- 2 weeks ago
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:18hello and welcome to gardeners world it is a beautiful spring day here at damson farm and
00:23the bulbs are just looking absolutely magnificent everywhere I look as I pick through this meadow
00:29I'm having to avoid seedlings there are so many plants that's the wonderful thing about plants
00:33they really do come up everywhere
00:46there you go
00:52even here on this little bit of gravel on the edge of the driveway there are so many different seedlings
00:58coming up but this time of year one of the things that I really love is primrose as a kind
01:04of herald
01:05of spring and they do seed themselves everywhere so I'm actually going to dig some of these up
01:09because as beautiful as they are here they're possibly not in their best position and it's
01:14just a case of of prizing those roots out as intact as you can and now is the perfect time
01:20to divide
01:21them up a bit and plant them in other places so you have that spring herald all around the garden
01:26wherever you can it's just a gentle case of prizing rather than yanking and then hopefully there's a
01:36good root system on these there we go that's a healthy seedling now primroses have a really
01:42interesting way of sharing genetic material making seedlings basically and they have male and female
01:49parts within the flowers but you get two distinct kinds of flowers there are pin eye flowers they're the
01:54female flowers and the thrum eye flowers which have got the male parts nearer the front so this is a
02:00thrum eye and if you look carefully inside that flower you can see the anthers at the front the
02:06female parts will still be in there but they'll be much further back whereas this one
02:13is a pin eye so that's the stigma there that you can see right in the middle of the flower
02:17like a pinhead and that's the female part of the flower so that just means that the plant isn't
02:23going to pollinate itself it will be pollinated with a different plant which gives it more genetic
02:28diversity and hopefully makes healthier seedlings
02:37one of the great things about primroses is as a very early spring flower they're great
02:42for emerging wildlife so things like card bees or hairy footed flower bees or even butterflies that
02:48have overwintered will feed off the nectar in these because they are full of nectar so it makes them
02:53just really valuable if you're trying to extend your pollinator season
03:02now i'm going to leave the rest here because they do look beautiful but there is a spot in the
03:06garden i
03:06have in mind to put these i think they're going to look lovely
03:29this is the area where my primroses are going to go but there's a bit of clearing to do first
03:34so i have been asked by allison who owns damson farm to sort of take on this space and what
03:41i want
03:41to do with it is really turn it into a wildlife focused area of the garden already she has put
03:47a
03:47hedgehog house and insect habitat in this space so it's doing it a little bit but there's so much more
03:53that we can do here so you can see the road is just there and obviously for wildlife that's not
03:58good
03:58because they have the risk of being run over there so if we can create instead a hedge or a
04:04corridor along this edge where they can move through and that will also baffle the sound
04:09of cars as they go by and make the garden feel more peaceful with this sort of thing whatever
04:15you choose whether it's hedging climbers or the plants in the beds it's all about maximizing the
04:21potential for different wildlife so choosing things that have berries that have flowers that have
04:26leaves that are food sources so within this space it's a huge untapped potential
04:42now my instincts as a gardener would be to clear this whole area get all of the ground cover up
04:48turn the soil mulch the soil have a lovely blank canvas and then plant into that but as a wildlife
04:54gardener i have to overrule all of those instincts and recognize these plants what they are which is
05:00lovely native wildflower so there's celandine even this dandelion is so fantastic for bumblebees
05:09so instead i'm going to let this ground cover stay and just carve out little holes into which i can
05:15plant
05:15my primroses you could at this stage also if you wanted divide them into ones that you can spread
05:23all over which i think i'll do because then next year there might be a bit more of a carpet
05:26here
05:28wildlife doesn't like neatness
05:47this is a hazel seedling which is a really beneficial tree to wildlife but there's a big one here
05:54and i really in this space i'm looking to target bird species now we gardeners love to feed the birds
06:03in our gardens but actually the rspb have been looking at this and they've slightly updated their
06:10advice on it the advice now is to feed them safely and feed them seasonally so that means that in
06:16the
06:16spring and the summer rather than putting out seeds and nuts instead it means growing as much of
06:22the wild food sources as you can so berries seeds and even planting things that will bring in the
06:28insects that many birds like to feed on this is particularly important for birds like finches who
06:34are experiencing a lot of disease and that comes from when they all gather on one feeder and green
06:41finches have now been put on the red list and rather than having seeds where they can all gather in
06:45one
06:46space and spread disease having things like rose hips and teasels planted through the garden allows them
06:52to feed at a nice safe distance and hopefully to start to recover and here i really want to make
07:00that difference
07:04what i am going to plant in this space instead of the hazel is
07:10a gelda rose by burnham opulis it's a really really beautiful shrub it's covered in white flowers
07:17which then turn to the most beautiful iridescent red berries perfect for things like red wings and
07:22field fairs and blackbirds i've got three or four of these which i can spread through the space and
07:28create a lovely hedge row even if you have a very small garden this is a really nice choice
07:46there that should settle in now this area is not going to be one big quick sort of makeover but
07:52slowly over the year i'm going to keep adding and adding more wildlife friendly species here so it'll be
07:57lovely to see it transformed by the end of the season now for all of us spring brings this lovely
08:11energy
08:12to the garden but for mina wilson in birmingham it heralds the beginning of a very special flower season
08:22hi my name's mina and welcome to my garden here in the west midlands around these parts
08:27we love a daffodil when i got this garden it was just a patch of green lawn and i knew
08:36i wanted just
08:37to have flowers everywhere i discovered my love of daffodils and i decided i'll just get one daffodil
08:43and before i knew it i had over 120 pots and eight beds filled with daffodils they come in so
08:51many
08:51different shapes and sizes you've got the really small delicate ones and then you've got big trumpets
08:58and then you've also got the ruffles and doubles they're just so many different shapes and sizes
09:04it's not all just a trumpet yellow daffodil that you see on the roadside
09:12so this is a particular favorite of mine is called ballroom bell and probably to most people doesn't look
09:18like your average daffodil when you look at a big boy like this one with its yellow trumpet and yellow
09:23petals and then you've got something as delicate as this with its little hoops and its creaminess
09:30and i think this is really a good one for growing in pots so whether you have a big garden
09:35or just a
09:35balcony there's definitely a daffodil available for everyone
09:42so i just want to share some of my top tips with you and the first one
09:45is after you've watered your daffodils because daffodils love to be in well-drained soil but with
09:52moisture you want to make sure that they're fully drained now i know this might look a little bit
09:57extreme but if you tip the pots onto the side it helps drainage it means they can't get waterlogged as
10:04easily
10:09well squirrels don't always like daffodil bulbs to eat unlike tulips they do like to dig so what i do
10:16with my daffodils that are in pots i just cover them with a cage like this if you're not fancy
10:21like me
10:21you can just use a cage and put it on like that or an upturned basket
10:30so this beautiful daffodil here is called fencourt jewel and it's a multi-headed daffodil
10:38it's got such a delicate scent to it which is absolutely beautiful in the morning like
10:44when i have it in the greenhouse and i open the door up and it hits me full in the
10:48face
10:48there's just nothing better sets me up for the working day
10:54so after a long wet winter in the uk to see their trumpets it's like it sounds the horn of
11:02spring
11:03it brings me such joy and they're just a happy flower
11:09i hope you've enjoyed seeing my daffodils today and i hope you find one to fall in love with really
11:14soon
11:32i love how happy those daffodils made me and i totally understand it at the end of winter
11:37oh the relief of seeing spring flowers if it brings you joy i think then grow it
11:58it's so nice to see your garden in the spring all the structures and everything just looks so beautiful
12:05so what are you doing here so i'm just digging up some of this this is quite established um hack
12:11necloa macra right um and i've got some new beds on the other side of the house so i thought
12:16it would
12:16work there hack necloa is such a good grass it's a really nicely performing one quite neat and quite
12:23small and this is the green form isn't it yeah and it's it's a really long season performer as well
12:32yeah perfect right should we carry it through
12:57so this is your redevelopment area yes yeah i'm quite excited about this having a new area to plant
13:04up yeah what made you want to do it well i think it was the successive hot summers we've been
13:10having
13:10because because there's quite a lot of paving here i've got quite a few metal containers but
13:15i think last summer having to water almost every night it just didn't seem sustainable either from
13:22a time point of view and also from a water point of view the more increasing hose pipe bands in
13:27some
13:27parts of the country means you can't actually yeah water so i guess you're now planting in the ground
13:32instead of in pots yeah exactly there were big slabs and a lot of concrete underneath so this beautiful
13:39soil that's here presumably it took a lot of work to get to that stage yeah so we just used
13:45soil that
13:46came from the garden it's mostly mostly topsoil and brought in a little bit of manure
13:58okay that's the spiraea okay i'm guessing that'll go sort of near the back because that'll get quite
14:04big yes it will i wanted the beds to be winter and early spring focus particularly as this area's near
14:11the house okay so that's a daphne white queen so that winter scented as well that'll be beautiful yeah
14:22this is a brunnera called betty bowering a brunnera is a perennial forget-me-not normally
14:29they're blue so things like jack frost are fairly common but this is a lovely white one and in that
14:34bed it should really bring a sparkle in the spring and then go very very quiet and fade into the
14:40background
14:40through the summer they'll be a really good performer and they're very good in shade so if
14:45you have a difficult shady spot in the garden they're great plants to get hold of if you can
14:56this is a daphne which is a really lovely late winter flowering shrub in this form this is called
15:03white queen what daphne does is it fills the whole air with scent at a time of year when there's
15:09very
15:09little else in flower so it's really really precious for that but they can be a bit tricky
15:14to establish and i have had them die on me before and when you spend a lot of money on
15:19them that's
15:19heartbreaking so when you first plant it just make sure you really look after it for that first year
15:24they don't like to be too wet so don't plant it somewhere that's going to get waterlogged they also
15:29don't like to get too dry so especially for that first year just water it in long dry periods
15:36and they don't like to get too cold so somewhere sheltered and protected like this one by the wall
15:41and i think allison will fleece this and keep it covered until the spring really warms up
15:47and they don't like to be in really hot baking sun either
15:56and they don't like to be in really hot water there we go there we go grow well
16:06so
16:15so
16:29taking plants from containers and putting them in the ground will save you work on watering
16:33in the summer but some of us don't have a chance to do that and if you have a garden
16:37like a balcony
16:37or just some decking or paving that you can't dig up because you rent the property then you will
16:42need to grow in pots and to stop watering becoming a huge problem or the soil from heating up too
16:48much
16:48there are simple tricks that you can use insulating is basically what you're going to try to do and
16:55mulching as well there are really nice environmentally friendly ways of doing this so this is hessian
17:01that you can pick up for free from coffee shops that can be placed on the inside of the pot
17:08itself
17:08so that could work really well another thing that you can use is coir which is used for lining
17:14hanging baskets now that's a really good insulation and quite good structurally as well but what i think
17:22i'm going to use is some sheep's wool so this is material that you can get in packages a lot
17:27more
17:27companies are using sustainable packaging now but you can also buy this as a product and that has an
17:33amazing insulating effect and you can also use it as a mulch as well so really help to prevent moisture
17:40loss from the surface of the soil and keep the temperatures cooler in there but what you don't
17:45want to do is go into a field and collect sheep's wool from the ground because it could have been
17:49treated with dewormers and all kinds of chemicals so really avoid that and go for something that you
17:55know is chemical free and in that vein don't use things like dyed wool because you don't know what
18:01that chemical might be newspaper has ink on it so just think about microplastics think about chemicals
18:07that might leach into the soil especially if you're growing food but cardboard paper wool will all do
18:13a really good job
18:26there we go now that's full i'm going to be planting some peas in there this is a dwarf pea
18:35which is
18:35specifically bred for growing in containers so it should be very very happy here and it will fill the
18:40space through the spring right up until the end of june early july i love these they're one of the
18:49nicest things to grow because they're really easy they're really beautiful the flowers are lovely and
18:54then they're obviously delicious this is a mange two style so you eat everything right so i'm going to
18:59sow these quite densely about three times the depth of a seed is how deep it goes if you're unsure
19:06but
19:06it's always written on the packet so check that and that's going to be really quite filled the idea
19:13being that hopefully we'll get good germination if we do get good germination we can thin and pick the
19:18shoots and eat them because they make a good salad crop and if we don't get good germination we'll still
19:23have enough to fill this pot and because it's vegetables my instinct is to make them slightly neat and
19:30symmetrical you don't really need to do that it might look a little bit excessive having such a
19:36big pot just for little seeds like this but that's very intentional and the idea is it saves me having
19:41to water a bigger pot will hold onto more water a smaller pulp will dry out more quickly so by
19:47putting
19:47these in a nice big generous container hopefully it means i won't need to water it anywhere near as often
19:53still with a vegetable you wouldn't want it to dry out so probably if the weather is very warm
19:57i would still water this every day or every other day but if it was a small pot it might
20:03be twice a
20:03day that you're needing to keep on top of that the other thing about a big pot is it won't
20:09warm up so
20:10quickly either so the temperatures stay a little bit cooler now ordinarily if you were sowing peas you'd
20:16want to put some sort of obelisk in for them to grow up but these are dwarfing peas so they're
20:20not
20:20climbing so this is now done we'll just cover it over give it water to start the germination process
20:26keep it watered until you see the first shoots coming and then these will be harvested by about
20:33june and from then on you then pull the peas out when they've all finished producing their pods
20:37and replace it with a crop that can take a little bit higher temperatures there we go
20:52it's lovely to be thinking of warm summer days with the cold wind but last august joe went to
21:00cornwall lucky man to visit a garden where the planting has specifically been designed to withstand the elements
21:08we may like to be beside the seaside but our plants don't always feel the same
21:15a sea view may be a dream but get it wrong and gardening on the coast can be a nightmare
21:21there's quite a bit to think about strong winds and salt laden air can destroy your dahlias and wreak
21:30havoc with your hemorrhialis so creating windbreaks and choosing plants for the right conditions is
21:36absolutely key to successful gardening in this part of the country
21:42at cruxillic manor in truro annie agnew has mastered this to create a garden that can take
21:48anything the cornish coast can throw at it hi annie beautiful hedges i've got to say yeah they're coming
21:54on come what do you mean coming on they're pretty mature how long have they been in they're 10 years
21:59old so they're not fully grown yet we right at the beginning designed this to try and break up the
22:05space and break up the wind because we live in cornwall and cornwall has got wind cornwall has
22:13wind from every direction possible and particularly here we've got problems with the wind coming up the
22:20valley from the sea and it causes a lot of damage we've lost massive trees i turn up on one
22:26of the
22:26most calmest days of the year totally calm but i can imagine in the winter it must just rip through
22:32here and these hedges they're fantastic because they filter the wind don't they you need this filtered
22:37wind to protect big perennial beds so making the hedges into whirling forms and ovals and long
22:47extensions that wrap around parts of the garden really sorts the wind out but also with the topography of
22:53the the local area you know the hills beyond these sort of rolling shapes of the hedges they just work
22:58beautifully and the different heights they're doing a lot of things these hedges aren't they they're
23:03separating the planting areas too into really distinct planting zones and you've got lots of other evergreen
23:09structural plants here we've used a lot of pittosporum
23:15we've placed them fairly close together so that they make a pseudo hedge but without clipping
23:21without clipping them into one line that's lovely and we've used them in the borders as structural
23:26elements to hold the border together visually and these hoherias those are fantastic they're one of
23:34my favorite plants it's hoheria sextylosa beautiful white starry flowers that the bees love the whole
23:40tree hums for about five weeks what about the rest of the planting what's the rationale behind that the
23:47color schemes what you want to grow yeah well plant greed just wanted i wanted plants from everywhere
23:53in the world um and all kinds that's why the evergreen structures are so important because it controls
24:01the mess basically
24:05what's striking here is the sheer diversity of plants not just growing but thriving and as you move through
24:12each carefully designed environment the character of the planting shifts the colors the forms the entire
24:20mood of the garden evolves around you revealing a new story at every turn this is annie's hot garden
24:29and you can tell there's a microclimate in here it's a walled space and out there the breeze is picking
24:35up
24:35but in here it's incredibly still and there's a lot of exotic plants that are really thriving
24:40we've got hot reds we've got oranges we've got yellows all working together beautifully and things
24:47like this dahlia one of my favorites chat noir really doing its thing it's a lovely cactus form and it's
24:53looking very happy and deep it looks great sitting above this foliage just hovering through this border here
25:08over in this corner we've got a very strong color theme coming through we've got yellows and oranges and
25:15whites and beautiful foliage all mixed in together very exotic planting things like this canna this is
25:22called ra i love the simple yellow flowers the glaucus foliage and this is a ginger lily next to it
25:30again
25:30it's got a really impressive foliage and the flower is just starting to open up here in cornwall the climate
25:38is incredibly mild so annie can leave these plants through the winter in the ground mulch over them and
25:44they'll come up in spring but in a lot of parts of the uk you won't get away with that
25:49but you can grow them
25:50in containers and then put them into a protected spot over winter and bring them on next spring
25:57and one plant i just have to mention while i'm here is that tetrapanax rex at the back the rice
26:04paper
26:04plant now it shows again how mild it is here because it's developed a trunk like a tree or a
26:11large shrub
26:12in colder areas it'll die back you cut it down to the ground and it will come back up again
26:17but it looks
26:18absolutely stunning at that height
26:37now annie calls this her silver border but i'm going to call it her silver green blue and white border
26:45she's really gone with this theme and it works and it's very different to the exotic garment she's
26:51full of vibrant colors it's energizing this is calming it's a very tranquil space and she's chosen plants
26:58with small leaves so there's not big drama small leaves that just work really nicely together and
27:05create a lovely textural balance throughout and it's that that creates the calming mood of this space
27:11so things like this veronic astrum we've got the econops in front there there's some lavender down
27:18there and we've even got pittosporums and they're all working really nicely together and the bees are
27:25just all over these veronic astrums so the wildlife loves it too
27:36beyond the wall garden annie has created another haven for flora and fauna carved out of the hillside
27:43and sheltered by trees wow this pond is stunning and a magnet for wildlife and when you think of
27:52wildlife pond you think oh maybe they're a bit amoebic shaped a little bit messy around the edges a bit
27:57scrappy but here annie has shown that they can be incredibly stylish too and what i like is she's
28:04gone really big with it it fills this space and if you're making a pond go as big as you
28:10can once
28:11you've dug the hole and put the liner in it might look enormous but once you fill the water and
28:17put
28:17some pond plants in the whole space will shrink and annie has been really restrained with the planting
28:23we've got aquatics like the water lilies just covering the water surface there's oxygenators
28:29in there and then marginals around the outside breaking the edge of the pond and one of my
28:34favorites talia del barter over there with architectural foliage it looks wonderful
28:43yeah this is how to do it
28:55as a designer i find annie's process so interesting it started with the hedges that she put in sinuous lines
29:04cutting through the landscape to reduce the wind but also to link with the landscape beyond and to
29:10divide the whole garden up into separate rooms those rooms are all different shapes but she's created
29:16environments in which to grow her favorite plants and it's all about the plants and she said strong
29:23cornish winds no problem at all
29:53i know from experience myself that gardening right by the sea
29:56is not always a holiday but having a greenhouse like this just gives you the luxury of protecting
30:03your plants from all of those elements and this one's full of beautiful things oh and look
30:11these are the brads atomic grape tomato seeds that i soaked last year to get all of the jelly
30:17off them so that they'd be ready to re-sow and look here they are coming up beautifully ready to
30:22be
30:23picked out i reckon it's nice to see it all happening isn't it in the spring and then by the
30:28end of
30:28this year there'll be more tomatoes to harvest more seeds from but what many of us have actually is
30:33packets of seeds we buy them if you're like me you'll buy way too many you'll use some and there'll
30:39be
30:39lots left over and you're not always sure whether they're viable or not now some like tomatoes have
30:45quite a long viability but others like salads lettuce brassicas are much shorter and if you've
30:53got lots of packets that you're not sure they'll work rather than spending a whole tray of compost
30:58on sowing them only to find them failing there's a much better way of testing viability which is
31:04sowing them in very small rows like this so you have five different varieties just in this one tray
31:11it's very simple to do and you can prick out the big healthy ones if you want to
31:23so what i have is three separate seeds of brassicas two kale and one broccoli there are just a few
31:32left
31:32in each so i'm going to mix them up there we go and then the last kale
31:47there you go look brassica seeds are so lovely they're tiny little round spheres
31:54and they need quite a deep root run so if you are sowing them into modules give them nice deep
31:59modules
32:00and this pot is perfect for that so they should grow really nicely into here
32:05normally you'd start any brassica off in a module or a seed tray but when you're eventually planting
32:10it they want to be at least 30 centimeters apart because they get pretty big but here they'll be
32:15perfect for seedlings so really quite a dense sowing because as i said we don't know how many of them
32:21come up they may not all be viable still that's that so i'll just put a little more compost over
32:30the top of this to cover them and then firm it nicely so that they make good contact that will
32:36greatly help their germination now you could do this with salad as well like mustard got rockets
32:43lettuces there's some really interesting kinds of salad leaf as well and what we'll do is just water
32:48this and then watch it once they start to come up you would pick the best the strongest ones
32:54and you would carefully prick them out taking the roots and potting them into something
33:00like this and growing them on and then eventually planting them out into the veg garden for everything
33:05else that's left behind you just let that grow up it becomes a mix and then you can just snip
33:11it off
33:11and it will regrow and hopefully last for a good few weeks as a cut and come again micro green
33:17now
33:17micro greens are essentially any vegetable that you would eat the leaves off so you could use herbs
33:23you could use coriander parsley basil mixed salad brassicas cabbages anything like that you can just
33:30keep chopping and eat the greens what you wouldn't use is obviously any kind of cut flour that you're
33:36growing from seed or trying their viability or vegetables that you actually eat the fruits of
33:41so cucumbers squashes tomatoes peppers tomatillos anything like that i wouldn't use as a micro green
33:49but if you know you can eat the leaves then they taste delicious when they're tiny there we go that's
33:54done
33:59now starting any plant whether food or flower on its journey is so enriching
34:04and there's a whole kingdom to choose from but for liz carter in cheshire one particular species is out of
34:11this world
34:17some flowers are in your face
34:21erythroniums aren't you've got to get down there and and look at them they're so ethereal
34:30they're so delicate and there's such variation from the yellows that are bold through to the very pale
34:37pinky ones and if you're walking on a slightly breezy day you can see them all dancing
34:44i'm liz welcome to my woodland garden in the world where i've been since 1963
34:56i'm sitting here surrounded by erythronium revolutum which is one of the species the display here is a
35:07pleasure every time i open the garden gate and walk in
35:12and it gets better every year because the more i spread them the better it gets
35:18just collect your dried seed and scatter it in your garden then all you need is patience because
35:24they'll germinate the next year and you have to wait three to five years for them to flower but it's
35:30well worth it at the back of my mind it reminds me that this is a bit of californium glamour
35:38in the spring
35:44it was 1961 and 62 i was living in california
35:51my husband went out to do a postdoctoral fellowship and i flew out to join him
35:58i had a job working on stage four of saturn which was the the business went to the moon
36:04so you were part of the space race that i was part of the space race yes
36:12fondest memories are definitely to do with being in the mountains
36:18we could walk up to probably about 10 000 11 000 feet
36:25and there's the intrepid couple
36:29so as the snow melts up in the sierra the erythroniums weren't coming through
36:35we had enjoyed being i suppose in the in the wild country and we came back and were looking to
36:44find somewhere to live we were desperately looking for a house buried in the country somewhere
36:52and we finally found not only was the house derelict but the garden was derelict as well of course we
36:58had absolutely no money to buy plants so we started propagating filled the garden and as the years went
37:05past we couldn't stop propagating
37:15this area which is backed by the wood pile which i'm very keen on for getting beetles and insects
37:21has just got numerous woodlanders in it and they're all seeding around and intermingling which is rather nice
37:32from the the the trillium avatum right up at the top through trillium albidum which is the one that's
37:40a bit of a weed and it's just seeded all over the place and we've got simile i can see
37:47a lovely maroon in
37:48the center sometimes similarly hangs below and sometimes it comes up above the leaves
37:56and interspersed we've got the pink erysferian revolutum which is everywhere in the garden
38:09this garden is on the south facing sandstone hill and it's an acid sand they love being in
38:17woodland conditions because of the leaf fall it's a lovely rich soil
38:24and they get the drainage during the summer because the trees are taking all the moisture
38:29out of the soil here we have erythronium white beauty it's one of the hybrids and it's very prolific
38:39it divides beautifully and you get wonderful clumps like these and it shows how erythroniums
38:45grow in tree roots and it's a very good example of the silver veining in the leaf
38:59these are my nursery beds this is erythronium tuluminense it's from yosemite park from the high meadows
39:07it has several flowers on a spike and it's always very early it's the first one to be out usually
39:15of
39:15the mainstream north american bulbs they're very promiscuous you know erythroniums so breathe
39:22with one another really quite freely this was a cross that i found in in the garden it has a
39:31huge
39:31flower flower power you can see here that you're getting what's on average three flowers per stem
39:38but they're a good sized flower and you've got the greeny color backing here from oregonum and you've
39:46got the pink coming from the revolutum they're special to me because they were found it was this
39:51hybrid was found in my garden and then gradually over the years i isolated it and and bulked it up
39:59it's called erythronium elizabeth
40:04they hate being in pots i keep them in pots for the shortest possible time
40:12if you're going to divide your erythronium clump when it's got too congested don't do it now i'm just
40:19doing this to demonstrate it to you so let's see what we find
40:26and here's here a lovely example of next year's bulb you'll see very clearly why they've got the
40:32common name of dog's tooth violet this new growth this will get bigger and bigger so please don't
40:39divide your plants until they're very very dormant in august
40:46if i were to start i would start where i started the yellow hybrids and pagoda is a commonly available
40:56and the white beauty this year's bulb will probably give you two bulbs next year
41:01um so it's really quite easy to get a clump and then you can divide the clump and walk them
41:07around the
41:14garden they're like a newborn baby they're just perfect i think in every way
41:21well they calm me down you know you can just look at them and feel everything relaxing because
41:27they're covering the ground and they're drifting off into the distance yes
41:31and they're good for my well-being they're very fashionable term
41:39ah
42:04i loved that garden and i loved that story how that space was built over a lifetime
42:09together and i think that says everything about our gardens they really are a part of who we are
42:14and it's lovely to see
42:30come on
42:32there's so many here but it does make it slightly problematic sometimes when you want to do some
42:38pruning in the garden because this is the time of year when they're most actively nesting
42:42now between the first of march and the 31st of august it is strongly recommended that you don't do
42:50any hedge pruning but if you have one shrub that might need shaping you just need to be absolutely sure
42:57that you're not disturbing any nesting birds because that is against the law so what you need to do is
43:02you need to observe that shrub for a couple of days and make sure no birds are coming and going
43:06because
43:06that would be a sure sign of active nesting activity if there are no signs of any birds then when
43:12you've
43:12decided to give it a prune before you make any snips just ever so gently look inside the structure and
43:19make sure you can't see any nests so this is a lovely phillaria the garden is full of them and
43:25they give a beautiful shape this has got very very delicate leaves a great alternative to box
43:31you can use a hedge trimmer if you like but i like to use a clean sharp pair of shears
43:35like this
43:36and just go in gently you can always take more off you can't stick it back on
43:42and make sure you regularly step back just to observe the shape you've created
43:53get this rosemary out why don't we clip that
43:59pruning is my favorite gardening job there's something really really mindful about it because
44:04you observe whatever it is you're cutting whether it's a rose or some topiary like this
44:10you think about its shape you can really change the feel of the garden by doing one simple job
44:15it makes everything feel neater but it's just like the sound
44:21of the shears and the feel of it going through it's just a really really pleasant job to do
44:30what you want to do with anything like this is take off the wooliness now with the box actually
44:36quite like it being left a bit unkempt and woolly because it's a nice dense structure but here it
44:41would turn into a really big shrub whereas obviously what you're wanting is this set of three lovely
44:49spheres and i have found that box that aren't clipped have been more resilient to attacks by the
44:57caterpillars because you're not putting them under unnecessary stress so it's taking off the
45:03wooliness without going too far back into the wood especially as we still do have risk of cold nights
45:09and these can get damaged by frost if they've just been clipped so it's gentle but enough to give it
45:15that definition and shape pruning lettuce is one of those timely jobs that helps the garden stay in
45:23check and really helps your view of the garden as well but toby is sharing some of his best gardening
45:30tips from his garden down in devon
45:48gardening is so life-affirming every day i do it i make new discoveries have surprises and there's
45:55always so much to learn whether you've got window boxes or acreage to look after you're always on a
46:01journey of finding out more
46:11i've been gardening here for 20 years and it's on a sloping site it's quite difficult to deal with
46:19the thing about sloping sites is that soil always goes downhill and i built these retaining walls to
46:25hold it back but over the years as i've added compost the soil levels have built up and it's still
46:31falling over the wall and that's where agapanthus comes in you see this stuff is like a palisade
46:37a retaining wall that grows that will hold back the earth and now is the ideal window of opportunity
46:44to lift divide it and turn it into a living wall here in devon i'm using evergreen agapanthus
46:51plants but any tough evergreen herbaceous plant would do the same job lifting and dividing agapanthus
46:59isn't for the faint-hearted because the roots are really fleshy and they just grab hold of the soil
47:06you've got to be cruel to be kind you've got to be rough to get them out of the soil
47:10you always know you're winning when you hear this sound
47:17victory
47:21i'll just get this out where we can work on it
47:27now ideally when you're lifting and dividing plants you use back-to-back forks or your fingers to tear
47:34it looks very brutal but it's better than using the spade because you actually maintain more of the
47:39root so the regrowth and establishment is so much quicker and look at that the perfect clump
47:44loads of growing points and buds and a tangle of roots at the base
47:52into the soil same depth as it was before
47:59this looks a bit beat up now but with the growing season ahead this will bounce back and will probably
48:05flower this summer
48:19i love this little corner of the garden in the dappled shade i walk past it all the time because
48:25it's at the junction of two paths summer and winter and it's in winter i get the most pleasure from
48:30it
48:30because i grow plants that flower right at the bee of the bank the start of the growing season
48:35it's crocus and there's snowdrops long gone now but also hellebores glorious things just go into seed
48:43now these things are expensive to buy but once you've got one they're so easy to propagate
48:48if you use this trick what i've got in my bucket is leaf mold and this is the perfect medium
48:56for
48:56getting woodland plants like hellebores to sprout and grow on their own and set their seed
49:02all i do over here is just chuck it on the soil as a mulch it locks in moisture and
49:07oriental hellebores
49:08need that in summer but it also acts as a little bed for when the seeds from the flowers tumble
49:14out
49:14and then fall onto the ground and honestly they come up like cress i like this type of garden because
49:19it's well it's not just working with mother nature it's kind of giving her a helping hand
49:26and if you don't believe me have a look at this look at the clutch of free plants i've got
49:30in there
49:30all you do is get in there gently lever them up from the soil
49:38look at that an oriental hellebore for free
49:52lots of us love cats this is richard parker and rich does cause problems loitering around certain parts
49:59of the garden but there are ways to keep our feline friends off bare soil and they're also good for
50:06keeping down the weeds which we all have isn't that right rich i knew you'd agree
50:15a great plan to quickly cover bare soil and keep rich and his mates away is iberian comfrey
50:21cats don't like its brissy leaves but bees absolutely love it
50:27you can lift and divide it at any time of year just cut back the tops and keep it well
50:31watered after
50:32planting and an easy way to cover a lot of ground fast is to plant the stems horizontally creating a
50:40matrix across the soil that connects together they root so quickly and establish before you know it
50:47instant ground cover sorry rich
50:50i spend a lot of time in the greenhouse in spring because what's humming a tune in spring in the
51:02greenhouse is singing a song in summer that's how i look at it and i save a lot of seeds
51:07from year to
51:08year keep the seed from your plot from one year into the next and then from that year into the
51:13one that
51:13follows you develop what's known as a land race which is a postcode specific strain of seeds that
51:21suits your garden and that's what i've been doing with tomatillos now back in the autumn the last of
51:26the plants i just put the fruits on top of this pot of compost tomatillos right they look like tomatoes
51:33we've got a net curtain casing around the outside of them and inside you see the net cans are full
51:39of seeds
51:40but the seeds with a difference because the fruit as it rots it strips away the waxy cuticle from those
51:49seeds and makes them incredibly easy to sprout come the spring given just a splash of water
51:58to wash that seed into the compost i kid you not those kernels you'll see them sprouting almost within
52:06a day here just to prove the point is a pot of tomatillos that i watered last week look at
52:13those
52:13beauties now these tomatillos will need to go into individual pots and be grown on frost free until the
52:21cold weather clears because they're cheap but jowl it would be a game to get in there and prick them
52:26out but there is a quicker and easier method give the pot a shake and then the whole lot comes
52:33out onto
52:34me potting bench in one go like that but because i've opened up the compost you see they'll peel out
52:41as individuals even when they've got long and forked roots which is something you would never be able
52:47to do if you're pricking out conventionally using a dibber
52:58it's a really satisfying method and part of that is because at the back end of the year when the
53:03growing
53:03season is coming to an end and i'm putting the fruit on the compost i know that it won't be
53:08long
53:08before i'm watering them again and spring will be out of the blocks wonderful
53:33i think the lovely thing is that as the garden wakes up so does the gardener you get all that
53:38energy of spring yourself which you do need because there are so many jobs to do at this time of
53:43the
53:43year oh look a bee fly on the forget-me-nots oh really is spring they're magical to watch
53:53what i'm doing here is actually dividing some lily of the valley it's not the ideal time to do that
53:58because it's about to flower you'd really do it later in the year and it's finished that but there's
54:04a big clump of it here and it's spreading they have some fairly aggressive rhizomes that can take
54:09over a space if they're happy and the kinds of conditions that will make them happy are partial
54:15shade particularly shade in the spring because they're woodland plants so dry shade before the
54:21canopy comes out will get them very happily flowering and then they'll go dormant later in the year
54:27but what i'm going to do is i'm going to put some gloves on because they are very poisonous lily
54:32of
54:32the valley and also it's an irritant to the skin
54:39right there we go oops casualty but you can see that's a really really healthy clump of them
54:46and they are about to flower these are the flower buds here now those flowers are tiny little white
54:51bells and they smell absolutely incredible i'm actually going to put it into
54:56a little pot that i can place by the door or by an open window or a regularly opened window
55:04so that you can get that scent in the house and i'm just going to use the soil from the
55:08ground here
55:09rather than getting lots of compost that's a really nice way of using them you get the best of their
55:15season at this point up at eye level and somewhere you can see and smell them and then once they've
55:22gone
55:22over you can take this empty it out and then plant them somewhere else in the garden where they can
55:28begin
55:28to do this and spread around
55:53there that's one thing off the list but here are some other jobs that you can be getting on with
56:11it's time to remove these winter salads that have started to go over in the greenhouse
56:17once they go to flower the leaves turn bitter and the plants take up precious space that we'll need for
56:22spring
56:22sowings but don't be too quick to clear the lot leaving a few to flower is brilliant for insects
56:28and adds a lovely touch of color and later you can harvest the seeds for next winter's crops
56:40you can make the most of fallen branches and twiggy bits left after cutting back herbaceous plants
56:46rather than throwing them out build little habitat piles deadwood is brilliant for insects and the
56:52nooks and crannies give small creatures somewhere to shelter you can even weave branches into a simple
56:58dead hedge it's a lovely way to tidy the garden while creating a home for wildlife
57:09with the start of warm spring days it's safe to take the salvias i put into the greenhouse for a
57:14bit of
57:15winter protection out to start hardening off i like to give them a trim to encourage fresh bushy growth
57:22they'll enjoy the extra light and airflow but do keep an eye on temperatures if there's a hit of late
57:28frost pop them back under cover or throw a fleece over them
57:53it's lovely to be back at damson farm in the spring and seeing the damson blossom and that little
57:58reminder to get out and enjoy those fleeting moments whilst they're here at this time of year
58:05but next week monty is back with a special program from regents park in london where he'll be joining
58:10the royal parks team as they work to finish a brand new public garden designed to commemorate what would
58:16have been our late queen's 100th birthday see you then
58:23so
58:32so
58:33so
58:33so
Comments