Gardeners World 2025 episode 5
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hello, and welcome to Gardener's World.
00:30Would you believe me if I told you this is our fourth year in this garden?
00:36And if I go back to when we moved in, the soil, in general, was absolutely lifeless, no worms, just felt dead.
00:46So I've mulched and mulched and mulched for those first three years, until last year the herbaceous perennials all got slightly taller than they should have done, full of nitrogen.
00:58So a little bit soft.
01:00So this year, I'm backing off.
01:02All those areas that contain herbaceous perennials, I'm not going to mulch.
01:07But, things like my shrubs, so this, Cotinus cogria, my roses, my trees, they're all going to be mulched.
01:14That'll do, keep the weeds down, lock in moisture, but at the same time, it'll give that plant some goodness.
01:21So what I've done is actually put about 50ml of well-rotted manure, but what you want to do is not put it too close in around those stems.
01:31Because if you start to build soil and compost in around any wooded stem, you'll start to rot the plant.
01:38I've got plenty of this to get on with, but why I'm doing that is what's coming up on today's programme.
01:46Rachel is in the West Country, enjoying the glory of Magnolias.
01:52If you've got a small garden where you can let the tree go skyward, but it's confined in terms of the space around it, this could be a perfect solution.
02:01We are off to Northampton to meet a couple who have worked wonders with their back garden.
02:09What we've created here is a mini rainforest.
02:12Adverley takes a tour of an English landscape garden.
02:17That still has the power to amaze.
02:20The first wonder you encounter is this, the crystal grotto.
02:26We're off to Cornwall to meet a man who has fallen head over heels for Crocosmia and knows a thing or two about growing them.
02:37If you put a bright red Crocosmia or yellow one at the end of the garden, your eye is drawn right the way down to it.
02:44Plus, I have someone special to introduce you to.
02:56Right, we're going to have a little walk around the garden just to explain the layout.
03:14You come in the front gate, you come up these series of gravel steps.
03:18This side, you've got this sort of mini meadow with pear trees dotting through at the moment, full of bulbs.
03:25So interestingly, we have big space at the front, but, you know, we do go onto the road.
03:32So it wasn't necessarily a space you come and sit in.
03:35So for me, this was always going to be the veg garden.
03:38But I wanted interest throughout the year.
03:40So it's very much set up as an ornamental kitchen garden.
03:43So all the time when you're looking out the windows, you've got something to enjoy and look at.
03:48So now we're going around the back.
03:52So as you go in, you've got this tiny sort of little secret courtyard, but it's all driven by green.
03:59So it gets cooler, calmer. There's not much in the way of colour.
04:03At the moment, the tree ferns are all cut and folded in themselves just to protect them.
04:09We can now wander around to the back.
04:12And the back really is very much built in layers.
04:15So when you're down on that bottom terrace, you're 2.5 metres lower than you are when you get up to the greenhouse.
04:22But it's quite a wide garden. So you've got these sort of series of rectangles.
04:27This is the main sort of social family area.
04:30My little unkept lawn with the mowing around.
04:34Seating at one end and my office and the outside kitchen there.
04:39So you've got wit.
04:41So as we go up that archway coming off the garage, it just sort of breaks the space again and draws you through.
04:47And now we're up into the gravel garden.
04:50And I think with gravel garden, well, instantly look, I'm back out in the sun.
04:55So if you imagine again in the summer, this beautiful place to sit, we lower the seating so you're in the planting.
05:02And then you've got this big border that goes all the way round.
05:06And that makes this area feel really quite intimate.
05:11When you're moving from area to area, not just thinking about how you want it to look, but how you want it to feel.
05:18If I take you back to the front gate, you go from the meadow and then that working garden, getting your hands in the soil, how good it is for you.
05:26Come around the side, it's quiet, it's peaceful.
05:29Then you come onto the main terrace, you're starting to liven it up.
05:32It's family. Next one up, it's social space, weekends, cooking, being together.
05:38And then as you get up the garden, it just becomes slightly more peaceful.
05:54Do you want to go on there?
05:58Good boy, good boy.
06:02Right, pruning this elder, which is Sambucus nigra thundercloud.
06:09Incredibly wonderful, dark foliage, flower that appears sort of deep red to start with, softens off as a pink and then later on in the year, you get the berries.
06:20So as far as pruning it, you could cut it hard back to the ground if you just wanted foliage.
06:26But as you can see, I've got flowers starting to form, so they form on last year's growth.
06:32So I'm going to try and get a balance between keeping some of the flower against creating new foliage.
06:38You read about this, it would tell you that it grows up to four metres.
06:43And if you've got a smaller garden, you say, well, I can't grow that.
06:46But because you can quite brutally prune, you could buy something like this.
06:51So what I'm going to do is just going to start to reduce some of these, which is losing some flower, but keeping others.
07:00And again, you know, it's now growing.
07:03A lot of the time it will tell you, you know, to do this pruning through its dormant period.
07:09But because they are tough as old boots, I will get away with it.
07:14And remember, it's not just, you know, things like these elders you can do it with.
07:19You could look at things like the dogwoods.
07:22I mean, over there I've got a cotinus, the salixis, so the willows, even some of the eucalyptus.
07:29And, you know, and other shrubs will very much take that pruning.
07:33So if you're down the garden centre and you're looking for a particular shrub for a particular look,
07:39and it says it grows to a certain size, just do a little bit of research because you might well find that you can prune and simplify.
07:48So what I've done is taken the crossing branches out of the middle.
07:53Then what I've done is tried to create a framework.
07:56And then when you're pruning, I'm cutting literally just above those buds.
08:02Right, I've got a bit of clearing up to do.
08:05But while I'm doing that, we're off to Yunkers Nursery in Somerset,
08:10where Rachel is enjoying some spring colour.
08:18At this time of year, it's lovely to see buds on trees and the odd green leaf peeping through.
08:27But some trees go really bold right from the start,
08:31and amongst this sea of bare branches, there's suddenly masses of colour, like magnolias.
08:43Most magnolias flower early in the year, before their leaves appear, and create this beautiful blast of colour.
08:53Older varieties of magnolia were often huge, much too big really, for the average garden.
09:00But more recently, cultivars have been developed that are not only smaller,
09:05they come in a welter of beautiful colours.
09:08Their flowers range in shape, too, from the globe, to strappy petals, and even one known as a cup and saucer.
09:22Toast and Yonker grew up in this family business, which grows and propagates all its shrubs and trees on site, from scratch.
09:33And there's also two acres where they trial and display many fabulous magnolia varieties.
09:39What do you think it is that you feel makes magnolias so special?
09:48Well, they have a wonderfully long period of interest.
09:51Even before the flowers open, you have the buds, which have a fantastic presence,
09:55whether it's with frost on them, the sun through them, or raindrops on them.
10:00You have a good range of structures as well, whether it's more narrow and upright or more broad and horizontal.
10:07Lots going for them. Yes, indeed.
10:12The old magnolias can take more than 15 years to flower well, but the modern varieties are much quicker.
10:22I'm really struck by the number of buds and open flowers on this particular one.
10:29And the buds, they're really everywhere, right along the length of the stem.
10:33It's a key feature of the newer hybrids, is to ensure that you do get all of these flowers all the way through the structure,
10:40as opposed to just at the tips, like on some of the older species, where the flowers can often end up just on the perimeter of the growing area.
10:48Yes. Because they're really right at the top, aren't they? So you can't see them, you can't enjoy them up there.
10:53Whereas this one is absolutely magnificent, and I know which one I'd rather have.
11:00I'm so impressed with this.
11:01The sheer amount of buds on these new trees also means that if frost hits, it's less disastrous.
11:13Most of these hybrids have flowers that open in succession.
11:16If the first flowers get caught by a frost, there's usually another flush that will follow on.
11:20That's brilliant, isn't it? So you're going to get that display no matter what?
11:23Hopefully, yes.
11:28When it comes to planting, magnolias like moisture-retentive soil at their roots all year round.
11:34And though some prefer more acid soils, others can manage without.
11:39I would dearly love to plant a magnolia at home, but I'm in the Cotswolds on limestone, so I've always been a little bit cautious.
11:50But is there something that I could grow when it's a bit alkaline?
11:54Well, the magnolia cobus, this one is cobus Wisley star, and the closely related magnolia stellata,
12:00are the most tolerant of slightly alkaline conditions.
12:03It is really beautiful, and I'm tempted, but would I be pushing it too far if I went for, you know, one of the really dark, sumptuous ones with the goblet-shaped flowers?
12:16They are less tolerant, generally, but there are things you can do to improve that.
12:20So the addition of a good quality topsoil, preferably slightly acidic, dug into the surrounding area, creating a slight mound of good quality soil.
12:29And the soil structure is often more important in this sort of scenario than the specific acidity, as long as it isn't too extreme.
12:36OK, so it's a possibility?
12:38It's a possibility.
12:39Now you've got me thinking.
12:41Yonkers plant all their magnolias fairly high in a gently raised bed or mound like an upturned saucer of topsoil and mulch.
12:54It lifts them up out of the wet and holds the moisture in.
12:58As well as bringing in new colours, the hybrids come in a greater variety of shapes and sizes.
13:13This beauty is starbright.
13:15It was planted ten years ago, and as you can see, it's really nice and compact, got a lovely branching shape, and very definitely a shrub and not a tree.
13:25And I think with the combination of these lovely velvety buds opening to these small but starry white flowers, it's not only really useful, it's stunning.
13:39Yellow magnolias tend to be later flowering, so the buds are just showing.
13:45But gosh, there are some purple beauties.
13:50Now this one, I think, is very special.
13:52It's called Royal Purple, and it's fastidiate.
13:55Like a column, it just goes straight up.
13:58But what I love about it is that you've got flowers right from the very base.
14:03Look, there's stems just coming out at all angles.
14:05There's sort of in whirls arranged around the trunk, so it's got masses of flower on it.
14:11I think this is a perfect choice.
14:13If you've got a small garden where you can let the tree go skyward, but it's confined in terms of the space around it, this could be the perfect solution.
14:23Amazingly, some magnolia flowers are so sensitive to weather, they can open with a slightly different shade to their neighbours, even on the same tree.
14:48And some are just downright magnificent.
15:02Meet Anne Leichner.
15:04Isn't she a beauty?
15:05And I must say, I'm really drawn to these very sumptuous, velvety, dark, plummy pinks.
15:11So beautiful.
15:13But I've been blown away by the range of different magnolias here.
15:17It's so impressive.
15:19And I'm now feeling much braver about trying a magnolia in my own garden.
15:24Because when I look into the heart of this flower, it just says, love.
15:43I thought that was absolutely glorious.
16:01And do we not all need a magnolia moment?
16:05And there you go.
16:06That's mine.
16:07Magnolia Merrill.
16:09And I'm exactly the same as Rachel.
16:11So very alkaline soil.
16:13But that is really happy.
16:14So what I would suggest, if you want to add a magnolia, go out and test your soil.
16:19Buy yourself a little kit and find out whether you've got acid or alkaline soil.
16:23It's a good time of year, if you've got a water feature, to give it a check over and a clean up.
16:34Two years ago, I created this lovely little focal point.
16:37And it's a really simple tub.
16:39And it's been an absolute joy.
16:41So first thing, check that you've got no little tag poles about or anything like that.
16:46But what I'm going to do is start to clean this out.
16:50And if I use this old sieve, I can leave this.
16:54So any little creepy crawlies will go back into the pond.
16:59And we're not just doing this purely because it looks better.
17:04You can more or less feel it straight away.
17:06You know, this stuff is starting to rot down.
17:09And what will happen, as it rots, it starts to change the nutrient levels in the water,
17:17which then starts to go green.
17:20So let's put that over there.
17:22And then we can clean this right out.
17:26If you are thinking about building the water feature,
17:30I mean, the key elements really, you've got the marginal plants.
17:33So here I've got a little rush and marsh marigold, beautiful yellow flower.
17:38They act as habitat.
17:39Anything that comes out the water can hide itself in there.
17:43And the dwarf water lily that sits in here covers probably about 50% of that surface.
17:49That helps to control the temperature.
17:51And then somewhere in here, you've got the oxygenating plant.
17:55It provides oxygen, which helps keep that water balanced.
18:01So I did say I had a surprise for you.
18:05Come round here, young man.
18:06Let's go and say hello properly.
18:08There you go.
18:09Look, say hello to the people.
18:10Hello.
18:11Hello.
18:12So, my name's Buster.
18:13I am a miniature Jack Russell.
18:16He's settled in.
18:17Don't need to worry.
18:18Ash is still the boss.
18:19But he's great fun.
18:21And he's chilled.
18:22He spends loads of time in the garden.
18:24So I would imagine, over this season, you will see plenty more of him.
18:29Right, we're going to clean this out, boy.
18:32Remember, not just about cleaning out this time of year.
18:35If you haven't got water in the garden, it's a good time to think about adding it.
18:41And, as this proves, you don't need a lot of room.
18:48We are now off to meet a couple that have taken water gardening to another level.
19:04We would never in a million years think, when you approach the house from the front, that
19:09this is what we have at the back.
19:13This garden is a chill-out space, an unwinding place where I can be myself and completely be
19:22at one with the space.
19:27I'm Joe.
19:28And I'm Linda.
19:29And this is our beautiful home where we live with Baby Django in Northampton.
19:35Linda was studying in Colombia.
19:37And we went and lived there for a while.
19:39We also travelled Malaysia, Borneo, quite a bit of South America.
19:43And we got huge inspiration for the rainforest.
19:46And we decided we wanted to come back to the UK and recreate that.
19:57When we first moved into this house, it was a dumping ground.
20:07So, if I had known what it was going to be, I think I would have said to Joe that it's crazy.
20:13That's just something that we could, A, never create, B, it would be such a long journey.
20:18Which, I think it was a long journey, but I would not change it for anything because it is so unique.
20:24I'm lucky enough to build ponds for a living.
20:29I absolutely love it.
20:30I don't even call it a job.
20:32So, with the knowledge I've gained through all of my research, I decided now it's our turn.
20:40What we've created here is a mini rainforest.
20:43We've put in tall trees.
20:45We've put in bamboos.
20:46We've created a lot of height within the space.
20:49And what that's done is it's enveloped us with foliage.
20:52Spanning right across the garden.
20:55Probably the majority of the garden is water.
20:58We started to build the pond by excavating.
21:02So, we shelved the area out.
21:04We've then put an underlay in.
21:07We've covered that with a liner.
21:10And then we've put an overlay in to protect the liner from the rock.
21:14So, if you build your pond in the rainy season, then you can wait for the rain to fill it up naturally.
21:21Or you can use water collected in your water baths.
21:24The reason for using rain water is that tap water contains chlorine.
21:29And that will kill off beneficial bacteria within the pond.
21:36Behind us is mostly in shade.
21:38So, we have put plants that love shade and do well in shade.
21:42We have some brunnera jack frosts.
21:45We also have fat tears and they are great because they are evergreen.
21:49So, they give interest in the winter as well.
21:52We also have some palm trees and a tree fern which we rescued because someone was throwing it out.
21:59So, we managed to bring it back to life.
22:01So, we're really proud of that tree fern because it's a really old one.
22:05And it's quite an unusual variety.
22:07It's a Dixonia fibrosa.
22:09There's not that many of them about.
22:11Very special.
22:22So, what we've tried to create here is basically a little jungle stream coming out from underneath the foliage.
22:28And how we've enhanced this area is by basically putting in small and large leaves contrasting each other.
22:35So, you get the effect there of a jungle scene.
22:39We've used these Tetrapanax papyrifera rex.
22:43Large leaf plants that give that sort of statement.
22:46We've also used many little ferns and eucomus there for the tropical look.
22:53Since I've put this pond in, I've seen a massive increase in the wildlife that we've got.
22:59Birdlife, amphibians, invertebrates, they've all come and made this place home.
23:05This is my little Balinese sanctuary.
23:17To my right here, I've got the Japanese water feature that I made.
23:22So, this is an antique cauldron with some bamboo poles.
23:28A little pump in there that just constantly recirculates the water.
23:32This is cheap to make, easy to buy and will fit into any small space like a balcony.
23:39It's a wonderful thing for a small garden.
23:45I suffer with anxiety and I find that that is a place where I can really just calm down, be myself and get away from it all.
23:55I am very passionate about inspiring anybody to have water in their space.
23:59It's amazing for wildlife and it adds a completely new element to people's spaces.
24:05And it's a beautiful thing that he's getting our baby Django into as well.
24:11This garden wouldn't be what it is without your planting and your knowledge of the plants.
24:16Which is, I think, for that reason, we make a really good team.
24:19Yeah, definitely.
24:20Linda, Joe, wow. You have created some garden.
24:39But also, the fact that, yes, it looks very tropical, but not all of those plants were.
24:45Some good, really hard-working herbaceous plants, but thinking very much about shape and form.
24:53Talking of tropicals or the tender plants that we have tucked away for the winter,
24:59we're getting very close to that time of year when we need to go and check how things have got on.
25:04So, September, October time, anything that I think is tender comes in.
25:16And then I've put this fleece over the top.
25:18So there's no heat in here whatsoever.
25:20So everything you're about to see has dealt with the winter with a little bit of protection.
25:25So, here we go.
25:27A couple of years ago, during that really cold winter, I lost all the Aeoniums
25:32and I started growing a lot more of the Echeveria.
25:36And then I've got into cacti.
25:39And I tell you what, I tell you what...
25:43Overall, I would say I'm happy.
25:50So, let's now do the top.
25:53And I think with this, the fleece, what it's done is helped with any condensation build-up over the winter.
25:59And we have gone down to literally minus 15, minus 16.
26:08So I think we've got through the winter pretty unscathed.
26:12Oh, and look, you need to see this.
26:15I'm going to pick it up.
26:19Look at that.
26:20That's known as the Mount Omi Busy Lizzy.
26:25Last year, I planted it.
26:27And I was a little bit concerned about it, but it's done incredibly well.
26:32Great.
26:35But then, interesting, look, the Melianthus that some people further down south would leave out,
26:40looks like it's had a bit of a Mullerin.
26:43So anything like this that you come across,
26:46rather than just think, oh, that's the end of it,
26:49let's take the secateurs and just go down the stem.
26:54Just see if there's any green.
26:55Yeah, that's fine.
26:57Which means there's life in there.
26:58So what I'll do now is I'll clear away the rest of this growth,
27:02leave it in here, and you'll find, I would have thought, in the next few weeks,
27:07this will start to shoot.
27:15So let's get some of these Echeveria out.
27:19So what I'm going to do with the Echeveria is put them back against the south-facing wall,
27:24out of the rain, keeping them as dry as possible.
27:26But I will keep some fleece to hand just in case we have another cold snap.
27:32But by getting those out, it creates me a little bit of room
27:36and I can start sowing some seeds.
27:38So, earlier on I was talking about that idea of an ornamental kitchen.
27:56So here, I can really explain it in detail.
28:12Think about building in layers.
28:14So first of all, two apple trees.
28:16And they've got things like the currants and the gooseberries.
28:19There's some soft fruits, there's some strawberries that work their way around the edges.
28:22And if you go down another layer, there's herbs all the way through the space.
28:28Rhubarb pops up in two or three places.
28:31Then you've got the daffs.
28:32They provide that spring colour, cut for the house.
28:35And then later on in the year, the dahlias just work their way through.
28:40So then that just leaves me with voids that I can put the annual veg in.
28:44And today, we are going to put brassicas in that little spot there.
28:50But what do they need?
28:52Oh, they need good, rich soil.
28:56So, if you haven't done it six months before, you need to work some compost,
29:01well-rotted manure into the area.
29:03Brassicas like to go into a firm soil, so the next thing is to get on there
29:14and really start to firm it all down again.
29:22Purple sprouting broccoli.
29:24If you're impatient, like me, I can't wait eight months.
29:29And then by the time I've grown it, I've shared it with slugs, pigeons,
29:33so I don't normally grow it.
29:35But this is called broccoli summer purple.
29:40And you can plant it now and you will get a crop this summer.
29:45So, actually, for the ornamental kitchen garden, they're absolutely fantastic.
29:50So, when it comes to planting, that firm soil is incredibly important.
29:54They don't want to rock around.
29:56Ideally, you want to bury it right up to the bottom of those first true leaves.
30:02Firm it down.
30:05I'm going to put three in here.
30:06You'd normally think two foot apart, which is 60 centimetres.
30:09I'm probably going to go 45 centimetres at the most.
30:15All we want to do now is cross those over.
30:34Hopefully, that will keep my resident pigeons off.
30:39And we're just going to water them in now.
30:41And then through the season, I'll give them a general fertiliser.
30:44I'll put some supports in, net them over.
30:47But things like the currents and the tree will just give them that extra bit of protection.
30:57Now, it's time for one of your films.
31:00Hello, welcome to my garden.
31:09My name is Helen Brown and I live in a little town called Clun in southwest Shropshire.
31:15Today, I'd like to share with you my passion for camellias.
31:19I've loved them ever since I grew them in Devon.
31:22They grow like weeds there.
31:23But here in my tiny town garden, I grow them in pots, which is great because you can just pack them in.
31:31The real beauty of having everything in pots means that you can move things around and shuffle them to suit yourself.
31:38So, as my camellias fade, so I can bring around the roses and the peonies and the lilies, which will give me scent and colour and blooms right through the summer season until the camellias start again, which will be in next November.
31:54They aren't difficult at all. People think they're difficult, but they're not.
32:00They do have very special requirements.
32:03They have to have either acid soil or ericaceous compost, otherwise they will die.
32:09They also require plenty of rainwater and they require feeding on a regular basis through the summer months.
32:17If you can do that, they will flower for you for absolute years and bring you loads of pleasure.
32:24Many of them have wonderful names.
32:28Here we have Desire, which is beautifully marked.
32:33Behind it, and in with the Cherry Blossom, is Anticipation.
32:40This one's called Lady Lock. It really is one of my absolute favourites.
32:44Here I have a beautiful bowl of ones that I'd picked earlier, all from my garden, all cut this morning.
32:51You can see I have mixed in er, just a few little hellebores.
32:57Thank you for visiting. Bye.
33:00Helen, thank you very much.
33:15Mind you, you left me thinking, yeah, I wish I could grow them but my soil is alkaline.
33:23If you want to share with us what you're growing, your garden, keep sending us your films.
33:29If you want any more information on how to do it, go and have a look on the website.
33:34Right. Mint. I grow all of mine in containers, but you end up with more or less a dead centre.
33:43But as you turn your pot out, you will find that, yeah, exactly that.
33:48Look, all the roots have gone out to the edge and then they start going around in a circle.
33:53And then however much water you're putting on through the season, your pot dries really quickly.
33:59Your roots are always struggling for the moisture.
34:01So this time of year, before it really gets going, simple thing to do, take a spade.
34:08And all I'm going to do now is cut that through.
34:12Now I've got two mints.
34:16And then if you look like I've got all that new, wonderful roots.
34:21So if I bring that pot over, mix-wise, there is peat-free compost.
34:28I've put a little bit of composted bark in just to help hold some moisture.
34:33And there's some grit in there as well.
34:36Then if I pick that plant up, you can probably see where that dead centre sits.
34:42So just tidy that back to live roots.
34:45And then I'm just going to give it a little bit of a shake.
34:50Now what I'm going to do is slightly fold that back on itself.
34:55Spread those roots out a little bit.
34:59And work that compost in between.
35:03So you're getting really good contact.
35:06If I water that in a few weeks' time, that will be really putting on vigorous growth.
35:12I think the last thing with mint is just to not necessarily think about it the same as we do with a lot of our other herbs,
35:18which we think Mediterranean, out in the sunshine, baking.
35:22Whereas this would be probably in a semi-shady spot.
35:25It's not going to get too much sun, not going to dry out.
35:28So, all I've got to do now is get the other one done.
35:34Now, we're off to join Adverley, who is celebrating our English garden heritage.
35:55English landscape garden is a fundamental part of garden history.
36:01The sweeping romantic style so familiar in Britain's grand country houses has gone on to influence garden designs across the world.
36:12And here at Paynes Hill Park in Surrey, the beautifully restored garden created by the Honourable Charles Hamilton,
36:20is one of the leading designed landscapes in the country.
36:26Hamilton was born to an aristocratic family in 1704, one of 14 children and the youngest son.
36:34He had expensive tastes, but perhaps not the deep pockets to match.
36:39But that didn't stop his ambitions.
36:42As a young man, he'd set off on the 18th century version of the gap year, the Grand Tour,
36:49travelling around Europe, learning about different cultures.
36:57He returned to England with trunks full of statues and paintings,
37:02with a plan to recreate the landscapes that he had seen in Italy.
37:06In 1738, he bought the land that would become Paynes Hill.
37:13It was described at the time as a most cursed hill.
37:17But Hamilton was determined to turn it into a paradise.
37:22It was based on a circular route and full of surprises.
37:27Around every corner there was a statue or a building in the distance designed to pull the visitor forward.
37:40The journey starts here, at the Gothic temple.
37:43It may look like solid stone, but to save money, he actually used wood and plaster.
37:56But real or not, the views from it are spectacular.
38:00Water was an essential part of 18th century gardens.
38:09Lakes like this made a garden seem part of the landscape,
38:13while also showing the designers' control over nature.
38:17And Hamilton spent a small fortune finding ways to cleverly pump water around.
38:23Also, the design means that you never see it all at once.
38:29The Serpentine Lake winds behind trees and hillsides,
38:34encouraging you to discover what's on the other side.
38:38As you follow Hamilton's route, the first wonder you encounter is this, the Crystal Grotto.
38:58Hamilton was inspired by the grottos he had seen in Italy,
39:02which legend said were home to gods and nymphs.
39:06And here, it does immediately feel like another world.
39:12Again, this is pure artifice.
39:15The roof is made of wood and brick,
39:18and every surface is covered in over two million hand-laid crystals.
39:26The effect is breathtaking.
39:29It was the ultimate status symbol for a cultured man like Hamilton.
39:36This is the hermitage, buried deep in the wood.
39:39It was meant to evoke a sense of remote wilderness.
39:41And to make it even more authentic,
39:42Hamilton employed a genuine hermit.
39:45Hamilton employed a man called Mr Remington to live here under very strict rules.
39:51He couldn't cut his hair or his fingernails.
39:52Hamilton employed a man called Mr Remington to live here under very strict rules.
39:54He couldn't cut his hair or his fingernails.
39:56He was only allowed the Bible to read, and he couldn't leave the gardens.
40:03All for 700 guineas at the end of seven years, an enormous sum at the time.
40:10Unsurprisingly, Mr Remington did not complete his contract.
40:13After three weeks, he was supposedly a man called Mr Remington to live here under very strict rules.
40:17He couldn't cut his hair or his fingernails.
40:19He was only allowed the Bible to read, and he couldn't leave the gardens.
40:23All for 700 guineas at the end of seven years, an enormous sum at the time.
40:33Unsurprisingly, Mr Remington did not complete his contract.
40:37After three weeks, he was supposedly found in the pub and given the sack.
40:53As the visitors finished their walk, they were greeted with one final surprise.
41:03The Turkish tent.
41:07Built of wood and papier-mâché in 1760, visitors would sit here and enjoy refreshments,
41:14looking back over the route that they'd taken.
41:19This was Hamilton's favourite view.
41:21He actually planned to build a new house here so that he could enjoy the view from the comfort of his living room.
41:32During its heyday in the 18th century, Paynes Hill welcomed distinguished visitors from around the world.
41:39Nobles, royals and even two future American presidents.
41:45But this labour of love would go on to bankrupt its creator.
41:49By 1773, Hamilton was so deeply in debt, he had to sell Paynes Hill.
41:56After the Second World War, the site fell into disrepair until the 1980s, when the garden was put into a trust and painstakingly brought back to life.
42:07Looking across this landscape, now fully restored to its former glory, you can see why the English landscape garden became famous the world over.
42:20By living beyond his means, Charles Hamilton created a kind of heaven on earth.
42:29A priceless garden, it may have cost its designer dearly, but we're now forever in his debt.
42:35I like that idea of being a hermit, but I'm really not sure about cutting my nails for seven years.
42:54Right, I've grown some species tulips.
42:58So this is tulipa sylvestris.
43:01Incredibly beautiful yellow flower that hangs like a bell.
43:08Grows to about 15, 16 centimetres flowers March into April, depending on the season.
43:20My nickname for it is wet knees.
43:22Reason being, I used to grow it in this meadow and I would be drawn to the scent.
43:27You have to get down and really breed it in because you'd get up because it was spring and you'd have wet knees.
43:32And as far as sort of species tulips are concerned, these were the ones that were growing in the wild.
43:37So everything that's been bred has come ultimately from those species tulips.
43:42And I think with me, I've gone full circle and I'm back to so many of those simple plants.
43:48But why am I growing them in containers? Why not just put them out in the garden?
43:53Well, over the last five, six years, our winters have been unpredictable.
43:58So what I do is buy them, containerise them, probably about September time.
44:03And then I control the conditions.
44:04So these have been back against the hedge out the front there, let them grow on.
44:09It just means that they're not dealing with those wet conditions.
44:12So let's start to dig a hole.
44:14The good thing about this now, yeah, they might look a little bit leaky,
44:19but it's got a root system on it, you know, not huge, but it's a whey.
44:24So if I now put that in, that's got the rest of the season to get itself settled in,
44:32deal with the winter.
44:34And the success rate, the moment I've started containerising stuff,
44:39has gone through the roof.
44:41Absolutely brilliant now.
44:43Sunny conditions, heart shade.
44:48Depth-wise, when I'm planting these in, I'm putting, I suppose, the bulb
44:54about another five, six centimetres into the ground,
44:59just covering up the lighter foliage, really.
45:03And they'll seed about, they'll clump up.
45:05And I think that's the great thing about the species tulips,
45:10instead of the bred tulips, is these are only going to get better.
45:14Whereas the more bred ones, yes, they're beautiful,
45:17but, you know, they do weaken over time.
45:21So, if you want a little spring colour,
45:27these might be what I'm thinking about.
45:32We're off to Cornwall now to meet a man
45:36that has a huge passion for crocosmia.
45:47When the sun is high in the sky, you need bright colours.
45:51If you put a bright red crocosmia or yellow one at the end of the garden,
45:56your eye is drawn right the way down to it,
45:58and it really does pick it up.
46:00So, I think everybody should have at least one.
46:05My name is Mark Wash, and I live in the beautiful Tamer Valley,
46:08and I have a bit of a love affair with crocosmia,
46:10which are all around me in my garden.
46:16There's only eight different species in the wild,
46:18but there's over 500 hybrids nowadays,
46:21so plenty for everyone, whether it's small or tall
46:24or early flowering or late flowering.
46:26There's one for everyone.
46:28And the colours range from yellow
46:30into all of the different tones of orange
46:32and salmon and apricot,
46:34and then on into the reds, getting into deep reds,
46:37and then you get into bi-coloured ones
46:39and even pinker tones, so there's quite a lot.
46:44So, I guess for many gardeners,
46:45the reference point for crocosmia is this.
46:47This is Montbrescia.
46:49This is the one that jumps the garden fence
46:51and spreads around a lot,
46:52and these are the flowers you'll be familiar with,
46:54but they're so varied.
46:55There are many different aspects.
46:57There are ones like this with small tubular flowers.
47:01This one grows alongside streams in South Africa.
47:04You get arching stems.
47:07This is totally different to the look of Montbrescia.
47:10In fact, this is one of the parents
47:11of the variety called Lucifer that we all know.
47:14Lovely heads, up to 30 flowers on each stem there.
47:18And in the wild, they go even more varied
47:20with these herringbone flowers.
47:22This one here is actually pollinated
47:24by the Malachite sunbird in South Africa,
47:27and each flower is exactly the same length
47:30and curvature of the beak of the bird
47:33so that he can get down there and get the nectar
47:35and do the feeding and do the pollinating at the same time.
47:38So they're really very varied.
47:40Typically, Crocosmia have these lovely sword-shaped leaves
47:44which go alongside them.
47:46Sometimes they're unpleated, like this one.
47:48Sometimes they're deeply pleated and huge.
47:51And sometimes they can even be colours like bronze
47:54and coppery tones, so they vary quite a lot.
47:57So my favourite yellow today would be this wonderful variety
48:09called Lemon Spray.
48:10It's the palest of yellows amongst Crocosmia.
48:13Dainty little flowers and up to 30 blooms
48:16on these stems which arch horizontally.
48:19It's just gorgeous.
48:20I made a number of trips to South Africa
48:26to photograph them all in the wild.
48:28And one of the plants I was looking for was this one.
48:30This is Crocosmia matthusiana.
48:33And I was led to believe it was growing
48:35near the Blyde River Canyon
48:37and local children helped us track it down.
48:39It was growing there on a pool
48:40right near the top of the mountain there
48:42with delicate leaves
48:43and these beautiful sort of tangerine orange flowers
48:46nodding over the water.
48:48We do all this breeding to try and create better plants.
48:51I don't think we can beat nature.
48:53Nature does it best.
48:54This is just beautiful, just arching little flowers.
48:57The whole thing is just dainty and lovely.
49:03So one of my favourite reds of the moment is this one here.
49:06This is one called Bee's Delight
49:09and it's a medium-sized Crocosmia, packed full of flower,
49:13very well behaved, pleated leaves,
49:15a good height and it doesn't spread too much.
49:18This one stays as a nice clump.
49:20So one I really like.
49:32So they come in all sorts of shapes and sizes.
49:34Crocosmia start as low as two foot.
49:37I guess the average is about three foot,
49:39maybe three and a half foot high.
49:41That's when they're in flower.
49:42But look at this one here.
49:43This is Zeal Giant.
49:44I'm six foot two and it's above me
49:47and it's an absolute stonking one.
49:49And what a beauty.
49:55Crocosmia are not difficult to grow.
49:57They like sunshine.
49:58So if you put a Crocosmia in the shade,
50:00you'll get lots of leaf and it will grow,
50:02but you won't get so many flowers.
50:04If you don't have space in the garden,
50:07then choose a pot of a decent size
50:09and make sure there's plenty of love and attention on them.
50:12They will reward you.
50:13They absolutely will give you flower.
50:15And they do like a bit of feed
50:16and that really keeps them on their toes.
50:18Just like many other herbaceous plants,
50:22just divide them every three or four years,
50:25split the clump apart, ideally in the autumn,
50:28replant it and it'll come back to life.
50:30The corm is the swollen base of a stem
50:33and it's only the top ones that are really crucial.
50:36So once you've dug them up,
50:38take off the old flowering stem
50:40and twist off the lower corms
50:44and that's then ready to plant as part of your new clump
50:47and look to set that a good two or three inches down into the ground
50:51when you actually put it back into place
50:53and that will form lots of new growth for the following year
50:57and keep it in flowering.
50:58You can discard these old ones.
50:59They're not really needed.
51:01The other way that they actually increase
51:04is not just by growing on the top, it's by forming stolons
51:07and stolons are little root shoots
51:10that grow off from side to side.
51:12Pull them away, chop them off
51:15and plant them as part of your clump.
51:17It's really very easy.
51:19You can do this in the spring as well
51:21but autumn is my favourite.
51:23I have been breeding them now for around 25 years
51:34and have created varieties here such as this one.
51:36This is Tamar Double Red
51:38which has up to 15 petals per flower
51:41compared with the normal six.
51:42It's Wine Red
51:44and it's got the RHS Award of Garden Merit
51:47and all of these here,
51:48these are also varieties that have been created here in Cornwall
51:51and they all carry good old Cornish names
51:54and Tamar Valley names.
51:55So this one here is Crocosmia Cornish Copper
51:59named after all the copper mines that used to be around here.
52:02This is Crocosmia Tamar Glow
52:04and all the others carry similar names around.
52:06So I hope there's a variety out there
52:08that suits every single garden.
52:10So, talking of summer colour, we've got a rather big family event.
52:32early October
52:35and guess who's been asked to grow the flowers?
52:39Yes.
52:40Me!
52:41So, no pressure.
52:43So what I want to do at the moment is get some scabies going.
52:47It's a hardy annual.
52:49So it will come up, flower, do everything it needs to do
52:53in that first season.
52:55This one's called Black Knight
52:57and grow to about just shy of a metre
52:59but really good long stem on it
53:01so it will cut beautifully.
53:02Really, really dark, maroon, ruby colour.
53:06Which is the colour scheme really,
53:09maybe with a few pops of orange.
53:11There will be lots of dahlias.
53:13Just simple compost.
53:17Peet free.
53:18Give that a couple of taps.
53:21And then what we're going to do
53:24very carefully firm.
53:26Not too much
53:27but you can still see
53:29there's loads of voids left in there.
53:32So, if you get the sieve
53:35put some compost in there.
53:39If I now fill those voids
53:41that contact
53:44when I sow the seed
53:46will be so much
53:48better.
53:50That back down there.
53:53We will just give this
53:55just another
53:56little firm.
54:01And then just to settle it
54:02all we're going to do
54:03is just
54:05give it a water.
54:11Right.
54:12So,
54:14by watering that
54:15that means that
54:16I don't have to water
54:17on top of the seeds.
54:18So you haven't got any chance
54:19of moving around
54:20or going over
54:21to one corner.
54:22I've got a little trick for you.
54:24Because my hands are
54:25mucky
54:26and wet
54:27if I put a load of seed
54:28in my hand
54:29you can guarantee
54:30it will stick to it.
54:32But you just have
54:33a little piece of paper
54:34fold it in half.
54:35And all I need to do now
54:38is just finely sow these.
54:44And then because the seeds
54:46are just a little bit bigger
54:48I am just going to
54:49very slightly
54:50with the dry side
54:51press them in.
54:53Because compost
54:54is quite coarse
54:55I'm just going to
54:56cover this
54:58with a little bit
54:59of vermiculite
55:00and then what that will do
55:01is hold the seeds in place
55:03seeds will not dry out.
55:06These will go
55:07in the greenhouse
55:08once they've germinated
55:09I will prick them out
55:11pot them up
55:12grow them on a little bit
55:13and hopefully
55:14we can have
55:15fantastic flower
55:16that I can cut
55:17for our very
55:18special occasion.
55:30It is that time of year
55:35when the ground
55:36is really starting
55:37to warm up
55:38you can see
55:39around my garden
55:40there's little seedlings
55:41coming up all over
55:42which is a great sign
55:43that you can sow direct
55:45into the ground
55:46especially with a lot
55:47of our hardy annuals
55:48so another thing
55:49that I've got
55:50growing in the garden
55:51is some poppies
55:52which
55:53we're going to use
55:54for the event as well
55:55but the flower will be over
55:56but I love the shape
55:57of the seed heads.
55:58So all I'm going to do
55:59is prep this soil
56:01I've already sort of
56:02dug it over
56:03a little bit
56:04all I'm trying to do
56:05is just create
56:06a little seed bed
56:11and then all I'm going to do
56:12now this is not food
56:14they're poppy seeds
56:15and then all I'm going to do
56:16is just sprinkle those across
56:18really carefully
56:19thinly
56:20across the top there
56:24so
56:25just raking those
56:27into the surface
56:28I'm going to repeat that
56:31in different places
56:32around the garden
56:33but that
56:34is another job
56:35done
56:36but here's some
56:38you could get on with
56:39over the weekend
56:40of course
56:42if you fancy it
56:43if you haven't got around
56:58to planting any shallots yet
57:00there's still time
57:01I've chosen a red skin variety
57:03called red sun
57:04gently push the sets into the soil
57:07so the tips are just covered
57:09just covered
57:10I'm allowing 15 cm between each one
57:13in rows spaced 18 cm apart
57:16keep well weeded
57:17and by July
57:19they'll be ready to harvest
57:21if you're training a rose against a wall or a fence
57:30it's a good idea to tie it in
57:32get rid of any wayward shoots you don't need
57:35then loosely tie in the remainder using soft twine
57:39ideally the branches need to be trained to the horizontal
57:43this will encourage more flowers to develop
57:46but I've got a couple of windows in the way
57:49so I need to go up before I can go along
58:01with some of my herbs
58:02I like to wait until the spring
58:03before giving them a haircut
58:05the old flowers help to provide
58:07an extra layer of protection over the winter
58:10as is the case with this compact form of oregano
58:14they'll look much better as a result
58:17putting on a new flush of growth
58:19as the weather warms up
58:28isn't it lovely
58:29just to spend the day in the garden
58:32with some spring sunshine
58:35that is it from all of us
58:38here
58:39but Monty will be back next week
58:41at Longbeadow at 8pm
58:43so
58:44look after yourselves
58:45bye bye
58:46you