this type of hydrangea, go right back in and prune at the base, and that will

53:25encourage new shoots to grow.

53:27So, to remove this, I'm going to go in here.

53:37Young wood will be vigorous, healthy, and produce more flowers, but remove no more than a third of the plant,

53:46taking the oldest growth when you do.

53:51And if you do that every year, it will renew itself over three years, so none of them will be

53:56more than four years old.

54:00So, that's the first type of hydrangea.

54:04But, to make life complicated, there's another kind, and we're going to prune those now.

54:19Now, having pruned a lace cap, this is a very different type of hydrangea.

54:27The first thing you'll notice, there are no flowers on it.

54:29The second thing is, the growth is very different.

54:31It's vigorous, it's upright, you've got different coloured stems, and this is a hydrangea paniculata.

54:37Now, one of the features of hydrangea paniculata, and there are a number of different varieties,

54:43is that all the flowers are produced on growth that has happened this growing year.

54:51So, for example, these seemingly new shoots, the sort of burgundy-coloured red ones, are last year's growth.

54:58And the woody growth is previous years. I planted this about ten years ago.

55:02Some of this could be ten years old.

55:05So, nothing that you see will carry any flowers at all this year.

55:10So, I'm going to prune this back to a framework, which is pretty much the old growth.

55:21Unlike the lace caps and the mop heads, which are fundamentally rounded or flattened, these are conical.

55:28They look like a squirty ice cream put into a cone.

55:31And also, unlike the lace caps and the mop heads, which are very particular about the pH of the soil,

55:38Perniculatas will stay white, whatever the soil, and they're very forgiving, so they're great.

55:51The new growth will come from these points.

55:55They'll grow out here and we'll have these wonderful ice cream cones of flower from August onwards.

56:03Well, that was very simple, didn't take long, but it's a good job.

56:07And here are some good jobs for you this weekend.

56:22Everybody loves sunflowers, and they're a great plant to grow with children.

56:27Now's a good time to start them.

56:29They're big seeds, so can go into a pot rather than the seed tray.

56:32I use two seeds per pot, simply pressing them into the compost, and then remove the weaker of the two,

56:41which guarantees I have one really healthy plant.

56:45They need to be watered and then go somewhere warm to germinate.

56:58Easter is a really good time to get out any garden furniture made out of wood and give it a

57:03once-over.

57:04If it's not painted, consider giving it a coat of linseed oil to protect it.

57:09And if it is painted, rub it down, remove any loose or flaking paint, and then give it a fresh

57:15coat,

57:15and it will be ready for those long summer evenings.

57:24Now is a very good moment to divide herbaceous perennials,

57:29because they've started to grow and will recover quickly from any movement.

57:34I'm going to split this hosta into two.

57:37Lift it out the ground, simply chop it with a spade, replant half,

57:42and that gives me another fresh plant to add elsewhere.

57:58Good boy. No, come on.

58:00Well, I'm afraid that's it for today, but it's Easter.

58:05Easter when we can all get out into the garden, maybe go and visit a lovely garden,

58:09sea friends, and just this sense of the garden and spring to come and summer to follow opening out in

58:18front of us.

58:19But for the moment, that's all from Longweather, and I'll see you next time.

58:23Bye-bye.

58:31The End

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