Original subtitles

Hello, welcome to Gardeners' World.

I'm just making a hole here in the Jewel Garden,

trying to do as little damage as possible

to the plants around me because it's time to plant up

probably the most spectacular thing that we grow anywhere

at Longmeadow, and that is a salvia - Salvia dombeyi.

Like all salvias, it likes a sunny position

with well-drained soil,

which the latter is a bit of a stretch for us here

because our heavy clay is hardly what you call well-drained -

but it does OK. We grew it last year here in the Jewel Garden

and it was fantastic with long, tubular red flowers,

and it can grow up to ten foot tall.

And I've overwintered it in the greenhouse.

So now I want to take it out without damaging it,

which I have to say is not easy at the best of times.

Come on. There we go.

It's coming. It's coming.

There we are. Da-dum!

And in you go. Perfect.

All right, let's get this back-filled while it's happy.

Coming up on today's programme...

Carol is rejoicing in the seasonal displays

at Trebah Gardens in Cornwall.

Wherever you look, there's innovation, beautiful ideas,

and you just get this feeling of optimism

and looking forward to the future.

With box across the UK being decimated by the combination

of caterpillars and blight, Nick visits RHS Wisley

to discover alternative shrubs for hedging and borders.

You know what? The good news is, there are all sorts of plants

that can give you that box-like effect

without having to plant box.

And I will be planting my squashes and outdoor cucumbers.

Before I plant this Salvia fulgens,

I'd like to take some cuttings.

Now salvias take very well from cuttings

and traditionally you take cuttings at the end of summer,

in early autumn, as a kind of insurance policy

in case you lose the parent plant -

but the truth is, you can take cuttings at any time of year

from salvias, if you find the right material.

And the right material are shoots -

new shoots without a flowering bud.

Now, at this time of year, they tend to have flowering buds,

but there are a few on this salvia here.

But if you are setting out to take cuttings of anything at all,

particularly at this time of year when it's hot,

you must be armed with a polythene bag.

And that is because once you cut the material off,

it's effectively dying, and it becomes a race

to get it into a routine medium

before it dehydrates too much.

And if you put it in the bag,

that slows that dehydration process down

and gives you a little bit more time.

Now, I'm going to start with a tip cutting.

There are a couple here, which actually will do very nicely.

I like these tip cuttings because they're a little bit stronger

than the side shoots.

So pop that in there, and fold it over.

Right. The important thing with these cuttings is not to hang about.

Time is not on my side.

All cuttings need a bit of preparation.

If you just chuck them in as they are,

you are not increasing your chances of survival

because it's the foliage that loses moisture.

So the first thing to do is to reduce the foliage.

I'll explain about these glasses in a minute.

So you take your cut material like that and you need a sharp knife

and just cut off the lower leaves, leaving a maximum of two,

so that has a much better chance of survival.

Now, the roots form best from just below a node -

a node is where the leaves form.

So although I've cut it in the middle of the stem,

I need to just trim it back,

so it's just below that point there.

So just with a sharp knife straight across.

Now, in the past, I've used perlite very successfully for salvias,

pure perlite, no compost at all,

because, to take a cutting, all that's needed is water and air.

You don't need any nutrition.

So if you've got it, you want to use it,

I know from experience that works well, but I've been told

that salvias actually take just as well in pure water

and that's what these glasses are all about.

Like that, and pop this in.

There. Simple as that.

Well, that is gardening made easy.

And if you've never taken cuttings before, nothing could be easier

so go on, give it a go.

And the whole point of taking cuttings from tender plants

is not just to make plants for free, which of course is good,

but because the cutting is identical to the parent,

it means that if you lose the parent to bad weather,

you've got plenty more to replace it.

Now that, of course, is important for most of us

because our winters are cold.

But if you're lucky enough to live somewhere warm by the Gulf Stream,

like Cornwall, then the range of plants that will survive winter

is much greater.

And Carol went to visit the marvellous gardens

at Trebah in Cornwall,

which I last went to 25 years ago,

and was astounded by the incredible range of plants

that they have growing there.

Trebah Gardens near Falmouth

is a subtropical paradise,

full of tree ferns, exotics and rhododendrons.

It's also famous for hydrangeas,

which in the 1950s were shipped

to Covent Garden Flower Market -

and there are still lots here.

But no garden stands still, and here at Trebah, they're very conscious

of that time between their spring splendour and their autumn glory -

and to make that more exciting, more interesting, more wonderful,

they've introduced all sorts of new plantings

with vivid splashes of colour throughout the garden.

Much of what has been done to bridge that gap

between the spring and the autumn is very, very deliberate.

But in this case, this plant has spread this way and that way

and creates the most wonderful picture.

This is Erigeron karvinskianus.

It's called Mexican fleabane,

so you know where it comes from!

And you can guess the kind of place it loves to grow

from how well it's doing here.

In contrast to this hard granite wall,

it's just so endearing, it's delightful.

And if you'd like some, don't go pulling it out of a wall,

because it won't grow.

And anyway, you shouldn't do that!

The reason it won't grow is because each of these little plants

has made a taproot, which pushes in between the stones

to find nutrients and water.

But what you can do is get some seed, put your seed on the top

of a half seed tray, full of gritty compost,

cover it with a bit of grit, water it well from underneath

and within a few weeks, it'll germinate.

And once you've got your individual little plants, you can push them

carefully into your wall or wherever else you want them to grow

to create this wonderfully frothy effect.

This tiny erigeron fringes this magnificent bed of succulents...

..which pepper the top of the garden -

and amazingly, they can stay in the ground over winter.

Towering over the whole scene

are these giant echiums.

This is Echium pininana, it's from the Canary Islands.

And very, very few of us could actually get it

to this sort of stage in our own gardens,

although there is a little native plant, viper's bugloss,

which has exactly the same sort of flowers,

although on a much smaller scale,

and is equally attractive to bees.

And you can hear, never mind see, this whole thing is humming.

It's buzzing with bees.

And this is truly the Land Of The Giants.

Look over here, these great towering stems of puya.

This is a plant from South America.

And, in its native habitat, it would be pollinated by hummingbirds.

Well, even here, there aren't any hummingbirds around -

but the bees love this, too.

Aren't they absolutely brilliant?!

In contrast to the drought of the parched bank,

a natural stream runs through the heart of the Trebah Valley

and it's been turned into a primula paradise.

Isn't this perfection?

Aren't I lucky?!

It's just so beautiful.

You don't know where to start, really, but on the other hand,

you're just immediately drawn to this beautiful combination.

The iris in the centre.

It's an Iris sibirica, and it's called Ruffled Velvet.

It's got quite broad falls to the flowers.

And each one of them has a silver edge, giving it an added delicacy.

And how about this for a marriage made in heaven

with this lovely Primula helodoxa?

Brilliant, pure yellow flowers.

I really can't imagine how you could possibly improve on this combination

and the very fact that this yellow is picked up

right the way up the slope

or, if you prefer, right the way down this series of waterfalls,

just makes it all the more romantic,

all the more perfect.

Just to add to the mix, there are these arum lilies, too,

putting in a dash of clean white.

But it's the primulas that really lead the party.

Primula helodoxa is just one of a whole series

of beautiful primulas.

All of them come from Asia, and they all frequent damp places.

Many of them even grow in a bit of shade, too.

But they have their stature in common.

They have a rosette of leaves at their base

and then they thrust up these tall stems.

Eventually, there might be as many as eight of these whorls

at one single stem.

They set seed very easily, and they'll very often seed themselves,

which is one of the reasons they always look so natural.

So if you haven't got a waterfall,

or a wonderful boggy area in your garden,

but you really want to grow these sorts of plants,

then just dig a hole, line it with compost bags

turned inside out, puncture a few holes, return the soil,

and that will ensure that when you put your plants in,

they're going to absolutely thrive

because you can always keep them well-watered,

and you can enjoy these beautiful plants yourself.

As the valley widens out, there are lots of other treasures.

Bamboo in profusion,

more promiscuous primulas,

and lovely textured combinations.

This is podophyllum Spotty Dotty,

with huge leaves.

Dryopteris wallichiana, covered in furring emerging fronds,

with dark stems.

And hosta Blue Mammoth. You don't get much bigger than this.

This is a most wondrous garden.

It's so cared for.

Not only does it respect its history, wherever you look,

there's innovation, new plantings, beautiful ideas,

and you just get this feeling of optimism

and looking forward to the future.

Of course, the thing that makes gardens like Trebah

and the other gardens in Cornwall,

Pembrokeshire, West Coast of Scotland so special

is the Gulf Stream.

That warms them up just enough

to make all the difference in the world.

So do visit if you possibly get the chance.

Now, I hope you've been growing the cactus mix dahlias from seed

that we began here earlier in spring.

They've now got a good size and ready to plant out.

What we have are pretty nice, healthy, good plants

and you take them out and they've got a good root system

and this should grow well.

Dahlias, remember, come from Mexico.

They are fairly exotic plants.

They respond well to heat and light and air and water and rich soil.

So if you can give them as many of those elements

as possible, they will thrive.

And do bear in mind that they won't all be good.

Some will be absolutely beautiful, but because they're grown from seed,

they will have mixed characteristics from each of their two parents.

Now, these are looking good, and the soil is rich,

but if you have one like this, which is developing a flower head

and you can see that it's at the expense of side shoots.

So what I strongly suggest you do

is actually cut the flowering stem off.

And you can take it back like that

and, in fact, almost go right back.

I am going to be ruthless and go right back to there.

And that means that there will be lots of side shoots.

The flowers will be a little bit smaller,

but critically, the goodness

will be going into the roots and this will be all the better

next year for a little bit of ruthlessness this year.

And you can see a really good root system formed on that.

So we'll put this in here.

OK.

Right. It's now time to visit one of your gardens.

And we're starting out by going to America.

In fact, not just America, but right across

to the other side, to California.

Hello, Gardeners' World.

Welcome to our garden in Santa Monica, California.

I'm Lavina.

Today we want to tell you about our epiphyllums,

also called Jungle Cactus.

Most of the year, they display these wonderful large leaves.

Then, in early spring, the fireworks begin.

These beautiful buds will open to become these lovely large flowers.

Caring for epis is quite easy.

They like a mist of water on the leaves.

They like good draining soil and being packed in a tight space.

Epis are hardy down to freezing,

so you there in England should keep them in a greenhouse

until there's no chance of frost.

Cuttings are just like any cactus.

Snip off a section of a leaf about six or eight inches long.

Let it dry out for a week or two.

Rest it on a pot of soil and support it with plenty of grit.

This is the new one - we got it about four years ago,

and it's finally starting to blossom,

which proves again that gardening takes plenty of patience.

In closing, we just wanted to say thank you.

We really enjoy watching Gardeners' World.

It's been a refuge, especially in this crazy year.

Well, thank you very much for sharing your garden with us, Lavina.

Of course, what you grow outside with huge and full expression,

we grow as house plants,

and they're nothing like as big or as beautiful as that.

So it's lovely to see them.

Here in the Jewel Garden,

the biggest change we've made for years was to take out

the box hedging, which had suffered horribly from box blight.

And we struggled on with it.

And then, this winter, we bit the bullet and ripped them all out.

Now, what that's left is much more open borders and wider paths,

but it's a little bit harsh, a little bit rigid,

and I want to soften them up.

So I've got some plants here deliberately to plant

along the edge of the paths,

so that they can spill over

and just soften the whole effect.

And I'm starting with a hardy geranium.

This is a variety called Anne Thomson.

So I'm going to pop this in here.

And when you're planting on the edge of a path or a lawn to soften,

go right up to the edge. You want this to sprawl.

You're not trying to contain it.

Hardy geraniums are very tolerant of most situations.

These are a really useful plant.

But immediately you can see

that rather hard metal edging is softened.

Now for a splash of colour,

I absolutely adore geums.

And this is probably the best known geum of all,

it's Mrs Bradshaw.

And you can see it's got this brilliant vermilion flower.

Now, this is not actually a spreading plant, as such,

because the flowers grow and spiral upwards rather than laterally,

but the foliage will grow out,

and I think the key thing when you're creating edging

that you want to be soft and looking natural is to have a variety

of hummocks and spreads and sprawls, rather than just a rigid row.

So hopefully that will add another range of texture.

And then finally, I've got one here

that I'm a little bit undecided about.

This is a nepeta. I'm slightly worried that the blue

is not quite dark enough for the Jewel Garden.

And if it proves to clash in a bad way,

then I might have to move it to the cottage garden.

But if it works, it'll be ideal because it will form a low mound.

It never gets too big and, if popped here,

will just add that balance I'm talking about.

OK, there we go.

I will work down all the paths, getting a rhythm.

I've got about four or five different edging plants

and some of this is experiment.

Some will definitely work better than others.

But I love the new development.

I love the way that the Jewel Garden is actually changing

and adapting over time.

And we could, of course, have put hedges back that weren't of box

because there are alternatives -

and Nick went to RHS Wisley to check them out.

The buxus, or box plant, as we know it has always held universal appeal.

British native. It's small, evergreen leaves and dense growth

make it suitable for close clipping.

Incredibly versatile,

it can add form and structure to pretty much every type of garden.

Box ticks an awful lot of boxes,

but it's under serious threat here in the UK

with a combination of both box blight

and the invasive box caterpillar.

So now is probably a good time

to rethink those small, clipped topiarised plants or hedges.

You know what? The good news is, there are all sorts of plants

that can give you that box-like effect without having to plant box.

I reckon one of the best alternatives to box

has got to be this - it's Lonicera nitida Maigrun.

You can see it's got this dense foliage, so it can be clipped

in a similar way to box,

but it's got this slightly lighter foliage,

which I think's absolutely lovely.

And it's also got some added advantages to it.

It doesn't get any pest and disease problems

and you can grow it in sun or in partial shade.

The only thing you need to be careful about

is that it doesn't like growing on very heavy or wet soils,

but otherwise it will do extremely well.

You can see here, as well,

it's done a great job covering the base of this taxus hedge,

so this is slotted in brilliantly underneath.

Equally, it will work as a low clipped stand-alone hedge.

And I think it's really got to be one of the very best

replacements for box.

Yew trees are an iconic part of the British landscape.

You'll find them all over the place.

Now, left to their own devices, they will produce huge trees.

But believe it or not, this in front of me is a form of yew.

It's called taxus Repandens, and it has an almost sort of creeping

or horizontal quality to it, which means it can be clipped

and kept very, very low, which means it's a fantastic

alternative to buxus.

Now it stays evergreen.

You can get away with clipping it once a year.

And what's most useful, I think, is that it will grow

in relatively heavy shade and in full sun.

So you can use it as a border fronter

in all of those different situations.

If there's one plant, which I absolutely love,

I always plant it into my own gardens

and it always goes into client gardens, it is pittosporum.

Now it's a shrub that comes from New Zealand

and there are so many forms of it.

There's one in front of me just here,

a variegated form called Collaig Silver

and the one over there is called rather unflatteringly Wrinkled Blue.

Now you can see both of them can be clipped down

into quite tight hedge or topiary forms.

Equally, you can leave them as free-form shrubs.

Now, if you've got a large pittosporum in your garden,

the fantastic thing is that you can topiarise it.

In other words, you can prune that existing free-form shrub

into a cube, or a ball or a sphere.

I think the other fantastic thing about pittosporums

is that they're so pale.

And so if you think most of our evergreens through winter

tend to be darker, inky tones, these make a fabulous contrast

and provide a certain lightness into the garden.

And, as a final whammy, this cultivar, Collaig Silver,

takes on pink tones in the winter as well.

What more could you want from a shrub?

Keen to inspire gardeners to move away from traditional box hedging

and the threat of disease,

Matthew Pottage and his team at Wisley have been carrying out

studies on a host of alternative options over the last five years.

One that looks really promising, Nick, is probably the podocarpus.

A Southern Hemisphere native, but proving very hardy for us.

And long before this area was planted,

we had Podocarpus nivalis growing.

We had minus 16 back in 2010

and there was no damage to it at all.

And it's almost a similar growth habit to a yew or a box.

It is quite slow, but progress so far is positive.

It regenerates from old wood.

It's been happy to be clipped

and they just look really presentable.

And I think that could be a really good future alternative.

Progress to date is promising.

OK, I guess most people don't know podocarpus.

It's a conifer, right? It is. It's a conifer.

Almost looks a little bit like a box with small rounded leaves.

You have fruits on it, a bit similar to a yew.

I notice, as well, you've got corokia Frosted Chocolate,

which does what it says on the tin - it looks like chocolate.

I've only known it as a freeform shrub, but it clips really well.

You've got a few other cultivars, as well.

Yeah, we have both Yellow Wonder, Red Wonder,

and one called Silver Ghost, which is a favourite of mine.

Lovely tiny little silvery leaves and black zigzaggy stems

makes quite an unusual form,

but lovely, lovely, unusual texture to it.

I remember in the 1970s, back in my childhood,

berberis were absolutely ubiquitous, they were in every garden.

But I think gardeners got tired of them, they started to disappear.

However, I reckon they are due a revival.

They're such an adaptable plant.

Now, this is a form called Berberis thunbergii Orange Rocket.

And it's got that name because it has fabulous autumn colour.

But before it does that, you've got these lovely burgundy leaves.

You've then got the lovely little creamy green flowers,

which eventually turn into red berries,

which then join the superb autumn foliage,

which is a mix of reds and oranges and yellows.

So it truly glows at that time of year.

Now, going into winter, of course, it loses its leaves

and it does come with a warning.

It's a very spiny plant.

One of the big surprises here for me

in terms of its ability to be clipped quite hard

and given a sort of buxus look,

is this plant, which is Leptospermum grandiflorum.

Now leptospermums come from Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania,

and they tend to be quite loose, open shrubs.

However, this form is a little bit more dense.

Now, left to its own devices,

it will produce quite large white flowers.

It's a really beautiful-looking shrub.

But you can treat it in this way as well

and get some lovely topiary or hedging forms from it.

Of course it has an added bonus as well.

The leaves are absolutely packed with protective oils

and they have a very distinct scent.

It's got a note of citrus, of sweetness

and sort of Mediterranean herbs as well.

It's really, really lovely.

What the real joy is, is when you clip it, of course,

it releases those scents.

With so many fantastic alternatives that work just as well

without the risks, it's definitely worth thinking outside the box.

I think the whole box replacement story is a difficult one,

but it's fascinating to see such choice.

And probably the best way to go around it

is rather than thinking,

"What can I use that will make up for the lack of box,

"that is a substitute?"

Think, "What would I like to use as a first choice

"if I had all these plants, including box,

"laid out in front of me, which one would I plump for?"

And that way it becomes a first choice,

and therefore really a creative one, and interesting.

It doesn't matter what kind of hedge you grow,

whether it is a very low-clipped edging hedge,

or whether it's a tall boundary one,

whether it's deciduous or evergreen, now is not the time

to do any serious hedge cutting.

In fact, the RSPB says you shouldn't cut hedges between March and August,

and that's good advice.

That's because birds are still nesting their own young in the nest.

And if you start getting a hedge cutter out, you're almost certain

to disturb them, and the results will not be good.

However, they are growing strongly, and particularly, for example,

the hawthorn hedges we have up at this end of the garden.

It means that where you pass between hedges,

they can either be rather prickly or if it's been raining,

you just get - it's like going through a car wash

as you push through the wet growth,

and it's a good idea, just to very lightly trim

those vertical growths back now.

So just use a pair of shears

and very lightly, trim all the excess off.

That's all you have to do. And then again on this side.

And that really is it.

And then when we come to here, just cut this back.

And it is incredible how effective it is,

is if you can get the vertical lines

that should be straight, dead straight,

everything else locks into place around it

and forgives a multitude of sins.

Here we go.

That's all that's needed.

Now, still to come...

We visit a community garden in Deal, to see how gardening has brought

people together in this coastal town.

We're here all the time, we love it.

As soon as the sun's out, we're out here gardening.

We all have a lot of fun.

But now we're going to visit a garden much closer to home,

or at least my home, because this has been sent to us from a viewer

just a few miles from here in Herefordshire.

Hi, my name is Phil Powell,

I live in Herefordshire,

and if I may, I'd like to show you round the back garden of my home.

My wife originally laid out the garden.

She's gone on now, so I'm sort of like the caretaker of it,

and I do my best.

I really like growing hostas.

Most people have got one in a pot,

but I've sort of gone completely overboard and this time of year

is just the best time.

Just as the leaves are sort of fully unfurled

and before they start to make flowers.

Yeah, very restful.

This viburnum was one that my late wife brought with us

from our old house.

You see just how wonderful those flowers are -

they're absolutely splendid.

I sent a little bucket into the ground there

and made like this little wildlife pond, which gives it a nice feature.

Like, you can see I've got this...

I've got this mind-your-own-business.

It will take over the garden, but I'm stringent with it.

Every autumn I cut it back and keep it at bay.

And so it keeps it in this area.

But actually it looks OK, but it needs managing.

This little box dragon here

was one that I took some cuttings from one of the buxus in the garden.

A lot of people that come by find it unusual,

but anyway, I like it, so...

I guess I'm pretty lucky to live here, you know?

Anyway, that's my back garden.

Well, I think you've done Herefordshire proud, Phil,

it's a lovely garden, and it's interesting that your hostas

look so good because there's no question about it

that the local soil here, which is fundamentally clay loam, it's heavy,

and very rich in nutrients, is good for hostas.

And you can see here in the damp garden, the hostas are very happy.

I love them.

I love the fact they're so generous

and these great leaves with their wrinkles and furrows

and they really do hold their own with any other plant in the garden.

And of course, this is before they even start to flower.

And my theory about hostas is simple,

is if you have healthy plants,

they will be left alone by slugs and snails.

They need rich, heavy soil with lots of moisture.

So if you've got soil that's a bit thin, or not much organic matter,

or the drainage is very sharp, or you don't get much water,

they're going to be stressed, and stressed plants

are what slugs and snails go for.

And choose varieties with nice thick leaves,

and you will find that at least until late summer,

they won't be touched.

Now, we went down to Deal in Kent

to visit a community garden that was not only open to the public

and to the gardeners, but also wide open to the elements.

We're here all the time, we love it.

As soon as the sun's out, we're out here gardening.

I'm Linda and I run Sandown Castle Community Garden Group in Deal.

We started this group in 2015.

It was my husband, John, and myself and Marlene Walker,

and we come down here and do lots of community gardening.

Our garden is about a quarter of an acre and is a very natural garden

because it's right by the coast, and we have a little boat,

we have a wild flower bed, lots of terracing

and a good view of the sea.

We're on the east coast of Kent

between the North Sea, where it meets the English Channel.

We have a lot of wind, we have a lot of salt spray, and the salt spray

can sometimes go right over the garden.

We don't let anything deter us here.

We'll have a go at anything and we don't give up.

It was October the 18th, 2014,

and my husband, John, wasn't very well.

We decided we were going to go and have a walk and we got

to this place, looked across and John said to me,

"That looks really sad and sorry." It was completely overgrown.

And John said, "Somebody should do something about that."

And I got this vision popped into my head

with all these coloured flowers, and that's how it all started.

So John decided that he would put a post on social media,

which he did. And the one comment that stood in our mind was,

"If you don't like it, do something about it,"

and that's a bit like a red rag to bull for me.

And all those people who commented wanted to join the group.

When we started the garden, we were finding things in skips

and people were donating plants, giving us cuttings.

Down here, we've got some lovely lavender.

They came from someone's wedding tables.

We have another plant, lovely agapanthus that a lady donated.

She used to meet her friend here many, many years ago.

And sadly, he passed away.

So she wanted to bring something in memory of him.

So we have a lot of plants like that.

And every time I see them, I think of the person who gave them to me.

When we set up, we had to think about our location,

so we were looking at what could we grow here,

what could we see visually with the tiers?

You've got different tiered levels.

The sea thrift was already here when we started.

So what we did, we moved that to the front of the beds

while we removed the grass because it was completely overgrown.

The plants that work the best

are really the lower sort of rockery type shrubs,

sedums, and those sorts of things.

These lovely blue geraniums, they work very well.

The catmint works well.

We've got these lovely cowslips.

And the London Pride. I remember when I was little,

I used to really go in and examine them right inside.

I think they look like little iced gems.

They're just so vibrant. I like the colours, the yellows

in with the pinks, in with the purples, in with the blues.

It's just a whole splash of colour.

They make me feel happy.

I'm Betty, I've been coming here for about four years or so,

having a dig and putting a few flowers in

and hoping a few more wild ones will come,

because this bed is for the wild flowers to come to.

So to encourage the bees and the butterflies,

which we do get quite a few butterflies and bees here.

We've got some firebugs, what they call firebugs, little red bugs.

And none of us had actually ever seen these bugs before,

so that was quite good. We were quite pleased with that,

that we had something that was a little bit rare.

Because I live on my own, it's contact with the outside world.

And to me, that's probably more important

than actually planting the plants.

I'm Marlene. My particular role today is to plant the succulents

in the walls.

What I do is just generally make it nice and soft.

Then I get some nice, new, fresh compost

so that roots have got something to bite at.

Now, this large piece on the side, we don't need.

It's an old flower and what we want is all the energy

to go into the plant.

So we'll take that off...

..and then you push and push, push into the new compost.

So that's in good contact with it

because it's nice and big.

And then we secure it with some stones, pebbles, anything

to keep it really secure.

They're a very nice group of people, we've got a few people

that are with us now that are down from London,

living with us, joined in the community

and they are fantastic company, work hard with us.

And it's just a lovely area to be.

I've got a lovely, lovely sedum here, and the way we planted this

was we wanted the effect of it looking like a waterfall.

So we've taken it down so it flows down the sides

and it looks really stunning against the pink sea thrift.

I just like how it's all planted, how one thing merges into another.

This is just... It's just like a painting.

This is a lampanthus - it's one of my favourite plants.

This one's going to end up around the garden

and we'll do some cuttings. So we'll break them off here.

We'll pop them in some compost and potting grit

and pop them in the greenhouse until they get going.

And then we'll come and start putting them around the walls.

My husband has a really important role here.

He likes watering, and even though he can't manage to get around

very much these days, he loves to water from his rollator.

My husband wasn't very well

and we weren't in a very good place mentally, and he wasn't physically,

but starting this garden has made a huge difference.

It's filled a void.

It's given us hope that things will improve - and things have improved.

We get so many nice comments from people coming to visit.

They appreciate it.

We love doing it.

And we all have a lot of fun.

It means everything.

I love the way that they've gone with the landscape,

they haven't tried to impose a garden on it -

and of course, there's the fact that community gardens

are about so much more than horticulture.

Clearly doing a lot of good to a lot of people.

Now here in the Writing Garden, we have a particular kind

of horticultural - not problem, so much as challenge.

Unlike the Jewel Garden or the Cottage Garden, this is subdued.

We've reduced it down to essentially two colours, green and white,

and the secret is to keep it going,

making sure that there is this relay of different shades,

particularly of green.

But I've got some plants that I've grown from seed.

It's echinacea White Swan,

and what I particularly like

about this echinacea is that,

as well as its white petals, it's got a green cone.

In fact, that does turn typically yellow or orange,

like most echinacea,

but that white and green lasts for a few days

before it fully comes out,

and that picks up the whole rhythm of the garden.

This is smaller than many echinacea,

and so you can put it nearer the front of a border,

which is well, for a small border like this.

And it's fantastic for attracting insects, particularly bees.

So I'm just going to pop this in a slot,

just chop out a hole for it...

..and drop it in.

So, these have developed into nice, strong plants.

And of course, you don't have to grow them from seed -

you can buy them from a nursery or garden centre.

But if you are growing them from seed,

I suggest sowing the seed sometime now through to the end of summer

and they will grow slowly, they germinate slowly,

and they develop slowly,

and you won't have a plant ready to plant out

until this time next year.

So sow them, grow them on, store them over winter.

They're quite hardy, so they can be kept outside,

but they don't want to be too wet,

and then they will be ready for the garden next year.

There we are.

Now, that - very inconspicuous now, but at least I'm planning ahead,

and that will start to flower in about a month or so.

And I've got four or five that I can drop in

in the rest of the Writing Garden.

Now it's time to go to the last of your gardens this week,

and it takes us to Liverpool, to a much-loved back yard.

Hi, I'm Annika. And I'm Kenneth.

Welcome to our yard in Liverpool.

We've lived here for three years together,

and this is our little oasis of tranquillity.

We've tried to maximise the space available and we have a few plants

that add height and gravitas, if you like.

Two years ago, a friend needed to get rid of this palm tree,

for example, so we adopted it.

And then it took three friends and a large dinner as a bribe

to actually drag it through the house.

We learned to plant the tall plants with smaller ones

so that the wind and the sun don't dry them out too quickly,

as we like to visit our families

and we'll sometimes be away for a little while.

But mostly the Liverpool summer can be relied upon

to take care of watering.

All pots are on feet or movers to protect them

and to protect what's left of the old decking.

There's not much air circulation with the high walls.

We have an amazing variety of pests,

and our only hope is this little ladybird.

We now apply nematodes regularly

and sneak around in the night looking for weevils.

Our neighbours probably wonder what we're up to

when they hear our little battle cries in the dark.

Look, I've found one! Get it quick!

So this is our pond in a pot, and we've just got a simple tub there,

four beautiful plants which Annika selected.

We've decided to offer this nice little rippling effect,

all run by a wonderful little solar panel for 20 quid.

We were going to put some fish in here,

but we don't really trust the Scouse seagulls

to leave innocent fish at risk.

So there's our yard. It's not Longmeadow.

But we're definitely working on it.

I can tell you one thing, Kenneth and Annika,

you can get just as much pleasure from a garden

that is limited in size,

from one that is acres big.

And that's one of the magical things about a garden.

It's nothing to do with the size of the garden

when it comes to pleasure.

Now, I'm clutching this because I'm about to do one of my favourite jobs

in the garden, because it's one of the easiest -

and that is to spray the tree ferns.

And if you just moisten the air around them,

and particularly the roots, which are on the trunk.

The trunks of a tree fern are essentially a bundle of roots,

and if they dry out, that really affects both the health of the plant

and also dramatically the size of the fronds.

If you have a tree fern that seemed to be growing well and then one year

the fronds seem smaller than normal,

almost certainly that's because it's too dry.

So ideally, just get a hose

and spray it for only about a minute or so.

It's one of the very few times when spraying is the right thing to do

rather than watering at the ground,

because there are hardly any roots,

or feeding roots anyway, in the ground

under the tree fern - they're all there on the trunk.

So you want to keep them moist and keep the air around it moist.

And that way they will be healthy and happy.

And there you are, job done.

I always feel that tree ferns

have something distinctly prehistoric about them.

In fact, ferns, in general, you feel were all growing

long before mankind emerged to admire them.

So it seems a good time to revisit Robbie Blackhall-Miles.

Robbie has always had an absolute fascination

for prehistoric plants.

When I was little boy,

I grew up in a garden with a monkey puzzle tree in it.

I discovered that this plant had been around

since before the time of the dinosaurs.

This little garden of mine took shape just four years ago.

My partner and I went down to buy a hanging basket and came back

with a Wollemi pine tree.

One of those plants from the Jurassic era

that was only discovered in 1994.

From there on in, the garden grew around that tree

and we built this collection of fossil plants.

Some of the very earliest flowering plants that we grow

give a great insight into how flowering plants have evolved.

Things like illicium, the star anise flowers,

have been around on this planet for about 125 million years.

Darwin called the evolution of flowering plants

his abominable mystery,

and it's taken up until recently

for scientists to just start to figure out

where flowers originally came from.

Water lilies are one of the first flowering plants to have evolved.

They don't really understand whether that evolution took place

on the land and the water lily crept back into the water,

or whether the evolution took place in the water

and flowering plants crept out onto the land.

One particular group of plants that I'm really, really interested in

is the family that includes protea.

They come from the southern hemisphere.

So Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and South America.

So what I have here is a seedling of a cycad called Bowenia spectabilis,

and cycads are a group of fossil plants

that's about as endangered as it comes.

Some are extinct in the wild,

others only numbering one or two left in the wild.

They're rarer than tigers, rhinos, pandas.

By growing some of the plants that are threatened in the wild

in our own gardens, having got them from cultivation,

we can really go a long way to saving plants like this.

BIRDSONG

Thank goodness there are people

who are fascinated by one narrow group of plants

and do collect them,

because otherwise they can be lost.

Now, it's time to plant our squashes, or cucurbits, actually,

because I'm going to plant out cucumbers

as well as squashes and pumpkins -

and they all share the same growing conditions,

or, at least, love of the same growing conditions,

which is lots of sunshine and heat,

lots of water as the fruit are growing and ripening,

and as rich soil as you can give them.

Now, the reason why I've got this framework at an angle

and this one upright is because this is for the cucumbers.

So at this stage, I don't need to add anything to the soil,

that's already there - I just pop them in the ground.

And this is a variety called Swing

that you can grow indoors or outdoors.

It's a ridge variety.

I'll just pop that in there like that and this one in here.

As these grow, I will tie them in to the sloping support

and they'll quite happily climb up at an angle.

And then, as the flowers become fruits,

gravity will ensure that they hang nice and straight

and they'll be easy to pick.

And, of course, you want to have your sloping supports

whether they're canes or sticks,

facing into the sun so that as they grow,

the foliage won't shade out the fruits and delay their ripening.

Now, cucumbers will grow there, they'll get maximum sun,

and I'm going to grow my squashes vertically too.

Pumpkins and squashes like to spread.

They take a lot of space.

And I've found that by growing them vertically up a support

of any kind, really, you can get an extra 50% of harvest

out of the same available space.

The only thing is the support does need to be quite robust

because if you've got a big squash or pumpkin

and you've got, say, three or four on each plant,

they're heavy, and your average bamboo cane

is struggling to take that.

As for planting them, I'm just going to put one at the base of each post.

Now, this first variety is a small squash.

This is Jack be Little. Very tasty, and don't spread too much,

so, therefore, if you're very limited for space,

this is an ideal one to grow.

I'll put that in the ground like that -

and at the next row I've got here is...

..Blue Hubbard.

Hubbard squashes are long,

and this blue is a lovely sort of glaucous, bluey grey.

OK, I'll get the rest of these planted out

and then I'll give them a good soak.

Well, while I'm doing this, here are your jobs for this weekend.

At this time of year, you'll notice clusters of seedlings

appearing in your borders.

A lot of them will be lovely,

but they are often too intensely gathered around the parent plant

and need distributing.

So lift a group, break them up,

and then plant them where you want them to grow.

But be sure to water them in really well.

In order to keep a constant supply of fresh salad leaves

throughout the summer,

it's a good idea to sow lettuce little and often.

And as soon as the seedlings are large enough to handle,

prick them out into plugs, and in about four weeks' time,

these will be big enough to plant out in the garden.

And that way you will never run the risk of having a glut,

followed by no salad at all.

As the sweet peas come into bloom,

it's really important to regularly pick them,

otherwise they will set seed,

and this inhibits future flowering.

We've found that if you pick every single bloom about every ten days,

that's the perfect balance between having a good display in the garden

and masses of lovely flowers to decorate the house.

BEE BUZZES

I think it's more important this year than ever before,

and certainly at this time of year,

to give yourself a chance just to sit, stop

and enjoy the garden at its very best.

BIRDSONG

BEE BUZZES

WATER LAPS

Well, that's it for today,

and I'm away for a couple of weeks -

but Gardeners' World, of course,

will still be with you,

and in Adam's garden,

and I'll be back here at Longmeadow

in a few weeks' time.

So, until then, bye-bye.