Gardeners World S58E06
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00:00Hello, welcome to Gardener's World, and it's moments like this that justify all the work of
00:19gardening. This is what we garden for, to be able to just take stock on a beautiful spring day
00:25and really enjoy the way that the blossom is appearing daily, and the daffodils are looking
00:33really good. And I'm very happy with the yellow at this time of year, particularly from the daffodil
00:40Avalon, which has got exactly that paleness that I want in this border. There's a Forsythia too,
00:47Forsythia nymans, which is very late, but it's worth waiting for, because again it's got that
00:53soft tone to the yellow. And the colour scheme here on the mound is pale yellow and pale blue.
01:01And I certainly have got the yellow right, but probably not enough blue. One way of getting
01:07more blue in at the same time as the daffodils is to have muscari. So what I've done is brought a pot
01:12of muscari out, and I'll leave them here to seed. And muscari do spread by seed very readily. And in
01:20future weeks, I will be adding more blue too. But for the moment, I'm just letting the yellow wash over me.
01:29On today's programme, Carol will be sharing her tips and inspiration to guarantee colour and interest
01:37in all your beds and borders and containers right throughout the seasons.
01:43And I hope that I'm going to inspire you to try all sorts of things in exciting ways.
01:51We'll be heading to West Wales to discover more about the Welsh national flower, the daffodil.
01:58Some people just think daffodils are all yellow, but there's a big range of whites and yellows and pinks and
02:03oranges. And this time of the year, the daffodils are fabulous. And I'll be showing you behind the
02:11scenes on my journey to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, where I'm creating my first show garden,
02:19with helpful lead, of course. I would be a liar if I said I wasn't nervous.
02:24I really like the idea of making a garden the way that a dog sees a garden, rather than a human.
02:44This is the writing garden. And essentially, it's a white garden. But like all white gardens,
02:54it's predominantly green. But at this time of year, there is a lot of white. The lechogium
02:59are dominating. These are the snowflake. And then, of course, the tulips underneath that. We've got the
03:04white pulmonaryia. We have a tulip called Lady Jane, which is actually pink on the outside and white on
03:10the inside, which I planted to mimic apple blossom. One slight problem is that by the time the apple
03:16blossom is out, Lady Jane, the tulip, is finished. But never mind. It's the right idea. Now, one of the
03:21plants that features early in the year is this. This is winter flowering honeysuckle, Lonisra
03:27fragrantissima. And it flowers on wood that is produced in the previous season. So if you want to
03:34prune it, you need to do so now, immediately after flowering. And that applies to all really
03:40early flowering woody shrubs. You can probably see that there's new growth already coming there.
03:46And that's what will carry next year's flowers. So this arching stem here, I could take that right
03:52back, say, to there. That can come out. Sorry, Ned. Really old growth that you feel is not very
04:02productive, go right down to the base. But never take out more than a third of the old growth in any
04:07one year, because that weakens it too much. Otherwise, just cut back so you've got a bit
04:11of a framework. And what I want here is a sort of curving backdrop. And then all this growth underneath,
04:20getting some sunlight. Let's stand back and have a look. There's always that thing when you're pruning,
04:26you're busy pruning away and going well. And suddenly it's like when you're cutting someone's hair,
04:31you think, ooh, that's gone a bit far. So it's a good idea to stand back, have a look. And in fact,
04:36I've got a nice curve on that. But this is very much a plant of winter. To get the best from your garden
04:44at all times of year, then sometimes you need a bit of expert advice. And who better,
04:50both for expertise and inspiration than Carol?
05:01The thing I love most about gardening in the temperate climate is the way that everything changes.
05:09Day by day, everything's different. And gradually, gradually, one season changes into another.
05:16And each one of those seasons has its very own character, its own personality. Defined,
05:23of course, by the plants that grow then.
05:28This year, I want you to come with me and see how my garden changes through the seasons.
05:35And I hope that I'm going to inspire you to try all sorts of things.
05:41New plants, old favourites, putting them together in exciting ways.
05:50And showing you how, with some clever planting and combinations,
05:55it's possible to have beautiful borders and containers full of colour and interest all through the seasons.
06:03Of all the plants you could think of, probably, the primrose epitomises spring more than any other.
06:14Now, they're in their element. This is a straightforward, our native primula,
06:20Primula vulgaris. Vulgaris means common. And it is fairly widespread, up and down the country.
06:27And just look at them here. I've got Euphorbia amygdaloides, our wood spurge.
06:33And this is a variety called Robii. It's a brilliant ground cover.
06:38But here, it's making this sort of curtain. And through its stems, you can glimpse even more primroses.
06:45I think this is one of the loveliest combinations in the whole garden.
07:02And it's very much of this time, of this moment.
07:07So the centrepiece here is this Trillium. It's Trillium chloropitalum.
07:11I love everything about it. Everything is in threes.
07:15It's got three big brats round here. The petals are in threes too.
07:20It's even got these extra bits. And if you look into the centre of the flower,
07:24that's all in triplicate as well. Now, although it's a woodland plant, it grows deep down in between
07:32the roots of plants, which is why it'll come up year after year after year. And in the background,
07:39Aerometallicum, Marmoratum pictum. Pictum just means painted. And that's exactly what those leaves look like.
07:47But taken together, what a glorious combination they are.
07:54While there's plenty going on in the garden, there's always an extra opportunity to get early
08:00spring colour, shape and texture into our garden, however big or small, even in the container.
08:10If you haven't got a garden, or you just want some sort of moveable feast,
08:15then it's a great idea to celebrate early spring in this kind of way.
08:21Now, the centrepiece here is this lovely daffodil. And I think it goes brilliantly well with these
08:28gold lace. This is a primula too, a sort of polyanth, a lovely old-fashioned one with these dark
08:35velvety petals and golden centres. And I think that picks up the yellow in here. But to add even more
08:43pizazz, I'm going to use this little anemone called Ranunculoides. And it's related to wood
08:50anemones. Wood anemone is one of its parents. And I'm just going to squeeze then in between.
08:58Doesn't it go well? It really looks just the part. Now, the whole point about something like this is you
09:05can enjoy it for the moment. You can move it where you want to and you can enjoy that perfume, enjoy
09:11looking down on it. But then, when it's all faded down and your polyanthus could do with dividing and
09:19your anemone is just about going to sleep, you can put everything out into the garden
09:24and enjoy them year after year after year.
09:46I love this time of year, especially on this side of the garden.
09:51The canopy hasn't filled in overhead yet. And that means that all what I call Cinderella plants,
09:58all these lovely woodland treasures, are really making the most of the low light and the fat that
10:06the sun can actually get through. So we've got leucogiums, we've got epimediums, we've got chinodoxa.
10:15It's absolutely glorious. And I've chosen this little bed to kind of put a bit of new life into.
10:24And I was prompted to do that because I've taken out this ankyanthus. It was absolutely
10:33bone dead, completely gone. And I've dug this ground over. I've taken out any sort of perennial weeds
10:42that are here. And I've added masses and masses of good compost. So this Othiopogun, this lovely
10:51evergreen. I've got a clump down there and these clumps up here. But what I want to do is to kind of
10:58join the two together and make a sort of little rhythm through the bed. With a bit of leverage.
11:09Look at that. Completely separate. Two brand new, beautiful, big plants. And if I put them in
11:16here and you just want to spread these roots out, gently tease this soil in amongst them and shake
11:29as I'm going, just to make sure that it's right in between all those fibrous roots. So this can act
11:37as a backdrop for all these lovely sparkling treasures we're going to plant in between.
11:43The first thing I want to start with is one of my favourites. It's anemone nemorosa. It's our own
11:51wood anemone. This is one called Robinsoniana. And it's this pale sort of misty blue. It's
11:58absolutely beautiful. And it moves. So although they're going to look like clumps right now,
12:05eventually they'll spread right the way through this bed and make this beautiful sort of carpet.
12:12Because every single one of these leaves and the flowers comes from a little rhizome. See those there.
12:19And those rhizomes live just under the ground and just move around under the fallen leaves,
12:26just a couple of inches below the surface of the soil.
12:30Another dainty addition to our shady scene is anemonella phthalic troides, so called because
12:40of the similarity of its leaves to the foliage of the lictrums. They're both members of the
12:46buttercup family, ranunculaceae. Erythroniums are some of the most exquisite of spring woodlanders,
12:56with their reflex petals and marbled leaves. They're bulbous and their roots penetrate deeply into the
13:05spaces in between tree roots.
13:16Most of the things I'm adding to this bed are spring cinderellas and will go to sleep during the summer.
13:22My Ophiopogon mihalibors are evergreen and I want to add these beguenias too for another evergreen element.
13:31This is a beguenia called flirt. They're incredibly versatile plants. They'll cope with sun, dry shade like this.
13:43I guess it's going to flourish perfectly in this sort of position and it's a huge advantage,
13:49quite apart from the shape of its leaves, which are a lovely contrast, is their colour.
13:55Just look at that. It's like somebody's been round with a red boot polish. There's a bit of shine to it as well.
14:01So this bed's undergone quite a transformation. Of course there are still spaces between the plants,
14:12but by next spring the whole thing will be wall to wall, foliage and flowers.
14:18We'll be joining Carol throughout the year and learning from somebody who probably knows better than
14:37anybody alive of how to make those plant combinations so there is something special right throughout the year.
14:48The Taihaku cherry has been at its very best over the last few days. The leaves are beginning to come now,
15:09which means that in the next 48 hours all those petals will gently come wafting down.
15:14But what's been fantastic this year is that there's been no rain and very little wind.
15:22So that means that the blossom has stayed longer than I've ever known it.
15:26And Taihaku is famous for being very brief. Most years it's two days if you're lucky.
15:31This year we've had a full week of what I think is the best cherry blossom in the world.
15:36The reason I've come here to the damp garden is to collect a hosta. Now is a really good time when
15:45you can see the new growth to divide, plant, move hostas of any kind. But also I want to try something
15:54else because I suppose I get more questions than anything else about slugs eating hostas. And nearly
16:02always that's to do with hostas in pots because my hostas here barely get touched by slugs or snails.
16:08And I want to take a couple so I can do this experiment to see how they grow in pots compared to the ground.
16:14So all you have to do is just get the spade and dig round it. And hosta roots are quite deep.
16:23This area floods so these get a really good soak in the winter. And I find that as long as hostas
16:31get a good winter soak they can take a surprising amount of summer dryness.
16:37Now you can see that is a really substantial plant. So what I'm going to do now is just divide this,
16:50just lean the spade on it and apply pressure. And hopefully it'll be enough just to force it apart
16:58like that. This that's cut through quite nicely. Very satisfying, sharp sound there. There we go.
17:06So, I have the smaller segment there, still a nice size hosta. And you can see the really woody
17:15roots and that should grow with more vigour having been divided. So I'm going to put this back in the hole
17:21like that. I'm going to fill around it.
17:24I will give that a really good soak. And this bigger chunk,
17:36I'm going to take back up and split it and pot it up so we can see how that grows compared to the one
17:45in the ground.
17:56I'm going to subdivide this division and plant each half in a pot. Same idea, rest it on and get a
18:13good push. There we go. So, this is quite a large hosta. So it needs a large pot and then give it a
18:28good rich compost. So that it can access plenty of moisture and nutrition because it needs that to
18:35be healthy. And unless it's healthy, it will become stressed. And if it's stressed,
18:39that's when it will get eaten. So that's about the right height. I've got a mix here. I'll pack around it.
18:48This is one-third peat-free compost, one-third leaf mould and one-third sieved garden compost. And I would
18:57expect this to be here in this pot for about another two, three years.
19:07Right, that's one. And now I've got the other.
19:18Never fill right to the brim. Leave at least an inch so that when you water it, you can flood it
19:25and it will soak gradually in.
19:33I will put these with the other pots that I've got over there. What I've done is pot it up a whole
19:38range of hostas just to see if my hostas can survive really well in containers as well as the ground
19:45and don't get eaten by slugs and snails. Right, I'll leave those there for the moment.
19:49I've got another job I need to get on with.
20:08I've got the grass borders on this side, which at this time of year are only just beginning to show
20:13new green and grow. And the jewel garden on the other side of the path has had big changes this
20:20year. We still wanted it to be the jewel garden as it's always been, but we needed to just rethink
20:27the planting. Given all that we've learned, given that we've got climate change, given that we're
20:33getting older and therefore we want to reduce maintenance a little bit, how would we plant it?
20:38And one of the things I've decided to do is add more grasses. I did add a few Miscanthus
20:44Sacchariflorus last year. They're down at the end and I didn't cut them back because I wanted to see
20:49how they looked and I decided to add more. Miscanthus is one of those grasses that is very forgiving.
20:56It's very adaptable. It will grow in most soils and most situations. So a great place to start
21:02if you're not used to growing grasses. And Sacchariflorus is huge. It's the biggest of the lot.
21:09It grows 14, 15, 16 foot tall. So I want these to go in the middle of the borders where they can compete
21:17with the vigour of all the growth around them.
21:30Grasses are best planted when the soil warms up. Now that will vary from garden to garden and place
21:34to place. Right, see if I can get out the pot. There we go. Right. Don't plant it too deep.
21:48When you're planting any grasses, if in doubt, put it on a slight mound. That is actually perfect.
21:54All right. We're going to visit one of your gardens now. It takes us to Scotland. It belongs
22:03to Jess Goddard. And although it's small, it's full of lovely things.
22:10Hi gardeners world. My name's Jess and welcome to my balcony garden in Glasgow.
22:16When I first moved to Scotland, I was delighted to find that my flat had a balcony. And so I started to
22:21create a garden. My balcony is small, but it doesn't stop me from filling it with as many plants as I
22:27can. I have two microclimates, one on each side, a dry side and a damp side. I learned this because
22:35all the plants on one side kept dying because they were getting too wet. So I switched it up and started
22:40growing hostas and ferns on the damp side and moved everything else to the dry side. And since I've done
22:46that, it's worked really well. The conditions on my balcony can be quite unpredictable.
22:52But the plants adapt really well to the conditions, as long as I put them in the right place
22:57and protect them from getting too wet.
23:01My favourite thing in my garden is my Devon green hosta, because I really like the leaf shape and
23:06the colour. Most of the hostas in my garden were given to me by my dad, who divided the ones from
23:12his own garden. I love that even eight hours apart, we can chat about the same plants and their progress,
23:18just like I used to when I lived back at home. It makes it feel extra special. This is my first
23:24garden. And I'm really proud of what I've created. And I hope that you've enjoyed it too.
23:40I love the enthusiasm. And of course, you can get that from any space. You don't need a big garden
23:51or a garden at all to really get the pleasure from plants. And funnily enough, I could really
23:56relate to Jesse's balcony, because that thing of having one area quite close to another with very
24:02different growing conditions, we've got exactly here in the herb garden. On this side of the path,
24:09the bigger side, it gets full sun in summer and at least half a day in winter. And we grow Mediterranean
24:16herbs in there without too much trouble. But once you get back into this space,
24:22the shadow is quite deep and no herb thrives in deep shade. However, some will cope with shade much
24:31better than others. I've got here some chives, which are really good. Chives are probably the easiest
24:38herb of all to grow, easy to grow from seed. And when you cut them, they regrow really fast. And as
24:44long as they get three or four hours of sunlight, they're good for shade. I've also got mint. Now,
24:51listen carefully, do not plant mint into any kind of border, because they are very, very invasive.
25:00However, they're brilliant in a pot or a container of any kind. And I've got three types of mint here.
25:04I've got apple mint, which is the best mint to add to new potatoes. I've got spearmint,
25:11which as an all-round mint is probably the best for cooking. And peppermint, which I think makes the
25:17best mint for drinking. And I'm going to put them in pots, but not the same pot, because they muddy
25:23each other's taste. Now, this is a particular favourite of mine. I'm not sure you could
25:30technically call it a herb, but I'm going to. It's red-veined sorrel. It's got a distinct tangy
25:36taste. And I think it's a really good plant to add to all kinds of things. You can cook with it. You
25:41can add it to salads. It's just an unusual and beautiful plant. You all right, Ned? You okay?
25:48Do you want to come and help me? Nope.
25:53Now, I'm going to start with the sorrel. The sorrel, of course, is a perennial.
25:58And so it does come back year on year.
26:08When you're preparing the soil for any herbs, always err on the side of too much drainage
26:14rather than too little. And just remember that herbs and sun go together. If you've got shade,
26:22cut your cloth accordingly, reduce the options, and just enjoy what will grow successfully.
26:32Come on. Good boy.
26:36I have taken on this year another garden away from Longmeadow, and its deadline for completion
26:42is approaching fast. I've lived with dogs all my life, so it's natural for me to be always
26:48accompanied by a dog or two, especially in the garden. I mean, my wife always says that I
26:53understand dogs better than I do people. I've never in my life had a garden without dogs.
27:00They are as much part of the garden as plants.
27:05So last year, when I got a call from the RHS and Radio 2 asking if I would consider designing a garden
27:13that celebrated dogs and gardening at Chelsea, I was up for the challenge.
27:20And could depend on Ned to give me a helping hand.
27:25To have Monty and Ned designing the RHS garden, I mean, I think it's a dream come true for us.
27:31We're very conscious that right now it's really difficult times. And so we thought,
27:36why not actually celebrate some of the things that people in this country love the most?
27:41Gardens and dogs. Bringing them together with Monty and Ned in one great big package,
27:47I think would just bring joy to the nation.
27:50I knew that if I was going to be able to do this, I would need the help of the very best team available.
27:57So I enlisted the nurseryman, Jamie Butterworth, who has established himself
28:02with a gold medal pedigree from RHS Chelsea.
28:06When I got the call from Monty the first time, I couldn't quite believe it, actually.
28:11Not only is it RHS Chelsea flower show, which is the biggest flower show in the world,
28:15but it's Monty Don. He's the reason I got into gardening in the first place.
28:19As excitement about the garden began to grow, over on Radio 2, DJ, RHS ambassador, gardening
28:26enthusiast and dog lover, Joe Wiley, has been on hand, offering us support.
28:32The garden is all about reflecting the special place that dogs hold in our hearts and our gardens.
28:37Ned has had a formal invitation, so I think everybody involved should bring their dogs
28:41and let chaos reign. Monty, stop. You are so mischievous.
28:49This is Monty's design. It's his vision. It's his garden at Chelsea.
28:55But my job is to bring it into reality and actually create what's in Monty's head.
29:01Um, I would be a liar if I said I wasn't nervous.
29:07I really like the idea of making a garden or having a part of a garden
29:13that really catered for the way that a dog sees a garden rather than a human.
29:18I wanted it to be a place where dogs would feel happy and at home
29:23and that the human element would enjoy it as a garden and just where those two things met.
29:29Today, Jamie has brought some sample bricks for the Chelsea garden paths,
29:33which we hope will give it just a little nod to Longmeadow.
29:37But like everything else, the devil is in the detail.
29:40How are you? Really good to see you again.
29:42What have you got here? God, you've got a lot.
29:45A load of bricks. This type, which is very like what we call a Lempstead,
29:51which is really heavy and solid, makes brilliant paths.
29:54Yes, absolutely brilliant. But these, which are all bricks, are much nicer colour.
30:00In addition to the brick paths, my garden design includes an area for dogs to explore in their own
30:07mazy way. A selection of trees, a flower meadow, a stream to wallow in, a lawn and a building,
30:17which is a combination of a summer house and enormous kennel. Oh, and there'll obviously
30:23be a couple of chewed balls. It's more than just a jokey dog garden, although there's an element of that.
30:31It's somewhere where dogs are part of a family and that family may be one person and two dogs.
30:36It might be, you know, it could be any combination, but it's part of a life.
30:41And yeah, I think that's the core of it. If we can achieve that, I'll be happy.
30:47For the planting, I've chosen very familiar trees and shrubs like hazel, filled maple and crab
30:58apple, along with a ball theme, including the circular flowers and topiary. And of course,
31:05there'll be dogwood in there too. I'm assuming that everything's going swimmingly in the polytons.
31:10How are the plants? The plants are growing, which is a good start. Yeah.
31:15We can't second guess or know what it's going to do is the weather. And obviously,
31:20it's incredible today. And if we have this between now and Chelsea, we'll mostly be looking at a
31:26palette that would in normal years be in flower in June. So we'll have to say goodbye to the tulips
31:31and some of the bulbs that we wanted to use. Whereas we could still get snow next week.
31:36It's that time of year where we just don't know what's going to happen.
31:38On the one hand, you know, we're not being judged. So therefore, no one's going to take points off
31:42if something is not perfect. On the other hand, it's got to be perfect. It will. It has to be perfect.
31:48I do want people to like it. I want people to love it. And if I equip myself well, few. And if I don't,
31:58well, it'll be embarrassing and it will be a pity, but it won't be for one to try.
32:06With just weeks left until Chelsea, the biggest decisions are still to be made. So I've come to the
32:13garden nursery where they've marked out the garden to scale. Now I can really start to understand the
32:19space and place the trees and shrubs and discuss the structural bones of the design with Jamie and his team.
32:28Very nice. This is your garden. It's glorious. Let's stop here. Let's just leave this like this.
32:37Oh, hi. How are you? Nice to see you again. You too. How are you? I'm all right. I'm okay.
32:43I'm sort of scratching your head. I'm somewhere between excitement and just pure cold panic.
32:53One of the crucial features to get right is the garden summer house,
32:57including my own love of reclaimed material for garden buildings. But at the moment,
33:02we have a small problem interpreting the idea into reality. As if it's too derelict,
33:09it cuts out everybody who has no access to a derelict building and then becomes a stage
33:12set. And I want to avoid that. The arm checker on that side, sofa on that side. But I don't think
33:20we want a great big window. Dogs are exactly where the seats are going to be. I think that's a doggy seal
33:26of approval. There is almost nothing that you can think of that doesn't have to have a decision made
33:32about it. And lots of things you haven't thought of that have to have a decision made about. One thing
33:38that we just have to decide today is the exact placement of the trees. Okay, you're good. You're good.
33:45What that means is we don't need, no, something like that in there. And that takes a lot of fine tuning.
33:51So Jo's arrival is a welcome relief. And she's here to get a dog garden update for her listeners.
33:59It's all about detail for me. Inches will make a difference. You know, the difference between being
34:04dead right and okay is small but critical.
34:11Having finished our radio interview, we've still got a lot of trees to place. So Jo lends us a hand.
34:17So we're trying to create a foreground of trees where you look through the stems.
34:27Yeah, that's much more like it. Much more like it. That's gorgeous. That's great.
34:32The height is right. Yeah. And the width. They're just working things out at the moment. That's
34:37exactly what's happening. It's like, does this look right here? No, it's not quite right. Just moving
34:41stuff around. It's actually quite frantic and quite manic. I quite like the idea of you having the gate in
34:45the corner. That's nice. So this is exactly where Jo is now. Jo, you are the gate. I am the gate.
34:50Slightly over. That's it. Perfect. You're gate-tastic. I'm the gate. Is this garden going to be judged?
34:58Not by judges, no, but by people. It's going to be so scrutinized. Everybody, everybody is going to
35:04have a view about this garden. He's a very brave man, Monty Don.
35:07We started this journey last July. We're committed. Can't get out of it. Got to go ahead. We are two,
35:16three steps closer to what we're trying to achieve.
35:22From the outset, I wanted to be sure that the finished garden was somewhere that was good for
35:28both people and dogs, which is where my co-designer Ned comes in. That's your bit there, okay? You're
35:36going to design that, okay? Got that? Good boy. So last week, Ned and I went to Jamie's nursery together
35:45to decide, from a dog's point of view, where the pathway should go. Hello, Ned. How are you? This is the
35:53garden plan, and we had made some sort of tenuous nods as to where the dog paths might go, but
35:59obviously it was always going to be designed by Ned, and so I've got a blank corner here that,
36:04as we watch Ned wander through the garden, we can actually map it out, and that is what we will build
36:10at Chelsea. To make it easier for ourselves and Ned, we've made the planting area twice the size that
36:16is actually going to be at Chelsea. So now, all we have to do is watch Ned's progress as he maps out our paths.
36:26There was a distinct sense of that, wasn't there? Yeah.
36:50Actually, watching Ned go through it was quite interesting. It was quite instructive.
36:54We did genuinely learn how Ned behaved within the space, and we will genuinely use that. Yes, exactly.
37:04It's the Chelsea conundrum. It's trying to be as authentic as possible whilst putting it on the
37:10world stage, and it's a battle every year. I sort of feel like someone who's dived into a deep pool,
37:17and you're nearing the bottom part of the dive, and therefore the only way is to get out, you've got
37:23to go up. We're sort of out of the worst bit now because it can, it's only going to get more exciting.
37:28Yeah. And it's going to happen, it's real, and we're surrounded by it, and it's quite lovely,
37:32and I hope it's this calm at Chelsea. I really do. It won't be. It really won't be.
37:36I'm very aware that that's the story so far. There's another month to go, an awful lot to do,
37:58an awful lot that can go wrong. But let's be positive, an awful lot that hopefully will go
38:02right. And we'll share all that with you when we get to Chelsea. And of course, you'll be able to see
38:07the finished garden, so fingers crossed. Now, Chelsea coverage starts on the 18th of May,
38:12and we'll have more coverage of this journey towards completing the dog garden.
38:17And if you want more news about it, then Radio 2 is really involved,
38:22and Joe Wiley has been a great partner from the very beginning.
38:38So these four raised beds last year had cut flowers in them, and this year we've got bulbs that I'm
38:58trialing. These are all bulbs that I've never grown before, types of tulip, types of daffodil. In fact,
39:04they're coming through really nicely. We've got hardy annuals in that bed, dahlias, which have
39:09overwintered in that bed, and this bed I cleared. And actually, I'm not going to use it for cut
39:15flowers because it makes a really good seed bed. Now, a seed bed saves a whole load of money. You don't
39:21need seed trays, you don't need to buy compost, you don't need a greenhouse. All you need is a spare
39:26patch of ground, and it can be just a metre square. And some plants react really well to growing in soil,
39:33as opposed to growing in compost, and it tends to be the brassica family. Now, we all think of
39:38brassicas as vegetables, but actually it's quite a wide family. So it includes rocket, it includes
39:44radish, it includes swedes and turnips, and also wallflowers. So I'm going to sow my wallflowers in
39:51here and grow them on with the idea next spring, because they're a biennial, of having a really good
39:57crop. If you're growing biennials, now is a really good time to grow them. You do need to prepare the
40:04seed bed well. It needs to have not too many lumps and bumps. So rake it and take out any obvious big
40:10stones or clumpy soil. And I'm going to use a spacer that's quite narrow, because they're not going to grow
40:18very big before I transplant them. So this will do fine. And that fits in there. Now, I'm going to start
40:27with a variety called blood red. And wallflowers are a fantastic companion to tulips. And of course,
40:35the other thing about wallflowers is they have some of the best fragrance of any flower you can grow.
40:39They have a really honey fragrance. All you need to do is, with your hand, just draw a little drill,
40:46like that. And down the other side. And sprinkle the seeds thinly. Now, this is the tricky bit.
40:55Ideally, you want each seed to be about an inch apart. Now, that's, in practice, impossible. But
41:02try and just space them out the best you can, so that you don't waste seed.
41:10Having done that, just lightly cover them over. And the easiest way to do it is just run
41:15a thumb and a finger down either side of the furrow. And that just pulls the soil across it.
41:25I will grow these on. And then, when they're large enough to handle, I will move them so they can
41:31develop into nice, strong, bushy plants. And then, in autumn, transplant them. And hopefully,
41:37next year, I'll have a really good display of wallflowers.
41:51I have to overwinter all my salvias. But in the greenhouse, they do have an inclination to keep
41:57growing, sometimes even flowering quite well. And they get leggy, because the light levels are low.
42:02So it's a good idea to cut them back so the new growth that comes through is nice and strong and
42:06robust. However, what you cut back very often provides really good cutting materials. And,
42:12of course, cuttings is one of the most rewarding ways of making new plants. There is a genuine magic
42:19about it. And I have to say, it's a really economical way of producing new plants, too.
42:25These salvias, the salvia garanitica here, salvia fulgens, might cost between 10 and 30 pounds.
42:31In a garden center, might create up to a dozen cuttings. Now, you can see here on the fulgens,
42:39this soft new growth. And these are softwood cuttings. And if you can bend it over without breaking it,
42:46then it's a softwood cutting. So, first things first, have your material mixed up. And this is a very,
42:53very free-draining material. It's about two-thirds perlite, one-third compost. You can do it in pure
42:58perlite. Have your pots you're going to put them into ready. So, we're going to take it from the end.
43:03If I just take that, that, and having taken the cuttings, I'm then going to cut excess foliage,
43:18because there's water released by foliage. And water loss is what's going to kill it. So, that's one.
43:26Got another one here. Cut it beneath the node. The node, by the way,
43:30is just the point at which leaves or side shoots emerge on the stem.
43:35Perfectly good. And another. Now, this one, that is not a node. So, that length there is less likely
43:47to produce roots than that point there. So, we'll cut it off. Like that.
43:56So, now I have my cuttings. Make a hole and go into the corner of the pot,
44:02bearing at about half its length.
44:12Now, this is where you have to be quick.
44:20And then, and this is critical, you will need a bag. But these locking bags, they're a game changer,
44:27because all you do is just put them over, pull the zip tight, and that now is sealed around it.
44:35And what it does is it stops evaporation. That will keep it alive long enough to produce new roots.
44:41Put it somewhere sunny, pot them on in about two, three weeks' time,
44:45grow them on, and then plant them out later in summer. And as for the parent plant,
44:50harden it off for at least a week in a sheltered place outside if it's been indoors before planting out in mid-May.
45:02Now, there are still daffodils, thankfully, looking glorious.
45:06But I suspect that they were at their best a couple of weeks ago, which was when we went to West Wales
45:11to visit the small holding of Julian Wormald, where he had thousands of daffodils in glorious display.
45:27Some people just think daffodils are all yellow, but there's a big range of whites and yellows
45:32and pinks and oranges. And this time of the year, the daffodils are fabulous.
45:38We're about 800 feet up here in North Carmarthenshire. And in the landscape, still at the end of March,
45:44in a year like this, almost no wildflowers, just a few celandines. And daffodils obviously give us that
45:52burst of spring colour. So they get us through the long grey days that we often experience here in the heavy rainfall.
46:00I'm Julian Wormald. And over the last probably 10 years, I've started to acquire more named types of
46:12daffodils. And we've maybe got 240, 250, something like that now. We bought this property and 11 acres as a
46:22derelict smallholding that hadn't been lived in for 30 years. And there was no garden and no landscaping.
46:31And gradually we started to work on the garden, but never with any plan. You just do a little bit
46:36at a time and you keep chipping away. The only garden flower that was here at that time was a very,
46:44very old daffodil growing on the access track bank that actually dates back to at least 1620.
46:52I started with snowdrops and gradually built up a big collection of maybe 150 different cultivars,
47:00and then started to look at daffodils. But with both snowdrops and daffodils, the thing that
47:06interests me most in a way is the social history and the human stories behind these flowers.
47:22This is the Tembe daffodil, which is native to this particular part of southwest Wales. And it's a
47:29species daffodil, Narcissus ovularis. And because it usually comes into flower on March the 1st,
47:36which is St. David's Day, and it's a classic all yellow daffodil, it's a great emblem for the Welsh
47:44national flower.
47:51Daffodils became popular in the 1800s, and the Tembe daff was part of a major hybridisation
47:57industry where some flowers were highly prized.
48:05This lovely daffodil is one called Brunswick, and it's one of our favourites because it flowers
48:11really early. It's tall. The flowers are probably the longest lasting of any daffodil that we have.
48:18And I really like the combination of the flower with the bluey green leaves. And when it was first
48:26launched in the late 1930s, early 1930s maybe, the people who first bought the bulbs had to pay
48:34about 450 quid in today's money to buy a single bulb. And they wouldn't have known whether it would be
48:39a good daffodil, but it's a great daffodil. Historic daffodils are often more subtle in colour and form
48:49than newer hybrids, and many have proven hardiness, although modern hybrids have stretched a range of flower types.
49:00So there are 13 different divisions, classifications if you like, for daffodils. And this one which we
49:05really like is a daffodil called Orange Comet, which is quite a recent hybrid that was created over in
49:12America. But it's Division 6 Ciclamineus, and all the Ciclamineus have swept back petals, and they all
49:20tend to thrive in very wet conditions. So we thought this would be a good one to try growing different
49:25sorts of here, and most of them do pretty well. And these are just going over, but then they've been in
49:31flower since the beginning of March, and we're now the 30th of March, so that's not bad going.
49:40Due to the hybridisation process, many daffodils don't set seed, but some do.
49:48These are Narcissus, Pseudo-Narcissus, which is the other native daffodil in the UK, and it's the
49:56daffodil that inspired Wordsworth in the Lake District to write his very famous poem about
50:02daffodils. It sets seed, even though it flowers early, and it probably produces more seed in a
50:08seed capsule than any of the other daffodils. All the daffodils that you can see in this part of the
50:13field have got here, just as a result of saving the seed and scattering it onto the surface of the
50:19meadow and then waiting. And it takes maybe five, six years for a daffodil seed to produce a bulb that's
50:27of flowering size, but actually that's a lot easier and a lot cheaper than planting lots and lots of bulbs.
50:41The meadow's grazed in the autumn, and the daffodil seed is scattered at this time.
50:46The seed's pushed into the soil by a specially named sheep.
50:52Every year we get a new crop of lambs, and we decided to give them daffodil names. So we've got
50:58a lovely ewe lamb, the first one to be born this year, which we've called Lalique, after a gorgeous
51:05daffodil, actually, that flowers later on. I've got a ewe called Jetfire from two years ago that's
51:12particularly friendly, and she will come and have nuts out of the bucket and she'll have her chin tickled.
51:22A Jetfire, the daffodil, is a lovely, reliable, orange and yellow, cyclamineous
51:29daffodil with swept back petals that flowers fairly early. It's a very good doer.
51:34Renovating the house and creating the garden has been a long journey, but each spring,
51:43when the daffodils begin to flower again, we're so pleased we persevered.
51:55I like the idea of spreading seed just directly onto meadows for daffodils. It's a lot easier than
52:10planting bulbs, and five years goes quickly enough. Now, some daffodils are becoming extremely rare,
52:18and the RHS would like your help in discovering three in particular. They are Mrs. R.O. Backhouse,
52:24Mrs. William Copeland and Sussex Bonfire, and if you either have those growing in your garden
52:30or you've seen them, if you go to our website, you'll get instructions on what to do and how to
52:35contact the RHS. And if we do just get one or two of those and can collect the seed, then that keeps
52:42some preposterity. Come on. Easter has always been the traditional time when people planted their
52:55potatoes. Now is the time to get them in the ground. There are lots of ways of doing it.
53:00Potatoes actually are quite easy to grow, but to get the best from them, really you want to have them
53:05well covered, have them fairly deep, and also you need to make sure that they're not exposed to late
53:11frost. The best way to do that is to dig a sort of mini trench and pull out the soil along a line
53:18or a board like I've got here. Pull that out.
53:27I've got them growing here next to strawberries, and strawberries and potatoes
53:31share pretty much the same growing conditions. They're like rich soil, plenty of moisture, and plenty of sunshine.
53:41If your soil is very thin, it doesn't hurt to put a layer of compost along the bottom.
53:53Now, this is a variety called Charlotte, which is a second early. First earlies are the traditional new
54:00potato. Second earlies, like Charlotte, they have the sweetness of new potatoes, but they store better.
54:06And Charlotte are one of my favourites. Now, when you're planting, the basic rule is that the
54:15closer together they are, the smaller the potatoes will be. Now, so with new potatoes, you don't want
54:20great big ones. By and large, I would say about a foot or so apart is fine. And these have chitted well. You can see that
54:30they've got a nice, firm, purpley-green little bud on them. You can rub off any sidebonds, and that will put
54:40all the energy into that chute, and so they will grow away faster. So we can pop that in there like that.
54:45All right. Got one more in there.
55:00There's my friend the robin.
55:01Of course, if you're really short of space, and you don't even have a garden, you can still grow
55:10potatoes, because they grow very successfully in a large container or a sack. You need to puncture it
55:17to make sure they drain. Keep them well watered, and they work perfectly well.
55:34When you're covering them over, you do not want any light to touch the tubers as they grow,
55:50otherwise they turn green, and that can be poisonous.
55:54I've left enough space between the rows for earthing up. Now, earthing up is when you draw
56:01up soil over the emerging foliage.
56:10Right, now you've been watching me work, it's your turn. Here are your jobs for the weekend.
56:24If you're growing any of the late flowering clematis,
56:27you'll notice that they're now putting on masses of new growth, and this needs supporting. Use soft twine,
56:35and never plastic or wire, as this new growth is very tender. And you may have to repeat this
56:42two or three more times until they develop their own tendrils that will support the weight.
56:47If you're growing tender annuals like these cosmos, they will be starting to grow strongly and even
57:01developing some flower buds, but it's too early in the year for this. So be bold and be prepared to cut
57:09them back by up to half. And this will encourage lots of side shoots and strong bushy plants that will flower better and longer.
57:18If you're growing tomatoes, it's important to keep them growing so you have nice strong plants when
57:32you put them out, either outdoors or in a greenhouse. But it's a bit early for both those. So, making sure
57:39they don't get root bound, pop them on either from a plug into a pot or from a small pot to a bigger one.
57:45And this will ensure that they continue their healthy growth and buy you some time.
57:59I always think that this is, above all, time of blossom. And the great thing about blossom is you
58:12don't need big trees. You can have a socking great periper like the one behind me. But also,
58:17blossom works just as well, whether it's on the step over apples or cordons. And of course,
58:23you can grow those in any size garden. So this Easter, just take time to relish the blossom and
58:31maybe a bit of time to get stuck into the garden too. And I'll see you back here at Longmeadow next
58:37Friday at eight o'clock. So until then, happy Easter and bye-bye.
58:53Bye-bye.