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00:21Right now, come on. Good boy.
00:41Hello. Welcome to an Easter gardener's world. And it's that first moment in the year for
00:53many people when you can get outside and really appreciate the garden as something to offer
00:58you delight, rather than a series of jobs that need to be done. And the cottage garden
01:04here at Longmeadow is beginning to be delightful. It's just starting to show its colours, but
01:10those colours are very much geared towards pastels, obviously pinks, and then lilacs and
01:17mauves. And, when I can get it, my favourite colour of all in the garden, which is apricot.
01:26Now, there are very, very few flowers that are naturally apricot. They tend to be bred
01:32from a combination of pink and orange. Sometimes you have too much pink, sometimes too much orange,
01:38and occasionally they just hit the sweet spot, but then another one of the same variety doesn't.
01:44It's my obsession. But it is good fun working on a colour theme. And what I have here is a
01:51geom. This is geom Mai Tai. It's from the cocktail series. It's not true apricot, but it's touched
01:58with it. It's got a base of a soft yellow and then flushed with a very orangey pink. The cocktail
02:06series
02:06are particularly low, so great for the front of a border or in a pot, but they flower from, depending
02:12where you are, mid-April right the way through till June. And if you keep deadheading, they will keep
02:17on flowering.
02:20That one has got flowers on it. When you're buying a plant from a garden centre, tend to
02:25those that don't have flowers on it, because it's used up the energy of the plant to produce
02:30flowers, and you want that energy going into your garden. So check out the flowers, make
02:34sure it's the colour you want, and then choose plants that are not yet flowering.
02:41OK, we can get one in here, and I think another over here. Right, that will do for this bit.
02:47Now the foxgloves, I want to plant those now because they're bare root. And if you're moving
02:51plants in the garden, move them quickly. The quicker you move them, the less they'll mind
02:55being moved.
03:01I've got here some foxgloves called Apricot Delight. Never grown it before. I've grown from
03:06seed. They look as though they could be wonderful. And foxgloves are either a biannual or a short
03:12lived perennial. And what that means is they will not flower in their first year. They
03:17flower in their second year. And some won't flower again. They'll set seed and die back.
03:22Quite a few will reappear the next year, maybe even as many as four years. But by and large,
03:28their best performance is in the year after sowing.
03:34Right, I'm going to get this in the ground. And these are in the ground.
03:52It's brilliant planting weather. Over Easter is a really good time. Perfect for herbaceous
03:59perennials, or biannuals, or even annuals for that matter. Get them in the ground because
04:04the sooner the roots can get in, the better they're going to cope with summer heat. And
04:08this relates to geoms in particular, because geoms are a plant that really don't like to
04:13be dry. They do their best in moisture-retentive ground. So that's not a bog. They're not a
04:18water plant, but they're not good in very light sand or pure chalk or anything like that.
04:23But they really like soil that can retain moisture. And of course, you can always improve the
04:30water retention of your soil by adding organic matter.
04:40Now, Ashley went down to Leonard's Lee Garden in West Sussex to celebrate spring by looking
04:47at it in detail.
04:54For me, early spring carries a quiet magic. The natural world is awakening, and there's
05:00a thrilling sense of possibility in the air. Color is returning, buds are swelling, and plant
05:08life unfolds a little more each day. The garden may seem calm, but that stillness can be deceptive.
05:16There's a world of excitement waiting if you just slow down and look closely.
05:29Magnolias are the real stars of early spring. While most trees wait for their leaves to appear
05:36before flowering, with magnolias, the flowers come first.
05:41I've just noticed this. This is Magnolia Leonard Messel, and it's a really delicate form of
05:48magnolia. There's so many different varieties. What I love about this one is it's got this
05:52two-tone color to the petals. The outside a lot more of a pastel pink, and the inside this
05:58lovely pale pink. So when you're looking at it from different angles, you get those different
06:02colors. When you look really closely at the buds, you can see they're really fuzzy. They're, they're almost
06:07like little rabbit feet. And this fur actually protects them from cold weather, meaning that
06:12they can flower earlier in the year. Magnolia flowers are monoecious, and this means that both
06:18male and female reproductive organs are on the same plant. Magnolias evolved nearly 100 million
06:25years ago when bees didn't exist and dinosaurs still roamed the earth. So they relied on beetles to
06:31pollinate them. So lots of magnolias have robust anthers and stigmas to support these large insects.
06:37And you can see this in some of these flowers here. They're almost like plastic. They're so tough.
06:43Once you start to notice the little details like these buds, you realize that the garden is full
06:48of the promise of spring.
07:01Wow. This is Katsura tree, or Circe de Filma japonicum. Also sometimes called the toffee apple tree
07:09because it has this really sugary scent when the leaves drop in autumn. But I've never noticed the flowers
07:14before, and they're like little flames or tentacles. These are the male flowers of this tree.
07:19There's such a small window of opportunity to see this, so I feel really lucky to be here
07:24just at the right time.
07:33This area of the garden is famous for its rhododendrons, many of which are hybrids that were bred here
07:39more than a century ago.
07:41And this one is just starting to show its full color.
07:44But if you look closely, you can see the different stages we're at now.
07:48So you've got the closed bud here,
07:50and you can tell it's a flower bud because it's really fat and juicy.
07:53And it also has these really beautiful scales.
07:56Some rhododendron buds have a sticky resin,
07:59and this helps to protect it from insect attack and also from any wet weather.
08:04On this one, you can see the flower petals just emerging,
08:07and this is beautiful in its own right. They look like little tongues to me.
08:10And then these ones are in full color now,
08:12and that just shows how you've got these stages,
08:15this progression of flowering on this plant.
08:30This is a great example of layering in the garden.
08:34You've got your large shrubs and trees like this pieris above me,
08:37and it's been crown lifted,
08:39so it opens up opportunity for planting underneath.
08:42So you have your second layer of smaller shrubs and herbaceous plants
08:46like these beautiful hellebores, which are in full flower now.
08:49So it provides that early season color and interest.
08:52And then you've got ground cover like this pakisandra here,
08:55which provides a lovely foliage for the forest floor.
08:58And this is something you can apply to any garden.
09:01It doesn't matter what size you've got.
09:02You could even do it in a container.
09:04So you could have a large shrub with smaller filler plants like hellebores,
09:08and then something that trails like vinca.
09:11It's a great way to make the most of your space.
09:14And it also means that when these early flowering plants are finished,
09:18you still have all that texture to see throughout the year.
09:30Some shrubs really come into their own in early spring,
09:34when color and fragrance can still be a little thin on the ground.
09:39One of my favorites is this.
09:41It's Edgeworthia chrysantha grandiflora,
09:44and it has these amazing ball-shaped flowers.
09:47The flowers also appear before the leaves,
09:49so it means that they really stand out, and it packs such a powerful scent.
09:53And this acts as a signal.
09:55Insects are waking up from hibernation this time of year,
09:57so by putting this scent out there,
09:59it says, I'm open for business.
10:00Come and get some nectar.
10:04Planting nectar-rich plants
10:06doesn't just give you a beautiful garden,
10:08but it also gives wildlife a head start.
10:12Over here, we have Coriolopsis porciflora,
10:14and it has these delicate pendant-like yellow flowers,
10:17which look like little lanterns.
10:19The great thing about this is you could have it in a small garden.
10:22It stays compact,
10:23and it has this really nice arching habit to it.
10:26If you want to prune your spring flowering shrubs,
10:29the best time to do it is straight after they finish flowering
10:31because they soon start to produce the growth
10:34that will have next year's flowers on.
10:42Once you tune into the season,
10:44the signs of spring are everywhere.
10:47I've just spotted this,
10:48and it's a emerging leaf bud.
10:51And I can tell this because they are very narrow,
10:53and you can just make out the little fingers
10:55of the emerging leaves.
10:57And this one has emerged a bit more,
10:59and you can see this beautiful pink hue that it has.
11:02It's a type of chestnut,
11:05and it will also flower later in the year.
11:07But now, we can appreciate the foliage.
11:10Spotting signs like these is a great way to read your garden,
11:13and it gives you an idea of things to come.
11:28These lakes are stunningly beautiful,
11:31and in these cooler temperatures,
11:32the surface of the water is calmer,
11:34and it creates this mirrored effect.
11:37I can see the trees reflected in the surface
11:39and also the golden hues of the daffodils in the distance.
11:45It's something you could even try at home.
11:47You don't need a massive lake.
11:48You could have your own container with water in it
11:50to reflect angles from your garden.
11:54It's a great way to add a sense of serene calm into your space.
12:11The soundscape is a huge part of spring for me,
12:14and if you listen closely,
12:16it tells a story.
12:17The garden is waking up again,
12:19and we too are part of that quiet renewal.
12:27Simply spending time outdoors
12:29and noticing those small changes
12:31can be surprisingly restorative.
12:33Spring is such a short season,
12:35but that's what makes it so special.
12:37It's a reminder to slow down,
12:39notice the changes,
12:40and really savour the season,
12:42because before you know it, it's past.
13:06The thing that I love about spring
13:08more than any other season
13:10is that it has shifts and changes
13:12over at least two if not three months.
13:15There's an awful lot going on.
13:16And one of the things at the moment on the mound
13:18that really appeals to me is this.
13:20It's a Forsythia.
13:22Now, Forsythia is as common as muck.
13:24I mean, there must be hundreds of thousands
13:26if not millions of them around the country.
13:28But this particular one is a bit more unusual.
13:32It's Forsythia suspensa nimens.
13:35And I've chosen it because it's got this pale yellow
13:38and this quite loose structure and form
13:40and works perfectly with the daffodils
13:43that we have here on the mound.
13:45Now, this combination will only last a week at the most
13:47and then it'll move on
13:49and other things will take their place.
13:51And I think that's the joy of spring.
14:05Okay?
14:06Good boy.
14:08Go on.
14:13Good boy.
14:16Good boy.
14:18All right.
14:22Go home.
14:26Come on.
14:28Come on.
14:29I've added a bit of compost to this raised bed because I'm about to plant up a bed for
14:36cup flowers and I'm adding in some ranunculus, ranunculus asiaticus or sometimes called the
14:42Persian buttercup. But unlike the buttercups you see in fields with open simple petals,
14:48these have a mass of petals that form a kind of globe. These will flower hopefully from
14:56about the end of May into June, planted in December and then kept in the greenhouse and
15:02gradually hardened off. Or you could plant the tubers now and they would flower later in summer.
15:14I'm going to space these out about six inches apart and the thing about cut flowers is that
15:20you can plant them closer together than you otherwise would in the border. There are two
15:24reasons for that. One, they're not going to be there for as long and two, you want the stems
15:30to grow tall. You almost want to force them up so you get decent stumbling.
15:36Choose a spot that's relatively shady and soil that is well drained but enriched.
15:54The thing to remember when you're growing ranunculus is that they're half hardy. So if you live in a
16:00very sheltered area that hardly ever gets frosts and if it does it's just a touch of it, they may
16:05well
16:05over winter and they're a perennial and they will come back. But anywhere that reliably gets two or three
16:14degrees of frost or more, they're very unlikely to survive that. So treat them as annuals.
16:34I will need to water these in. It's really important that this time of year water everything you plant
16:39thoroughly. I will also have to have a bit of fleece handy for the next month just in case we
16:46get some
16:46late frosts which we can do here. And a bit of fleece covering them overnight should be enough.
16:52So that bed is sorted. The two back beds have got tulips in them and these are tulips that I'm
16:58trialing. And the ones I like, and maybe only one or two, I will then order more next year and
17:04they can
17:04graduate for the garden proper. Now this bed, last autumn I sowed with hardy annuals, particularly
17:12amy, amy magus and amy visnaga and a bit of wild carrot. However, we had a really cold snap for
17:20a
17:20few days in November, followed by one of the wettest winters ever. And I'm afraid that did for them
17:26because if that wasn't enough, we've had a mass of rabbits this winter and rabbits love amy more than
17:33anything else. So we lost a lot, doesn't matter. I've now got a free bed and I want to use
17:38it for cut
17:38flowers again. And I'm going to sow scabious. I love scabious. It makes a brilliant cut flower,
17:44makes a brilliant border flower. And I love the dark colours. Now I've got a variety here called
17:48Black Knight, which is really deep, rich burgundy speckled with white.
17:57Put them into your hand, probably best not to do this on a windy day, and just sprinkle thinly.
18:09I'll show you a tip for sowing any kind of seed outside in the garden that I was shown when
18:14I was
18:14a boy. And it works. Draw a drill with your hand and sow your seeds. And then just simply put
18:25your thumb
18:26and your fingers either side of the drill and run down either side of it like that. And it pushes
18:31the
18:32soil up over the seeds, works a treat. Now, I grow cut flowers in these few special
18:38beds, and they're brilliant for the house. However, you don't need special beds. Just to pick a small
18:44bunch of flowers from your garden is an utter joy. But for some people, it's more than a joy. It
18:50becomes
18:50transformative. It changes their lives. And I think that's absolutely the case for Hattie Colvin.
18:56And we went to visit her at her home in Carmarthenshire.
19:04Flowers are a passion of mine. And I think the more I grow, the more obsessed I become. I don't
19:11think
19:11I'll ever have enough. Just seeing something go from nothing through to a huge display of wondrous color,
19:22flower, I think, is just something really special.
19:31My name's Hattie, and this is my flower farm in Clondilo, Wales.
19:40I'm unapologetically in love with flowers. I could not be without dahlias. So this flower is one of my
19:49favorites. I can never pick an actual favorite. It's called Dunaj or Dunay, depending on how you
19:55pronounce it. It's a pom-pom variety. I love the kind of intensity of the pink color on the very
20:02small
20:03sort of ball-shaped form and the incredible formation of petals. The pom-pom shape is better
20:09for cutting because they tend to have a bit of a longer vase life cut at the right stage. You
20:14cut
20:14before the center opens, and then it'll last a lot longer.
20:24This one is preference. Preference is incredibly prolific. It does need quite a lot of food and
20:32nutrition, mostly because it produces so many flowers. It just gets a bit tired by the end of
20:38the season if you don't keep it topped up. So our soil here is very clay, so I spend a
20:45lot of time
20:45making sure that the soil is looked after. I use lots of different types of farmyard manure to mulch
20:53the beds. Every time I plant, I make sure that I replenish some of the goodness back into the soil.
21:00When I start seedlings, I use a seaweed feed as well when they're in their trays. Again,
21:08just to make sure that they have a really great start to life. And I find that keeping the plants
21:13as healthy as they can possibly be means that they're more resistant to pests.
21:26I used to live and work in London as an accountant. I did get a lot of joy out of
21:31what I did, but it
21:32wasn't for me. My partner was in Wales, and I felt very much the pull towards being here in somewhere
21:39that was back to nature and slower paced. I was commuting back and forwards to London,
21:47so had a lot of thinking time in the car. I had a few dahlias. I found them just
21:55so exciting and loved all the different shapes and the colours and the kind of flounciness,
22:01and I decided that I wanted more dahlias. So that kind of formed the idea for,
22:09ooh, what if I could grow cut flowers? In three years, I've ended up with 27
22:1620-metre beds and polytunnels as well. So yeah, it escalated fairly quickly.
22:29You don't need a huge amount of space to get started with a cutting garden.
22:34And actually, if you choose carefully what you grow, you could have quite a few vases of flowers
22:40throughout the summer to enjoy.
22:45So I very quickly learned in my journey of growing that some flowers are much easier to grow than
22:51others. One that is generally pretty steadfast is cosmos. It comes in some really beautiful shades. It's
23:00easy to germinate, and then they're fairly indestructible, I find. This is a really good
23:07example of a cosmos that's actually been pollinated already by the bees. So you see it's gone quite
23:13fuzzy on the inside. And that sadly means that I can't use it as a cut flower because it won't
23:20really
23:20last and it'll drop its petals. But it does mean that the bees have had a lovely time.
23:33Scabias are really lovely at cut flower. They're very generous with how many stems you get.
23:40This is called Black Knight. And I did once have somebody ask me if I could give them the flower
23:45with the hundreds and thousands on it because it's got the white little sprinkles on the top.
23:50You also get these lovely seed heads, which you can either dry or actually use in an arrangement as well.
24:04For anybody that's thinking about starting up their own cutting garden, I'd probably recommend
24:09snapdragons. I think they're really majestic looking and always have a really amazing scent.
24:15A perennial option, I would definitely go for a geum, something like totally tangerine,
24:20which is lovely, beautiful colour, and it actually keeps flowering from May. Slows down as it gets to
24:27later in the summer, but you do still keep getting flowers. And I think obviously you'd have to have
24:33some dahlias. As a flower grower, you're very much hailed as living the dream and wafting about in the
24:44field with a trug and a floaty dress, gathering flowers. One thing that I have definitely learnt is
24:51doing this is a tough, tough job. All of the critters want to get to your flowers before you do.
24:58The weather wants to destroy things. It is not all glamour.
25:09When I'm arranging with flowers, I would tend to find something in the field that does really inspire
25:15me to want to show that off. And then everything else kind of gets built around that.
25:24I just slowly keep building the bouquet. I want different heights. I've already got some scented
25:31pelargonium. This is a lemon basil and some pennycrest thlaspie to add some green,
25:37some different textures with different foliages. And also, that is a delightful smell.
25:45There is definitely a huge sense of pride when you're working with flowers that you've grown
25:51yourself and seeing them all kind of come together like little friends and having a little flower party.
25:59I'm going to try and add this one in. It's quite nice and upward facing, which this variety isn't normally.
26:08This feels like a really, really lovely representation of what's flowering right now in the field. It's all of my
26:16favourite colour palettes.
26:25It feels like a huge privilege to get to do what I do for a living. I often find it
26:31really hard to
26:32believe that my slightly random dream that came to me on the motorway is actually now a very beautiful reality.
26:40.
26:41.
26:45.
26:47.
27:15Can't wait.
27:19I think it's really encouraging that there are more and more people like Hattie that are local,
27:24that have got a wide variety of really interesting plants, something I would suggest we all support.
27:30Now, it's Easter, and traditionally, the main Easter job in the garden was planting potatoes.
27:36You get your potatoes in the ground now. First earlies should be ready to harvest round about June.
27:42Second earlies, July, a main crop in the early autumn.
27:47This is a variety called Charlotte. It's a second early, and these have chitted, and you can see, look, that's
27:54a really good example of a chitted potato.
27:58You get this knobbly growth, and it speeds up the growth and therefore the harvest.
28:02Now, how you grow them depends on how much space you've got.
28:06If you've got plenty of space, if you've got an allotment, it's a brilliant idea to dig a furrow or
28:10a trench,
28:11put them in the bottom, and then heat the soil back up to make a ridge over them.
28:15If you're short of space, or you're growing in raised beds, like I am, it couldn't be easier.
28:21All you do is simply make a hole, stick them in.
28:25With the chitted chute at the top, you want to bury it, ideally, its own depth below the ground.
28:41I get three across here. Give it at least a foot or so.
28:44If you're growing them in a raised bed, you can grow them much closer together than you would in rows.
28:51Potatoes really respond to feeding, so if you've got any compost or any manure, anything, any soil improver,
29:00it's really worth adding to the soil, and that will definitely increase the harvest.
29:11Here. Here. No, Ned. Come here. Come here. Look.
29:16Put it. Good boy.
29:23Break over to cover them.
29:28Hopefully, when I come to harvest them, we shall have a whole mass of new potatoes,
29:35and for Ned, a whole mass of new balls to harvest come July.
29:41At least, that's what he thinks.
29:45Right. I'm going to use this ground, because nothing will appear for a few weeks' time.
29:52But I'm going to grow a catch crop, and the fastest growing crop to grow at this time of year
29:57is radish.
29:59And radish will germinate within a week, and be ready to harvest within six weeks,
30:04before they get crowded out by the foliage of potatoes.
30:09Broadcast over the surface, it just means sprinkle them widely.
30:13Try and do it reasonably evenly.
30:19Put the rake over them again to slightly lightly cover them.
30:30I've got these extra sea potatoes, but I'm not going to waste them,
30:32because I want to grow some in pots.
30:41This is a recycled container.
30:44You can see I've drawn holes in the bottom.
30:46You need peat-free compost.
30:49Put it in the bottom.
30:51Not right full up.
30:55That will do, to start with.
30:57What you need is, at most, three, and to be honest, two would be plenty in there.
31:05But the truth is, three wouldn't give me any bigger harvest.
31:08The more you put in, the smaller potatoes you'll get.
31:13And that should produce you between about 10 and 20 potatoes.
31:19Enough for a couple of meals.
31:21A treat.
31:22Just cover them up.
31:23Put a little bit over the top of them.
31:26Don't fill it to the top.
31:28As the new growth comes, fill on top of it.
31:31That means roots will grow from the stems, and you'll get more potatoes.
31:35Keep it well watered.
31:37Make sure it's not sitting in a puddle, so maybe lift it a little bit off the ground.
31:40And if you can give it a little bit of shelter, they'll grow even better.
31:44And this is a perfect way to grow potatoes if you're very short of space.
31:51The beauty of this, of course, is that you can grow potatoes, whether you want them as a treat or
31:57just because you like spuds, even if you've got very limited space.
32:01Now, we went to see Tom Stimson.
32:04I don't know if he grows potatoes, but I do know that everything else he grows is in pots.
32:15When you get home from work, it's quite nice to unwind out of the garden, surrounded by nature and beautiful
32:21flowers.
32:22Just perfect.
32:29Hi, I'm Tom, and this is my small town garden in Ely in Cambridgeshire, and it's all about pots.
32:44I think very often there's a misconception that if you have a small space, you should have just small pots,
32:50and that's not true.
32:51It's amazing how many pots you can fit into a relatively tiny, tiny space.
32:58One of my favourite things to do is build up displays of pots on tabletops.
33:03And I've got four or five tabletops that I sort of rotate and use in different areas of the garden
33:10at different times of the year.
33:13So I do that by looking at the size of the pots, the shapes of them, so some taller terracotta,
33:20some squat ones, and then some little tiny ones as well to slot in amongst the bigger ones.
33:25Because that means you can create great floral displays and a little bit of structure and drama.
33:39This is muscari armeniacum, which is a muscari I grow every single year.
33:47It's super reliable, easy to grow, and I love the intensity of the blue colour.
33:53They require minimal water, bulbs on the whole tend to prefer it to be on the dry side, so planted
33:59it in the autumn.
34:00It's a really free-draining compost.
34:03Once we get into February, green shoots start to appear.
34:06And then with a little bit of sunshine, once we get into March, an eruption of blue.
34:11One of the ways to keep your pots of muscari flowering longer is to deadhead.
34:15And it's really important not just to pinch here, but to pinch right down at the base.
34:20Remove the stem, just discard it.
34:23And you'll find that will encourage all the flower buds to keep coming and for it to flower for a
34:27longer period of time.
34:39So, growing in pots is really straightforward.
34:42So, it all starts with what's at the bottom of the pot first, so to make sure you've got some
34:46crocs.
34:47And I then put a small layer of grit just over that.
34:51Then it's about the potting medium.
34:54So, I use a peat-free, general-purpose potting compost, nothing too fancy, but I'll always add a little bit
34:59of grit.
35:00So, if I'm using it for pots of bulbs, like this one here, I will probably add around 60%
35:07compost to 40% grit.
35:09And I think that's absolutely key, because the importance of drainage for the bulbs is so important.
35:16And you'll have much better results if the compost can remain just moist rather than sodden.
35:21For other varieties of plants, violas, primulas, I won't add so much grit, probably about just 10%, just to aid
35:28that drainage a little bit.
35:30But they're much more tolerant to wet conditions.
35:33And then, as we get into them growing in the spring, is when you tend to look at the moisture
35:38levels a little bit more closely.
35:40And then, as things start to grow and start to bud up, I'll then start a twice-fortnightly feed with
35:46some liquid seaweed,
35:47just to give a little bit of goodness back into the compost and support the flowers.
36:04So, this is Ifean and a variety called Alberto Castile.
36:09I have to say, they're one of my new faves.
36:11I just love them.
36:13They have this wonderful sort of grass-like foliage.
36:16And I love the chaos of the stems, really, how they grow in whichever way they choose, really.
36:22And I love the fact that they move and sway in the breeze.
36:26And one of my absolute favourite things about it is the reverse of the petals have a gorgeous stripe down
36:32the reverse at each flower petal.
36:43It's important to raise the pot off the table, as otherwise, when it rains, the compost just remains wet.
36:49It never drains away totally.
36:51There's always a little puddle of water underneath the bottom of the pot.
36:57I've found, over the years, one of the best things to use is just tile spacers.
37:02So, when you place your pot on them, you can't see them.
37:05But it just allows a few millimetres of air between the surface of the table and the bottom of the
37:11pot.
37:11And it just means the water can drain away.
37:13And that's the one way I get them through the winter.
37:23This is a variety of Narcissae called Polar Hunter.
37:28A relatively new variety, but rapidly becoming one of my favourite ones to grow.
37:33It has the wonderful fruity fragrance, quite unlike any other scented variety of Narcissae.
37:40And it's a beautiful colour.
37:42It starts off a limey cream colour as it opens and then gradually fades to a creamy white.
37:49I very often cut a few stems and just have by the side of my bed because I love waking
37:54up to the gorgeous scent in the morning.
37:57It's a brilliant one for pots, but to give it a little bit of extra support,
38:01I just add a few hazel twigs in.
38:03I love doing that because it looks natural.
38:05It's absolutely gorgeous.
38:07What do you say to people who don't like deferred ears?
38:10They should go and get a life.
38:16So, as we come into mid-spring, I start to think about what's going in the pots for the summer.
38:22And a key variety for me are dahlias.
38:24I absolutely love them.
38:26They're brilliant for providing colour from mid-summer through to the first frost.
38:30So, great value.
38:33The tubers are nice and big, so I'm planting into quite a big pot.
38:37If your tubers are a little bit smaller, so they're fresh stock,
38:40then I'd probably say plant them in a three-litre-sized pot
38:43and get them to grow and shoot in there before planting out into a bigger pot or into the border.
38:49Peat-free compost.
38:50I've added a bit of grit for extra drainage.
38:53And it's important with dahlias that the crown sits just above the soil surface.
39:00Pots, for me, are a key element to my gardening life.
39:05When you have a small space, and if you love plants,
39:08pots are essential to add interest, drama, impact, colour, abundance.
39:38Like Tom, I grow masses of spring bulbs in pots.
39:43It's this time of year, mainly full of narcissi and tulips.
39:47And the great thing about them is you have these splashes of colour
39:50that you can move around and assemble.
39:52And by the way, if you've not seen this daffodil before,
39:55it's called Rit van Winkle,
39:57with this great sort of splay of flower,
40:00which is a little bit heavy for the stem,
40:02so it's not so much drooping as sprawling in an elegant way.
40:06And certainly looks fantastic when grown in a pot like this.
40:12And it's not just spring bulbs that look good.
40:15We've got bay here with rosemary.
40:17I've got pots in shady areas with ivy and ferns.
40:21Right across the year and right across the garden,
40:24there's always a place for pot.
40:34Go on.
40:41Aha!
40:43You got it.
40:45You got it.
40:56Now, this was where we had soft root until this winter,
41:00because I've brought into here
41:03most of the yew cuttings that I took about ten years ago.
41:07The reason I took the yew cuttings
41:09were partly to replace the box that got box blight,
41:12and I want an evergreen, dense hedge,
41:16and partly because yew makes wonderful topiary,
41:19and I love topiary.
41:20So this gives me the raw material for hedges and topiary
41:24and even clip shrubs, which I've got in the woodland border.
41:28And if you had to buy them, they're really expensive.
41:31So to grow your own is saving you a lot of money.
41:34It's really interesting and, I think, good fun.
41:37This is a yew cutting I took certainly no more than ten years ago.
41:40But you can see it's got a lovely straight stem.
41:43And this lends itself to a standard.
41:45A standard is anything that is grown on a bare, clean, straight trunk.
41:50It could be a ball, it could be a box,
41:53it could be a dancing bear or a kangaroo.
41:59To create a standard,
42:00the first thing I'm going to do is clean off that trunk.
42:08I want it to be a ball on an upright,
42:11and I want that to be the bottom of the ball,
42:13and that's the top.
42:15So the first thing I'm going to do is take this top off.
42:22Obviously that doesn't look anything like a globe,
42:27but these shoots here, these little ones,
42:30as they grow out,
42:31then we get the outside,
42:33and the harder we clip the funnel shape,
42:35the denser it will be.
42:36And it doesn't matter if it's empty on the inside,
42:38which it will be, because the light will be stopped.
42:41Actually, that's not bad to begin with.
42:43So the next stage for that is to put into a pot
42:46or into the ground,
42:47give it light, feed it,
42:49and encourage it to grow.
42:55Yew, along with box and holly,
42:58regenerates from old wood,
42:59so you can cut it back as hard as you like,
43:02and it will regrow successfully.
43:05Now I've chosen this
43:06because it wouldn't be hard to make this into a ball.
43:09And you can see,
43:10because other plants have been around it,
43:12it's even started to grow inwards a bit.
43:13So rather than cut it back very hard,
43:16I'm going to use shears and clip it.
43:26And in this case,
43:27I don't need to go right back to the old wood
43:29because the basic shape is there.
43:38Right.
43:39You can see that I've put all these into bags.
43:42Plants in a bag will keep perfectly well,
43:44but for growing things on,
43:45they either have to be in the ground or in a pot.
43:49You want a pot that's big enough for it to grow into.
43:52So something like that.
43:54Really good drainage holes.
43:56Yew is tough.
43:58Yew will take light.
43:59Yew will take shade.
44:00It will grow in almost any soil,
44:02although it's happiest in lime.
44:04So if you've got chalk or limestone,
44:07that's great.
44:07But it will not take sitting in damp.
44:11It must drain.
44:12So this is a very, very gritty mix.
44:16So we'll put this in here like that.
44:24Take this out.
44:28OK, that's good.
44:30There.
44:40Now, those roots aren't anchored in the pot,
44:43and all those tiny little new roots will break if it moves.
44:47So we need to put a cane in there like that.
44:51And throughout the rest of this year,
44:53this will need watering and feeding weekly.
44:56But in order to get really good topiary shape,
44:59it does need light.
45:04This should create the shape I want
45:06in about three to five years,
45:09and it will get better and better.
45:12Now, go into one of your gardens.
45:14It belongs to the Driscoll family,
45:16and they live in Cheshire.
45:20Hi, I'm Owen.
45:21I'm Emily.
45:22And I'm Liam.
45:23Welcome to our garden in Macclesfield.
45:26It's a relatively small space,
45:28maybe 10 by 5 metres,
45:30and enclosed by tall fences
45:31and rows of terrace housing.
45:34With young kids,
45:35it was a place to play and have fun.
45:38As the kids got older,
45:39and I got the bug for gardening,
45:41it increasingly became a place for flowers and colour,
45:44though it was still a little untidy.
45:47We paid attention to making space for wildlife,
45:51creating lots of interest for Emily and Leo.
45:53We have a little wildlife pond.
45:55It has shallow edges to allow any animals
45:58that might fall in to climb out.
46:00We have been impressed by the variety
46:02of different visitors to our garden.
46:11But there was one visitor
46:12that we never thought we'd see in our garden,
46:14with it being all fenced up
46:16and barricaded by rows of houses.
46:21Then, one night,
46:22we spotted this on our security camera
46:24at the front of our house.
46:28A hedgehog!
46:29Could it get round the back to the garden?
46:34Dad made a couple of openings in the fence.
46:38One day, this summer,
46:40in the middle of the day,
46:42we saw this.
46:43We didn't know what it was doing.
46:47Turns out,
46:48it was building a nest.
46:53There was more than one hedgehog
46:55in the nest,
46:56which meant hoglets.
46:58We started putting out hedgehog food
47:01in a feeding station
47:02to keep the cats from eating it.
47:11We think they appreciate it.
47:18We hope you enjoyed your visit
47:20to our garden too.
47:47How exciting it is to have hedgehogs
47:50in the garden,
47:51and it is.
47:51It's fantastic.
47:53Hedgehogs are very much nocturnal animals,
47:55so if you see them during the day
47:57and if they're feeding
47:59and drinking during the day,
48:00it normally is an indication
48:02that they are in distress.
48:03And last summer,
48:04we saw a lot of that
48:05because it was so hot and dry.
48:07So, ideally,
48:08put out food and water at dusk
48:10and it should be gone by the morning.
48:13OK.
48:13At this time of year,
48:15we sow a lot of seeds,
48:17they germinate,
48:18and then the next stage of the process
48:20is pricking out.
48:21And what I thought I'd do
48:23is make it really clear
48:25what pricking out is,
48:26why you do it,
48:27and when you do it.
48:29First thing is,
48:30what it is,
48:31is you take a seedling
48:32and you move it on to the next stage
48:35because if you have a mass of seedlings
48:37in a seed tray like this,
48:38these are Tithonias,
48:39they're all competing for space
48:40and nutrition,
48:42and they would never develop
48:43into good plants.
48:45Now,
48:46pricking out
48:47shouldn't take place
48:48until you can see
48:49the true leaves.
48:50So,
48:51when a seed germinates,
48:53it produces
48:54what's called
48:55a seed leaf.
48:57And you can see here,
48:58this is a tray of cosmos.
49:00These very strappy leaves
49:02look absolutely
49:03nothing like cosmos.
49:05They are just
49:06to give the plant
49:07enough energy
49:09for the roots to develop.
49:10Once the roots
49:11have got established,
49:12you then get the next stage,
49:14which is a true leaf.
49:15And if you look
49:16very closely,
49:17you can see
49:18the true leaves
49:19are just beginning
49:20to appear.
49:21And even when they're tiny,
49:23absolutely minute,
49:25they look like
49:26the parent leaves.
49:27You can see it actually
49:28better here
49:28on this parsley.
49:30The difference
49:31between the seed leaves,
49:33which are here,
49:34which basically
49:35are strappy and simple,
49:36and the true leaf,
49:37which looks like
49:38a flat leaf parsley,
49:39is there.
49:41Finally,
49:41tythonia.
49:42You've got
49:43these spatulate
49:45seed leaves
49:46and then the pointed
49:47parent leaf.
49:48And again,
49:49it means it's got roots.
49:50So,
49:51these two trays
49:52are ready for pricking out
49:53and that one is not.
49:54So,
49:55you need something
49:56to put them in
49:57and you need something
49:58to carefully
49:59tease them out with.
50:00In the past,
50:01I've used a pen knife,
50:02I've used pencil,
50:03whatever works.
50:05Take hold
50:06of the seedling
50:06by a leaf.
50:10Never hold it
50:11by the stem.
50:12It's very easy
50:13to crush it
50:13or break it,
50:14whereas if you damage
50:15the leaf,
50:16it can grow another one.
50:18There you go.
50:20It's got quite a good
50:21root system.
50:22It's always quite a surprise
50:23that they have
50:24so many roots.
50:26Now,
50:26I've prepared individual
50:27plugs for this
50:29and I'm just going to
50:30pop that in there
50:31like that.
50:32I'm not going to
50:32brutally press it down
50:34and it means that
50:35each individual seedling
50:37gets a real chance
50:38to grow.
50:39Now,
50:40what I'm pricking
50:41them out into
50:42is a compost mix
50:43that has a little bit
50:45more goodness in it
50:45than the seed mix.
50:46You could just use
50:48a peat-free compost
50:49on its own.
50:49I tend to add
50:50some sieved garden compost,
50:52a little bit of leaf mould
50:53and some sieved
50:56garden soil.
50:57Not a lot,
50:57no more than about
50:585% of the mix,
50:59but the bacteria
51:01and the fungi in that
51:02will start interacting
51:03with the roots.
51:04So when I plant it out
51:05into my garden,
51:06already there is
51:08that symbiosis
51:09between the two
51:10and they tend
51:11to grow away better.
51:13Sometimes,
51:14say for example
51:15with tomatoes,
51:16I prick out
51:17into a small pot
51:18straight away
51:18because they're going
51:19to be quite big plants
51:20and they grow fast
51:21but there is no
51:22perfect way
51:23as long as
51:24each individual seedling
51:25has room
51:26to develop
51:27into a nice
51:28strong plant.
51:30Don't try
51:31and rush it.
51:32Regard it
51:32as something
51:33that is part
51:34of the process
51:34of the life
51:35of the plant
51:36and you
51:37are almost privileged
51:38to be part
51:39of that too.
51:41And to me,
51:42that's the essence
51:42of gardening.
51:43That's really
51:44what gardening
51:45is all about.
52:09I know a lot of people
52:11get confused
52:13about pruning hydrangeas.
52:16The most common type
52:18of hydrangea
52:18that you see
52:19is hydrangea
52:20macrophylla
52:21with mop heads,
52:22great big round heads
52:24or lace caps
52:25which are more open
52:26with masses of petals
52:28but with always
52:30a touch of elegance.
52:31Now this is a lace cap
52:33variety called
52:34Lanarth white
52:35and will give you
52:36a display
52:36from late summer
52:37into autumn.
52:39Now the first thing
52:40is do not prune
52:41off the spent flowers
52:43in autumn
52:43because they trap
52:45warmer air inside
52:46and they just slightly
52:47protect the plant
52:49particularly
52:49in very early spring
52:51from frost.
52:53But now we're
52:53coming to April
52:54as soon as you get
52:55vigorous new growth
52:56you can prune them back.
52:57So at very least
52:59take off
53:00the spent flowers
53:02from last year.
53:03However,
53:04it's not a bad idea
53:06while you're doing this
53:07to take a look
53:07and say okay
53:08am I happy with it
53:09I'm happy with the shape
53:10the size
53:12for example
53:13this here
53:14is growing out
53:15over the border
53:16and I don't really want that
53:17so I'm going to cut it back.
53:19Now when you're pruning
53:20this type of hydrangea
53:22go right back in
53:23and prune at the base
53:25and that will encourage
53:26new shoots to grow.
53:27So to remove this
53:29I'm going to go in here
53:37young wood
53:38young wood
53:38will be vigorous
53:40healthy
53:41and produce more flowers
53:43but remove
53:44no more than a third
53:45of the plant
53:46taking the oldest growth
53:48when you do
53:50and if you do that
53:52every year
53:52it will renew itself
53:54over three years
53:55so none of them
53:56would be more than
53:56four years old.
54:00So that's the first
54:01type of hydrangea
54:03but
54:04to make life complicated
54:05there's another kind
54:07and we're going to prune
54:25different type
54:26of hydrangea
54:27the first thing you'll notice
54:28there are no flowers on it
54:29the second thing is
54:29the growth is very different
54:30it's vigorous
54:31it's upright
54:32you've got different
54:33coloured stems
54:34and this is a hydrangea
54:36paniculata
54:36now one of the features
54:39of hydrangea paniculata
54:41and there are a number
54:42of different varieties
54:43is that all the flowers
54:45are produced
54:46on growth
54:48that has happened
54:49this growing year
54:51so for example
54:52these seemingly new shoots
54:53the sort of
54:55burgundy coloured
54:55red ones
54:56are last year's growth
54:57and the woody growth
55:00is previous years
55:01I planted this
55:02about ten years ago
55:02some of this
55:03could be ten years old
55:05so nothing that you see
55:07will carry any flowers
55:09at all this year
55:10so I'm going to prune
55:11this back to a framework
55:13which is pretty much
55:14the old growth
55:21unlike the lace caps
55:22and the mop heads
55:23which are fundamentally
55:25rounded or flattened
55:26these are conical
55:28they look like a
55:29squirty ice cream
55:30put into a cone
55:31and also
55:32unlike the lace caps
55:34and the mop heads
55:35which are very particular
55:36about the pH of the soil
55:38paniculatas will stay white
55:40whatever the soil
55:41and they're very forgiving
55:42so they're great
55:51the new growth
55:52will come
55:53from these points
55:55they'll grow out here
55:57and we'll have
55:57these wonderful
55:58ice cream cones
56:00of flower
56:01from August onwards
56:02well
56:04that was very simple
56:05didn't take long
56:06but it's a good job
56:07and here are some
56:08good jobs for you
56:09this weekend
56:21everybody loves sunflowers
56:23and they're a great plant
56:25to grow with children
56:27now's a good time
56:28to start them
56:28they're big seeds
56:30so can go into a pot
56:31rather than a seed tray
56:32I use two seeds per pot
56:36simply pressing them
56:37into the compost
56:38and then remove
56:40the weaker of the two
56:41which guarantees
56:42I have one really
56:44healthy plant
56:44they need to be watered
56:47and then go somewhere
56:48warm to germinate
56:57Easter is a really good time
56:59to get out any garden
57:01furniture made out of wood
57:02and give it a once over
57:04if it's not painted
57:06consider giving it
57:07a coat of linseed oil
57:08to protect it
57:09and if it is painted
57:11rub it down
57:12remove any loose
57:13or flaking paint
57:14and then give it
57:15a fresh coat
57:15and it'll be ready
57:16for those long
57:17summer evenings
57:24now is a very good moment
57:26to divide herbaceous perennials
57:29because they've started
57:30to grow
57:31and will recover quickly
57:32from any movement
57:34I'm going to split this hosta
57:36into two
57:37lift it out the ground
57:39simply chop it with a spade
57:41replant half
57:42and that gives me another fresh plant
57:45to add elsewhere
57:57good boy
57:58no come on
58:00well I'm afraid that's it for today
58:02but it's Easter
58:04Easter when we can all get out
58:06into the garden
58:07maybe go and visit a lovely garden
58:09see friends
58:10and just this sense
58:12of the garden
58:14and spring to come
58:15and summer to follow
58:16opening out in front of us
58:19but for the moment
58:20that's all from Longweather
58:21and I'll see you next time
58:22bye-bye
58:23bye-bye
58:35my
58:36you
58:37bye-bye
58:37bye-bye
58:45I'll see you next time
58:47bye-bye
58:47bye-bye
58:47bye-bye
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