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00:00Hello, welcome to Gardener's World. I've got a tray of purple sprouting broccoli here,
00:18and although we're still in July and I won't begin to harvest these until April, even maybe
00:24early May, it is important to be planning ahead. And these are one of the slowest crops
00:31in the garden, but purple sprouting broccoli, eaten fresh, is an absolute delicacy. We're
00:37used to broccoli being a health food, and in fact what's normally sold is a form of
00:42calabrese, which are great big green heads. Well these are small purple florets, and are
00:48sweet and tasty, and completely delicious, and worth taking up a bed for nine months
00:55of the year. So I will, as with all these brassicas, plant them good and deep, and this
01:02will stabilise them so you can see well down, and then tack down firmly around them. Now
01:11these are going to grow about three, four foot tall. They will need staking, and in
01:16order to develop their full potential, with lots and lots of florets, they will need space.
01:22So the next one can go here. Now the only disadvantage of brassicas in summer is that
01:38they attract the cabbage white butterfly, and there seem to be an awful lot of cabbage
01:42whites around this year, so I'm going to have to net these once I've planted them.
01:47Right, I'll get the rest of this bed in, and I should have enough plants left over to do
01:52another bed in the vegetable garden. Coming up on today's programme, Nick continues his
02:02story demystifying the rose. Now these might not be the first roses that spring to mind
02:08when you're looking to plant up your garden, but I'm hoping to convince you to try just
02:14one or two. We visit a national collection of dioramas, angels fishing rods, in Staffordshire.
02:21It gives a real feeling of movement in the garden. They are so lovely as they dance around
02:27in the breeze. And I shall be cleaning up my wildlife pond, adding some plants and maximising
02:35all the opportunities for as wide a range of life as possible. And last summer, I went
02:41to Ireland to visit Jimmy Blake's garden at Hunting Brook in the Wicklow Mountains. He
02:47is coming to visit me. In some respects, the writing garden has become the victim of
03:10its own success, and that's certainly true of a small group of plants. This is Silene
03:17Fimbriata. It's a bladderwort, and I planted it because it's got lovely, delicate white
03:24flowers, the little bubble behind them just touch with pink, and they have a freshness
03:30and a lightness which exactly fits the mood of this garden. But they've spread, and it
03:37is a bit of a thug. So what I'm going to do is halve them and then add some more plants
03:43in to the space that I will have created. The first thing to do is just cut it back.
03:58As we start to think about going into August, it's not a bad time to be moving plants, to
04:05be adding plants into the border, because you can see what it looks like in high summer.
04:10If you do all that moving work in autumn or in spring, you're having to imagine what it's
04:16going to look like. Whereas now, if you do it, you have to cut them back, so there may
04:21well not be a re-flowering, and you have to water them in well. But you can get the context
04:26amongst all the other plants in the borders dead right. I'll tell you what, it's humid
04:32today. Now that was the easy bit. I'll try and divide it up into relatively small pieces.
04:50You can see that coming out of the roots is fresh growth. And this is what happened.
04:57These roots, which are really tough and strong, they grow laterally, and then they throw up
05:02a mass of new shoots. And it spreads very fast indeed. And nothing else can grow in
05:08amongst it. But that's a nice clump. Right, I'm going to leave some of the silenium, because
05:29I like it. I just don't want so much of it. And then the pieces I've dug up, I've got
05:33a new home for. In fact, I'm going to plant it in a very different way. But first, let's
05:37join Frances, because she has been to Solihull in the West Midlands. And she's helping people
05:43to make every space count, whether it be public space, or the smallest of private areas.
05:57This is my first visit to the Chelmsley Wood Estate, to meet a woman who's made a real
06:01change here by bringing together her community to green up the space. Sarah Gill has lived
06:13here most of her life. And she wants to show me something tucked away between the houses.
06:25To grow organic, a social enterprise, she's created a community space filled with edibles
06:33and chickens that the residents call the Victory Garden. Who uses the space? Wow, so we have
06:42a really broad cross section of our community that use the garden. We work a lot with local
06:47residents who like to just come, use the space as somewhere to socialise. But then we also
06:51have the school who want to send children to come to us to learn all about where their
06:55food comes from. And then of course, we have our food growers who just love to grow all
07:00the food. And then every Friday, people can come in, they can just come and pick all of
07:05this for free. And you're a local girl, aren't you? So is that why you kind of wanted to
07:09get involved with this? Knowing local people, they can tell me what they want in their spaces,
07:14we can make every little space count. And when people come to us with a problem about
07:18a plot of land or an area, quite often we can find the solution. Sarah has started a
07:25project at nearby Fillingham Court. She's teaching the residents about gardening to
07:30inspire them to make the most of their communal areas and brighten up their balconies. Sarah
07:37has asked me along to help design and plant the first three balconies over the next two
07:42days. And the first balcony is John and Maya's, in a sunny position on the first floor. Here
07:50it is, here are your plants. How beautiful. Do you enjoy using this outside space as well?
07:56Yeah, we do. It's very important to just be able to open the door and come out. What sort
08:01of look do you like in a garden? Greenery and colours. We like the countryside and we
08:07like nice smelling plants and that. Are you happy to give me a hand actually planting it? Sure. Great, let's get started.
08:14Okie dokie. John and Maya's balcony is three metres by one metre by two. And as a first floor flat,
08:22with a glass railing, plants here are liable to get really hot. I've chosen plants that will
08:29tolerate these conditions. In any limited space, which obviously a balcony is, it's a really good
08:38idea to go upwards rather than outwards. But always check beforehand whether you can actually
08:44attach anything to the wall, and here we can't. So what I've got is this container with trellis
08:50attached to the back, completely detached from the wall, but still a very good support to climb
08:53things up. And the compost I'm using in this contains something called perlite, which will
08:59make the whole soil a lot lighter and also add some drainage as well, so it's good for the plants too.
09:05If you're planting on a balcony, check the load it can take from your landlord or builder.
09:10Remember to take into account how much your pots and soil will weigh once they're watered.
09:16Into this I'm putting a honeysuckle because Maya loves scent and that will give a beautiful scent
09:25when she's sitting out here, especially in the evening, and that will climb all the way up here
09:30and with some regular pruning it won't get too big.
09:37This is a plant that I think John will be well pleased with. It's a gooseberry and he's always
09:41wanted to grow one, so I'm putting one right here. Just a little bit of feed, so high potash for
09:47anything that fruits, plenty of water whilst the fruits are ripening, it should be well away.
09:52These are osteosperms, which give a lovely splash of colour, which Maya asked for.
10:03I've got one thing that can cope with very little root space, strawberries. So I can just imagine
10:08John and Maya coming out here of an evening, plucking a strawberry as they go by and having
10:12a nice sit down, taking in the view. I'm quite jealous really.
10:17Quite jealous really.
10:21Another nifty trick for getting some height is this.
10:26It's a steel rod in a pot with some wood on the bottom of it to stop it from coming up
10:31and then you just get these pots, any old terracotta ones you can buy in a garden centre,
10:40and then a small one to finish.
10:42Fill it with soil, add a lot of plants, and there it is.
10:49I've used alpines which will thrive in this hot and dry position,
10:53but you could also try tumbling Mediterranean herbs instead.
10:59There we go, one tippy pot. I hope John and Maya like it.
11:03Oh look at that, it's lovely. It's beautiful isn't it? That is gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous.
11:10I can't believe it, transformation. Really nice. I heard that you like gooseberries. Yeah. Well you've
11:15got your own now. Oh gooseberry bush, one there as well. There's only one this year, but maybe next
11:20year you'll have some more. Next year there'll be more, yeah absolutely. Life don't get much better
11:23than this, does it? Strawberries and gooseberries, that's what it's all about.
11:28I'm sure they've been around for ages, but I've never seen those tippy pots. I think they look really good.
11:40Anyway, we'll be rejoining Frances later on, as she tackles
11:46one of the most difficult tasks of her life, and that is to make sure that she's got a good
11:52bed. Good. Anyway, we will be rejoining Frances later on, as she tackles a couple more balconies
12:00with very, very different themes. Now we've made a new theme here, in this little strip of grass,
12:07because for 25 years this was known as a kind of halfway between a path and lawn. But what we've
12:14done this year is let it grow uncut, save for a strip down the middle. As well as the grass,
12:20I've been planting into it. We've added snowdrops, we've added alchemilla molluscs and ragged robin,
12:25and now I want to add the silene. I'll break it up and just add small clumps along both sides,
12:32and the thinking is that the silene will be held in check by the grass, because grass tends to
12:38dominate wherever it grows. Now the first experiment will be to see how hard the ground is,
12:46because of course I haven't watered here at all.
12:49Oh, not too bad. I'm just going to take a piece of turf out and then make a hole.
13:03You can see how dry it is. I'll pop that down.
13:07But silene is a tough plant, and it will grow in really dry shade,
13:14and it will grow in fairly wet ground. It's very, very adaptable.
13:26Now I'll just take this right back,
13:29so that when I mow it, I won't cause any damage. And if you're planting at this time of year,
13:35you're not going to expect any flowering. All we want to happen is now the soil is nice and warm,
13:40hopefully we'll get some rain, and in any case I'll water these in. The roots will get
13:44established, so that by next spring you've got nice strong plants that will perform well.
13:50Now my intention is to take out enough from the writing garden to space all the way down one side
13:56and then back down the other. What I want to do now is go back to the writing garden
14:01and start to fill up the space I've created with the soil that I've just mowed.
14:08So I'll just put a little bit of soil in here, and I'll just put a little bit of soil in here,
14:13and I'll just put a little bit of soil in here, and I'll just put a little bit of soil in here,
14:17to fill up the space I've created with a new selection of plants.
14:22So
14:44it's always exciting to add new plants to any part of the garden,
14:50and I've got three plants here which I confess I've never grown before, but I've wanted to,
14:54and so now is a really good opportunity. Now the first is a Lysimachia. This is Lysimachia candela,
15:02and unlike most Lysimachias, which can be pretty invasive, this one is not too bad.
15:08This one will form a clump but won't spread. I'm going to put three plants where I took out
15:14the Silene, but before I do it, I am going to beef it up with a little bit of compost, because
15:22this, like all Lysimachias, likes plenty of moisture, but it also likes good drainage,
15:27and adding organic matter to a soil is the best way of ensuring both good drainage
15:32and water retention. It can form that seemingly contradictory act quite happily.
15:38So this is garden compost.
15:47Now that will just give us a good start in life, and I've got good healthy plants.
15:59You can see a root system like that where there's plenty of root to be seen, but it's not wrapped
16:05round and round, so I don't need to do anything other than place these in the ground. Now
16:13pop that one in there.
16:18As well as the white flowers that go from mid-summer into early autumn,
16:27the foliage will start to turn red, so although this is a white garden, that red will just add
16:34a touch of colour as we go into winter. In this kind of situation, you have a choice to make
16:42whether you plant as a clump, and essentially you're planting three plants as one. This will
16:49make one indivisible clump, or whether you space them. If you are going to make a clump, it tends
16:57to be easier to do it with odd numbers than even. I'm going to put another clump behind it,
17:04which will rise up, and this is a plant called liatris. This liatris piccata album is a sort of
17:09bottle brush flower, and if I group the three together in the space I've created behind this,
17:15this will grow up about four or five foot tall, and so we'll have these spires that will curve and
17:23have these individual florets, and then the bottle brush behind it. So let's dig that out a bit.
17:34Now what both a lissimachia and the liatris like is sunshine.
17:41Now both are really good for butterflies and bees. They give these late summer flowers
17:48just when they need the nectar most, so as well as looking good, fantastic for wildlife.
17:54I've got a third plant here. This is isostygia. This variety is called Miss Manners, and it's got
18:01that name because it has exceptionally good manners and doesn't spread out where it's not
18:06wanted. It's fairly self-contained. Now to make Miss Manners happy, what you need is sun, moisture,
18:16and good drainage.
18:22Well, there's the powder that used to be my soil.
18:33That goes there.
18:37I think that will be good.
18:47At the moment, there's every possibility of a hosepipe man in certain parts of the country,
18:56but you can use watering cans, and the important thing is to use them judiciously. If you plant
19:00something, give it a really good soak. When you plant it, get the water down deep, and the roots
19:06will go down and find it. Now I use roses here in the writing garden. I use them in the orchard beds.
19:14In fact, they're all over the garden, and Nick, in his second part of the story of roses that he
19:20began last week, now tells us how hybrid teas and floribundas evolved.
19:37You'll remember last time I was looking at old roses, which are renowned for their
19:43beautiful flower and their intoxicating scent. Today, I'm going to be looking at bourbon, tea,
19:50and floribunda roses, and it's these groups which are absolutely instrumental in the development
19:56of the genus. These might not be the first roses that spring to mind when you're looking
20:04to plant up your garden, but I'm hoping to convince you to try just one or two.
20:20Bourbon roses first came to prominence in the early 1800s, and they really represent the link
20:26between old and modern roses. They have some quite distinct qualities to them. They have these
20:32deeply ruffled blooms, which have the most intoxicating and delicious of scents, but the
20:40thing that makes them really worthy garden plants for me is the fact that they repeat bloom all the
20:45way through the season. Now, this is a particularly good example of a bourbon rose. It's Madame Isaac
20:51Perrier, and it will do just that. It keeps on blooming from May through to October. Now, in
20:58terms of keeping these plants happy and growing well in the garden, it needs to be grown in a
21:03classic rose soil, so humus rich, reasonable amount of moisture, but not too wet, and lots
21:09of nutrients, so it needs a good mulch each year of manure. Now, in terms of pruning, over the winter
21:15it needs about a one-third reduction, so look down at the bottom there, get rid of one of those old
21:20stems, and it will trigger new growth, new stems, and lots of new flowering. I think another thing
21:27that makes them really worthwhile is that they're incredibly social as a border plant, and you can
21:32see here they're growing beautifully with nepeta and with geranium roseanne underneath, and I think
21:38that level of socialization and that repeat flower makes them truly worthwhile garden plants.
21:47The period from the 1840s right through until the 1950s saw a huge expansion in the breeding of
21:53different rose groups across Europe. The cultivars produced were the forerunners of many of the roses
21:58we grow today. Tea roses, such as Mutabilis, arrived from China in the 1840s. Named after the
22:05tea clipper ships, they brought with them the promise of exciting new colours, including yellows
22:10and an ability to repeat flower, unlike their predecessors, the old roses.
22:15These tea roses were hybridized with other older roses, producing hybrid teas.
22:23They started to arrive from France in about 1880, and they followed a quick succession of lots of
22:29different colours of these HT roses. Then, directly after the war, a new and iconic rose appeared, and
22:36this is it. It's Rose Apiece, and it has this beautiful pink edge to it on the outer petals,
22:42and then yellow in the centre, and it's gone on to become the best-selling rose in the world.
22:48It's a beautiful plant, but for me, it's got one downside. There's not really a very strong scent.
22:54However, there are two roses which I think are absolutely brilliant for scent, and they're both
22:59hybrid teas. There's this one, which is called Deep Secret, and it has that lovely, reddy, burgundy,
23:05crimson tone, and it has a really rich, sumptuous scent and long, clear stems. And then, tucked away,
23:11just down there, is another scented hybrid tea called Chandos Beauty, and for me, that's one of
23:17the most delicious, citrusy, spicy scents. Now, all of these HT roses are probably the easiest of all
23:24groups of roses to maintain. They need to be in a relatively heavy soil, lots of mulch, lots of food
23:29through the season, and their pruning couldn't be easier. You can literally chop them down to about
23:358 inches, about 20 centimetres, in March time, and they'll grow away for you brilliantly into the
23:40season. Of course, HTs are repeat flowers that will flower from May to November, but if you
23:47deadhead them, you'll keep them going even longer. So, despite the fact that hybrid teas are often
23:53derided for being a bit disease-ridden or not particularly well-scented, if you choose the
23:57right cultivars, I think they make really worthy and beautiful garden plants.
24:03These are Floribunda roses, and their name comes from the botanical Latin, which literally means
24:10multi-flowered, and these guys certainly are. Now, they first started to arrive in about 1900,
24:17and they are the result of crossing two different, very useful parents. One is the polyanther rose,
24:24which has many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many,
24:30is the polyanther rose, which has masses of blooms in the clusters at the end of its stems,
24:35and the other is the hybrid tea, which repeats all the way through the season,
24:40and so the great thing about Floribunda roses is they have the quality of both of those parents.
24:46This is arguably the most iconic of the lot, and this is Iceberg. It's got that really clean,
24:53pure white tone to it. It has clusters of flowers right on the end of the stems,
24:58and it goes on for at least six months in the garden, but I think the rose that gets me most
25:04excited in the Floribunda group has to be this, and this is Burgundy Ice, and I don't think there
25:10are many other flowers that have quite this tone. It's that beautiful, suffused burgundy with a pale
25:17back to the petal, which really makes the whole thing pop. Now, in terms of maintaining these
25:22roses, they're very similar to hybrid teas. They want a good, rich soil, good moisture, and they
25:28can be pruned in a very similar way.
25:45Modern roses such as hybrid teas, Floribundas, and Bourbons have had a really bad rap over the
25:52last few decades, but because of their ability to repeat flower, their incredible range of colours,
25:59the fact that some of them are brilliantly scented, and that you can mix them into
26:03other borders, I think they are absolutely due a revival.
26:09I do think it's really good to demystify roses, because they can seem intimidating. All those names
26:25and the different pruning regimes is enough to daunt a lot of people, and I confess that
26:31I didn't really grow roses until I was in my mid-30s. I was put off by them. Then, when I
26:37started to grow them, I realised two things. One, these are tough plants. They're dead easy to grow.
26:45And two, they just give so much pleasure. And if you put them in the ground, any soil, more or less
26:53any situation, they will grow. And don't be frightened if you've got growth coming out
26:59over a path or whatever, just prune it back. And then you can do a proper prune, and if in doubt,
27:06October is never a bad time to prune roses. And some of these will re-flower, but quite a few of
27:13the older roses just give you three or four weeks of glory in June and early July, and that
27:23is more than enough for me. Now, still to come on tonight's programme, Francis returns to Solihull
27:31and helps redesign two more balconies in contrasting ways. But first, we're off to
27:37Staffordshire to visit Ruth Plant, who has one of the national collections of dioramas.
27:44The diorama is called the wand flower or the hair bell of Africa.
27:51People are very surprised when they see a diorama flower because
27:55they think that maybe it's a grass, but they can't understand why.
27:59At the end, they've got the main flower, which is the rose, and then they've got the main flower,
28:05which is the flower, which is the rose. And then they've got the main flower, which is the grass,
28:12At the end, they've got the most beautiful hanging bell.
28:18My name's Ruth Plant, and I live here at Yewtree Cottage with my husband, Clive.
28:23We have a cottage garden, which has vegetables at one end and a flower garden at the other end.
28:30Our name is Plant, and we are both really plantaholics.
28:35Dioramas are part of the iris family, but they're a corm. They're closely allied to cricosmia.
28:43The diorama season here starts towards the end of May, and they all do have their flowering times,
28:48and you can almost set your clock by them, so they have an order,
28:52so I know when each one is going to flower.
28:56The individual flowers don't last very long, especially when the bees get at them.
29:00The bees do love to pollinate them. They can go over the individual little bells just in a day,
29:07but because they come out in a spray, you might have a plant that might be in flower for a week,
29:12maybe two weeks, depends on the heat.
29:17After the dioramas have flowered, they're still actually very beautiful.
29:20They have these lovely little bracts, which are like little pieces of paper.
29:25They blow around in the merest hint of wind, arching, nodding little heads.
29:31It gives a real feeling of movement in the garden.
29:34They are so lovely as they dance around in the breeze.
29:40People think because they come from Africa that they like to be dry,
29:44and actually that's not the case. They grow in areas where there is summer rainfall,
29:50and actually that's not the case. They grow in areas where there is summer rainfall,
29:55they quite often grow in marshy meadows.
29:58What they do in the wild is they put their roots down long and deep,
30:02right down beneath rocks, so they get a good water supply.
30:06So they like plenty of water, but they like to have it drained away,
30:11so they don't sit with wet feet.
30:13But if they're in too dry an area, they won't flower, and if you put them in a mixed border,
30:18it's too much competition from other plants.
30:20So the reason that I grow our diorama in gravel beds is the gravel stops the competition,
30:27it aids the good drainage, helps keep them moist at the roots,
30:32but underneath that gravel is good retentive soil, and that's when they'll grow well.
30:41So once the first dioramas were planted in the gravel bed and really started to get going,
30:47then of course it was really open season for me to buy more.
30:51And then I got interested in the whole diorama species, and I started to realise that there
30:59were far more available than you actually see in the average garden or nursery.
31:06And I reached the point where I thought, well actually, I've got enough here to consider
31:12talking to Plant Heritage about whether there was enough there to be a collection site,
31:17so that other people could come and see them.
31:23In terms of numbers, we have around about 100 species and maybe 23 cultivars.
31:32Life would be very dull without the excitement of growing the plants,
31:38and when they flower, it's the pinnacle of achievement, and I've got the most beautiful result.
31:45This is Diorama Sarastro, and isn't she beautiful? She's one of my favourites,
31:50and as you might be able to see, one of the favourite of the bees as well today.
31:54She's got the most beautiful burgundy plum flowers that hang down so gracefully.
32:03As you can see, she's quite tall, she's as tall as I am,
32:06so you can look her right in the eye.
32:09She's also got very nice papery brown bracts, which you can see just above the flower there,
32:17and they really add, I think, to the contrast and the gracefulness of this beautiful Diorama.
32:25This is Diorama Argyrium, so this is one of the National Collection reference plants.
32:30This is white with a lime sort of green blush that's showing through the base of the flower,
32:39and inside it's got little tiny eyes right at the centre of the plant.
32:45It doesn't flower for very long, but it's an unusual colour break, and you won't see it very often.
32:51This Diorama only grows to about two foot,
32:54so it's a smaller Diorama, and that's the height it would reach in the wild.
33:01This is a Diorama Westminster Chimes seedling.
33:04So what's happened is the parent plant, which is just behind me,
33:08I've not taken the seeds off quickly enough, and some have managed to broadcast across the area,
33:14and where they've lodged in the cracks of the paving stones,
33:18they've germinated and have grown and are really happy.
33:22So it's a good example of where they will grow.
33:26They're getting a deep root run underneath the paving slabs that's cool,
33:30and there's no competition from plants around it,
33:33so it's getting all the water that's in the particular area.
33:36It's very tall, and it has a pink flower, and it's a Pulcherrimum type.
33:41Pulcherrimum means beautiful, and it's very, very classic bell shape.
33:46The petals don't turn up at all, and it has these rather nice
33:50white translucent papery bracts as well, which I think really set off the bell.
33:56A very lovely plant.
34:02Everybody should have a Diorama in the garden.
34:06They are the most fantastic plant.
34:08There's nothing like the joy when you can see that finally your Diorama has come into flower.
34:16Such a pleasure.
34:26Every garden ought to have Dioramas, but not every garden can have it,
34:30because it doesn't like cold, wet winters.
34:35However, it is surprising how many plants have liked both the cold and wet of last winter
34:41and the baking heat of this summer.
34:42These Helleniums, for example, have never been better.
34:45This is Sahin's Early.
34:47It's been flowering for about three weeks now.
34:50The bees are obsessed with it.
34:52And with any luck, it will go on flowering,
34:54despite the fact that it's never been watered or had any kind of special treatment whatsoever.
35:18This is the Wildlife Conservation Centre.
35:21This is the wildlife garden, which I made a couple of years ago
35:27to really maximise the opportunities for wildlife of all kinds,
35:31as well as keeping it a garden.
35:33Now, the first thing you have to have is a pond.
35:36And a wildlife pond has one or two features that make it particular.
35:41The first is that it has a beach for at least a quarter, if not a third, of its area.
35:48And by beach, I just mean a shallow entry.
35:51So this has got pebbles here.
35:53The water's very shallow and then gradually gets deeper,
35:57but still quite shallow right in there.
36:00And that means that any visiting hedgehogs or other small mammals
36:04or even birds and frogs can easily get in and, importantly, get out.
36:10The second thing that is essential for a wildlife pond is
36:14it must have cover and lots of it.
36:17However, this has got too much.
36:19I need to thin it out a bit to strike that balance.
36:22Now, I've deliberately not worn wellies because I don't want to get in the water
36:26because that would disturb the creatures in the mud.
36:29And there is bound to be mud at the bottom. I want that.
36:32So I'm just going to reach in from the edge.
36:35And the real thug is this iris,
36:38the yellow flag iris that you see in ditches and ponds around the land.
36:43And inevitably, it takes over.
36:45So if I reach in and just yank, here we are.
36:48We can take out great lumps of it at a time.
36:51That's coming.
36:53That can come out.
36:57That can come out.
37:01It does smell a bit whiffy, but that's the mud at the bottom.
37:15And this will, of course, grow back.
37:21So this time next year, there will be as much again.
37:23So I'm just thinning it.
37:24And what I'm going to do is turn these round
37:29so that they're on the beach.
37:32So any little creatures that are in the roots there
37:35have a chance to go back into the water.
37:37And I will leave these for a day or two
37:39just to ensure that I'm not depriving them of house and home.
37:47Other than topping it up with water in spring,
37:50this is the first bit of gardening work I've had to do on this pond this year.
37:56And here we are almost in August.
37:58And it's providing a really important resource
38:01for every kind of creature in this garden.
38:04But the wildlife garden isn't just about water.
38:07We've got trees with berries and flowers.
38:11We've got undercover for birds.
38:14But we have got a few bear patches.
38:15So I've got three verbena bonariensis,
38:18which are brilliant for butterflies and bees
38:22in late summer and early autumn.
38:23And I'm going to plant those.
38:28Now, importantly, this is facing absolutely south.
38:32Maximum sunshine.
38:34A nice high hedge behind it.
38:36Hedge is brilliant for birds.
38:38I'm also protecting them from cold and strong winds.
38:42And so we have a little microclimate.
39:03That's one.
39:03And it seems to go well.
39:06This can grow in our soil five, six foot tall by the end of summer.
39:14I think the biggest change that's happened in recent years
39:17with our approach to wildlife and gardens
39:20is that we now value and respect insects so much more than we used to.
39:26And I think all of us realize that if we make our garden good for insects,
39:30then the garden is going to be good for us
39:32and, in the bigger scheme of things, good for all life.
39:37And you can make a wildlife garden in the smallest of spaces.
39:41Now, talking of very small gardens,
39:42Francis returns to Solihull to make two more truly tiny gardens
39:49on two more balconies.
39:55I'm helping community leader Sarah Gill
39:58inspire the residents of Fillingham Court
40:00to plant up some of their communal areas and balconies.
40:05Now it's Carol's turn.
40:07She lives on the ground floor.
40:09So do you garden a lot, Carol?
40:12I used to, but at the moment, because I'm not mobile,
40:16I've really missed being able to get out onto the balcony.
40:20So just to sit here and look out at the wonderful plants, the flowers,
40:26that's my ideal.
40:28I can see that you're a woman with a strong design aesthetic
40:31and, you know, the way your house is so beautifully decorated.
40:35I do like something a little bit different.
40:38I love the shabby chic feeling, the French feeling.
40:42So we can make that whole scene like a sort of picture
40:45that you can see from in here, which will be a really nice challenge.
40:48It will, to bring the inside to the outside.
40:52Sort of a romantic feel.
40:53Yes, I'm a romantic at heart.
40:58Is there anyone here that could give me a hand?
41:00Yes, my other half, wherever he is.
41:02And I can just sit and watch what's going on
41:05and I'll enjoy every moment of it.
41:12Carol's balcony is all about the aesthetic.
41:16So I want to make her some lovely troughs
41:18full of cottage garden plants because that's what she loves.
41:21And normally you'd think about the tallest thing
41:22maybe being in the middle, but here,
41:24because it's viewed from the living room
41:26and making a sort of picture frame,
41:27I'm going to put the tallest plant,
41:29which in this case will be a Perovskia, Russian sage,
41:33right on the edge.
41:35So that acts like a framework that then leads
41:38into the rest of her cottage garden scheme.
41:47Carol's house is full of roses because it's her favourite plant.
41:50So I thought, bring it out here.
41:52This is a lovely rose.
41:54It's called Ernest H. Morse
41:56and it's got a beautiful deep mauve flower.
42:04To lead this whole pot down into the next,
42:08I'm going to plant an Apeta or catmint,
42:12which has a lovely sort of flopping habit.
42:14You can cut it back really regularly.
42:16It will keep flowering all summer long if you do that
42:18and make a lovely mound of very nicely scented foliage.
42:22So it's a lovely plant in general,
42:23but I think just here it sweeps beautifully
42:27into the whole rest of the balcony.
42:34I'm going to introduce some texture
42:36with lavenders and fennels.
42:39The lavenders have a beautiful colour and a lovely form
42:42and the fennel just so soft and delicate
42:44that in between these plants,
42:46we'll just tie the whole thing together.
42:53I'm adding Cosmos and Campanula
42:55to give some punches of colour and soften the edges.
43:01And I filled a second tub with plants
43:02whose scent will waft into her flat.
43:08To give colour right through from spring to late summer,
43:11I'm getting some perennials into small pots
43:13with the help of Carol's partner, Phil.
43:18I'm going to add a little bit of lavender
43:20to the pot with the help of Carol's partner, Phil.
43:22Any plants that are on balconies
43:24are almost always going to be in containers.
43:26And when you have plants in containers,
43:28there's one thing you need to remember
43:29and that's watering.
43:31A really good way of getting water
43:33right into the roots of plants
43:34is getting an old plastic bottle,
43:36cutting the bottom off,
43:37screwing some holes in the lid
43:38and then putting it into the soil.
43:40I've put one in here right by this road
43:42so I can give it a really good drink.
43:50And now for the finishing touches
43:53that will give Carol the look she's after.
43:59So Carol, what do you think?
44:00Absolutely beautiful.
44:02Absolutely fantastic.
44:03And I love the way you've made a feature
44:06of the birdcage.
44:08Well, you know, I saw it and I thought
44:09it was crying out for it.
44:10I know.
44:11This time next year,
44:13it'll be really established out here.
44:14It'll be absolutely beautiful.
44:16I love everything about it.
44:17Absolutely beautiful.
44:18I love everything you've done.
44:24Now onto the last balcony.
44:28Jack and Joan have already put
44:29some cheerful pots on their balcony
44:32but they want more lush planting around them
44:34without taking up runaround space
44:36for their dog, Dottie.
44:39Joan and Jack are real plants people
44:41so I want to give them some really interesting,
44:43different plants and things that require
44:45maybe a little more maintenance.
44:47What I'm putting together here is a living wall.
44:50Now Sarah's team have made this wooden structure
44:52which they've lined with plastic
44:54and filled the whole thing
44:56with compost and soil from the top.
44:57So it's full and these pockets
44:59will contain some lovely plants.
45:02So we've got some annuals here
45:03but the nice thing about that is
45:05it gives a real chance for some colour,
45:07some lush foliage
45:08and some slightly tropical feels.
45:15I've already started this
45:16and you can see the sort of pattern
45:17I'm going to create as it goes up.
45:19So I've got some dahlias here, red ones
45:21and these lovely penicetum
45:23which have a beautiful red colour.
45:25As well as that there's some coleus
45:26with very, very big, generous, colourful foliage
45:29and when the whole thing is complete
45:31it should look absolutely stunning.
45:33So just watering the top
45:47you can hear that will trickle
45:48all the way down through
45:50and save you a little bit of time.
45:52Just to keep everything nice and healthy
45:53it's always good to put a bit of liquid feededness
45:55especially through the summer
45:57and if you want to save yourself even more time
45:59you can get an automatic irrigation system
46:01that will do it for you.
46:02But I think it looks superb.
46:09With permission you could try and borrow
46:11some communal space
46:13to give you extra planting areas.
46:16We're putting in a narrow bed
46:17just outside Jack and Joan's flat
46:19so they can see the flowers through the glass.
46:22The residents have joined Sarah and I
46:24to fill it with a splash of tropical colour.
46:31Do you like it?
46:32It's absolutely lovely.
46:34Very gorgeous, very gorgeous.
46:37It's alright their work is done.
46:39And from Joan's emotional reaction
46:42I think we've got her balcony transformation spot on.
46:48The last two days have been fantastic.
46:51We've created a garden full of scents and herbs
46:54a French country garden
46:56and a living wall and tropical bed
46:57that gives residents a pop of colour.
47:00Time to celebrate.
47:02Yay!
47:11You've been inspired to have your balcony done too.
47:12I have, yes.
47:14I'd like it done.
47:16Sarah's working hard with this community
47:18to inspire more people to join in
47:20with planting up their balconies
47:22and to lend a hand
47:23to help transform their neighbourhood
47:25into a beautiful, greener space
47:27for everyone to enjoy.
47:33I do think that if you're gardening in a very small space
47:37there are just two things that you need to bear in mind.
47:38The first is you just have to edit.
47:41You can't have everything.
47:42So you need to work out the theme that you want
47:45just as Francis showed
47:46and stick to it.
47:47And the second thing is go up.
47:50There's always some vertical space
47:52and you can't have everything.
47:53So you need to work out the theme that you want
47:56just as Francis showed
47:57and stick to it.
47:58And the second thing is go up.
48:00There's always some vertical space
48:02and it means you can grow a lot of things
48:04including food.
48:05For example, these cucumbers
48:07which I only planted out three weeks ago or so
48:11are really growing well.
48:12They grow up in pots.
48:14You can grow these on a balcony
48:15and these are flowering well
48:17and starting to produce small fruits.
48:20And at this time of year
48:21it is important that as well as watering regularly
48:24particularly in the sort of weather we've been having
48:26to feed.
48:28Fruiting plants are really boosted
48:31by the right feed at the right time.
48:32So if you take chilies and peppers
48:35they like an early start
48:36you sow them January or February
48:39and then feed them a nitrogen feed
48:41to get nice big plants.
48:43And the bigger the plant
48:44the more fruits you'll have.
48:45But as soon as the first fruits form
48:49then you need to change the feed
48:51so that it's high in potash.
48:53And what I give these is about twice a week
48:56a liquid seaweed feed
48:59and that does the job.
48:59And what that promotes
49:01is instead of of leaf and stem
49:03it promotes flowers and fruit.
49:06And if you feed these now
49:08right through till October
49:10they will go on producing fruits
49:12and in some cases until Christmas.
49:15And so just take a watering can
49:19add some seaweed
49:27and just water that in.
49:29And you can see these are quite small pots
49:31and that's deliberate
49:33because I want to slightly stress the plant
49:36to get good quality flavour
49:39as well as quantity.
49:41The plant needs to feel that it's on the edge.
49:47The secret of feeding flowers or fruit
49:50is little and often.
49:52Don't try and give them a great wodge of feed
49:55and expect them to react.
49:56A dilute weak feed
49:58once or twice a week
49:59throughout the summer is the answer.
50:02Now I've got a special guest arriving.
50:09Last year I went to Ireland
50:11to visit Jimmy Blake's garden Huntingbrook
50:14near Wicklow.
50:15And I was so inspired by my visit
50:16I wanted to return the hospitality
50:19and show him around Longmeadow.
50:25This is always filled the engine room really.
50:29This is where all the action happens.
50:30There's a potting shed there
50:32and the propagation greenhouse.
50:34These are great aren't they?
50:35I never quite know with onions
50:37how much they will go,
50:39how far to take them.
50:40I would definitely have them in richer soil.
50:42Really?
50:42Like I have them in the ground.
50:43I always tell people to get them out of pots
50:45for the summer,
50:46get them into the ground.
50:47They love to be in soil for the summer.
50:50And then if you wanted to propagate it
50:52it's quite fun.
50:54Just to cut off a cutting like that
50:56and put it in a jar of air
50:59and just leave it in the air
51:00and then the roots start forming.
51:01Just without any growing media?
51:03Yeah, nothing.
51:04And then the roots will form very quickly actually
51:07and pull it up.
51:10Cold frames, standing out beds,
51:12nothing terribly exciting at the moment at this stage.
51:16This is a new herb garden.
51:19It's been made from scratch in the last year or so.
51:23The soil here is really poor
51:26because it was an old yard.
51:28Which is why I've put in thyme and sage and rosemary
51:32but the fennel likes it.
51:35That fennel's amazing, isn't it?
51:37Fennel has always loved this garden
51:39and we've always loved fennel.
51:41And when it's like that,
51:42to my mind,
51:44you can't better that.
51:46It's like a bit of sculpture, isn't it?
51:47Look at those stems.
51:48I know.
51:48I don't cut it back at all
51:50because I love the seed.
51:54What about the valerian?
51:56Would you cut that back?
51:57I mean, if you didn't want it to seed everywhere,
51:59you'd cut it back.
52:00But what I like about this garden
52:01is that looseness in the middle of all the structure.
52:04Like it's just, it's wild with structure.
52:07Well, that's exactly the plan.
52:09So thank you.
52:10That's exactly sort of ordered chaos.
52:20And what's the fern there?
52:21What's the fern there?
52:22The fern is Dryopteris felixmas is the main one.
52:25Obviously completely dry shade underneath these lines.
52:29I grow this in meadow at home.
52:31Do you?
52:31It's a beautiful meadow plant.
52:33Just coming through wild grasses.
52:35So you cut around them?
52:36Yeah, cut around them.
52:38Yeah, and make it nice and neat around them this time of year.
52:40Okay, that's a good idea.
52:42That's a very good idea.
52:43I mean, what we find about these
52:45is that they look great well into Christmas.
52:49I find it hard to use one plant.
52:51I think I'm going to copy this.
52:55And funnily enough, this little slither of ground in here
53:00was the very first bit of garden to be made.
53:03Now I want to ask some advice.
53:06Why did my rhododendron lutea not flower this year?
53:10Whereas for the past two or three years,
53:12it's flowered completely happily.
53:15It's definitely that.
53:16When you're planting a rhododendron, you need to look up
53:20and there needs to be a good big circle of light.
53:22Right.
53:22Like a good big circle of light.
53:24But when you look up there, there's actually very little light.
53:28So this winter, I need to do a big cut back.
53:31Yeah, definitely.
53:32That's good advice.
53:37Okay, we come through here.
53:38So that's a little intimate space.
53:40This is the cottage garden, which used to be the vegetable garden.
53:43In here, I feel completely free to grow whatever I like.
53:47I wouldn't, you know, if I want to put cabbages in here,
53:49I would be quite relaxed about it.
53:50Isn't it nice to have an area like that?
53:52I'm just going to start a new area down the field
53:55where nobody sees, where I can just put anything in.
53:59But you see, with you, I get the feeling
54:03that you fall in love with plants, individual plants,
54:07and you want them badly.
54:10And then you've had them, you've done that.
54:11Yeah.
54:12You're fickle.
54:13Whereas, I try and the garden sort of slowly builds.
54:18To me, it's, I'm quite happy if it takes me 10 years
54:21to get an area right.
54:22Yeah, like the new bed we did this year.
54:24Yeah.
54:25You know, I wanted that looking well within six weeks.
54:28And I'm completely buzzing with it because it's new.
54:32But how long is that sustainable for?
54:34How long do you think you will have that buzz?
54:38The boredom sets in after a few years, yeah.
54:41After a few years, yeah.
54:42Four or five years.
54:44Five years is a long time.
54:50Now, if we come through here, this is a happy accident.
54:55Oh.
54:56Which I really like.
54:57Love that.
54:58Love it.
54:58It's amazing.
55:00It's fun, isn't it?
55:01It's good fun.
55:01And it's never looked like that before.
55:03Oh, I'd love to do that.
55:05You could do that.
55:07Mind you, I'd love to do what you do.
55:09Okay, completely different thing now.
55:11We have grass borders on our right.
55:13Wow.
55:13And the jewel garden on our left.
55:15I was toying with making this new hedge go right up.
55:19And in fact, last year it was up here.
55:21And now I'm taking it down.
55:23I think you have enough high hedges.
55:31These pots, we normally do a different display every year.
55:35And it can vary and can be quite complicated.
55:38This year, I just thought, let's bung some canners in.
55:40Yeah, they look good.
55:41I mean, I had the plants.
55:42It's strong enough, isn't it?
55:44Yeah, I don't think they need anything else.
55:45No.
55:46I find canners difficult at home.
55:48Difficult to get into flower.
55:49But last year I gave them enormous amount of food.
55:51Yeah.
55:52And they grew huge and they flowered really well.
55:55Yeah.
55:56So I think that wasn't feeding them enough.
55:57They're hungry.
55:58They are hungry.
55:58And thirsty.
55:59Yeah, I mean, what we do is the potting compost is at least a third garden compost.
56:06Yeah, yeah.
56:07Then we give a liquid seaweed feed once a week.
56:09Oh, right through the growing season.
56:11Right from about June to October.
56:15Yeah, yeah.
56:19Jimmy, I've been to your garden twice.
56:21And each time I've come back full of ideas.
56:24Is there anything you picked up from this visit that you might take home?
56:29I think it's definitely the structure.
56:31I suppose the looseness of the structure here.
56:33You know, you look at all these plants.
56:35You're letting them seed around through the box hedges.
56:38I think it just really works.
56:39I've loved it.
56:40Thank you.
56:40Thanks very much.
56:42It's always great to talk about gardens.
56:45But there are jobs that need doing.
56:48And here are yours for the weekend.
56:57The hot dry weather has meant that the garlic crop has dried out beautifully.
57:02And now it's ready to store.
57:04I've found the best method is simply trim the roots, cut off the necks,
57:10remove any dry or soiled outer skin, and store them in a basket.
57:20The prolonged hot dry weather means that all our gardens have an unusual amount
57:25of dead or dried up leaves.
57:28So go around the garden, cutting these back, removing them from the stems.
57:33And this will spruce and tidy up the garden.
57:38My own tomatoes are a little behind this year.
57:41But many people are finding that those are starting to ripen.
57:44And this is the moment to remove the lower leaves.
57:47Cut them back at least to the bottom truss.
57:50And this will improve ripening and also airflow, which will reduce the risk of blight.
58:04Jimmy, it's been a real pleasure having you in the garden.
58:07I hope you've enjoyed it.
58:09I had a wonderful time.
58:10Looking forward to coming back maybe in spring.
58:12Yep, it's a date.
58:14Definitely.
58:14And you even brought us a little bit of rain.
58:16Tiny bit of rain.
58:17Yeah.
58:18Stay longer.
58:20I'm afraid we're not staying any longer because that's it for today.
58:24We'll be back here next Friday, but at the later time of nine o'clock.
58:29So I'll see you then.