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The Beechgrove Garden - Season 48 Episode 8
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Short filmTranscript
00:14Hello and welcome to Beech Rove Garden. On the programme from our plot just outside
00:19Aberdeen growing for a summer of colour. Coming up, Kirsty has a different way of planting
00:31sweet peas, revealing this year's dahlias in a garden in Nairn, what summer bulbs to
00:38plant now for great displays and I'm back in the veg plot for Back to Basics.
00:47But first, we're only at May but already there's a handful of plants that have already done
00:52their business for the year, giving us a wonderful floral display over the winter months just
00:57when we're needing it most. So we've got the likes of this viburnum here, born in a tense
01:01dawn, beautiful white pinky flowers that have a scent that just fill up your whole garden.
01:06But the reason they're looking so good just now is because they flowered on wood that was
01:11produced last year. So for us to keep this plant going, for to keep it looking good and
01:16for flowering again next winter, we need to do a bit of pruning just now. Now before you
01:21do any pruning, you need to take a step back and decide just exactly what you're trying to
01:26create. I'm looking here and all I can see is a whole load of bare stems. I don't want
01:30to see that. I want to see something that's clothed with foliage from the ground all the
01:34way to the top. And again, that's going to be full of flowers next year for me as well.
01:38At the moment, if you follow this plant all the way up, all you can see is the growth
01:42at the very top of the plant. And that's where the flowers are going to be next year. I'm
01:46going to have a crooked neck trying to enjoy this plant next year. So now's the time to
01:50get in and do a wee bit of work.
01:53The first thing you do with any sort of pruning job, we're going to look out for some dead
01:57and diseased material, anything that's crossing. So here's a dead item just now. So just give
02:03that a wee nip. And this is a classic example of what we're looking to remove. If I remove
02:10this, it's going to encourage new shoots from the very base of the plant. Look how old it
02:14is. You can tell by the thickness of the stem and the different colour compared with the
02:19likes of this younger one here. This is exactly the kind of thing that we're looking for. Now,
02:24it's quite weighty. I'm already at 2 metres in height, so I reckon this is about 4 metres.
02:30What we want to do is take this maybe off in a couple of stages. So I'm going to take
02:34the weight off the plant. I'll just do a wee undercut. And then I can go in above.
02:44There we go. And now we've got a good view of what we're looking at here, but this is
02:51something I want to point out. So we've got a shoot that's grown about 3 quarters of the
02:55way up the stem. Now, most people will just stop there thinking, well, here's my safety
03:01net. I've got a bit of growth growing. This is where I'm going to stop. But if you think
03:05about it, I'm wanting this plant to be about 2 metres tall. It's already 1.5 metres, so
03:10I'm just keeping the problem going. So you've got to be brave and get all the way down to
03:15the ground. So as I say, get in.
03:24So there we go. Quite happy with that cut. I must admit, I probably would have liked to
03:29have got it a wee bit of low out of the ground. But I've got so much going on in
03:32here that
03:33I've got no room to get my saw in. So in the subsequent years, I'll come back and I'll
03:37make sure that I tidy that up. And we don't want to obliterate the whole plant. We want to
03:41be careful, so don't take any more than a quarter out. So 1 and 4. So I'm looking around and
03:46this
03:47one here's maybe been pruned too high up, so I'll take that one off there and then maybe
03:51focus on another one or two inside. So this is what we'd call renewal pruning and we do
03:56that on an established plant. But what do you do with a young plant and a bit of formative
04:00pruning? That's what we're going to have a wee look at now.
04:15Forsythia is another one of those late winter, early spring flowering shrubs that we want
04:20to do a bit of work on at this time of year. Now this plant's only been in the ground
04:24for
04:24a couple of years. Now we don't want to go as crazy with the established plant taking out
04:28one in four, because we're still wanting the root system to develop to make sure this
04:32plant can grow to its best. But doing a few little cuts just now, maybe taking out some
04:38of this old wood. And then looking at a stem like this, which has grown into this one, and
04:44it's actually rubbing against a younger stem that I suspect will give us some flowering
04:48shoots next year. If we take them out just now, that's going to encourage those new shoots,
04:55and we're going to have a lovely shaped plant, which is just exactly what we want. Now these
04:59are the plants that have flowered, we want to do a bit of work on, but also look out for
05:04Philadelphus, Vigella over the coming weeks, and make sure you do a bit of work on them too.
05:17So traditionally we always grow sweet peas here at Beach Grove, and every year they're planted
05:22out into archways or obelisks outside. But this year I want to try something different,
05:27and that's growing dwarf variety sweet peas in hanging baskets. Now this is something I've never
05:33done before, but you should be able to have sweet peas that get to 30 to 40 centimetres
05:38in height, then just spill out over the hanging basket, will provide that lovely scent and also
05:44nice cut flowers. It's perfect if you've only got a small space or say a balcony garden.
05:49So what we've got is three different varieties to try. Cupid, Sweetie Mix, and Bijou. So they're
05:56going to be lovely purples and pinks, and a nice combination of scented sweet peas. Now
06:03we've got a few examples of hanging baskets here. So this one is made out of plastic and
06:08you'd be able to use it year after year. Same with this metal-wired one. What you then want
06:13to do is to line your hanging basket. So we did scarify the lawn here at Beach Grove a few
06:18weeks ago, so we're going to use that moss and just line the basket with this one. You can
06:23also get a sheep wool liner, but this one is actually a coir liner. So it's made from
06:29coconut husks and it just goes into the basket and both of these are sustainable and will
06:35rot down. I've also got a hanging basket pulley as that allows you to lower your hanging basket
06:40and water it at the right height so no need to go up a ladder or anything. So for a
06:45potting
06:46mix, we've got our own leaf mould and multi-purpose peat-free compost. We're then going to add
06:52a slow release fertiliser into the mix as sweet peas are super hungry. So I'm just going
06:59to fill the hanging baskets up. And the sweet peas have been grown in these root trainers.
07:09They would have been started as seed in the greenhouse at about February-March time and
07:14you'll see they've got these lovely new fleshy white roots. So we're going to plant three
07:19different types into three baskets and then hang them outside our potting shed. So you
07:25just gently take them out of the root trainers and you'll see the lovely long roots and then
07:32into the hanging basket and just put them in. You could use a long trowel like that as that'll
07:39allow you to put these long roots in. Just put maybe one more in there and they're going
07:47to fill this whole hanging basket and spill out over them and be lovely and scented too.
07:54So that's them now all planted into the basket and we will give them a liquid seaweed feed through
08:00the summer and keep them well watered and fed and then we'll have these lovely scented sweet
08:05peas in hanging baskets this summer.
08:17This year I'm working my way through a beginner's guide to productive gardening. So now it's time
08:22to see what needs done in the veg plot in Back to Basics.
08:27Now having started off our veg in the cold grey days at the end of March, we're now with the
08:33sun's
08:33out and we're at that point where we're going to get everything we want to eat over the coming
08:37weeks and months into the soil, into the ground, into the veg plot. Now we started off already,
08:43we've got our tatties in the ground. They were grown quite nicely but as you can see they're not looking
08:48so good just now, they've got a touch of brown about them and that's because they've been hit by a
08:52bit
08:52of frost. Now not to worry too much, it's not going to kill them so we didn't need to dig
08:57them out but
08:57it is going to slow them down that wee bit, but it just shows the importance of this horticultural fleece.
09:04It's quite a cold spring up here, we're definitely getting these sort of colder nights, a touch of frost
09:09and it's amazing what this can do. So look at the forecast at night, if you see it's going to
09:14be cold
09:15it's not going to do any harm to run out and cover your crops with this. Now the last time
09:19I was up here
09:20we actually sowed some carrots so I'm pleased the benefits of the fleece is shown because
09:25you can see the germination is coming through and we'll be back up here again in a few weeks time
09:29for the next stage of these. But also when we were here the last time I was showing you the
09:34benefits
09:35of a cloche. I'd been growing some lettuce in the glass houses, we needed to get them out they were
09:40just
09:40sitting in there taking up space, we got them in the ground but it was still that wee bitty cold.
09:46You can see the cloche now, it's doing its job, the lettuce are growing away happily as anything. The
09:51cloche has got opened at both ends so the cold air is still getting through but it does give that
09:55wee
09:56bit of protection at night but already we're nibbling away taking some picks of lettuce off there.
10:01And then the onions, look at them, they're coming on a treat, you can definitely tell that they've got
10:05their roots into the ground now and they're growing away quite the thing. And this is a good chance to
10:10show
10:10you the importance of plant spacing. So we wanted to make sure there was enough room between the plants
10:15just so we could get the whole through. The last thing we want is weeds because they're going to
10:19compete with the plant for for moisture and we want our plants to grow quite the thing so always make
10:25sure there's enough room for your whole to get through and that'll just save you a wee bit of time.
10:31Now if we were to plant our crops in the same soil in the same spot year after year we
10:36run the risk of
10:37building up pests and diseases which will could ultimately ruin our vegetables. So we want to
10:42do this thing called crop rotation and part of that means we have to put our plants into certain groups.
10:47So we've got our others, that's a miscellaneous group, that's the likes of your onions, your lettuce,
10:52we've even got some herbs in there. Your roots, they're pretty self-explanatory. Potatoes, carrots,
10:57parsnips. Then we've got our brassicas, so that's your leafy crops, brussels sprouts, cabbages,
11:03kale and we've got them grown in amongst this caged area. There's two reasons for we want to do that.
11:09The first one, pigeons love the foliage so they'll be straight in there if they get the opportunity
11:13but also very shortly you're going to start to see this little white butterfly going around,
11:18the cabbage white it's called. Now if it gets in there and lays eggs in amongst the plants then the
11:24resulting caterpillars will devour the crop as well. So that helps keep those two pests out the road so
11:30we can enjoy our brussels sprouts at Christmas. And then the last group that we're going to focus
11:34on today is legumes. So that's your peas and your beans. Now they need a structure to grow up so
11:40we've
11:40got a bamboo cane here but also you could go for a rustic look of maybe some hazel rods. Now
11:46these are
11:46for the climbing beans. Now when you want to do these, a wee trick for you is just to plant
11:53on the inside of
11:55the cane. Now normally I think our instinct would be to go on the outside. This is a variety called
11:59cobra,
11:59it's a lovely climbing bean, you can also get your french beans with the long thin fingers.
12:04But what you want to do is to pop your bean just on the inside. When that starts to grow
12:09it'll
12:10automatically find the cane itself, twine its way up to the top of the pole for you. Nice and easy.
12:16However, your peas, they need a wee bit of more help. So they're just the same as your sweet peas,
12:21they have tendrils and they're going to cling onto this netting for support. Get it in first.
12:25So with all the veg I grow, I want to grow those that I can rely on because I want
12:30to make sure I'm
12:31feeding my stomach and my family every year. So I always grow one variety that I know is tried and
12:36tested. It's going to do well in the Scottish climate but I like to push the new varieties as
12:40well because there's so many out there I'm scared I'm missing out on something. So the first one we've
12:44got is Greyness, it's a heritage variety, it'll do me well. We've got a new one out here now,
12:50Flo Ver, it's a petit pois, it's got some beautiful sweet flavour so I'm looking forward to trying that
12:56one. And then the last one that I've got grown. This is Snack Hero and this is one of those
13:01ones where
13:02it looks like a bean but it tastes like a pea so I'm really interested to see what that one
13:06looks like.
13:07I've got my draw hole back again, always check the back of the seed packet for depth and spacing.
13:13But I'm going to come in just where my netting is and just draw the soil back ever so gently.
13:20And as you can see I've already got a row in but in between I'm just going to stagger them.
13:29And by doing that when the plant grows it means they've got equal spacing to share going up the netting
13:35there.
13:36Now as you can see we've already made a sown here and that's part of successional sown.
13:41These were sown three weeks ago so they're going to grow quite the thing.
13:45But this week we're now going to do a second sown. So while we're eating one group,
13:49the second group will still be growing and that means I can be eaten for a lot longer.
13:53But a couple of things we need to look out for. As you can see from this crop there's a
13:58few gaps.
13:59Now there's every chance that was some mice that got the peas before they even had a chance to grow.
14:03They absolutely love them. And just the same with the brassicas,
14:07watch out for pigeons because they'll go for the foliage. So stick over a wee bit of netting
14:12and once they're up you should be laughing.
14:15Okay, so now it's time to go and visit a garden on the Morrie Firth.
14:27Mari Reid grew up in the mountains of Romania, surrounded by wildflower meadows and woodland plants.
14:34And that love of naturalistic planting has followed her all the way to the north of Scotland.
14:39She uses a great method of developing a border that avoids all the heavy speed work.
14:47I started developing this area of the garden that used to be a paddock.
14:51I made new beds using a no-dig method and I actually used the grass clippings that we cut from
15:00the paddock
15:00by just mulching it on top of the grass and that stops the grass to grow. And a few months
15:07later,
15:08I don't think I waited that long because I'm so impatient when it comes to gardening.
15:11I started planting hardy annuals and dahlias and anything that I could think of that I grew from seed.
15:18And as you can see, it's starting to look quite pretty in my opinion.
15:23And I added a lot of tulips in the autumn and some daffodils and some alliums and they're all coming
15:28into flower really lovely just now alongside the Forgive Me Not and Honesty, which I think a garden
15:34shouldn't be without because they bring out so much colour and pollen for the early pollinators.
15:41And yeah, it's looking good for this time of year.
16:00It's a time of year when I have to look at my dahlias. They need some care at the moment.
16:06I have dahlias in the garden that I don't lift. I discovered in the last four or five years of
16:12growing dahlias that I can leave them in the ground and I use a pot, like a big plastic pot,
16:20and I fill it with straw. And then once the frost kills your dahlias in the autumn,
16:26I just take the pot and put it on top of the dahlias, like so. And that keeps the frost
16:33away from the
16:34plant, but it also keeps the rain away from the tubers because they don't like frost and they don't
16:39like the wet. So basically, I'm just going to lift this now, put it to the side and have a
16:45check to see
16:46if the dahlias is showing any signs of growth. And here we are. You can just see the shoots. So
16:54you
16:54can't leave them much longer because they're already starting to grow. So it's a perfect time
16:58of year to uncover them and let them see the light and they will grow away happy. So this is
17:05how I do
17:06the dahlias that I have growing in the borders. But I have another area of the garden where I only
17:11have
17:11dahlias and I use a different method of covering them.
17:23So these are the beds where I grow my dahlias for cut flowers. And I use this plastic to put
17:29on top of
17:29the dahlias. And then on top of the plastic, I put leaf mold, straw, material that I cut from the
17:37main
17:38garden, you know, all the vegetation from the plants, the more the better, because the bigger the mulch is,
17:42the better the insulation will be. And now it's time to uncover them and see if they overwinter well.
17:50I mean, straight away, I can see here a tuber that's starting to grow. And look at that,
17:56we can see the young shoots of the dahlias coming. So it's definitely time to uncover them
18:00because they're starting to grow. I'm here in the west side of the house and I have a shrub salvia
18:17that needs pruned. Now all the risk of frost has passed. So the reason why you don't prune them
18:22until spring is because they are quite not very hardy and the top growth protects the lower shoots.
18:28And now you can see that they're already starting to shoot from lower down. So I want to prune all
18:33these dead branches and prune to a frame of about 20 to 30 centimeters above ground. And then I will
18:40maybe do some fertilizing with fish blood and bone or chicken pellets to give it a little bit of help
18:46to get it going for the season. So I've got some secateurs here and I'm going to start by removing
18:51all
18:51the dead branches like so to where you see nice healthy shoots. Sometimes you prune some of the
18:59shoots as well. You can actually take some cuttings with those bits and I'll show you in a minute how
19:04I do the cuttings as well from the bits that I cut off. So you can see this one has
19:09green shoots further
19:09up but it's also got lots of green shoots coming from lower down. So I want the plant to be
19:13shorter and
19:15bushier from the bottom. So I cut this away. They're a lovely plant. They flower all summer long all the
19:22way until October, November. So it's a good plant to have in your garden. If you have an area where
19:27is
19:27a little bit shelter from harsh winds and harsh winter months. So this area of our garden here in the
19:33west side of the house is quite protected from the hedge and the wall of the house. These branches here
19:39have died back quite a bit but I see lots of nice shoots here further down in the crown of
19:44the plant.
19:46And we are left with a nice frame. Lots of nice healthy shoots coming and it's ready for a good
19:53summer I
19:53hope. Lots of flowers for the cuttings. Basically just pull them off the main stem. Remove the lower leaves
20:03like so. I've got some rooting powder here. I'm just going to dip them into the rooting powder.
20:11I've got a potting compost here. I use a mix of the mycolite with the multipurpose compost, about half of
20:18each. I mix them into the pot. So I'm just going to make a little hole in my finger, put
20:24the cutting in,
20:25press down a little bit. Because shrub salvias are a tender plant, it's a good practice to take cuttings
20:33because if a plant in the garden dies and you have a few cuttings and you maybe plant them in
20:38other areas
20:38of the garden, you have backup. And then I just go with the water. And this is what I use
20:44for cuttings
20:46every day, at least three or four times a day. And I go with the mist over them because this
20:50is very
20:51important to keep them hydrated. So it does take a little bit of effort from our part, but it's very
20:57rewarding when we succeed. And then I'll go and put it in my greenhouse on a bench which is shady.
21:03So that's the shrub salvia pruned, cuttings taken, and it's ready now for the new season ahead. And
21:11these cuttings, I'll put them somewhere in the greenhouse shaded and hopefully they will take.
21:15And then I'll have some insurance for years to come that I won't lose this plant.
21:29So this time of year and going into summer is the best time to propagate your scented pelargoniums.
21:35Now scented pelargoniums, they're not hardy, so they do need to be in a greenhouse or your house
21:40or a conservatory. They have lovely scented leaves. So I have some at home that smell of lemon, citrus,
21:47roses, and even cucumber. So I've got three different varieties here today. So this one is
21:53floropleno. This is ashby with lovely pink flowers. And then this much more lacy foliaged kind of silver
22:00in colour and smells just amazing. But small flowers is called southern wood. So they do root very easily
22:08from cuttings. It's a great way to build them up. But another job to do at this time of year
22:13is to take the
22:14flower heads off as that will promote more flowers in the summer. So I'm just going to nip this one
22:20off. And when you're taking the cuttings, you want to be taking them off a stem that doesn't really have
22:26any flowers or flower buds on them. So we're going to go for this one down here and cut just
22:32below a node.
22:33So that is where the greatest amount of hormone is that will promote rooting. And then we're going to
22:42take the lower leaves off as that helps reduce transpiration because you don't want your cuttings
22:48to dry out. And there you have a perfect pelargonium cutting. So what we've got here is square pots and
22:57we've filled them with multi-purpose peat free compost. And then we've added perlite, this white sort of
23:03pellet into it. And that helps with aeration and drainage as you don't want your cuttings to sit
23:09in really heavy soil as that will restrict root growth. We'll then put the cuttings around the corners
23:17of the pot as this will help drainage and it will also allow the roots to come off, hit the
23:23edge of the
23:23pot and form more roots. So you just need a debor or even a pencil at home and just create
23:29these holes
23:31around the pot and then just gently squeeze the cutting into the corner of the pot and firm around
23:36it. Now most cuttings you might want to cover with a bag or a little cloche but pelargoniums root so
23:43easily. But the good thing to do is to just water them in and you want to place that cutting
23:48out of direct
23:49sunlight in a greenhouse or a windowsill and within six to eight weeks you'll have new roots and you'll
23:56be able to pot them on and before you know it you'll have a lovely collection of scented pelargoniums.
24:12Well Kirsty as we said earlier this programme's all about summer colour and you can't beat bulbs.
24:18They're not just for spring are they? That's totally true you can get a vast array of beautiful flowers
24:23all summer long from bulbs and we're going to create this bed into a lovely cut flower area just for
24:29summer
24:29bulbs. So they're going to give us a huge range of flowers through the summer so that one that you're
24:35planting now is Noreen baudenii. It comes from South Africa and has lovely pink flowers in September
24:41and October so right at the end of the season. Just when you're needing it. I've got this one at
24:45home
24:46I've got it up against the wall of the house you know when it's a wee bit of dryer. You
24:50tried any of the other
24:50varieties? I find some of the other cultivars for me are not hardy enough whereas that one can cope
24:56right down to like minus 15. It just needs free draining soil so if you're on the west part of
25:01the country it might struggle. If you notice I've not planted it deeply it's just got the neck and even
25:06the shoulders poking above the ground you plant it too deep it might affect the flower in it.
25:12Next up what have we got? Eremuris. So next is Eremuris so that's going to get to about a metre
25:171.5 tall you might have to stake this also known as foxtail lily. It's got kind of amazing spidery
25:25roots and it is recommended to soak these bulbs in water for two to three hours before planting so
25:33that's what we've been doing with this one. Just rehydrates them, puts a bit of life back into them.
25:37And they love free draining soil so you do not want this one to get too wet. So what we're
25:43going to add
25:44into this planting hole is a bit of grit. So I'm going to put that at the bottom just so
25:48it's sitting
25:48on there. Again we don't want it too wet for them. We don't want them rotting. No not at all.
25:54And this
25:54is about 15 centimetres deep and look yeah weird spidery sort of roots. So there we go. There's the
26:01growing point so we know he's quite happy. Just place him on there and then backfill. Perfect.
26:08Good idea though because that's under there and it doesn't like competition it doesn't like
26:11root disturbance. Doesn't like getting moved. No. Get a garden cane so when you're coming out and
26:16keeping this area tidy you know exactly where it is. And you might want to stake that later on.
26:21Another cut flower that might need staking is this one gladioli. So this is gladiolus wine and roses.
26:28Quite a name. Perfect for you is that right? Good combination. This is a lovely pink and it's just a
26:35traditional cut flower. It was always seen in cut flower gardens and is used you know about this
26:41height in vases and just big blousey flowers. There's something about old kitchen gardens you
26:46know wall gardens the victorian times and you just see all the gladioli lined out in that cut flower
26:50plot as you're saying. But do you know what I think they're making a bit of a comeback. There's some
26:54cracking varieties out there these days. Blousey, showy. Yeah so many colours now. Lined green, purple,
27:00maroon, pink, white. Maybe not all for a wedding bouquet if you're doing cut flowers here. But
27:06anything sort of to suit you and the great thing is you can grow them in succession can't you?
27:12Yeah that's right. So a wee bit late now. Not too late to actually plant some but you could have
27:16started putting them in the ground what end of April beginning of May. A few weeks later and then
27:20the last ones round about the start of June. Take about 12 weeks to get from planting to flowering so
27:25now's the time to get them in. I've just planted them in a row quite close together
27:30and about five centimetres deep. And then at the end here I've got an Asiatic lily. So lily bulbs
27:36are classic in the summertime. Great in July. Scented. This one is white and is named Kent.
27:44Sometimes the pollen. You've got to watch out for that. I don't know why I'm thinking of wedding dresses
27:48today but I don't want to get that stain on the wedding dress. No but you can just cut the
27:52anters off can't you? Yeah. That'll be lovely and that that's going to give us a great range of bulbs
27:58this summer. Yeah. Going to look stunning.
28:08Well that's all we've got time for this week. Ruth's going to be joining me next week. If you've
28:13only got a small space to garden in, she's going to be up in her vertical plot. And we'll be
28:18in
28:18Troon looking at the best bonsai in the country. Remember you can catch up with the whole series so
28:24far on the BBC iPlayer wherever you want. Well from the two of us, it's bye for now.
28:54you
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