Mary Berry's New Garden

[Music] two years ago I designed a garden for maryberry a keen gardener but also someone who is extremely busy today I dropped in to see its fruition and catch up with Mary on what has been a most extraordinary time to being locked out and so have you been able to spend more time it looks very much Bonnie it has been a joy selfishly to spend so much time in the garden I've been counting my blessings to have a garden to go and busy every moment of the day I couldn't wait to get up and then to have time to sit down and enjoy it when you hear people they're reading books in the garden I've never had time to do that it's always a long list of things and can you finish it and also it makes you feel so much you feel so much more healthy you feel better all the worries go out in the garden well you saw I wasn't baking cakes too much and I made him yeah I made a few scones and but when it's just two of you I was using things from the garden when you got twelve months ten months yes but we did have the half of the garden before in order to start to get it established a year before that we were moving earth we were establishing it you start afresh but do you find that an exciting challenge or was it with the twins regret there is not the slightest twinge of Bugan I absolutely loved creating a new garden when we moved I wanted to be able to sort of almost manage it myself and I was thrilled to come here and start afresh the thing was we had a lovely garden Kevin and he came with me and together we've done the garden and that we just have one day a week and because a lot of the time I'm working I mean knock down I've been here all the time and it's been wonderful to set it on its way but Kevin is very much part of this garden and he's very wise and a very true friend here to start from absolute scratch with the help from you you know I think there's someone to lean on I had ideas but I didn't know they'd work and I just wanted the right structure and I think we've got it [Music] when we moved here there was no hedge so we put the hedge in and we watered it and that was 18 months ago and it's been really successful we no longer see the tennis court as the first thing when you walk out of the house and we made the terrace wider you need a bit of backing against a husband who I love dearly and with your gentle persuasion we've made it a bit wider and what a difference because you can now walk the full length you've got room to have tables several tables bit of lighting and it catches the Sun the roses I remember this is very high on your list they're looking good I think it's a lovely rose it is healthy and it blooms for a long time repeat flowering the foliage is good they pick well I think it's one of the greatest roses man its mulched it's fed twice a year and cut down a little in the autumn and very boldly in March and then we get plenty of growth these are very well tended by my husband Paul he deadheads it's his little pottering job when he wants a little bit bit of peace and quiet away from everybody else I go in with my gloves at the end of the season if that is a little bit of black spot I pick up the leaves I take it off the bottom branches so only thinks we don't have any but we do just a little and also you can put early petals you know put over top of meringues but maybe you put some strawberries there and you put a few little petals in lovely no and you know well when you serve it oh yes absolutely edible I think actually they taste of absolutely nothing that my grandchildren come here and they make they call it and pete'll perfume and they put it in jars with water and it's not a very nice color but they give it to strain it and give it to as pressure but it keeps them busy and your flowers for picking alstroemeria they're so easy to grow the main thing is to have tall ones there are princess ones which for me are useless you know there are two front of a border I want them to pick I have a daughter Annabelle and we have Annabelle hydrangeas and they love it here and they flower for such a long time agapanthus I love agapanthus they're no trouble to anybody the lemon tree was a present from Kevin our gardener and I was really surprised when I was 80 it was lovely and it's it's five years old now I should pick the lemons but they just look so amazing in the next few days I have got some several oranges in the freezer I'm going to pick some of the lemons that have been on there far too long because there won't be too much juice in them and I shall do some lemon and orange marmalade so your herbaceous wonderful delphiniums how do you delphiniums Molly Buchanan Molly Buchanan was my aunt and a friend of the family and I look after it with great care and you have told me how to take cuttings you've converted me this afternoon when you've gone I'm going to with and do some cuttings you can lose them as easy as Winkie if you don't put a layer of gravel we have gravel so I Mountain the gravel all rounded otherwise when the new shoots come up the slugs just nip the tops really what I try to do is to get a little bit of color all the way through the year I love growing veg and I'm simply thrilled with the garden that you've designed for me you haven't seen it for a bit come and have a look Wow certainly didn't and they look magnificent they're huge best of all the rule is to me grow what you want to eat and that's exactly what we're doing I'm trying to plant lettuces and then another six weeks doing more different lessons lettuces and so we get a bit of rotation little gem again purely because my husband doesn't like and also his mother didn't grow them no no no he's in control of the lettuce side and I've got some also some pink pinky red ones just coming through we eat a lot of carrots so I've got carrots at different stages and the strawberries they're Garriott I had them in France first of all and they're very productive and we were enjoying them they seemed to have quite a long season I also like leeks we've got a few leaks and I do our own onions runner beans of course I want that they're not in raised bed these potatoes I borrowed on with gloves on and we had our first ones on Sunday and we had a great sort of ceremony eating them and everybody had say they were the best ever and they were and when these go back and I've taken them out then my little gem squash will spread over there and also my quartet at the moment little bit restricted I've got things I think a little bit too close together thought you might tick me off about that no the thing is in raised beds because you've got perfect soil conditions and you're giving them lots of moisture you really can't afford to go much closer together than you would normally in beds on the ground I'm going to soon as you've got I'm going to cook some beetroot which will give a bit more space to buy spring onions and just in front of that I've got more beetroot coming because we eat a lot of beetroot and I do it in a sweet pickle vinegar and I love it you were very wise when you were planning this you said you must be able to get your wheelbarrow all the way around in between I said in my old age I want to be able to sit on the wall and weed and even as I am now I come in the evening and just pull the smallest weeds out and it's sheer pleasure not to have to bend right down so it's my pride and joy it is the rolls-royce of a greenhouse and what I got in there not an awful lot at the moment I've got tomatoes and cucumbers because I make a lot of cucumber people I grow the little short ones and Tom isn't my son gave me two plants and they are prolific and with this wonderful phone that we've now got that takes pictures we exchange who's got the biggest ones and you'll kindly brought me some today cucumber pickle is one of the best things to make it cheers up smoked salmon when you want to make it different it's good when we moved and we knew we'd got the house compost is top of my list each time we came I would bring all my kitchen waste and all the non-food kitchen waste all the leafy things and I've started a compost here and added to it every week we had very nice brick ones in the old house but we have to economize somewhere and we're using these pallets and it works very well and you brought me an aubergine now that's something I've always wanted to grow if you look at any old cookery book they say slice it and sprinkle the salt I've given all that lock up and you don't need to do and I do them straight to use in a recipe if you don't want to use oil or butter and you can actually blanch them and then put a small amount of oil or water on because they do soak up an awful lot of fat and some people are trying to cut down all that think about though a few years apart Mary and I have shared experience from our younger yes [Music] Barn high high school few years ago huh and we both shared the same headmistress miss Blackburn is slapping unforgettable and we both spent a lot of time outside her study door one we'd been reprimanded I remember the green light and you cook a new heart sank when it flashed and you could go in I think she'd be quite proud of us both yes because at school I felt I was a total failure I know that I'm much happier now than I was at school and and in my dotage I'm enjoying the garden and I'm exceedingly gate grateful for you designing it for us because I enjoy all the time that I spend in it but I've got lots of things to add to it this room for some more plants [Music] you you

Channel: Bunny Guinness

Views: 174,677

Rating: 4.8878798 out of 5

Keywords: Mary Berry, Great British Bake Off, Garden design, roses, agapanthus, aubergine, raised beds, Bath High School, Chandos beauty, Mary Berry's Garden, Mary Berry's Home, gardening with Mary Berry, baking, lockdown baking, lockdown, garden lockdown

Id: UUPdCqnVgHU

Length: 14min 2sec (842 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 11 2020