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Gardeners' World (1968) Season 59 Episode 4
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00:21Right now, come on. Good boy.
00:41Hello. 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.
01:28Very few flowers that are naturally apricot. They tend to be bred from a combination of
01:33pink and orange. Sometimes you have too much pink, sometimes too much orange, and occasionally
01:40they just hit the sweet spot, but then another one of the same variety doesn't. It's my obsession.
01:46But it is good fun working on a colour theme. And what I have here is a geom. This is
01:54geom
01:54Mai Tai. It's from the cocktail series. It's not true apricot, but it's touched with it. It's
01:59got a base of a soft yellow and then flushed with a very orangey pink. The cocktail series
02:06are particularly low, so great for the front of a border or in a pot, but they flower from,
02:11depending where you are, mid-April right the way through till June. And if you keep deadheading,
02:16they will keep on flowering. That one has got flowers on it. When you're buying a plant
02:23from a garden centre, tend to those that don't have flowers on it, because it's used up the
02:29energy of the plant to produce flowers, and you want that energy going into your garden.
02:33So check out the flowers, make sure it's the colour you want, and then choose plants that
02:37are not yet flowering. Okay, we can get one in here, and I think another over here. Right,
02:46that will do for this bit. Now the foxgloves, I want to plant those now because they're bare
02:49root. And if you're moving plants in the garden, move them quickly. The quicker you move them,
02:54the less they'll mind being moved.
03:01I've got here some foxgloves called Apricot Delight. Never grown it before. I've grown
03:06from seed. They look as though they could be wonderful. And foxgloves are either a biannual
03:11or a short-lived perennial. And what that means is they will not flower in their first year.
03:16They flower in their second year. And some won't flower again. They'll set seed and die back.
03:22Quite a few will reappear the next year, maybe even as many as four years. But by and large,
03:28their best performance is in the year after sowing. Right, I'm going to get this in the
03:36ground. 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 biannuals, 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
04:18a water plant, but they're not good in very light sand or pure chalk or anything like that.
04:23They really like a soil that can retain moisture. And of course, you can always improve the water
04:30retention 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 at it in detail.
04:54For me, early spring carries a quiet magic. The natural world is awakening.
05:00And there's a thrilling sense of possibility in the hair.
05:04Colour is returning, buds are swelling, and plant life unfolds a little more each day.
05:12The garden may seem calm, but that stillness can be deceptive.
05:17There's a world of excitement waiting if you just slow down and look closely.
05:29Magnolias are the real stars of early spring.
05:34While most trees wait for their leaves to appear before flowering, with magnolias, the flowers come first.
05:41I've just noticed this. This is Magnolia Leonard Messel.
05:46And it's a really delicate form of magnolia. There's so many different varieties.
05:50What I love about this one is it's got this two-tone colour to the petals.
05:55The outside a lot more of a pastel pink. And the inside this lovely pale pink.
05:59So when you're looking at it from different angles, you get those different colours.
06:03When you look really closely at the buds, you can see they're really fuzzy.
06:07They're almost like little rabbit feet.
06:09And this fur actually protects them from cold weather, meaning that they can flower earlier in the year.
06:15Magnolia flowers are monoecious, and this means that both male and female reproductive organs are on the same plant.
06:23Magnolias evolved nearly a hundred million years ago when bees didn't exist and dinosaurs still roamed the earth.
06:29So they relied on beetles to pollinate them.
06:32So lots of magnolias have robust anthers and stigmas to support these large insects.
06:37And you 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 is full of the
06:48promise of spring.
07:01Wow. This is Katsura tree, or Circe de Filum japonicum.
07:07Also sometimes called the toffee apple tree, because it has this really sugary scent when the leaves drop in autumn.
07:12But I've never noticed the flowers before, and they're like little flames or tentacles. These are the male flowers of
07:17this tree.
07:19There's such a small window of opportunity to see this, so I feel really lucky to be here just at
07:24the right time.
07:32This area of the garden is famous for its rhododendrons, many of which are hybrids that were bred here more
07:40than a century ago.
07:41And this one is just starting to show its full colour. But if you look closely, you can see the
07:46different stages we're at now.
07:47So you've got the closed bud here, and you can tell it's a flower bud because it's really fat and
07:53juicy.
07:53And it also has these really beautiful scales.
07:56Some rhododendron buds have a sticky resin, and this helps to protect it from insect attack, and also from any
08:03wet weather.
08:04On this one you can see the flower petals just emerging, and this is beautiful in its own right.
08:08They look like little tongues to me.
08:10And then these ones are in full colour now, and that just shows how you've got these stages, this progression
08:15of flowering on this plant.
08:30This is a great example of layering in the garden.
08:34You've got your large shrubs and trees like this pyrus above me, and it's been crown lifted, so it opens
08:40up opportunity for planting underneath.
08:42So you have your second layer of smaller shrubs and herbaceous plants like these beautiful hellebores, which are in full
08:48flower now.
08:49So it provides that early season colour and interest.
08:52And then you've got ground cover like this pachisandra here, which provides a lovely foliage for the forest floor.
08:58And 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.
09:04So you could have a large shrub with smaller filler plants like hellebores, and then something that trails like vinca.
09:11It's a great way to make the most of your space.
09:14And it also means that when these early flowering plants are finished, you still have all that texture to see
09:20throughout the year.
09:30Some shrubs really come into their own in early spring, when colour and fragrance can still be a little thin
09:38on the ground.
09:38One of my favourites is this. It's Edgeworthia chrysantha grandiflora, and it has these amazing ball-shaped flowers.
09:47The flowers also appear before the leaves, so it means that they really stand out, and it packs such a
09:52powerful scent.
09:53And this acts as a signal. Insects are waking up from hibernation this time of year.
09:57So by putting this scent out there, it says, I'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 start.
10:12Over here we have Coriolopsis porciflora, and it has these delicate pendant-like yellow flowers, which look like little lanterns.
10:19The great thing about this is you could have it in a small garden. It stays compact, and it has
10:23this really nice arching habit to it.
10:26If you want to prune your spring flowering shrubs, the best time to do it is straight after they finish
10:31flowering,
10:31because they soon start to produce the growth that we'll have next year's flowers on.
10:42Once you tune into the season, the signs of spring are everywhere.
10:47I've just spotted this, and it's an emerging leaf bud. And I can tell this because they are very narrow,
10:53and you can just make out the little fingers of the emerging leaves.
10:57And this one has emerged a bit more, and you can see this beautiful pink hue that it has.
11:03It's a type of chestnut, and it will also flower later in the year.
11:07But now we can appreciate the foliage.
11:10Spotting signs like these is a great way to read your garden, and it gives you an idea of things
11:15to come.
11:28These lakes are stunningly beautiful, and in these cooler temperatures, the surface of the water is calmer,
11:34and it creates this mirrored effect. I can see the trees reflected in the surface,
11:40and also the golden hues of the daffodils in the distance.
11:45It's something you could even try at home. You don't need a massive lake.
11:48You could have your own container with water in it to reflect angles from your garden.
11:54It'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.
12:17The garden is 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.
12:37It's a reminder to slow down, notice the changes, and really savour the season.
12:42Because 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 over
13:13at least two, if not three months.
13:15There's an awful lot going on.
13:16And one of the things at the moment on the mound that really appeals to me is this.
13:20It's a Forsythia.
13:22Now, Forsythia is as common as muck.
13:25I mean, there must be hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of them around the country.
13:29But this particular one is a bit more unusual.
13:32It's Forsythia Suspensa Nymans.
13:35And I've chosen it because it's got this pale yellow and this quite loose structure and form.
13:41And works perfectly with the daffodils that we have here on the mound.
13:45Now, this combination will only last a week at the most, and then it'll move on and other things will
13:50take their place.
13:51And they think that's the joy of spring.
14:05каким?
14:07Oh, Sal.
14:08Come on, Michael.
14:18Okay?
14:20Good boy.
14:29I've added a bit of compost to this raised bed because I'm about to plant up a bed for
14:36cut flowers and I'm adding in some ranunculus, ranunculus asiaticus or sometimes called the
14:42Persian buttercup but unlike the buttercups you see in fields with their sort of open
14:47simple petals these have a mass of petals that form a kind of globe these will flower hopefully
14:56from about the end of May into June planted in December and then kept in the greenhouse and
15:03gradually hardened off or 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
15:20you can plant them closer together than you otherwise would in the border there are two
15:24reasons for that one they're not going to be there for as long and two you want the stems
15:30to grow tall you almost want to force them up so you get decent stumbling choose a spot that's
15:38relatively shady and soil that is well drained but enriched the thing to remember when you're growing
15:56ranunculus is that they're half hardy so if you live in a very sheltered area that hardly ever gets frost
16:02and if it does it's just a touch of it they may well overwinter and they're perennial and they will
16:09come back but anywhere that reliably gets two or three degrees of frost or more they're very unlikely to
16:18survive that so treat them as annuals I will need to water these in it's really important that this time
16:37of year water everything you plant thoroughly I will also have to have a bit of fleece handy for the
16:44next
16:44month just in case we get some late frost which we can do here and 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
16:57tulips that I'm trialing and the ones I like and maybe only one or two I will then order more
17:03next year
17:03and they can graduate to the garden proper now this bed last autumn I sowed with hardy annuals
17:12particularly amy amy magus and amy visnaga and a bit of wild carrot however we had a really cold snap
17:20for a few days in November followed by one of the wettest winters ever and I'm afraid that did for
17:26them
17:26because if that wasn't enough we've had a mass of rabbits this winter and rabbits love amy more than
17:34anything else so we lost a lot doesn't matter I've now got a free bed and I want to use
17:38it for cup
17:39flowers again and I'm going to sow scabious I love scabious it makes a brilliant cup flower makes a
17:44brilliant border flower and I love the dark colors now I've got a variety here called black night
17:49which is really deep rich burgundy speckled with white put them into your hand probably best not
17:59to do this on a windy day and just sprinkle thinly I'll show you a tip for sowing any kind
18:11of seed
18:11outside in the garden but I was shown when I was a boy and it works draw a drill with
18:19your
18:20hand and so your seeds and then just simply put your thumb and your fingers either side of the drill
18:27and run down either side of it like that and it pushes the soil up over the seeds works a
18:34treat now
18:36I grow cup flowers in these few special beds and they're brilliant for the house however you don't
18:42need special beds just to pick a small bunch of flowers from your garden is an utter joy but for
18:48some people it's more than a joy it becomes transformative it changes their lives and I
18:53think that's absolutely the case for Hattie Colvin and 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 I don't
19:11think I'll
19:12ever have enough just seeing something go from nothing through to a huge display of wondrous colour I think
19:23is just something really special my 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 Dunage or Dunay depending on how you pronounce
19:56it it's a pom-pom variety I love the kind of intensity of the pink colour on the very small
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 this one is preference preference is incredibly
20:29prolific it does need quite a lot of food and nutrition mostly because it produces so many flowers
20:35it just gets a bit tired by the end of the season if you don't keep it topped up so
20:41our soil here is
20:43very clay so I spend a lot of time making sure that the soil is looked after I use lots
20:50of different
20:51types of farmyard manure to mulch the beds every time I plant I make sure that I replenish some of
20:58the goodness back into the soil when I start seedlings I use a seaweed feed as well when they're in
21:07their
21:07trays again just to make sure that they have a really great start to life and I find that
21:12keeping the plants as 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 so had a
21:48lot of thinking time in the car I had a few dahlias I found them just so exciting and loved
21:57all the
21:58different shapes and the colors and the kind of flounciness and I decided that I wanted more dahlias
22:04so that kind of formed the idea for oh what if I could grow cut flowers in three years I've
22:14ended up
22:14with 27 20 meter beds and polytunnels as well so yeah it escalated fairly quickly
22:29you don't need a huge amount of space to get started with a cutting garden and actually if
22:35you choose carefully what you grow you could have quite a few vases of flowers throughout the summer
22:41to enjoy so I very quickly learn in my journey of growing that some flowers are much easier to grow
22:51than others one 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 this is a really good example
23:07of a cosmos that's actually been pollinated already by the bees so you see it's gone quite fuzzy on the
23:14inside and that sadly means that I can't use it as a cut flower because it won't really last at
23:21a lovely time
23:30Scobias are really lovely at cut flower they're very generous with how many stems you get this is
23:37called black knight and I did once have somebody ask me if I could give them the flower with the
23:43hundreds and thousands on it because it's got the white little sprinkles on the top you also get
23:48these lovely seed heads which you can either dry or actually use in an arrangement as well
24:01for anybody that's thinking about starting up their own cutting garden I'd probably recommend
24:06snapdragons I think they're really majestic looking and always have a really amazing scent a
24:13perennial option I would definitely go for a GM something like totally tangerine which is lovely
24:18beautiful color and it actually keeps flowering from May slows down as it gets to later in the summer but
24:25you do still keep getting flowers and I think obviously you'd have to have some dahlias
24:34as a flower grower you're very much hailed as living the dream and wafting about in the field with
24:41a truck and a floaty dress gathering flowers one thing that I have definitely learnt is doing this is a
24:49tough tough job all of the critters want to get to your flowers before you do the weather wants to
24:56destroy
24:56things it is not all glamour
25:06when I'm arranging with flowers I would tend to find something in the field that does really inspire me to
25:13I want to show that off and then everything else kind of gets built around that I just slowly keep
25:23building the bouquet I want different heights I've already got some scented pelargonium this is a lemon
25:30basil and some pennycrest thalaspe to add some green some different textures with different foliages
25:37and also that is a delightful smell
25:42there is definitely a huge sense of pride when you're working with flowers that you've grown yourself
25:49and seeing them all kind of come together like little friends and having a little flower party
25:56I'm going to try and add this one in it's quite nice and upward facing which this variety isn't normally
26:05this feels like a really really lovely representation of what's flowering
26:10right now in the field it's all of my favourite colour palettes
26:22it feels like a huge privilege to get to do what I do for a living I often find it
26:28really hard to
26:29believe that my slightly random dream that came to me on the motorway is actually now a very beautiful reality
26:43so
26:53so
26:54so
26:55so
27:16I think it's really encouraging that there are more and more people like Hatter that are local,
27:21that have got a wide variety of really interesting plants, something I would suggest we all support.
27:27Now, it's Easter, and traditionally the main Easter job in the garden was planting potatoes.
27:33You get your potatoes in the ground now, first early should be ready to harvest round about June,
27:39second early is July, a main crop in the early autumn.
27:44This is a variety called Charlotte, it's a second early, and these have chitted,
27:50and you can see, look, that's a really good example of a chitted potato.
27:55You get this knobbly growth and it speeds up the growth and therefore the harvest.
27:59Now, how you grow them depends on how much space you've got.
28:03If you've got plenty of space, if you've got an allotment, it's a brilliant idea to dig a furrow or
28:07a trench,
28:08put them in the bottom and then heat the soil back up to make a ridge over them.
28:12If you're shorter space, or you're growing in raised beds like I am, it couldn't be easier.
28:18All you do is simply make a hole, stick them in.
28:22With the chitted shoot at the top, you want to bury it ideally its own depth below the ground.
28:38I get three across here, give it at least a foot or so.
28:41If you're growing them in a raised bed, you can grow them much closer together than you would in rows.
28:49Potatoes really respond to feeding.
28:51So, if you've got any compost or any manure, anything, any soil improver,
28:57it's really worth adding to the soil and that will definitely increase the harvest.
29:08Here, here. No, Ned, come here, come here, look.
29:13Good boy.
29:20Break over to cover them.
29:25Hopefully, when I come to harvest them, we shall have a whole mass of new potatoes
29:32and, for Ned, a whole mass of new balls to harvest come July.
29:38At least, that's what he thinks.
29:41Right.
29:43I'm going to use this ground because nothing will appear for a few weeks' time.
29:49But I'm going to grow a catch crop and the fastest growing crop to grow it this time of year
29:54is radish.
29:56And radish will germinate within a week and be ready to harvest within six weeks
30:01before they get crowded out by the foliage of potatoes.
30:06Broadcast over the surface, it just means sprinkle them widely.
30:10Try and do it reasonably evenly.
30:16Put the rake over them again to slightly lightly cover them.
30:27I've got these extra sea potatoes but I'm not going to waste them
30:29because I want to grow some in pots.
30:38This is a recycled container.
30:41You can see I've drawn holes in the bottom.
30:43You need peat-free compost.
30:46Put it in the bottom, not right full up.
30:52That will do, to start with.
30:55What you need is at most three and, to be honest, two would be plenty in there.
31:02But the truth is three wouldn't give me any bigger harvest.
31:05The more you put in, the smaller potatoes you'll get.
31:10And that should produce you between about 10 and 20 potatoes.
31:16Enough for a couple of meals.
31:18A treat.
31:19Just cover them up.
31:21Put a little bit over the top of them.
31:23Don't fill it to the top.
31:25As the new growth comes, fill on top of it.
31:28That means roots will grow from the stems and you'll get more potatoes.
31:32Keep it well watered.
31:34Make sure it's not sitting in a puddle so maybe lift it a little bit off the ground.
31:37And if you can give it a little bit of shelter, they'll grow even better.
31:41And this is a perfect way to grow potatoes if you're very short of space.
31:48The beauty of this, of course, is that you can grow potatoes,
31:53whether you want them as a treat or just because you like spuds,
31:56even if you've got very limited space.
31:58Now, we went to see Tom Stimpson.
32:02I don't know if he grows potatoes, but I do know that everything else he grows is in pots.
32:12When you get home from work, it's quite nice to unwind out of the garden,
32:16surrounded by nature and beautiful flowers.
32:19Just perfect.
32:25Hi, I'm Tom, and this is my small town garden in Ely in Cambridgeshire, and it's all about pots.
32:41I think very often there's a misconception that if you have a small space, you should have just small pots,
32:47and that's not true.
32:48It's amazing how many pots you can fit into a relatively tiny, tiny space.
32:55One of my favourite things to do is build up displays of pots on tabletops.
33:01And I've got four or five tabletops that I sort of rotate and use in different areas of the garden
33:07at different times of the year.
33:10So I do that by looking at the size of the pots, the shapes of them.
33:14So some taller terracotta, some squat ones, and then some little tiny ones as well to slot in amongst the
33:21bigger ones.
33:22Because that means you can create great floral displays and a little bit of structure and drama.
33:36This is muscari armeniacum, which is a muscari I grow every single year.
33:44It's super reliable, easy to grow, and I love the intensity of the blue colour.
33:50They require minimal water, bulbs on the whole tend to prefer it to be on the dry side.
33:55So we planted it in the autumn into really free draining compost.
34:00Once we get into February, green shoots start to appear.
34:03And then with a little bit of sunshine, once we get into March, an eruption of blue.
34:08One of the ways to keep your pots of muscari flowering longer is to deadhead.
34:12And it's really important not just to pinch here, but to pinch right down at the base.
34:17Remove the stem, just discard it.
34:20And you'll find that will encourage all the flower buds to keep coming and for it to flower for a
34:25longer period of time.
34:35So growing in pots is really straightforward.
34:39So it all starts with what's at the bottom of the pot first.
34:42So to make sure you've got some crocs, and I then put a small layer of grit just over that.
34:48Then it's about the potting medium.
34:51So I use a peat-free, general purpose potting compost, nothing too fancy, but I'll always add a little bit
34:56of grit.
34:57So if I'm using it for pots of bulbs, like this one here, I will probably add around 60%
35:04compost to 40% grit.
35:07And I think that's absolutely key because the importance of drainage for the bulbs is so important.
35:13And you'll have much better results if the compost can remain just moist rather than sodden.
35:18For other geratis of plants, violas, primulas, I won't add so much grit.
35:23Probably about just 10%, just to aid that drainage a little bit.
35:27But they're much more tolerant to wet conditions.
35:30And then as we get into them growing in the spring is when you tend to look at the moisture
35:35levels a little bit more closely.
35:37And then as things start to grow and start to bud up, I'll then start a twice fortnightly feed with
35:43some liquid seaweed,
35:44just to give a little bit of goodness back into the compost and support the flowers.
36:01So this is Ifean and a variety called Alberto Castile.
36:06I have to say they're one of my new faves. I just love them.
36:10They have this wonderful sort of grass-like foliage.
36:13And I love the chaos of the stems really, how they grow in whichever way they choose really.
36:19And I love the fact that they move and sway in the breeze.
36:23And one of my absolute favourite things about it is the reverse of the petals have a gorgeous stripe down
36:29the reverse of each flower petal.
36:40It's important to raise the pod off the table as otherwise, when it rains, the compost just remains wet.
36:46It never drains away totally.
36:49It just, there's always a little puddle of water underneath the bottom of the pot.
36:54I've found over the years one of the best things to use is just tile spaces.
36:59So when you place your pot on them, you can't see them, but it just allows a few millimeters of
37:05air between the surface of the table and the bottom of the pot.
37:08And it just means the water can drain away.
37:10And that's the one way I get them through the winter.
37:21This is a variety of Narcissi called Polar Hunter.
37:25A relatively new variety, but rapidly becoming one of my favourite ones to grow.
37:30It has the wonderful fruity fragrance, quite unlike any other scented variety of Narcissi.
37:37And it's a beautiful colour.
37:39It starts off a limey cream colour as it opens and then gradually fades to a creamy white.
37:46I very often cut a few stems and just have by the side of my bed because I love waking
37:51up to the gorgeous scent in the morning.
37:54It's a brilliant one for pots, but to give it a little bit of extra support, I just add a
37:59few hazel twigs in.
38:00I love doing that because it looks natural. It's absolutely gorgeous.
38:04What do you say to people who don't like ephodils?
38:07They should go and get a life.
38:13So as we come into mid-spring, I start to think about what's going in the pots for the summer.
38:19And a key variety for me are dahlias.
38:21I absolutely love them.
38:23They're brilliant for providing colour from mid-summer through to the first frost.
38:27So great value.
38:30The tubers are nice and big, so I'm planting into quite a big pot.
38:33If your tubers are a little bit smaller, so they're fresh stock, then I'd probably say plant them in a
38:39three litre-sized pot
38:40and get them to grow and shoot in there before planting out into a bigger pot or into the border.
38:46Peat-free compost, I've added a bit of grit for extra drainage.
38:50And it's important with dahlias that the crown sits just above the soil surface.
38:57Pots for me are a key element to my gardening life.
39:02When you have a small space, and if you love plants, pots are essential to add interest, drama, impact, colour,
39:09abundance.
39:10Thanks.
39:11Pots for me.
39:14Thanks.
39:22Pots for me.
39:23Pots for me.
39:37Pots for me.
39:40This time of year, mainly full of Narcissae and tulips,
39:44and the great thing about them is you have these splashes of colour
39:47that you can move around and assemble.
39:49And by the way, if you've not seen this daffodil before,
39:52it's called Rip Van Winkle, with this great sort of splay of flower,
39:57which is a little bit heavy for the stem,
39:59so it's not so much drooping as sprawling in an elegant way,
40:04and certainly looks fantastic when grown in a pot like this.
40:08And it's not just spring bulbs that look good.
40:12We've got bay here with rosemary.
40:14I've got pots in shady areas with ivy and ferns.
40:18Right across the year and right across the garden,
40:21there's always a place for pot.
40:32Go on.
40:40You've got it.
40:42You've got it.
40:53Now, this was where we had soft root until this winter,
40:57because I've brought into here most of the yew cuttings
41:02that I took about ten years ago.
41:04The reason I took the yew cuttings
41:06were partly to replace the box that got box blight,
41:10and I want an evergreen, dense hedge,
41:13and partly because yew makes wonderful topiary, and I love topiary.
41:17So this gives me the raw material for hedges and topiary
41:21and even clip shrubs, which I've got in the woodland border.
41:25And if you had to buy them, they're really expensive.
41:28So to grow your own is saving you a lot of money.
41:31It's really interesting, and I think good fun.
41:34This is a yew cutting I took certainly no more than ten years ago.
41:37But you can see it's got a lovely straight stem.
41:40And this lends itself to a standard.
41:42A standard is anything that is grown on a bare, clean, straight trunk.
41:47It could be a ball, it could be a box,
41:50it could be a dancing bear or a kangaroo.
41:56To create a standard, the first thing I'm going to do is clean off that trunk.
42:05I want it to be a ball on an upright,
42:08and I want that to be the bottom of the ball, and that's the top.
42:12So the first thing I'm going to do is take this top off.
42:19Obviously that doesn't look anything like a globe.
42:24But these shoots here, these little ones, as they grow out,
42:28then we get the outside.
42:30And the harder we clip the final shape, the denser it will be.
42:33And it doesn't matter if it's empty on the inside,
42:36which it will be, because the light will be stopped.
42:38Actually, that's not bad to begin with.
42:40So the next stage for that is to put into a pot or into the ground,
42:44give it light, feed it, and encourage it to grow.
42:52Yew, along with box and holly, regenerates from old wood.
42:56So you can cut it back as hard as you like, and it will regrow successfully.
43:02Now, I've chosen this because it wouldn't be hard to make this into a ball.
43:06And you can see, because other plants have been around it,
43:09it's even started to grow inwards a bit.
43:10So rather than cut it back very hard, I'm going to use shears and clip it.
43:23And in this case, I don't need to go right back to the old wood,
43:27because the basic shape is there.
43:36Right, you can see that I've put all these into bags.
43:39Plants in a bag will keep perfectly well,
43:41but for growing things on, they either have to be in the ground or in a pot.
43:46You want a pot that's big enough for it to grow into.
43:49So something like that, really good drainage holes.
43:53Yew is tough.
43:55Yew will take light, yew will take shade.
43:57It'll grow in almost any soil, although it's happiest in lime.
44:01So if you've got chalk or limestone, that's great.
44:04But it will not take sitting in damp.
44:08It must drain.
44:10So this is a very, very gritty mix.
44:13So we'll put this in here like that.
44:21Take this out.
44:25Okay, that's good.
44:37Now, those roots aren't anchored in the pot,
44:40and all those tiny little new roots will break if it moves.
44:44So we need to put a cane in there like that.
44:48And throughout the rest of this year,
44:50this will need watering and feeding weekly.
44:53But in order to get really good topiary shape,
44:56it does need light.
45:01This should create the shape I want
45:04in about three to five years,
45:06and it will get better and better.
45:09Now, go into one of your gardens.
45:11It belongs to the Driscoll family,
45:13and they live in Cheshire.
45:17Hi, I'm Owen.
45:19I'm Emily.
45:19And I'm Leo.
45:20Welcome to our garden in Macclesfield.
45:23It's a relatively small space,
45:25maybe 10 by 5 metres,
45:27and enclosed by tall fences and rows of terrace housing.
45:31With young kids,
45:32it was a place to play and have fun.
45:35As the kids got older,
45:36and I got the bug for gardening,
45:38it increasingly became a place for flowers and colour,
45:41though it was still a little untidy.
45:44We paid attention to making space for wildlife,
45:48creating lots of interest for Emily and Leo.
45:50We have a little wildlife pond.
45:53It has shallow edges to allow any animals that might fall in to climb out.
45:57We have been impressed by the variety of different visitors to our garden.
46:08But there was one visitor that we never thought we'd see in our garden,
46:11with it being all fenced up and barricaded by rows of houses.
46:18Then, one night, we spotted this on our security camera at the front of our house.
46:25A hedgehog!
46:26Could it get round the back to the garden?
46:31Dad made a couple of openings in the fence.
46:35One day, this summer, in the middle of the day, we saw this.
46:40We didn't know what it was doing.
46:44Turns out it was building a nest.
46:50There was more than one hedgehog in the nest,
46:53which meant hoglets.
46:55We started putting out hedgehog food in a feeding station
46:59to keep the cats from eating it.
47:08We think they appreciate it.
47:15We hope you enjoyed your visit to our garden, too.
47:44And it is. It's fantastic.
47:47Hedgehogs are during the day,
47:48and if they're feeding and drinking during the day,
47:51it normally is an indication that they are in distress.
47:54And last summer, we saw a lot of that because it was so hot and dry.
47:58So, ideally, put out food and water at dusk,
48:01and it should be gone by the morning.
48:03OK, at this time of year, we sow a lot of seeds, they germinate,
48:09and then the next stage of the process is pricking out.
48:12And what I thought I'd do is make it really clear what pricking out is,
48:17why you do it and when you do it.
48:20First thing is what it is, is you take a seedling
48:24and you move it on to the next stage.
48:26Because if you have a mass of seedlings in a seed tray like this,
48:29these are Tithonias.
48:30They're all competing for space and nutrition,
48:32and they would never develop into good plants.
48:36Now, pricking out shouldn't take place until you can see the true leaves.
48:41So, when a seed germinates, it produces what's called a seed leaf.
48:48And you can see here, this is a tray of cosmos.
48:51These very strappy leaves look absolutely nothing like cosmos.
48:56They are just to give the plant enough energy for the roots to develop.
49:01Once the roots have got established,
49:03you then get the next stage, which is a true leaf.
49:06And if you look very closely,
49:08you can see the true leaves are just beginning to appear.
49:12And even when they're tiny, absolutely minute,
49:16they look like the parent leaves.
49:18You can see it actually better here on this parsley.
49:21The difference between the seed leaves, which are here,
49:25which basically are strappy and simple,
49:27and the true leaf, which looks like a flat leaf parsley, is there.
49:32Finally, Tithonia, you've got these spatulate seed leaves,
49:37and then the pointed parent leaf.
49:39And again, it means it's got roots.
49:41So, these two trays are ready for pricking out, and that one is not.
49:46So, you need something to put them in,
49:48and you need something to carefully tease them out with.
49:51In the past, I've used a pen knife, I've used a pencil, whatever works.
49:56Take hold of the seedling by a leaf.
50:01Never hold it by the stem.
50:03It's very easy to crush it or break it,
50:05whereas if you damage the leaf, it can grow another one.
50:09There you go.
50:11It's got quite a good root system.
50:13It's always quite a surprise that they have so many roots.
50:17Now, I've prepared individual plugs for this,
50:20and I'm just going to pop that in there like that.
50:23I'm not going to brutally press it down,
50:25and it means that each individual seedling gets a real chance to grow.
50:31Now, what I'm pricking them out into is a compost mix
50:34that has a little bit more goodness in it than the seed mix.
50:37You could just use a peat-free compost on its own.
50:41I tend to add some sieved garden compost,
50:43a little bit of leaf mould, and some sieved garden soil.
50:48Not a lot, no more than about 5% of the mix,
50:51but the bacteria and the fungi in that will start interacting with the roots.
50:55So, when I plant it out into my garden,
50:57already there is that symbiosis between the two,
51:02and they tend to grow away better.
51:04Sometimes, say, for example, with tomatoes,
51:07I prick out into a small pot straight away,
51:10because they're going to be quite big plants and they grow fast.
51:12But there is no perfect way,
51:14as long as each individual seedling has room to develop into a nice strong plant.
51:21Don't try and rush it.
51:23Regard it as something that is part of the process of the life of the plant,
51:27and you are almost privileged to be part of that too.
51:32And to me, that's the essence of gardening.
51:34That's really what gardening is all about.
52:00I know a lot of people get confused about pruning hydrangeas.
52:07The most common type of hydrangea that you see is hydrangea macrophylla,
52:12with mop heads, great big round heads,
52:15or lace caps, which are more open, with masses of petals,
52:19but with always a touch of elegance.
52:23Now, this is a lace cap variety called lanarth white,
52:26and will give you a display from late summer into autumn.
52:30Now, the first thing is, do not prune off the spent flowers in autumn,
52:34because they trap warmer air inside,
52:37and they just slightly protect the plant,
52:40particularly in very early spring, from frost.
52:44But now we're coming to April.
52:45As soon as you get vigorous new growth, you can prune them back.
52:48So, at very least, take off the spent flowers from last year.
52:54However, it's not a bad idea, while you're doing this,
52:58to take a look and say, okay, am I happy with it?
53:00Am I happy with the shape, the size?
53:03For example, this here is growing out over the border,
53:07and I don't really want that, so I'm going to cut it back.
53:10Now, when you're pruning this type of hydrangea,
53:13go right back in and prune at the base,
53:16and that will encourage new shoots to grow.
53:18So, to remove this, I'm going to go in here.
53:28Young wood will be vigorous, healthy, and produce more flowers,
53:34but remove no more than a third of the plant,
53:37taking the oldest growth when you do.
53:42And if you do that every year, it will renew itself over three years,
53:46so none of them will be more than four years old.
53:50So, that's the first type of hydrangea.
53:55But, to make life complicated, there's another kind.
53:58And we're going to prune those now.
54:10Now, having pruned a lace cap,
54:15this is a very different type of hydrangea.
54:18The first thing you'll notice is there are no flowers on it.
54:20The second thing is the growth is very different.
54:22It's vigorous, it's upright, you've got different coloured stems,
54:25and this is a hydrangea paniculata.
54:28Now, one of the features of hydrangea paniculata,
54:32and there are a number of different varieties,
54:34is that all the flowers are produced on growth
54:39that has happened this growing year.
54:42So, for example, these seemingly new shoots,
54:45the sort of burgundy-coloured red ones,
54:47are last year's growth.
54:49And the woody growth is previous years.
54:52I planted this about ten years ago.
54:54Some of this could be ten years old.
54:56So, nothing that you see will carry any flowers at all this year.
55:01So, I'm going to prune this back to a framework,
55:04which is pretty much the old growth.
55:12Unlike the lace caps and the mop heads,
55:15which are fundamentally rounded or flattened,
55:18these are conical.
55:19They look like a squirty ice cream put into a cone.
55:22And also, unlike the lace caps and the mop heads,
55:26which are very particular about the pH of the soil,
55:29paniculatas will stay white, whatever the soil,
55:33and they're very forgiving.
55:34So, they're great.
55:42The new growth will come from these points.
55:46They'll grow out here,
55:48and we'll have these wonderful ice cream cones of flower
55:52from August onwards.
55:54Well, that was very simple.
55:56Didn't take long.
55:57But it's a good job.
55:58And here are some good jobs for you this weekend.
56:13Everybody loves sunflowers,
56:14and they're a great plant to grow with children.
56:18Now's a good time to start them.
56:20They're big seeds,
56:21so can go into a pot rather than a seed tray.
56:23I use two seeds per pot,
56:27simply pressing them into the compost,
56:29and then remove the weaker of the two,
56:32which guarantees I have one really healthy plant.
56:36They need to be watered,
56:38and then go somewhere warm to germinate.
56:48Easter is a really good time
56:50to get out any garden furniture made out of wood
56:53and give it a once-over.
56:55If it's not painted,
56:57consider giving it a coat of linseed oil to protect it.
57:00And if it is painted, rub it down,
57:03remove any loose or flaking paint,
57:05and then give it a fresh coat,
57:06and it'll be ready for those long summer evenings.
57:15Now is a very good moment to divide herbaceous perennials,
57:20because they've started to grow
57:22and will recover quickly from any movement.
57:25I'm going to split this hosta into two,
57:28lift it out the ground,
57:30simply chop it with a spade,
57:32replant half,
57:33and that gives me another fresh plant to add elsewhere.
57:49Good boy.
57:50No, come on.
57:51Well, I'm afraid that's it for today,
57:53but it's Easter.
57:56Easter when we can all get out into the garden,
57:58maybe go and visit a lovely garden,
58:00see friends,
58:01and just this sense of the garden and spring to come
58:06and summer to follow opening out in front of us.
58:10But for the moment, that's all from Longweather,
58:12and I'll see you next time.
58:14Bye-bye.
58:14The End
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