Original subtitles

Hello. Welcome to Gardeners' World.

Well, it's time to clear this bed.

And earlier in the summer, I planted a group of three vegetables,

all sharing the same space, known as the "three sisters".

And that was sweetcorn underplanted with French beans and courgettes.

And the sweetcorn were fantastic.

It's a variety called Swift.

And I have to say they were the best I've ever grown.

So, that was a success.

The beans were good without being absolutely spectacular.

In fact, there's still quite a few on there, which I'll take off

before chucking them on the compost heap.

But the courgettes were, quite frankly, a disappointment.

Nothing like the quantity that one normally gets.

This courgette was a variety called Tromboncino.

But you can see it grew pretty well.

I think the problem was likely to be the fact

that I was cramming too much into a raised bed.

These raised beds drain really well.

But, of course, courgettes like lots of moisture.

So, the sweetcorn and the beans were taking up too much moisture,

not leaving enough for the courgettes

really to develop as they might have done. So, that's a lesson learned.

If you're going to do the three sisters,

give them a little bit more room than I've done here.

I shall leave this foxglove that's self-seeded in the corner there,

cos I always like to have a few flowers popping up unbidden,

but very welcome in amongst the veg.

Coming up on today's programme,

after finally having the opportunity

to get to grips with his own back garden,

Nick shares his design tips for making the most of a compact plot.

If you're putting together a border in a really small garden,

then every single plant has really got to count.

Joe meets the broadcaster Kate Garraway,

who, along with her children, found solace in her garden

in the darkest of times.

You can't think short-term in a garden.

You have to plan.

You have to have hope.

You have to invest in a future.

You don't plant something unless you believe

it's going to come up.

So, by planting something and believing Derek will see it

when it comes up, that gives us a sense of future.

And I'll be planting up my orchard beds

with a selection of shade-loving biennials.

Right. Well, having cleared away the three sisters

and dug over the bed and, actually, I've added

a little bit of compost,

it should now be ready for the next planting

and this will be elephant garlic.

Garlic is one of those crops that needs vernalisation to grow well.

Vernalisation just means a cold period which triggers growth.

In the case of garlic, it's about a month below ten degrees.

Now, to guarantee that,

the earlier you put it in the ground, the more chance you've got.

So, I like to start planting garlic by the end of October,

but failing that, certainly by Christmas.

And it's good idea to do it now while the ground is easy to work.

However, I grow less and less conventional garlic nowadays

because we find that elephant garlic does the job perfectly.

Now, elephant garlic has simply enormous cloves.

One clove of elephant garlic

is almost as big as a whole bulb of some of the more conventional types.

And although they're so big,

they're actually very mild.

It grows very well.

It's easy to grow and it stores beautifully.

This will store for up to a year if you keep it cool and dark.

Make a decent-size hole.

So, that goes in there, quite deep.

It's a bulb, and as a rule of thumb,

it needs its own depth above it before soil level.

One in the middle, pointy end up.

Pop it in like that.

And another over on this side.

Now, like all garlic, it likes quite a rich, well-drained soil.

It needs spacing rather wider than most garlics,

so I like to give it at least a foot apart.

Now, these will grow much better in a bed

than they will in the container.

But it doesn't mean to say that you can't grow them in containers.

I've grown garlic in pots and they work perfectly well.

Now, all I have to do is rake this over,

which will cover the bulbs.

They don't need watering because there's moisture in the soil.

And the one thing I can be absolutely certain of

is there will be plenty of rain over the next few weeks.

You should start to see the first shoots appear

in about a month's time.

There we go.

Underneath that seemingly empty surface

is the first of next summer's harvest

just waiting to burst out of the ground,

and because it's elephant garlic, to do so in grand style.

Now, we paid a visit to Nick in his garden at home

and over the last few years,

he's been so busy on other people's projects that he hadn't had time

to give his own garden the attention that he felt it deserved.

Well, lockdown changed that. So, for the first time,

he was able to get stuck in and get going with some projects

that he had had on the back burner for ages.

NICK: Back in March, as the country went into lockdown

in a very bare and barren-looking plot,

I put spade to ground for the first time.

By the end of April, most of the clearance had been done

and I was able to focus on the design.

And, of course, the planting.

Nearly five months on...

..and it is absolutely fantastic to finally have my own garden.

It's a relatively small space,

so I've employed various different design devices

to try and make the most of it.

One of the classic things I've done is to place the glasshouse over here

and it effectively divides up the garden,

creating a series of... I like to call "flirtations and revelations".

In other words, suggesting that there's something that lies beyond,

you can end up making a small garden feel quite big.

The other device that I've employed is the pergola behind me here.

And, of course, growing plants in this way means that they make

the most of the vertical space.

But it has the dual advantage

that all the foliage across the top of the pergola

starts to tie into those trees outside of my garden.

So, I can borrow bits of the surrounding landscape -

effectively nick my neighbours' trees.

All those weeks back, I was determined to try something

I hadn't done much before.

And at that uncertain time, it seemed crucial -

growing vegetables.

And, in fact, it was going to be the primary focus of my new garden.

But it didn't quite work out like that.

My passion for ornamental plants has meant that the vegetables

have taken just a little bit of a backseat.

My brassicas are OK,

but they're a bit like my school reports - "could do better".

I've had a good harvest of beans, though.

And my tomatoes are fab.

But, as for my potato patch,

a battle with the bindweed lasted so long

that I missed the planting season.

But I've now landscaped the area -

you've guessed it - with ornamentals.

If you're putting together a border in a really small garden,

then every single plant has really got to count

and you need to make sure you've got the right mix

that's going to give you a succession of colour and interest

over as many months as possible.

And I've got a bit of a recipe that can help you do that.

So, to start with, you need to put in the long-flowering perennials.

Now, there's two right beside me here that are incredibly useful -

this geranium, which flowers for six to seven months

and then this perennial wallflower - this erysimum.

And again, this flowers even more - probably up to about nine months.

The second component you need to think about are successional plants.

In other words, plants that you grow in association with each other.

So the Salvia Amistad is looking fabulous at the moment.

But about six weeks ago, it wasn't even in bloom.

However, at the start of the season,

I planted a mass of orange lilies underneath it,

so they were looking fantastic.

Just as they finished, of course, the Salvia came into bloom,

I cut back the lilies, and it kept the colour coming.

And then the third component

for creating a great successional border is the slot-in plants.

They tend to be annuals,

and I've grown several in the glasshouse this year,

which I've slotted into the front of the border

as earlier-flowering species have finished.

So, two examples of that are this cerinthe just here,

just pushing into flower. I put this in about a month ago.

And then, running all the way through the borders,

I've got this lovely tropaeolum.

It's got this fantastic variegated foliage

and it just weaves its way through everything.

With these three simple planting strategies, if you follow them,

you'll have months and months of colour in your garden.

Another good ploy is to take cuttings of plants

which may not survive the winter outdoors.

This Argyranthemum is a case in point.

So, as an insurance policy, I'm cutting just below the leaf nodes...

..trimming the foliage...

..and then potting them in a light compost where they'll root.

I'm going to keep these damp,

or they can even sit in a propagator

and just stay nice and moist.

And in three or four weeks' time, they will have rooted through,

I can pot them up and there'll be plants ready to go

into the garden next summer.

Now, I might not have been hugely productive

in terms of the amount of fruit and veg that I've produced outside.

But in the glasshouse, I've tried out a few unusual edibles.

Now, one of them is this, lemongrass.

Native to India, lemongrass has a lemony scent and the stems

have a citrus flavour, which is regularly used in Thai food.

Now, over here, this is Salvia hispanica,

otherwise known as chia.

Now it comes from Mexico

and the seeds are high in Omega 3, which is quite unusual for plants,

and it also has a good range of trace elements.

So, it's a really good, nutritious plant.

Now you can put them on top of breads that you bake.

You can mix it into biscuits.

Or one of the ways you can treat them is to start out

with the raw seed like this,

and then soak them in milk or a milk alternative or even yogurt.

And what you wind up with is chia pudding,

which is this extraordinary-looking stuff.

It's a little bit like frogspawn. I'm going to try it.

Mmm. I have to say, it's actually really pleasant.

It's kind of smooth and silky.

The gel that's inside the seed has come out and surrounded it,

so it makes each individual seed much larger.

I reckon it's actually quite tasty.

Now, the third of my unusual edibles is this.

It's Spilanthes, or commonly known as the electric daisy.

Now, it's just been licensed for use in dentistry as an anaesthetic,

but, historically, it's been most commonly used as food flavouring.

It is said to initially have a lemony flavour,

quite strong lemon flavour,

and then, to make you salivate,

and then, finally, it's supposed to give you

sort of a mild electrical sensation in your mouth.

I'm just about to try it out.

And let's have a go.

Wow!

Wow!

Wow...

Well, I know why it got its name.

That was intense and unique and lemony and, mm,

slightly feel like I'm being electrocuted at the moment.

But, yeah, I think it's good!

Phenomenal flavour, but perhaps best used in moderation...!

From the glasshouse to the summerhouse,

the beds to the borders,

my new garden has taken on a life of its own

and become a huge part of mine.

Nick has made a lovely garden.

And what's so impressive

is that he's created a sense of profusion and substance

and variety and longevity - yet used very few plants.

And it's that skill in expertly selecting your plants

that is the key, I think.

This is a tray of foxgloves that I've grown from seed

and this is a very good time of year

to be planting out biennials like foxgloves.

But first, we're going to visit one of your gardens.

And Simone and her daughter Alessandra from West Sussex

have sent us a film celebrating the Seed Swap

that they've set up from rather an unusual base.

My name is Simone Graham

and I formed a community group to restore and repurpose

this beautiful old K6 phone box into a Seed Swap.

It's for the local community,

if they have surplus seed or if they have any seed

they've gathered from their garden,

they can bring it here and swap it for some seed

that somebody else has left. So, come inside and have a look.

I'm going to swap some seeds today.

So, I've got some... Is it a foxglove?

Yeah, foxglove and some broccoli.

So, foxgloves go in "Flowers A"...

"Flowers A-F"...

..right there.

I'm going to choose...

..this one... Yeah.

This.

And then, one of these.

The box has been a real hub for the local community.

We've got different community groups involved.

We've got the local Men's Shed who has fitted out the bookcase.

We've got a local running group who does a phone box dash

on a Friday night between the different phone boxes

that have been refurbished in town.

And we've got the local horticultural groups involved,

as well, which is really great.

So, if you have an old K6 phone box in your neighbourhood

or you've got a corner of a store or anything,

to set up a Seed Swap is a really great and easy thing to do.

Although there've been lots of Seed Swaps around

for quite a long time, Simone and Alessandra

have brought real charm and wit to it.

And wouldn't be lovely if every village and town and city

in the country could use all the thousands of old call boxes

for Seed Swaps? It's a lovely idea.

I've got some plants here, some of which I've grown from seed

and some of which I have bought.

These are biennials.

I've got three different types - foxgloves, honesty and sweet rocket.

And the nature of a biennial is that the seed falls,

germinates quite quickly, grows into a small plant

and then overwinters without growing any more.

But, come spring, they're in a really good place,

with a strong root system to grow fast,

flower, and then the seed falls and the cycle repeats itself.

So, it's a little late to sow seed now,

but you can buy plants from garden centres

and now is the perfect time to plant out the young biennials

so they're ready to grow and flower

where you want them to in your garden next spring.

This is probably the best-known biennial there is,

which is foxglove.

However, this particular foxglove

is not like the ordinary Digitalis, the purpurea,

with these lovely purple, pinky bells of flowers.

This is a variety called Sutton's Apricot

and a really good apricot is rare,

but I treasure it.

I've sown a few trays of them

and I'm going to be planting them all the way down these borders.

So, with any luck, next spring they will set a colour tone,

when they flower in May and June, that will be really special.

It's all right. There's a good girl, you stay there.

So if I put that there.

And then another back in here next to this hydrangea.

Foxgloves are essentially woodland plants.

They grow best in clearings and glades along the edge of woods.

So, if you've got shrubs or small trees,

they are perfect for planting in amongst them.

Now, I've also got...this,

which is sweet rocket.

Sweet rocket comes with a range of colours from white

through shades of purpley-pink,

through to a deep mauve and are lovely.

But what makes them even better is that, whatever colour they are,

they are deliciously fragrant, particularly in the evening.

So, this can go in here and I'll put another one there too.

And the final one is honesty,

which has lovely mauvey-purple flowers.

Fantastic for pollinating insects in spring,

but it's grown as much for its seed heads as its flowers,

because when the flowers are over,

the seed heads are these silvery two-dimensional discs

and they will last right through winter.

So, all in all, this is a plant that gives you a double hit.

Really good flowers and fabulous seed heads

and it will grow perfectly well in light shade.

This can come back in amongst there.

And one at the back there too. Right, let's start planting.

You stay there, Nell. You let me do all the work.

You rest.

You see, if I could train you to use a trowel,

you could plant them too,

couldn't you? I'm sure Patti would.

Well, there is no secret to these. You simply...

..make a hole

and plant them so that

the level that they're in the pot is the same as the soil.

It's a good idea to plant biennials in groups.

However, avoid doing rows or lines or even grids,

because the art of making borders like this work,

particularly if there's dappled shade

and a mixture of trees and shrubs and annuals and perennials,

is to make it look as though it is as natural as possible.

We've now got a chance to have another look

at the orchid collection at Kew,

and join its curator, Bala Kompalli.

I'm a botanical horticulturist,

working for the last 13 years.

My role involves looking after one of the largest collections

in the tropical nursery,

which is orchid collections in the Orchid Unit.

Orchids belong to one of

the largest flowering plant families in the world,

with over 25,000 species and still growing.

When I was a child, I used to hear about

my grandfather's interest in growing plants.

He always used to collect seeds from various parts of India

and then grow them, and used to label them very meticulously

and look after them.

And I started paying interest in plant life

and it became my biggest passion since I was a child.

My job is not just creating beautiful displays.

It's a lot more than that.

My work also involves working with different scientists

from all around the world.

For example, the orchid species here

are used for various taxonomic studies,

conservation research, educating the next generation of horticulturists,

public displays, festivals,

and I'm proud to be a part of it day-to-day.

Here in Princess of Wales Conservatory,

this exhibit reminds me of my home

because it shows how orchids naturally grow

on their host trees in the wild.

Although orchids are distributed in many parts of the world,

India has some fabulous species.

For example, this one belongs to the genus Thunia.

This genus is widespread from Indian subcontinent to China

and Peninsular Malaysia.

And this has a very unique type of pseudobulbs,

look like canes,

and the leaves are lush green when they're growing

and they spread in alternate fashion.

I saw them growing, hundreds and hundreds of them

on a big branch of tree,

and all the pseudobulbs are leaning, facing the ground.

And it looks amazing to see them all at one place.

Many of us know what these are.

These are the orchids which are commonly seen

in the supermarkets, garden centres.

We buy them to decorate our windowsills.

What many of us don't know is these come from

a very humble little plant

which is called Phalaenopsis pulcherrima.

Phalaenopsis pulcherrima is a particular species

which is seen in northeast India in the state Assam,

and they spread up to Hainan in China.

And those tiny little beauties are bred over and over and over

until they get the desired size and shape

and the longevity of the flowers to produce beauties

like these hybrid Phalaenopsis, or moth orchid.

I love my job because I can always say that when I come to work,

I can always say, "This is my office."

So this passion, it never stops.

My aspirations are to expand the living orchid collections,

and in that course, I will learn more about

these critically endangered or very important orchid collections.

At the same time, I can pass on my knowledge to the next...

..as many future generations as possible.

I think what is really important about what Bala is saying

is that knowledge, all this incredible depth of knowledge

and wisdom that people like her have amassed

should be passed on to the next generation

because knowledge can go extinct just as plants can.

Now, I've got growing here in the copse

nothing as extraordinary or rare as any orchid, but are unusual.

And these are colchicums.

This is Colchicum speciosum Album.

And they're great big flowers,

but they don't have any foliage that you can see.

So they rise out of the ground unadorned, which of course,

is why they're called naked ladies.

In fact, they do have foliage,

but it never appears at the same time as the flower.

The foliage comes first in early and midsummer

and then dies right back.

And then, in autumn,

the flowers appear.

And the extraordinary thing is that although I know they're here,

there is something startling about their appearance every year.

Now, for all of us, this has been an extraordinary

and difficult year,

but for some, it has been a lot tougher than for others.

And this is certainly true of the broadcaster

and journalist Kate Garraway.

But throughout remarkably troubling times,

her garden has remained

a constant source of strength and comfort.

And Joe went to visit her.

Over the past few months,

we've all been through some very challenging and difficult times

and up and down the country,

I think we've realised that green spaces and gardens

are more vital than ever.

Today, I'm visiting TV and radio presenter Kate Garraway

in her London garden.

A space that has become a lifeline for her family.

So, here you go.

Steps are a little... Wow, lovely big garden, for London, it's...

It's... It's big. We're so lucky.

We are so lucky.

We bought the house, Derek and I, for the garden.

So we've been here four years.

And I know you're probably thinking we haven't done much,

but it was literally covered in brambles.

Covered in those reeds.

I don't quite know what they are, but, you know... Oh, the flag iris?

Oh, it is flag iris! I've always called them flag iris,

and everyone said they're not sure.

Yellow, yellow... They're big yellow flowers. Yeah, flag iris.

So it was covered in that.

But what we did have was all these incredible trees.

Yeah. Apple trees, pear trees, greengage everywhere.

Yeah, lovely. So it might have been an orchard or something here.

I wonder if it is, because lots of the gardens in the road,

everyone said they've got lots and lots of fruit trees in here.

The first job really was just to clear everything

and see what was there.

And for the first year,

we'd just watch to see what would come up. Ah!

That's exactly what you should do.

Yeah. We always say you should do that but no-one ever does it.

Everywhere, roses came.

It felt a little bit, that first year, like being in Sleeping Beauty

and we were the prince sort of hacking our way through the thorns.

And what emerged were all these incredible roses

and they were just everywhere, and it was so beautiful.

But it's obviously been an odd year.

Yeah. For the world and probably,

you know, very directly personally for me.

So... Well, your world's been turned upside-down.

Derek, who didn't have the symptoms of a cough and a temperature,

suddenly at the end of March just said, "I feel really unwell."

And we had 24 hours of thinking, "What is this?"

And calling doctors.

And then eventually the doctor said, "Call an ambulance."

So this was end of March,

he got into the ambulance, went to hospital,

was found to have Covid.

And then suddenly, it just went whoom.

And it just took hold and swept through his body,

touching every part of his body.

And, um, he was fighting to breathe.

And then, you know, one Sunday morning,

they called me on the phone, on speaker phone and said,

"We're going to have to put him into an induced coma."

And he's just not woken up.

I can remember the week before he got sick,

he was saying, "I think we're going to have a lockdown.

"I think the schools are going to close

"and I think we need to think about it."

And in a strange kind of way, we were almost...

..rather looking forward to the idea of just, whew, breathing out,

which I think has been the discovery for a lot of people.

Yeah. So just before all the garden centres shut,

Darcy, who... Darcy's my daughter, she's 14 and Billy's 10,

suddenly said, "We should grow our own vegetables, Mum,

"because at least then we'll, you know, we'll survive."

And I said, "Great idea. Let's do that."

And I think for her, it was about something positive to do. Yeah.

It was like, "I can't help Mum. I can't help Dad.

"I don't... I know what's going on, sort of,

"but I also can't do anything about it."

You feel so helpless.

And it then meant together, we nurtured this.

And so we've had cabbages, we've eaten radishes,

we've had raspberries, we've had blackberries.

This became like our saviour, really.

Because you ask a teenager,

"How do you feel about the fact Dad might die?"

Sorry. Yeah... It's hard to even say it, isn't it?

"How do you feel about the fact Dad might die?"

They're not... They'll just say, "OK." You know, they don't...

It's too big. Yeah. It's too big a thing to take on.

But when you're sitting there sort of like planting radishes,

she would start asking me questions

and that allowed us to talk about it.

But it's also so positive. It's doing something really positive

and I was so proud of her for that.

And I could share things with her,

because I could see how much she wanted to know.

Turn the compost over in with the other soil...

It's an activity, and it's an activity that's about life.

It was rather sad because the radishes came.

They're one of Derek's favourite vegetables and we ate them,

and he still wasn't better.

So I then thought, "We've got to go more long term here."

So we were planting things that were going to take longer

to bear fruit.

And I'd say, "Well, Dad'll be better by then."

And, "Let's hope he'll be better by then."

And, of course, now that it's been so long,

we've now got a huge basket of bulbs.

And I was like, right, "Let's plant these so that when Dad comes home,

"the place will be full of colour."

When you're living day to day on a knife edge,

doing something that gives you a future

just helps a sense of progress, really,

where there actually is none in the direct situation.

I'd often get a phone call at midnight saying,

"We're not sure if he's going to make it through the night."

Um...

And you can't sleep after that. Yeah.

So I... And I was helpless.

So I'd come out into the garden, one o'clock in the morning,

and do random mad things like water his favourite plants.

You know, it doesn't take a trained psychologist to know that

by watering them and not letting them die,

I sort of felt like I was doing something to keep the hope alive

and to keep the spirit of him alive.

And I feel like nature paid me back

because they then just grew the highest they've ever grown

and they've flowered beautifully with wonderful yellow flowers.

These are the reeds, the flag irises, that Derek loves.

And even though I've cleared a lot from the lawn,

I wanted to keep them here

because they're the memories of the house as we first bought it.

But after they've flowered,

they are basically just sort of reeds, aren't they?

So last year when it was really wet in the autumn,

I put in some allium bulbs

and everybody said they wouldn't survive

because it's so clay and wet. Yeah. And they have been amazing,

because they just kind of came up through

just as the flag irises went.

They were huge.

I mean, the seed heads now are still beautiful, I think,

but they were massive big purple flowers

with the lovely kind of pinky stems,

and they just suddenly made it wonderful.

And, yeah, I feel like those alliums fought back to make the reeds work

against everyone's advice, and I love that.

I'd often have to be up all night.

Still do sometimes,

talking to Derek in his state on FaceTime.

So they set up a iPad and I could talk to him on FaceTime. OK.

Obviously he can't respond, but I can talk to him. Yeah, yeah.

But would you do that from the garden, so that he...?

Yeah. OK.

I'd sit in the garden and do that

and talk about the things that he loved.

It's just a lovely thing to do.

And then also sometimes where there were moments

when I was really overwhelmed by fear, erm, and uncertainty

and, you know, what life was going to be,

and I would literally just focus on the movement of the leaves

and try and stop the adrenaline and calm me.

It's kind of mindfulness,

and I think the garden is very effective at that.

And I think being in nature,

whatever patch of ground you can get to and doing that,

is really good for any stress.

And I think it's made a world of difference.

It's been the most important space for us.

It's been a place to find joy.

It's been a place to find hope.

It's been a place to go a bit crazy and feel a bit unleashed

in a stifling physical and emotional time that we've all lived through.

It just gives you that sense of positive moving forward

that I think only a garden can do, really.

You can't think short-term in a garden.

You have to plan.

You have to have hope.

You have to invest in a future.

You don't plant something unless you believe it's going to come up.

So by planting something and believing Derek will see it

when it comes up, that gives us a sense of future.

Well, obviously, all of us send our warmest wishes

to Kate, her family and to Derek.

And it's profoundly moving and inspirational to hear

how the garden has been this source of comfort

and inspiration for her,

but it's actually a familiar tale.

I've heard people who seemingly are coping with terrible things

have found the garden has really helped them.

Gardens can't make our problems go away, they can't solve them,

but they can help us to deal with them.

And if it gives us hope and faith in a better future,

that surely is as important

as any other aspect of gardens or gardening.

I know that, for some people,

February is the cruellest month of the lot.

But as a gardener, there are plants that you can plant now

that will brighten the darkest winter's day.

And these are the jewel-like little bulbs

that are small,

but have really rich colours.

You can put them in a window box or a roof garden or a balcony

or outside in a tiny little yard,

and they will still perform.

I'm going to start with an iris called Harmony,

which is a lovely rich cobalt blue.

And it's got an egg-yolk-yellow flare on its fall.

The fall is the petal that drops down in all irises.

These irises need really good drainage.

So your compost needs to be right.

What I've got here is my basic

coir and bark-based compost,

mixed with a bit of perlite and a bit of leaf mould.

So I put two scoops of that in.

Now, I'm going to mix that with grit.

And you need at least a third of the volume with grit.

Actually, I like to do a bit more than that

and do almost more like 50%.

If you can't get grit, perlite will do the job,

but grit is absolutely ideal.

Mix it up.

Like that.

Half fill it.

And you can see that these are plump little bulbs

that almost look like nuts.

And of course, you always plant them pointy end up.

We can put these about an inch apart.

What I always do is...

..make a ring right round the edge of the pot

and then another ring in the gaps.

Cover it over with a layer of this gritty compost...

..so they're fully protected.

And then what I do is put a layer of grit on the top.

Doesn't need to be much.

When you have these outside and they're flowering in February,

if there is rain or if you water them, if you just have compost,

you can get splash, and the petals can get stained with the compost.

Whereas if you have the grit, that doesn't happen.

The best place to put this is outside, exposed to the elements,

but covered by glass from rain

because they like to be cold in winter.

But if they get too wet, then they can rot.

So those are the iris.

Now, I've also got some miniature daffodils,

a variety called Hawera.

Hawera are multi-headed and they're primrose-yellow

and they have got wonderful fragrance.

So we'll do the same technique of going round the outside.

When you're planting bulbs in pots, cram them in.

You want a really strong display.

Then cover those over.

There we go.

Daffodils are less sensitive to wet than iris,

but still put them somewhere where they won't sit in a puddle.

And then, when you're ready, when you see the buds start to appear,

move the pot somewhere where you can really appreciate them.

That's fine if they're very small pots like this.

But when you've got lots of pots and some of them are big and heavy,

moving them around for any reason can be a bit of a problem.

However, we've been sent a film...

..where that particular problem has an ingenious solution.

My name is Jan.

I live in Tredegar, which is in South Wales.

This is my garden.

And since Covid, I planted about 100 containers.

But I want to show you what I invented.

I like to have my plants right against my window,

but I need to clean my windows,

so what I did, I had two pallets which I painted,

and put wheels on,

so that when I want to clean my windows,

all I have to do is this.

And then I can clean my windows easily and then put them all back.

The other thing I've done,

I wanted some height, so I bought a hairdresser's stand

for colours, which I planted up the pots.

And I've got a bit of height in that space.

Also, because I can't sit in the sun,

and I don't always want to sit by my patio umbrella,

I bought...

..a patio base,

and I stuck it onto a piece of wood with some wheels.

And it's now portable.

So I can sit where I want to in the shade.

I love the way that gardeners like Jan all over the country

have ingenuity that combines with

just a sheer love of their plants.

These dahlias were almost rejects.

This bed here is composed of plants

who were either too small to plant out in the Jewel Garden,

we didn't think they would cope in the hurly burly of the borders,

or they were ones that we'd lost the label

and we weren't quite sure what colour they would be.

Well, all of them have done better than any in the Jewel Garden,

they've absolutely loved it in these beds.

And that's because

they are grown in open space.

They've got light, they've got air,

they've been planted in rows quite widely apart

in really rich, well-drained soil.

And you can see they've romped away.

So next year, I'm actually going to fill these beds

just with dahlias.

And these all came from tubers.

But this little patch here is one packet of seeds

called Bishop's Children.

They're all offspring of Bishop of Llandaff,

sown in March,

grown on and planted out.

They were planted out just to bulk up and maybe give us a few flowers

at the end of the year,

but these too have been flowering like mad since early August.

Now, when you grow dahlias from seed,

you don't quite know how they're all going to turn out.

But one or two of them are really beautiful.

Have a look at these here.

Look at that.

That is a really nice dahlia.

I like the way the petals are spaced.

I like the colour.

It shows you that dahlias can and perhaps should be raised

from seeds as well as tubers.

Now, dahlias can't be kept out over winter here

because they hate the combination of wet and cold,

but we've got the chance to revisit the garden of Louise Dowle

in Sandwich in Kent, where the weather is a lot milder,

her garden is sheltered and as a result,

she has got a subtropical paradise.

If I'm told I can't grow it,

I'm more likely to have a go at growing it.

I see it as a challenge.

I live here with my partner Steve.

We're both professional gardeners.

Steve's really busy at work.

This is really my baby at home.

The front garden is very traditional.

The back garden, in contrast, is full of jungly exotics.

To create the jungle effect,

we've used some huge plants in here for an architectural look.

This is Canna ehemannii.

I love this canna. I wouldn't be without it.

It's a definite must-have for me.

So the back garden is about 22 by 17 metres.

Because the space is quite small,

we decided to break it up

so that you can't see the whole plot from one vision.

You keep going round a corner,

around the path and something else appears.

Pathways have been put in because we wanted to create

that jungle effect, to feel like you're actually in a jungle

and the plants, you can get up and touch them,

things like the Eupatorium capillifolium.

You've just got to give it a stroke every time I go past it.

This here is our cordyline.

It is the only original plant in the garden.

So here's the cordyline with its house plants hanging on it.

They come out for their summer holiday, the house plants.

Some of the Spanish moss, lovely rippled bark on it.

It's very tactile.

There's some bromeliads as well.

So this is Amicia zygomeris.

It's a member of the pea family.

It's a hardy herbaceous perennial for us here,

but not necessarily for the rest of the country.

It's got a nice open habit to it,

so I always grow something round its bottom

to cover up its bare bottom.

I don't like seeing any soil.

So this is Iresine herbstii

and Panicum, Frosted Explosion, grown in here with it.

The garden primarily is a foliage garden,

but we like to add a little zing of colour just to break it up,

but not overly flowery in the garden.

This is a fimbriated dahlia.

Most of our colour choices in the back garden

are hot pinks and oranges.

We're actually a lot milder than the rest of the country here,

so this is our place to experiment and test the limits

of some of the hardiness of things.

This is Fuchsia denticulata.

It's not known to be completely hardy,

but now I've built up some stocks from cuttings,

I'm going to leave some out this year to see how it gets on.

We try things even when, technically,

they wouldn't work in the area.

I don't always stick to the rules and I try it.

Until you've tried it in your own garden,

there's so many varying factors that you don't necessarily know

if it will or won't work.

Have a go. Don't be frightened of the plants.

One of my favourite moments of the garden actually

is in the mornings when I get up and look out of the bathroom window,

and I really enjoy it from there

because I can't get close enough

to start seeing things that I think need doing.

When I'm out in the garden and I sit down and I jump up,

because there's something that I can see

that nobody else would be bothered about.

But I like to tinker a lot.

Well, I do exactly know that feeling that Louise talks about

both of the desire to tinker whenever you're out in the garden,

and also that first view of the garden, you look down,

whether it be from the bathroom or the bedroom,

and you can see all that's good and you can't see any of the bad.

And sometimes that's when the garden is at its very best.

Now, I can't pretend that any grass here at Longmeadow

is worth any kind of inspection.

It is low quality and in a way that's deliberate,

because I got rid of any lawns that we had

and wherever possible,

I've tried to change short mown grass to long grass,

which is brilliant for wildlife

and also a really good basis for introducing bulbs and wild flowers.

But it doesn't matter whether you have a narrow grass path

or a great big lawn that you want to look as good as possible,

because now, in October, is the time to give it a little bit of TLC

to set it up for next spring.

And good grass grows best with really good drainage

and lots of water.

So the first thing to do is to get rid of all the dead growth

that has accumulated over the summer.

And it could be moss, it could be thatch,

and just scratch it out with a wire rake.

And rake it vigorously.

It will look a bit rough for a few weeks,

but the grass will quickly start to grow back

and then next spring will grow much better as a result.

Having given it a good scratch

and got rid of all the loose dead material,

the next thing to do is to deal with compaction.

The easiest way is simply with a garden fork.

And just push it down and wiggle it about.

And you do this about every six inches.

And you can feel the compaction breaking up.

And if you've got a relatively small area,

this is a very good way of doing it.

Climate change, which is bringing us milder autumns,

means the grass goes on growing often well into November.

So more and more of us are cutting our lawns and paths for longer.

But it is important to remember that, by now,

you should be raising your blades.

You don't want to cut it as short as you do in midsummer.

It should go into winter

ideally about an inch long, which is quite long.

And that will help the roots,

and then next spring look better when you give it its first cut.

Now it's time to see the last of this week's films

that you've sent in from your gardens,

and it comes from a chef

who was unable to work during lockdown.

However, he channelled his passion for food

into creating a beautiful and productive garden.

Hi, this is Saiful from Essex.

I work as a chef.

Cooking good food

and bringing a smile to others is my passion.

Since April, I'm not working.

Beginning, I was a bit shocked, but I didn't waste my time.

I used my back yard for making a vegetable garden.

With good care,

you can do everything from chilli to eggplant.

Everything is possible with good care.

Many people ask me,

what is the secret

for growing my vegetables?

Let me tell you.

All my kitchen waste I use

for making good organic compost.

You can make whatever you want with your back yard garden vegetables.

This year I'm growing over 20 types of vegetable

and least 21 different types of chilli.

It was my great pleasure to share all my vegetables

with my neighbours, friends, relatives and elderly people.

Many people ask me, do I have a greenhouse?

I told them, I don't have any greenhouse.

I have a green positive energy,

which I use for making a good garden!

If my vegetables were as good as that, I would be very proud.

I've got here, and I don't know if Saiful grows this, mizuna.

Both green and purple.

And I intended to plant them out earlier,

but there were no beds free

and I potted them on.

I always grow mizuna because it is a really good winter vegetable,

because it's lovely in salads.

Quite like rocket.

The purple mizuna is slightly more mustardy than the green,

but they're both brassicas,

both Oriental vegetables.

They don't need much protection in winter.

I normally cloche them or fleece them if the temperature drops

below about minus seven, minus eight.

And I know for many parts of the country, it never gets that low.

And if you give them reasonable soil,

reasonable drainage, they will grow

and you can keep cutting them and they will grow back.

They're a cut-and-come-again veg.

A slug has been having a little nibble at these...

..but by and large, they don't like the mustard flavour of it.

Now, while I'm planting these out...

..here are your jobs for the weekend.

If you pot up hyacinth now,

they should be flowering for Christmas and the New Year.

Be sure to buy specially prepared bulbs.

Use a very free-draining compost,

and leave the snouts, or the pointy ends, sticking out into the air.

Keep them lightly moist and put them in a dark place

for the next few months.

And then, when there is a pale shoot about an inch or so long,

bring them out into light and heat

and they will flower a few weeks later.

Before you fill your greenhouse up with plants to protect them

over the winter months,

it's a good idea to give the glass a clean.

As well as improving hygiene,

this will maximise all the available winter sunlight.

You can get an earlier crop of broad beans by sowing some now.

Choose a hardy variety like Aquadulce

and sow them as you would your main crop,

with each being about six to nine inches apart and in rows.

Cover them over and label them.

The whole point is they will get an early start

as soon as the weather warms up next spring.

If we haven't visited the Paradise Garden very much

over the last few weeks,

it's because it hardly needs any gardening.

It's really the easiest part of the garden to attend to.

Everything just does its own thing quite happily.

The pots need watering and feeding every week,

but other than that, that's it.

And as long as the mild weather continues,

the verbena and the guara will go on flowering.

And I may not do much gardening here

but I do spend quite a lot of time just quietly enjoying it.

But no more time for today, I'm afraid.

We'll be back next week,

but at nine o'clock,

so I'll see you then.

Bye-bye.