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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.
14:01BELL RINGS
14:05Okay?
14:07Good boy.
14:08Come on.
14:11BELL RINGS
14:14BELL RINGS
14:29I've added a bit of compost to this raised bed because I'm about to plant up a bed for
14:36cut flowers and I'm adding in some ranunculus, ranunculus asiaticus or sometimes called the
14:42Persian buttercup. But unlike the buttercups you see in fields with 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
15:08in summer. I'm going to space these out about six inches apart and the thing about cut flowers
15:19is that you 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 to
15:30grow tall. You almost want to force them up so you get decent stumbling. Choose a spot that's
15:38relatively shady and soil that is well-drained, but enriched.
15:54The thing to remember when you're growing ranunculus is that they're half hardy. So if you live in a very
16:00sheltered area that hardly ever gets frosts and if it does it's just a touch of it, they may well
16:05overwinter
16:06and they're a perennial and they will come back. But anywhere that reliably gets two or three
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
17:04can graduate for a 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 beds and they're
18:39brilliant for the house. However, you don't need special beds. Just to pick a small bunch of flowers
18:45from your garden is an utter joy. But for some people, it's more than a joy. It becomes transformative.
18:51It changes their lives. And I think that's absolutely the case for Hattie Colvin. And we went to visit
18:57her at her home in Carmarthenshire. Flowers are a passion of mine. And I think the more I grow,
19:08the more obsessed I become. I don't think I'll ever have enough.
19:15Just seeing something go from nothing through to a huge display of wondrous colour,
19:22I think is just something really special.
19:31My name's Hattie and this is my flower farm in Clondilo, Wales.
19:39I'm unapologetically in love with flowers. I could not be without dahlias. So this flower is one of my
19:49favourites. I can never pick an actual favourite. It's called Dunaj or Dunay, depending on how you
19:55pronounce it. It's a pom-pom variety. I love the kind of intensity of the pink colour on the very
20:02small
20:03sort of ball-shaped form and the incredible formation of petals. The pom-pom shape is better
20:09for cutting because they tend to have a bit of a longer vase life cut at the right stage. You
20:14cut
20:14before the centre opens and then it'll last a lot longer.
20:24This one is preference. Preference is incredibly prolific. It does need quite a lot of food and
20:32nutrition, mostly because it produces so many flowers. It just gets a bit tired by the end of
20:38the season if you don't keep it topped up. So our soil here is very clay, so I spend a
20:45lot of time
20:45making sure that the soil is looked after. I use lots of different types of farmyard manure to mulch
20:53the beds. Every time I plant, I make sure that I replenish some of the goodness back into the soil.
21:00When I start seedlings, I use a seaweed feed as well when they're in their trays. Again,
21:08just to make sure that they have a really great start to life. And I find that keeping the plants
21:13as healthy as they can possibly be means that they're more resistant to pests.
21:26I used to live and work in London as an accountant. I did get a lot of joy out of
21:31what I did, but it
21:32wasn't for me. My partner was in Wales and I felt very much the pull towards being here in somewhere
21:39that was back to nature and slower paced. I was commuting back and forwards to London,
21:47so I 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,
22:08ooh, what if I could grow cut flowers? In three years, I've ended up with 27 20-metre beds
22:18and polytunnels as well. So yeah, it escalated fairly quickly.
22:29You don't need a huge amount of space to get started with a cutting garden. And actually,
22:35if you choose carefully what you grow, you could have quite a few vases of flowers throughout the
22:41summer to enjoy. So I very quickly learned in my journey of growing that some flowers are much
22:50easier to grow than others. One that is generally pretty steadfast is cosmos. It comes in some really
22:58beautiful shades. It's easy to germinate. And then they're fairly indestructible, I find.
23:06This is a really good example of a cosmos that's actually been pollinated already by the bees.
23:12So you see it's gone quite fuzzy on the inside. And that sadly means that I can't use it as
23:18a cut
23:19flower because it won't really last and it'll drop its petals. But it does mean that the bees have had
23:24a
23:24lovely time. Scabias are really lovely at cut flower. They're very generous with how many stems you get.
23:40This is called Black Knight. And I did once have somebody ask me if I could give them the flower
23:45with the hundreds and thousands on it because it's got the white little sprinkles on the top.
23:50You also get these lovely seed heads, which you can either dry or actually use in an arrangement as well.
24:04For anybody that's thinking about starting up their own cutting garden, I'd probably recommend
24:09snapdragons. I think they're really majestic looking and always have a really amazing scent.
24:15A perennial option, I would definitely go for a geom, something like totally tangerine, which is lovely,
24:22beautiful colour, and it actually keeps flowering from May. Slows down as it gets to later in the summer,
24:28but you do still keep getting flowers. And I think obviously you'd have to have some dahlias.
24:37As a flower grower, you're very much hailed as living the dream and wafting about in the field with a
24:44truck and a floaty dress, gathering flowers. One thing that I have definitely learned is doing this
24:52is a tough, tough job. All of the critters want to get to your flowers before you do,
24:58the weather wants to destroy things. It is not all glamour.
25:09When I'm arranging with flowers, I would tend to find something in the field that does really
25:15inspire me 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,
26:02which this variety isn't normally.
26:08This feels like a really, really lovely representation of what's flowering right now
26:13in the field. It's all of my favourite colour palettes.
26:25It feels like a huge privilege to get to do what I do for a living. I often find it
26:31really hard to
26:32believe that my slightly random dream that came to me on the motorway is actually now a very beautiful reality.
27:19I think it's really encouraging that there are more and more people like Hattu that are local,
27:24that have got a wide variety of really interesting plants, something I would suggest we all support.
27:30Now it's Easter and traditionally the main Easter job in the garden was planting potatoes.
27:36You get your potatoes in the ground now. First early should be ready to harvest around about June.
27:42Second early is July, a main crop in the early autumn.
27:47This is a variety called Charlotte. It's a second early and these have chitted.
27:53And you can see, look, that's a really good example of a chitted potato.
27:57You get this knobbly growth and it speeds up the growth and therefore the harvest.
28:02Now, how you grow them depends on how much space you've got. If you've got plenty of space,
28:07you've got an allotment, it's a brilliant idea to dig a furrow or a trench, put them in the bottom
28:12and then heat the soil back up to make a ridge over them. If you're short of space or you're
28:18growing in raised beds,
28:19like I am, it couldn't be easier. All 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. If you're growing them in a raised
28:45bed,
28:45you can grow them much closer together than you would in rows. Potatoes really respond to feeding.
28:54So if you've got any compost or any manure, anything, any soil improver,
29:01it's really worth adding to the soil and that will definitely increase the harvest.
29:11Here. Here. No, Ned. Come here. Come here. Look. Good boy.
29:23Break over to cover them.
29:29Hopefully, when I come to harvest them, we shall have a whole mass of new potatoes and, for Ned,
29:37a whole mass of new balls to harvest come July. At least, that's what he thinks. Right. I'm going to
29:47use
29:47this ground because nothing will appear for a few weeks' time. But I'm going to grow a catch crop
29:54and the fastest growing crop to grow at this time of year is radish. And radish will germinate
30:01within a week and be ready to harvest within six weeks before they get crowded out by the foliage of
30:07potatoes. Broadcast over the surface, it just means sprinkle them widely. Try and do it reasonably evenly.
30:19Put the rake over them again to slightly lightly cover them.
30:30I've got these extra sea potatoes, but I'm not going to waste them because I want to grow some in
30:33pots.
30:41This is a recycled container. You can see I've drilled holes in the bottom.
30:46You need peat-free compost. Put it in the bottom, not right full up.
30:55That will do to start with. What you need is at most three and, to be honest, two will be
31:04plenty in there.
31:04But the truth is three wouldn't give me any bigger harvest. The more you put in,
31:10the smaller potatoes you'll get. And that should produce you between about 10 and 20 potatoes.
31:19Enough for a couple of meals. A treat. Just cover them up. Put a little bit over the top of
31:25them.
31:26Don't fill it to the top. As the new growth comes, fill on top of it.
31:31That means roots will grow from the stems and you'll get more potatoes.
31:35Keep it well watered. Make sure it's not sitting in a puddle, so maybe lift it a little bit off
31:40the 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
31:57or just because you like spuds, even if you've got very limited space.
32:01Now, we went to see Tom Stimson. I don't know if he grows potatoes,
32:06but 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 in the garden,
32:19surrounded by nature and beautiful flowers. Just perfect.
32:29Hi, I'm Tom, and this is my small town garden in Ely in Cambridgeshire, and it's all about pots.
32:44I think very often there's a misconception that if you have a small space, you should have just
32:49small pots and that's not true. It's amazing how many pots you can fit into a relatively tiny, tiny space.
32:58One of my favourite things to do is build up displays of pots on tabletops. And I've got four or
33:05five
33:05tabletops that I sort of rotate and use in different areas of the garden at 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.
33:26Because that means you can create great floral displays and a little bit of structure and drama.
33:39This is muscari armeniacum, which is a muscari I grow every single year. It's super reliable,
33:49easy to grow, and I love the intensity of the blue colour. They require minimal water, bulbs on the
33:56whole tend to prefer it to be on the dry side. So planted it in the autumn into really free
34:01draining
34:02compost. Once we get into February, green shoots start to appear. And then with a little bit of
34:07sunshine, once we get into March, an eruption of blue. One of the ways to keep your pots of muscari
34:13flowering longer is to deadhead. And it's really important not just to pinch here, but to pinch right
34:19down at the base, remove the stem, just discard it. And you'll find that will encourage all the flower
34:25buzz to keep coming, and for it to flower for a longer period of time.
34:39Growing in pots is really straightforward. So it all starts with what's at the bottom of the pot first,
34:45so to make sure you've got some crocs. And I then put a small layer of grit just over that.
34:51Then it's
34:52about the potting medium. So I use a peat-free, general purpose potting compost, nothing too fancy,
34:58but I'll always add a little bit of grit. So if I'm using it for pots of bulbs, like this
35:03one here,
35:04I will probably add around 60 percent compost to 40 percent grit. And I think that's absolutely key,
35:12because the importance of drainage for the bulbs is so important, and you'll have much better results
35:18if the compost can remain just moist rather than sodden. For other varieties of plants,
35:23biolas, primulas, I won't add so much grit, probably about just 10 percent, just to aid that drainage a
35:29little bit. But they're much more tolerant to wet conditions. And then as we get into them growing in the
35:35spring, is when you tend to look at the moisture levels a little bit more closely. And then as things
35:41start to grow and start to bud up, I'll then start twice fortnightly feed with some 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. I have to say they're one of my new faves.
36:11I just love them. They have this wonderful sort of grass-like foliage. And I love the chaos of the
36:17stems really, how they grow in whichever way they choose really. And I love the fact that they move
36:24and sway in the breeze. And one of my absolute favourite things about it is the reverse of the
36:30petals have a gorgeous stripe down the 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
36:49wet. It never drains away totally. There's always a little puddle of water underneath the bottom of
36:55the pot. I found over the years, one of the best things to use is just tile spaces. So when
37:02you
37:03place your pot on them, you can't see them. But it just allows a few millimetres of air between the
37:09surface of the table and the bottom of the pot. And it just means the water can drain away. And
37:13that's
37:13the one way I get them through the winter.
37:24This is a variety of Narcissae called Polar Hunter. A relatively new variety, but rapidly becoming one
37:31of my favourite ones to grow. It has the wonderful fruity fragrance, quite unlike any other scented
37:38variety of Narcissae. And it's a beautiful colour. It starts off a limey cream colour as it opens,
37:46and then gradually fades to a creamy white. I very often cut a few stems and just have by the
37:52side of
37:53my bed because I love waking up to the gorgeous scent in the morning. It's a brilliant one for pots,
37:59but to give it a little bit of extra support, I just add a few hazel twigs in. I love
38:03doing that
38:04because it looks natural. It's absolutely gorgeous. What do you say to people who don't
38:08like defodils? They should go and get a life.
38:16So as we come into mid-spring, I start to think about what's going in the pots for the summer.
38:22And a key variety for me are dahlias. I absolutely love them. They're brilliant for providing colour
38:28from mid-summer through to the first frost, so great value. The tubers are nice and big,
38:34so I'm planting into quite a big pot. If your tubers are a little bit smaller, so they're fresh stock,
38:40then I'd probably say plant them in a three-litre-sized pot and get them to grow and shoot in
38:45there
38:45before planting out into a bigger pot or into the border. Peat-free compost, I've added a bit of
38:51grit for extra drainage. And it's important with dahlias that the crown sits just above the soil
38:57surface. Pots for me are a key element to my gardening life. When you have a small space,
39:06and if you love plants, pots are essential to add interest, drama, impact, colour, abundance.
39:38Like Tom, I grow masses of spring bulbs in pots. This time of year, mainly full of narcissi and tulips,
39:47and the great thing about them is you have these splashes of colour that you can move around
39:51and assemble. And by the way, if you've not seen this daffodil before, it's called Rip Van Winkle,
39:57with this great sort of splay of flower, which is a little bit heavy for the stem, so it's not
40:03so
40:03much drooping as sprawling in an elegant way, and certainly looks fantastic when grown in a pot like
40:11this. And it's not just spring bulbs that look good. We've got bay here with rosemary. I've got pots
40:18in shady areas with ivy and ferns. Right across the year and right across the garden, there's always a place
40:26for pot.
40:35Go on.
40:40Aha! You've got it. You've got it.
40:56Now, this was where we had soft root until this winter, because I've brought into here
41:03most of the yew cuttings that I took about 10 years ago. The reason I took the yew cuttings were
41:10partly to
41:10replace the box that got box blight, and I want an evergreen dense hedge, and partly because yew makes
41:18wonderful topiary, and I love topiary. So this gives me the raw material for hedges and topiary, and even
41:25clip shrubs, which I've got in the woodland border. And if you had to buy them, they're really expensive.
41:31So to grow your own is saving you a lot of money. It's really interesting, and I think good fun.
41:37This is a yew cutting I took certainly no more than 10 years ago, but you can see it's got
41:42a lovely
41:42straight stem, and this lends itself to a standard. A standard is anything that is grown on a bare,
41:49clean, straight trunk. It could be a ball, it could be a box, it could be a dancing bear or
41:56a kangaroo.
41:59To create a standard, the first thing I'm going to do is clean off that trunk.
42:08I want it to be a ball on an upright, and I want that to be the bottom of the
42:12ball,
42:13and that's the top. So the first thing I'm going to do is take this top off.
42:22Obviously that doesn't look anything like a globe, but these shoots here, these little ones,
42:30as they grow out, then we get the outside, and the harder we clip the funnel shape, the denser it
42:36will
42:36be. And it doesn't matter if it's empty on the inside, which it will be, because the light will
42:40be stopped. Actually that's not bad to begin with. So the next stage for that is to put into a
42:45pot or into
42:46the ground, give it light, feed it, and encourage it to grow.
42:55You, along with box and holly, regenerates from old wood, so you can cut it back as hard as you
43:02like, and it will regrow successfully. Now I've chosen this because it wouldn't be hard to make
43:08this into a ball. And you can see, because other plants have been around it, it's even started to
43:12grow inwards a bit. So rather than cut it back very hard, I'm going to use shears and clip it.
43:26In this case, I don't need to go right back to the old wood, because the basic shape is there.
43:39Right, you can see that I've put all these into bags. Plants in a bag will keep perfectly well,
43:44but for growing things on, they either have to be in the ground or in a pot.
43:49You want a pot that's big enough for it to grow into. So something like that, really good drainage
43:55holes. Yew is tough. Yew will take light, you will take shade. It'll grow in almost any soil,
44:02although it's happiest in lime. So if you've got chalk or limestone, that's great. But it will not
44:09take sitting in damp. It must drain. So this is a very, very gritty mix. So we'll put this in
44:18here like that.
44:24Take this out.
44:28Okay, that's good.
44:40Now, those roots aren't anchored in the pot, and all those tiny little new roots will break
44:46if it moves. So we need to put a cane in there like that. And throughout the rest of this
44:52year,
44:53this will need watering and feeding weekly. But in order to get really good topiary shape, it does need light.
45:04This should create the shape I want in about three to five years, and it will get better and better.
45:12Now, we're going to one of your gardens. It belongs to the Driscoll family, and they live in Cheshire.
45:20Hi, I'm Owen.
45:22I'm Emily.
45:22And I'm Liam. Welcome to our garden in Macclesfield.
45:26It's a relatively small space, maybe 10 by 5 metres, and enclosed by tall fences and rows of terrace housing.
45:34With young kids, it was a place to play and have fun. As the kids got older, and I got
45:40the bug for gardening,
45:41it increasingly became a place for flowers and colour, though it was still a little untidy.
45:47We paid attention to making space for wildlife, creating lots of interest for Emily and Leo.
45:53We have a little wildlife pond. It has shallow edges to allow any animals that might fall in
45:59to climb out. We have been impressed by the variety of different visitors to our garden.
46:11But there was one visitor that we never thought we'd see in our garden, with it being all fenced up
46:16and barricaded by rows of houses. Then, one night, we spotted this on our security camera at the front of
46:25our house.
46:28A hedgehog! Could it get round the back to the garden?
46:34Dad made a couple of openings in the fence.
46:38One day, this summer, in the middle of the day, we saw this.
46:43We didn't know what it was doing.
46:47Turns out it was building a nest.
46:53There was more than one hedgehog in the nest, which meant hoglets.
46:58We started putting out hedgehog food in a feeding station to keep the cats from eating it.
47:11We think they appreciate it.
47:18We hope you enjoyed your visit to our garden, too.
47:22We hope you enjoyed your visit to our garden.
47:50And it is. It's fantastic.
47:53Hedgehogs are very much nocturnal animals,
47:55so if you see them during the day,
47:57and if they're feeding and drinking during the day,
48:00it normally is an indication that they are in distress.
48:03And last summer we saw a lot of that because it was so hot and dry.
48:07So ideally, put out food and water at dusk,
48:10and it should be gone by the morning.
48:12OK, at this time of year, we sow a lot of seeds, they germinate,
48:18and then the next stage of the process is pricking out.
48:21And what I thought I'd do is make it really clear what pricking out is,
48:26why you do it and when you do it.
48:29First thing, what it is, is you take a seedling
48:32and you move it on to the next stage,
48:35because if you have a mass of seedlings in a seed tray like this,
48:38these are tythonias, they're all competing for space and nutrition,
48:42and they would never develop into good plants.
48:45Now, pricking out shouldn't take place until you can see the true leaves.
48:50So, when a seed germinates, it produces what's called a seed leaf.
48:57And you can see here, this is a tray of cosmos.
49:00These very strappy leaves look absolutely nothing like cosmos.
49:05They are just to give the plant enough energy for the roots to develop.
49:10Once the roots have got established, you then get the next stage, which is a true leaf.
49:15And if you look very closely, you can see the true leaves are just beginning to appear.
49:21And even when they're tiny, absolutely minute, they look like the parent leaves.
49:27You can see it actually better here on this parsley.
49:30The difference between the seed leaves, which are here, which basically are strappy and simple,
49:36and the true leaf, which looks like a flat leaf parsley, is there.
49:41Finally, tythonia.
49:42You've got these spatulate seed leaves and then the pointed parent leaf.
49:48And again, it means it's got roots.
49:50So, these two trays are ready for pricking out and that one is not.
49:54So, you need something to put them in and you need something to carefully tease them out with.
50:00In the past, I've used a pen knife, I've used a pencil, whatever works.
50:05Take hold of the seedling by a leaf.
50:10Never hold it by the stem.
50:11It's very easy to crush it or break it.
50:14Whereas if you damage the leaf, it can grow another one.
50:18There you go.
50:20It's got quite a good root system.
50:22It's always quite a surprise that they have so many roots.
50:26Now, I've prepared individual plugs for this.
50:29And I'm just going to pop that in there like that.
50:32I'm not going to brutally press it down.
50:34And it means that each individual seedling gets a real chance to grow.
50:40Now, what I'm pricking them out into is a compost mix
50:43that has a little bit more goodness in it than the seed mix.
50:46You could just use a peat-free compost on its own.
50:49I tend to add some sieved garden compost, a little bit of leaf mould,
50:54and some sieved garden soil.
50:57Not a lot, no more than about 5% of the mix.
51:00But the bacteria and the fungi in that will start interacting with the roots.
51:04So when I plant it out into my garden, already there is that symbiosis between the two.
51:11And they tend to grow away better.
51:13Sometimes, say for example with tomatoes, I prick out into a small pot straight away.
51:19Because they're going to be quite big plants and they grow fast.
51:21But there is no perfect way.
51:23As long as each individual seedling has room to develop into a nice strong plant.
51:30Don't try and rush it.
51:32Regard it as something that is part of the process of the life of the plant.
51:36And you are almost privileged to be part of that too.
51:41And to me, that's the essence of gardening.
51:43That's really what gardening is all about.
52:09I know a lot of people get confused about pruning hydrangeas.
52:16The most common type of hydrangea that you see is hydrangea macrophylla,
52:21with mop heads, great big round heads.
52:24Or lace caps, which are more open, with masses of petals,
52:28but with always a touch of elegance.
52:32Now this is a lace cap variety called lanarth white,
52:35and will give you a display from late summer into autumn.
52:39Now the first thing is, do not prune off the spent flowers in autumn,
52:43because they trap warmer air inside and they just slightly protect the plant,
52:49particularly in very early spring from frost.
52:53But now we are coming to April, as soon as you get vigorous new growth,
52:56you can prune them back.
52:57So at very least, take off the spent flowers from last year.
53:04However, it's not a bad idea while you're doing this to take a look and say,
53:08OK, am I happy with it? I'm happy with the shape, the size.
53:12For example, this here is growing out over the border,
53:16and I don't really want that, so I'm going to cut it back.
53:19Now when you're pruning this type of hydrangea,
53:22go right back in and prune at the base,
53:25and that will encourage new shoots to grow.
53:27So, to remove this, I'm going to go in here.
53:37Young wood will be vigorous, healthy and produce more flowers,
53:43but remove no more than a third of the plant,
53:46taking the oldest growth when you do.
53:51And if you do that every year,
53:53it will renew itself over three years,
53:55so none of them will be more than four years old.
54:00So, that's the first type of hydrangea,
54:04but to make life complicated, there's another kind.
54:07And we're going to prune those now.
54:19Now, having pruned a lace cap,
54:24this is a very different type of hydrangea.
54:27The first thing you'll notice is there are no flowers on it.
54:29The second thing is the growth is very different.
54:31It's vigorous, it's upright, you've got different coloured stems,
54:34and this is a hydrangea paniculata.
54:37Now one of the features of hydrangea paniculata,
54:41and there are a number of different varieties,
54:43is that all the flowers are produced on growth
54:48that has happened this growing year.
54:51So, for example, these seemingly new shoots,
54:54the sort of burgundy-coloured red ones,
54:56are last year's growth.
54:58And the woody growth is previous years.
55:01I planted this about ten years ago.
55:02Some of this could be ten years old.
55:05So, nothing that you see will carry any flowers at all this year.
55:10So, I'm going to prune this back to a framework,
55:13which is pretty much the old growth.
55:21Unlike the lace caps and the mop heads,
55:24which are fundamentally rounded or flattened,
55:27these are conical.
55:28They look like a squirty ice cream put into a cone.
55:31And also, unlike the lace caps and the mop heads,
55:35which are very particular about the pH of the soil,
55:38the paniculatas will stay white, whatever the soil,
55:41and they're very forgiving.
55:43So, they're great.
55:51The new growth will come from these points.
55:55They'll grow out here,
55:57and we'll have these wonderful ice cream cones of flower
56:01from August onwards.
56:03Well, that was very simple.
56:05Didn't take long.
56:06But it's a good job.
56:07And here are some good jobs for you this weekend.
56:21Everybody loves sunflowers,
56:23and they're a great plant to grow with children.
56:27Now's a good time to start them.
56:29They're big seeds,
56:30so can go into a pot rather than a seed tray.
56:33I use two seeds per pot,
56:36simply pressing them into the compost,
56:38and then remove the weaker of the two,
56:41which guarantees I have one really healthy plant.
56:45They need to be watered,
56:47and then go somewhere warm to germinate.
56:58Easter is a really good time
56:59to get out any garden furniture made out of wood
57:02and give it a once-over.
57:04If it's not painted,
57:06consider giving it a coat of linseed oil to protect it.
57:09And if it is painted, rub it down,
57:12remove any loose or flaking paint,
57:14and then give it a fresh coat,
57:15and it'll be ready for those long summer evenings.
57:24Now is a very good moment to divide herbaceous perennials,
57:29because they've started to grow
57:31and will recover quickly from any movement.
57:34I'm going to split this hosta into 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 to add elsewhere.
57:58Good boy. No, come on.
58:00Well, I'm afraid that's it for today,
58:02but it's Easter.
58:05Easter when we can all get out into the garden,
58:07maybe go and visit a lovely garden,
58:09see friends,
58:10and just this sense of the garden and spring to come
58:15and summer to follow opening out in front of us.
58:19But for the moment, that's all from Longweather,
58:21and I'll see you next time.
58:22Bye-bye.
58:25Happily four?
58:51In the Valentine's fazendo
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