Indholdsfortegnelse for June 2017 i BBC Gardeners' World

In a radical departure from the early days of the series, Percy Thrower was replaced by a garden magazine editor with an impeccable horticultural pedigree but little TV experience – Geoff Hamilton wore sweatshirts and muddy jeans, got his hands dirty and was always on the lookout for a money-saving tip. His appointment heralded the start of a whole new era, but in the first Gardeners’ World programme from Barnsdale, his garden in Rutland, broadcast on 21 March 1980, he appeared only in a supporting role alongside old hands Clay Jones and Geoffrey Smith. Arthur Billitt at Clacks’ Farm also continued to appear on the show until he finally decided to retire in 1981, the same year Geoffrey Smith left the programme to focus on Gardeners’ Question Time and his…

Honeysuckle is one of those iconic British wild flowers that touches our emotions every time we hear the name. Scrambling through hedgerows, it produces flowers with a heady perfume that make it a much-loved cottage garden essential. A favourite with moths and bees, the many forms of our native Lonicera periclymenum not only flower prolifically in summer, but follow the flowers with clusters of scarlet berries. The tangle of growth is a favourite nesting place and blackbirds will strip the loose bark from old branches to use in nest building. In recent years, Lonicera varieties chosen for their exceptional fragrance have been introduced and these include ‘Graham Thomas’, ‘Heaven Scent’, ‘Scentsation’ and ‘Sweet Sue’ – all of which tend to be creamy rather than red. But there are many more,…

“Do the nursery industry a favour – buy your own plant” The difficult truth is that removing plant material that belongs to the garden or homeowner without permission is theft. We’ve all been there – that encounter with a fabulous plant from which it looks like it would be easy to take a cutting. But it is a conscious decision to take away a piece of property. It’s not hard to find evidence of this – some plants show wounds for a while. I’m a fan of monkey puzzle trees and I’ve seen many specimens with their growing tips twisted out of the centres of the low branches, leaving a bleeding mess of sap. In my experience, gardeners are generous souls and often fall over themselves to give away plants,…

1 Collect your foxglove seeds once flowering is over, in July or August once the seeds are ripe, dropping them in a marked envelope. 2 Scatter seeds thinly onto compost – don’t cover but firm in. Stand pots in water until compost is damp, then put in a warm, bright place. 3 Once the seedlings develop true leaves and are big enough to handle, prick them out individually into small pots or modules. 4 Pot on the seedlings again, once they have outgrown their pots or modules, till they’re ready to transplant into the garden in autumn. 5 Choose a slightly shady location, adding plenty of leafmould, and plant out your foxgloves in multiples of odd numbers for a natural drift.…

Corydalis flexuosa This delightful Chinese woodlander was only brought into cultivation about 25 years ago and on its introduction became an immediate must-have plant. There are at least three distinct forms and the flowers of each are a telling shade of blue. Height x Spread 30cm x 20cm Flowers Apr-Jul Campanula lactiflora If you roam the countryside in summer, especially in the North East, you’ll likely come across this naturalised giant bellflower in hedgerows and at the woodland’s edge. Delightful bells from white to deep blue. The grey-blue ‘Gloaming’ is my favourite. H x S70-100cm x 60-75cm F Jun-Jul Epimedium ‘Amber Queen’ Open sprays of small and pretty caramel-coloured flowers dancing above saw-edged leaves with purple marbling. Like all barrenworts, it is happy in dry shade and looks…

I love roses and couldn’t imagine my garden without them. Beautiful flowers, fantastic scent and gleaming hips through autumn and winter – what more could you ask of a plant? Plus, you can find a rose for almost any spot in a garden, and one to suit your style. When I moved to my new garden, there were several mature rose plants climbing over arches, which I’ve been busy renovating. One of the great things about climbing roses is that most will respond well to hard pruning, so if yours have got out of hand, which can happen if they’re left to their own devices, you can cut them back and they’ll grow back strongly. I’ve pruned some of mine, but a couple were past their best, so I removed…

I’ve always been a huge fan of succulents. Many years ago, I had a garden shop-cum-design studio and I’d always be playing around with the displays, cramming sempervivums, echeverias and aloes into any container I could get my hands on. They’re fun and an opportunity to play around with scale, texture and forms to create miniature compositions and landscapes. Succulents are the perfect plants for growing in pots and containers and, when placed out in the garden, instantly bring an exotic and stylish feel to the space. Place them where they can easily be viewed up close, as the variety and detail of their fleshy, often colourful, foliage – which has been cleverly designed to hold water – will always draw you in to have a look. Some are smooth…

While gardeners are happy to wield their secateurs in autumn and spring, many only resort to pruning in summer when plants have outgrown their space. But there is a need for careful summer pruning and there are two basic types. The first involves the removal of the oldest wood from spring-flowered ornamental plants after they have bloomed; the other requires the shortening of the youngest current season’s shoots and this has a multitude of benefits. The growth of these vigorous new shoots has been fuelled by nitrogen, and removal in early to midsummer takes this nutrient from the plant and allows another, potassium, to ripen the stems and encourages the development of flower buds – particularly important on fruiting plants. Not only this, but removal of the soft stems also…

STEP BY STEP Plant leeks Leeks planted now will keep you supplied with produce all winter. Prepare plenty of soil, digging in compost and a good dressing of general fertiliser. Trim the roots and shoots of young seedlings before planting into ground. Gardeners in southern counties will need to cover plants with fleece until October to keep the leek moth from ruining the whole crop. 1 Use a large dibber or handle to make holes 20cm apart in prepared ground, then put a plant deep into each hole. need to fill the hole with 2 No soil but water it well – the plants will root into the bottom and thicken up quickly. Harvest June salad crops Start harvesting your salad crops of fresh leaves, sweet beetroot and tender spring…

Strawberry growing Your own strawberries are really easy to grow and so tasty. You’ll be able to pick masses of fruits that can be frozen or made into jam for using later. Prepare a weed-free bed with plenty of organic matter and a dressing of fertiliser. Raise the soil into ridges to plant on if the ground is heavy as strawberries won’t thrive in wet soil. For a good crop in under a year, plant new runners in autumn, as they need a cold winter period to produce fruit the next year. However, plants bought in spring should have been cold stored ready for planting and fast cropping. Always plant them with the crown (the plant’s centre) above ground level or they will rot. The heaviest cropping cultivars are mid-season…

BOB SAYS I watched GW through a piece of wrinkled, multi-coloured cellophane stuck to the B&W telly to colour it! ANNE SAYS I was a little older than in the photo but I remember the title tune, Percy in the studio and lots of chrysanths! MATT BIGGS SAYS I was only eight at the time but later I was fascinated by Geoff Hamilton’s ideas on organic gardening. Q How can we cover an old, concrete septic tank? Lori & Andrew, Lancashire A BOB SAYS You can treat this in a similar way to creating green roofs with, for example, ready-grown mats of sedums. As weight isn’t an issue here, you could apply a deeper amount of growing medium to widen your choice of plants. Those plants recommended for green-roof use…

By the start of the new decade, technological advances meant the programme was now filmed on hand-held cameras by much smaller crews. This made it more affordable to visit other locations, and easier to film in even quite small gardens. As a result, the programme adopted a magazine format, in which segments showing Geoff working at Barnsdale were interspersed with short films shot elsewhere. Geoff continued to make the self-contained small gardens so loved by viewers, and carried on with his ecological campaigns, such as in May 1995, when he demonstrated how to make ‘rockless’ rocks. The item was inspired by a private trip he had taken with Roy Lancaster to an area of limestone pavement, where he was shocked to discover how rock ‘harvesting’ for garden features was endangering…

The producer says... As GW strides into its sixth decade Executive Producer, Paolo Proto, reflects on how the nation’s favourite gardening programme is reaching new heights. “In 2016 Gardeners’ World went from strength to strength, with bigger viewing figures and eight, hour-long episodes – we were all thrilled with its success and we’re building on it this year. We have more hour-long episodes, which gives us the opportunity to cover more aspects of gardening than ever before. We’re also aiming to do more with small and urban gardens, to sit alongside Longmeadow and the bigger public gardens we visit. We also want to broaden our appeal to try and cater for all levels of gardening knowledge from beginner to the well-seasoned enthusiast. To help us do…

Aquatic plants look at their perkiest right now and are in plentiful supply, making it an excellent time to create this small potted pond. The plants we’ve chosen display a range of winning qualities, from the ornamental sedge Isolepis cernua with its fibre-optic foliage to the orange-scented Houttuynia. Worth every penny of the initial investment, this stylish planter will attract dragonflies and reflect skies for years to come. Get it right • The container must be watertight. If necessary, seal holes with a silicone sealant or line a rimmed planter, tucking the top of the liner out of sight under the rim as we have done (right). • Use plants that are already growing in aquatic mesh planters. If not in mesh planters, repot into aquatic compost. • Follow the…

• I’ve grown ‘Cobra’ and ‘Purple Cascade’, both good croppers. I normally put half a row of runners and half a row of climbing French beans in the same trench. scroggin • Last year my runner beans were a complete failure, so I planted climbing French beans up the wigwam instead – a big success! Dovefromabove • Grow them with a bamboo cane wigwam – the stems will twine around it. I tried French bean ‘Blue Lake’ last year, but didn’t have a great crop. They like warmth and sunshine, a little lacking here in Manchester. Plant two seeds at the base of each cane. I started mine indoors at the end of April and planted out in May. Kitty 2 • Runners like warm, wet weather, while French beans…

If you missed your 2 for 1 Entry Card & Guide 2017 in the May issue, go to gardenersworld.com/2-for-1-gardens/ order-now to order a back issue for £5.99 (subscribers see p43 for discount code). 1 The Savill Garden Englefield Green, Surrey TW20 0UJ This contemporary Rose Garden in the heart of Windsor Great Park has 2,800 roses of over 30 varieties. The curves and interlocking crescents of the design create a palette of colour, while a walkway provides a new way to enjoy the perfume and colour. Repeat flowering roses ensure the display looks fantastic up until September. Open all year, daily, 10am-6pm (4.30pm Nov-Feb). Adults/OAPs £10.50, under-16s free. Card not valid on event days – phone or see the website for details. tel: 01784 485400; windsorgreatpark.co.uk 2 Borde Hill…

1 Feeding Roses are hungry plants that respond well to regular feeding. Apply fertiliser every spring and, if growth slows, again in mid-summer after the first flush of flowers. There’s a great range of granular slow-release and liquid feeds designed specially for roses. 2 Mulching After feeding, apply a mulch of well-rotted stable manure or compost, or chipped bark. Keep the mulch clear of the rose stems, leaving a 10cm gap between the mulch and stems. 3 Watering Water well immediately after planting and in dry spells for the next two summers at least. 4 Deadheading Keep on top of deadheading throughout the season to encourage new blooms. And while you’re there, snip out any dead, diseased or damaged stems that you spot.…

Repot caladium Tropical foliage houseplants such as alocasia, caladium and maranta are hungry feeders that will produce plenty of colourful fresh foliage if you repot them now. Put some potting compost in the bottom of the larger pot then, to avoid root disturbance, place the plant onto the compost and pour potting compost around it. Firm well and soak it with tepid water. Keep these plants in humid air and out of direct sun. Take cuttings of streptocarpus A few plants such as streptocarpus can produce new plants from cuttings made of new soft leaf tissue. Fill a small tray or pot with seed and cutting compost and firm the surface. Remove a healthy leaf and cut into 5cm sections across the main vein. Insert the edge nearest the leaf…

Make more perennials It was success in rooting cuttings as a young boy that persuaded me to become a gardener and the thrill of it has never left me. For plants that are tricky to germinate or don’t ‘come true’ from seed, or that tend to be short lived, or too tender to survive British winters outdoors, taking cuttings makes a lot of sense. And soft shoot-tip cuttings are among the easiest to root. Now is a brilliant time to take cuttings of plants that will root rapidly and can be planted out or potted up to give pleasure and colour this year. There are several secrets to success – use a sharp knife and fresh cuttings compost, and don’t keep a cutting too wet during the rooting period. When…

• Tomatoes get their red colour from disease-fighting lycopene. But don’t eschew all non-red tomatoes. Research has found bright-orange tomatoes contain a different form of lycopene that’s easier for our bodies to absorb. Try ‘Moonglow’, ‘Hawaiian Pineapple’ and ‘Orange Roma’. • Kale is packed with nutrients, but some varieties have more of the potentially cancer-preventing glucosinolates than others. Black kales, such as ‘Nero di Toscana’ and ‘Black Magic’ contain several times the amount of this compound, which also gives kale its pungent aroma and bitter taste. • Purple fruit, purple carrots and red apples contain the antioxidant anthocyanin. Apples that have red flesh, rather than just red skin, such as ‘Redlove’, ‘Rosette’ and ‘Tickled Pink’ contain several times the amount of this phytonutrient (and look a lot prettier on your…

Dealing with dry soil is one of our greatest challenges as gardeners. But before we attempt to tame our terrible terra firma, it’s useful to know the underlying causes. Some soils are dry year-round because they are very shallow or have a high sand component. Others, with a high clay content, can be sticky in winter then rock hard and dry in summer. I’ve tackled dry soil in the UK, South Africa and Australia, and each is affected by drought in different ways. Clay tends to solidify and crack into cubes, breaking plant roots and becoming impenetrable. Sandy soils are usually dryer all year but in drought can lose any structure they might have to become dusty and barren. Thin soils, which often sit over rock such as chalk, drain…

 remember the summer of 1968 as though it were yesterday. I was an apprentice gardener in the local council nursery, nearing the end of a five-year apprenticeship which I was allowed to leave a year early in order to go to horticultural college in Hertfordshire – way down south – for a year, full time. You’d have thought I’d be thrilled at the prospect. I was. A bit. But I was also rather scared. I was 19 and it would be my first time living away from home. “I loved Percy’s relaxed presenting style. He had rustic charm and a quiet, but very definite, charisma. His voice was rich and melodious” So, that summer, I made the most of home. I walked the moors, woods and the riverbanks as often…

“The clever small gardens are the ones that give the impression that they could change almost overnight” Most gardeners I know either want more space or feel overwhelmed with the amount of garden that they have. I cannot recall too many people saying that they have just the right space, more of which would be too demanding and less too restricting. And if they did, what would that perfect space be? 100ft by 30ft? An acre? Perhaps there is the ideal plot that would have the scope to fulfil every horticultural fantasy. The reason all this comes to mind is because last year we made a little film about a couple in the north and watching it again the other day I was taken aback by one of them saying…

Border blues I’d like to add to Matt Bigg’s response to your reader’s query of how to ‘dispose of rogue Spanish bluebells’ (April issue). Regardless of how ‘reputable’ suppliers of English bluebells may be, always grow them in a pot for the first year to avoid the possibility of hybrids or, worse, the ‘full-blooded’ Spanish invader that sneak into your borders. I’m still finding rogues popping up under the cover of daffodils and hyacinths seven years later. Sue Reeve, Cornwall Give it a mow I would like to agree with Alan Titchmarch (May issue) about the use of petrol machinery. My husband is a working gardener, so he has a selection of petrol mowers, strimmers etc, but I can’t even start his mowers, let alone use them. Our garden is…

Every year, BBC Gardeners’ World Live brings us spectacular gardens with beautiful borders. Last year’s abundance of plant combinations were bold yet complementary, using high-contrast colours, textures and forms to add vitality and energy to a border. And they are actually very easy to replicate in your own garden – just use our simple-to-follow planting plans to recreate the look at home. THE BEE’S KNEES A warm and relaxed planting combination that bees will love. Ideal for a sunny spot. WHY IT WORKS The flat heads of the fast-spreading achillea add a flash of yellow, lifting the moody purples and silvery-greens that meander alongside. SECRET TO SUCCESS Deadhead the scabiosa for continuous flowers until autumn, and cut back the artemisia and stachys flowerheads when past their best. Leave the achillea…

Rust is a fungal disease that creates orange spots on the undersides of leave and can distort stems. These spots produce spores, which are spread by the wind to other plants. Solution If you see any signs, cut off and burn or dispose of affected leaves – don’t compost them. Aphids attack in spring and summer. The insects gather on flower buds and shoot tips making plants sticky. Solution Squash with your fingers until their natural enemies, ladybirds and parasitic wasps, arrive. I’ve been known to spray larger infestations with garlic solution. Black spot is a fungal disease where purple or black spots develop on the leaves, which often drop early. Solution Collect up and dispose of fallen leaves away from your garden. I cut my plants back hard in…

Take action against whitefly Sap-sucking whitefly nymphs feed on soft tissue under the leaves of many greenhouse plants, causing distortion and loss of vigour. The lifecycle takes just a few weeks in midsummer temperatures, during which time the adults lay hundreds of eggs. To control them, spray the colonies under leaves with pore-blocking fatty acid sprays or soaps. You can also buy Encarsia formosa , a parasitic wasp that uses the fly as its host and gives a good measure of control. Feed young crops Greenhouse plants grow fast, and regular feeding keeps them in the best of health. The simplest way to do this is to add a dose of liquid feed to the watering can once a week, but there are other options. Seaweed tonics stimulate nutrient uptake,…

Peas Fresh peas are a great space-saving crop, growing upwards through supports. They can also be grown in large pots. 3 WAYS TO TRY • Make a salad by adding shallots, watercress and a mustardy dressing • Barbecue whole peas in the pod until blistered then dip in garlicky yoghurt • Fry with butter, pancetta and a splash of wine Peas Nutrition Good levels of vitamins A, B1 and C and folate and the minerals iron and calcium; also high in protein and fibre. How to grow A hungry and thirsty crop, peas do best on good soil improved with well-rotted compost or manure. Choose a site in sun or part shade for summer sowing, ideally not too hot, though autumn or spring-sown peas can have full sun. Shelter from…

• Clay soil has very fine particles, with a propensity for binding together. They are less than 2 micrometres in diameter. A micrometre is one thousandth of a millimetre. In contrast, sand particles are typically around 0.5mm in diameter and rarely bind. • Loam is a term used to define the ‘ideal soil’, having balanced components of sand, silt and clay. This provides nutrition and good water retention due to the size of the pores that exist between the diverse soil particles. • Constant irrigation is not the answer for dry soil. On an agricultural scale it damages land where drainage is poor as minerals are deposited in the soil and not removed. Globally, 2,000 hectares of prime agricultural land are lost every day due to excess salinity caused by…