- 1 week ago
Gardeners' World Season 59 Episode 5
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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 but everywhere i look as i pick through this meadow
00:29i'm having to avoid seedlings there are so many plants but 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
00:58seedlings coming up but this time of year one of the things that i really love is primrose as a
01:04kind
01:04of herald of spring and they do seed themselves everywhere so i'm actually going to dig some of
01:09these up because as beautiful as they are here they're possibly not in their best position and
01:14it's just a case of of prizing those roots out as intact as you can and now is the perfect
01:20time to
01:20divide them up a bit and plant them in other places so you have that spring herald all around the
01:26garden
01:26wherever you can it's just a gentle case of prizing rather than yanking and then
01:35hopefully there's a good root system on these there we go
01:38that's a healthy seedling now primroses have a really interesting way of sharing genetic material
01:46making seedlings basically um they have male and female parts within the flowers but you get two
01:51distinct kinds of flowers there are pin eye flowers they're the female flowers and the
01:56thrum eye flowers which have got the male parts nearer the front so this is a thrum eye and if
02:02you
02:02look carefully inside that flower you can see the anthers at the front the female parts will still be
02:07in there but they'll be much further back whereas this one is a pin eye so that's the stigma there
02:16that
02:16you can see right in the middle of the flower like a pinhead and that's the female part of the
02:20flower
02:20so that just means that the plant isn't going to pollinate itself it will be pollinated with
02:26a different plant which gives it more genetic diversity and hopefully makes healthier seedlings
02:37one of the great things about primroses is as a very early spring flower they're great
02:42for emerging wildlife so things like carder 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 have in mind to put these i think they're going to look lovely
03:29this is the area where my primroses are going to go but there's a bit of clearing to do first
03:34so i
03:35have been asked by allison who owns damson farm to sort of take on this space and what i want
03:41to
03:41do with it is really turn it into a wildlife focused area of the garden already she has put a
03:47hedgehog 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
04:04along this edge where they can move through and that will also baffle the sound of cars as they
04:10go by and make the garden feel more peaceful with this sort of thing whatever you choose whether it's
04:16hedging climbers or the plants in the beds it's all about maximizing the potential for different
04:22wildlife so choosing things that have berries that have flowers that have leaves that are food sources so
04:28within 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
05:01lovely native wildflower so there's celandine even this dandelion is so fantastic for bumblebees
05:09so instead i'm gonna let this ground cover stay and just carve out little holes into which i can plant
05:15my
05:15primroses you could at this stage also if you wanted divide them into ones that you can spread all
05:23over which i think i'll do because then next year there might be a bit more of a carpet here
05:29wildlife doesn't like neatness
05:48this is a hazel seedling which is a really beneficial tree to wildlife but there's a big one here and
05:55i
05:55really in this space i'm looking to target bird species now we gardeners love to feed the birds
06:04in 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
06:17spring 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 space and spread disease having things like rose hips and teasels planted through the garden allows
06:52them to feed at a nice safe distance and hopefully to start to recover and here i really want to
07:00make that 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
07:23field fairs and blackbirds i've got three or four of these which i can spread through the space and
07:28create a lovely hedge row even if you have a very small garden this is a really nice choice
07:46there that should settle in now this area is not going to be one big quick sort of makeover
07:52but slowly over the year i'm going to keep adding and adding more wildlife friendly species here so 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 different
08:52shapes and sizes you've got the really small delicate ones and then you've got big trumpets and then
08:58you've also got the ruffles and doubles there are just so many different shapes and sizes it's not all
09:05just a trumpet yellow daffodil that you see on the roadside
09:12so this is a particular favorite of mine it's called ballroom bell and probably to most people
09:18doesn't look like your average daffodil when you look at a big boy like this one with its yellow
09:22trumpet and yellow petals and then you've got something as delicate as this with its little hoops
09:28and its creaminess and i think this is really a good one for growing in pots so whether you have
09:34a big garden or just a balcony there's definitely a daffodil available for everyone
09:41so i just want to share some of my top tips with you and the first one is after you've
09:46watered your
09:47daffodils because daffodils love to be in well-drained soil but with moisture you want to make sure that
09:54they're fully drained now i know this might look a little bit extreme but if you tip the pots onto
10:00the side it helps drainage it means they can't get waterlogged as easily
10:10well squirrels don't always like daffodil bulbs to eat unlike tulips they do like to dig so what i
10:16do with my daffodils that are in pots i just cover them with a cage like this if you're not
10:21fancy like
10:21me you can just use a cage and put it on like that or an upturn basket
10:30so this beautiful daffodil here is called fencourt jewel and it's a multi-headed daffodil
10:38it's got such a delicate scent to it which is absolutely beautiful in the morning like when i
10:44have it in the greenhouse and i open the door up and it hits me full in the face there's
10:48just nothing
10:49better sets me up for the working day so after a long wet winter in the uk to see their
11:00trumpets
11:00it's like it sounds the horn of spring it brings me such joy and they're just a happy flower
11:09i hope you've enjoyed seeing my daffodils today and i hope you find one to fall in love with really
11:14soon
11:32i love how happy those daffodils made mina and i totally understand it at the end of winter oh
11:37the relief of seeing spring flowers if it brings you joy i think then grow it
11:56hi alison hiya it's so nice to see your garden in the spring all the structures and everything just
12:03look so beautiful so what are you doing here so i'm just digging up some of this this is quite
12:09established um hackinocloa macra right um and i've got some new beds on the other side of the house so
12:15i thought it would work there hackinocloa is such a good grass it's a really nicely performing one
12:22quite neat and quite small and this is the green form isn't it yeah and it's it's a really long
12:28seasoned performer as well yeah perfect all right should we carry it through
12:57so this is your redevelopment area yes yeah i'm quite excited about this having
13:03a new area to plant up yeah what made you want to do it well i think it was the
13:08successive hot
13:09summers we've been having because because there's quite a lot of paving here i've got quite a few
13:14metal containers but i think last summer having to water almost every night it just didn't seem
13:21sustainable either from a time point of view and also from a water point of view the more increasing
13:26hosepipe bands in some parts of the country means you can't actually yeah water so i guess you're now
13:31planting in the ground instead of in pots yeah exactly there were big slabs and a lot of concrete
13:37underneath so this beautiful soil that's here presumably it took a lot of work to get to that
13:43stage yeah so we just used soil that came from the garden it's mostly mostly topsoil and brought in a
13:50a little bit of manure okay that's the spirea okay i'm guessing that will go sort of near the back
14:03because that'll get quite big yes it will i wanted the beds to be winter and early spring focused
14:09particularly as this area is near the house okay so that's a daphne white queen so that winter scented
14:16as well that'll be beautiful this is a brunnera called betty bowering a brunnera is a perennial
14:27forget-me-not normally they're blue so things like jack frost are fairly common but this is a lovely
14:32white one and in that bed it should really bring a sparkle in the spring and then go very very
14:38quiet
14:39and fade into the background through the summer they'll be a really good performer and they're very
14:43good in shade so if you have a difficult shady spot in the garden they're great plants to get hold
14:48of
14:49if you can
14:56this is a daphne which is a really lovely late winter flowering shrub in this form this is called white
15:03queen what daphne does is it fills the whole air with scent at a time of year when there's very
15:09little
15:10else in flower so it's really really precious for that but they can be a bit tricky to establish and
15:15i have had them die on me before and when you spend a lot of money on them that's heartbreaking
15:19so
15:20when you first plant it just make sure you really look after it for that first year they don't like
15:25to be too wet so don't plant it somewhere that's going to get waterlogged they also don't like to get
15:30too dry so especially for that first year just water it in long dry periods um and they don't like
15:36to get
15:37too cold so somewhere sheltered and protected like this one by the wall and i think allison will fleece
15:44this and keep it covered until the spring really warms up and they don't like to be in really hot
15:49baking sun either there we go grow well
16:06so
16:15so
16:17so
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
17:01this is hessian that you can pick up for free from coffee shops that can be placed on the inside
17:07of
17:07the pot itself so that could work really well another thing that you can use is coir which is
17:14used for lining hanging baskets now that's a really good insulation and quite good structurally as well
17:21but what i think i'm going to use is some sheep's wool so this is material that you can get
17:26in
17:26packages a lot more companies using sustainable packaging now but you can also buy this as a
17:31product and that has an amazing insulating effect and you can also use it as a mulch as well so
17:39really
17:39help to prevent moisture loss from the surface of the soil and keep the temperatures cooler in there
17:44but what you don't want to do is go into a field and collect sheep's wool from the ground because
17:49it
17:49could have been treated with dewormers and all kinds of chemicals so really avoid that and go for something
17:54that you know is chemical free and in that vein don't use things like dyed wool because you don't
18:01know what that chemical might be newspaper has ink on it so just think about microplastics think about
18:06chemicals that might leach into the soil especially if you're growing food but cardboard paper wool
18:12will all do a really good job
18:26there we go
18:29now that's full i'm going to be planting some peas in there this is a dwarf pea which is specifically
18:36bred for growing in containers so it should be very very happy here and it will fill the space
18:41through the spring right up until the end of june early july
18:46i love peas they're one of the nicest things to grow because they're really easy they're really
18:52beautiful the flowers are lovely and then they're obviously delicious this is a mange two style so you
18:57eat everything right so i'm going to sow these quite densely about three times the depth of a seed is
19:04how deep it goes if you're unsure but it's always written on the packet so check that and that's going
19:10to
19:10be really quite filled the idea being that hopefully we'll get good germination if we do get good
19:16germination we can thin and pick the shoots and eat them because they make a good salad crop and if
19:22we
19:22don't get good germination we'll still have enough to fill this pot and because it's vegetables my
19:27instinct is to make them slightly neat and symmetrical you don't really need to do that
19:34it might look a little bit excessive having such a big pot just for little seeds like this but that's
19:38very intentional and the idea is it saves me having to water a bigger pot will hold on to more
19:45water
19:45a smaller pot will dry out more quickly so by putting these in a nice big generous container
19:50hopefully it means i won't need to water it anywhere near as often still with a vegetable
19:54you wouldn't want it to dry out so probably if the weather is very warm i would still water this
19:59every day or every other day but if it was a small pot it might be twice a day that
20:03you're needing
20:04to keep on top of that the other thing about a big pot is it won't warm up so quickly
20:10either so the
20:11temperatures stay a little bit cooler now ordinarily if you were sowing peas you'd want to put some
20:16sort of obelisk in for them to grow up but these are dwarfing peas so they're not climbing so this
20:22is
20:22now done we'll just cover it over give it water to start the germination process keep it waters until
20:29you see the first shoots coming and then these will be harvested by about june and from then on
20:34you then pull the peas out when they've all finished producing their pods and replace it with a crop that
20:39can take a little bit higher temperatures there we go
20:52it's lovely to be thinking of warm summer days with a cold wind but last august joe went to cornwall
21:01lucky man to visit a garden where the planting has specifically been designed to withstand the elements
21:09we may like to be beside the seaside but our plants don't always feel the same
21:15a sea view may be a dream but get it wrong and gardening on the coast can be a nightmare
21:21there's quite a bit to think about strong winds and salt laden air can destroy your dahlias and wreak havoc
21:30with your haemera callus so creating windbreaks and choosing plants for the right conditions is absolutely
21:37key to successful gardening in this part of the country
21:42at Cruxillit Manor in Truro Annie Agnew has mastered this to create a garden that can take anything
21:48the cornish coast can throw at it hi Annie beautiful hedges i've got to say yes they're coming on
21:55come on you mean coming on they're pretty mature-y how long have they been in they're 10 years old
21:59so they're not
22:00fully grown yet we right at the beginning designed this to try and break up the space and break up
22:07the wind because we live in cornwall and cornwall has got wind cornwall has wind from every direction possible
22:15and particularly here we've got problems with the wind coming up the valley from the sea and it causes
22:23a lot of damage we've lost massive trees i turn up on one of the calmest days of the year
22:27totally calm but
22:29i can imagine in the winter it must just rip through here and these hedges they're fantastic
22:34because they filter the wind don't they you need this filtered wind to protect big perennial beds
22:40so making the hedges into whirling forms and ovals and long extensions that wrap around parts of the
22:49garden really sorts the wind out but also with the topography of the local area you know the hills
22:55beyond these sort of rolling shapes of the hedges they just work beautifully and the different
23:00heights they're doing a lot of things these hedges aren't they they're separating the planting areas
23:04too into really distinct planting zones and you've got lots of other evergreen structural plants here
23:10we've used a lot of pittosporum
23:15we've placed them fairly close together so that they make a pseudo hedge but without clipping it without
23:21clipping them into one line that's lovely and we've used them in the borders as structural elements
23:27to hold the border together visually and these hoherias those are fantastic they're one of my favorite
23:34plants it's hoheria sextylosa beautiful white starry flowers that the bees love the whole tree hums for
23:41about five weeks what about the rest of the planting what's the rationale behind that the color schemes what
23:48you want to grow yeah well plant greed just wanted i wanted plants from everywhere in the world um and
23:54all kinds that's why the evergreen structures are so important because it controls the mess basically
24:05what's striking here is the sheer diversity of plants not just growing but thriving and as you move
24:12through each carefully designed environment the character of the planting shifts the colors the
24:19forms the entire mood of the garden evolves around you revealing a new story at every turn
24:27this is annie's hot garden and you can tell there's a microclimate in here it's a walled space
24:33and out there the breeze is picking up but in here it's incredibly still and there's a lot of exotic
24:39plants that are really thriving we've got hot reds we've got oranges we've got yellows all working
24:46together beautifully and things like this dahlia one of my favorites chat noir really doing its thing
24:51it's a lovely cactus form and it's looking very happy and deep it looks great sitting above this
24:58foliage 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
25:14and whites and beautiful foliage all mixed in together very exotic planting things like this
25:21canna this is called ra i love the simple yellow flowers the glaucus foliage and this is a ginger lily
25:29next to it again it's got a really impressive foliage and the flower is just starting to open up
25:36here in cornwall the climate is incredibly mild so annie can leave these plants through the winter
25:42in the ground mulch over them and they'll come up in spring but in a lot of parts of the
25:47uk
25:47you won't get away with that but you can grow them in containers and then put them into a protected
25:53spot over winter and bring them on next spring and one plant i just have to mention while i'm here
26:00is
26:01that tetrapanax rex at the back the rice paper plant now it shows again how mild it is here because
26:09it's developed a trunk like a tree or a large shrub in colder areas it will die back you cut
26:14it down to
26:15the ground and it will come back up again but it looks absolutely stunning at that height
26:37now annie calls this her silver border but i'm going to call it her silver green blue and white border
26:45but she'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 pitosporums and they're all working really nicely together
27:23and the bees are just 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 gone
28:04really big with it it fills this space and if you're making a pond go as big as you can
28:11once
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 in there
28:29and then marginals around the outside breaking the edge of the pond and one of my favorites talia del
28:36barter 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
29:03lines cutting through the landscape to reduce the wind but also to link with the landscape beyond
29:09and to divide the whole garden up into separate rooms those rooms are all different shapes
29:15but she's created environments in which to grow her favorite plants and it's all about the plants
29:22and she said strong cornish winds no problem at all
29:53i know from experience myself that gardening right by the sea is not always a holiday
29:59but having a greenhouse like this just gives you the luxury of protecting your plants from all of those
30:04elements and this one's full of beautiful things oh and look
30:11these are the brads atomic grape tomato seeds that i soaked last year to get all of the jelly off
30:17them
30:18so that they'd be ready to re-sow and look here they are coming up beautifully ready to be pricked
30:23out
30:23i reckon it's nice to see it all happening isn't it in the spring and then by the end of
30:28this year
30:29there'll be more tomatoes to harvest more seeds from but what many of us have actually is packets
30:34of seeds we buy them if you're like me you'll buy way too many you'll use some and there'll be
30:39lots
30:39left over and you're not always sure whether they're viable or not now some like tomatoes have
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
31:31there are just a few left in each i'm going to mix them up
31:40there 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
31:58give them nice deep modules and 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 it
32:10they want to be at least 30 centimeters apart because they get pretty big but here they'll
32:15be perfect for seedlings so really quite a dense sowing because as i said we don't know how many of
32:21them will come up they may not all be viable still that's that so i'll just put a little more
32:29compost over the top of this to cover them
32:32and then firm it nicely so that they make good contact that will greatly help their germination
32:38now you could do this with salad as well like mustard got rockets lettuces there's some really
32:45interesting kinds of salad leaf as well and what we'll do is just water this and then watch it once
32:50they start to come up you would pick the best the strongest ones and you would carefully pick them
32:56out taking the roots and potting them into something like this and growing them on and then eventually
33:03planting them out into the veg garden for everything else that's left behind you just let that grow up
33:09it becomes a mix and then you can just snip it off and it will regrow and hopefully last for
33:14a good few
33:14weeks as a cut and come again micro green now micro greens are essentially any vegetable that you would
33:21eat the leaves off so you could use herbs you could use coriander parsley basil mixed salad brassicas
33:28cabbages anything like that you can just keep chopping and eat the greens what you wouldn't use
33:33is obviously any kind of cut flower that you're growing from seed or trying their viability
33:39or vegetables that you actually eat the fruits of so cucumbers squashes tomatoes peppers tomatillos anything
33:47like that i wouldn't use as a micro green but if you know you can eat the leaves then they
33:51taste
33:51delicious when they're tiny there we go that's done now starting any plant whether food or flower on its
34:02journey is so enriching and there's a whole kingdom to choose from but for liz carter in cheshire one
34:09particular species is out of this world some flowers are in your face erythroniums aren't you've got to
34:24get down there and and look at them they're so ethereal they're so delicate and there's such variation
34:33from the yellows that are bold through to the very pale pinky ones and if you're walking on a slightly
34:41breezy day you can see them all dancing i'm liz welcome to my woodland garden in the world where i've
34:49been
34:49since 1963 i'm sitting here surrounded by erythronium revolutum which is one of the species the display
35:05here is a pleasure every time i open the garden gate and walk in
35:12and it gets better every year because the more i spread them the better it gets
35:18just collect your dried seed and scatter it in your garden 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
35:29but it's well worth it at the back of my mind it reminds me that this is a bit of
35:36californian glamour
35:43it 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 i had a job
35:59working on
36:00stage four on stage four of saturn which was the the bit that went to the moon so you were
36:05part of
36:05the space race i was part of the space race yes fondest memories are definitely to do with being in
36:15the mountains
36:18we could walk up to probably about 10 000 11 000 feet and there's the intrepid couple
36:29so as the snow melts up in the sierra the erythroniums were coming through
36:35we had enjoyed being i suppose in the in the wild country and we came back and were looking to
36:45find 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
37:27and intermingling which is rather nice
37:32from 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
37:48in the center sometimes similarly hangs below and sometimes it comes up above the leaves
37:57and interspersed we've got the pink erythorium revolutum which is everywhere in the garden
38:09this garden is on a south facing sandstone hill and it's an acid sand they love being in woodland conditions
38:18because of the leaf fall so lovely rich soil and they get the drainage during the summer because
38:27the trees are taking all the moisture out of the soil here we have erythorium white beauty it's one of
38:36the hybrids and it's a very prolific it divides beautifully and you get wonderful clumps like
38:43these and it shows how erythroniums grow in tree roots and it's a very good example of the silver veining
38:50in
38:57the leaf these are my nursery beds this is erythronium teluminense it's from yosemite park from the high
39:07meadows it has several flowers on a spike and it's always very early it's the first one to be out
39:14usually of the mainstream north american bulbs they're very promiscuous you know erythorium so
39:22breathe with one another really quite freely this was a cross that i found in in the garden it has
39:31a huge flower power you can see here that you're getting what's on average three flowers per stem but
39:39they're a good sized flower and you've got the greeny color backing here from oregonum and you've got
39:46the pink coming from the revolutum they're special to me because they were found this hybrid was found
39:52in my garden and then gradually over the years i isolated it and and bulked it up it's called erythronium
40:00elizabeth they hate being in pots i keep them in pots for the shortest possible time if you're going to
40:13divide your erythronium clump when it's got too congested don't do it now i'm just doing this to
40:19demonstrate it to you so let's see what we find
40:26and here's a lovely example of next year's bulb you'll see very clearly why they've got the common
40:32name of dog's tooth violet this new growth this will get bigger and bigger so please
40:39don't divide 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
41:31they're good for my well-being they're very fashionable term
41:42ah
42:04i loved that garden and i loved that story how that space was built over a lifetime together
42:10and i think that says everything about our gardens they really are
42:13a part of who we are and it's lovely to see
42:21come on
42:28isn't it lovely hearing the birds of spring
42:32there's so many here but it does make it slightly problematic sometimes when you want to do some
42:38pruning in the garden because this is the time of year when they're most actively nesting now between
42:43the first of march and the 31st of august it is strongly recommended that you don't do any hedge
42:50pruning but if you have one shrub that might need shaping you just need to be absolutely sure that
42:57you'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 that would be a sure sign of active nesting activity if there are no signs of any birds
43:11then when you've decided to give it a prune before you make any snips just ever so gently
43:17look inside the structure and make sure you can't see any nests so this is a lovely phillaria the
43:23garden is full of them and they give a beautiful shape this has got very very delicate leaves
43:28a great alternative to box you can use a head trimmer if you like but i like to use a
43:33clean
43:33sharp pair of shears like this and just go in gently you can always take more off you can't stick
43:39it back on
43:42and make sure you regularly step back just to observe the shape you've created
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 quite
44:36like it being left a bit unkempt and woolly because it's a nice dense structure but here it would turn
44:42into a really big shrub whereas obviously what you're wanting is this set of three lovely spheres
44:51and i have found that box that aren't clipped have been more resilient to attacks by the caterpillars
44:57because you're not putting them under unnecessary stress so taking off the wooliness without going
45:04too far back into the wood especially as we still do have risk of cold nights and these can get
45:10damaged
45:11by frost if they've just been clipped so it's gentle but enough to give it that definition and shape
45:20pruning lettuce is one of those timely jobs that helps the garden stay in check and really helps your
45:24view of the garden as well but toby is sharing some of his best gardening tips from his garden down
45:32in devon
45:48garden is so life-affirming every day i do it i make new discoveries have surprises and there's always so
45:56much to learn whether you've got window boxes or acreage to look after you're always on a journey of
46:02finding 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
46:31still falling over the wall and that's where agapanthus comes in you see this stuff is like a
46:37palisade a retaining wall that grows that will hold back the earth and now is the ideal window of
46:43opportunity to lift divide it and turn it into a living wall here in devon i'm using evergreen
46:50agapanthus 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 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 root so
47:39the regrowth and establishment is so much quicker and look at that the perfect clump loads of growing
47:45points and buds and a tangle of roots at the base
47:52into the soil same depth as it was before
47:59this looks a bit beat up now but with the growing season ahead
48:03this will bounce back and we'll probably flower this summer
48:06i love this little corner of the garden in a dappled shade i walk past it all the time because
48:25it's at the junction of two paths summer and winter and it's in winter i get the most pleasure from
48:30it
48:30because i grow plants that flower right at the b of the bang the start of the growing season there's
48:36crocus and there's snowdrops long gone now but also hellebores glorious things just go into seed
48:43now these things are expensive to buy but once you've got one they're so easy to propagate if you use
48:49this
48:49trick what i've got in my bucket is leaf mold and this is the perfect medium for getting woodland plants
48:57like hellebores
48:59to 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 three plants i've got
49:30in there
49:30all you do is get in there gently lever them up from the soil
49:38look at that an oriental hellebore for free
49:52lots of us love cats this is richard parker and rich does cause problems loitering around certain
49:59parts of the garden but there are ways to keep our feline friends off
50:03bare soil and they're also good for keeping down the weeds which we all have
50:09isn'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
50:30and keep it well watered after planting and an easy way to cover a lot of ground fast is to
50:37plant
50:37the stems horizontally creating a matrix across the soil that connects together
50:43they root so quickly and establish before you know it instant 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 follows you develop what's known as a land race which is a postcode specific
51:19strain of seeds that suits your garden and that's what i've been doing with tomatillos
51:24now back in the autumn the last of the plants i just put the fruits on top of this pot
51:30of compost
51:32tomatillos right they look like tomatoes we've got a net curtain casing around the outside of them
51:36and inside you see the netcarnels are full of seeds but the seeds have a difference because the fruit
51:44as it rots it strips away the waxy cuticle from those seeds and makes them incredibly easy to sprout
51:51come 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
52:05almost within a day here just to prove the point is a pot of tomatillos that i watered last week
52:13look at those beauties now these tomatillos will need to go into individual pots and be grown on
52:19frost free until the cold weather clears because they're cheap but jowl it would be a game to get
52:25in there and prick them out but there is a quicker and easier method give the pot a shake
52:30and then the whole lot comes out onto my potting bench in one go like that but because i've opened
52:37up the compost you see they'll peel out as individuals even when they've got long and forked
52:44roots which is something you would never be able to do if you were pricking out conventionally using a
52:57dibber it's a really satisfying method and part of that is because at the back end of the year when
53:03the growing season is coming to an end and i'm putting the fruit on the compost i know that it
53:08won't be long before 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
53:45year oh look a bee fly on the forget-me-nots oh really is spring they're magical to watch what
53:54i'm
53:54doing here is actually dividing some lily of the valley it's not the ideal time to do that because
53:58it's about to flower you'd really do it later in the year and it's finished that but there's a big
54:05clump of it here and it's spreading they have some fairly aggressive rhizomes that can take over a space
54:10if they're happy and the kinds of conditions that will make them happy are partial shade particularly
54:16shade in the spring because they're woodland plants so dry shade before the canopy comes out will get
54:23them very happily flowering and then they'll go dormant later in the year what i'm going to do is
54:28i'm going to put some gloves on because they are very poisonous lily of the valley and also it's an
54:34irritant to the skin all right there we go oops casualty but you can see that's a really really
54:45healthy clump of them and they are about to flower these are the flower buds here now those flowers are
54:50tiny little white bells and they smell absolutely incredible i'm actually going to put it into a little
54:56pot that i can place by the door or by an open window or a regularly opened window so that
55:04you
55:05can get that scent in the house and i'm just going to use the soil from the ground here rather
55:10than
55:10getting lots of compost now it's a really nice way of using them you get the best of their season
55:16at this point up at eye level and somewhere you can see and smell them and then once they've gone
55:22over
55:22you can take this empty it out and then plant them somewhere else in the garden where they can begin
55:29to 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
55:58this weekend it'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
56:22for spring sowings but don't be too quick to clear the lot leaving a few to flower is brilliant for
56:28insects and adds a lovely touch of colour and later you can harvest the seeds for next winter's crops
56:39you can make the most of fallen branches and twiggy bits left after cutting back herbaceous plants
56:46rather than throwing them out build little habitat piles
56:49deadwood is brilliant for insects and the nooks and crannies give small creatures somewhere to shelter
56:56you can even weave branches into a simple dead hedge it's a lovely way to tidy the garden while creating
57:02a home for wildlife
57:09with the start of warm spring days it's safe to take the salvias i put into the greenhouse for
57:14a bit of winter protection out to start hardening off i like to give them a trim to encourage fresh
57:21bushy growth they'll enjoy the extra light and air flow but do keep an eye on temperatures if there's
57:27a hit of late frost pop them back under cover or throw a fleece over them
57:53it's lovely to be back at damson farm in the spring and seeing the damson blossom and that little
57:58reminder to get out and enjoy those fleeting moments whilst they're here at this time of year
58:05but next week monty is back with a special program from regents park in london where
58:10he'll be joining the royal parks team as they work to finish a brand new public garden
58:14designed to commemorate what would have been our late queen's 100th birthday see you then
58:23so
58:31so
58:33so
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