• 3 months ago
Transcript
00:00Hello and welcome to Beechgrove Garden, on the programme what every gardener wants, keeping
00:19the weeds down and a longer growing season. Coming up, I'm planting my hotbed to keep
00:25growing well into the autumn, ground cover ideas that will limit the weeding next year
00:32and how did our spring suggestions work out at this Lanarkshire allotment.
00:38George we've come up to the main veg plot because we thought let's go see how our crops
00:42are doing. You know in spite of the weather they've done incredibly well and I've been
00:46looking at the leeks, there's some of them ready to harvest. This one here is one which
00:53I've been interested in because it's a variety called Musselburgh and of course Musselburgh
01:00is not far from Surrey Joppa, so there you are. But look at that, look at it.
01:03And I tell you what, there's plenty of white on there, we just need a few tatties, lean tattie soup.
01:07We've made, that's it. Now, what's the next one?
01:10We've got some spring onions here and the variety is Performer and I tell you what,
01:13it's certainly Performer.
01:14Well look at it, it's standing like a wee row of soldiers in there. Now if I pull one
01:18of these, you can see the difference, it's almost like a leek, the way that that is
01:25smooth to the bottom and that's ideal for slicing and using, but quite mild as well.
01:29And then just look at the lettuces George, I think we might be getting just a wee bit
01:33fed up with lettuces because we've had so much, they've done so well this year.
01:36The variety is all year round and we're just going to pull this out, give it a shake and
01:41then I'll just carefully cut off.
01:43Watch your fingers.
01:44Yep, there we go, the root. And then some of the outer leaves, we'll just peel them
01:49off because it's the centre we want, that's where they're nice and delicious.
01:52That's it, the succulent leaves are right in the middle. Anyway, down there.
01:58Swiss chard is always something interesting in the plucks, it gives you a bit of colour.
02:02This one certainly gives you a lot of colour. What's interesting again about this is that
02:06that's a plant that's gone to seed and you might think, oh that's not any use, can't
02:10use that. You can use these leaves as a substitute for spinach and then you use the leaf stalks.
02:17So if you cut that at the bottom, there you go. Look at that, I mean look at the colour
02:23on that.
02:24I know.
02:25So these are the leaf stalks that we would use and we can just slice them up and use
02:29them in stir fries and things like that.
02:31And what's great about Swiss chard George is of course we're getting colour on the veg
02:35plot but if we keep cutting then we'll have this right into the new year.
02:38And if we don't get too much frost, this will do right through till next April and
02:41fill what we call the hungry gap when there's nothing else.
02:44Shall we go see how the beans are doing?
02:46Have you got any?
02:47There's one or two.
02:50Now George, if you didn't think I was crazy before, you may think I am now, look at this.
02:55It's like a drum kit, what are you playing at?
02:57So this is so when you go to harvest the beans, your hands are free, you just put them right in there.
03:01Not just a pretty face, you've been thinking it through. Right, what are you looking for?
03:06When it comes to runner beans George, for me that is the perfect size to harvest them.
03:10And then in you go.
03:11Now does that snap?
03:13Yes.
03:14There we go, see how clean that was?
03:16Well, right, because what you don't want is stuff like that which, you know, that's maybe
03:20about three days after that maturing and look at that.
03:24Not a clean break there.
03:25No, it's not and all this fibre and that's what people will get put off with these beans
03:28because they're just not clean enough and not crisp enough.
03:31So to try and get round that, it's very important when you're harvesting beans, are we doing
03:35it every couple of days?
03:36Aye.
03:37But you'll always go over it one day and say, look at the size of that one.
03:40Well, you'll always miss them.
03:48I've come up to the driveway garden here.
03:51There's a border up here which gives us a lot of problems, it grows weeds and the worst
03:55thing that you can have in your garden is bare soil because then the weeds just have
03:59the mastery of that and can grow like fury.
04:02So what we do is we use ground cover plants.
04:05These are any plants at all which will cover the ground quickly and suppress the weeds.
04:10I've got two varieties of cutoneaster and I've also got some clematis and we're going
04:15to plant them in combination because what we then get is a multi-layered ground cover
04:22and that is really going to be ideal.
04:25Well, I'm going to get on and plant them now.
04:27The soil in here is quite dry and what I've had to do is I've added some leaf mould to
04:33it and we've just, all we've got to do now is just knock it out the pot.
04:40See that?
04:41Look at the roots on that.
04:42Eh?
04:43That's good.
04:44Got lovely young roots on there.
04:45So that's going in there and when you're planting it at this stage, try and orientate it the
04:50way you want these shoots to go.
04:52So that's the way I want it, just fill in round about it, give it a good press in.
04:59There we go.
05:00And then the clematis goes in at this point here.
05:05Quite close to it because these are going to be intimate friends as it were.
05:12There we are.
05:14Good roots on that as well.
05:20This is the variety of Prince George where all we do with this when it's finished flowering
05:26is we cut it right back to base.
05:29So it's a simple maintenance.
05:31We're not giving ourselves anything terribly complicated.
05:33So that goes in like that.
05:36So all of a sudden we've got a two-layered ground cover there.
05:41And then this one, Cotoneaster Horizontalis, that again, look at the roots on that.
05:49That goes in here and we'll put another clematis over the top of it.
05:58And immediately we're actually starting to cover the ground.
06:02This one will spread right out and join up with this Cotoneaster here.
06:06That one will spread as well.
06:08This clematis will grow over the top of it also.
06:10Now, I used to work at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh.
06:14I was there for a number of years.
06:16And over the years I saw plants which were planted in little communities like this, which
06:21just were a joy and existed for, what, 30 years and never needed any maintenance.
06:27That's what we want.
06:30Back in May, Ruth visited Lianne Morongway in her allotment in Bellshill in North Lanarkshire.
06:35Four months later, it's time to see how this season has turned out.
06:47Welcome back to my allotment.
06:49It has been a very interesting year.
06:52We've had lots and lots and lots of rain and not as much sun.
06:56So that has been a learning challenge because with all that rain, we've had so many slugs
07:02and snails.
07:03So it's pretty much a constant battle against the slugs and snails.
07:08Come with me, I'm going to show you some of the things that thrived in the allotment and
07:11some of the things that didn't do so well.
07:13So, last time you seen us put some copper tape round this bed.
07:29What was really good about this time is putting it on this side of the bed instead of at the
07:33sides, which I'd done previously.
07:35I would say that when the seedlings were quite small, it was really useful.
07:39I definitely realised that they actually had a lot more growth than I expected because
07:44they weren't bothered by slugs and snails.
07:46On the other side of that, I do feel that the copper tape tarnished.
07:50So I'd probably say maybe after a month's time, it became ineffective.
08:01So this year, I put an arch at the front of my plot with the hopes that I can grow some
08:05squashes up the arch.
08:07I have put in two squashes at the front here and they're doing really well.
08:11What I also did in this bed is I topped up with manure a couple of weeks ago.
08:14We know again that these are hungry plants and making sure they've got enough nutrients
08:18to get big and strong was so important.
08:21I also added some sunflowers in the corner of the beds as well.
08:25And I put some calendula, which hasn't actually done very well, but I suppose as a companion
08:29plant it's done its job, it got eaten by slugs.
08:32So the squash itself has done really, really well.
08:35I think this is going to get even bigger and I'm so glad.
08:39It's nice and secure, even though it's very weighty, because of the way it's been tied
08:43into the arch, it's been absolutely fine.
08:46We've got two going, so I'm really excited to see which one's going to get bigger.
08:50And again, just making sure I keep on top of the feeding at this time of year to make
08:54sure that it will get nice and big when it grows.
09:06So, ultimately, it has been a really weird season for me.
09:11However, I've learnt so much and I think that's what's really important in gardening.
09:17I have a great allotment with great allotment neighbours, so I'm really thankful for this
09:21growing space.
09:22What I've loved about this season is just the impact of flowers.
09:26It's something that I will 100% do next year, but I'll do it bigger and I'll do it better.
09:31I wouldn't like to introduce more fruit bushes.
09:34I think things like that, that have quite a quick crop turnover, is really good for
09:38myself and I can get the kids involved in it as well.
09:41I've really enjoyed it this year and I think what's most important, regardless of all the
09:45rain, the pests and everything that has come up on the allotment, is having fun.
09:50And that's what's really important about this space for me.
09:52But thank you so much for coming back to my plot and I really hope that I get to see you
09:56again next year.
10:05If you remember earlier in the series, we planted some new soft fruit bushes in this
10:10bed here.
10:11We've got red currants, white currants, pink currants and we've got some black currants
10:15here as well and gooseberries.
10:16Now, if you look at the red currants, you think, what's happened to them?
10:20Are they dead?
10:21But you know, I did a little cambium test, scraping it with my nail, and they're green
10:26underneath so they're fine, they're okay.
10:28The black currants certainly are alright, they're still full in leaf.
10:32Then we come to the gooseberry.
10:33Now, there is a problem here with this gooseberry.
10:37Remember when we were planting them, we said we wanted to keep them off the ground as much
10:40as possible?
10:41Well, this one here has got these shoots which are coming right from below ground level.
10:47And what I've done is I've just pulled that off so that it doesn't produce lots and lots
10:51of more shoots at the bottom.
10:53If I had just clipped that back, that piece there would have ended up by producing more
10:59young shoots.
11:00So that's what I'm doing there, just tearing them off like that.
11:03So these are the two shoots which I've removed from the gooseberry, and that has now created
11:07that wonderful form which I'm getting, which is going to be a goblet form.
11:11Now, talking about form, up here is a jostleberry, which is trained against the fence here.
11:19Now, this is a hybrid berry, and what it does is it produces its fruit on older wood.
11:24But what happens is that this old wood here gets really tired, and it's not going to produce
11:30much.
11:31So what I'm going to do, I'm going to look back, and it's handy because down here we've
11:37actually got a young shoot which will replace it.
11:42There's the young shoot.
11:44So what I'm going to do now is just tie those in, and I'll tie a number of them in so that
11:49I get this wonderful form.
11:50So I'm creating something which is going to be attractive to look at over winter.
11:56It's not going to be just a jumble of shoots.
11:59I'll get on with this a bit later on.
12:01I want to go and look at the loganberry and tayberry which we planted earlier in the season.
12:11The loganberry and tayberry are two plants which were planted in this area, and this
12:17is what we've ended up with.
12:18We've had good growth on both years, so this is two years ago.
12:22There's one year's growth, and this is the second year's growth.
12:25What we've got to do now is we've got to start thinking about next year's crop, and
12:31the idea is that we take out a lot of these old, finished flowering shoots that are there.
12:38So all the shoots that have finished flowering come out, and it's easy to tell these, you
12:43see, because they've... look at the wood.
12:46The wood is all old and flaky, and it gets removed right down to the base.
12:52So we're taking these off right by the ankles at the bottom, and I'll go right through the
13:00whole plant doing this all the way along, and we'll end up with a new set of empty canes.
13:08So what we've got is one side which is completely bare, and that's where next year's young growth
13:13will be trained, up those canes to keep it separate from this group which will then be
13:17flowering next year and fruiting.
13:20So what we've got to do with this is tie in the young shoots, but before I do that,
13:23I'm going to take my gloves off because I hate trying to tie with my gloves on.
13:27So there we go.
13:28So just round the cane, like that, put it into position, and make sure that you tie
13:36it reasonably securely.
13:38I'm going to carry on with this, tying in some of these young growths there so that
13:41we get a good crop next year.
13:43Meanwhile, off you go to see Brian at Old Schoon, see what he's up to.
13:51A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of heading up to the Beech Grove garden and catching
13:57up with my good friend, Carol.
13:59One of the plants that we took a look at was one of these, a climbing honeysuckle.
14:05One of the points that I was making about was in reference to this honeysuckle that
14:09grows outside our sitting room window.
14:11So just inside there is our dining table, and there's nothing better than sitting in
14:16there and watching the boon finches just delicately balance on these wiry stems and
14:22nibble away at these fleshy fruits at this time of year.
14:26Hidden inside these berries is the key to the next generation of honeysuckle plants.
14:32So at this time of year, it's a perfect opportunity to harvest some of these seeds ourselves and
14:37to sow them.
14:38Now, we're all fleshy berries.
14:42It's best never to take any chance because you don't know what you're dealing with because
14:45they could be poisonous.
14:46So I'm going to stick on a pair of gloves here.
14:49So I'm only going to pick off a few berries.
14:52I reckon for a wee pot, I'm only needing about 12.
14:56I want to leave the rest for the birds anyway.
14:59But once you get them, if you very gently squish them out, you can start to reveal the
15:05little seed.
15:06Now, at this time of year, we want to sow them fresh.
15:10So I'm going to get one of those wee square pots, fill it with seed compost.
15:14I'm going to lay all these seed on the surface and I'll do a wee sprinkle of grit over the top.
15:20Then the next bit's the key bit.
15:21I'm going to put it in a cold greenhouse or leave them outside over the winter in a sheltered spot.
15:26And the reason I'm doing that is because they need a period of cold to help trigger that germination.
15:33But for me, the winters seem to be these days nothing but storms and floods, not beautiful
15:38days like this where it's crisp and cold, maybe the temperature that they need.
15:42So as always, us gardeners have another wee trip.
15:45So as you can see from these seeds, they're all quite wet and moist.
15:51So once you've got your seed, get a bit of kitchen towel, wrap them up in the kitchen
15:56towel for a couple of days and that'll just dry them off.
16:00Once you've done that, you want a wee bag.
16:02This is vermiculite or you could get some moist seed compost, pop it in the wee bag,
16:08pop the seeds in the wee bag, label it and then put them in the fridge.
16:12And we're going to leave them in the fridge for the next three months and that's going
16:15to do that chilling period for us.
16:18So after that, it's going to come to about late winter.
16:22I'll have been fully fed with my Christmas meal.
16:24We'll be getting nearer spring.
16:26Cal will be looking out his shorts again.
16:28But that's the sweet moment to then do what we've done already, which is get that pot
16:33of seed compost, sprinkle them on the layer, a bit of grit and get them back into that
16:37greenhouse and fingers crossed, keep your eye on them and you're going to see your new
16:41climbing Lonicera plants.
16:57This wee shrub is a Daphne tangutica and I tell you what, I would advise anybody to get
17:02one in their garden because it is just brilliant.
17:05Very easy maintenance, it's just a blooming good doer.
17:08It's got this wonderful mounded green shape, so that gives you a bit of structure all year
17:12round.
17:13In springtime, all these little buds opened up to reveal white flowers and they've got
17:17a wee bit of purple on the back of the petals, but it's the scent, the scent you get from
17:22this shrub, it's just phenomenal.
17:23And of course, we're in autumn time now and we've got all these lovely little berries.
17:29So the same process again, I'm just giving them a wee squeeze, but look at the size
17:35of the seed that we have this time.
17:37It's a belter and if you were just to put it in your fingers and give it a wee pinch,
17:42you will feel it's absolutely solid and that's because the embryo inside is being protected
17:49by this coating.
17:50If it was in the wild, if it was in its natural habitat, there would be the warm, moist conditions
17:54that would soften it and allow the seed to eventually germinate.
17:57But as always, us gardeners have a few tricks up our sleeves.
18:01You can get a bit of sandpaper and you can lightly rub that protective coating.
18:06The easiest way to do it is just put the seeds in a bowl of water for 24 hours and that'll
18:10soften it.
18:11And if you have larger seeds, well, you could get your knife and you can just do the tiniest
18:15of wee nicks and that'll hopefully help aid the germination process.
18:20So there we go.
18:21I think autumn's a magical time of year, especially when it comes to seed sowing.
18:26Seed sowing after all isn't sowing seed the purest form of gardening, but tell you what,
18:30just make sure you leave some for the birds.
18:41Three weeks ago, we built my hotbed and remember the hotbed is going to help us extend the
18:46growing season into the autumn and the winter and that's because we put horse manure in
18:50here and as that starts to break down and ferment, it's going to generate heat.
18:54And I'm going to be planting directly into this.
18:57So what we've done is remember the first three colours was full of the horse manure and then
19:02the top colour is our growing medium.
19:04And what that is, is 50% topsoil, 50% compost.
19:09We just put it out on a big tarpaulin, mixed it in and then filled it into the top pallet
19:14collar.
19:15And we're going to be planting some cabbage plants in here, lettuce plants and sowing
19:19some seed as well.
19:20So we're going to sow some radish, spring onions and spinach.
19:24I'm not just going to be planting in the hotbed.
19:27I'm also doing it either side of it, the same varieties and also outside.
19:32And as we go to harvest, we'll do some comparisons and see how each area is done.
19:37I expect the hotbed will perform the best due to the horse manure generating that heat
19:44followed by either side of it because of the added benefit of the polytunnel.
19:50And we'll see how outside does depending on what kind of winter we've got.
19:55But with our cabbages, the variety is winter cabbage.
20:01You may see that I've been a bit cheeky and I'm going to squeeze an extra one in.
20:04I'm going to put a fourth plant in.
20:06If we do feel that they're getting a bit crammed, well we'll maybe just take the centre ones
20:11out and allow the outer ones to grow.
20:14The lettuce we're growing, the green variety, is all year round.
20:18With the red variety being little red salad bowl.
20:22Now we've got a trusted bit of wood here and I'm just going to put that in and that's going
20:27to help me get a nice straight line for the radish.
20:30So we'll just take our hand, take out the drill.
20:36Not too deep, maybe about an inch or so, no any bigger.
20:41And the variety is ruddy.
20:43And if we sowed this in the summer, we'd maybe get a harvest within 40 days.
20:48With this planted at this time of year, probably it's going to be closer to 60 days.
20:54Just very thinly put this, save us thinning it out.
20:59And who knows, because we've got some seed left over, we may be able to do a second sowing
21:04once we've harvested this lot.
21:07There we go, so we'll just brush the soil back and then make sure we get good seed to soil contact.
21:18And then something else we are going to sow in here is spring onions.
21:23The variety is Performa, we'll put these in.
21:27So this will be very thinly.
21:29And you can sow this variety from October right through to February.
21:34So there's not much, but there's enough for a wee row.
21:47And then I'll put a wee row of spinach in here as well once I get these buckets moved.
21:51Now of course, we then need to water this in.
21:55So what we've done is we've left the watering can full of water in here for 24 hours.
22:02That's allowed this to heat up and be the same temperature as the polytunnel.
22:06Because if I just went to the cold tap right now, the water would be freezing cold
22:10and the plants wouldn't benefit from it.
22:12And I've said it before, I'm not really a big fan of a cold shower, neither will your plants.
22:17And because we're growing in a hotbed, it really defeats the purpose because it will cool it down.
22:21So after every watering, go and fill up your watering can with water.
22:27Then it'll warm up and it won't shock and freeze the plants.
22:34Now, if you didn't want to build a hotbed right now, but you think, ah, maybe do it next year.
22:39Well, what to do, maybe in February time, just fill all your pallet collars up with manure
22:45and then you could use it as a propagating bench.
22:47You won't need to go out and buy a heated propagator, which will use electricity.
22:51This will be the perfect conditions for starting off your seedlings February, March time next year.
22:56But what we'll definitely do is, is when we're finished with this, we'll empty all the manure out
23:01and then we could use it around the garden as a mulch.
23:03So we're going to get a second use of the manure.
23:14We're having an absolute bumper crop of beetroot this year, but we can't eat them all in one go.
23:19So we're going to store them in a traditional way, using sand.
23:23We've got this nice one here. It's a dark, deep purple. The variety is Rhonda.
23:27But I must admit, I like this variety here. It's a nice orange one and it's called Goldeneye.
23:32Now, when you go to store your beetroot, you have to be really careful you don't take any nicks out of the root
23:39or the main beetroot itself.
23:40So we're just using a hand fork here.
23:43We're going to go in there, hold some of the foliage and then just tease it out nice and gentle and give it a good shake.
23:51Now, when you're storing them, this is the perfect size, sort of between a golf ball and a tennis ball.
23:56You don't want them past maturity. Also, you want to get this done before the first frost.
24:01We're only needing about half the foliage and you don't want to cut beetroot foliage
24:06because it's known for bleeding.
24:07And wear gloves because it can go all over your hands and stain them and your clothes.
24:12But if you twist the foliage, they don't bleed as much.
24:16You don't want to wash the beetroot, but you do want to get the soil off as much as you can.
24:21So just use your fingers and clean it off.
24:24Don't cut the root off because that's a way of decay happening, pests and diseases entering
24:29and the beetroot will start to rot and you're not wanting that.
24:32Now, you don't just need to use this method for beetroot.
24:35You can also use it for carrots as long as you don't have carrot root fly.
24:39We're just going to store them in a nice big pot.
24:42It's important that it has drainage holes in the bottom because you don't want this to be soaking wet
24:46to let the water drain away.
24:48But we have lined it with an old compost bag in the bottom, but I've burst a couple of holes in there.
24:53So we'll just put some sand in the bottom.
24:57It's important that the sand's not soaking wet, but it is moist
25:02because that will retain the moisture in the beetroot and stop it shriveling up.
25:08There we go.
25:10Then we'll just put our beetroot in.
25:13Now, you want to kind of put them in at a bit of an angle so the roots are facing down and inwards.
25:20You don't want the beetroots to touch because if one does rot,
25:25if it's touching, it'll affect them all.
25:27But if it's not touching, there's spaces in between them, then it'll be fine.
25:31Then once you've got a nice layer in there, just cover them all with more sand.
25:42Just until you don't see the beetroots or the foliage anymore.
25:53Then you can just start the next layer.
25:55When we put more layers in, we want to make sure that the beetroots don't touch.
26:00When we put more layers in, we'll just keep adding sand.
26:03The final layer will be another layer of sand.
26:06We'll then take this down to a dark, cool, dry place.
26:10We're going to use our potting shed.
26:12We are, though, going to put some mesh on the bottom and the top.
26:15Just if we didn't do that, the mice would have an absolute field day.
26:19Then, during the winter, as we need beetroot, we'll come into the potting shed,
26:23take away the layers and take out some fresh beetroot.
26:30Well, Callum, that's it from us for the day.
26:32But, George, aren't these hydrangeas beautiful?
26:34They're like wee clouds.
26:35They are. I mean, these are massive heads.
26:37Look at that.
26:38This is Hydrangea paniculata limelight,
26:40and it's one of these ones which is, well, very rarely damaged by the weather,
26:44as we can see.
26:45But the other thing is, this is one I like,
26:47because you can prune it hard,
26:49and the harder you prune it, the bigger the flowers.
26:51So I must have been at this one before.
26:54Well, sadly, next time, we'll be back.
26:56I must have been at this one before.
26:58Well, sadly, next week is the last programme of the series.
27:01I can't believe six months has passed since our first programme of the year.
27:04Yeah.
27:05Caroline and I will be here next week,
27:07and we'll be going over the 2024 series of gardening that we've done.
27:11And we'll also be giving you some hints and tips to make your garden winter-ready.
27:16Now, Beechgrove may be coming to an end for this year,
27:18but not to worry, click over onto the BBC iPlayer,
27:21type in Beechgrove, and up will pop it.
27:25So, from the pair of us, for now, bye-bye.
27:28Bye. Happy gardening.
27:54Happy gardening.