Gardeners World episode 42 2021

nigel good boy it's under here good boy hello welcome to gardner's world now traditionally august is rather a flat time in the garden people go around holiday and they feel they're not missing a lot but i love august not least because here in the jewel garden the colors really stoke up and you get those intense reds and oranges and purples all working together and they can take the light and the heat of these days and as well as enjoying what the garden has to offer i shall also be working in the pond sorting it out trying to get as healthy as possible for the rest of summer and hopefully cooling off of it carol is at glebe cottage with advice on how to deal with some of the pests that have been a particular problem this summer i've got this wonderful collection of plants together that will withstand attack from slugs and snails and they're rasping radulas joe visits a garden in north wales where you might expect there to be heavy rainfall in this particular case they discovered that they had much more water than they bargained for but have made a virtue of it is this being fed from this has been fed from the from the springs the top there you've actually seen oh right okay that's just a natural spring you sure that's not solar powered no not so it's gorgeous and now is the time that i should be cutting the meadow grass on the cricket pitch and on top of that i'll be taking new plants from old from our strawberries the pond is only four months old but it's already got a nice settled feel and things are starting to happen the purple loose rice is looking great the ligulareas are doing better than ever they absolutely love it and you can see in the pond itself you have the water forget me not some emulas so all in all i would say i am 99 satisfied with the pond that everything we've done here the one percent that isn't quite working out is the algal growth on the surface and that's because water has lots of nutrients and in july and august when you've got higher sunshine and more of it inevitably you get growth we've got silkweed which is this sort of frothy gunky frankly unpleasant stuff and as well as that we have this here duckweed and that can spread to form a complete mat over the water so you need to scoop that out or at least keep a really tight eye on it improve the habitat both for plants and for insects and animals and they are going to consume nutrients which will compete directly with the algae so they should help keep the water clear i've got three different oxygenators here this one is gold fish weed which comes from southern africa then i've got two other natives i've got hornwork and then the spiked milfoil you can very often buy them like the goldfish weed here in clumps with a little bit of lead wrapping them together and the lead means that they sink to the bottom now where this touches the bottom it will root but it's also got aerial roots so if it doesn't get into mud of any kind it'll still survive the reason i bought the bucket of water is because it's a good idea to wash them that gets rid of any risk of introducing either bits of weed or animals that you don't want it in your own pond and then the planting of them couldn't be easier i'm going to get back in to plant some but i'll tell you all you have to do is this job done chuck it in the water as i've got my weddings on i'm just going to get in to spread them around i like the horn work because it's a native i'm thinking of of one plant or group per two feet you don't have to be too accurate about this but to spread them about now you can buy these from either a specialist aquatic center or a large garden center should have its own aquatic department and whoa i nearly went then right i think that will make a real difference and we should get some much clearer water as a result now the water in this garden is an event a happening a data comes in on the flood or else we make a pond and celebrate it but joe's been to visit a garden in north wales where the water is absolutely an elemental part of the garden nestled between mountains and sea conway is one of the wettest regions of britain but here liza gardner who not only has a local weather to contend with he also lives in an area known locally as the field of the seven springs you get any idea [Music] when daffydt lloyd bowlands moved into his house on a unique water-riven site he realized this mountainside location could be a great gardening opportunity the river comes uh from top field over here and then comes down into our garden and through into neighboring properties over here when you took over this plot you knew the river was there did you when we took over the plot we we heard water as we can today we couldn't see it it was like a bit of a discovery we had to creep through the brambles and remove a tree from the top there and eventually we found we found the stream who see here today so you thought oh brilliant i've got my own water in my own irrigation system i thought it was a really great garden opportunity you know we've got all this water yeah we can use it for planting and [Music] we've got about 20 springs in the garden which just up here as we've been gardening and developing the garden they just appear and we've had to divert them and put them into place of the garden where it's a bit dry you're controlling the springs so you're moving them around they've got what away from the lawn areas and away from all areas all the dry areas you want to keep drying how do you divert the spring um just dig a big hole lightly with some vitex put some stones in and then put a flexible tubing you're actually creating under an underground irrigation system all the way through here yeah yeah you're using some planting as well we've been putting some a lot of willow trees and things like that and to try and suck the water up as well yeah [Music] you already have a a huge array of plants really considering the the diverse conditions that you've got here some of them are really dry flow mist lavender you've got a big eucalyptus tree over there yeah yeah that likes to grow in a desert like bushfires on it have you diverted streams around it or something or something well the weather eucalyptus is quite dry there i mean we do well here because the lavender is at the top of the bank so they like the area conditions up there yeah and things like that and thorium's as well it's fantastic isn't it so where does it get really wet then well we've got you can see here we've got a slight problem here you can sort of see the world oh oh i can hear it yep you can hear it oh yeah this is one of our new springs now this is for 2012 2012 spring yeah you can see the water's coming through here we'll probably leave it for a month or so see if it sorts itself out if not we'll have to dig a trench across here yeah try and work out where the water sort of stops and then drain down divert this bad hair down towards these four millions four minutes yeah and then where it just goes down there and then we've got another drain at the bottom of this bed which will then take it around the side it's a lot of work does it not wind you up after a while do you not think do you not think can i not just have a normal garden like a shot garden so yeah it's like no garden rather than rather become sort of underground plumbing science that's right it's like civil engineering isn't it but yeah this thing we've got used to and we just i find it passive we ignore it it causes more problems so we just we just get on with it and pop them in just pop them in get on with it move on that's right yeah even though the springs are a continuing challenge some of the planting is phenomenal only a king gardener who knows this site intimately could pull this off what about this is this some is this being fed from this has been fed from the from the springs the top there you can actually see oh right okay that's just a natural spring that's natural spring again yeah it's actually started working this morning actually you sure that's not solar powered no not solid it's gorgeous don't tell me that's a natural spring no no that's that's a pump yeah got me there joe yeah yeah and here we've got much wetter planting i mean ligularia's and the ragged robin have you have you planted that in there there last year loves it there that is a great array of plants but it's a lovely pond it fills up and goes out the far corner down the garden and it just carries on over there down and down and away and it's become somebody else's problem that's right we call this bit of ground the cricket pitch because a long time ago we used to play cricket on here occasionally now the chestnut tree behind me was where the stumps were so that's how long ago a ball was last bowled but we have evolved a pattern of treating the grass of letting it grow and enjoying all that that entails in spring there are crocus narcissism fratillaries and in early summer they're followed by clovers buttercups and grasses now all in all this is nothing fancy but it looks wonderful and the insects love it but when it starts to look a bit tired we cut it right back and let it revert to lawn and to get the timing right we let the seeds form so the seeds of the wild flowers and for example the clovers here are now being shed and that means if i cut it the seeds will remain and it will all come back next year this is not strictly speaking a wildflower meadow apart from anything else soil like this is too rich and if you want to keep the flowers growing strongly in amongst grass you need to stop the grass taking over therefore cut it clear it all away but by turning the cutting right you can really enjoy what the grass has plant some bulbs and flowers in spring before it grows too long and then remove the grass so it doesn't dominate too much and that way you can roll it on year on year all of us whatever's our soil is like have been plagued by slugs and snails this year i've known any year like it and there are lots and lots of different opinions and methods of getting rid of them but none of them seem to work completely however carol has been looking at plants that do resist slug and snail attack more than others [Music] it's been one of the wettest late springs and early summers that any of us can possibly remember and because it's been so wet every gardener has had a problem with slugs and loads of you have written into us this letter is typical from amanda livingston i have the most horrendous snail and slug problem it seems they all live in my garden i can't grow certain crops because of this problem as fast as i remove them they reproduce and multiply exponentially well i'll tell you what they do exactly the same thing here come and have a look at some of the damage they've caused me [Music] i suppose this plant hosta is the the classic plant that people mention when they're talking about slug damage and it's because it's got these soft fleshy no doubt scrumptious leaves that slugs just adore [Music] this beautiful japanese woodlander kirangashima palmatum has the same big entire soft leaves as the hosta it had now they've been reduced to this sort of lace curtain effect all that's been left behind is the veins that support the surface of the leaf they're obviously unpalatable and not to the slugs taste at all anyway why go for those when you've got all that lovely soft leaf surface to munch on but down here is something which seems to be totally impervious it's a holly ball halibull hybridus and it's got these big tough strong robust leaves and the surface of them is extremely hard impenetrable the slugs obviously don't find it to their taste halle boars are in the family of ranunculacy the buttercup family and most of the family seem to be impervious to slug damage you very seldom see slug holes on aquilegias aconites all manner of plants and there are other families too that slugs very seldom seem to attack if you're planting a new bed or just trying to replace plants that have been badly damaged by slugs and snails it's common sense really to take a look around your and other people's gardens to see which plants are going to be impervious to slug attack and are going to give you the best possible show for the longest time [Music] gardeners love roses but slugs don't they never touch them still these two are members of the rose family rosacea the leaves are quite hard and shiny but i suspect that there's stillbiz and lots of other herbaceous members of the rose family have sort of a medicinal quality to the the aroma of their roots and possibly it permeates the whole plant leaves stems and flowers so it's still bees aren't on the menu geraniums are another big group of plants that they leave alone [Music] i think the best idea is to put together a selection of plants that slugs and snails just don't like [Music] i've got this wonderful collection of plants together and i'm going to use them to plant this new little bed but also that they'll withstand attack from slugs and snails and they're rasping radulas they're going to leave these plants alone and allow us to enjoy them this lovely agastache is called black blackadder and it's a very very aromatic plant it's got this slightly minty almost well it's indescribable this perfume but it really is strong and that puts slugs off this is naughtier now you don't really think of this as being a hairy plant but when you actually examine the stems and run your fingers up there it really is it's quite bristly and those pom-pom flowers are a total delight followed by seed heads and again very very long flowering and i'll emphasize that dark red that lovely crimson with these sedums and although it's got succulent leaves you really don't get any damage at all on sedums possibly when they're just coming through in the spring but once that hard surface has been made once it's there slugs leave them alone and the pan stamen that i want to include in this arrangement is this one it's called pantermann heterophyllus heavenly blue and it has the most beautifully coloured flowers panstammin are in the scruffy larry ac family the same family as fox gloves none of those groups of plants ever get eaten by slugs this belongs to the mallow family lovely called elsie hewitt well hopefully i've given you a few clues about the kind of plants you can choose not only to make a really long display that goes on giving you joy and beauty for ages but also one little lush because it doesn't get consumed by slugs and snails it's no hardship because there's such a lot of beautiful plants from which to choose [Music] i think it's fair to say that our strawberry harvest this year has been mixed the plants are really healthy they're growing well they produce lots and lots of fruit well you think that was exactly what they're meant to do the downside was that the fruit tended to ripen unevenly so you'd see this lovely luscious red berry lifted up and it'd be white underneath because there just wasn't enough light or heat and also they rotted rather a lot and even at the very best the taste was a little insipid and watery well that's entirely down to the weather nothing you can do about that but these have done their stuff so i need to plan for next year and thereafter because the key to growing strawberries is not to keep growing them on the same plot year after year they reach their peak after three years and thereafter they accumulate viruses so you should ditch your plants after three years which means replacing them the easiest way to do that is by taking runners now you can see that a really healthy plant like that which is one year old is now pushing out runners and this is here's one look at that so if you see you've got this long stem coming through twining there and you've got a new plant lit developing about two or three feet from the plant and then another one there and potentially another so you can get three or four new plants but it's dead easy to do you can either just pin that down onto the ground that will work well nothing wrong with that at all but then i'd have to dig it up to move it so what i prefer to do is prepare a gritty compost and gritty because the roots will have an easier run and they're not going to stay in this for very long like that then get the runner and always take the runner closest to the plant that will have most vigor and just put it on top of the surface of the compost and pin it down and where it touches the soil it really wants to produce roots you don't have to add anything to it or do anything clever and i'll just scrape that and put it in now it's important that it remains connected to the parent it's an umbilical cord because it hasn't got any roots of its own yet leave it for about three to four weeks and if you see nice growth you can cut it separate from the parent take it away and you've got next year's first year plant and just to stress you don't grow strawberries on the same plot year after year but you know i'm making it sound complicated you put them in the ground they grow you protect them from the birds they produce fruit it's not that difficult we also grow alpine strawberries or wild strawberries that are native and they can become a bit invasive and a bit of a weed so by running them underneath the hedge they're contained but they look good and also the tiny little fruit are delicious like little strawberry jewels that you can just add to a bottle of yogurt say but to pick a decent bowl full really does take a long time however there is a variety that's specially been bred from wild strawberries called four seasons catro stagioni and i saw them 18 months ago and look i've got really good sized plants fact practically a hedge of them and masses of fruit they taste good they're big enough to make picking relatively easy but still small and sweet and delicious and like the wild strawberry they go on producing all summer right into autumn they spread by seed by root extension and also a few runners so there's a possibility that they could become invasive but i'll watch and see now if you don't grow strawberries and if you don't want to grow strawberries here are some other things that you can be getting on with this weekend collecting your own seed is doubly satisfying not only does it preserve your favorite plants from the garden but can also save you an awful lot of money cut the seed heads off and put them into a paper bag or envelope where they can be stored in a cool dark place for weeks or even months if you have flowers that you think are particularly special it's worth marking them for future collection but bear in mind that not all plants come true from seed [Music] people can get obsessed with compost and i should know however there is only one real secret and that is to turn it regularly ideally about once a month and this will let air in which will feed the bacteria you can guarantee all your waste material will turn into good garden compost [Music] as the summer fruiting raspberries come to the end of their season the autumn fruiting ones start to produce fruit and it's important to support the canes which are growing very vigorously so you can reach the fruit and pick them easily this doesn't have to be anything elaborate just as long as it lasts into autumn and then it can all be dismantled and the cane's cut down [Music] now that the birds have left their nest it's the perfect moment to give you a hedge a trim it doesn't matter what kind of hedge it is it's important to give it a slight batter which is to say the bottom should always be wider than the top otherwise the top growth will shade out the bottom and you get gaps in the base of the hedge cut the sides first and then trim the top to whatever height you want and that should keep it looking neat for the rest of the summer [Music] another thing to do regularly at this time of year if you have a pond is to top it up because it's surprising how much you lose through evaporation and of course adding water moves it on stops it being stagnant and adds oxygen so generally a really important good thing to do and we have this enormous rainwater tank which for years we didn't really know what to do with but it's proved ideal filling the pond initially and for keeping it topped up and it does mean that if we get a very wet period at least we know we've got water to do it even if we're followed by a drought so i want to connect this up to the pond [Music] i'm one of these people who can tangle up a hose pipe that has been perfectly sorted out and it still knots up and i have to join about three to make this happen [Music] now i've lost the end where is it oh no somewhere in there's an end or should be [Music] you'd think they're only two ends to a hose pipe and one end is attached up there bloat if i know where the other one's gone right we put that over into the pond like that and now i go and connect up at that end run down here and see if the water comes [Music] out [Music] so it's not much for flow but there's hardly any fall and it's enough i can leave that on all night until it fills up and overflows gently and all the hostas and the boggy plants will love that and the pond will be refreshed that's the key thing we get new water in and oxygen and that will help keep the weed at bay talking of which now that it's settled after splashing around in it it's clear isn't it that's not bad and that's all we've got time for but i'll be back here next friday so i'll see you then bye-bye [Music] two world wars industry and empire on the wane the great british story of the 20th century is next [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: Gardeners World

Views: 11,422

Rating: 4.9550562 out of 5

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Id: CEfNhYkboic

Length: 30min 50sec (1850 seconds)

Published: Mon May 24 2021