• 3 months ago
Transcript
00:00Hello, welcome back to Gardener's World, and welcome to the most glorious weather here
00:17at Longmeadow.
00:18We've all shared the warmest February since records began, and that means as we come into
00:23March, spring is here in a big way.
00:28And here in the spring garden, that means that the snowdrops have finished, but the
00:32hellebores are coming to their very best.
00:35I've got a lot of oriental hybrids here, and I've discovered over the years that their
00:39offspring, and they seed very readily, are always worse than the parent.
00:44And if you're not careful, you end up with a lot of very ordinary, rather muddy colors.
00:48So what I've been doing for the last few years is adding brand new, really nice hellebores
00:54to replenish the gene stock, if you like.
00:57Now this one is Harvington White Speckled.
01:01You can see the outside, as it hangs down, is white and fairly plain, but lift it up
01:06and you have the most glorious speckled plum colors.
01:10That, of course, to attract the bumblebees in to pollinate them.
01:23This week, we meet a gardener who transformed his challenging backyard into a tropical paradise.
01:31And Carol explores a spectacular winter garden and celebrates a plant that's making a real
01:37comeback, the conifer.
01:47Let's go. Come on, Nudge.
01:59Well, March weather is nothing but fickle.
02:01It'll probably be snowing by the end of the day, but there we go.
02:04Now, this is the Paradise Garden, and you may remember that in October, I planted these
02:09crab apples.
02:11Well, since then, I've planted acuminata tulips, a species tulip with long, very delicate petals.
02:20And the big thing, the big difference is this.
02:24We've nearly finished the building at the end.
02:28It's going to be rendered, the lime mortar, and then painted a sort of pinky apricot color.
02:34And the whole point is to have this symmetry and formality and structure and yet be a place
02:41that is fragrant and somewhere filled with delight.
02:45So the next phase in the planting is to add fragrance and color via roses.
02:51I'm going to put some in the ground and some in pots.
02:55Now, the first one I've chosen is a damask rose called Madam Hardy.
03:02Now, I'm keeping these in these old bags because these are bare-root roses,
03:06and it is really important with bare-root roses to not let them dry out.
03:11So I've got a bucket of water over here.
03:13So while I'm talking, I'm just going to pop that straight in the water.
03:17The reason why I'm using bare-root roses rather than ones already in a pot
03:21is because they have a much wider range available, they tend to be cheaper,
03:27and also I've found that they're very often healthy, good, strong roses.
03:32But if you're going to buy bare-root roses, you need to do it now.
03:37The bare-root season ends in the middle of March.
03:40Thereafter, you can buy roses in containers, of course.
03:46Madam Hardy is going on the four corners of the bed.
03:49She's quite a big rose. She's about five foot tall, lots of flowers, so it's going to be quite dominant.
03:57You can see that the rose has been grafted, and this is the graft point.
04:03And the root system determines how big it grows and what shape it grows,
04:08and then this will determine the flowers.
04:11And the graft needs to be buried. I like to put it an inch under the soil.
04:19Now, I'm adding mycorrhizal powder in here because it acts as a conduit.
04:24So the new rose will form a good relationship with the soil, so it can take up nutrients and water.
04:31That's about the right depth, actually.
04:35Now, there are three more Madam Hardy to go on each corner,
04:38but the next one I'm going to put in is Munsteadwood,
04:41and this is a David Austin rose with a crimson, almost purplish tinge to it.
04:47Now, David Austin, who unfortunately died at the end of last year,
04:52was a grand old man of British roses.
04:56He was the person who crossed the old roses like Madam Hardy with hybrid teas,
05:03and that made what he called English roses.
05:06The flowers had the quality of old roses,
05:09but they also had the vigour and the constant flowering of hybrid teas.
05:16The technique for planting them is exactly the same.
05:22You'll notice that I didn't add any compost to the planting hole,
05:27and that's because I want the roots to go sideways.
05:31I want them to go looking for nutrition.
05:37Finally, even if you don't have anywhere to plant roses outside,
05:41they grow very successfully in pots, but you do need to choose the right rose,
05:46and I've got one here which I love.
05:48It's called Pompom de Bourgogne, and it's got lovely, small flowers.
05:53I'm just going to pop that in the water, but I'm only going to plant one,
05:57and that will just have a little soak while I prepare the pot.
06:01This is terracotta.
06:03I've put crops in the bottom, and I've mixed up a good potting mixture here.
06:10I've added extra grit.
06:13I've added some garden compost and also a shovelful of garden soil,
06:18and that will add bacteria and fungi to the mix and just keep the whole thing healthy.
06:24Now, to put this in here, the same rules apply.
06:29We want to get it nice and deep.
06:34Now, just to make sure that the compost gets in amongst all the roots,
06:38what I'm going to do is just wiggle it about a bit,
06:41because what you don't want are air pockets of any kind.
06:44So we'll just work that down in and then top it up,
06:58leaving enough room so I can water it without the water bouncing off and falling out of the pot.
07:05And, of course, water all roses really well when you plant them,
07:11and if it's in a container, you're going to have to give it a good soak once a week,
07:16certainly in the growing season.
07:20Now, this is the beginning of putting layers of colour and fragrance into this paradise garden,
07:27which should be a retreat from all the stresses and strains of the outside world.
07:32And, in fact, last summer we visited a really good example of this.
07:35We went to Broadstairs in Kent to visit the garden of Dan Cooper,
07:39and when he went there for the first time, it was a very unprepossessing small backyard.
07:45But he has transformed it into something magical.
07:53I'm known as the frustrated gardener, and that's because I'm obsessed with plants,
07:58but I have only a very small space to grow them in.
08:02I love being surrounded by plants.
08:05I get completely lost in it sometimes and forget everything else that's going on outside.
08:13So I've got two small courtyards.
08:16The jungle garden measures 20 foot by 30 foot,
08:19and the gin and tonic garden is even smaller.
08:22It measures just 20 foot by 20 foot.
08:28When I came, there was an air raid shelter, two outdoor toilets,
08:32and some crazy paving, and that was all.
08:35And so I lived with that for a couple of years before I decided that something needed to be done.
08:41So I enlisted the help of a designer to help me get my head around what the potential of the garden was.
08:51There's a raised bed that goes around the edge of the garden,
08:54and then everything else is in pots or troughs.
08:57It's now become quite sheltered as the trees have grown up,
09:00and the plants love that shelter.
09:02It's ideal for tropical plants, which often grow under the canopies of much larger trees,
09:08and so they like a little bit of dappled shade.
09:12This amazing tree behind me is the Santa Cruz Ironwood tree.
09:18It comes from California.
09:20It grows on rocky, north-facing slopes exposed to the sea,
09:25buffeted by salt-laden gales,
09:28and it's a really great tree for a coastal garden.
09:37One of the stars of the show is Canna mucifolia, which is a canna that believes it's a banana.
09:44It has huge green leaves with a flush of red,
09:48and it shoots up 10, maybe 12 feet in a season.
09:53At the end, if I'm lucky, I might get some very small red flowers.
09:58They're definitely not the main event. They're a bit of a bonus.
10:01But what I really grow it for is that amazing foliage
10:05and the extraordinary height it brings into the garden.
10:17Sometimes plants just work really perfectly together,
10:21and I love this dahlia. It's called Nicholas.
10:23It's got fantastic flashes of red right there in the middle,
10:27and they flame out into yellow,
10:30and then blend into this beautiful peach on the outside.
10:34I think it's a really exquisite combination of colours,
10:37and it picks up this hadicium, which is called Stephen,
10:41and it's got these lovely spikes of flowers with beautiful coloured stamens.
10:46So Stephen and Nicholas make perfect partners.
10:52I'm quite a flamboyant person, so I love anything that's unusual
10:57or that people haven't seen before, I'm instantly drawn to.
11:03So this is a fuchsia you don't see very often in gardens.
11:06It's a species fuchsia, and what I love about it
11:10is these beautiful, soft, corally pink bells,
11:14and the fact that they're tipped with lime green.
11:17They keep on coming all the way through the summer,
11:20and it's not just the flowers that are beautiful here,
11:23it's also the foliage.
11:25It's lime green, and it has a little haze of grey over the top
11:28because of the little furry fibres on the surface.
11:31The midrib is pink, and then as the new foliage emerges,
11:35it's even paler green, and the whole thing is very pretty and elegant,
11:40and I love it because it suits my style of gardening.
11:51So I would encourage anyone with a really small garden
11:55to think big about what they want to do.
11:58I nearly fell into the trap of thinking very small,
12:02of not really being ambitious enough with what I could do.
12:06Make it what you want, and don't feel that there's anything, really,
12:10that you can't grow, because with a bit of thought
12:13and attention and planning,
12:15you can grow almost anything in a small garden.
12:21BIRDS CHIRP
12:28I do so agree with that sentiment,
12:31that just because you have limited space,
12:34it doesn't mean to say you need to limit your ideas,
12:36or even the size of your plants.
12:38Big plants look really good in a small space.
12:41But by the same token, small plants can look really good in a big space,
12:45and I love the way that at this time of year,
12:48as we come out of winter and into spring,
12:51you get these jewel-like plants,
12:54whether they be the sort of dwarf daffodil, tetatet,
12:57or the grape hyacinth, or the lovely irises.
13:01The only problem this year has been is that they all came so early.
13:04The irises are nearly through.
13:06But from late January onwards, you get these fabulous, intense colours.
13:12BIRDS CHIRP
13:17Now, one of the things that is really important this time of year
13:20is to get on with sowing seed.
13:22And by the way, I'm still using plastic seed trays,
13:25because although I'm just as keen to reduce the plastic
13:29that we have here at Longmeadow,
13:31the starting point is always to look after the plastic you've got,
13:35wash it, keep it, almost treasure it,
13:38so that you don't have to buy new to replace it.
13:41Now, today, what I want to sow are two seeds that are for summer
13:46and one which is a real fast turnaround crop.
13:50I'm going to start with some chillies.
13:52An early jalapeno is a good chilli.
13:56Spicy, but not too hot.
13:58It's a peat-free compost.
14:00Now, if we just put some in there like that,
14:04level it out,
14:06and then space the seeds out freely.
14:11Chillies are one of those seeds that you do need to get on with.
14:14They're quite slow to get going,
14:16so the earlier you sow them,
14:18the more chance you have of getting a decent harvest
14:22towards the end of summer.
14:24What I do now is just to press that down.
14:27By pressing it down like that,
14:29I'm getting good contact with the seed and the soil,
14:33and then I'm going to lightly cover it.
14:35And it's as easy as that.
14:41Label it, and then a good idea to put the date on it.
14:45Pop that in there.
14:47Now, chillies need heat to germinate, preferably 20 degrees,
14:51so either on a windowsill above a radiator,
14:54on a heated mat if you've got it,
14:56and if you're sowing a lot of seed,
14:58a heated mat is a really good investment.
15:02Right, next, we're going to sow some tomatoes.
15:05I've got black cherry, which, as the name suggests,
15:09is a dark colour and a cherry tomato.
15:12Now, tomatoes take about two months
15:16to get to the point before you can plant them out.
15:18You don't want to put them out into the garden
15:21until the nights warm up.
15:23If you've got a greenhouse, of course,
15:25you can put them in there as soon as the plants are ready.
15:27These will grow quicker than chillies
15:29and will be ready to prick out in about three weeks' time.
15:37Again, I'll just make contact
15:41so the seeds are really touching the compost.
15:51When you cover them up, you could cover them with grit,
15:54you can cover them with vermiculite.
15:56It's to hold the seed in place when you water it.
16:03Now, those are two long-term plants.
16:06Tomatoes for summer and chillies could go on till next Christmas.
16:10But you can also sow real quick catch crops,
16:13and one of my favourites is rocket.
16:16Rocket is one of those salad leaves that likes cool weather.
16:21Now, you can see I've already got some here that I sowed earlier.
16:25On the 12th of February.
16:28But we'll start in a seed tray for the next batch,
16:31which will replace those.
16:34You can sow rocket direct outside,
16:37but I really try and grow them as strong individual plants.
16:42Now, with rocket seed, you do have lots of seed in the packet.
16:48And I just sprinkle them fairly thinly.
16:52As a rule with sowing seed,
16:54better to sow too thin than too thick.
17:01Like that.
17:03As far as timing goes,
17:05these seeds will reach that size in about four weeks,
17:09and these will be harvested in about four weeks.
17:13So we're getting succession going.
17:15And by the way, rocket, as I say, doesn't need heat,
17:18these will go into the greenhouse, into the warm part.
17:21This will be just as happy in a cold frame.
17:24Water them well.
17:26You can either sit them in a tray of water and let it absorb,
17:29leave them there for about 10 or 15 minutes,
17:31or water them from above.
17:33Keep them moist but not sodden,
17:35and then as soon as you see the true leaves,
17:38you can prick them out, but we'll do that in a few weeks' time.
17:41Now, this year, Carol is going to be looking at plants
17:45that really celebrate each season,
17:48and the combinations that you get.
17:50And she's starting out in Norfolk in a winter garden,
17:54looking at a marvellous collection of conifers.
17:57So let's have a look.
18:15For some of us, our gardens can be very uninspiring in the winter.
18:20There's no colour about, everything's dull and drab.
18:24But in the gardens, that picture is completely reversed.
18:29The whole place is a sparkle with colour,
18:32wonderful shapes and forms.
18:35And the plants that create this picture more than any others
18:38are the conifers.
18:41CONIFERS
18:51Conifers are a mind-bogglingly diverse group of plants.
18:55They can be all sorts of shapes, sizes, textures and colours.
19:00And conifers go beautifully with other plants,
19:03especially at this time of year.
19:11What a symphony in gold and purple,
19:15full of an intense, rich colour.
19:19This witch hazel, the hamamelis,
19:22is lit in the winter with these golden spidery flowers.
19:26And how beautifully that colour's taken up here by this conifer.
19:31This is a golden form of the incense cedar.
19:34It's got these beautifully flattened fronds.
19:38And that's emphasised by nipping back growing shoots
19:41to keep it nice and dense.
19:43And that's not the only bit that's pruned either.
19:46Look at the trunk.
19:47All this bark is exposed
19:49because all the twigs and branches have very deliberately been taken away.
19:54But what makes it work so beautifully
19:57is what accompanies it on the ground.
19:59There are these great sweeping lines of a chorus.
20:03And through it, a little black ophiopogon.
20:07And as if that wasn't enough,
20:09here and there are these surprises.
20:12Helibores popping up
20:14and snowdrops sprinkled through the whole thing.
20:17And it's the kind of combination
20:19that any of us could emulate in our own gardens.
20:22It's just something that you want to rush home and do yourself.
20:37One of the delights of this garden
20:40is coming across these absolutely brilliant specimen.
20:45Hugely special conifers here and there.
20:48This is a Japanese black pine.
20:50At this time of year, it's got an extra special feature.
20:54And that is these new emerging buds
20:57which are just like silver candles.
21:00And they pick up the white bark of the vetula in the background
21:05All the way through this bed, there's a very distinctive colour theme.
21:09But it's not kaleidoscopic, it's limited.
21:12So you've got the green of the conifer and the ivy at its feet.
21:16And then you've got these red stems of the Cornus alba sibiricus.
21:20And that's reflected at ground level
21:23by these big, solid leaves of the beguinia.
21:26All you need is a few simple elements.
21:29But think, most of all,
21:31about what conifer is going to be your centrepiece.
21:44Don't these really prove the point of just how wonderful conifers can be?
21:49These little blue spruces here are going on for 20 years old.
21:54And so too are the pines in front of them.
21:57They're so slow growing that they'll maintain this kind of shape.
22:01And they really help to accentuate the whole curve of this path.
22:05I think what's so lovely about them too
22:08is that this sort of solidity is emphasised all the more
22:12by putting behind them as a kind of theatrical backdrop
22:15this lovely Cornus midwinter fire.
22:18And then running through the whole bed
22:21is stachys that melds the whole planting together
22:25and punctuated here and there
22:27by these little jewel-like Crocus thomasinianus.
22:31The whole planting works so beautifully together.
22:34It's totally inspiring.
22:45Left to its own devices, this blue Atlas cedar
22:48would just scramble across the ground.
22:51But here it's been trained beautifully
22:54to create these arches
22:56and to make the most of this lovely cascading habit.
23:00Conifers are such wonderfully versatile plants.
23:04You can train them.
23:06You can use them as single specimens
23:08or put them together in a conifer garden.
23:10But I think the very best way of using them of all
23:14is to put them together with other plants
23:17thus creating a gallery of form, texture, colour.
23:25BIRDS CHIRP
23:37I confess that I've struggled with conifers over the years.
23:40You notice there are none actually here at Longmeadow.
23:43I tend to enjoy deciduous plants more.
23:45But you can always change. Never say never.
23:48So watch this space. I may well be planting some soon.
23:51And you should go along and see them
23:53because the garden is still open for another month
23:56when you can see all that winter splendour
23:58before spring really takes over.
24:00And you get all the details from our website.
24:11One of the disadvantages of this early spring
24:14is that the winter jobs become much more urgent.
24:18And one of those winter jobs is pruning of fruit trees,
24:21particularly apples and pears.
24:23This is a job that normally I'd say should be done by the end of March.
24:26I would now say this year you should do it as soon as you possibly can.
24:30This is an apple called Devonshire Corundum.
24:33And I haven't pruned it for a couple of years
24:35and you can see very vigorous straight branches going up
24:37which won't bear fruit.
24:39So what I want to do now is get in there and clean it up,
24:42remove any branches that are crossing, that are crowded,
24:45and all those upright shoots can come off.
24:52Now, what I'm looking to do is declutter it,
24:56remove any tangle of branches.
24:58And this branch, for example, is too close to the one below it.
25:03So I get in there and just cut that back.
25:12Can you see here how these branches,
25:15this one and this one, are overlapping and rubbing?
25:18And where they rub, they will chafe and form wounds
25:21and that's where you get infections.
25:23So I'm going to take this one off here.
25:26Like that.
25:29Now, this needs to come off
25:32because I don't want that upright growth.
25:37And the point of doing this, always remember, is twofold.
25:40One is to let light in and two, lots of air,
25:45because if you've got plenty of air and light,
25:48the apples will ripen better
25:50and also there's much less risk of fungal problems.
25:53I am reducing the crop, but I'm increasing the quality.
25:57I've often said in the past you should have it
25:59so a pigeon can fly through from any angle.
26:08The thing that is really essential to remember
26:11when you're pruning at this time of year
26:13is that winter pruning stimulates strong regrowth.
26:18And if you want to permanently reduce it,
26:20then you do that in summer.
26:22Now, this is a job that I like to take my time over.
26:25But if you haven't got a fruit tree to prune,
26:27don't think you've got away with it
26:29because here are some jobs that everybody can do this weekend.
26:44Annuals, and in particular biannuals,
26:47like forget-me-nots and foxgloves,
26:49tend to drop their seeds in clusters,
26:51so you get a mass of seedlings in one area and none in others.
26:55So if you thin out the seedlings you have and transplant them
26:59so you get an even spread across your borders,
27:02you'll get a really good display
27:04without in any way damaging the plants.
27:08Although the soil is too cold for most seeds to germinate,
27:12if you can rake a decent tilth,
27:15then you can certainly sow some broad beans.
27:18It's best to do them in double rows
27:20with each row about a foot or so apart
27:22and the beans about six inches apart along each line.
27:26Push them into the ground, cover them over lightly,
27:29label them, and they should start to grow very quickly.
27:34The late flowering clematis, like Clematis viticella,
27:37carry all their flowers on new growth.
27:40And if you leave them unpruned, you just have bare stems
27:43and then a mass of flowers at the top.
27:45So cut them back hard now,
27:47and you can go right back down to the lowest bud.
27:50This will mean that the new growth has plenty of light and air
27:54and you'll have flowers all over the place.
27:57And if you leave them unpruned,
27:59you just have bare stems and then a mass of flowers at the top.
28:02And you'll have flowers all the way up the stem.
28:15It's lovely to be back out in the garden
28:19on a beautiful spring day.
28:22But this very early spring weather is a mixed blessing
28:27because although it's very enjoyable,
28:29I'm not quite sure what effect it's going to have on the garden,
28:32and that is something that we will be watching as the year progresses.
28:36But no more time today, I'm afraid.
28:38That's it, but I'll be back here at Longmeadow
28:41at the same time next week.
28:43So until then, bye-bye.
28:59© transcript Emily Beynon