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00:10Come on, Ned.
00:57Hello, welcome to Gardener's World.
00:59I'm just loosening this area up because this bank on the side of the mound originally was grass and we
01:07had lots of bulbs in and you had a display and then when they died back we cut it back
01:11and we kept it as cut grass.
01:13Over the years, all kinds of things have seeded themselves in here.
01:18Some of them are lovely, like the cow parsley coming through, but I want to start putting in spent bulbs
01:25from this year.
01:25That's bulbs that are flowered and finished. These are in pots, but actually there's no reason why I can't put
01:32them straight in the garden.
01:32And you can do this in a border. And that's what I'm going to do here.
01:36And the colour theme here on the mound is yellow and blue, so I've got some yellow and blue hyacinths.
01:43Well, some hyacinths of the yellow and some hyacinths of the blue. Not both at once.
01:54These are delft blue, so take them out.
02:00Being slightly careful. There we go.
02:07So you've got, you can see, there are the bulbs.
02:10And so I will carefully separate these out.
02:16Okay, let's just take each one. Let's take a few like that.
02:22There we go.
02:29See, that can go in there like that.
02:37Now you notice I'm not cutting back or trying to tidy up the leaves. It's really important, that, because these
02:44must be allowed to die back naturally.
02:47That will feed into the bulb and form next year's flower.
02:51If I cut those off now, there's a real chance that there'll be no flowering next year.
02:55And if you have blind bulbs, it's very often, because either they've been too dry, or there hasn't been enough
03:03light on the foliage after they've finished flowering.
03:10Okay.
03:18Long Meadow is pancake flat.
03:22I think we've got a fall of no more than a foot from one end to the other.
03:26So this is our only slope in the whole of the garden.
03:30And slopes are brilliant for most bulbs, because most bulbs like good drainage.
03:36It's only fritillaries, camassias, leucogeum, that really can cope with damp soil and thrive in it.
03:45So a slope like this lends itself to be covered in bulbs.
03:56I quite like the way that they'll intermingle with what has naturally sewn itself here.
04:03And it really goes back to this combination of working with nature.
04:09So use all the lovely natural things that are occurring and popping up and seeding themselves, but also plant in
04:17amongst them.
04:17So it becomes a creative act of which you are a partner rather than the controller.
04:23And I think that's really inspiring.
04:51And I think that's really inspiring.
04:55It's really delicious.
04:55It can look beautiful too.
05:09I absolutely love my garden.
05:12We've been here for 47 years.
05:15And ever since we came, I've grown all kinds of ornamentals, trees, shrubs, flowers, bulbs.
05:23But at the same time, I've also been growing vegetables, because it's just wonderful to grow your own produce.
05:30But what happens if you've only got a limited area?
05:33I want to show you during the course of this year, just how you can turn even a small area
05:39into both a productive space for vegetables and a thing of beauty with all sorts of beautiful flowers.
06:10I want to show you during the course of this year.
06:17I'm going to be growing so intensively in here that the whole thing eventually is going to be full of
06:22beautiful flowers and wonderful, wonderful vegetables.
06:26I'm not going to be planting everything today, but I'm going to be adding to it right the way through.
06:32All manner of stuff, but absolutely everything in here is going to be an annual.
06:37Most of it is going to be grown from seed, as were these sweet peas, which are the very first
06:43thing I'm planting in here.
06:46I'm growing several different sweet peas, but these are cupani, which is this glorious purple and maroon one with wonderful,
06:56wonderful scent.
06:57Of course, sweet peas are climbers, so my husband Neil has made me this wonderful structure.
07:05It's a cylinder because it means that I can grow sweet peas and climbing beans, so I'm going to intersperse
07:14them with different climbing beans.
07:28Beetroot are indispensable.
07:31Roasted or cooked, sliced and pickled, they're delicious.
07:35They can be sown direct into the soil or into modules, then potted on and planted out.
07:42Root. The variety I'm using is boltardy.
07:45It's not just the roots we eat.
07:48Those leaves are a lovely salad vegetable in their own right.
07:57In between them, I'm planting lettuce.
08:00This is a lettuce called Little Gem, and I'm putting them in two at a time, one behind the other.
08:07And the whole object of doing that is that I can harvest one first, and then the next one can
08:14grow on and get bigger.
08:16It's really my absolute all-time favourite lettuce because not only is it delicious in salads when it's young, you
08:25can cook with it as well.
08:26Just stick it in the pan for less than a minute with a bit of butter and salt and pepper.
08:33It's delicious.
08:41So, that's the first veg planted.
08:46And it might seem a bit random, a bit willy-nilly, but it's not.
08:49It's all part of a cunning plan.
08:51So I'm going to grow a squash at the front there, and then here I'm growing a tomato.
08:57But tomato with basil is the perfect combination.
09:00So I'm going to actually sow some basil seeds right round here, and then finally plant the tomato in.
09:08I'm not doing it today because they're not ready.
09:10But what I am going to do is plant a few flowers.
09:20Alongside the beetroot and lettuce, I'm planting some pink cosmos, informally.
09:26As they grow, they'll give the lettuce a bit of dappled shade.
09:31Cosmos have to be one of the most rewarding annual flowers.
09:35And with constant deadheading, or cutting for the house, they'll keep going until late October.
09:50I'm going to sow quite a lot of vegetable seeds, and flower seeds, straight into the ground.
09:56But there are some things which are much better off grown on in pots or modules, first of all.
10:02So this is a method I use for all beans, but the beans in question are these beautiful broad beans,
10:11the crimson flowered broad bean.
10:14So not only do you get the most delicious beans, but in addition, you get the advantage of these utterly
10:22glorious flowers.
10:23So I'm just pushing them in, you want them about half an inch or so, and then cover them with
10:30grit, which will retain the moisture once I've watered them.
10:34Keep the weeds down, and make sure that they don't rot when they come up.
10:40But they're very, very unlikely to do that.
10:42I mean, they're tough things, these broad beans.
10:45Here's what I did earlier.
10:47There's the top of the bean.
10:48And look already, that little root just starting to go down there into the compost.
10:54And then we'll get a shoot, and then we'll get some utterly glorious flowers.
11:00These broad beans, I'll water well, and then I'll wait until they're a few inches high before I put them
11:05out.
11:15You can use exactly the same idea of combining edibles and ornamentals in a pot, and that's just what I'm
11:23doing here.
11:23This is orac.
11:26It's a relative of spinach.
11:28You can eat it, but it also looks gorgeous.
11:31And they will go really big and flower when it's way up high, but I don't want it to flower.
11:39So all you do, just take those two little shoots off the top like that, and that will encourage all
11:46those side shoots to spread out and give us a really nice bushy plant.
11:51And I'm going to do exactly the same thing, nip the top with all the cosmos too.
11:58Now, already this plant is trying to branch, but if I nip out this bit here, that's all you need.
12:09So the cosmos I'm using in here is one called Purity, and you've guessed it, it's pure white.
12:16And it takes it a while before it starts to flower, but when it goes for it, especially if you
12:24pinch the top and you've got loads of flowering side shoots, it's absolutely lovely.
12:37Now, the great thing about doing this is that I'll put these things in now.
12:43They'll be joined by some of our crimson flowered broad beans, but I can add all sorts of things.
12:50Whenever I see something that I find inspiring, I'll squeeze it in here.
12:55And as for the main patch, we've only just begun.
12:59I'll be adding more veg, loads of beautiful flowers, and the whole thing's going to come together and just look
13:06absolutely wonderful and taste good too.
13:32I do think that actually most vegetables that are well-grown, vegetables, herbs and fruit, have a beauty of their
13:39own.
13:39And of course you want it to be beautiful too.
13:42Anyway, it'd be fascinating to follow this through for the rest of the series.
13:46What I'm doing here is planting out parsley.
13:50And to do that, we start off sowing it in a seed tray and then prick it out into individual
13:55plants as a plug.
13:56And you can see that here you have a plug.
13:58It's absolutely ready to go out.
14:00Got a good root system.
14:02And give it space.
14:04Now, this is the key thing.
14:05I am placing this actually not in squares but in a kind of grid so each plant has plenty of
14:17space around it.
14:18And then as a result, you get a big, strong plant.
14:21Partially, remember the carrot family.
14:23They have a deep root and they want to go to a plant about that tall with a thick stem
14:28and then they flower.
14:29So if you let it become well-established with strong roots, you can then go on picking the leaves over
14:37a period of about three or four months.
15:07Those have now had a good soak and I will leave them but make sure they don't dry out for
15:13another two, three weeks before they're ready to harvest.
15:16We will harvest these, oh, well into summer, by which time the next crop we're ready to plant it out.
15:22And actually the secret of all vegetable growing, it doesn't matter how much space you've got, whether it's very limited
15:28or huge, is planning ahead, succession.
15:31So you maximise the harvest from whatever ground that you have.
15:36And also not just maximise it in quantity but also quality.
15:40Grow what you like to eat.
15:42That is the secret.
15:44Come on in.
16:07The potting shed and the greenhouse are my happy place, taking plants on this journey from seed to full high
16:16performance out in the garden.
16:18So you have seeds that are sown and you get a seed tray full of seedlings like that and then
16:24you prick them out and they look something along these lines into individual plugs.
16:29They then are grown on and moved over onto this side and you can see these are all plants that
16:34have been pricked out and getting bigger.
16:36And at some stage a lot of them are potted on.
16:39But before they can go outside, even if they're not tender plants, they need hardening off.
16:44And hardening off is something I really want to make clear because it's actually terribly important.
16:49You need to acclimatise the plant to life outside in the big bad world.
16:55So from the greenhouse, they go to a cold frame.
16:58And this is round here.
17:01Now at the moment, the cold frame is filled mainly with plants that have been pricked out.
17:08They're hardy plants, but they're protected from heavy rain.
17:11They get a little bit more heat from the glass through the sun and it means they're not too cold.
17:16And then they go to the next stage.
17:18And you can see here we've got some wild carrot, sweet peas.
17:24I've got some salvias sitting here where they will remain for at least a week before going into the garden.
17:31They're protected from the cold east wind.
17:34They've got a hedge there, meaning that it's not too blurry.
17:37The sun is not too hot in the middle of the day and it's not too cold at night.
17:42They will gradually acclimatise to life outside.
17:47And if you sow your seeds on a windowsill, that's fine.
17:49The next stage could be just sort of outside the back door or around the corner by a shed where
17:55it's out of the worst of the weather.
17:57That also applies when you buy a plant from a garden centre, particularly a young plant.
18:02So harden it off for at least a week in a slightly protected place outside.
18:07But there's another form of hardening off which is also really relevant, particularly at this time of year.
18:16Come on, Lib.
18:21The other kind of hardening off is of plants that are perennial and can live for years as long as
18:32they are protected from the cold.
18:33So, for example, here we've got some agapanthus, some pelargoniums, lemon verbena, salvias.
18:40And this was, until last week, full of citrus plants.
18:44It's just enough to get them through the winter.
18:46But again, if you take them, a family spent all winter in a greenhouse, and then put them outside just
18:53because it's safe to go,
18:54they're going to sort of blink in the sunlight and they literally just stop growing.
18:59They hunker down.
19:00And it can take them two or three weeks to get going again.
19:03Far better to gently introduce them and acclimatise them.
19:07And if I take a plant like the lemon verbena, so if I take this, you can see new growth,
19:11which means it's coming into life.
19:13And it's the new growth that you've got to harden off.
19:16The woody growth is fine.
19:17That doesn't need any protection.
19:19It's these new shoots.
19:21Before I take it outside, though, it needs a really hard prune, as they tend to get very woody and
19:28leggy.
19:28Cut back to the lowest growth you can see, and this will result in a fresh flush of new leaves.
19:44What I normally do with lemon verbena is do a first pass like that, taking off any obvious pieces that
19:53are too long and straggly.
19:54And then when new shoots develop to another prune, the tighter you can prune it, the better the end result.
20:06Oh, a savvy one.
20:15As the new growth emerges, it will do so into a slightly harsher environment than it was in the greenhouse,
20:21but it will adapt.
20:22And that's the key to all hardening off.
20:25All the trouble you go to, or whether you buy plants from a garden centre, give them a chance to
20:30adapt to your environment.
20:33Acclimatise, and they'll be a lot healthier and happier as a result.
20:37Now, we have all kinds of different growing environments here at Longmeadow, but the one thing we don't do is
20:41have a floating garden.
20:43But Amy Chapman does.
20:48Hi, gardeners world. I'm Amy.
20:50This is my narrowboat.
20:51I moved on to it in the autumn, and I'm turning it into a little floating garden.
20:55Let me show you around.
21:03This is my little rooftop garden.
21:06I am trying to grow as many edible plants and useful plants and also plants for pollinators too.
21:13I have always loved growing my own food, and I didn't want to compromise on that when I bought the
21:18boat.
21:19I've got these planters, which are quite shallow.
21:22So I'm trying to choose plants that will suit a shallow depth of soil, and also plants that don't grow
21:29too tall, because I don't want them to obstruct my view when I'm cruising the boat.
21:34There's a lot of interesting things that you have to consider when you're growing on the roof.
21:39You don't want to put too much weight on one side of the boat.
21:44I am filling up this container with perennial vegetables, which are some of the easiest, lowest maintenance edibles that you
21:52can grow.
21:53These are Welsh onions, and you plant them once and they will live for years and years, and they'll just
21:59keep dividing and producing more and more onions.
22:02With watering, I'm worried about the sort of shallow depth of soil in the summer and keeping everything watered, so
22:08I think I'm going to have to cover everything with a thick mulch and try and keep as much moisture
22:14locked in as possible.
22:18I've got a couple of these babington leeks left, leeks that will basically grow out into like clumps of little
22:25baby leeks.
22:27You plant them once and they'll give you multiple harvests.
22:32I started gardening about five or six years ago, so when I bought the boat, I knew that I had
22:39to find a way to make gardening work and turn the roof into my own little garden.
22:48So this is the front of the boat, also known as the bow, and this is where I like to
22:55have a lot of colour and cheerfulness because a lot of people that walk past the boat say how happy
23:00it makes them to see flowers.
23:01So I've got some honesty here, which is great for pollinators.
23:10It's just a lovely way to live and you always feel like you're really connected to nature and the seasons.
23:16This is only my first spring on the boat, but I'm hoping that by the summer it's going to be
23:20absolutely overflowing with plants.
23:22I'm hoping it can be a wild, abundant, magical garden.
23:27Thank you so much for joining me. I hope you enjoyed having a little look around my floating garden.
23:57So how are you, Magde drain?
24:02My soakway.
24:05you know when I moved to London at the very beginning of 1980s we very nearly bought a
24:11houseboat and wanted to live on it but I turned it down because I thought I must have a garden
24:16and I couldn't have a garden on a houseboat well Amy has proved me wrong not only can you have
24:20a
24:20garden you can have a beautiful garden so that's fantastic now the grass borders here if you
24:26remember I cut back at the very beginning of March and it's brutal you take everything out clear it
24:33back to the ground and it stays pretty empty for a month or so depending on the weather however
24:39it's beginning to grow some already up to knee height and within a few months time things like
24:45the big miscanthus will be as tall as I am and grow taller yet but the key thing about all
24:51these grasses
24:52and this spot here is that they are open to full sun but I've got some grasses in my barrow
24:58which
24:58are perfect for shade this is the woodland garden at the end of summer we started to replant it as
25:17not just a woodland border but incorporating the trees incorporating the shade and making the most
25:21of it this barrow is full of grasses that not only will cope with dry shade but actually thrive in
25:28it and if you get the right one I think they look great in in shade and in woodland settings
25:34so that's
25:34what I'm doing the first is one called Hakononkloa it's become very trendy it creates these these low
25:43mounds like sort of a low bubbling fountain that spills out and the the the leaves bend up and then
25:49fall over
25:50to the ground and if I plant it near the edge of a path it won't grow too big but
25:56it will just soften
25:56that edge and it means I can plant it around the roots of trees so this is going to do
26:00a job for me
26:01for that that that will spill out nicely let's have another spiller there tucked in behind the yew here
26:14there we go this can go here like that I wonder if we could get that in there the key
26:25thing at this
26:26stage is not to to try and be too controlling try it out move them about and then when you've
26:34decided
26:34where you want them it's very easy you just make a hole in the ground take it out the pot
26:37pop it in
26:38job done now the other grass that will serve me very well in here is called Cecilaria autumnalis
26:47and the name is a clue because it actually thrives best in spring and autumn semi evergreen so I thought
26:55that here I put three now you notice I'm putting this in the clump I'm actually going to get a
27:00third
27:00because this is a grass that looks best in clumps or groups or if you've got a lot drifts so
27:11I'm thinking
27:12something something like that not too close to the hellebore so maybe more like that
27:51I'll get the rest of these in the ground now but just a reminder that whatever you're planting at
27:56this time of year even if it's something that thrives in dry shade give it a soak when you plant
28:03it water
28:03it in well and that sets it off to cope with whatever summer may bring we're going to join
28:10Adverley now who has gone up to Scotland to Fife to the back house Rossi estate where she revels in
28:19some
28:19extremely unusual and rare daffodils
28:27as a huge fan of daffodils there's nothing to rival a daffodil festival in full bloom
28:33bloom and when those flowers carry history in their petals it's even better and this array
28:43includes the national collection of back house daffodils blooms created by one family over
28:51several generations since the 1800s to me the oldest blooms often carry the best secrets and stories
29:04but one particular daffodil is here thanks to the brilliance and passion of several determined women
29:13the back house family were originally bankers and quakers
29:18but alongside their work life several of the back house men started breeding daffodils very successfully
29:29initially the only daffodils in britain were the wild ones which was seen as rather common but as new
29:38varieties were produced in different colors and different shapes they became very fashionable
29:47then in 1884 robert ormston back house a banker and daffodil enthusiast married sarah elizabeth dodgson
29:57having been introduced to her at a quaker meeting house
30:03sarah was the daughter of a pharmacist who grew up seeing her father using plants to prepare
30:11and dispense medicine and on the back of this knowledge
30:15a whole new era of back house daffodils began
30:24sarah had the perfect springboard her father-in-law had already cultivated
30:29a breathtaking collection which she inherited she developed it into something entirely her own
30:37creating a new range of daffodils in all shapes and sizes
30:47this is lord kitchener with its ruffled trumpets and contrasting white petals with a twist
30:56sarah named her daffodils with retail in mind
31:00at the time lord kitchener was a well-known military man so by naming it after him it immediately gave
31:08the
31:08flower selling power her tactics worked and as she created more incredible daffodils
31:17she caught the eye of other growers
31:24this is sunrise with these gorgeous gold rays spreading from the center it was really popular
31:33and in her papers there's an order for a thousand bulbs at two shillings each
31:40some of her later daffodils sold for much more
31:45a red cup daffodil
31:46sarah set her heart on creating daffodils with different colored trumpets or cups
31:52mohican was an early success sporting a red edge but a full red trumpet soon followed
32:02this here is a classic sarah backhouse a red cup daffodil set off by these beautiful ivory petals
32:12she named it after another daffodil grower called dick wellband and it's truly striking
32:24obviously none of this happened overnight
32:28daffodils can take five years from seedling to flower and some of her varieties needed three crosses
32:37or more but sarah had the patience and passion
32:47this is a list of just some of the daffodils that sarah created there are pages and pages of them
32:55and these are just the a's the b's and c's so you've got abundance you've got alba you've got albion
33:03star
33:03because all in all she created over 500 varieties
33:10she won countless rhs awards of merit and was the first woman to receive the coveted peter bar cup
33:21but one of her biggest achievements was the first ever pink cupped daffodil
33:29pink cups don't occur naturally in nature and it's likely it took sarah over 20 years to create one
33:39but when sarah's descendant caroline thompson started tracking down the backhouse varieties
33:45she couldn't find the pink cups growing anywhere however she did have inside knowledge
33:53how did you find it caroline well it was my mother she remembered as a small child robert backhouse her
34:03older cousin
34:05coming to her grandparents house with a gift of the pink daffodils when we heard the story decided to
34:16go down to herefordshire and have a look at what is now a nursing homes grounds and see if they
34:24were still there
34:26amazingly they were in the exact spot her mother remembered them being planted
34:35these are so beautiful they're not like a barbie pink are they they're more like a salmon
34:44these i find beautiful because during the the longest part of their flowering
34:52they are this salmony coral pink from the tip of the rim right down to the base to begin with
35:02they
35:02come out a sort of yellowy colour and when they're older they fade to a whitey colour but for that
35:07longest full flowering period they are pink and they are the first true pink daffodil the public
35:16loved them and they were most widely grown and most popular daffodil for about 90 years
35:23are they later flowering yes absolutely they are and sarah backhouse created narcissus that
35:31would flower early through to ones which would flower right the way through to mid-may these will
35:38be flowering in our garden and they are fabulous at that time of year they they come up and look
35:44like
35:45glorious fireworks these days there is some irritation that sarah's most famous flower is called mrs r o
35:58backhouse which is mostly robert's name but that was normal for the time and her husband fully
36:06acknowledged his wife's prowess in a letter after her death robert made it clear exactly where the genius lay
36:22he wrote i hope to continue to care for her beautiful flowers but i fear the supply of new varieties
36:30will cease
36:31i just know that she would be delighted to know that several generations later a female relation would be
36:41keeping her legacy alive
37:02i love the fact that mrs ro backhouse was discovered just down the road from here in herefordshire
37:11and i'm sure there's probably more lurking around the country somewhere and the rhs would love to know
37:16if you have her in your garden so there's mrs ro backhouse and a couple of others there's mrs william
37:22copeland and also one called sussex bonfire those three are very rare but they probably are out there
37:29and could be in your back garden so if you think you've got them or one of them go to
37:35our website and
37:36it will tell you how you can let the rhs know and then what to do about it come on
37:48now try to throw the ball go on off you go
37:54at this time of year of course we all want color whether it be rare exotic unusual color or even
38:00just
38:00the brightness the freshness of green on a lovely sunny spring day but actually if you've got a shady
38:08garden or a shady corner you can still make something that is really beautiful and use color to do it
38:30i've got here the ingredients for what i think will be a really good display
38:36nice big pot crock to put in the bottom and then your compost mix is worth taking trouble over
38:44you can just use peat-free compost you buy and that that will work sort of 80 85 percent as
38:51well as a
38:51mix but the plants i've chosen which are ferns and fuchsias like an open loose mix so i've added a
38:59leaf
38:59mold if you haven't got leaf mold you know just think of something maybe a bit of coir i've added
39:04a little
39:05bit of sieve compost and that has made a mix that is nice and loose and the roots will get
39:10down in
39:11there and be cool so half fill the pot
39:20now we'll start with the firm it's arthurium niponicum red beauty and this arthurium is special
39:29because the leaves have color they're suffused with a sort of gray silvery stain and this beautiful
39:36burgundy sort of central stem going down the frond and going out into the side fronds it does not like
39:44being dry so wherever you put this pot you've got to have access to water and remember to water it
39:49at least weekly i'm going to plant my centerpiece towards the back if you're going to go see around the
39:56pot obviously it needs to go in the middle and the old saying that you have a pillar a filler
40:00and a
40:01spiller works pretty well but this has to class as the pillar and so we'll take it out the pot
40:08and position it like that
40:12a little bit more around it
40:17but that leaves plenty of space for the next addition
40:22now my filler is a fuchsia called annabelle annabelle very well known fuchsia got lovely
40:28very pale flowers it's a bushy plant and fairly upright in fact you quite often see annabelle
40:34grown as a standard so it's got one central stem and then a circular top the one thing to remember
40:39about fuchsias is they do need good drainage they don't like to be too wet so if i'm watering the
40:45fern a
40:45lot i must make sure there's drainage so they're not sitting in soggy compost so that goes
40:51in the middle ground like that and like this i've got three
41:03and then a little bit more compost in the front
41:08and now i've got my foreground for the spiller and this is another fuchsia called harry gray this
41:14is the palest of pinks that will spill in profusion over the edge of the pot
41:22these plants are very dry so i'm gonna have to give them a good soak
41:25okay i'm just filling around them
41:30final thing to do is put it in position and water it
41:43now that can go down in front of this pot which of course is also geared for shade and actually
41:50even in midsummer this only gets about four hours of sun but this will survive and thrive
41:55i'm confident about that now the next thing to do is to water and that really is important
42:08it will take a month or so before the fuchsias start to flower the great thing is that these
42:15will look at their best when other things are failing so they should look good in the summer
42:20and really at their best in september and october
42:26colin come on
42:44well the rhs chelsea flower show is getting closer and i know
42:48that everybody involved whatever they're doing they will be working around the clock to make sure
42:54that on the big day things are as perfect as they possibly can be and we went to visit a
43:01nursery
43:02growing enormous trees that look as though they're completely natural in the show garden
43:07and elliott barden of majestic trees showed us around
43:13i've always been into autoculture it's been my dream job from day one but i really refined my interest
43:19for trees while i was studying at kew and linking that with my love of production of plants meant
43:25that i could only really work at a tree nursery the trees are important for the landscape because of
43:30all the ecosystem services that they provide things like wind dissipation flood mitigation carbon
43:36sequestration habitat creation all of those sorts of things but at the same time they're important for
43:43the human element as well because of things like social health and mental well-being a lot of studies
43:48have been brought in that horticulture can be healing and it can be good for the mind
43:56tree selection is really important my three guidelines would be select the right species
44:01in the right place and for the right reason there's many aspects that you need to consider such as
44:07ultimate size and space but more importantly how the tree is going to adapt to climate shifts
44:14so there's a lot of research been done and there's some studies that are suggesting london's going
44:19to have the climate of barcelona by 2050 possibly as by john by 2100 and a lot of our british
44:25native
44:26trees are simply not going to be resilient to those climates in that era so that's when we need to
44:32start
44:32looking at perhaps some exotics that are going to fill the space where the natives are leaving but also
44:38provide the same ecosystem and biodiversity benefits non-natives are referred to as exotics and there's
44:45somewhere between 3600 and 4000 varieties in cultivation compared to our native tree species
44:53range which is somewhere between 30 and 35 species so to have that diversity in the treescape will
45:00enable them to be resilient i joined the royal botanic gardens queue in 2013 fresh out of school
45:09and it was a steep learning curve queue somewhere that you always have some connection and today
45:16we're working together looking at scientific research and how that can be put to best use
45:22in the commercial trade it traps that moisture on the fine hair which cools the leaf down my name's
45:29kevin martin i'm head of the tree collections at royal botanic gardens queue so i'm really trying to
45:34understand what the landscape is going to look like in 100 years time so with the research that
45:39i do specializing in urban trees it's critically important that we get the commercial nurseries on
45:44board because i can do research and i can find some of the most fantastic trees that are going to
45:48be
45:49more resilient to our future climate
45:53when we think about selecting trees we have to really stop and think deeply now we can't just
45:59select trees on horticultural merit what the tree looks like so its bark the color of its leaves what
46:05we need to start thinking deeply about is the function we're looking at cooling we're looking at
46:10shade we're looking at rain deception they're the questions we need to ask ourselves now not just what
46:16that tree looks like chelsea is going to be so important because when we think about trees and
46:23when we think about selecting trees we need a cultural change and that's the biggest thing and
46:28where else are you going to be able to start that conversation about cultural change than at chelsea
46:35so kevin these are possible selected trees for our chelsea stand here start with this circes
46:42canadensis forest pansy with a beautiful purple leaf it's got some flowers on great they're really
46:48standout tree very well suited especially for those urban dry environments and that's what we needed
46:54to try to explain just because they're resilient trees doesn't necessarily mean they're boring
47:03so next we have taxodium distichum which is famous for thriving in swampy wet conditions if we're
47:10having an area that's prone for flooding for instance these are the trees we need to start
47:14looking at and they're just really good ornamental trees but they have a purpose now
47:23one of the last trees to talk about is sorbus olympic flame which has lots of benefits in terms
47:30of climate resilience and benefits towards other species it's got that spring flower it's really
47:36important for our pollinators and then we've got that food source for the birds when the berries come out
47:40and again look at that for a stunning architectural tree but yet it's still providing other services
47:45and that's what makes trees like this so stunning to have in our gardens
47:51the trees we plant today they're going to see a different world in a hundred years time the climate's
47:58going to be very different the growing conditions are going to be very different so that's really the
48:02scale that we're working in and it's critically important we get that message out there now
48:06because by planting trees we can then help with climate mitigation and trees are going to be one
48:13of the main backbones of this mitigation as we go forward for the next few decades
48:18so kevin it's been really hard overall selecting trees for chelsea which not only look special and
48:25you know pleasing for people to see but also have some of these traits we've been talking about so overall
48:31i hope i've done a good job but the proof will be in the pudding when it comes to judging
48:36it will do
48:37yeah it'll be all down to the judges
49:07i think this idea of of having to choose trees in response to climate change is something we're
49:14all having to wrap our heads around and it's actually quite a big ask because we've grown
49:18up with trees as such a significant part of our culture in literature in art in poetry the shapes
49:26and outlines and features of our native trees are such an important part of our lives that to change
49:33to that well it may be interesting but it's going to be quite demanding but at the same time we
49:39don't
49:39have to abandon a lot of the trees that we love and this year has been a brilliant year for
49:45blossom
49:46and the crab apples this is a crab apple called everest and it's such a joy to have that blossomy
49:52week
49:53with these white flowers floating above the paradise garden and then they fall like confetti
49:59and the year moves on but for that one week it is paradise indeed
50:06the year moves on but for that one week it's not a good idea okay what would you like to
50:33look it smells
50:34delicious stop showing off right um this is time common time and like all mediterranean herbs it
50:44doesn't really want to grow here at long meadow which is why i've got it growing in a pot but
50:50time and all mediterranean herbs have this tendency to become very woody and so the answer if you're
50:56growing it for the kitchen is to trim it hard now till you get a new flush of leaves so
51:01that's what i'm
51:02going to do here certainly start off by cutting off all the really old bear growth like that
51:11and go go hard
51:15when you're cutting back any plant really but certainly these mediterranean herbs as long as
51:21you cut back to something in other words there's fresh new growth below your cutting point it'll regrow
51:28grow whereas if you cut just into old wood and just leave a bare stem the chances are it won't
51:34regrow and that applies to lavender to rosemary to sage and thyme equally it will look a little bit
51:42sort of cropped for a week or two but it will grow back
51:57these plants probably will only serve this year and then they'll be irretrievable and we'll have to
52:03start again and i think probably with time you have to think of replacing it at least every three years
52:09if
52:09not every other year so i've trimmed this back but i'm also going to sow some seed so that i
52:16know next
52:17year and the year after i can replace these plants and lots of others beside it
52:33when you're sowing the seed just as growing the plant just remember where it comes from
52:38it needs poor soil and lots of drainage so don't add any garden compost to your seed mix there's no
52:45need to do that but do add some extra drainage if you possibly can it could be sand it could
52:50be grit
52:51vermiculite vermiculite anything just to loosen it up so i've added vermiculite to a coir-based compost
53:00just level it out
53:05now thyme seed is pretty small so if you see the seed here
53:13there we go now each one of those of course is a potential plant
53:17and the fact that they're brown and the compost is brown means you can't see where you've sown but
53:21just try and sprinkle it as evenly as you can
53:28the main thing to do is to avoid grouping in any one area because
53:32the seedlings and the ultimate plant will do much better if they have a decent amount of room from the
53:39outset now i'm not compacting this all i'm doing is just making sure that the seeds have good contact
53:46with the compost with most seeds i would then cover that with either some more compost or some vermiculite
53:54but thyme seedlings need light in which to germinate so leave them leave them open like that
54:02label them this is just straightforward time now if i watered that from above however gently i did it
54:12there is a slight risk that it will move the little tiny seeds to the edge of the container so
54:19much
54:19better to water it from below
54:26so just have a shallow tray
54:28pop it in
54:30and leave it until you can see the compost staining with the water drain it put it somewhere bright
54:39okay that's a job which will bear harvest sometime in the future but here are some jobs for this weekend
54:58when your tulips have finished flowering snap off the seed heads this is very satisfying thing to do
55:05because they come off easily don't cut back the stem and lead the leaves but this means that all the
55:11goodness instead of going into making seeds will go back into the bulb for next year's flower
55:22if you grow tree ferns and have protected them over winter
55:25now it's safe to unwrap them release the fronds if they're looking raggedy you can cut these right
55:31back because they'll soon be replaced but on the other hand if they're still looking good leave them
55:35for a while in either case it's really important to give them a good soak and tree ferns have many
55:42of
55:42their roots on the trunk and this is what you need to keep moist so soak the fronds and the
55:48trunk
55:49rather than the roots in the ground
55:58it's time to sow sweet corn either use a three inch pot sowing two seeds to a pot and then
56:04removing
56:05the weakest of the two seedlings or one to a plug but do make sure it is the deepest plug
56:11that you can
56:12find press them gently into the compost cover them over and then water them well and do so from above
56:18above because with that depth of compost they don't soak up so well put them somewhere warm to germinate
56:26the heat is important but if they're warm enough the seedlings should appear in a week or so
56:58i want to finish if not on a high note
57:01a low one which i hope actually makes everybody feel a bit better because i'm going to finish with
57:06a disaster the garden's looking lovely we work really hard to make it look as good as possible
57:13but still things go wrong and it happens to all of us and here we have in the cottage garden
57:20a rose or at
57:22least it was a rose called ipsilante a gallica rose beautiful flowers and like most gallicas seemingly
57:31just able to cope with anything but this has got hit by fire blight and fire blight is a bacterial
57:37infection which looks as though it's been blowtorched hence the name fire blight all the rose family are
57:43prone to it and we've got it in the garden and it's never going to go away but because of
57:48our very wet warm
57:49winters that makes it worse there's not much you can do about it what i will do with this is
57:55cut it
57:55back burn the offending stems dig out the roots and burn those too if you can't burn them then pack
58:03them
58:03up and get them taken away to the council tip and i won't replant into it till the autumn when
58:09everything
58:09is clear i will then clean out the soil a little bit and put another rose in that is less
58:14prone to
58:15fire blight but for the moment it's just a pity nevertheless everything else in the garden is
58:23looking wonderful next week we're going to join joe and rachel at the rhs morven spring festival and i
58:33will see you back here at long meadow in a couple of weeks time so until then bye bye
59:03you
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