- 4 hours ago
Gardeners' World Season 59 Episode 5
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Short filmTranscript
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
00:29and having to avoid seedlings, there are so many plants. But that's the wonderful thing
00:33about plants, they 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
00:58seedlings coming up. But this time of year, one of the things that I really love is primrose
01:04as a kind of herald of spring. And they do seed themselves everywhere. So I'm actually going to
01:09dig some of these up because as beautiful as they are here, they're possibly not in their best
01:13position. And it's just a case of prizing those roots out as intact as you can. And now is the
01:20perfect time to divide them up a bit and plant them in other places. So you have that spring
01:25herald all around the garden wherever you can. It's just a gentle case of prizing rather than
01:31yanking a monk. Hopefully there's a good root system on these. There we go. That's a healthy
01:39seedling. Now primroses have a really interesting way of sharing genetic material, making seedlings
01:47basically. They have male and female parts within the flowers, but you get two distinct kinds of flowers.
01:52There are pin eye flowers. They're the female flowers and the thrum eye flowers, which have got
01:57the male parts nearer the front. So this is a thrum eye. And if you look carefully inside that flower,
02:04you can see the anthers at the front. The female parts will still be in there, but they'll be much
02:08further back. Whereas this one is a pin eye. So that's the stigma there that you can see right in
02:17the middle of the flower, like a pinhead. And that's the female part of the flower. So that just means
02:22that the plant isn't going to pollinate itself. It will be pollinated with a different plant, which
02:28gives it 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
02:43wildlife. So 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 really
02:54valuable if you're trying to extend your pollinator season. Now I'm going to leave the rest here
03:04because they do look beautiful, but there is a spot in the garden I have in mind to put these.
03:09I 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
03:35have been asked by Alison, who owns Danzen Farm, to sort of take on this space. And what I want
03:41to
03:41do with it is really turn it into a wildlife focused area of the garden. Already she has put a
03:47hedgehog
03:47house and insect habitat in this space. So it's doing it a little bit, but there's so much more that
03:53we
03:53can do here. So you can see the road is just there. And obviously for wildlife, that's not good because
03:58they have the risk of being run over there. So if we can create instead a hedge or a corridor
04:04along
04:04this edge where they can move through, and that will also baffle the sound of cars as they go by
04:11and make the garden feel more peaceful. With this sort of thing, whatever you choose, whether it's hedging,
04:17climbers or the plants in the beds, it's all about maximising the potential for different
04:23wildlife. So choosing things that have berries, that have flowers, that have leaves, that are food
04:27sources. So within this space, it's a huge untapped potential.
04:42Now my instinct 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. But as a wildlife
04:54gardener, I have to overrule all of those instincts and recognise these plants for what they are,
05:00which is lovely native wildflower. So there's celandine, even this dandelion is so fantastic for
05:08bumblebees. So instead, I'm going to let this ground cover stay and just carve out little holes
05:14into which I can plant my primroses. You could at this stage also, if you wanted, divide them into
05:22ones that you can spread all over, which I think I'll do because then next year there might be a
05:25bit
05:25more of a carpet here. Wildlife doesn't like neatness.
05:48This is a hazel seedling, which is a really beneficial tree to wildlife, but there's a big
05:54one here and I really, in this space, I'm looking to target bird species. Now we gardeners love to feed
06:03the birds in our gardens, but actually the RSPB have been looking at this and they've slightly updated
06:10their advice on it. The advice now is to feed them safely and feed them seasonally. So that means that
06:16in the spring and the summer, rather than putting out seeds and nuts, instead it means growing as much
06:22of the wild food sources as you can. So berries, seeds and even planting things that will bring
06:28in the insects that many birds like to feed on. This is particularly important for birds like finches
06:34who are experiencing a lot of disease and that comes from when they all gather on one feeder.
06:40And green finches have now been put on the red list and rather than having seeds where they can all
06:45gather in one space and spread disease, having things like rose hips and teasels planted through the
06:52garden allows them to feed at a nice safe distance and hopefully to start to recover. And here I really
07:00want to make that difference. What I am going to plant in this space instead of the hazel is
07:10a Gelder Rose by Burnham Opulus. It's a really, really beautiful shrub. It's covered in white flowers,
07:17which then turned to the most beautiful iridescent red berries, perfect for things like red wings and
07:23field fairs and blackbirds. I've got three or four of these, which I can spread through the space and
07:28create a lovely hedge row. Even if you have a very small garden, this is a really nice choice.
07:46There, that should settle in. Now 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 so
07:57it'll be lovely to see it transformed by the end of the season.
08:08Now for all of us, spring brings this lovely energy to the garden, but for Mina Wilson in Birmingham,
08:16it 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. Around these parts,
08:27we love a daffodil. When I got this garden, it was just a patch of green lawn and I knew
08:36I wanted
08:36just to have flowers everywhere. I discovered my love of daffodils and I decided I'll just get one
08:42daffodil and 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. You've got the really small,
08:54delicate ones and then you've got big trumpets and then you've also got the ruffles and doubles.
09:01They're just so many different shapes and sizes. It's not all just a trumpet yellow daffodil that you
09:08see on the roadside.
09:12So this is a particular favourite of mine, it's called ballroom bell and probably to most people
09:18doesn't look like your average daffodil when you look at a big boy like this one with its yellow
09:22trumpet and yellow petals and then you've got something as delicate as this with its little
09:27hoops and its creaminess and I think this is really a good one for growing in pots so whether you
09:34have a
09:34big garden or just a balcony there's definitely a daffodil available for everyone.
09:42So I just want to share some of my top tips with you and the first one is after you've
09:46watered your
09:47daffodils because daffodils love to be in well-drained soil but with moisture you want to make sure that
09:54they're fully drained. Now I know this might look a little bit extreme but if you tip the pots onto
10:00the
10:00side it helps drainage it means they can't get waterlogged as easily.
10:10Well squirrels don't always like daffodil bulbs to eat unlike tulips they do like to dig. So what
10:16I do with my daffodils that are in pots I just cover them with a cage like this. If you're
10:21not fancy
10:21like me you can just use a cage and put it on like that or an upturned 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 like when
10:44I have it in the greenhouse and I open the door up and it hits me full in the face
10:48there's just
10:49nothing better. Sets me up for the working day. So after a long wet winter in the UK to see
10:59their
11:00trumpets it's like it sounds the horn of spring. It 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 me and I totally understand it at the end of winter.
11:37Oh the relief of seeing spring flowers. If it brings you joy I think then grow it.
11:56Hi Alison. Hiya. It's so nice to see your garden in the spring. All the structures and everything
12:03just look so beautiful. So what are you doing here? So I'm just digging up some of this. This is
12:09quite
12:09established Hakanikloa makra. Right. And I've got some new beds on the other side of the house so
12:15I thought it would work there. Hakanikloa is such a good grass. It's a really nicely performing one.
12:22Quite neat and quite small and this is the green form isn't it? Yeah and it's a really long
12:28seasoned performer as well. Yeah, perfect. Right, shall we carry it through?
12:57So this is your redevelopment area? Yes, yeah I'm quite excited about this, having a new area to plant up.
13:05Yeah, what made you want to do it?
13:06Well I think it was the successive hot summers we've been having because there's quite a lot
13:11of paving here. I've got quite a few metal containers but I think last summer having to
13:18water almost every night it just didn't seem sustainable either from a time point of view
13:23and also from a water point of view. The more increasing hose pipe bands in some parts of the country
13:28means you can't actually water so I guess you're now planting in the ground instead of in pots.
13:33Yeah exactly. There were big slabs and a lot of concrete underneath. So this beautiful soil that's
13:40here presumably it took a lot of work to get to that stage. Yeah so we just used soil that
13:46came
13:46from the garden it's mostly mostly top soil and brought in a little bit of manure.
13:58Okay that's the spiraea. Okay I'm guessing that will go sort of near the back because that'll get
14:03quite big. Yes it will. I wanted the beds to be winter and early spring focused particularly as
14:10this area's near the house. Okay so that's a Daphne white queen. So that winter scented as well that'll be
14:17beautiful.
14:18Yes. This is a Brunnera called Betty Bowering. A Brunnera is a perennial forget-me-not. Normally
14:29they're blue so things like jack frost are fairly common but this is a lovely white one and in that
14:34bed
14:35it should really bring a sparkle in the spring and then go very very quiet and fade into the background
14:40through the summer. They'll be a really good performer and they're very good in shade so if
14:45you have a difficult shady spot in the garden they're great plants to get hold of if you can.
14:56This is a Daphne which is a really lovely late winter flowering shrub in this form this is called
15:03White Queen. What Daphne does is it fills the whole air with scent at a time of year when there's
15:09very
15:09little else in flower so it's really really precious for that but they can be a bit tricky to establish
15:15and I have had them die on me before and when you spend a lot of money on them that's
15:19heartbreaking.
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 so don't plant it somewhere that's going to get waterlogged.
15:29They also don't like to get too dry so especially for that first year just water it in long dry
15:34periods.
15:36And they don't like to get too cold so 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. Grow well.
16:29Taking plants from containers and putting them in the ground will save you work on watering
16:33in the summer but some of us don't have a chance to do that and if you have a garden
16:37like a balcony or
16:38just some decking or paving that you can't dig up because you rent the property then you will need
16:42to grow in pots and to stop watering becoming a huge problem or the soil from heating up too much
16:48there are simple tricks that you can use. Insulating is basically what you're going to try to do and
16:55mulching as well. There are really nice environmentally friendly ways of doing this so this is hessian that
17:02you can pick up for free from coffee shops that can be placed on the inside of the pot itself
17:08so that
17:09could work really well. Another 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 but what I think I'm going
17:22to use is some sheep's wool so this is material that you can get in packages. A lot more companies
17:28are using sustainable packaging now but you can also buy this as a product and that has an amazing
17:34insulating effect and you can also use it as a mulch as well so really help to prevent moisture loss
17:41from the surface of the soil and keep the temperatures cooler in there. But what you don't
17:45want to do is go into a field and collect sheep's wool from the ground because it could have been
17:49treated
17:50with dewormers and all kinds of chemicals so really avoid that and go for something that you know
17:56is chemical free and in that vein don't use things like dyed wool because you don't know what that
18:01chemical might be. Newspaper has ink on it so just think about microplastics think about chemicals that
18:07might leach into the soil especially if you're growing food but cardboard paper wool will all do a really good
18:14job.
18:26There we go. Now that's full I'm going to be planting some peas in there. This is a dwarf pea
18:35which is
18:35specifically bred for growing in containers so it should be very very happy here and it will fill the
18:40space through the spring right up until the end of June early July. I love peas they're one of the
18:49nicest things to grow because they're really easy they're really beautiful the flowers are lovely and
18:54then they're obviously delicious this is a mange two style so you eat everything. Right so I'm going to
19:00sow these quite densely about three times the depth of a seed is how deep it goes if you're unsure
19:06but it's
19:07always written on the packet so check that and that's going to be really quite filled the idea
19:13being that hopefully we'll get good germination if we do get good germination we can thin and pick
19:18the shoots and eat them because they make a good salad crop and if we don't get good germination we'll
19:23still have enough to fill this pot and because it's vegetables my instinct is to make them slightly
19:29neat and symmetrical you don't really need to do that. It might look a little bit excessive having such a
19:36big pot just for little seeds like this but that's very intentional and the idea is it saves me having
19:41to water a bigger pot will hold on to more water a smaller pot will dry out more quickly so
19:47by putting
19:48these in a nice big generous container hopefully it 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 so probably if the weather is very warm
19:57I would still water this every day or every other day but if it was a small pot it might
20:03be twice a day
20:03that you're needing to keep on top of that the other thing about a big pot is it won't warm
20:09up
20:09so quickly either so the temperatures stay a little bit cooler now ordinarily if you were sowing peas
20:16you'd want to put some sort of obelisk in for them to grow up but these are dwarfing peas so
20:20they're not
20:20climbing so this is now done we'll just cover it over give it water to start the germination process
20:26keep it watered until you see the first shoots coming and then these will be harvested by about
20:33June and 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 there we go
20:52it's lovely to be thinking of warm summer days with the cold wind but last august joe went to
21:00cornwall lucky man to visit a garden where the planting has specifically been designed to withstand the
21:08elements we may like to be beside the seaside but our plants don't always feel the same a sea view
21:16may
21:16be a dream but get it wrong and gardening on the coast can be a nightmare there's quite a bit
21:22to think
21:23about strong 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
21:39gardening in this part of the country at cruxillit manor in truro annie agnew has mastered this to
21:46create a garden that can take anything the cornish coast can throw at it hi annie beautiful hedges i've
21:53got to say yeah they're coming on come what do you mean coming on they're pretty maturey how long have
21:58you been in they're 10 years old so they're not fully grown yet we right at the beginning designed
22:03this to try and break up the space and break up the wind because we live in cornwall and cornwall
22:12has
22:12got wind cornwall has wind from every direction possible um and particularly here we've got problems
22:18with the wind coming up the valley from the sea and it causes a lot of damage we've lost massive
22:25trees
22:25i turn up on one of the calmer stays of the year totally calm but i can imagine in the
22:30winter it
22:31must just rip through here and these hedges they're fantastic because they filter the wind don't they
22:36you need this filtered wind to protect big perennial beds so making the hedges into whirling forms and
22:45ovals and long extensions that wrap around parts of the garden really sorts the wind out but also with
22:52the topography of the the local area you know the hills beyond these sort of rolling shapes of the
22:57hedges they just work beautifully and the different heights they're doing a lot of things these hedges
23:03aren't they they're separating the planting areas too into really distinct planting zones and you've
23:07got lots of other evergreen structural plants here we've used a lot of pitosporum
23:15we've placed them fairly close together so that they make a pseudo hedge but without clipping
23:21without putting them into one line that's lovely and we've used them in the borders as structural
23:27elements to hold the border together visually and these hoherius those are fantastic they're one of my
23:34favorite plants it's hoherius sextylosa beautiful white starry flowers that the bees love the whole
23:40tree hums for about five weeks what about the rest of the planting what's the rationale behind that the
23:47color schemes what you want to grow yeah well plant greed just wanted i wanted plants from everywhere in
23:53the world and all kinds that's why the evergreen structures are so important because it controls the mess
24:02basically what's striking here is the sheer diversity of plants not just growing but thriving and as you
24:12move through each carefully designed environment the character of the planting shifts the colors the forms
24:19the entire mood of the garden evolves around you revealing a new story at every turn this is annie's
24:28hot garden and you can tell there's a microclimate in here it's a walled space and out there the
24:34breeze is picking up but in here it's incredibly still and there's a lot of exotic plants that are
24:40really thriving we've got hot reds we've got oranges we've got yellows all working together beautifully
24:47and things like this dahlia one of my favorites chat noir really doing its thing it's a lovely cactus form
24:53and it's looking very happy and deep it looks great sitting above this foliage just hovering through
25:00this border here
25:08over in this corner we've got a very strong color theme coming through we've got yellows and oranges
25:14and whites and beautiful foliage all mixing together very exotic planting things like this canna this is
25:22called ra i love the simple yellow flowers the glaucus foliage and this is a ginger lily next to it
25:30again
25:30it's got a really impressive foliage and the flower is just starting to open up here in cornwall the
25:38climate is incredibly mild so annie can leave these plants through the winter in the ground mulch over
25:44them and they'll come up in spring but in a lot of parts of the uk you won't get away
25:48with that but you
25:49can grow them in containers and then put them into a protected spot over winter and bring them on next
25:56spring and one plant i just have to mention while i'm here is that tetrapanax rex at the back the
26:04rice
26:04paper plant now it shows again how mild it is here because it's developed a trunk like a tree or
26:11a large
26:11shrub in colder areas it will die back you cut it down to the ground and it will come back
26:16up again but it
26:17looks absolutely stunning at that height
26:37now annie calls this her silver border but i'm going to call it her silver green blue and white border
26:45she's really gone with this theme and it works and it's very different to the exotic garment she's
26:51full of vibrant colors it's energizing this is calming it's a very tranquil space and she's chosen plants
26:58with small leaves so there's not big drama small leaves that just work really nicely together and
27:05create a lovely textural balance throughout and it's that that creates the calming mood of this space so
27:12things like this veronic astrum we've got the econops in front there there's some lavender down there
27:18and we've even got pitosporums and they're all working really nicely together and the bees are just
27:25all over these veronic astrums so the wildlife loves it too
27:36beyond the wall garden annie has created another haven for flora and fauna carved out of the hillside
27:43and sheltered by trees wow this pond is stunning and a magnet for wildlife and when you think of
27:52wildlife pond you think oh maybe they're a bit amoebic shaped a little bit messy around the edges a bit
27:57scrappy but here annie has shown that they can be incredibly stylish too and what i like is she's gone
28:04really big with it it fills this space and if you're making a pond go as big as you can
28:11once you've dug the
28:12hole and put the liner in it might look enormous but once you fill it with water and put some
28:17pond plants
28:18in the whole space will shrink and annie has been really restrained with the planting we've got
28:24aquatics like the water lilies just covering the water surface there's oxygenators in there
28:30and then marginals around the outside breaking the edge of the pond and one of my favorites
28:35talia del barter over there with architectural foliage it looks wonderful
28:43yeah this is how to do it
28:55as a designer i find annie's process so interesting it started with the hedges that she put in sinuous lines
29:04cutting through the landscape to reduce the wind but also to link with the landscape beyond and to
29:10divide the whole garden up into separate rooms those rooms are all different shapes but she's created
29:16environments in which to grow her favorite plants and it's all about the plants and she said strong
29:24cornish winds no problem at all
29:53i know from experience myself that gardening right by the sea
29:56is not always a holiday but having a greenhouse like this just gives you the luxury of protecting
30:03your plants from all of those elements and this one's full of beautiful things oh and look
30:11these are the brads atomic grape tomato seeds that i soaked last year to get all of the jelly off
30:17them
30:18so that they'd be ready to re-sow and look here they are coming up beautifully ready to be pricked
30:23out
30:23i reckon it's nice to see it all happening isn't it in the spring and then by the end of
30:28this year
30:29there'll be more tomatoes to harvest more seeds from but what many of us have actually is packets
30:34of seeds we buy them if you're like me you'll buy way too many you'll use some and there'll be
30:39lots
30:39left over and you're not always sure whether they're viable or not now some like tomatoes have quite a
30:45long viability but others like salads lettuce brassicas are much shorter and if you've got
30:53lots of packets that you're not sure they'll work rather than spending a whole tray of compost on
30:59sowing them only to find them failing there's a much better way of testing viability which is
31:04sowing them in very small rows like this so you have five different varieties just in this one tray
31:11it'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 there are just a few
31:32left
31:32in each so i'm going to mix them up there we go and then the last kale
31:47there you go look brassica seeds are so lovely they're tiny little round spheres
31:54and they need quite a deep root run so if you are sowing them into modules give them nice deep
31:59modules
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 but when you're eventually planting
32:10it they want to be at least 30 centimeters apart because they get pretty big but here they'll be
32:15perfect for seedlings so really quite a dense sowing because as i said we don't know how many of them
32:21come up they may not all be viable still that's that so i'll just put a little more compost over
32:30the top of this to cover them and then firm it nicely so that they make good contact that will
32:36greatly help their germination now you could do this with salad as well like mustard got rockets
32:43lettuces there's some really interesting kinds of salad leaf as well and what we'll do is just water
32:49this and then watch it once 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
33:00like this and growing them on and then eventually planting them out into the veg garden for everything
33:05else that's left behind you just let that grow up it becomes a mix and then you can just snip
33:11it off
33:11and it will regrow and hopefully last for a good few weeks as a cut and come again micro green
33:17now
33:17micro greens are essentially any vegetable that you would eat the leaves off so you could use herbs
33:23you could use coriander parsley basil mixed salad brassicas cabbages anything like that you can just
33:30keep chopping and eat the greens what you wouldn't use is obviously any kind of cut flower that you're
33:36growing from seed or trying their viability or vegetables that you actually eat the fruits of
33:41so cucumbers squashes tomatoes peppers tomatillos anything like that i wouldn't use as a micro green
33:49but if you know you can eat the leaves then they taste delicious when they're tiny there we go that's
33:54done
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 but for liz carter in cheshire one particular species
34:11is out of this world
34:17some flowers are in your face
34:21erythroniums aren't you've got to get down there and and look at them they're so ethereal
34:29they're so delicate and there's such variation from the yellows that are bold through to the very
34:37pale pinky ones and if you're walking on a slightly breezy day you can see them all dancing
34:44i'm liz welcome to my woodland garden in the world where i've been since 1963.
34:56i'm sitting here surrounded by erythronium revolutum which is one of the species the display here is a
35:07pleasure 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 then all you need is patience because
35:24they'll germinate the next year and you have to wait three to five years for them to flower but it's
35:30well worth it at the back of my mind it reminds me that this is a bit of californian glamour
35:38in the spring
35:44it was 1961 and 62 i was living in california
35:52my husband went out to do a post-doctoral fellowship and i flew out to join him
35:58i had a job working on stage four of saturn which was the the bit that went to the moon
36:04so you were part of the space race that i was part of the space race yes
36:12fondest memories are definitely to do with being in the mountains
36:18we could walk up to probably about 10 000 11 000 feet
36:26and there's the intrepid couple so as the snow melts up in the sierra the erythroniums were coming
36:33through we had enjoyed being i suppose in the in the wild country and we came back and were looking
36:43to
36:45find somewhere to live we were desperately looking for
36:49um a house buried in the country somewhere um and we finally found not only was the house derelict
36:56but the garden was derelict as well of course we had absolutely no money to buy plants so we started
37:02propagating filled the garden and as the years went past we couldn't stop propagating
37:15this area which is backed by the wood pile which i'm very keen on for getting beetles and insects
37:21has just got numerous woodlanders in it and they're all seeding around and intermingling which is rather
37:32nice
37:32from the uh the the trillium avata right up at the top through trillium albidum which is the one that's
37:40a bit of a weed and it's just seeded all over the place and we've got simile i can see
37:47a lovely maroon
37:48in the center sometimes similarly hangs below and sometimes it comes up above the leaves
37:56and interspersed we've got the pink erysferian revolutum which is everywhere in the garden
38:09this garden is on the south facing sandstone hill and it's an acid sand they love being in
38:17woodland conditions because of the leaf fall so 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 erythronium white beauty it's one of the hybrids and it's very prolific it divides
38:40beautifully and you get wonderful clumps like these and it shows how erythroniums
38:46grow in tree roots and it's a very good example of the silver veining in the leaf
38:53and it's a very good example of the tree roots of the tree roots of the tree roots of the
38:53tree roots
38:59these are my nursery beds this is erythronium to luminense it's from yosemite park from the high
39:07meadows it has several flowers on a spike and it's always very early it's the first one to be out
39:15usually of the mainstream north american bulbs they're very promiscuous you know erythronium so
39:22breathe with one another really quite freely
39:27this was a cross that i found in in the garden it has a huge flower power you can see
39:34here that you're
39:34getting what's on average three flowers per stem but they're a good sized flower and you've got the
39:42greeny color backing here from origoonum and you've got the pink coming from the revolutum
39:48they're special to me because they were found this hybrid was found in my garden and then gradually
39:54over the years i isolated it and and bulked it up it's called erythronium elizabeth
40:04they hate being in pots i 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 i'm just doing this to demonstrate it to you so let's see what we find
40:26and here's here a lovely example of next year's bulb you'll see very clearly why they've got the
40:32common name of dog's tooth violet this new growth this will get bigger and bigger so please don't
40:40divide your plants until they're very very dormant in august if i were to start i would start where
40:49i started the yellow hybrids and pagoda is a commonly available and the white beauty
40:57this year's bulb will probably give you two bulbs next year and so it's really quite easy to get a
41:04clump and then you can divide the clump and and walk them around the garden
41:14they're they're like a newborn baby they're just perfect i think in every way
41:21well they calm me down you know you can just look at them and and feel everything relaxing because
41:27they're covering the ground and they're drifting off into the distance yes
41:32they're good for my well-being they're very fashionable term
42:03i loved
42:05that garden and I loved that story how that space was built over a lifetime together and I think
42:11that says everything about our gardens they really are a part of who we are and it's lovely to see
42:28isn't it lovely hearing the birds of spring
42:32there's so many here but it does make it slightly problematic sometimes when you want to do some
42:38pruning in the garden because this is the time of year when they're most actively nesting now between
42:43the 1st of March and the 31st of August it is strongly recommended that you don't do any
42:50hedge pruning but if you have one shrub that might need shaping you just need to be absolutely sure
42:57that you're not disturbing any nesting birds because that is against the law so what you need
43:01to do is you need to observe that shrub for a couple of days and make sure no birds are
43:05coming
43:05and going because that would be a sure sign of active nesting activity if there are no signs of
43:11any birds then when you've decided to give it a prune before you make any snips just ever so gently
43:17look inside the structure and make sure you can't see any nests so this is a lovely phillaria the
43:23garden is full of them and they give a beautiful shape this has got very very delicate leaves a
43:28great alternative to box you can use a head trimmer if you like but i like to use a clean
43:33sharp pair of
43:35shears like this and just go in gently you can always take more off you can't stick it back on
43:42and make sure you regularly step back just to observe the shape you've created
43:53get this rosemary out the way don't we clip that
43:59pruning is my favorite gardening job there's something really really mindful about it because
44:04you observe whatever it is you're cutting whether it's a rose or some topiary like this
44:10you think about its shape you can really change the feel of the garden by doing one simple job
44:15it makes everything feel neater but it's just like the sound
44:21of the shears and the feel of it going through it's just a really really pleasant job to do
44:30what you want to do with anything like this is take off the wooliness now with the box actually
44:36quite like it being left a bit unkempt and woolly because it's a nice dense structure but here it would
44:42turn into a really big shrub whereas 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 so taking off the wooliness without going
45:04too far back into the wood especially as we still do have risk of cold nights and these can get
45:10damaged
45:11by frost if they've just been clipped so it's gentle but enough to give it that definition and shape
45:20pruning like this is one of those timely jobs that helps the garden stay in check and really
45:24helps your view of the garden as well but toby is sharing some of his best gardening tips from his
45:32garden
45:32down in devon
45:48gardening is so life-affirming every day i do it i make new discoveries have surprises and there's
45:55always so much to learn whether you've got window boxes or acreage to look after you're always on a
46:01journey of finding out more
46:11i've been gardening here for 20 years and it's on a sloping site it's quite difficult to deal with
46:19the thing about sloping sites is that soil always goes downhill and i built these retaining walls to hold
46:26it back but over the years as i've added compost the soil levels have built up and it's still falling
46:31over the wall and that's where agapanthus comes in you see this stuff is like a palisade a retaining wall
46:38that grows that will hold back the earth and now is the ideal window of opportunity to lift divide it
46:45and turn it into a living wall here in devon i'm using evergreen agapanthus but any tough evergreen herbaceous
46:54plant would do the same job lifting and dividing agapanthus isn't for the faint-hearted because the
47:01roots are really fleshy and they just grab hold of the soil you've got to be cruel to be kind
47:08you've got
47:20victory i'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
47:39root so the regrowth and establishment is so much quicker and 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 we'll probably flower this summer
48:06i love this little corner of the garden in a dappled shade i walk past it all the time because
48:25it's at the junction of two paths summer and winter and it's in winter i get the most pleasure from
48:30it
48:30because i grow plants that flower right at the b of the bank the start of the growing season there's
48:36crocus and there's snowdrops long gone now but also hellebores glorious things just go into seed
48:43now these things are expensive to buy but once you've got one they're so easy to propagate if you use
48:49this trick what i've got in my bucket is leaf mold and this is the perfect medium for getting woodland
48:57plants like hellebores to sprout and grow on their own and set their seed all i do over here is
49:03just
49:03chuck it on the soil as a mulch it 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
49:14and then fall onto the ground and honestly they come up like crests i like this type of garden
49:19because it's well it's not just working with mother nature it's kind of giving her a helping hand
49:26and if you don't believe me have a look at this look at the clutch of three plants i've got
49:30in there
49:30all you do is get in there gently lever them up from the soil
49:38look at that an oriental hellebore for free
49:52lots of us love cats this is richard parker and rich does cause problems loitering around
49:59certain parts of the garden but there are ways to keep our feline friends off
50:04bare soil and they're also good for keeping down the weeds which we all have
50:09not right rich i 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 brissy leaves but bees absolutely love it
50:27you can lift and divide it at any time of year just cut back the tops and keep it well
50:31watered after
50:32planting and an easy way to cover a lot of ground fast is to plant the stems horizontally creating a
50:40matrix across the soil that connects together they root so quickly and establish before you know it
50:47instant ground cover sorry rich
50:50i spend a lot of time in the greenhouse in spring because what's humming a tune in spring in the
51:02greenhouse is singing a song in summer that's how i look at it and i save a lot of seeds
51:07from year to
51:08year keep the seed from your plot from one year into the next and then from that year into the
51:13one that
51:13follows you develop what's known as a land race which is a postcode specific strain of seeds that
51:21suits your garden and that's what i've been doing with tomatillos now back in the autumn the last of
51:27the plants i just put the fruits on top of this pot of compost tomatillos right they look like tomatoes
51:33we've got a net curtain casing around the outside of them and inside you see the net curtains are full
51:40of
51:40seeds but the seeds with a difference because the fruit as it rots it strips away the waxy cuticle
51:48from those seeds and makes them incredibly easy to sprout come the spring given just a splash of water
51:58to wash that seed into the compost i kid you not those kernels you'll see them sprouting almost within
52:06a day here just to prove the point is a pot of tomatillos that i watered last week look at
52:13those
52:14beauties now these tomatillos will need to go into individual pots and be grown on frost free until the
52:21cold weather clears because they're cheap but jowl it would be a game to get in there and prick them
52:26out but there is a quicker and easier method give the pot a shake and then the whole lot comes
52:33out onto
52:34me potting bench in one go like that but because i've opened up the compost you see they'll peel out
52:41as individuals even when they've got long and forked roots which is something you would never be able
52:47to do if you're pricking out conventionally using a dibber it's a really satisfying method and part of
53:01that is because at the back end of the year when the growing season is coming to an end and
53:05i'm putting
53:05the fruit on the compost i know that it won't be long before i'm watering them again and spring
53:11will be out of the blocks wonderful
53:33i think the lovely thing is that as the garden wakes up so does the gardener you get all that
53:38energy of
53:39spring yourself which you do need because there are so many jobs to do at this time of the year
53:46oh look a bee fly on the forget-me-nots oh really is spring they're magical to watch
53:53what i'm doing here is actually dividing some lily of the valley it's not the ideal time to do that
53:58because it's about to flower you'd really do it later in the year and it's finished that but there's
54:04a big clump of it here and it's spreading they have some fairly aggressive rhizomes that can take
54:09over a space if they're happy and the kinds of conditions that will make them happy are partial
54:15shade particularly shade in the spring because they're woodland plants so dry shade before the
54:21canopy comes out will get them very happily flowering and then they'll go dormant later in 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
54:32the valley and also it's an irritant to the skin
54:38all right there we go oops casualty but you can see that's a really really healthy clump of them
54:46and they are about to flower these are the flower buds here now those flowers are tiny little white
54:51bells and they smell absolutely incredible i'm actually going to put it into a little pot that i
54:58can place by the door or by an open window or a regularly opened window so that you can get
55:05that
55:05scent in the house and i'm just gonna use the soil from the ground here rather than getting lots of
55:10compost now it's a really nice way of using them you get the best of their season at this point
55:17up at eye level and somewhere you can see and smell them and then once they've gone over you can
55:23take
55:23this empty it out and then plant them somewhere else in the garden where they can begin to do this
55:30and
55:31spread around
55:53there that's one thing off the list but here are some other jobs that you can be getting on with
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 pressure space that we'll need
56:22for spring sowings but don't be too quick to clear the lot leaving a few to flower is brilliant for
56:28insects and adds a lovely touch of color and later you can harvest the seeds for next winter's crops
56:40you can make the most of fallen branches and twiggy bits left after cutting back herbaceous plants
56:46rather than throwing them out build little habitat piles
56:49deadwood is brilliant for insects and the nooks and crannies give small creatures somewhere to shelter
56:56you can even weave branches into a simple dead hedge it's a lovely way to tidy the garden
57:01while creating a home for wildlife
57:09with the start of warm spring days it's safe to take the salvage i put into the greenhouse for a
57:14bit
57:15of winter protection out to start hardening off i like to give them a trim to encourage fresh
57:21bushy growth then enjoy the extra light and airflow but do keep an eye on temperatures if there's a hit
57:27of late frost pop them back under cover or throw a fleece over them
57:53it's lovely to be back at damson farm in the spring and seeing the damson blossom and that little
57:58reminder to 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 program from regents park in london where he'll be joining
58:10the royal parks team as they work to finish a brand new public garden designed to commemorate what would
58:16have been our lake queen's 100th birthday see you then
58:23so
58:31so
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