Gardeners' World Season 59 Episode 5

Reality Movies TV

Gardeners' World Season 59 Episode 5 # Bölüm Link Tele duyurusu: https://t.me/CinemaSeriesUSFilm "Bu videoyu beğendiyseniz ve gece geç saatlerdeki kahve ihtiyaçlarımızı karşılamamıza yardımcı olarak ekibimizi desteklemek istiyorsanız, lütfen PayPal aracılığıyla bağış yapın! ☕️ Küçük bir hareket – büyük bir etki. Hepinize çok teşekkürler! ❤️" Bağış yapmak için: [https://www.paypal.me/ngaxo] 🎬 Reality :Reality Movies TV – Türk dizilerinin buluştuğu yer 🌍 📺 Tam İngilizce altyazı, tüm diziler hızla güncelleniyor 💖 En yeni gişe rekorları kıran filmlerle sınırsız eğlence ✨ 👉 Hepsini izlemek için hemen katılın! 🔗 Resmi Kanal: [https://dailymotion.com/pulseframe] 👉 Tag : #  #RealityMoviesTV #dramazel #TurkishDrama #TurkishSeries #EngSubTurkishDrama #TurkishMovies #TurkishDramaWithSubtitles #TurkishRomance #TurkishDramaFans #TurkishSeriesEnglishSub #TurkishTVShows #Turkmenistan #TürkDizileri #TürkFilmleri #TürkDraması #TürkDizisi  #TürkSineması

Transcript

00:18Hello and welcome to Gardener's World. It is a beautiful spring day here at Damsen Farm and

00:23the bulbs are just looking absolutely magnificent. Everywhere I look as I pick through this meadow

00:28and having to avoid seedlings, there are so many plants. That's the wonderful thing about plants,

00:34they really do come up everywhere.

00:46There you go.

00:52Even here on this little bit of gravel on the edge of the driveway there are so many different seedlings

00:58coming up but this time of year one of the things that I really love is primrose as a kind

01:04of herald

01:05of spring and they do seed themselves everywhere so I'm actually going to dig some of these up

01:09because as beautiful as they are here they're possibly not in their best position and it's

01:14just a case of of prizing those roots out as intact as you can and now is the perfect time

01:20to divide

01:21them up a bit and plant them in other places so you have that spring herald all around the garden

01:26wherever you can. Just a gentle case of prizing rather than yanking and then hopefully there's a

01:36good root system on these. There we go. That's a healthy seedling. Now primroses have a really

01:42interesting way of sharing genetic material, making seedlings basically. They have male and female parts

01:49within the flowers but you get two distinct kinds of flowers. There are pin-eye flowers, they're the female flowers

01:55and the thrum-eye flowers which have got the male parts nearer the front. So this is a thrum-eye

02:01and if you look carefully inside that flower you can see the anthers at the front. The female parts will

02:07still be in there

02:07but they'll be much further back whereas this one is a pin-eye so that's the stigma there that you

02:16can see

02:16right in the middle of the flower like a pinhead and that's the female part of the flower. So that

02:21just means

02:22that the plant isn't going to pollinate itself, it will be pollinated with a different plant which gives

02:28it more genetic diversity and hopefully makes healthier seedlings.

02:37One of the great things about primroses is as a very early spring flower they're great for emerging wildlife.

02:44So things like card bees or hairy-footed flower bees or even butterflies that have overwintered

02:49will feed off the nectar in these because they are full of nectar. So it makes them just

02:53really valuable if you're trying to extend your pollinator season.

03:02Now I'm going to leave the rest here because they do look beautiful but there is a spot in the

03:06garden

03:06I have in mind to put these. I think they're going to look lovely.

03:29This is the area where my primroses are going to go but there's a bit of clearing to do first.

03:34So I have been asked by Alison who owns Anson Farm to sort of take on this space

03:40and what I want to do with it is really turn it into a wildlife focused area of the garden.

03:46Already she has put a hedgehog house and insect habitat in this space so it's doing it a little bit

03:51but there's so much more that we can do here.

03:54So you can see the road is just there and obviously for wildlife that's not good

03:58because they have the risk of being run over there.

04:00So if we can create instead a hedge or a corridor along this edge where they can move through

04:06and that will also baffle the sound of cars as they go by and make the garden feel more peaceful.

04:14With this sort of thing whatever you choose whether it's hedging, climbers or the plants in the beds

04:19it's all about maximising the potential for different wildlife.

04:23So choosing things that have berries, that have flowers, that have leaves that are food sources.

04:28So within this space it's a huge untapped potential.

04:42Now my instincts as a gardener would be to clear this whole area, get all of the ground cover up,

04:48turn the soil, mulch the soil, have a lovely blank canvas and then plant into that.

04:53But as a wildlife gardener I have to overrule all of those instincts

04:57and recognise these plants for what they are, which is lovely native wildflower.

05:03So there's celandine, even this dandelion is so fantastic for bumblebees.

05:09So instead I'm going to let this ground cover stay

05:12and just carve out little holes into which I can plant my primroses.

05:18You could at this stage also if you wanted divide them into ones that you can spread all over

05:23which I think I'll do because then next year there might be a bit more of a carpet here.

05:29Wildlife doesn't like neatness.

05:48This is a hazel seedling which is a really beneficial tree to wildlife but there's a big one here.

05:54And I really, in this space, I'm looking to target bird species.

06:00Now we gardeners love to feed the birds in our gardens.

06:05But actually the RSPB have been looking at this and they've slightly updated their advice on it.

06:11The advice now is to feed them safely and feed them seasonally.

06:15So that means that in the spring and the summer, rather than putting out seeds and nuts,

06:20instead it means growing as much of the wild food sources as you can.

06:24So berries, seeds and even planting things that will bring in the insects that many birds like to feed on.

06:31This is particularly important for birds like finches who are experiencing a lot of disease

06:36and that comes from when they all gather on one feeder.

06:40And green finches have now been put on the red list.

06:43And rather than having seeds where they can all gather in one space and spread disease,

06:48having things like rose hips and teasels planted through the garden allows them to feed at a nice safe distance

06:55and hopefully to start to recover.

06:58And here, I really want to make that difference.

07:04What I am going to plant in this space instead of the hazel is a Gelda Rose by Burnham Opulus.

07:13It's a really, really beautiful shrub.

07:16It's covered in white flowers, which then turn to the most beautiful iridescent red berries.

07:21Perfect for things like red wings and field fairs and blackbirds.

07:25I've got three or four of these, which I can spread through the space and create a lovely hedgerow.

07:35Even if you have a very small garden, this is a really nice choice.

07:46There, that should settle in.

07:48Now, this area is not going to be one big, quick sort of makeover,

07:52but slowly over the year I'm going to keep adding and adding more wildlife friendly species here,

07:57so it will be lovely to see it transformed by the end of the season.

08:07Now, for all of us, spring brings this lovely energy to the garden.

08:13But for Mina Wilson in Birmingham, it heralds the beginning of a very special flower season.

08:22Hi, my name's Mina and welcome to my garden here in the West Midlands.

08:26Around these parts, we love a daffodil.

08:31When I got this garden, it was just a patch of green lawn and I knew I wanted just to

08:37have flowers everywhere.

08:38I discovered my love of daffodils and I decided I'll just get one daffodil.

08:43And before I knew it, I had over 120 pots and eight beds filled with daffodils.

08:50They come in so many different shapes and sizes.

08:53You've got the really small, delicate ones and then you've got big trumpets.

08:57And then you've also got the ruffles and doubles.

09:01They're just so many different shapes and sizes.

09:04It's not all just a trumpet yellow daffodil that you see on the roadside.

09:12So this is a particular favourite of mine.

09:15It's called ballroom bell.

09:16And probably to most people doesn't look like your average daffodil.

09:20When you look at a big boy like this one with its yellow trumpet and yellow petals.

09:24And then you've got something as delicate as this with its little hoops and its creaminess.

09:30And I think this is really a good one for growing in pots.

09:33So whether you have a big garden or just a balcony, there's definitely a daffodil available for everyone.

09:41So I just want to share some of my top tips with you.

09:44And the first one is after you've watered your daffodils,

09:48because daffodils love to be in well-drained soil, but with moisture.

09:52You want to make sure that they're fully drained.

09:55Now, I know this might look a little bit extreme, but if you tip the pots onto the side,

10:00it helps drainage.

10:02It means they can't get waterlogged as easily.

10:10Well, squirrels don't always like daffodil bulbs to eat.

10:13Unlike tulips, they do like to dig.

10:15So what I do with my daffodils that are in pots, I just cover them with a cage like this.

10:20If you're not fancy like me, you can just use a cage and put it on like that or an

10:26upturned basket.

10:30So this beautiful daffodil here is called Fencourt Jewel, and it's a multi-headed daffodil.

10:38It's got such a delicate scent to it, which is absolutely beautiful in the morning.

10:43Like when I have it in the greenhouse and I open the door up and it hits me full in

10:48the face,

10:48there's just nothing better.

10:50It sets me up for the working day.

10:54So after a long, wet winter in the UK, to see their trumpets, it's like it sounds the horn of

11:02spring.

11:03It brings me such joy and they're just a happy flower.

11:09I hope you've enjoyed seeing my daffodils today and I hope you find one to fall in love with really

11:14soon.

11:32I love how happy those daffodils made Mina and I totally understand it at the end of winter.

11:37Oh, the relief of seeing spring flowers.

11:40If it brings you joy, I think, then grow it.

11:56Hi, Alison.

11:58Hiya.

11:58It's so nice to see your garden in the spring.

12:01All the structures and everything just look so beautiful.

12:05So what are you doing here?

12:07So I'm just digging up some of this.

12:08This is quite established Hacnicloa macra.

12:12Right.

12:12And I've got some new beds on the other side of the house.

12:15So I thought it would work there.

12:19Hacnicloa is such a good grass.

12:20It's a really nicely performing one.

12:22Quite neat and quite small.

12:24And this is the green form, isn't it?

12:26Yeah.

12:27And it's a really long season performer as well.

12:32Yeah.

12:33Perfect.

12:35Right.

12:36Shall we carry it through?

12:57So this is your redevelopment area.

13:00Yes.

13:01Yeah.

13:01I'm quite excited about this, having a new area to plant up.

13:05Yeah.

13:05What made you want to do it?

13:07Well, I think it was the successive hot summers we've been having because there's quite a lot

13:11of paving here.

13:12I've got quite a few metal containers.

13:15But I think last summer, having to water almost every night, it just didn't seem sustainable,

13:21either from a time point of view and also from a water point of view.

13:25The more increasing hosepipe bans in some parts of the country means you can't actually water.

13:30So I guess you're now planting in the ground instead of in pots.

13:33Yes.

13:33Yeah, exactly.

13:34And there were big slabs and a lot of concrete underneath.

13:38So this beautiful soil that's here, presumably it took a lot of work to get to that stage.

13:44Yeah.

13:44So we just used soil that came from the garden.

13:47It's mostly topsoil and brought in a little bit of manure.

13:58OK, that's the spiraea.

14:01OK.

14:02I'm guessing that will go sort of near the back because that will get quite big.

14:04Yes, it will.

14:05I wanted the beds to be winter and early spring focused, particularly as this area is near the house.

14:11OK.

14:12So that's a Daphne White Queen.

14:15So that winter scented as well.

14:17Yes.

14:17That will be beautiful.

14:22This is a Brunnera called Betty Bowering.

14:26A Brunnera is a perennial forget-me-not.

14:28Normally they're blue, so things like Jack Frost are fairly common, but this is a lovely white one.

14:33And in that bed it should really bring a sparkle in the spring and then go very, very quiet and

14:39fade into the background through the summer.

14:41They'll be a really good performer and they're very good in shade.

14:44So if you have a difficult shady spot in the garden, they're great plants to get hold of if you

14:49can.

14:56This is a Daphne, which is a really lovely late winter flowering shrub in this form.

15:03This is called White Queen.

15:04What Daphne does is it fills the whole air with scent at a time of year when there's very little

15:09else in flower.

15:10So it's really, really precious for that.

15:13But they can be a bit tricky to establish and I have had them die on me before.

15:17And when you spend a lot of money on them, that's heartbreaking.

15:20So when you first plant it, just make sure you really look after it for that first year.

15:24They don't like to be too wet.

15:26So don't plant it somewhere that's going to get waterlogged.

15:29They also don't like to get too dry.

15:30So especially for that first year, just water it in long dry periods.

15:36And they don't like to get too cold.

15:38So somewhere sheltered and protected like this one by the wall.

15:42And I think Alison will fleece this and keep it covered until the spring really warms up.

15:47And they don't like to be in really hot baking sun either.

15:56There we go.

15:58Grow well.

16:29Taking plants from containers and putting them in the ground will save you work on watering in the summer.

16:34But some of us don't have a chance to do that.

16:36And if you have a garden like a balcony or just some decking or paving that you can't dig up

16:40because you rent the property,

16:41then you will need to grow in pots.

16:43And to stop watering becoming a huge problem or the soil from heating up too much,

16:48there are simple tricks that you can use.

16:52Insulating is basically what you're going to try to do and mulching as well.

16:57There are really nice environmentally friendly ways of doing this.

17:01So this is hessian that you can pick up for free from coffee shops that can be placed on the

17:06inside of the pot itself.

17:08So that could work really well.

17:10Another thing that you can use is coir which is used for lining hanging baskets.

17:16Now that's a really good insulation and quite good structurally as well.

17:21But what I think I'm going to use is some sheep's wool.

17:24So this is material that you can get in packages.

17:27A lot more companies are using sustainable packaging now.

17:29But you can also buy this as a product and that has an amazing insulating effect.

17:35And you can also use it as a mulch as well.

17:38So really help to prevent moisture loss from the surface of the soil and keep the temperatures cooler in there.

17:45But what you don't want to do is go into a field and collect sheep's wool from the ground because

17:49it could have been treated with dewormers and all kinds of chemicals.

17:52So really avoid that and go for something that you know is chemical free.

17:57And in that vein, don't use things like dyed wool because you don't know what that chemical might be.

18:03Newspaper has ink on it.

18:04So just think about microplastics, think about chemicals that might leach into the soil, especially if you're growing food.

18:10But cardboard, paper, wool will all do a really good job.

18:26There we go.

18:29Now that's full, I'm going to be planting some peas in there.

18:33This is a dwarf pea, which is specifically bred for growing in containers.

18:37So it should be very, very happy here.

18:39And it will fill the space through the spring right up until the end of June, early July.

18:46I love peas.

18:48They're one of the nicest things to grow because they're really easy.

18:52They're really beautiful.

18:53The flowers are lovely.

18:54And then they're obviously delicious.

18:55This is a Mange 2 style, so you eat everything.

18:59Right, so I'm going to sow these quite densely.

19:02About three times the depth of a seed is how deep it goes, if you're unsure.

19:06But it's always written on the packet, so check that.

19:09And that's going to be really quite filled.

19:11The idea being that hopefully we'll get good germination.

19:15If we do get good germination, we can thin and pick the shoots and eat them

19:19because they make a good salad crop.

19:21And if we don't get good germination, we'll still have enough to fill this pot.

19:25And because it's vegetables, my instinct is to make them slightly neat and symmetrical.

19:31You don't really need to do that.

19:34It might look a little bit excessive having such a big pot just for little seeds like this,

19:38but that's very intentional.

19:39And the idea is it saves me having to water.

19:42A bigger pot will hold onto more water.

19:45A smaller pot will dry out more quickly.

19:47So by putting these in a nice, big, generous container, hopefully,

19:50it means I won't need to water it anywhere near as often.

19:53Still with a vegetable, you wouldn't want it to dry out.

19:56So probably if the weather is very warm, I would still water this every day or every other day.

20:01But if it was a small pot, it might be twice a day that you're needing to keep on top

20:04of that.

20:05The other thing about a big pot is it won't warm up so quickly either.

20:10So the temperatures stay a little bit cooler.

20:14Now, ordinarily, if you were sowing peas, you'd want to put some sort of obelisk in for them to grow

20:18up.

20:18But these are dwarfing peas, so they're not climbing.

20:21So this is now done. We'll just cover it over.

20:24Give it water to start the germination process.

20:27Keep it watered until you see the first shoots coming.

20:31And then these will be harvested by about June.

20:33And from then on, you then pull the peas out when they've all finished producing their pods

20:37and replace it with a crop that can take a little bit higher temperatures.

20:41There we go.

20:52It's lovely to be thinking of warm summer days with the cold wind.

20:58But last August, Joe went to Cornwall, lucky man, to visit a garden where the planting has specifically been designed

21:04to withstand the elements.

21:09We may like to be beside the seaside, but our plants don't always feel the same.

21:15A sea view may be a dream, but get it wrong, and gardening on the coast can be a nightmare.

21:21There's quite a bit to think about.

21:24Strong winds and salt-laden air can destroy your dahlias and wreak havoc with your hemorrhialis.

21:32So creating windbreaks and choosing plants for the right conditions is absolutely key to successful gardening in this part of

21:40the country.

21:42At Cruxillic Manor in Truro, Annie Agnew has mastered this to create a garden that can take anything the Cornish

21:50coast can throw at it.

21:51Hi, Annie. Beautiful hedges, I've got to say.

21:54Yeah, they're coming on.

21:55What do you mean coming on? They're pretty mature-y. How long have they been in?

21:58They're ten years old, so they're not fully grown yet. We, right at the beginning, designed this to try and

22:04break up the space and break up the wind, because we live in Cornwall.

22:11And Cornwall has got wind. Cornwall has wind from every direction possible.

22:15And particularly here, we've got problems with the wind coming up the valley from the sea, and it causes a

22:23lot of damage.

22:24We've lost massive trees.

22:25I turn up on one of the calmest days of the year.

22:27Totally calm.

22:28But I can imagine in the winter, it must just rip through here.

22:32And these hedges, they're fantastic because they filter the wind, don't they?

22:36You need this filtered wind to protect big perennial beds.

22:40So making the hedges into whirling forms and ovals and long extensions that wrap around parts of the garden really

22:50sorts the wind out.

22:51But also with the topography of the local area, you know, the hills beyond, these sort of rolling shapes of

22:57the hedges, they just work beautifully.

22:59They did seem to. And the different heights. They're doing a lot of things, these hedges, aren't they?

23:03They're separating the planting areas too, in some really distinct planting zones.

23:07And you've got lots of other evergreen structural plants here.

23:10We've used a lot of pitosporum.

23:15We've placed them fairly close together so that they make a pseudo-hedge.

23:20But without clipping into one.

23:21Without clipping them into one line.

23:23And we've used them in the borders as structural elements to hold the border together visually.

23:30And these hoherias?

23:32Those are fantastic.

23:33They're one of my favourite plants.

23:35It's hoheria sextylosa.

23:37Beautiful white starry flowers that the bees love.

23:39The whole tree hums for about five weeks.

23:43What about the rest of the planting?

23:45What's the rationale behind that?

23:46The colour schemes, what you want to grow?

23:49Yeah, well, plant greed.

23:51I wanted plants from everywhere in the world.

23:53And all kinds.

23:56That's why the evergreen structures are so important.

23:59Because it controls the mess, basically.

24:05What's striking here is the sheer diversity of plants.

24:09Not just growing, but thriving.

24:11And as you move through each carefully designed environment,

24:14the character of the planting shifts.

24:16The colours, the forms, the entire mood of the garden evolves around you.

24:23Revealing a new story at every turn.

24:26This is Annie's hot garden.

24:29And you can tell there's a microclimate in here.

24:32It's a walled space.

24:33And out there, the breeze is picking up.

24:35But in here, it's incredibly still.

24:37And there's a lot of exotic plants that are really thriving.

24:41We've got hot reds.

24:42We've got oranges.

24:44We've got yellows.

24:45All working together beautifully.

24:47And things like this dahlia, one of my favourites, Chat Noir,

24:50really doing its thing.

24:51It's a lovely cactus form.

24:53And it's looking very happy indeed.

24:55It looks great sitting above this foliage,

24:58just hovering through this border here.

25:08Over in this corner, we've got a very strong colour theme coming through.

25:12We've got yellows and oranges and whites and beautiful foliage

25:18all mixed in together.

25:19Very exotic planting.

25:21Things like this canna.

25:22This is called ra.

25:23I love the simple yellow flowers, the glaucus foliage.

25:28And this is a ginger lily next to it.

25:30Again, it's got a really impressive foliage.

25:32And the flower is just starting to open up.

25:36Here in Cornwall, the climate is incredibly mild.

25:39So Annie can leave these plants through the winter in the ground,

25:43mulch over them, and they'll come up in spring.

25:45But in a lot of parts of the UK, you won't get away with that.

25:49But you can grow them in containers

25:51and then put them into a protected spot over winter

25:54and bring them on next spring.

25:57And one plant I just have to mention while I'm here

26:00is that Tetrapanax rex at the back, the rice paper plant.

26:05Now, it shows again how mild it is here

26:08because it's developed a trunk like a tree or a large shrub.

26:12In colder areas, it will die back.

26:14You cut it down to the ground and it will come back up again.

26:17But it looks absolutely stunning at that height.

26:37Now, Annie calls this her silver border,

26:39but I'm going to call it her silver, green, blue and white border.

26:45But she's really gone with this theme and it works.

26:48And it's very different to the exotic garment.

26:51She's full of vibrant colours. It's energising.

26:53This is calming. It's a very tranquil space.

26:57And she's chosen plants with small leaves.

27:00So there's not big drama, small leaves that just work really nicely together

27:05and create a lovely textural balance throughout.

27:08And it's that that creates the calming mood of this space.

27:11So things like this veronicastrum.

27:14We've got the echinops in front there.

27:16There's some lavender down there.

27:18And we've even got pitosporums.

27:21And they're all working really nicely together.

27:23And the bees are just all over these veronicastrums.

27:27So the wildlife loves it too.

27:36Beyond the wall garden, Annie has created another haven for flora and fauna,

27:41carved out of the hillside and sheltered by trees.

27:46Wow, this pond is stunning and a magnet for wildlife.

27:51And when you think of wildlife pond, you think,

27:53oh, maybe they're a bit amoebic-shaped,

27:55a little bit messy around the edges, a bit scrappy.

27:58But here, Annie has shown that they can be incredibly stylish too.

28:03And what I like is she's gone really big with it.

28:06It fills this space.

28:07And if you're making a pond, go as big as you can.

28:11Once you've dug the hole and put the liner in, it might look enormous.

28:15But once you fill it with water and put some pond plants in,

28:18the whole space will shrink.

28:20And Annie has been really restrained with the planting.

28:23We've got aquatics, like the water lilies, just covering the water's surface.

28:28There's oxygenators in there.

28:30And then marginals around the outside, breaking the edge of the pond.

28:34And one of my favourites, Talia del Bartha over there,

28:37with its architectural foliage.

28:38It looks wonderful.

28:43Yeah.

28:44This is how to do it.

28:55As a designer, I find Annie's process so interesting.

29:00It started with the hedges that she put in,

29:03sinuous lines cutting through the landscape to reduce the wind.

29:07But also to link with the landscape beyond,

29:10and to divide the whole garden up into separate rooms.

29:13Those rooms are all different shapes,

29:15but she's created environments in which to grow her favourite plants.

29:20And it's all about the plants.

29:22And she said strong Cornish winds, no problem at all.

29:55CLARED

29:56is not always a holiday.

29:59But having a greenhouse like this

30:00just gives you the luxury of protecting your plants

30:03from all of those elements.

30:05And this one's full of beautiful things.

30:07Oh, and look.

30:11These are the Brad's Atomic Grape Tomato Seeds

30:14that I soaked last year to get all of the jelly off them

30:17so that they'd be ready to re-sow.

30:19And look, here they are coming up beautifully.

30:22Ready to be pricked out, I reckon.

30:24It's nice to see it all happening, isn't it, in the spring?

30:27And then by the end of this year,

30:29there'll be more tomatoes to harvest more seeds from.

30:32But what many of us have actually is packets of seeds.

30:35We buy them.

30:35If you're like me, you'll buy way too many.

30:37You'll use some and there'll be lots left over.

30:40And you're not always sure whether they're viable or not.

30:43Now, some, like tomatoes, have quite a long viability,

30:46but others like salads, lettuce, brassicas are much shorter.

30:51And if you've got lots of packets that you're not sure they'll work,

30:55rather than spending a whole tray of compost on sowing them

30:59only to find them failing,

31:01there's a much better way of testing viability,

31:04which is sowing them in very small rows like this.

31:07So you have five different varieties just in this one tray.

31:10It's very simple to do and you can prick out the big healthy ones if you want to.

31:23So what I have is three separate seeds of brassicas, two kale and one broccoli.

31:31There are just a few left in each, so I'm going to mix them up.

31:40There we go.

31:42And then the last kale.

31:47There you go, look.

31:49Brassica seeds are so lovely.

31:51They're tiny little round spheres.

31:54And they need quite a deep root run, so if you are sowing them into modules,

31:58give them nice deep modules.

32:00And this pot is perfect for that, so they should grow really nicely into here.

32:05Normally you'd start any brassica off in a module or a seed tray,

32:08but when you're eventually planting it, they want to be at least 30 centimetres apart

32:12because they get pretty big.

32:13But here they'll be perfect for seedlings.

32:16So really quite a dense sowing because, as I said, we don't know how many of them will come up.

32:22They may not all be viable still.

32:25That's that.

32:26So I'll just put a little more compost over the top of this to cover them

32:31and then firm it nicely so that they make good contact.

32:35That will greatly help their germination.

32:38Now you could do this with salad as well, like mustard, rockets, lettuces.

32:44There's some really interesting kinds of salad leaf as well.

32:47And what we'll do is just water this and then watch it.

32:50Once they start to come up, you would pick the best, the strongest ones

32:55and you would carefully pick them out, taking the roots and potting them into something like this

33:01and growing them on and then eventually planting them out into the veg garden.

33:04For everything else that's left behind, you just let that grow up.

33:09It becomes a mix and then you can just snip it off and it will regrow

33:12and hopefully last for a good few weeks as a cut and come again microgreen.

33:17Now microgreens are essentially any vegetable that you would eat the leaves off.

33:22So you could use herbs, you could use coriander, parsley, basil, mixed salad, brassicas, cabbages,

33:29anything like that that you can just keep chopping and eat the greens.

33:32What you wouldn't use is obviously any kind of cut flower that you're growing from seed

33:37or trying their viability or vegetables that you actually eat the fruits of.

33:42So cucumbers, squashes, tomatoes, peppers, tomatillos, anything like that I wouldn't use as a microgreen.

33:49But if you know you can eat the leaves, then they taste delicious when they're tiny.

33:53There we go. That's done.

33:59Now starting any plant, whether food or flower, on its journey is so enriching

34:04and there's a whole kingdom to choose from.

34:07But for Liz Carter in Cheshire, one particular species is out of this world.

34:17Some flowers are in your face.

34:21Erythroniums aren't. You've got to get down there and look at them.

34:27They're so ethereal. They're so delicate.

34:31And there's such variation from the yellows that are bold

34:35through to the very pale pinky ones.

34:38And if you walk in on a slightly breezy day, you can see them all dancing.

34:44I'm Liz. Welcome to my woodland garden in the Wirral, where I've been since 1963.

34:56I'm sitting here surrounded by Erythronium revolutum, which is one of the species.

35:04The display here is a pleasure every time I open the garden gate and walk in.

35:12And it gets better every year because the more I spread them, the better it gets.

35:18Just collect your dried seed and scatter it in your garden.

35:22Then all you need is patience because they'll germinate the next year

35:26and you have to wait three to five years for them to flower, but it's well worth it.

35:32At the back of my mind, it reminds me that this is a bit of Californian glamour in the spring.

35:44It was 1961 and 62. I was living in California.

35:51My husband went out to do a postdoctoral fellowship and I flew out to join him.

35:57I had a job working on stage four of Saturn, which was the bit that went to the moon.

36:04So you were part of the space race?

36:06I was part of the space race, yes.

36:12Fondest memories have definitely to do with being in the mountains.

36:18We could walk up to probably about 10,000, 11,000 feet.

36:25And there's the intrepid couple.

36:29So as the snow melts up in the Sierra, the erythroniums were coming through.

36:35We had enjoyed being, I suppose, in the wild country.

36:41And we came back and were looking to find somewhere to live.

36:46We were desperately looking for a house buried in the country somewhere.

36:52And we finally found.

36:54Not only was the house derelict, but the garden was derelict as well.

36:57Of course, we had absolutely no money to buy plants.

37:01So we started propagating, filled the garden.

37:04And as the years went past, we couldn't stop propagating.

37:15This area, which is backed by the woodpile, which I'm very keen on for getting beetles and insects,

37:21has just got numerous woodlanders in it.

37:25And they're all seeding around and intermingling, which is rather nice.

37:32From the Trillium avatum right up at the top, through Trillium albidum,

37:39which is the one that's a bit of a weed and it's just seeded all over the place.

37:43And we've got simile.

37:46I can see a lovely maroon in the centre.

37:49Sometimes simile hangs below and sometimes it comes up above the leaves.

37:57And interspersed, we've got the pink Erisferian revolutum, which is everywhere in the garden.

38:09This garden is on a south-facing sandstone hill and it's an acid sand.

38:14They love being in woodland conditions because of the leaf fall.

38:21It's a lovely, rich soil.

38:24And they get the drainage during the summer because the trees are taking all the moisture out of the soil.

38:32Here we have Erisferian white beauty.

38:36It's one of the hybrids and it's very prolific.

38:39It divides beautifully and you get wonderful humps like these.

38:43And it shows how erythroniums grow in tree roots.

38:47And it's a very good example of the silver veining in the leaf.

38:59These are my nursery beds.

39:02This is Erythronium tolumenense.

39:04It's from Yosemite Park from the high meadows.

39:08It has several flowers on a spike and it's always very early.

39:13It's the first one to be out, usually, of the rain stream North American bulbs.

39:19They're very promiscuous, you know, erythroniums.

39:22They breed one with one another really quite freely.

39:27This was a cross that I found in the garden.

39:30It has a huge flower power.

39:33You can see here that you're getting, on average, three flowers per stem,

39:38but they're a good-sized flower.

39:40And you've got the greeny colour backing here from Oregonum

39:46and you've got the pink coming from the Revolutum.

39:49They're special to me because this hybrid was found in my garden.

39:53And then gradually, over the years, I isolated it and bulked it up.

39:59It's called Erythronium Elizabeth.

40:04They hate being in pots.

40:07I keep them in pots for the shortest possible time.

40:12If you're going to divide your erythronium clump when it's got too congested,

40:17don't do it now.

40:18I'm just doing this to demonstrate it to you.

40:21So let's see what we find.

40:26And here's a lovely example of next year's bulb.

40:29You'll see very clearly why they've got the common name of dog's tooth violet.

40:34This new growth, this will get bigger and bigger.

40:38So please don't divide your plants until they're very, very dormant in August.

40:46If I were to start, I would start where I started.

40:51The yellow hybrids, and Pagoda is commonly available,

40:56and the white beauty.

40:57This year's bulb will probably give you two bulbs next year.

41:01So it's really quite easy to get a clump,

41:04and then you can divide the clump and walk them around the garden.

41:14They're like a newborn baby. They're just perfect, I think, in every way.

41:21Well, they calm me down, you know.

41:23You can just look at them and feel everything relaxing,

41:26because they're covering the ground and they're drifting off into the distance.

41:31Yes, they're good for my well-being, a very fashionable term.

42:04I loved that garden, and I loved that story,

42:07how that space was built over a lifetime together.

42:10And I think that says everything about our gardens.

42:12They really are a part of who we are.

42:15And it's lovely to see.

42:21Come on, Ruth.

42:28Isn't it lovely hearing the birds of spring?

42:31There's so many here.

42:34But it does make it slightly problematic sometimes when you want to do some pruning in the garden,

42:39because this is the time of year when they're most actively nesting.

42:42Now, between the 1st of March and the 31st of August,

42:47it is strongly recommended that you don't do any hedge pruning.

42:51But if you have one shrub that might need shaping,

42:55you just need to be absolutely sure that you're not disturbing any nesting birds,

42:59because that is against the law.

43:01So what you need to do is you need to observe that shrub for a couple of days

43:04and make sure no birds are coming and going,

43:06because that would be a sure sign of active nesting activity.

43:09If there are no signs of any birds,

43:11then when you've decided to give it a prune,

43:13before you make any snips,

43:15just ever so gently look inside the structure

43:19and make sure you can't see any nests.

43:21So this is a lovely fillaria.

43:23The garden is full of them.

43:24And they give a beautiful shape.

43:26This has got very, very delicate leaves.

43:28A great alternative to box.

43:31You can use a hedge trimmer if you like,

43:32but I like to use a clean, sharp pair of shears like this.

43:36And just go in gently.

43:37You can always take more off.

43:39You can't stick it back on.

43:42And make sure you regularly step back,

43:44just to observe the shape you've created.

43:53Get this rosemary out the way.

43:54I want to clip that.

43:59Pruning is my favourite gardening job.

44:02There's something really, really mindful about it,

44:04because you observe whatever it is you're cutting,

44:06whether it's a rose or some topiary like this.

44:10You think about its shape.

44:12You can really change the feel of the garden

44:13by doing one simple job.

44:15It makes everything feel neater.

44:17But it's just like the sound of the shears

44:22and the feel of it going through.

44:25It's just a really, really pleasant job to do.

44:30What you want to do with anything like this is take off the wooliness.

44:35Now, with the box, actually quite like it being left a bit unkempt and woolly

44:39because it's a nice, dense structure.

44:40But here it would turn into a really big shrub,

44:43whereas obviously what you're wanting is this set of three lovely spheres.

44:51And I have found that box that aren't clipped have been more resilient to attacks by the caterpillars

44:57because you're not putting them under unnecessary stress.

45:01So it's taking off the wooliness without going too far back into the wood,

45:06especially as we still do have risk of cold nights.

45:09And these can get damaged by frost if they've just been clipped.

45:12So it's gentle, but enough to give it that definition and shape.

45:20Pruning lettuce is one of those timely jobs that helps the garden stay in check

45:23and really helps your view of the garden as well.

45:26But Toby is sharing some of his best gardening tips from his garden down in Devon.

45:48Gardening is so life-affirming.

45:50Every day I do it, I make new discoveries, have surprises.

45:54And there's always so much to learn.

45:56And whether you've got window boxes or acreage to look after,

46:00you're always on a journey of finding out more.

46:11I've been gardening here for 20 years and it's on a sloping site.

46:16It's quite difficult to deal with.

46:19The thing about sloping sites is that soil always goes downhill.

46:24And I built these retaining walls to hold it back.

46:26But over the years, as I've added compost, the soil levels have built up

46:30and it's still falling over the wall.

46:32And that's where Agapanthus comes in.

46:35You see, this stuff is like a palisade,

46:37a retaining wall that grows that will hold back the earth.

46:41And now it's the ideal window of opportunity to lift, divide it

46:45and turn it into a living wall.

46:48Here in Devon, I'm using evergreen Agapanthus.

46:51But any tough evergreen herbaceous plant would do the same job.

46:57Lifting and dividing Agapanthus isn't for the faint-hearted.

47:00Because the roots are really fleshy and they just grab hold of the soil.

47:06You've got to be cruel to be kind.

47:08You've got to be rough to get them out of the soil.

47:10You always know you're winning when you hear this sound.

47:18Victory!

47:21I'll just get this out where we can work on it.

47:27Now ideally when you're lifting and dividing plants, you use back-to-back forks or your fingers to tear.

47:34It looks very brutal, but it's better than using the spade because you actually maintain more of the roots.

47:39So the regrowth and establishment is so much quicker.

47:42And look at that, the perfect clump.

47:44Loads of growing points and buds and a tangle of roots at the base.

47:52Into the soil, same depth as it was before.

47:59This looks a bit beat up now, but with the growing season ahead,

48:03this will bounce back and will probably flower this summer.

48:19I love this little corner of the garden in a dappled shade.

48:23I walk past it all the time because it's at the junction of two paths, summer and winter.

48:28And it's in winter I get the most pleasure from it because I grow plants that flower right at the

48:32B of the bank.

48:33The start of the growing season.

48:35There's crocus and there's snowdrops, long gone now.

48:39But also hellebores, glorious things, just go into seed.

48:43Now these things are expensive to buy.

48:45But once you've got one, they're so easy to propagate if you use this trick.

48:51What I've got in my bucket is leaf mould.

48:53And this is the perfect medium for getting woodland plants like hellebores to sprout and grow on their own and

49:00set their seed.

49:02All I do over here is just chuck it on the soil as a mulch.

49:06It locks in moisture and oriental hellebores need that in summer.

49:10But it also acts as a little bed for when the seeds from the flowers tumble out and then fall

49:15onto the ground.

49:16And honestly, they come up like cress.

49:18I like this type of garden because it's, well, it's not just working with mother nature.

49:22It's kind of giving her a helping hand.

49:26And if you don't believe me, have a look at this.

49:28Look at the clutch of three plants I've got in there.

49:31All you do is get in there, gently lever them up from the soil.

49:38Look at that.

49:40An oriental hellebore for free.

49:52Lots of us love cats. This is Richard Parker.

49:55And Rich does cause problems loitering around certain parts of the garden.

50:01But there are ways to keep our feline friends off bare soil.

50:04And they're also good for keeping down the weeds, which we all have.

50:09Isn't that right, Rich?

50:11I knew you'd agree.

50:15A great plan to quickly cover bare soil and keep Rich and his mates away is Iberian comfrey.

50:21Cats don't like its bristly leaves, but bees absolutely love it.

50:27You can lift and divide it at any time of year.

50:29Just cut back the tops and keep it well watered after planting.

50:34And an easy way to cover a lot of ground fast is to plant the stems horizontally, creating a matrix

50:40across the soil that connects together.

50:43They root so quickly and establish before you know it instant ground cover.

50:49Sorry, Rich.

50:57I spend a lot of time in the greenhouse in spring.

51:00Because what's humming a tune in spring in the greenhouse is singing a song in summer.

51:04That's how I look at it.

51:05And I save a lot of seeds from year to year.

51:08Keep the seed from your plot from one year into the next and then from that year into the one

51:13that follows.

51:14You develop what's known as a land race, which is a postcode specific strain of seeds that suits your garden.

51:22And that's what I've been doing with tomatillos.

51:24Now back in the autumn, the last of the plants, I just put the fruits on top of this pot

51:30of compost.

51:32Tomatillos, right?

51:32They look like tomatoes.

51:33We've got a neck curtain casing around the outside of them.

51:36And inside, you see, the neck curtains are full of seeds.

51:41But the seeds have a difference.

51:43Because the fruit, as it rots, it strips away the waxy cuticle from those seeds and makes them incredibly easy

51:51to sprout.

51:51Come the spring, given just a splash of water to wash that seed into the compost.

52:01I kid you not, those kernels, you'll see them sprouting almost within a day.

52:07Here, just to prove the point, is a pot of tomatillos that I watered last week.

52:13Look at those beauties.

52:15Now these tomatillos will need to go into individual pots and be grown on frost free until the cold weather

52:21clears.

52:22Because they're cheap but jowl, it would be a game to get in there and prick them out.

52:26But there is a quicker and easier method.

52:29Give the pot a shake.

52:30And then, the whole lot comes out onto my potting bench in one go like that.

52:36But because I've opened up the compost, you see, they'll peel out as individuals, even when they've got long and

52:44forked roots.

52:45Which is something you would never be able to do if you're pricking out conventionally using a dibber.

52:58It's a really satisfying method.

53:00And part of that is because at the back end of the year when the growing season is coming to

53:04an end and I'm putting the fruit on the compost,

53:07I know that it won't be long before I'm watering them again and spring will be out of the blocks.

53:13Wonderful.

53:33I think the lovely thing is that as the garden wakes up, so does the gardener.

53:37You get all that energy of spring yourself, which you do need because there are so many jobs to do

53:42at this time of the year.

53:46Oh look, a bee fly on the forget-me-nots.

53:49It really is spring.

53:51They're magical to watch.

53:53What I'm doing here is actually dividing some lily of the valley.

53:56It's not the ideal time to do that because it's about to flower.

53:59You'd really do it later in the year and it's finished that.

54:03But there's a big clump of it here and it's spreading.

54:06They have some fairly aggressive rhizomes that can take over a space if they're happy.

54:10And the kinds of conditions that will make them happy are partial shade, particularly shade in the spring because they're

54:18woodland plants.

54:19So dry shade before the canopy comes out will get them very happily flowering and then they'll go dormant later

54:26in the year.

54:27But what I'm going to do is I'm going to put some gloves on because they are very poisonous lily

54:32of the valley and also it's an irritant to the skin.

54:38Right.

54:40There we go.

54:41Oops.

54:42Casualty.

54:43But you can see that's a really really healthy clump of them and they are about to flower.

54:48These are the flower buds here.

54:49Now those flowers are tiny little white bells and they smell absolutely incredible.

54:55I'm actually going to put it into a little pot.

54:58that I can place by the door or by an open window or a regularly opened window

55:04so that you can get that scent in the house.

55:06And I'm just going to use the soil from the ground here

55:09rather than getting lots of compost.

55:12That's a really nice way of using them.

55:14You get the best of their season at this point up at eye level

55:18and somewhere you can see and smell them.

55:21And then once they've gone over, you can take this, empty it out

55:24and then plant them somewhere else in the garden.

55:27Where they can begin to do this and spread around.

55:51There.

55:53That's one thing off the list.

55:55But here are some other jobs that you can be getting on with this weekend.

56:11It's time to remove these winter salads that have started to go over in the greenhouse.

56:17Once they go to flower, the leaves turn bitter and the plants take up precious space that we'll need for

56:22spring sowings.

56:23But don't be too quick to clear the lot.

56:25Leaving a few to flower is brilliant for insects and adds a lovely touch of colour.

56:39You can make the most of fallen branches and twiggy bits left after cutting back herbaceous plants.

56:45Rather than throwing them out, build little habitat piles.

56:50Dead wood is brilliant for insects and the nooks and crannies give small creatures somewhere to shelter.

56:55You can even weave branches into a simple dead hedge.

56:58It's a lovely way to tidy the garden while creating a home for wildlife.

57:09With the start of warm spring days, it's safe to take the salvias I put into the greenhouse for a

57:14bit of winter protection out to start hardening off.

57:18I like to give them a trim to encourage fresh, bushy growth.

57:23They'll enjoy the extra light and airflow, but do keep an eye on temperatures.

57:26If there's a hit of late frost, pop them back under cover or throw a fleece over them.

57:53It's lovely to be back at Damsin Farm in the spring and seeing the Damsin Blossom and that little reminder

57:58to get out and enjoy those fleeting moments whilst they're here at this time of year.

58:05But next week, Monty is back with a special programme from Regent's Park in London,

58:09where he'll be joining the Royal Parks team as they work to finish a brand new public garden designed to

58:15commemorate what would have been our Lake Queen's 100th birthday.

58:19See you then.

Category

Transcript

Comments

Recommended