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00:00Hello, welcome to Gardener's World.
00:23These are the first parsnips that I've dug this autumn.
00:27It's a variety called Tender and True.
00:29And these roots look good and they smell delicious too.
00:34I love that parsnip-y smell.
00:36The reason why I'm digging them today is because last night we had our first frost of the season
00:42and they always say that parsnips taste better once they've had a frost because that intensifies
00:48the sugars in the root.
00:50And although it was really cold when I got up this morning, the sun has burnt through
00:56the light is glorious, the sky is blue and the garden is still looking good.
01:04Coming up on today's programme, Carol luxuriates in the glory of cannas.
01:11For very little investment they pay huge dividends.
01:17Toby Buckland visits a garden with an amazing array of plants from all over the world.
01:23What I really love about the garden is that it has a holiday happiness.
01:29And I shall be planting up a winter pot for the jewel garden and also collecting herbs
01:34that I can store and use over the coming months.
01:53The spring garden is only just beginning to emerge from its summer dormancy and by
02:04about November, December we'll start to see new shoots coming through.
02:07But one plant has remained undimmed by drought, sunshine or pretty much total neglect and
02:14this is the smilocena.
02:17Smilocena racemosa.
02:18I love it.
02:19It's got wonderful white plumes of flower followed by bright red berries, definitely
02:26a really good plant for a dry shady spot, a woodland border.
02:32But this one has outgrown its position.
02:35It's out of proportion to the rest of the planting.
02:38I want to move this and take a chunk off for putting elsewhere in the garden.
02:42One of the advantages of moving plants in autumn is that whilst they've still got their
02:49full growth, even if it's beginning to fade a little bit, you can get the proportions
02:53right and the soil is still warm.
02:56Plant them now, the roots will get established and next spring they will hardly know they've
02:59been moved.
03:00The easiest way to divide this is simply to chop it in two.
03:04Don't be timid about it.
03:06Just go for a chop.
03:08There we go.
03:12It's always a good idea to divide a plant when you move it.
03:17Cutting and replanting reinvigorates them.
03:36Firm around the roots really well and then you can see the sort of scale that it's going
03:42to be.
03:43At this point, cut it back to the ground and that takes any possible stress off the roots
03:50and then of course water it well.
03:54That's all you have to do.
03:57Next spring there will be new growth, new shoots and very quickly it will establish
04:02into a strong healthy plant.
04:04But there's no reason why you have to wait until then for the garden to look good.
04:07You can keep it going over winter.
04:10We do ask for you to send in your gardening problems and we did have a letter from Anne
04:15and Andy Jenkins in Hertfordshire who said that they like their garden in summer but
04:20they wish they could make it look a little bit better during the winter months.
04:25So Frances went along to give them a hand.
04:36Winter doesn't mean our gardens need to look bleak and bare.
04:41If we choose the right plants then even on those cold short days there can be something
04:45fragrant and colourful to lure us back outdoors.
04:51I've come to share some planting ideas with Anne and Andy who want to revamp the space
04:56around this seating area.
05:00What is it about that that's not working at the moment?
05:02It needs a bit more colour after losing all the summer plants so some colour for autumn
05:08and winter and going into spring.
05:11And what are you kind of hoping to see when it's done?
05:14I would love to get some shade.
05:16I think it's an absolutely fantastic area.
05:17It really catches the sun in the evening but with baby on the way and Harry being so small
05:21it would be great if it was a little bit more shaded.
05:23Okay, that makes sense.
05:24There are some great plant combinations that can make this space work.
05:27So Andy if you don't mind giving me a hand.
05:30Love to, it sounds great.
05:31And Anne I think maybe you can chill out whilst we're doing the digging.
05:33Perfectly.
05:34Let's get started.
05:35Okay.
05:36First, Andy and I are going to make space for the new planting scheme, clearing out
05:46the annuals that are coming to the end of their season and the plants that have become
05:50overgrown.
05:51There we go.
05:52There we go.
05:53What do you think?
05:54That looks great.
05:55So this should make a really lovely feature, Prunus autumnalis, which is one of the only
06:08very, very few cherries that flower in the autumn and the winter, so quite a rare thing
06:12in itself.
06:13But it's also got really good autumn colour and really lovely spring colour, so when the
06:17leaves are coming out they're quite a bronzy colour.
06:19And in a small garden it's really important that your trees make a big impact for as much
06:23of the year as they can.
06:25It's certainly going to do that.
06:27Really make sure this is well watered, especially for the first year.
06:30This is quite a large tree, you really have to concentrate on establishing it as quickly
06:35as possible.
06:36Shall we have a look?
06:37Okay.
06:38That looks brilliant, doesn't it?
06:39I like that.
06:40Yeah, that looks fantastic there.
06:41Suddenly it's so much more three-dimensional.
06:42It's really added some structure and some interest as well.
06:43Okay, come on, stake.
06:56Let's stake it.
06:59Things to remember are that you need to stake all new trees to stop the roots from rocking,
07:06which is very damaging to them.
07:07Breaking off all the new fibrous roots.
07:09you do want it to have some sway because that helps the trunk to thicken so never
07:14higher than a third but always do it. Okay, I'm going to give it a good drink.
07:24As well as the beautiful prunus I want to add some midwinter structure and
07:29nothing does that better than a cornice. Coloured stem varieties of cornice
07:34brighten up any border during the winter months.
07:39This is Flava Romia and it's got bright yellow stems that if you cut them back
07:43in about a February time it will shoot up and the following winter will be full
07:48of colour. But as well as that it has autumn colour on the leaves and some
07:52lovely white blossoms. I'm gonna leave Andrew to plant that one and I'm gonna
07:57meet Anne around the front. Anne, I see you're a fan of containers. I am, yes, lots of pots.
08:07So I thought some nice winter containers would be nice for you. So I've
08:11gone for some hellebores. Few plants light up a winter garden like hellebores.
08:16These perennials come in a stunning range of colours and are one of the
08:20stars of the garden, flowering as early as December right through to March. And
08:25then just some classic violas around the edge.
08:31There we go. So two of them. This would look brilliant. Excellent.
08:46There. That's great. They look nice don't they? Yes. But as well as things that look
08:54good I also wanted to bring in some fragrance to the front of the house too.
09:00So I've got this which is a viburnum crossbodden intense which is a lovely
09:05winter flowering shrub. It will lose all of its leaves and in their place will be
09:09beautiful pink clusters of really nicely scented flowers.
09:15Thank you.
09:26Now make sure you keep that really watered at least for the first year and
09:29feed it a lot through the summer so it can build up all the reserves it needs
09:32to flower in the winter. Hopefully that will bring you years of joy. Perfect.
09:37Thank you very much. Pleasure. Right. Don't forget the tools.
09:43Now it's time to plant up the rest of the border in the back garden and all
09:48the family including little Harry have come to give me a helping hand.
09:53These will all go underneath here. So this is Hakana Koi which is a Japanese
10:00grass. It doesn't get much bigger than this. It will just stay green apart from
10:04through the autumn when it gets a kind of bronzy colour to it. Lovely. So you cut that back in
10:08about February time and then it will just become this size again next year so
10:11nothing too big. Perfect. And unruly. Epimedium. This is a really lovely plant for
10:17shade and for drought and that'll go near the back because eventually that
10:21will form a mound of probably about this sort of size. And then in the spring
10:25you have a chance to see some very delicate yellow flowers that will throw
10:28themselves up from above the foliage. And this is a hardy Geranium. Mycorrhizum
10:33Spezart. The nice thing about this one is it's turning this lovely red colour.
10:37So it has an autumn colour which you tend to think of as being trees rather than
10:41perennials. That's a lovely one. I'm also planting Geranium Pink Penny and
10:46Geranium Sanguinium Cannon Miles which will bridge the gap between summer and
10:51autumn. That looks fantastic. Brilliant. Thank you. Good. I'll get planting.
11:04Finally I'm adding Crocus and Daffodil bulbs for early season colour. But
11:10Snowdrops are a classic bulb for the winter months. Either plant them in the
11:14green after flowering or when they're in bloom in the winter. Does that look good?
11:19Oh yeah. What do you think? It's brilliant.
11:32And hopefully in years to come it will get fuller and fuller and even better.
11:35Then you can fill the whole of the garden with winter interesting.
11:45Whilst of course any colour that you can bring into the garden in the middle of
12:01winter is going to be cheery, I do think the key is structure. And if that looks
12:07good, be it through trees, hedges, then the garden can only get better as colour
12:14starts to work its way back in. Now I'm thinking not of winter here but of next
12:19spring. And the colour that this spring garden has can be really intense. But I
12:27confess it's fallen off a bit. And what this garden lost was that electric
12:33intensity. And I want to bring it back. And I'm going to do so by adding three
12:39different Euphorbias. Now the first one I'm putting in here is Euphorbia
12:43palustris. Now there are lots and lots of different types of Euphorbias. And this
12:49one grows quite large. It can grow to about six foot tall given the right
12:53conditions. And it's one of the very few Euphorbias that like damp soil. But do
12:59not plant it in a bog garden next to a pond. Because the sap that comes from
13:04Euphorbia can kill fish within minutes. So keep them away from ponds. But before
13:10I start to handle and plant it, I'm going to put on some gloves. Because the sap is an
13:16irritant. So this is one of those plants where you should always wear gloves when
13:21you're handling them. Other than that, it's very simple. Just take it out and
13:28pop it in the hole. A tip for a moisture loving plant is dig the planting hole.
13:35Then fill it full of water. And let the water drain away. And what that does is
13:41it gets water down below the roots. So the roots will grow down and reach it.
13:46And next year, when it gets very dry, there are deep roots that will suffer
13:52much less from drought. Now this will give you, as well as that intense new
13:59zingy growth in spring, some colour in winter. Because you've got these coral
14:05coloured pink stems. Now this next Euphorbia is Euphorbia martinii. It likes a
14:13bit more drainage and is better in drought than the palustris. It can cope
14:17with full sun. It can cope with some light shade. And it's not at all fussy
14:20about pH. And this will bear flowers that have a pale green outer layer of
14:27sepals. And then the tiny little true flowers in the middle are intense red.
14:33And it's that red that makes the green all the more vibrant. Don't mind me Nigel.
14:45Now this has got more of a matted root. And let's just break it up a little bit.
14:57And that will grow about three, four foot tall. Now the final Euphorbia that I'm
15:03gonna plant is the smallest of the lot. This is Euphorbia amygdaloides. And this
15:10is the perfect one for dry woodland shade. Now this is about as much sun as
15:17this particular spot gets. And this old hazel has got roots that suck up moisture.
15:25So not many plants feel comfortable here. The wood spurge will be quite happy. And
15:32it is a really good plant for those awkward corners. Now there are lots and
15:40lots of Euphorbias to choose from. But these three will be all part of a
15:45specific job. Which is to rejuvenate this spring garden. And there's no question
15:51that all gardens need a boost every few years. And that is the way you keep them
15:57looking as good as they possibly can.
16:20All summer this pot was planted up with sweet peas and under planted with
16:25Japanese blood grass. Now I don't want to leave this empty for the winter. But
16:30I'm not going to put color in it. What I do want to add is structure. Because green
16:35structure can be just as powerful as color if you use really strong elements.
16:41Now if you've got a really big pot, a good tip that we saw from Arit last week
16:46was to put old plastic pots that you don't have a use for in the bottom to
16:51bulk it out. And by the way if you've got any ideas of how best to use pots
16:57that can't be recycled, then let us know via social media. Now I don't need to do
17:04that here because I want to keep quite a lot of the soil. However I do want to
17:08move some. Because I need to plant some tulips that will give me color in spring.
17:13And they need to go quite deep. Now I'm going to put a layer of grit. Because all
17:19I want to do is to make sure that the tulips aren't waterlogged. You can see
17:25it's quite deep. Tulips have much stronger stems the deeper you plant them.
17:30And they can easily be a foot underground. This is a tulip called
17:37ballerina. It has an intense orange flower and it's a lily form tulip. It's
17:43got pointy petals, starts flowering round about the middle of April and goes on
17:48into May. Now you will perhaps be wondering why I'm planting tulips at
17:55the beginning of October when all advice normally is don't plant tulips till
17:59November. And that's because I'm putting them in a pot. The reason why you plant
18:05them in November is to avoid tulip fire which is a fungal problem that is
18:10resident in the soil. However in a pot where I know that there is no tulip fire
18:14in the pot there's no reason why you can't plant them now. Put them around the
18:19outside and they will grow up through some of the planting but not the
18:25centerpiece so I've left that free. Right they are beneath a nice blanket of soil
18:32and the centerpiece is going to be this box. Like that. It's Buxus, Sempervirens,
18:43Hansworthiensis which is a particularly thick leafed fast growing box that has
18:51proved pretty much blight resistant. And this one for example I've grown from a
18:55cutting and hasn't been pruned in any way at all yet. But in a year or two this
19:00will make a good cone. Now it's only going to spend this winter here and then
19:04I will move it and grow it on. And all the cones in the cricket pitch in the
19:08pots there started life at least as unshapely as this. Now obviously this
19:13doesn't look remotely like a cone or any kind of shape but in there is a
19:19leader. This stem is fairly upright so if I just take that off there that then is
19:28the top of my cone. Because that's my top I'm just going to take that off and that
19:34one off. That is enough to start with. Now this doesn't look spectacular it
19:41doesn't look crisp but when everything else is derelict and empty the box adds
19:48substance and that's what you need to get you through the grey winter days. Now
19:54a plant that has no greyness about it at all but is dancing through these autumn
20:00days with real elegance and grace is the Nerine. And last year we joined a Nerine
20:07fancier Mark Heath as he went to visit a garden full of them near Shrewsbury in
20:14Shropshire.
20:20I love Nerines because they are a beautiful autumn flower giving a
20:25wonderful amount of colour at the time of the year when everything's starting
20:30to fade.
20:32There's about 23 species all together, different Nerines, all originating from
20:43in South Africa.
20:48Boudaniae is the most commonly grown Nerine within the United Kingdom but
20:56there have been many questions about the hardiness of each particular cultivar.
21:02One of the reasons why I have grown to love Nerines was because when I first
21:08joined the RHS I went to a meeting of the Nerine and Amaryllid Society and I
21:12then met Margaret Owen and Margaret Owen was an incredible plants woman of her
21:16time. She held the national collection of Boudaniae here in her Shropshire garden
21:22and she was totally convinced they were hardier and more versatile plants than
21:26given credit for. She would just be pointing her stick and said get it out
21:31there, get people to know what a wonderful plant it is.
21:38Margaret's garden is a little bit overgrown and unfortunately neglected at
21:43the present moment but you can see that still the Nerines are thriving here in
21:48shade, in semi-shade and in sunshine. Margaret would be a person who would
21:56look at where the plants came from and do her own thinking and not believe
22:01everything that was written in a book. So she pioneered the way to new
22:07garden thinking.
22:11After the harsh cold winter of 2011 when the temperature in her garden dropped
22:16below minus 15, Margaret noted that the following year all the Nerines that
22:21she had within her garden they survived and that convinced her of the hardiness
22:27of the Nerines. So she set about campaigning for the RHS to undertake an
22:34official trial to prove that her beloved Nerines were indeed hardy garden worthy
22:39plants. That trial began in 2013 and we're now in the final year.
22:49The trial we have here is looking at Baudenii cultivars and hybrids. We set
22:58the Nerine trial in two different places, one in the north of England and one in
23:03the south of England. The north of England being here in Shropshire which
23:06is one of the coldest counties in the country and the south of England being
23:12in Hampshire at Bramdean. So this trial is to show how Nerines will survive in
23:21the garden despite the cold temperatures that we have.
23:26There are many many shades of pink from a dark pink to a light pink all the way
23:33through to very pale pinky white.
23:39One of the darkest pinks is a cultivar called Isabelle. Now Isabelle we are
23:45finding though performs best in the south of England where it is a lot
23:49warmer. We think Isabelle is a cross between Baudenii which is the hardy
23:55type and Sarniensis which is the species that just require protection in the
24:01winter because it's not hardy.
24:06When we're looking at Nerines we're looking to see how they perform in the
24:11garden with regards to when they flower, the height of the flower, how they bulk
24:17up, do they bulk up quickly. We have some cultivars here that have bulked up from
24:24an initial planting of five bulbs right up to 147 bulbs, one
24:31particular variety has done that within five years. There's a variety called pink
24:35frostwork.
24:38One of the things that you really must remember is to be patient, patient,
24:42patient because Nerines don't like disturbance. If they are disturbed you
24:47will have a subsequent poor performing plant the following year.
24:54The results of the trial will not be known until early next year, March early
24:59next year, but there are some new experimental varieties in which we're
25:04getting very, very excited about, particularly this one in front of me
25:08which is a compact type. It has 14 flowers per each individual scape. It has
25:16a lovely, lovely colour. The perianth is really, really nice and red and makes a
25:21very, very attractive form for the garden or a patio container.
25:28And I think it would be a fitting tribute to Margaret to name one of these
25:31new experimental varieties as a cultivar Margaret Owen as a fitting tribute to
25:36an absolutely wonderful lady, a wonderful plant woman who was kind and generous
25:43and wanted to spread her knowledge for everybody.
25:58If that has inspired you to grow Nerines for the first time you can go to our
26:04website where you will find the results of that RHS trial and there is a list of
26:0911 of the Boudiniae group that have been given their Award of Garden Merit and
26:14that pretty much guarantees that they will do their stuff and they will do it
26:19well in most gardens. Now the one thing I would say that if you live in a
26:24coldish area like Longmeadow and it is wet and you have heavy soil, which is
26:30what we have here, then probably it is better to grow them in pots. Now this is
26:36a variety called Nerine Flexuosa Alba and it is less hardy than the Boudiniae
26:44groups but it's very beautiful and I just love that combination of sort of
26:50floral energy and dynamism combined with graceful elegance.
26:57Now, still to come, Nick goes to Lancashire to visit a garden that has run wild but
27:04as a result has a remarkable collection of fungi. They're like the classic fairy
27:11tale mushroom, aren't they? They're beautiful, they're absolutely stunning.
27:15But first, Toby Buckland visits the garden of Margaret Jewell in Barnstable,
27:21Devon, which she has been making over the last 30 years.
27:30This is The Croft, a garden containing an amazing variety of plants carefully
27:36tended and loved by a very passionate plants woman. Margaret Jewell has
27:42organically developed this one acre garden over 35 years. It's divided into
27:48different areas, each with its own distinct style, including perennials, a
27:52lush tropical garden and Japanese inspired pools and topiary. So when you
27:59first started, did you have a vision for what the garden would become? Not really,
28:03no. You've got to start with the basics and once you've got the basics in, like
28:08your conifers and your trees and that sort of thing, you can then build the
28:13beds. The garden seems so exotic and there's a lot of references to Japan. I
28:18mean, does world travel your thing? I've never been to Japan but I've always had
28:23a feeling for a Japanese garden because it's so calming, isn't it? Well, it
28:30certainly added personality but more than that, you've done it really well
28:33because the planting's so lovely and that evolved, didn't it, from a very 70s
28:37low-maintenance type of garden? Yes. I put the conifers in first into an ordinary
28:42garden at that time. I decided then that I would like to make a Japanese garden.
28:47The conifers had grown to about four or five foot high and I went and got
28:53the secateurs and I just kept clipping it, turning it into cloud-prune
28:59conifers, like you see now. But you've done the woodwork for the summerhouses
29:04yourself? Yes. I was a dressmaker so I knew how to measure things and if you
29:09measure things correctly, your wood will then fit in as long as it's cut
29:14precisely. The lawn is a triumph. What's your secret? I think the lawn actually
29:22makes the garden. If you look after your lawn, then it sets the whole garden off.
29:28Twice a year, I actually feed it with pelleted chicken manure. Oh yeah? I spread
29:34it all over. I literally spray it with your hands. You don't want to do this
29:39when you've got guests coming round the next night? Absolutely not, because of the smell!
29:45The diversity of plants here is extraordinary. I can't wait to get amongst them.
29:55What I really love about the garden is that it has a holiday happiness because
30:01it's filled with plants that you might see on vacation, particularly if you go
30:04on holiday abroad. There's ginger lilies, they're from India, and this, eucalyptus
30:10from South Africa. Eucalyptus sparkling burgundy. It looks so exotic but it's
30:16actually relatively easy to grow if you remember two things. It's a bulbous plant
30:20that likes sun and you've got to plant the bulb deep to keep it out from the
30:24frost. The other thing to know is that slugs love it, particularly when the
30:28leaves are emerging from the ground in May. But if you protect them then, you get
30:32these lovely waxy inflorescences in summer, topped with a carma miranda-like
30:38hat that's shaped like a pineapple. It's just a wonderful thing. The border design
30:44plays its part as well. You see how it's sort of sinewy and relaxed and that's
30:49echoed in other parts of this garden with the island beds as well. Now
30:53serpentine designs are functional, particularly on south-facing borders. You
30:58see it throws the front of the border into sunshine which suits the echeverias
31:03and succulents like aloes. Meanwhile at the back of the border it makes it look
31:07fuller, as if it's burgeoning straight from the forest or the jungle.
31:19The Japanese gardening is not just about what you grow, it's how you grow it. You
31:25see, plants need pruning and Margaret, she's not shy with the secateurs. This
31:30golden bamboo is a great example. Now left to its own devices it would be a
31:35lowering great lump, as gloomy as a storm cloud, but pruned so that the older
31:41cones, that's the canes, are taken from the centre, just keeping the brightest and
31:45the best, so the light spills through. My favourite bit of pruning though are these
31:51conifers. Margaret trained out, wired out the thickest stems, removed all the rest
31:57and then from the tusks she grew these clouds, turning what was a plant that no
32:03one wanted into a piece of living sculpture. And you'll have to believe me
32:07when I say this, but it's like touching the head of someone who's
32:10just had a crew cut. It's just lovely. Oh, I can't keep my hands off of them.
32:24As well as the latest plants and contemporary planting ideas, there are
32:28also older ideas that have been honed to perfection, like island beds, and they
32:34work best when you remember these simple tricks. The first is, have more than one
32:39of them, and lay them out across the ground so that they're in a kind of
32:42paisley pattern, or yin and yang, spinning in on themselves, because that guides
32:48your eye to the paths in between. One other thing, on the corners always look
32:53for architectural plants, plants with an interesting shape or evergreens, because
32:58they'll add a bit of interest, even in winter when everything else has gone to
33:01ground. One final thing, every island should have some treasure, and what about
33:06this trove of golden daisies? This is rudbeckia daemii. Now you don't see this
33:11for sale as often as you see its cousin, goldstern, but it's got such neat petals.
33:17I think it's a better form. It's glorious.
33:27In any garden, change is the only constant, and I think in the 35 years
33:32that Margaret has gardened here, she's embraced change. Look for new varieties,
33:37but kept plants where others would have confined to the compost heap, and that
33:42gives this place something that even the great gardens often lack, character.
33:49I love it.
34:03I do agree with Toby, that character is what makes the difference between a
34:10garden that you admire and a garden that you love. Now on this table I've got a
34:16selection of succulents, and they've had a really good summer. Of course they've
34:20loved the heat and the drought, and one or two of them are beginning to flower
34:25in an extraordinary fashion. Look at these lithops. These are little stone-like
34:31plants that come from the Namibian desert, and for much of the time they
34:36just just stay the same. They don't do anything at all, and then suddenly they
34:40produce these flowers, and that's it. It's a few days, and that's all their
34:46activity over. That's long enough for it to be pollinated. Now Nick has been to
34:54visit a garden that for various reasons was left untouched for a long time, and
35:00as a result extraordinary things have begun to find their home.
35:10Just below Rivington Pike Moorland in Lancashire are Rivington Terrace Gardens,
35:16which were built in the early 20th century by Lord Leverhulme, one of the
35:21great industrialists of his day. But by the 1920s it had become neglected and
35:28eventually returned to nature.
35:32Today, however, the charity Groundwork are repairing the gardens in association
35:38with the Rivington Heritage Trust.
35:42However, this forgotten landscape has become the perfect environment for a
35:48whole host of fungi to run riot.
35:53I've come to delve into the soil and look at the unique conditions which have
35:57allowed fungus to proliferate here.
36:03I'm meeting Colin Unsworth, an amateur mushroom enthusiast, who's been given
36:09special permission today to show me around and pick some mushrooms.
36:17Here we go. Yeah, do you know, I haven't seen these for years and years and years.
36:24They're like the classic fairy tale mushroom, aren't they?
36:27They're beautiful, they're absolutely stunning.
36:29And this is Flygaric, right?
36:30Flygaric, yeah. I'm just going to pick one of them just to show you the identification features.
36:35I'll pick a nice one.
36:37So you can see it's kind of got this bulbous swollen base and then we've got like a floppy ring underneath.
36:43Okay, yeah.
36:44The white gills, this tells me what family of mushrooms it's in.
36:47Now, I notice you're handling that quite freely, but it is a poisonous mushroom.
36:51Give your hands a wash before you eat anything.
36:54But yeah, I'm fine to handle this thing and then put it back down again.
36:57What is it about this place, this space, that's made it such a rich ground?
37:02Because of the derelict period, we've got all the leaf fall, we've got lots of standing dead wood,
37:06you've got wood rotting away on the floor and it just creates a really rich environment, good soils.
37:12I notice back there, there's an oyster mushroom just growing on the side of a log, which looks quite stunning.
37:17Yes, really interesting species, oyster mushrooms.
37:19So you know that the fungi kingdom is, you know, biologically and evolutionarily speaking,
37:25it's more closely related to the animal kingdom than the plant kingdom.
37:28Yeah, absolutely, yeah.
37:28It's not a plant.
37:29And the oyster mushroom is quite interesting because it's a carnivorous mushroom.
37:33It traps and feeds off nematode worms, it's one of its food sources.
37:37So literally a mushroom is eating animals, that's amazing.
37:40Yeah, yes, yes.
37:50It's extraordinary.
37:51This beautiful sort of tract here of crust fungus,
37:56so there's a few different species that grow in this sort of manner on the side of trees.
38:00We get polypores and crusts and this is one of the ones.
38:03It's beautiful, it's lovely to see it making its way up there, up the stairway.
38:12You know what this is, don't you?
38:13Yes, indeed, this is a very, very interesting species of oyster mushroom.
38:17You know what this is, don't you?
38:18Yes, indeed, this is honey fungus, isn't it?
38:21This is the destroyer of gardens, potentially.
38:24It is kind of viewed as the gardener's nightmare.
38:26It's a parasitic fungi.
38:28There's a few different species, but this is the common one.
38:30And it does a really good job of taking out anything that's got a weakness in it.
38:34Let's have a look a bit closer.
38:36There we go.
38:37So you can see the stem coming down, sort of a nice brown colour on the stem.
38:41And this is the underside, the ring.
38:44Gills are one of the identifying features of different mushroom species.
38:47And you can see with these that the gills are running in and attaching to the stem.
38:50And up on the top, you just get a few tiny little speckles on top in the middle there
38:55as the cap opens out in that lovely sort of honey colour.
38:59I'm aware one of the other sort of identifiers are these black bootlaces people describe.
39:03There are.
39:03These bootlaces can grow at a rate of up to about a metre a year.
39:06So this is why, if it becomes a problem, it can be, you know, quite troublesome.
39:11So I suppose the only approach that gardeners can take, and I've certainly done in the past,
39:15is to select some of those woody species, trees and shrubs, that are that bit more resilient.
39:21Yeah.
39:21There are species you can choose which resist honey fungus better.
39:26The usual advice is just let it take its course.
39:36Gardeners are often keen to remove mushrooms from their borders or from their lawns.
39:41But actually, they're vitally important to the health of the soil.
39:45A lot of mushroom species are able to break down plant material and thus return nutrients and minerals to the earth,
39:53ready for other plants to uptake.
39:55Mushrooms are the only species which are capable of breaking down the lignin in woody plants.
40:00And so without them, we just end up with huge piles of plant material everywhere.
40:08Some mushrooms engage in what's called a mycorrhizal relationship with plants.
40:14Mycorrhizas help the plants gather more water and nutrients than they would on their own.
40:21One of these fungi is the blackening rustler.
40:27I mean, this is a real beast of a mushroom, but it's actually only a tiny proportion of the whole organism, isn't it?
40:33Yeah, the actual organism spreads out in the soil. You don't see it for most of the year.
40:36What it does under the ground is it kind of wraps itself around the tree roots.
40:40So if you were to extract the tree roots, you'd see this sort of white coating all over them.
40:44And basically, what it does is it helps the tree to get as many nutrients as possible out of the soil.
40:48And it gets a few things back in return for that, so they kind of benefit each other.
40:51So a mycorrhizal fungi, for example, you can grow a tree without that mushroom.
40:55But with that mushroom, it'll grow so much better and so much more healthy, and it'll survive a lot better.
41:01Yeah.
41:05Just a few mushrooms are villains in our garden, but the vast majority have a really important part to play.
41:14They're part of the eco-web, which is essentially the interdependence of plants, animals and fungi.
41:21And as such, they're absolutely vital to the health of our green spaces and, of course, our gardens.
41:32It is strange that so many of us gardeners are anxious about fungi, even scared about them.
41:38I get lots of letters, as though any sign of fungi, mushrooms, toadstools is a problem.
41:46And the truth is that they are the fruiting bodies of fungi.
41:53Far more good comes from fungus than any possible harm.
41:56And, of course, they can be delicious to eat.
41:58Last night, I went collecting field mushrooms in the fields around here, and they were absolutely delicious.
42:04Although I would say that if you are not 100% certain of identification of what it is you're eating,
42:10then you're not going to be able to eat it.
42:12So I would say that if you are not 100% certain of identification of what it is you're eating,
42:19then don't eat it.
42:21But if you can identify them and you feel confident, then that is another huge benefit that they bring us.
42:27Now, no more benefits from tomatoes, I'm afraid.
42:30This is the end of their season here in the greenhouse.
42:33But don't give up on green tomatoes.
42:36Collect them. You can put them in a drawer with a banana and they will ripen.
42:40And also green tomato chutney, green tomato soup is all very good.
42:44They are perfectly edible.
42:46But I need the space because with the weather getting colder,
42:50I need to start to bring in plants that are not fully hardy.
42:56I'll take the tomato plants to the compost heap,
43:00but I've managed to salvage a few basil leaves, and I will enjoy both the green and the red tomatoes.
43:17The herb garden that we began last year has just settled into place.
43:22It's taken 12 months, but it's now functioning.
43:25Now, it's been through a good summer. Of course, it's loved this hot weather.
43:28But as we go into autumn and with winter ahead,
43:31there are one or two things that you can do to maximise both the harvest over winter
43:36and also the health of your herbs for next year.
43:40Now, over on this side, which is sunnier, I've got the more purely Mediterranean herbs in blocks.
43:45So we have sage, thyme along here, and then along this side, a mixture of oregano and marjoram.
43:52And you can see what happens if you don't cut them back.
43:58And what you get is just a few spikes,
44:05and what you get is just a few sparse leaves on what look like completely dead twigs.
44:13And that's what most Mediterranean herbs will do.
44:17Things like this marjoram plant.
44:20The centre of the plant has got masses of new growth.
44:23So what I do is cut right back hard, and that's the key.
44:27Don't cut halfway up, but go back to the ground.
44:31And then next spring, it's starting from the base,
44:34and we'll have lovely, beautiful, green, fresh, flavoursome marjoram.
44:48However, when you're collecting thyme, and you cut back into just dead wood,
44:53there's a risk that there'll be no regrowth.
44:55So thyme is tricky.
44:56So the answer is never to let it get too bad.
44:59And when you cut back, as long as you have some green growth beneath the cut point,
45:04you'll get regrowth there.
45:06And if you do this from an early stage, it will regenerate from that point.
45:11Leave it, and you increasingly get these bare stems underneath,
45:16and that becomes more and more problematic.
45:19So what I recommend is sowing fresh thyme every year,
45:22and replacing the plants every two or three years.
45:25Because in a British climate, it's almost impossible to stop it growing out and becoming very woody.
45:37Now this is one of my favourite herbs of the season.
45:40This is fennel.
45:41And you can see that here at Longmeadow, fennel grows majestically.
45:47And whilst during the summer, we use the foliage,
45:51at this time of year, it's the seeds that are wonderful.
45:54And some of them have gone over and dried.
45:57But if you take them when they're green, they are fantastic with pork, with chicken.
46:04And I like just munching them.
46:06So if you take a few and put them in your mouth,
46:13you get a lovely licorice-y, aniseed ball flavour.
46:18And what we don't eat, the birds will.
46:21And we leave the fennel in the ground until spring, because their skeletons remain strong.
46:26And when they are rhymed with frost, they're one of the most beautiful things in the garden.
46:32Now another plant that towers over others in the flower borders at this time of year is the canna.
46:39And Carol has been down to Overbeck's Garden, near Sorkham in South Devon,
46:43to enjoy it at its very best.
46:52At this time of year, much of the colour in the garden is derived from little dainty flowers, airy-fairy.
47:05You yearn for something with tall stems, big sumptuous leaves,
47:11and not gaudy, but glamorous and gorgeous flowers.
47:16Nothing could provide it better than cannas.
47:20They're the true drama queens of the autumn border.
47:27Canna is the only genus in the family Canaceae.
47:31There are only a few species within the canna genus,
47:35but there are hundreds of extravagant cultivars,
47:39in a wide range of colours and habit variations.
47:45This magnificent specimen is canna indica.
47:49Great tall stems.
47:51At the top of them are these dainty, rather refined orange flowers.
47:57But really, the reason you grow it is for this.
48:01This broad, beautiful, bronzy foliage.
48:06And after the flowers have finished, they'll very often set seed.
48:11You can see it's quite big.
48:13Now, the other name for this plant is Indian shot.
48:16The story goes that in the Indian mutiny, the soldiers had run out of lead shot,
48:21so they actually used this as ammunition.
48:24They shoved it down the barrels of the muskets, and off they went again.
48:28Well, it's an interesting story,
48:31but for me, the whole interest of this plant is in this magnificent stature.
48:36It's a true delight, and a really definite statement in the borders.
48:50This is canna iridiflora rubra.
48:53It's unusual amongst cannas, possibly unique,
48:57because instead of its flower stems being upright and reaching for the sky,
49:02in its case, they're pendulous and very graceful.
49:06It's from Colombia and Peru, so it grows really high up in the Andes.
49:12But this plant has become quite familiar in British gardens.
49:16It's been here since the beginning of the 19th century or so,
49:20and it makes a really beautiful addition to this whole retinue of cannas.
49:33Cannas lend themselves to hybridisation.
49:37Some of them have been bred to have bi-coloured flowers,
49:41and some to have stripy leaves.
49:44In this case, Bengal tiger, it's got the lot.
49:48Not only are these gorgeous flowers,
49:51orange and yellow, sumptuous and exotic,
49:55but they complement each other.
49:59These lovely big leaves with striations of green on a yellow background,
50:04they look absolutely marvellous.
50:07So dramatic.
50:22Cannas tend to be a bit of a nuisance.
50:26Cannas don't have to take centre stage.
50:30Sometimes they act as a foil,
50:33a backdrop to the splendid display that you get from plants
50:37like these glorious dahlias or the halianthus.
50:42This is dahlia moonfire,
50:45beautiful with these yellow disks and bright orange centres.
50:50Or dahlia David Howard in the foreground.
50:55But what really makes the picture is these big, tall stems,
51:00these gorgeous leaves with the bidens just here and there,
51:05slender stems between them.
51:09It's a glorious cacophony of colour.
51:14Cannas love rich, fertile soil.
51:18Make sure that they're never short of water
51:21and give them an occasional liquid feed.
51:24If you want big, majestic plants with gorgeous flowers.
51:34A very straightforward way of growing more cannas is to grow them from seed.
51:39This dinky little canna is canna brasiliensis
51:43and it sets seed quite freely.
51:46All you do when these seeds are about to burst asunder
51:51is take out the seed into your hand
51:56and sow it.
52:07Well, I've got my lovely seed here.
52:10And if I were to sow it straight away, it might not germinate
52:14because canna seed has a very hard seed case.
52:17So before I do, I'm just going to scarify the seed.
52:22And all you need to do is make sure that you can actually see
52:26the white of the seed underneath.
52:30I'm going to station sow them.
52:33And all that means is I give each one one of these compartments in a module tray.
52:38When they germinate and they've filled these pots with roots,
52:42I can move them on into a bigger pot without having any root disturbance at all.
52:47Now, the other way of propagating cannas is to divide them.
52:52I have here this great big chunk,
52:58which we've just sliced off a big clump.
53:01As soon as you feel it getting really cold, dig up your cannas.
53:05Bring them indoors. As these leaves fade down, you can chop them off.
53:10And then, having exposed the rhizomatous roots,
53:14you can actually divide them into nice big chunks.
53:17As long as you make sure that there's a couple of rhizomes
53:20and two or three of these little embryonic shoots here,
53:24you should get a really big plant by the next spring.
53:27Pot them up individually, water them well initially,
53:31and keep them in a nice warm place to get them growing.
53:35It's as easy as that.
53:41Cannas are such splendid plants.
53:44For very little investment, they pay huge dividends.
53:49Enormous, gorgeous, tropical-looking leaves.
53:54Beautiful flowers that look like the silk handkerchiefs from a magician's hat.
54:00They light up the autumn borders, go beautifully with everything.
54:05Who could be without them?
54:11I do think this has been one of the best years for cannas that I can remember,
54:16and I'm growing more and more here.
54:18And in fact, they have been flowering enthusiastically since the middle of July,
54:23and they've gone right through till now.
54:26Now, over winter, the flowers are starting to bloom,
54:30and the flowers are starting to bloom,
54:32and the flowers are starting to bloom,
54:34and the flowers are starting to bloom,
54:36and the flowers are starting to bloom,
54:39Now, over winter, we don't leave them out, but lift them and take them in.
54:43If you've got very free-draining soil, and you live in the south,
54:46and you don't get hard frost, you mulch over the top of them,
54:50then you'll be okay.
54:51But we can't risk that.
54:53So, when the frost hits them, and the leaves blacken,
54:57that's when we dig them up.
54:58We cut off all the flowering stems down to the ground,
55:01and pop them into plastic pots that are just big enough to take the roots.
55:08And then we pack that round with old compost.
55:10And the idea being is we don't want them to grow.
55:12We're not trying to nourish them.
55:14We're just keeping them ticking over during the winter months.
55:17You can put them in a greenhouse, in a cold frame, in a porch.
55:20Even a shed is absolutely fine as long as it is frost-free.
55:24Water them once a week to keep them moist,
55:27and then in spring, they can be planted out after the last frost.
55:31Now, although this is tender, it will take some frost.
55:34But the banana behind, the insete, is completely tender.
55:39And we did have a touch of frost last night,
55:41and poor thing, it looked very bedraggled.
55:44However, it's recovered well,
55:46and I had planned to cut it down and dig it up,
55:48and be ruthless and look after it.
55:51But I don't want to.
55:52It's looking great. It's recovered.
55:54There's no frost forecast for the rest of this week,
55:57so I think I'm going to put that job off for a few more days.
56:01But here are some jobs for the weekend that you can't put off.
56:13Now is the perfect moment to prune climbing roses.
56:17The idea is to create a framework
56:21of five or six largely horizontal stems from which side shoots can grow.
56:27So remove all extraneous material growing out from the plant,
56:32and then cut back this year's side shoots to a stub.
56:37And finally, tie in all loose material.
56:42Brick and paved paths can become very slippery at this time of year.
56:47And a very simple way of dealing with it is to use sharp sand.
56:51Sprinkle a little onto the path,
56:53and brush it in vigorously with a really stiff brush.
56:57And this remains effective for two or three weeks.
57:05Now is a good time to put a little bit of water in.
57:09Now is a good time to plant out wallflowers,
57:13and I like to plant them in pots underplanted with tulips.
57:18Use a really gritty mix.
57:21It's good for the tulips as well as the wallflowers,
57:24which flower best with their wonderful fragrance in really poor soil.
57:40This is a variety of lettuce called saladint,
57:43which I haven't grown for years because it's very old-fashioned.
57:46When I was a child, we often used to have them,
57:48and I thought they were a bit boring.
57:50But actually, it's delicious, it's crunchy, it's fresh,
57:53and it's got really good taste, and I can heartily recommend it.
57:56And the whole vegetable garden, although we're going into autumn,
57:59has got lots left to offer.
58:02There's plenty of time for really good harvests to come.
58:06But no more time tonight.
58:08That's the end of today's programme.
58:10I will be back here next week, of course,
58:12but at the later time of nine o'clock.
58:15So I'll see you then. Bye-bye.
58:38Music
58:42.