All language subtitles for Gardeners’ World 2021 S54E24

Hello, welcome to Gardeners' World.

I've added some compost to this part
of the bed because I'm planting out

some Florence fennel.

Now, I've got some seedlings
here that are on the small side.

I sowed these about a month ago
and I probably should have done so

about six weeks or two months ago.

But it's not too late.

A mid-to-late-July sowing
is fine to plant out

at the end of August,
beginning of September

to harvest in October
and even into November.

As always, when you're growing
with a plug, if it holds together,

if you can hold it by the stem
and none of the soil drops off,

it's ready to plant out.

I'm going to plant these
about nine inches apart.

They need to be at
least six inches apart

so the bulbs have a chance
to develop.

And don't let them dry out.

They're one of those sort of
contrary plants

that need good drainage,
but plenty of moisture.

So keep watering if it doesn't rain,

add lots of compost
and that will hold

the moisture and
improve the drainage.

Home-grown Florence fennel
have a really rich,

intense aniseed flavour.

And I know you either love
them or you hate them.

Well, I love them.

Now, coming up on today's
programme...

..we visit an inspirational garden,
packed with luxurious summer colour.

All of this will flower
until the frost,

so that's my main aim, really,

to keep summer going for as
long as possible.

Come on, Domino.

We have an exclusive visit
to Will Young's private garden.

It's a garden of discovery
because there's a lot more

going on than first meets the eye.

And I shall be sowing seeds of
hardy and half-hardy annuals now,

so that I get really good colour
next spring.

A job that I always do at this time
of year is to redistribute biennials

such as forget-me-nots
that we have growing

here in the Cottage Garden -

honesty,

foxgloves -

these are all plants that flower,
drop their seed,

then essentially die.

That seed germinates very quickly
and develops into a small plant,

and then stops growing round about
middle of October, November.

But as soon as the days warm
up in spring, they grow,

develop their flower heads,
flower gloriously for us gardeners,

develop seed, drop, die and the
whole process goes on again.

And you can see here -
forget-me-nots carpeting the beds,

but because they're so crowded,
you won't get any better flowers.

So if you thin them by about a half,

you'll get a better display

cos you have fewer plants not
competing for nutrients or water,

and that gives you hundreds of
other plants to move elsewhere

in the garden.

Now, the secret of moving
these is to do so in clumps.

There you are, just take a clump
like that,

soil and all,

and put them in a trug or a barrow.

Now you'll find that the space
you're creating will be filled

by the surrounding plant.

Now, I'm going to move
these to the orchard bed.

But before I do that,
we had an exclusive opportunity

to visit the private garden
of Will Young at his home in London.

Hello. Welcome to my house.

Welcome to my front garden.

This is where I keep all my pots,
but the real magic is in the back.

Come with me.

Come on, Domino.

So this is my garden.
This is my back garden.

It's north-facing.

It's about six metres wide

by 13 metres long.

So it's quite a humble space.

And it was lawn when
I got the house.

And what I wanted to do with
the design of Piers Beeching

is create a really lush, verdant
space, which had constant surprises,

constant variation,
different textures.

So, you know, every plant
that I look at has something

interesting, a leaf that's
slightly different, you know,

embracing the colour green,

because there's so many different
colours of green,

and I didn't realise that.

I wanted such a variation of plants

where every plant had a surprising
leaf or a surprising flower.

Got the jasmine and white
flowers popping through,

but really, it's more about
the nutritious-looking,

green, splendid plants.

It's a garden of discovery.

At every turn,
you see something different.

But come and have a look because
there's a lot more going on

than first meets the eye.

I wanted to have a winding path
cos I think a winding path

creates more of a sense
of length and width to a garden.

People don't think that,
and it really has done that.

And as the trees have grown up,
like these two beech trees here,

they've given me
such brilliant cover.

So when I come to the end
of the garden,

I can sit here in this space,
listen to the radio,

and...

..I'm not seen by anyone.

Sometimes I look out and it's
almost like looking

at a sort of forest floor,

you know, but just with the kind
of forest that I'd like.

But I really do feel I've
crammed as much in as I can,

yet it still feels like it
has space.

So I've got a lot of features

that I've found and brought
with me from travels.

I've even got the old seed trays,

where I'm growing grass from my old
garden that was on Bodmin Moor.

But also you can bring humour
into a garden, you know,

seeing a toy metal plane, you know,
nestling in the wisteria -

it always makes me smile.

My latest thing is I found some
old fishing nets, which they were...

..the flotation for them were
bits of cork.

And I thought the texture -

because it's so organic
and natural, you know -

would look brilliant against my more
kind of structural frames.

So I've hung them and you can
just see them peeping

through and they're curious.

They make the mind think.

And I love looking around and seeing

all these different moments
and memories.

Over there, there's Thailand,

over there is a market that
I went to in Bermondsey

after I was on This Morning...
HE CHUCKLES

..after I'd won Pop Idol,
I remember it.

And I was being paparazzi'd as well.

I think they gave up cos
I was very dull.

They were like, "Oh, a pop
star that buys bric-a-brac.

"How boring."

But, you know, that's me.

Well, the newest experience
is Domino,

the dog who I bought back
during Covid times last year.

I rescued him from Los Angeles.

He has eaten some of the grass.

But I forgive him that.

Yes, I know.

And now he gets to enjoy the garden.

First thing he did when he got
off the plane,

came to the back of the garden -

I'd just put this
table and chairs in -

lay down and went to sleep.

It was like, "Daddy, I'm home."

I do like having punctuations
of colour, so the cercis here,

the deep sort of purple
that then is carried

into the pittosporum.

And this leaf is so beautiful,
you know,

that sort of waxiness to it, that
shininess to it, it's like lacquer.

Yeah. It's really...
It looks really rich and lush.

And if you really look into
the detail of plants,

you can see they all have
their individual beauty.

And that's what I find so
special about my garden.

So I'm very happy with my back
garden and I'm very happy

with all my pots at the front,
but I need a couple of pots

at the back and I really
need some advice.

I know the man to help me.

Because of the space,
I can't get a whole crew in here,

so I'm going to go and meet him
and I'm dressed for the job.

Well, we will be joining Will later
on the programme as he gets help

creating some really good
and dynamic containers.

I'm going to plant out
the forget-me-nots

that I gathered from
the Cottage Garden.

Actually, I've also picked
up a few foxgloves on my way

here into the orchard beds.

And I shall plant them
just as I lifted them, really,

in clumps to create groups.

Make a hole and in you go.

These are a very shallow rooted, so
you just can pop them in like that.

And that's it.

Yeah, I've got a foxglove here.

Foxgloves don't always flower
as biennials the first year,

so don't worry if you move
it and the plant seems to be fine,

but it's all foliage and no
flower, it will come.

This is not a job
that has to be done in one go.

But it does want to be done
by the end of October.

Now, we've been sent a film
from Leeds by Ben Chong,

who, like me with the orchard,

decided to dig up his garden
and fill it with flowers.

Hello, welcome to my garden.

This is my back garden.

I used to have lawn in the middle

and border along the fence only.

However, this year,
I decided to remove my lawn

and have used railway sleepers
in the middle as a path

and establish new border.

I start to grow plants that are
loved by bees and other pollinators,

such as lavender,

Jacob's ladder,

geraniums,

geum,

catmint

and many more.

I try to have successively
flowering garden,

where one plant is
flowering after another.

From late summer onwards,
I have dahlias.

Just like the colourful orchids
in my grandparents' garden,

they have bright colours
and can be used as cut flowers.

There seem to be a lot of work
in my garden,

but I enjoy doing all of it.

By simply digging the ground,
deadheading the flowers,

weeding and watering, I can relax
and recover from any stress

outside this garden.

For most nice evening like this,

I come out here with a cup of tea
and enjoy the beauty of flowers.

I hope you also enjoy this
video and have a chance

to have a garden like mine.

Thank you for watching
and I'll see you later.

Well, I think that is a really
good example -

dig up the lawn,
fill it full of flowers.

Looks fantastic, Ben, thank you.

Now I've decided to
dig up some grass, too.

A couple of weeks ago,
I strimmed this bank of long grass,

filled with wild flowers,

and I planted a lavender hedge.

And while I was doing it and looking
at it and thinking about it,

I suddenly realised,

it was one of those
middle-of-the-night moments,

that it was the right thing,
but absolutely in the wrong place.

It wasn't working
because this very good idea

of having a wild-flower meadow
on a bank

was at odds with the very good idea

of having a mound with a terrace
and all these formal lines and brick

and paths reaching this focal point

of the new summerhouse
in the middle.

And the juxtaposition,
I don't think was working.

One of them had to go. Well,
it wasn't going to be the mound,

but we could dig up the grass.

So I've taken off the turf,
dug up the bulbs,

and I'm in the process of
preparing new sloping flowerbeds

that will be part of the mound.

I've dug this over and
got rid of compaction.

If it's compacted,
then you can't get enough oxygen,

the roots can't spread properly,

the water can't drain properly.

So dig it.

Get rid of that compaction.

What I'm going to do now is just
level this off.

In the process, I'm keeping
my eye out for any weeds.

And I have a basic rule
about planting -

if I can't plant with my hands,
it's not prepared enough.

So I need to be able to get my hand

in to the wrist like that.

If I meet resistance,
it needs more digging over.

Now is the time to add
a little bit of compost.

Now, this is not going
to happen overnight.

This certainly is not a makeover,
but I think it would look

good next spring and very good
in about two or three years' time.

And I like that pace.

It's exciting.

That's what gardening is full of -
this anticipation and planning

and hope and a little bit
of failure along the line.

Now, we went to Essex
to visit the garden of Karen Mann.

Now, this is a garden that began
ten years ago and is now looking

magnificent and packed with colour.

I've always loved gardening.

To grow things, I think
is quite a lovely thing to do.

The more I grow, the more I want to
grow and the smaller my lawn gets.

The way I like to garden
is to think of the colours.

I quite like a lot of colour
and then to fill that out

with the grasses and some texture
to soften it, really.

What I particularly like about this
area of the garden are the colours.

I love the black foliage,
the reds, the oranges,

the very bright, vibrant colours.

This is a lovely
black-leafed dahlia.

This is one of the Mystic series.

I think it works really well
with their red flowers.

The verbena comes through,
has black foliage in the spring,

and as the flowers come up,
the foliage turns to green.

But that's a good foil
for the black.

But they're broken up by
the purple sugar cane.

and the eupatorium,

which I think, in amongst the black
foliage and the darker colours,

it doesn't flower, but it
just gives a lightness.

And it's quite a tactile plant.

You have to stroke
it when you walk past.

The garden may seem a bit unusual

because I haven't got
a lot of structure,

I haven't got a lot of shrubs.

I have got lots of flowers

because that's what
I like to look at, really.

Every year, I think that I'm going
to plant more shrubs,

less tender perennials,

because it's getting harder and
harder to dig them up

and protect them during the winter.

I've never really got
quite enough space.

But the problem is

that they're just the plants
that I'm drawn to, really.

They're the ones that I like
to grow, that I like to look after

and look at.

It does leave it a bit bare
in the winter,

but I don't tend to garden
very much in the winter.

We had the house built
ten years ago,

and we had built it with our
son in mind, who used a wheelchair.

Jake had muscular dystrophy.

So the area surrounding the house is
completely flat and all the garden

had to be accessible, which it is.

Jake was looked after by
a local hospice,

and his nurse used to come
here and she'd look round the garden

and she'd always say, "Oh, you
should open the garden for us."

And, like, you never really think
your garden is good enough.

But in the end, you can't say no.

But since we lost Jake,
I've carried on doing it

and it's been a really good thing to
do because it gives me a focus.

It keeps me busy.

And it's really helped me a lot,
probably much more than I help them.

This particular border, it's quite
long and it's quite deep

and there's quite a big drop -

it's probably about eight foot
from front to back.

It actually goes all the way
around the house.

Because of the drop
and change in levels,

I've got fabulous drainage here
so I can overwinter the cannas.

I don't have to dig them out.

It's often... It's the wet that
kills the plants, not the cold.

So that gives me
quite an advantage here.

I'm very pleased
with this Amicia zygomeris -

has insignificant flowers,

really, mostly grown for the bracts.

And I think they pick out
the foliage of this

Canna Mystique rather nicely.

And then the gingers are
just starting to come up.

This is Hedychium Tara. It has
a fabulous smell in the evenings.

It's a lovely plant.

And then this is Canna Eric Neubert
in the front

with some grasses
that have self-sown here.

This panicum looks like
little fireworks.

And another eupatorium
which I've kind of got everywhere,

just again to break up
the cannas and the dahlias.

Anything that is tender
will be out by November

and in the spring, I take cuttings
of everything in the greenhouse,

start sowing seeds in about January.

If it's a dahlia I particularly
like, like this one,

I'll probably dig that up,
divide it, make more.

And then, as soon as
the last frost has been,

I start planting everything
back out again.

So, yeah, never quite sure
what I'm going to have.

You never know how many
of your cuttings are going to take,

but hopefully I'll have enough
to fill the garden.

So this is the only real
shady area in the garden.

This Acer palmatum has been here for
quite some time and as it's grown,

I've enlarged the border around it
and that's given me more space.

So I've got
the Japanese painted ferns,

busy Lizzies and
the Strobilanthes there

which is a particular favourite.

And it's quite a different border
to the rest of the garden,

quite subdued,

not quite as loud as some of
the other parts of the garden,

which I think gives
a nice contrast, really,

and different levels of interest.

This part of the border
is actually my favourite.

This is the plants that I love
with the colours that I love

and particularly
like this Dahlia Chocolate Karma.

I love the darkness of the flower
and the foliage.

And I think when the sun shines
through, it's fabulous.

And it goes so nicely with the
miscanthus with the gold tassels,

the nepalensis,
which I've threaded through.

I'm also very pleased
with the Iresine

in the ground cover, which I think's
got lovely markings.

This catalpa is the main permanent
planting in this border,

and due to the colouring, it's
affected what I plant around it.

So every spring I pollard it,

I cut it down to about a foot -

that gives the big leaves,
but you do lose the flowers.

The autilon is my favourite plant
in the garden, the Red Tiger.

I think the markings on the little
flowers are fabulous.

Almost don't look like flowers.

So I've got the Leonotis behind me,
another tender perennial

that I take cuttings from
every year.

I have the one stock plant

and then it makes that amount
of growth in a year.

So that's a fabulous plant.
It fills a big hole quite quickly

and flowers from now till the frost.

All of this will flower until the
frost so that's my main aim, really,

to keep summer going
for as long as possible.

For me, the garden's everything.

Gardening's a really good thing to
do because it's made me come out

every day and do something,

and you're always looking forward
when you're gardening.

I'm always thinking next year
it's going to be really good,

thinking about what I'm going to
plant, the cuttings,

the propagation I'm going to do.

Although you are living in the
moment, you're also thinking

how it's going to be
and how it's going to be better.

Well, I think your garden looks
stunning, Karen,

and I share an awful lot of the same
taste and the way of gardening,

of using annuals

and kind of really pushing for that
dramatic, big summer display.

Well, I'm cutting back
these squashes and pumpkins

because we've come to
a critical point in the year.

These have been grown on the site
of our old compost heaps

so the soil is really rich,

hence lots of growth,

sprawling great vines
with huge leaves

and some squashes and pumpkins.

But great big growth
because of the compost

doesn't necessarily mean
good pumpkins.

So what I'm doing now is cutting
back excess tendrils and leaves

so the sun can get at the fruits
that I have and they can ripen.

Round here I've got some
Blue Hubbard.

That would be perfectly acceptable
at that size, but not that colour.

I would expect that to be
a lovely grey-blue.

In the process,
I will be removing flowers.

Any flower that is produced now
is not going to produce viable fruit

this year, so get rid of it.

So I'm going to cut that there.

And there. And what we have under
here, if you have a look, is...

..another one...

..which is looking pretty good.

There you go. How about that?

That's another really nice squash.

Now, still to come
on today's programme...

..Joe helps Will Young
create some stunning containers

that will look great in his garden
long into autumn.

I mean, you know what I'm going
to do with these pots, don't you?

Because you've designed them...

Oh, yeah. ..I'm going to sell them
on at a mark-up.

Really? Yeah, yeah, I've already
got my stall at a Sunday market.

I mean, you got the hat right -
you've got my hat.

Now we've got a first -
and hopefully not a last -

because we're off to see
one of your gardens in Germany.

Hello, I'm Emma,
and this is my husband, Wayne,

and welcome to our German
Schrebergarten allotment

in the Swabian Alp here in Germany.

We've had our Schrebergarten
since March 2020.

And we'd like to show you
around today.

We skipped the allotment waiting
list by taking on an unwanted plot

that had been empty for 20 years,

and we enjoyed getting stuck in
during our evenings and weekends.

The federal law for allotment
sets out a rule of thirds

to guide gardeners.

Roughly one third of the space

should be dedicated
to ornamental planting,

which can include lawns,
borders and pots,

so we've tried to give
everything a go.

A third of the garden should also be
dedicated to fruit, veg and herbs.

The final third of the garden
is for the hut and relaxation.

We've built a pergola
using wood we harvested.

We've planted some sweet peas
and some clematis,

and we also have our hammock here

so it's the perfect place just to
enjoy some shade and a nice brew.

And possibly the coolest bit
of our garden

is our natural underground fridge,

which keeps our drinks
nice and cold.

So thanks a lot for watching our
story and happy gardening. Prost!

I like the way
that Emma and Wayne's allotment

is divided into three areas
of beauty, productivity

and relaxation, and I also like
the idea of the underground fridge

with beer in it. That's not a bad
idea. I might adopt that one.

Here in the Paradise Garden,

there is a new flower

which I'd actually rather
given up on.

I planted 24 of these lilies.

This is one called Black Beauty.
Now, it's fairly late flowering.

Normally, you wouldn't expect
this to flower before mid-July,

maybe even into August,

but here we are in September
and it has just begun to flower.

In fact, it will grow much taller.

I want it to grow as tall
as verbena and it will do that.

But lilies can be quite slow
to get going,

so if you feel that you planted
a lily this year

and it's underperforming,
don't give up on it.

Now, we don't have any cut flowers
here in the Paradise Garden.

And if you're going to cut flowers
a lot from the garden,

it's not a bad idea to have
a cutting patch of some kind.

But to have
a whole cut flower garden

is quite a rare and special thing,

which is why we went along
to Stokesay in Shropshire

to visit the cut flower nursery
of Victoria and Barney Martin.

It just feels like the biggest treat
to be allowed to come here every day

and not to have to do something
that someone else tells us to do,

and to just get to play
in the garden.

We're so in tune with the seasons.

In the spring, we have boundless
energy and we just can't wait

to get to the garden and we just
spend all our time working here.

And then in the winter we go like
little sleeping,

hibernating creatures, and it's
a lovely, natural way to live.

It feels right.
It feels really nice.

So we grow cut flowers
in our walled garden on a slope

which helps for drainage a lot,

and it also gives you great views
out of the garden.

A lot of walled gardens,
you don't have that.

And it's south-facing, which helps
amazingly for sunshine

and we find that the flowers do
really well here in this position.

A large part of the garden here
and the backbone, probably,

of what we grow is annuals.

So earlier in the season,
the hardy annuals,

but at this time of year,
we have a lot of half-hardy annuals

like the helichrysum,
which I'm picking here,

which is a lovely papery thing,
a straw flower.

And this, ideally,
you should pick in the sunshine

because it'll be all open and lovely
and it'll last much longer.

And the cosmos,

which is another beautiful
bouquet filler,

and if you going to start
a small cutting patch at home,

I would recommend
that you start with annuals

because you can grow a lot from seed
and you can fit them

into a small space and they give you
loads of flowers.

And one of the great things
about annuals is the more you pick,

the more you get.

When you have chosen what flowers
you want to grow in your garden

and you know what you like
and you know it grows well

and you want to pick it, the really
important thing is to pick it

at the right time of day -

so, early in the morning,

conditions like today, perfect.

It's overcast, it's damp, it's cold.

If you wait until the middle of the
day and it's blazing hot sunshine

and you go out and grab something
and leave it in a little basket

to sort of wilt for a few hours
before you put it in water,

it's going to die and you're going
to give garden flowers a bad name

and it's a shame. So pick straight
into a bucket of water,

put them somewhere cool and dark
for a couple of hours

and then arrange them. And then
you should get a good first life

of at least five days and up to two
weeks from almost every variety

that you could grow in your garden.

There's a bit of a feeling that cut
flowers are only for the summer,

but we make sure that we choose
very carefully

so that we can pick flowers all the
way from the beginning of April

to the end of October,
by using things like shrubs,

like this Hydrangea paniculata
Limelight.

Using the half-hardy annuals
like the coreopsis

and the rudbeckias
and the snapdragons -

I could go on and on and on.
There are millions,

and most of the half-hardy annuals
would keep flowering all the way

up until the first frosts
of the autumn.

As well as all the pretty
blooms that we cut,

it's really great to have
some fantastic foliages.

And this one,
Panicum Frosted Explosion,

is a really great cut flower

and it just sets off all the flowers
in an arrangement

and it's incredibly easy to pick.

We grow it from seed and it does
well throughout the season.

So...just pick it. You might pull
off the leaves, the lower leaves,

but you've got to be careful,
sometimes it does damage the stem

and you're looking for a stem
that has come out and is quite tall.

It also lasts really well
and it dries well as well.

Tie it up, maybe hang it up
in a cool, dry place.

This is where we dry flowers

so that we have more things to use
in our autumn displays.

And also where we can
experiment with things and see

what happens when we dry them,

so we have always loved the honesty,
which is all shimmery and pretty.

And we also like experimenting
with other things,

such as the Pink Pokers,
this Statice Limonium,

which is gorgeous dried as well.

And I'm also mixing them in
with some fresh flowers

like the hydrangea and snapdragon

and scented-leaf pelargoniums,

which is a brilliant foliage,
especially later in the summer.

It's just quite nice
to mix different things

and experiment, really.

The important thing with growing cut
flowers is to just grow anything

you like, cos all flowers can be cut

and some last longer than others.

And if you just decide to choose
the ones that you enjoy,

they're more likely
to do better for you.

How sort of busy it is or how
stressed we are about other things,

we come into the garden
and we just love it, it's beautiful.

We've helped to make the beauty.

It feels a real privilege
to work here.

And we do get almost drunk on it
sometimes on the thrill

of the flowers and the sort of...
that nurturing feeling,

that connection with nature, that...

..that feeling that we're part
of it.

We're just dealing in joy. It's
a real treat, it's a real honour.

I couldn't help feeling for Victoria
and Barney because I know that

when you can see rain
on your screen,

it's twice as heavy in real life,

and it must have been
a very wet day.

But they absolutely got that
celebratory nature

of growing joy, of growing bunches
of beautiful flowers,

and that is a very satisfying thing.

And, of course,
you can do that at home.

If you have a cut flower bed -
doesn't have to be big,

it can just be
a square metre or so -

but it means that you can grow
your favourite plants

that you like to cut

to bring indoors
without ravaging your borders.

Now, this has been a cut flower bed
for the last few years.

And last year we just grew dahlias
in here and they grew well.

And we made a decision,

for the first time in quarter
of a century,

not to dig them up and bring them
indoors over winter,

but we left them in the ground.

And you can see they're fine.

They've come through winter
perfectly well.

We mulched it very heavily.
I suppose, the mulch was about that,

whatever that is, about a foot
thick, of compost, which both

will have protected the tubers
and also enriched the soil.

They did grow back slower.

They flowered later.

But the plants are bigger
and stronger and I suspect

they will flower for longer.

And it means that we can come out
and we can just cut flowers

for the house freely.

Right, I'm just going to pop
these indoors.

Now, I have here
a selection of seeds,

because now is a really good time
to start not just thinking about

your borders for next year, but
actually doing something about it.

And seeds still remains the cheapest
and best way to grow plants

in any kind of quantity at all.

And this is a really good time
of year to sow hardy annuals -

and some half-hardy ones
if you can store them indoors -

so that next spring you've got
young plants ready to plant out.

So, I've got a selection here.

Starting with Ammi majus.

It's like a giant,
long-lasting cow parsley,

a white umbellifer
that looks wonderful

and is much better sown in
September than March or April.

The second plant I've got here is
cornflower. Now, I love cornflowers

because they look fantastic floating
in and dotting around with grasses.

Now, slightly less refined
are the marigolds, the calendula.

But what marigolds do
is give that hit of orange

early in the season.

And, finally, Cerinthe. This is
Cerinthe major Purpurascens.

Now, whatever you grow,
there is the same technique.

You need a seed tray,
and this is a coir-based compost.

Level it out. Now, I'm going to
start sowing the Ammi.

And sow them thinly. Really thinly.

The whole purpose of this exercise

is to raise individual strong plants

that will flower for us next year.

I'm going to press them down

to ensure that each seed

is in direct contact
with the compost.

Going to cover them lightly.

Again, gently, gently, gently.

Just pat that down.

Now, you can soak this in water

and it will absorb the water
like blotting paper -

and that's quite a good thing to do
if you have very fine seeds

because it means they don't get
disturbed - or you can water them

from above using a rose
so the water falls gently.

Keep them moist,
but not absolutely saturated.

If you've got a greenhouse, that's
great, or a windowsill or a porch.

But, actually, none of these seeds
need to go indoors

in order to germinate,
particularly at this time of year

while it's still quite warm.
So if you sow seeds now,

we will prick them out probably
in about three weeks' time

and then grow them on so they're
ready to store over winter.

Now, we've got our last visit
to one of your gardens where someone

has certainly sowed seeds,

but to an effect very different
to any of these plants.

Hello, my name's Jo and welcome
to our garden in East Suffolk.

My partner Hannah and I have been
here for about nine years

and when we moved in,
it was just a great big lawn

and one big peach tree. So we've
created our garden from scratch.

My partner Hannah is a music
teacher and I'm a paramedic

in a GP surgery, so the garden
is a really good refuge for us

from the stresses of daily life.

And it's a garden of two halves.

So the top half is more formal
planting, herbaceous borders,

the second half of the garden
is a gravel garden,

seeing as we've got quite sandy,
free-draining soil

and we're east-facing and
it's very sunny here in the summer,

we thought that was a good bet.

And then it's cut in half

by our bottlebrush hedge,

which you can see behind me, which
we grew from seed, planted it out,

and this year is definitely
the best year it's had so far.

It's blooming fabulously.

The hedge is about 40 foot long.

After it's flowered, we give it
a short back and sides,

which tidies it up
for the rest of the year.

It's a good choice if you've got
a very sunny garden

and quite sandy soil.

Thank you for joining us
in our garden.

We hope we've inspired you
to try something different.

Well, I think Jo and Hannah's
bottlebrush hedge

is really spectacular.

I don't think it would like growing
here at Longmeadow, though,

it's very much to do with
the sunshine

and the lightness of soil
they have.

Our heavy clay
and our really soggy winters,

I think, might defeat it.
But what we can grow here -

and they might struggle with
a little bit more -

are really good hydrangeas.

Hydrangeas are wonderful.
They're fantastic.

And I've got quite a few
growing here in the garden.

This, for example, is Lanarth White.

And you can see it's got this
fantastic white,

touched with blue in the centre.

And what hydrangeas like,
and why they like here,

and I'm not sure they'll be happy

on the sort of bright, sunny,
sandy soil,

is light woodland shade
and moisture.

What they really hate is drying out.

Now, this is a cutting I took
last autumn.

It's probably the best known
hydrangea of the lot.

It's called Annabelle.

I've got it growing
in the border here.

Great big flower heads
that flower and flower for months

and it's grown fine.
It's looking a bit yellow because

it's getting a bit constricted
and I was going to plant it,

but a small cutting or a small
seedling can struggle for light

in particular,
but also for nutrients.

So what I'm going to do instead
is pot it on, grow it on,

and I'll plant it out next year.

Now it's time to rejoin Will Young

as he sets off to make some really
good and beautiful containers -

with help from a familiar face.

Well, hello. Hi, Will.
How are you doing? I'm very well.

Fancy seeing you here. Yes!

I'm just looking at a video
of your garden. It looks great.

I really am very pleased with it.
And I'm really into the pots.

So I've got... I've done a lot more
potting recently into containers.

OK. I need your help. OK.

Have you got a sun and shade or...?
Well, both. OK. Yeah.

So can you stretch to two?
Am I pushing it?

Well, hang on, we'll do one each.
OK? Oh, yeah, yeah, OK.

That's a good idea. One each.
One for sun and one for shade.

And look what I bought.

You want to be like me. It's the
same hat. You want to be like me.

Come on, let's go. I know.

We've got your beautiful
planters here. Thank you.

Sourced by my very hands
in Cornwall.

I will travel far and wide
for a pot. Oh, glad to hear it.

I've put some crocks
in the bottom of both of them.

Now, the thinking is
some do, some don't.

I'm a traditional container
gardener, so I always like

a drainage layer at the bottom
so that it doesn't actually...

If it gets waterlogged,
it doesn't clog up.

And that's the worst thing
for plants is getting waterlogged.

And why do some people not
use crocks?

Well, the last few years there's
been some tests and apparently

it hasn't made that much difference.

So, actually,
water will always drain through.

Well, I'm a traditionalist. Well,
there you go. Look at our hats!

Well, yes.

And this is a peat-free multipurpose
compost, that's all it is,

with some added grit.
Just, again, to open it up

and you'll see that they aren't
fully filled, either.

A lot of people will fill up
a container and then start

scooping stuff out to get plants in.
That's me. OK.

Well, that's lesson number one.
Yeah, this is a good lesson.

So you've got a load of sun-loving
plants, zingy, spicy plants, and...

Yeah, you've got some beautiful
colours there.

Not that I'm jealous or anything.

And I've got, you know,
ferns and cooler colours.

So the contrast between them
is going to be really nice.

And then what you do,

do you just sort of almost like
flower arranging at this part?

Do you just lay them out to see...?
Yeah.

It's flower arranging
with live plants, basically.

It's a little bit like when
you're singing to the cameras, Will,

I guess, I mean,
have you got a best side?

Because you've got to think about
the containers.

Are they going to be viewed from
this side or this side or are they

going to be walked around and they
sort of tier up in the middle?

So, actually, how you would plant
up a bed -

like a mini version of a bed.
Exactly. Yeah.

And are there certain plants that
work better in pots than others?

Well, these are all perennial
plants.

And the way I look at it is
it's sort of one hit for the season,

so it's going to look really good,

and then, you know, next spring you
might want to lift some plants out,

plant them into the border,
divide them or put them

into some more pots and you'll end
up with a nice collection of pots

but using this palette of plants.

I mean, you know what I'm going to
do with these pots, don't you?

Because you've designed them...
Oh, yeah.

..I'm going to sell them on
for a mark-up. Really? Yeah, yeah,

I've already got my stall
at a Sunday market. Oh, nice. Yeah.

Have you got...? Joe's pots
for sale. Joe's pots for sale.

Just need you to sign them,
if that's all right?

Yeah, yeah,
we can sort something out.

I mean, you got the hat right -
you've got my hat.

You're infringing... I'm morphing
into you is what I'm doing.

Morphing into me. Yeah. Well, I'll
tell you what...

You are my idol. ..just let me sing.
Let me sing or even better,

I just want to play a bit of bass
on your next album.

What do you think? I think you could
bunch right to the front of the pot.

Yeah. And I think... I mean,
I don't know, you might not want it,

might be too strong a yellow
for you.

The achillea on the other side,
I mean, I would use the flower,

all those flowers.
That's an amazing colour,

it's like vibrant mustard, isn't it?

But you've always loved
your gardening.

I've learnt from my family.

You know, I've learnt from my dad
the wisdom that he's accrued.

I've learnt from my mum.
My sister's a gardener.

So it's just in my bones.
Your garden looks great, though.

It's quite exotic, isn't it? Yeah.
It's got sort of an urban jungle

feel about it. Yeah.
It becomes your own haven.

And I spend a lot of time, you know,
just sitting in the garden

enjoying the plants. I think
because I love creating stuff,

that's why the garden has been
an amazing project for me.

And it's ongoing.

Right, the next thing to do
is take it out the pot. Yeah.

Turn it upside down.

You know, if it's a little bit
pot-bound,

I just give it a little bit of
a tease.

See this lovely carex? Yeah.
You see, gorgeous, isn't it? Yeah.

I mean, there's some carex that look
dead before you put 'em in.

They're, like, bronzy. Yeah.

But this has got really lovely
sort of coppery tones.

Now that, you know, next year you
could split that into two or three,

create some more containers
or put it into your planted beds.

So, you know, nothing is lost. Yeah.

And I will take that tip
and then put it on my social media

and pretend that it's my tip.

You can do that. You can do that.
I'm stealing all your wisdom.

Well, you know... You are my guru.

I'm going to ask you about
songwriting later, so...

I don't know anything about that.

It's all on track nowadays.

So what you putting in there, then?
Well, I want to know what this is.

What is it? Well, have a sniff
of the leaves. It's an edible.

And a great border plant and
a brilliant pollinator as well.

I mean, it's one of the top
pollinators. Oregano! Oh, is it?

Yeah. Oregano. Or marjoram.
So it's great for bees,

I can use it in my cooking and it's
going to look gorgeous in this pot.

Now look at this. This is lovely,
isn't it? What's that?

This is a Lysimachia Snow Candle
it's called. Yeah.

Now, these are tough as old boots,
these things.

And they're quite, you know,
quite aggressive plants. Yeah.

So I would, you know, next spring,
I'd look to maybe take this out

and split it and put it around the
border and put another little clump.

You can see it's got lots of little
growth at the bottom -

it's really quite vigorous.

Do you have to give them
a feed every once in a while,

more than another...?
Yeah, a feed is good.

Yeah, just a liquid seaweed
or liquid tomato feed,

a weak feed every couple of weeks.
Yeah? I mean, and that's about it.

There's plenty of goodness already
in this compost that will probably

take them through sort of
the next month or two.

And what is this beautiful flower?
Beautiful plant.

That's Helenium Moerheim Beauty,

which is an absolute classic
and it's got those huge cones,

you know, it's a little bit
like an echinacea.

It's got a big cone right in the
centre of the petals on the flower.

Amazing colour, hot and spicy.

And then it's a case of... Yes,
making sure that there's no air gaps

cos if there's air gaps with roots,
the roots will dry out

so the roots have to be
in contact with soil. OK.

And we just go around, you know,
just dibbing it in. Dibbing?

Is that the technical term?
Well, it is now.

Dib, dib, dib. Yeah, dib, dib, dib.

Yours is gorgeous, I think.
I mean, it's like summer...

..the whole of summer in a pot.
Yeah. It's got a classic quality,

you know, it's like it's like
the Rolling Stones or something.

It is. It is. It's very vibrant
and almost, like, daring.

I mean, like yours, there's
a landscape to it, isn't there?

There is, there is, cos there's
height and there's texture

and there's colour and...
It's more chilled.

I think you're like
Velvet Underground. Oh, OK.

Stones and Velvet Underground.
Stones and Velvet Underground.

Yeah. I mean, they done all right.

Could do worse, couldn't you?

I think if we water them here,

they're going to be so heavy to
move, you know, so we'll get them

in place and then water them
in situ.

And watering-wise, I would
just, you know, don't drown them.

Don't cut them back as well,
cos they'll look gorgeous

into the autumn and
even right into winter.

Just let them, you know, fade away
and reflect the seasons.

Thank you so much.

I've got a few more jobs
that need doing. Oh, really?

So, you know, don't stray too far
from the phone, is what I'm saying.

You've got my number, Will.

I think those are
two very nice containers.

I think they're lovely. And Joe's
point about letting them fade,

not cutting them back,
but just letting them fade away,

is a really good one.

Now is the right moment to prune

summer fruiting raspberries.

There are summer fruiting
raspberries

and autumn fruiting raspberries.

And the big difference between them
is that summer fruiting raspberries

produce their fruit on canes that
grew the previous year,

whereas autumn fruiting raspberries
produce their fruit on new growth.

Now, this row,

which is a variety called Glen Moy,

are summer fruiting raspberries.

You can see, look, we've got
lots of vigorous new growth

and this will carry
next year's fruit.

So we want to keep the new growth.

Whereas the old growth,

which you can see regularly
tied into the support,

has fruited and now that's over.

So the first thing to do when you're
pruning summer fruiting raspberries

is to remove all the old canes.

We're left now with a slightly
chaotic splay of new growth.

So remove any really weak growth.

Ideally, all the remaining shoots
would be strong, vigorous and tall.

You want growth that reaches the top
of whatever support you've got

and that will give us
the most fruit.

I'm going to start tying
in to the second highest wire

on the basis that anything
that doesn't reach this height,

I don't want to keep.

Now, you can either do as I do, you
use long threads and weave them in

or you can tie them all
in individually.

Now, there are two ways
of viewing this.

You can either see it
as a fiddly chore

or you can see it as something
that is repetitive but meditative.

And it gets you into close contact
with the raspberry

and how it's growing...

..and it's satisfying
in its own way.

And raspberries, by the way,

are happiest in cool,
dampish conditions.

Well, I've got quite a lot more
to do here, but to keep you busy,

here are some jobs for this weekend.

When your agapanthus
have finished flowering,

cut back the seedheads
and the flowering stems

right down to their base and try not
to damage the leaves in the process,

and then all the goodness can go
from the foliage down into the bulbs

for next year's display.

Continue watering and feeding weekly

for the next five or six weeks

before they are put away for winter.

Strawberries are now
putting out runners,

and these are the best source
of new plants.

Choose a plantlet
nearest to the parent.

Cut off the rest of the runner

and pin it down either to the soil
or to a pot filled with compost.

And I use home-made staples
made from wire.

It will form roots in two or three
weeks' time, at which point

it can be planted out
wherever you want.

Sweet peas have, by and large,
finished flowering now,

and certainly when there is
more brown than green,

it's time to cut your losses
and pull them all up.

However, if you do have a number
of seedpods, leave those,

let them ripen until they're brown
and crispy and then collect the seed

and you can either sow them
in October or spring

for next year's display.

I love teasels. They're
a bit spiky and a bit sharp,

but they're very beautiful.

And we leave the seedheads
all winter

because not only
do they look beautiful,

but they are wonderful for birds,
particularly goldfinches,

which you will see landing on here,

and with their special beaks they
will get in and extract the seeds.

And as autumn and winter progresses,
they will stand tall

and make really good sculptural
skeletons for winter.

So as well as planning what to grow
next year, what to cut back,

it's also worth planning
what to keep, what to look after,

not just for wildlife,
but for you, too.

Well, that's it for this week.

We are back a little earlier
next week at 8.30.

So join me here at Longmeadow
at 8.30 next Friday.

Till then, bye-bye.